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Google may add Windows 10 dual-boot option to Chromebooks
Google appears to be working on dual-boot support for Chromebooks. XDA-Developers has discovered that Google has been working to support an "alt OS mode" for its Pixelbook laptop for months now. Dubbed "Campfire," an obvious nod to Apple's own Boot Camp feature, Google's dual-boot is rumored to support Windows 10 on Chromebooks.
XDA-Developers claims Google is attempting to pass Microsoft's hardware certification for Windows 10 to allow its Pixelbook to officially run the alternative operating system. References to Microsoft's Windows Hardware Certification Kit have appeared in development builds of Chrome OS, and Google's Campfire work might extend to other new Chromebooks in the future.
Dual-boot support is said to be arriving on the Pixelbook soon, as Google engineers are pushing through multiple changes for Chrome OS to support the new feature.
That makes Google's recent attack ad a little funnier.
Also at Engadget, The Register, 9to5Google, Tom's Hardware, and CNET.
See also: Why cheap Chromebooks running Windows will benefit Google, not you
Related: ChromeOS Gains the Ability to Run Linux Applications
Google's Fuchsia OS Adds Emulator for Debian Linux Applications
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 14 2018, @08:50AM (14 children)
Wouldn't it make more sense for Google to put some cash into https://www.reactos.org/ [reactos.org] and make a really good clone of Win XP ? That could rescue those of us that are still stuck running Windows for "reasons".
(Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Tuesday August 14 2018, @09:12AM (8 children)
Well they don't need a Windows clone-like UI. They just need sandboxed Windows application support so that you and others can use legacy Windows applications when needed. Google could pump developers into WINE. But that isn't what appears to be happening. So say hello to more Chromebooks with 64 GB of storage I guess.
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(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday August 14 2018, @12:21PM
I do that with rdesktop. Somehow I got stuck with the responsibility for an apple Time Machine (which seems internally to be a heavily modified Samba server) and the hyper proprietary windows app that controls it is pretty simple to run on a virtual box that I rdesktop into.
I also have access to a rather nice virtual box running Android Studio. There's some option the admins haven't enabled to allow nested virtualization which I need to make the android handset emulator work. Its quite acceptable performance.
(Score: 2) by epitaxial on Tuesday August 14 2018, @01:39PM (1 child)
The vast majority of people don't really need storage on devices like this. They don't create anything. These are devices to consume content. Chromebooks are damn useful for their intended purpose. You can't damage the OS and most people just want to check their email and maybe watch some videos.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday August 14 2018, @07:05PM
64 GB is what would specifically allow them to include a copy of Windows 10 (30 GB free space) and ChromeOS (10 GB total) on the same machine. Assuming you stick with powers of 2.
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(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday August 14 2018, @01:48PM (4 children)
Don't they already have this?Ain't they already got this?
Chromebook runs Android. There is Android app for Crossover Wine, specifically tailored [google.com] for chromebooks.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday August 14 2018, @07:06PM (3 children)
If WINE were to be included by default on Google machines, it should only be after Google provides some free development man hours to fix bugs.
ChromeOS can run Chrome web apps, Android, and Linux applications, so you can pick the best developed branch which I assume is not Android.
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(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday August 15 2018, @01:16PM (2 children)
Some Android apps are good. Not all Android apps work best on Chrome OS -- either in a technical sense, or a UI sense.
But you can pick and chews which ones you like. For example, computer algebra systems (CAS). Under Linux Xfce on pixelbook I can run wxMaxima. But on Android I also have two paid apps which are calculator emulators. Graph89 and HP Prime. Graph 89 emulates a TI 89, which I happen to own, and thus have the ROM. HP Prime is officially from HP and is the real HP Prime calculator but faster than the actual calculator even on low end phones. Both of these android apps provide a nice CAS on a big screen.
Some favorite apps are only Android.
While VLC is available on Android, I find that dropping into Xfce to run VLC works better and offers more controls.
Other apps (Gimp, LMMS, Inkscape, LibreOffice, etc) are only on Xfce. But one day soon may appear to be "native" Chrome OS apps and integrate directly into the window system of Chrome OS rather than run in a "desktop" Linux in a window.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday August 15 2018, @01:37PM (1 child)
I was thinking of WINE specifically. I doubt the Android version is the best pick, although I could be wrong, or it could be the best choice for ChromeOS.
I'll note that VideoLAN has released no less than THREE versions of VLC that could run on Pixel machines: Linux, Android, and ChromeOS (either released before Android for Chromebooks became widespread, or to target older/cheaper devices that are not going to receive the ability to run Android apps).
Actually, I guess it would be 4 versions. You could run VLC for Windows using WINE 😂.
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(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday August 15 2018, @03:42PM
You can run VLC on Windows natively. :-)
But you can run the Windows VLC on Wine, and run Wine on Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). Note that WSL is pretty much exactly what WINE does, but in reverse. Microsoft developed WSL to run Linux binaries on Windows.
I wonder just how different the Linux WINE and the Android WINE really are? I strongly suspect that Android WINE is developed using Android NDK with only a thin Java user interface layer.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Arik on Tuesday August 14 2018, @10:09AM (4 children)
If you want ReactOS don't wait for Big Brother to fund it for you.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Tuesday August 14 2018, @01:54PM (3 children)
Crostini is in development. But part of it is Google's crossvm. Yes, yet another VM on Linux. Google rolled their own because it (1) has only the features that Google actually needs to run Linux in a VM, and (2) is more secure by design. (I wonder if it is even written in C, given the almost religious attention that Chrome OS pays to security.) All of this is open source. You can google it yourself, but I was reading about Crostini development, and wandered into pages and GitHub for crossvm, and other moving parts behind how Crostini will work.
Back to the topic: Maybe it would be possible to run React OS in a VM in the same way that Crostini will run a Linux in a VM sandbox, secure, and eventually on the stable channel for ordinary users like granny and school children. You'll be able to load a Linux application (eg, The GIMP, Blender, LMMS, LibreOffice, Inkscape, etc) right from the "store" and it will install onto chromebook and integrate into the desktop, probably better than Android apps already do.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Arik on Wednesday August 15 2018, @03:54AM (2 children)
Might be possible but it's not really the right application. For most things where you might want a VM running windows or ReactOS you would be better off to use WINE (which shares a lot of code if I understand correctly) under a Free OS. The main reason to run ReactOS instead is precisely to run it on bare hardware, and in particular on hardware which is simply not usable without Windows drivers. For example, a lot of scientific equipment relies on drivers that were only released for one version of Windows - and often it's XP. That equipment is not usable under Linux, BSD, or even a modern version of Windows, but it is usable with ReactOS.
If you just want to run windows programs under a Free OS, there's usually no need for all the extra layers of indirection of a VM and another OS, WINE makes much more sense.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday August 15 2018, @01:19PM (1 child)
That is a very good explanation. Also a good justification why React OS in a VM is probably less desirable than WINE (probably).
I had not realized it before. But big selling point of React OS is probably device drivers. I had been under the impression that it might have better Windows compatibility than WINE. But I simply do not know. And it might not.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Wednesday August 15 2018, @02:39PM
ReactOS works with the WINE project to share as much programming effort as possible. ReactOS depends on Wine mainly for user mode DLLs. Where appropriate, patches to Wine are also submitted by the development team, and patch contributors are often directed to Wine if it is felt that the patches would benefit them.
However, due to architectural differences arising from Wine targetting the Linux platform, some of their DLLs may not be used on ReactOS without specific modifications.
As an example, kernel32.dll and gdi32.dll have to be forked, since the Wine versions effectively redirect calls to the Linux kernel and X server respectively. More recently (November 2009) however a research effort has been made to bring the ReactOS architecture closer to Wine's in order that more of their code can be used without modifications. This is currently being done in the Arwinss branch.
https://www.reactos.org/wiki/WINE
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?