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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: 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.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(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.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(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?