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Microsoft announced this week that it would introduce the core of the Linux open source operating system on Windows. Not to be outdone, Google says that all future Chromebooks will run Linux applications.
Chromebooks run under an operating system, ChromeOS, built on the Linux kernel but originally designed to work only with Google's web browser, Chrome. This meant that you could only really use web applications. That changed in 2016 when Google announced support for the installation of applications designed for its other operating system based on Linux, Android. Last year, the company unveiled a feature called Crostini that allows users to also install other Linux applications. But Crostini was only supported by a few Chromebooks, such as Pixelbook, Google's flagship product. According to ZDnet, at this week's I / O developer conference, Google announced that all new Chromebooks would support Crostini.
It has long been possible to install Linux on a Chromebook, but this previously required overloading some of the security features of the device, which could affect the security of your Chromebook. It also took a little DIY. With Crostini, Google makes it easy to run Linux applications without compromising your Chromebook.
Why bother? Average users might find it useful to run Linux applications such as the Photoshop Gimp alternative or the Microsoft Office LibreOffice alternative, or play games with Steam. But the real target audience of Crostini seems to be the programmers, who can use it to write and test both web applications and Android apps from ChromeOS.
According to the Google page of Crostini, the system works by running a simplified version of Linux called Termina in what is called a virtual machine. This is exactly what it looks like: a simulation of a computer that can be used to run operating systems and other hardware. In Termina, you can then run Linux applications in "containers", similar to virtual machines, but virtualizing only parts of an operating system. Basically, you would use Crostini to run another version, or "distribution," of Linux, such as Ubuntu or Fedora from Red Hat, in a container inside a virtual machine.
There are some limitations. Running software inside a container in a virtual machine will greatly help protect the underlying operating system from malware, but will not protect any of the data stored in a container. In other words, if your bank's credentials are stored in an application that you run in a container and that container is infected with malware, ChromeOS can not do anything about it.
Extreme subdivision could also break the functionality of some applications. For example, the Crostini page states that users will not be able to access their computer microphones from containers, at least for the moment. In addition, you will not be able to run other virtual machines from Termina, so you will not be able to run Windows within a virtual machine. However, you may be able to run Windows applications using the Windows Wine Emulator.
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