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Wait - does this mean that if Steam ships on Chromebook, and Steam can be made to run arbitrary software via proton, that Chromebooks have become regular laptop

Wait - does this mean that if Steam ships on Chromebook, and Steam can be made to run arbitrary software via proton, that Chromebooks have become regular laptops?

em3rgent0rdr 5y ago
To be clear, chromebooks have for a few years been able to be regular labtops since crouton [1] allowed installing linux distros on them. (And could even use wine to run windows games on the x86 chromebooks.) [1] https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton
- AviationAtom 5y ago
  Or go a step further and flash a modified UEFI firmware on it, then natively run a Linux distro. My HP Chromebook from 2013 is rocking still, almost a decade after release. I run Gallium on it, for optimal compatibility with all the hardware.
cl3misch 5y ago
Not sure if this is a joke, but you can already "officially" install a Debian environment from within ChromeOS. https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/9145439?hl=en https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/9145439?hl=en
- ehsankia 5y ago
  Indeed, this is just a more convenient and user friendly support layer than installing stuff through Crostini.
- mistrial9 5y ago
  hey interesting - new to me.. (checks models) yep, the Chromebook on the desk is one of "the ones that have Linux" .. "Camera not supported yet" .. feature!
  - shadowgovt 5y ago
    That's just par for the course for Linux. Write the support yourself! Publish it under the GPL! Share and enjoy! ;)
    - jchw 5y ago
      The irony here is that this is a ChromeOS-specific issue, not really related to typical desktop Linux. Of course, it can and hopefully will be improved by improvements to desktop Linux. I haven't kept up, but ChromeOS will probably be able to adopt newer open source desktop technologies like Wayland and Pipewire/XDG portals in order to get a better Linux multimedia experience, if they care to.
paxys 5y ago
Chromebooks can already run arbitrary software, via a full Linux VM running alongside ChromeOS.
conradev 5y ago
It is worth noting that ChromeOS runs Linux software in a neat way to isolate it from the host OS. It runs it in Debian-based KVM VMs, and it uses virtio-wayland[1] to pass the applications through to the host compositor, making them feel as if they are not running in a VM. This architecture means that ChromeOS can preserve its readonly system partition, delta updates, and fast boot times while being able to run any Linux app. Very similar to Qubes, actually. [1] https://alyssa.is/using-virtio-wl/ https://alyssa.is/using-virtio-wl/
- mwcampbell 5y ago
  Does virtio-wayland support accelerated graphics? It's not clear to me how that would work, since accelerated graphics drivers typically include hardware-specific userland code that has to run in the application.
  - conradev 5y ago
    Since it is running in a VM and the host needs the GPU as well, it likely uses virtio-gpu to do paravirtualization. The latest iteration involves emulating a Vulkan device, serializing the commands, and passing them through to the host: https://docs.mesa3d.org/drivers/venus.html https://docs.mesa3d.org/drivers/venus.html
Mikeb85 5y ago
They've always been able to run Linux things through dev mode, or installing a different distro, etc...
moltke 5y ago
Regardless, last time I was in Walmart Chromebooks where the only laptop available. For better or worse (mostly worse IMO) as far as a large portion of the population is concerned "regular laptops" are specialized equipment that they won't have.

Wait - does this mean that if Steam ships on Chromebook, and Steam can be made to run arbitrary software via proton, that Chromebooks have become regular laptops?

em3rgent0rdr 5y ago

To be clear, chromebooks have for a few years been able to be regular labtops since crouton [1] allowed installing linux distros on them. (And could even use wine to run windows games on the x86 chromebooks.) [1] https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton

AviationAtom 5y ago
Or go a step further and flash a modified UEFI firmware on it, then natively run a Linux distro. My HP Chromebook from 2013 is rocking still, almost a decade after release. I run Gallium on it, for optimal compatibility with all the hardware.

cl3misch 5y ago

Not sure if this is a joke, but you can already "officially" install a Debian environment from within ChromeOS. https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/9145439?hl=en https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/9145439?hl=en

ehsankia 5y ago
Indeed, this is just a more convenient and user friendly support layer than installing stuff through Crostini.
mistrial9 5y ago
hey interesting - new to me.. (checks models) yep, the Chromebook on the desk is one of "the ones that have Linux" .. "Camera not supported yet" .. feature!
- shadowgovt 5y ago
  That's just par for the course for Linux. Write the support yourself! Publish it under the GPL! Share and enjoy! ;)
  - jchw 5y ago
    The irony here is that this is a ChromeOS-specific issue, not really related to typical desktop Linux. Of course, it can and hopefully will be improved by improvements to desktop Linux. I haven't kept up, but ChromeOS will probably be able to adopt newer open source desktop technologies like Wayland and Pipewire/XDG portals in order to get a better Linux multimedia experience, if they care to.

paxys 5y ago

Chromebooks can already run arbitrary software, via a full Linux VM running alongside ChromeOS.

conradev 5y ago

It is worth noting that ChromeOS runs Linux software in a neat way to isolate it from the host OS. It runs it in Debian-based KVM VMs, and it uses virtio-wayland[1] to pass the applications through to the host compositor, making them feel as if they are not running in a VM. This architecture means that ChromeOS can preserve its readonly system partition, delta updates, and fast boot times while being able to run any Linux app. Very similar to Qubes, actually. [1] https://alyssa.is/using-virtio-wl/ https://alyssa.is/using-virtio-wl/

mwcampbell 5y ago
Does virtio-wayland support accelerated graphics? It's not clear to me how that would work, since accelerated graphics drivers typically include hardware-specific userland code that has to run in the application.
- conradev 5y ago
  Since it is running in a VM and the host needs the GPU as well, it likely uses virtio-gpu to do paravirtualization. The latest iteration involves emulating a Vulkan device, serializing the commands, and passing them through to the host: https://docs.mesa3d.org/drivers/venus.html https://docs.mesa3d.org/drivers/venus.html

Mikeb85 5y ago

They've always been able to run Linux things through dev mode, or installing a different distro, etc...

moltke 5y ago

Regardless, last time I was in Walmart Chromebooks where the only laptop available. For better or worse (mostly worse IMO) as far as a large portion of the population is concerned "regular laptops" are specialized equipment that they won't have.