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It's still a Linux distro. Ext4 partitions, glibc, upstart as the init. The GUI is weird but it's just another desktop. I don't use it myself but my wife's lap
by lproven 7d ago
It's still a Linux distro. Ext4 partitions, glibc, upstart as the init. The GUI is weird but it's just another desktop.
I don't use it myself but my wife's laptop does. So, example: it has no video player. Solution: Ctrl+Alt+T, just like Ubuntu. In the terminal, `apt install vlc`. Done. File associations and things just happened automatically. Once VLC was there, double-click a movie file on the local drive and it opened and played.
It's based on Gentoo but the bundled container-VM thingie is Debian.
ChromeOS is a lot more like any other distro than Android, which is different from the libc and entire userland on upwards.
- senfiaj 7d agoYeah, but it will be a Pyrrhic victory for desktop Linux if it conquers the desktop. You can't even use it normally without Google account.
- lproven 6d agoVery true and an excellent point. There is a fork that doesn't need Google accounts. It's called Fyde OS. I tried it: https://www.theregister.com/on-prem/2025/08/21/fydeos-offers-chromeos-without-the-google-strings-attached/363124 https://www.theregister.com/on-prem/2025/08/21/fydeos-offers...