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Chromium OS repositories have a new member. Code named “Termina”, this is either a new variant of Chrome OS or something totally different. I don’t speak programming, but I am hoping for programmers among you to help me decode this piece of the Google puzzle.

The word Termina is borrowed from The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. “Widely regarded as a darker entry in the Zelda franchise, Majora’s Mask is set in Termina, an alternate version of the usual series setting of Hyrule, where the Skull Kid has stolen Majora’s Mask, a powerful ancient artifact.

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Files checked into this project are available here: https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/c/427300/. The Read Me file does not reveal much.

The `termina` target ebuilds should depend on packages for the appropriate

target. Release images will work with just `target-termina-os`, but

developers will likely want to include `target-termina-os-dev` as well to

enable serial console support and allow login.

Tatl and Tael. Termina is being tested on these devices. If you remember, Chromecast and even Google Home runs with a little bit of Chrome OS inside. So, when I say that this could be a new operating system or a variant of Chrome OS, the “Chrome OS variant” also can become something significant. Whatever this is, they are testing Termina on both ARM and x86 platforms.

Tael is the `armv8` overlay for Termina; see the `project-termina` overlay for

details. Most changes should go into `project-termina` unless they are

specific to this arch.

Tatl is the `x86_64` overlay for Termina; see the `project-termina` overlay

for details. Most changes should go into `project-termina` unless they are

specific to this arch.

There are two things I noticed while scanning through the code. There is repeated mentions of containers and “password-less login”. Google brought Play Store to Chrome OS in the form of an Android container. So, this could be a much more improved version of Chrome OS, optimized for running Android apps.

We will sure need more slicing and dicing of this information and code to find more. If you find something interesting, please drop me a comment! And as always, stay tuned for more updates on this!