Chromebooks : The Software

Software means different things to different people, depending on who you are you may define anything you interact with on a computer as software. Something that I’ve found when at College though, is that most people don’t consider their Operating System to be software. Strange… A question I’ve been asked about the Chromebook is “What does it run on?” I find it quite hard to answer this seemingly simple question, because I know what it runs on but I don’t want to scare people away by telling them.

Chrome OS would be the simple answer here, and I could just then leave it at that — but that wouldn't be very honest of me would it? If you want the truth it should be pretty obvious that it isn't running Windows or OSX, it runs on Linux. A very heavily customised version of Gentoo Linux built specifically for each device. Making it incredibly efficient at managing resources and running on lower end systems. Signs of Chrome OS being Linux are only apparent when you put the thing in Developer Mode; you then have access to a full command shell, just like you would in Linux with bash.

Something to note here though, is that Chrome OS is one of the most user friendly Operating Systems that I’ve ever seen. First time setup is incredibly simple and can be finished in a matter of seconds. A wizard guides you through the process of connecting to Wi-Fi and signing in with a Google Account (which by the way, you will be needing one). After that, there’s no more configuration, really. Everything is ready to go and you can go out and browse the web to your heart’s content.

“That’s all fine and good” I hear you say, “but what about applications? Can we install any?” In a word: Yes. Applications are not what you have come to expect on Chrome OS, and you don’t have to go out looking for software packages online — all applications can be obtained from the Chrome Store provided by Google. Installation of applications is literally one click and then you’re ready to go.

Where problems start to arise, is when people think they need .exe’s to function at all. I’m an IT Student studying Networking and Systems Support — if I can complete my entire course on a Chromebook, you should have no issues finding alternative means to some of your most common apps on the Chrome Store. For example Microsoft Office is the reason most people are stuck on Windows and will never be able to leave; on Chrome OS we have something called Google Docs (a cloud version of an office suite) which ties in with Google Drive (a cloud storage solution to store all of your files).

With the Google Docs / Drive combo, I’ve managed to complete my course without ever leaving the Google Ecosystem to edit documents. The web client for Docs is amazing and even when I’m using my main PC I find myself using Google Docs more than LibreOffice or MS Office, simply because of it’s raw convenience. However, this is not a review of Google Drive or Docs so I’ll stop rambling about it. One thing I will mention though is that in purchasing a Chromebook, you’ll get 100GB of free, yes free, cloud storage from Google for two years. That’s enough to entirely move to the cloud for most people and more than enticing enough for people like me who like to take as much data with me wherever I go.

There’s plenty of other things to mention in regards to the new Packaged Apps that Google are pushing out right now — essentially these are web apps that can be run in their own window or instance, much in the same way we open programs in separate windows rather than in tabs of Google Chrome. Over time, the selection of applications will likely grow even larger and a wider variety of applications and extensions will fill the store so more people can get what they want out of their Chromebooks.