New numbers show 2020 was the first year that Chromebooks outsold Macs, posting impressive market share gains at the expense of Windows. From a report: Computers powered by Google’s Chrome OS have outsold Apple’s computers in individual quarters before, but 2020 was the first full year that Chrome OS took second place. Microsoft’s Windows still retained majority market share, but also…
Tag: Chrome OS
Chrome Will Soon Lose Support For Some Ancient CPUs
If you’re one of the few people still using a PC with an x86 processor more than 15 years old, here’s another reason to upgrade: the devices will not work with future Chrome releases, starting with version 89 of the world’s most popular browser. TechSpot reports: The Chromium development team announced that CPUs older than the Intel Core 2 Duo and…
Chrome OS 88 Turns Your Chromebook Into An Impromptu Smart Display
Google has started rolling out Chrome OS 88. The update includes a couple of enhancements, the most notable of which is a new screen saver you can use to get more functionality out of your computer’s lock screen. Engadget reports: By enabling the feature, your Chromebook will be able to display images from your Google Photos library, including those you’ve organized…
Google Buys Company Whose Software Turns Old PCs Into Chromebooks
This week Google “quietly acquired a company called Neverware Inc. that sells software to transform old personal computers and Macs into Chromebook devices,” reports SiliconANGLE: The acquisition was announced by Neverware on Twitter, and Google later confirmed the news in a statement. Google had taken part in the company’s Series B funding round three years ago. Neverware’s software is called CloudReady…
Google Will Officially Support Running Chrome OS On Old PCs
This week, Google acquired a company called Neverware that allows users to turn their old PCs and Macs into a Chromebook with its CloudReady software. Now, Google is planning to make CloudReady into an official Chrome OS release. Engadget reports: When that happens, Neverware says its existing users will be able to seamlessly upgrade to the updated software. Moreover, once that…
Microsoft’s ‘Project Latte’ Aims To Bring Android Apps To Windows 10
Windows Central reports: Microsoft is working on a software solution that would allow app developers to bring their Android apps to Windows 10 with little to no code changes by packaging them as an MSIX and allowing developers to submit them to the Microsoft Store. According to sources familiar with the matter, the project is codenamed ‘Latte’ and I’m told it…
‘Ubuntu Web Remix’ Distro Offers Firefox-Based Chrome OS Alternative
Rudra Saraswat is the creator of the Ubuntu Unity distro (which uses the Unity interface in place of Ubuntu’s GNOME shell). But this week they released Ubuntu Web Remix, “a privacy-focused, open source alternative to Google Chrome OS/Chromium OS” using Firefox instead of Google Chrome/Chromium. Liliputing reports: If the name didn’t give it away, this operating system is based on Ubuntu,…
Chrome 87 Released With Fix for NAT Slipstream Attacks, Broader FTP Deprecation
Google has released today version 87 of its Chrome browser, a release that comes with a security fix for the NAT Slipstream attack technique and a broader deprecation of the FTP protocol. From a report: Todays’ release is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, Chrome OS, Android, and iOS. Users can update to the new version via Chrome’s built-in update utility. While…
Google Patches ChromeOS Update Bug That Caused 100% CPU Usage
“Hello Chrome OS Community,” posted one of Google’s community managers Wednesday. “Thank you for raising this issue, and for your patience as we work to resolve this. Our team has identified the issue and is rolling out a fix to affected devices.” The issue? ChromeOS users reported the latest updates “cause a Google Play Store service to utilize 100 percent of…
ZDNet Argues Linux-Based Windows ‘Makes Perfect Sense’
Last week open-source advocate Eric S. Raymond argued Microsoft was quietly switching over to a Linux kernel that emulates Windows. “He’s on to something,” says ZDNet’s contributing editor Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols:
I’ve long thought that Microsoft was considering migrating the Windows interface to running on the Linux kernel. Why…? [Y]ou can run standard Linux programs now on WSL2 without any trouble. That’s…