beyond the alphabet
Beyond the Alphabet is a weekly column focusing on the world of tech in and around Mountain View.
We’re far away from the days when Chromebooks were basically just Chrome on a laptop. Although there are still some limitations compared to Windows or macOS, Google’s ChromeOS development is still quite impressive. However, Google is preparing to bring the biggest changes to the platform since its inception.
Over the past few years we have heard and seen people refer to “Lacros,” which stands for “LInux AND CHrightOme operating systemEssentially, it’s the same Chrome browser you use on any other desktop operating system. In this spirit, Google is working on decoupling Chrome (the browser) from ChromeOS (the operating system).
This doesn’t mean that Chrome will no longer be installed on your Chromebook; it does mean that Chrome will no longer be installed on your Chromebook. Instead, it will address some of the platform’s issues, the biggest of which is the inability to receive browser updates after Chromebooks reach their AUE date.It doesn’t really matter from the perspective of getting new features, but it yes This is important when it comes to receiving security patches that may compromise your account.
Decoupling Chrome will allow you to download and install updates to the browser for years to come. Doing so will greatly reduce the stigma of Chromebooks becoming e-waste once the AUE date arrives.
Google has been researching different ways to reduce e-waste from Chromebooks. The most recent change came in September 2023, when Google announced that Chromebooks released since 2019 would receive the decade update. It’s certainly an improvement over the previous eight years of commitment, but Google isn’t done yet.
La Crosse Benefits
If you do it correctly, you might not notice a difference between the Chromebook you’re currently using and the best Chromebook you’ll get after this update is released. That’s the whole point, and explains why this change took so long to be implemented. However, Lacros has some other benefits over the ChromeOS we have today.
For one, you no longer have to switch between user accounts just because you have multiple profiles. The same profile switcher currently available in Chrome on Windows, macOS, and Linux will now be available on your Chromebook.
Speaking from experience, this is arguably the biggest reason why I jumped at the chance to launch Lacros as soon as possible. I don’t need to deal with logging out of one account and logging in to another when Chrome already has profile switching. ChromeOS brings many other quality-of-life improvements, and this is just another step forward that adds another feature to the platform.
Which brings us to another reason why Lacros on ChromeOS is so important: we should Get a consistent experience across the board. So any additional features you like when using Chrome on other desktop platforms may be available on your Chromebook.
The Chrome experience on ChromeOS won’t make you feel like a second-class citizen compared to Windows or macOS.
This seemed like a foregone conclusion, but since Chrome is so tightly integrated with ChromeOS, this has been impossible for one reason or another. Thankfully, Lacros will likely “fix” this problem and hopefully avoid any other potential annoyances.
Back to the update, while reducing the amount of e-waste is important, there is another reason why ultimate segregation is crucial. Currently, both Chrome and ChromeOS receive updates every four weeks. However, sometimes ChromeOS updates are delayed for some reason, usually related to bugs that need to be fixed.
The problem here is that if a critical security patch needs to be rolled out, Google can’t do so without updating the entire operating system. However, if you’re using Chrome on Windows, you may see a “Restart to update” prompt in the upper right corner of the browser window. With Lacros, Google can push updates to the browser, separate from the operating system, and implement any necessary changes immediately.
Any questions?
Now, you’re probably waiting for me to talk about “issues,” whether it’s features that no longer exist in ChromeOS or broken features. Hopefully Google has been working on this for so long that there won’t be any “problems” to worry about.
If all goes well, one day you’ll update your Chromebook and you won’t even notice a difference. Unless of course, like us, you read all the changelogs provided when an update arrives.
As it stands, you can try switching on your Chromebook, assuming you can enable #lacros – only banner. After restarting, the only difference you may see is that the Chrome icon changes to the same icon as the Chrome Canary icon. Otherwise, you can continue using Chrome as usual.
It’s worth pointing out that when this does make it to the stable version of ChromeOS, those who like tinkering with logos will notice the changes. Currently, if you want to enable any flags to try out new features, you can do so by navigating tochrome://flag” With Lacros enabled, the shortcut is still available, but only in the browser. So if you want to fiddle with any system-level flags, you’ll navigate to “os://flags“.
I wish I could sit here and tell you when the changes will be implemented, but unfortunately, we don’t know yet. Robby at Chrome Unboxed discovered that Lacros was the default browser on ChromeOS Canary version 124, but I’m on version 125 and it’s back to “normal”.
While it’s unlikely to appear in the next stable version, we expect Google to make its biggest changes to ChromeOS sometime in the near future. But when it does come, you may not know it yet.