Chrome OS could be more

As you’ve most likely have noticed by now, I just wrote an article explaining how chrome os could become an alternative to the iPad.  Also in that article I urged google to make sure not to mess this up.  Chrome OS has so much usability and features that make it the perfect os that can most things for most people.  It’s just missing a few things that would help it become the go-to multipurpose os for mostly everyone.

An OS is, at the core, a launcher for apps.  In that context apps are a necessity for success because no matter how good your OS is without apps it amounts to nothing (just ask Windows phone).  Chrome OS differs from most because technically there are no “native” apps like you would see on windows or a mac.  Instead, Chrome os allows you to run a blend of web-apps, android apps, and in most cases Linux apps.  Web apps are the most important of all these apps, after all it runs them on Chrome OS.  Chromebooks originally ran nothing else but the chrome web browser.  Thankfully, over the years web-apps have become much more self-sufficient and practical.  There are many powerful web office suites such as Gsuite and Office 365 online.  Web-apps can more than cover most workflows, android apps are also there if you need them, but most are only useful in a pinch.  Although most games from the google play store support Chrome OS so it can do light gaming.  Linux apps are also there, but they don’t run nearly and web apps.  In the upcoming Chrome OS tablets I think web apps will run better than android apps since they're already optimized for larger screens.  I hope that they can optimize android apps for tablets because that would add even more diversity and choice when using Chrome OS tablets.  All that’s missing are pro-level apps such as video editors, and the hardware to run them.

My white whale of non-tablet Chromebooks is what I call the “Pixelbook Pro”(please make this google lol).  The Pixelbook Pro would be a Chrome os equal to a MacBook Pro, surface book, mobile workstations, you get the idea.  Something to adapt to a pro workflow such as coding, video editing, photo editing, graphics, animation, and so much more.  Having the specs to destroy anything you throw at it and the storage to keep your valuable bits of data.  Chromebooks have been thought of as good budget laptops for the basics and nothing more for so long.  What if they weren’t?  What if you find some that were every bit as powerful and useful as any mac or windows laptop?  Chrome os has the lightweight nature that is lacking in windows 10 and the innovation to leap forward beyond the classic notebook, something apple won’t let macs do.  It still needs some apps (say adobe creative cloud?) but even today without those apps there are powerful open-source Linux apps that can fill workflow needs.  In mutual benefit to the open web and Linux apps that are built on Linux for Chromebook can also come to other mobile pros working on Linux.   

The last thing Chrome os can be is expand to tablets, Chrome from the ground up has been a desktop-first os.  Chromebooks already run on laptops; good.  Recently, Chrome os 81 has been polishing the tablet interface and has made tremendous leaps forward.  I have hopes that it can do the tablet things an iPad can’t and then do the laptop stuff an iPad can’t do.  I’ll refrain from talking about Chrome os tablets until I get my own, but for now the future seems bright.

Hope you all enjoyed my article and please read BenTechCode with content released every Friday-Saturday.

Best,

BenTechCoder