Sameer Samat, Google's president for Android ecosystem development, mentioned in an interview with Techradar intentions to merge Chrome OS and Android into a single platform. During the conversation, Sameer noticed the journalist's MacBook and Apple Watch, and asked what applications he uses on his laptop and how he manages his devices, explaining that he inquired because Google plans to integrate Chrome OS and Android, and he's interested in how people use their laptops.
Previously, Google officials had not publicly mentioned plans to merge Chrome OS and Android, information about which was unofficially obtained from some Google employees in November 2024. The reason for the merger was cited as a desire to strengthen competition with the iPad and to utilize engineering resources more effectively, so efforts are not diluted across two operating systems.
An indirect confirmation of Google's intentions was the work initiated last year to port the ChromeOS system environment to a variant of the Linux kernel, along with the frameworks and system components of the Android platform. At the same time, recent releases of the Android platform have seen active development of desktop mode and capabilities for use on large screen devices.
The ChromeOS operating system resembles atomic updateable Linux distributions in its architecture, uses a Linux kernel with specific patches, and employs the upstart system manager and the ebuild/portage build tools from Gentoo Linux. Despite ChromeOS’s user environment focusing on the web browser and utilizing web applications instead of standard programs, the platform includes a full multi-window interface, desktop, and taskbar. Applications designed for Linux and Android are launched using virtual machines, initiated through the CrosVM hypervisor, based on KVM.
By default, Chrome OS applies encryption to disk partitions containing user data (using fscrypt), while system partitions are mounted in read-only mode, verified by a digital signature, and updated atomically (with two root partitions, one for operation and one for updating, which swap places). Output is handled by the Freon graphics stack and the Aura window manager (the project is also developing the Exo on Wayland that operates on top of Aura). The source code is distributed under the Apache 2.0 open-source license. server Exo on Wayland, operating on top of Aura). The source code is licensed under the Apache 2.0 open-source license.
Source: opennet.ru
