17 comments

  • dfajgljsldkjag 19 minutes ago

    This looks like it will help a lot of students and families who are on a budget. If you can just plug your phone into a screen you do not need to buy a separate laptop anymore. The browser extensions are the most important part because that is what makes a computer useful. I am glad to see they are thinking about this.

    • joe_mamba 2 minutes ago

      >This looks like it will help a lot of students and families who are on a budget. If you can just plug your phone into a screen you do not need to buy a separate laptop anymore.

      Except that android phones with display output are mostly flagships with flagship prices.

      But 50 Euros on the used market got me a 1080p laptop with intel 8th gen i5, 8GB RAM and 256GB NVME on which I put Linux. Way better for studying and productivity than an android phone hooked up to the TV.

    • Zak 8 minutes ago

      Android Chrome not having extensions is just a build option toggle. It doesn't have extensions because Google doesn't want it to, not for technical reasons.

    • jerlam 2 minutes ago

      I don't think this leak implies that (all/some) Android phones will get desktop projection. It just means that Android has a desktop OS and is likely replacing ChromeOS as has been rumored for a while.

    • ashleyn 12 minutes ago

      How will this succeed where the Motorola Atrix failed way back in 2011?

      https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2011/03/the-motorola-atrix-4...

      • ortusdux 11 minutes ago

        How as adoption been for Samsung's DEX?

        • wronglebowski 3 minutes ago

          I've only used it when I'm in a pinch but it's handy. Blowing up mobile apps to a larger screen and multitasking isn't ideal certainly but I've been able to handle "email job" type activities while out of pocket. That said I've never heard of anyone else who's actually used it.

    • echelon 2 minutes ago

      As Google's domination continues, the US and EU need to force mobile OS vendors to open up platforms for third party app installation without gatekeeping, deep menu toggles, or scare walls.

      You already need a phone to pay for parking, order at residents, identify yourself with the government, etc. Two companies should not dictate essential life function interaction.

      The monopoly grip on this is so tight that it's almost impossible to compete.

  • SimianSci 2 minutes ago

    It really does look to be a rewrite of ChromeOS to make it a native Android experience with very few tweaks to the User experience that I can see.

    I think it's a good idea on Google's part. The trend of consumers using mobiles as their one and only computing experience is still strong. This will blend the experience consumers have between desktops and their primary computing platform.

  • augusteo 3 minutes ago

    The Chrome Extensions support is the interesting part here. That's often the dealbreaker for using mobile devices as computer replacements.

    Google's had this weird situation where Android and ChromeOS overlap more every year. At some point maintaining two operating systems with converging feature sets seems wasteful.

    My guess: ChromeOS probably survives for the education market where manageability matters more than capabilities. But for consumers? Android on a big screen with keyboard and mouse might just be good enough.

  • theLiminator 3 minutes ago

    I wonder what gogole's strategy with fuchsia is going to be.

  • ivell 6 minutes ago

    If it comes with fully functional command line, unix utils and ability to install linux apps from different stores, that would be great OS.

  • d_silin 12 minutes ago

    Well, that would be nice, honestly - to have Android as another option for desktop OS.

    I remember there were some experiments to create a hardware laptop shell to insert smartphone into.

    • d_silin 10 minutes ago

      Yep, it is called a "lapdock" now.

  • giancarlostoro 14 minutes ago

    Is this going to mean ChromeOS is going to eventually die or be merged with Android? Curious.

    • ashleyn 10 minutes ago

      It appears ChromeOS is being killed and they're porting much of its feature set into Android. This may be marketed as "ChromeOS", with identical functionality, and consumers won't be none the wiser.

  • spwa4 2 minutes ago

    So I'm guessing ... no full adblockers allowed?