Chrome OS continues its evolution on the road to Jack of All Trades. After Android and then Linux Apps, Google wants its desktop operating system to support Windows apps.
What you need to know
Chromebooks started life as web-only machines, then added Android support a few years ago. Last year, to beef up Chrome OS's developer clout, and now it's going to add Windows apps to the list of platforms Chromebooks will support.
Google's John Solomon, VP of Chrome OS, snuck the announcement :
Parallels, if you're unfamiliar is a virtualization program that's most known for bringing Windows apps to macOS (check out a review of over at iMore to see how it performs).
The functionality will be made available to Chrome enterprise this fall, . Questions around whether it will also be made available to consumer Chromebooks a bit later, how well it will run, and further queries are unanswered at this time. Google promises that there is "more to come on this over the coming months," but the move already sets up Chromebooks like the new to be more desirable business purchases than they currently are.
What you need to know
- Chromebooks will support Windows apps from this Fall
- The upcoming integration is courtesy of a partnership with Google and Parallels.
- Both companies are currently billing this as an enterprise feature, touting the ability to run Microsoft Office and legacy Windows apps.
Chromebooks started life as web-only machines, then added Android support a few years ago. Last year, to beef up Chrome OS's developer clout, and now it's going to add Windows apps to the list of platforms Chromebooks will support.
Google's John Solomon, VP of Chrome OS, snuck the announcement :
Parallels, if you're unfamiliar is a virtualization program that's most known for bringing Windows apps to macOS (check out a review of over at iMore to see how it performs).
The functionality will be made available to Chrome enterprise this fall, . Questions around whether it will also be made available to consumer Chromebooks a bit later, how well it will run, and further queries are unanswered at this time. Google promises that there is "more to come on this over the coming months," but the move already sets up Chromebooks like the new to be more desirable business purchases than they currently are.