Almost a year ago to the day, Android Authority broke an exclusive story on Google’s drive to replace ChromeOS with an Android-based operating system (Google owns Android). Back then, Android Authority’s source said it was a multi-year process.
Well, we’re one year along. Where are we now in that process?
What to expect From An Android PC
Android acts as the operating system for a lot of devices. There’s Android Auto that’s built into many cars’ “infotainment” systems; you know, those big screens in the dashboard that run navigation, apps, radio, and sometimes the HVAC.
And there are Android smartphones, smartwatches, tablets, and TVs. ChromeOS was only ever really designed for lightweight Chromebook laptops. As Android Authority’s source last year hinted, the move to an Android PC operating system is an effort to connect the increasingly sprawling array of devices that already use some version of Android.
Given the brouhaha over Microsoft ending support for Windows 10 in an attempt to shunt virtually all PC users onto the little-loved Windows 11 operating system, it’s easy to use this leak, rumor, theory—whatever you call it—as justification to lean forward in one’s seat, eager for an operating system with Google’s might behind it to open up the macOS-Windows near-duopoly to a true three-way race in a way that Linux never could.
But a closer look at the early, admittedly scant details shows that Google doesn’t necessarily see an Android-based PC as a competitor to Windows, but rather as a replacement for ChromeOS, Google’s own lightweight operating system that underpins Chromebooks.
Before everyone hacks my head off over my slight at ChromeOS, the Chromebook has been a hit with schools looking for a simple, low-cost option that doesn’t need the power to tackle performance-intensive tasks, such as video editing.
But after a lot of promise at the outset of Chromebook’s debut in 2011, the private market never really warmed up to them. Computer operating systems came in the same two flavors that they’d come in for generations: Mac or Windows.
Then, if a tinkerer wanted, they could load their PC up with their chosen flavor of Linux. And then, oh yeah, there was ChromeOS.
Android, though, has a lot more cachet to its name than Chrome ever has. Might it do what ChromeOS never could and pose a more serious threat to cheaper Windows PCs, especially since Microsoft seems to be on the back foot regarding anger at the end of Windows 10 support?
Eh, maybe? We don’t know enough details yet, but we’ll keep Hoovering up all the details as they trickle out.
The post Ready for an Android PC? Here’s What You Can Expect. appeared first on VICE.
