If you’ve been a part of the Chromebook’s history for some time, you’ve probably heard about the three pillars of the core Chrome OS experience: speed, simplicity and security. Since the jump, Google had a vision of computing that put these three things in the front and center, allowing them to steer the ship and correct the course when necessary, as Chrome OS has gone through 89 6-week updates to this point . Did they always do things perfectly? Of course not, but they did a great job of allowing these three pillars to drive continuous changes to an ever-expanding operating system that became much more capable than it was 10 years ago at launch.
As we all know from life experience, the more capacity you add to anything, the more confusion and complexity follow. It’s the same with software and hardware: the more features, configurations and skills our Chromebooks earn, the more likely they are to be bogged down by all the complexity required with all the added benefits. Take Discord as an example. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend it as a chat app and productivity tool for teams or groups. We use it for internal communication and for our Patreon community and I love it. However, when it is time to set up a new room, new rule or new role for a user, you quickly realize that Discord has gained a load of resources and skills over time that have cost simplicity. It is extremely complete and the UI is sometimes lost in the weeds of all this capacity.
I would say that we are addressing this reality with Chrome OS as more new skills appear. Some would say that by the time the Android apps appeared, we were already there. Chrome OS purists (I am like that for a few days myself) love the speed, simplicity and security offered by an operating system that started as nothing more than a web browser. There’s a lot to be said for the light / fast nature of web applications, the security of not having a lot of technically installed and the simplicity of a computer that just does the job and gets out of the way.
But I also have to give in to that purism and admit that many times an Android app has interfered and filled a gap in the Chrome OS experience. The inherent security is still in place, and while it is not as light as its web-based counterparts, the speed is still very high, too. Google was able to include Android in the equation without sacrificing two of the initial pillars of Chrome OS (speed and security), but I don’t know if we can say the same about simplicity. With many Android apps not working well, confusion about which app is Android or PWA, different app stores, and other minor irritations, Android apps on Chromebooks don’t look exactly simple, do they?
And now we have the Linux container that is safe and works well, but again it fails when we talk about simplicity in Chrome OS. To be fair, Linux is geared towards developers and not the general public, but it still adds a layer of complexity that just didn’t exist. We also have Parallels and its Windows container for running Windows apps on Chromebooks, and again, while it’s still safe and reasonably fast, it’s far from simple. Then add the ‘Borealis’ container that will house a custom Steam game setup and the story is almost the same. We’re keeping speed and security ahead, but simplicity seems to be lagging behind to deal with all the growing complexity. And we haven’t even started with all the new native features of Chrome OS, like a phone hub.
Good news for the simplicity of the Chromebook
Looking at things from this perspective, it may seem a little like we’re missing out on the simple, streamlined Chromebook experience we’ve all loved so far. It may seem that Google is losing track. I understand, but to be honest, I don’t really think about this growing complexity, often because I love to see Chromebooks grow and become more complete tools. However, I know that many of you are desperate to keep things clean and simple, and I understand that too. But there is really good news for all of us, as users of the Chromebook, which is quite exclusive to Chrome OS and a very special feature of these computing devices. You can just turn everything off.
That’s right! As Chromebooks continue to expand their capabilities through custom containers, you can simply cancel everything and continue running Chrome OS as you always have. You do not need to use Android, Linux, Windows, Steam or any other container that comes with it. Chrome OS allows you – the user – to decide which parts of this new complexity to take advantage of or simply leave out. It depends on you how much of this new capability you want, and that’s a really refreshing approach to an operating system. If you don’t want Android apps, just open your settings, go to Apps> Google Play Store> Remove Google Play Store and you can just make it disappear. Don’t want Windows, Linux or Steam? Smoothly! Just don’t turn them on.
For me, I leave Android apps on, I skip Linux most days, I have long since stopped using Windows apps and I’m looking forward to ‘Borealis’, Steam games and Tiger Lake Chromebooks that will run them well. Do these additions make things a little less simple? Of course. But I am fully aware that I can just turn everything off if I want to, and so can you. Even some of the more elaborate new features, like the Phone Hub, can simply be ignored if you prefer not to mess with them, and that’s a beautiful thing. Chrome OS is growing and growing rapidly. More custom containers will come, more skills will be added, but as long as Google continues to allow us all to decide which to use and which to ignore, the promise of simplicity will always be there and is one of my favorite parts of using a Chromebook.
