Your Chromebook could soon decouple Chrome from ChromeOS
Google may just be on the finishing line when it comes to separating Chrome and ChromeOS on Chromebooks. The move has been in the works for years, and new evidence in the code shows that the company might start switching Chromebooks over to a decoupled browser, codenamed Lacros, with the next release of ChromeOS.
As spotted by AboutChromebooks, Google made tweaks to the Lacros documentation to mention ChromeOS 116, which is slated to launch later this August (via 9to5Google). In it, the company is setting two experimental flags for Lacros to enabled for ChromeOS 116, which could mean that the standalone Chrome browser is coming with the release.
AboutChromebooks is clear that this isn't 100% carved in stone — Google could also just be cleaning up the flags ahead of the release, so it’s possible that it may take another version or two. It’s no longer possible to manually activate Lacros on ChromeOS 116 Beta, which means that something is indeed changing with the release. Theoretically, users shouldn't notice the switch between browsers at all thanks to migration efforts.
ChromeOS and Chrome are as intertwined as they can be. Chromebooks were initially meant as simple machines that run nothing but the browser, but ChromeOS has grown far beyond that simple web-browsing experience. It offers Android and Linux app support these days, along with a slew of smart features that go way beyond what Chrome offers, like notification and screen mirroring from your Android phone.
As such, the browser isn’t an integral part of the OS anymore. The fact that the two are coupled can actually be a security problem, with ChromeOS updates usually taking a week or so longer than plain Chrome updates.
Google has long been working on Lacros to fix this issue, spotted in 2020 by Android Police alumnus Kent Duke. The Linux-based Chrome version could be updated independently of the system, meaning that Chromebook owners don’t have to wait an extra week until a critical security flaw gets fixed.
Theoretically, Lacros could also make it possible to update Chrome beyond the expiration date of a Chromebook. If Google goes down that route, your ChromeOS version could be frozen due to abandoned support, but your Chrome browser could still keep getting updates, eliminating a lot of security concerns with outdated Chromebooks.
Source: Android Police
