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beyond the alphabet
Beyond the Alphabet is a weekly column focused on the world of technology in and around Mountain View.
Long gone are the days when Chromebooks were basically just Chrome on a laptop. Although it still has some limitations compared to Windows and macOS, the development of Google’s ChromeOS continues to be quite impressive. But Google is gearing up to bring about the biggest changes since the platform’s inception.
Over the past few years, we’ve been hearing and seeing the word “lacrosse.”Linux an.d. ChROme OSIt’s essentially the same Chrome browser you use on other desktop OSes. In that vein, Google is working to separate its browser, Chrome, from its operating system, ChromeOS.
This doesn’t mean Chromebooks won’t come with Chrome anymore. In return, some of the platform’s issues are resolved. Its biggest problem is that the Chromebook will no longer receive browser updates after reaching its AUE date. Although it is not important from the point of view of getting new features, teeth Important if you receive a security patch that could compromise your account.
By uncoupling Chrome, you’ll probably be able to download and install browser updates for years to come. Doing so would greatly reduce the stigma of Chromebooks becoming e-waste after the AUE expires.
Google has been working on various ways to reduce the e-waste introduced by Chromebooks. The most recent change will take place in September 2023, and Google has announced that Chromebooks released after 2019 will receive updates for 10 years. This is a clear improvement over the previous eight years of efforts, but Google isn’t done yet.
Benefits of lacrosse
If you do it right, you might not notice any difference between your current Chromebook and the best Chromebook after this update is released. That’s kind of the gist of it all, and also explains why it took so long to implement this change. However, Lacros has several other advantages compared to the current ChromeOS.
First, you no longer have to switch between user accounts just because you have multiple profiles. The same profile switcher that’s currently available in Chrome on Windows, macOS, and Linux will be available on Chromebooks.
Speaking from experience, this is probably the biggest reason why I jumped at the chance to enable lacrosse as soon as possible. If your Chrome browser already has the ability to switch profiles, there’s no need to log out of one account and log in to another. There are many other quality of life improvements coming to ChromeOS, but this is just another feature that adds another feather in the cap of the platform.
This leads to another reason why Lacros on ChromeOS is important. should You get a consistent experience across the board. Therefore, other features you enjoy when using Chrome on other desktop platforms may also be available on your Chromebook.
The Chrome experience on ChromeOS doesn’t make you feel like a second-class citizen compared to Windows or macOS.
This seems like a foregone conclusion, but for some reason this wasn’t possible since Chrome is tightly integrated into ChromeOS. Thankfully, LaCrosse will likely be able to “fix” this issue and hopefully avoid other potential annoyances.
Back to the update, while reducing the amount of electronic waste is important, there’s another reason why this final split is important. Currently, both Chrome and ChromeOS receive updates at four-week intervals. However, ChromeOS updates may be delayed for some reason, usually related to bugs that need to be fixed.
The problem here is that if there’s a critical security patch that needs to be rolled out, Google can’t do it without updating the entire operating system. On the other hand, if you use Chrome on Windows, you may see a “Restart for updates” prompt in the top right corner of your browser window. With Lacros, Google can push updates to your browser independently of the OS and implement any desired changes immediately.
Are there any pitfalls?
You’re probably waiting for me to talk about a “gotcha”, whether it’s a feature that no longer exists or a broken feature in ChromeOS. Google has been working on this for a long time, so I hope there are no “gotchas” to worry about.
If all goes well, one day you’ll be able to update your Chromebook and not even notice a difference. Unless, of course, you’re like us and don’t read the changelogs that are published when updates arrive.
For now, you can try the toggle on your Chromebook if you’re happy with enabling it. #Lacrosse only flag. After restarting, the only difference is that the Chrome icon will change to be the same as the Chrome Canary icon. Otherwise, you can continue using Chrome the same way you’ve always used it.
Once this is incorporated into stable builds of ChromeOS, those who like to play around with flags will notice a change. Currently, if you want to enable the flag to try new features, you can go to and enable it.chrome://flagIf you enable Lacros, its shortcuts will still be available, but they will only apply to your browser. So if you want to play around with system-level flags, go to .os://flag. ”
I wish I could sit here and tell you when the changes would go into effect, but unfortunately we don’t know yet. Robby from Chrome Unboxed discovered that Lacros is the default browser on ChromeOS Canary version 124, but I’m on version 125 and it’s back to “normal”.
Although it’s highly unlikely to be included in the next stable release, we expect Google to make the biggest changes to ChromeOS at some point in the near future. But you may not even know when it will come.
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