Still, if you want to take advantage of Linux apps on a Chrome OS device, you're gonna have to roll up your sleeves and learn a little good old-fashioned geek-level knowledge. (Click any image in this story to enlarge it.) Meet the oh-so-friendly face of Chrome OS's Linux terminal. You often don't have to wade into those overwhelming waters anymore, though, and even if you do, it doesn't have to be quite as daunting as it initially appears. In fact, it can be downright bewildering - especially when you find yourself facing the terminal, the software's command-line interface, which is the traditional path to installing Linux apps on a Chromebook. Even Chrome OS and Android have Linux-based technology at their cores.įor all of its utility, though, Linux isn't always the most intuitive operating system. When you hear people talk about Ubuntu, Mint, or Raspbian - the software associated with the ultra-affordable Raspberry Pi computers - you're hearing the names of specific flavors, or ' distributions,' of Linux. Despite its geeky reputation, Linux is actually used for a variety of everyday purposes, even in the enterprise. Linux, for the uninitiated, is a free and open-source operating system (well, technically a series of operating systems) adored by developers, privacy advocates, and plenty of other technically inclined hominids. And if all of that isn't enough, many models now have the ability to run Linux apps as well.

On the enterprise front, some Chromebooks will soon be able to support Windows apps. Contemporary Chromebooks still run all the standard web-based stuff, of course, but they're also capable of connecting to Google's entire Play Store and running almost any Android app imaginable.

The software that started out as a strictly web-centric entity - with everything revolving around the Chrome browser and apps that could operate inside it - has evolved into one of modern computing's most versatile operating systems. Google's Chrome OS platform sure isn't what it used to be.

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