Google appears soon to detach the Chrome web browser from the ChromeOS operating system. The feature could be the default as of ChromeOS 116. Chromebook users will not notice much of the changes, only that they will get more regular updates to the Chrome web browser.
The website specialising in Chromebooks, About Chromebooks, has found indications that the Chrome web browser and ChromeOS will live on as separate parts starting in ChromeOS 116. So the feature could launch soon, as ChromeOS 116 is currently available in beta.
Project Lacros
The idea of separating Chromebooks’ web browser and operating system is known as Lacros. That’s short for “Linux And ChRome OS. Google launched the idea to simplify updates. By keeping the two separate, they can be updated separately.
The project has been tinkered with for two years. Users could enable the feature via a Chrome flag. As for ChromeOS 116, it looks like Lacros will become the default.
Adjustments behind the scenes
With the split, the web browser and operating system will have a somewhat different background. ChromeOS switches from the graphics stack Freon to Wayland. Furthermore, the Chrome browser for ChromeOS will disappear, and the version for Linux will become the default.
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