The main pitch of ChromeOS was that it was a computer operating system powered by Google’s popular Chrome browser, but that won’t be the case much longer. An upcoming ChromeOS update will split the browser from ChromeOS, which should extend the life of Chromebooks.
Google has been working on this split, dubbed ‘Lacros,’ for a while — dating back as far as 2020. Splitting Chrome from ChromeOS will make it more like how Chrome works on other systems and would allow the Chrome browser to continue getting updated even after a Chromebook hits end-of-life status.
According to AboutChromebooks, Google seems to be implementing Lacros in the stable ChromeOS 116 release. While there’s no explicit confirmation from Google yet, documentation found by AboutChromebooks shows Lacros will be enabled by default in 116.
Ultimately, the change shouldn’t mean much for most users. In fact, few will notice the change unless they go looking for it. In the long run, however, splitting ChromeOS and Chrome means Google can keep the latter updated even after a Chromebook stops receiving ChromeOS updates. It may also increase the speed of updates since ChromeOS will start using the Linux version of Chrome instead of its own built-in version.
ChromeOS 116 should arrive on August 22nd.
Source: AboutChromebooks
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