Why Google's Android for PC Launch May Be Messy and Controversial
5 53Google's much-anticipated plan to merge Android and ChromeOS into a single operating system called Aluminium is shaping up to be a drawn-out, complicated transition that could leave existing Chromebook users behind, according to previously unreported court documents in the Google search antitrust case.
The new OS won't be compatible with all existing Chromebook hardware, and Google will be forced to maintain ChromeOS through at least 2033 to honor its 10-year support commitment to current users -- meaning two parallel operating systems running for years.
The timeline itself is messier than Google has let on publicly, the filings suggest. Sameer Samat, Google's head of Android, called the merger "something we're super excited about for next year" last September, but court filings describe the "fastest path" to market as offering Aluminium to "commercial trusted testers" in late 2026 before a full release in 2028.
Enterprise and education customers -- the segments where Chromebooks currently dominate -- are slated for 2028 as well. Columbia computer science professor Jason Nieh, who interviewed Google engineers as a witness in the case, testified that Aluminium requires a heavier software stack and more powerful hardware to run.
5 comments
Re:RISC Rules Everything Around Me (Score: 5, Interesting)
by karmawarrior ( 311177 ) on Wednesday February 04, 2026 @09:57AM (#65968538)
> There are two things here. One is getting an OS that can be installed on most computers out there, unlike ChromeOS, which is limited in that area
ChromeOS is pretty portable. There have been multiple, successful, projects to create generic installers for it and Google even decided to bless one. ChromeOS is basically a Gentoo fork that's been heavily locked down. The only proprietary part that talks to hardware in the entire system is their display system, which is true of Android too. Google's blessed version is ChromeOS Flex, based upon CloudReady, as a generic installer for PCs.
The issue is very much the opposite: Android is not a very generic operating system at all, built from the ground up and using a patched Linux kernel, so that is going to be hard to port to hardware it wasn't designed for. I've actually been wondering if that's 99% of the motivation for Android for PC: it's not that there's anything wrong with ChromeOS, it does exactly what it's supposed to do, it's that it was too open and open source for an increasingly anti-openness Google.
Re:But why? (Score: 5, Insightful)
by DesScorp ( 410532 ) on Wednesday February 04, 2026 @10:18AM (#65968600)
Columbia computer science professor Jason Nieh, who interviewed Google engineers as a witness in the case, testified that Aluminium requires a heavier software stack and more powerful hardware to run.
This just doesn't make sense. We're supposed to believe that the software now running on phones requires more hardware than the software now running on laptops?
I'm convinced Google is run by idiots. Look at ChromeOS Flex. With just a few tweaks, with the allowance of just a few desktop apps, Google would have a wide-open opportunity to make a serious run at Microsoft's home PC dominance because of the whole Windows 11 requirements issue. There are millions upon millions of perfectly good computers that are now going to landfills because of that, and they could all have Flex running on them if it wasn't for Google's short-sighted strategy. You can't even watch a DVD on Flex after Google shitcanned VideoLan from their approved apps list. They insist you use only Google stuff via the cloud. Such a damn wasted opportunity since Flex is easy to install and use otherwise, and a fairly pleasant user experience.
Re:But why? (Score: 5, Insightful)
by sabbede ( 2678435 ) on Wednesday February 04, 2026 @11:41AM (#65968780)
I suspect that they are very smart, there are just too many of them. Get the smartest 100 people in the world, put them in a room, and wait to be amazed at how stupid the results are.
Should We Care? (Score: 5, Insightful)
by SlashbotAgent ( 6477336 ) on Wednesday February 04, 2026 @09:25AM (#65968492)
Will it be anything worthwhile? Or will it be another tiny niche Google walled garden, eclipsed by Windows, MacOS, Linux...
Messy and Controversial (Score: 5, Funny)
by bugs2squash ( 1132591 ) on Wednesday February 04, 2026 @09:43AM (#65968516)
The controversy will arise from the spelling of Aluminum