Just like Pixel phones are for Android, Pixelbook often becomes Google’s first preference and testbed when it comes to adding new stuff to Chrome OS–be it Fuchsia OS, Google Assistant, etc.
The flagship Chrome OS-based device can do most of the things the users might want. But the people who have jumped from Windows OS may be finding it hard to live without their favorite apps. So, there are workarounds that allow people to run Windows apps on Chromebooks.
But the days are about to change in the future, and people may use Windows without tweaking anything. If we believe the rumor mill, Google is working a new feature called “AltOS” for Pixelbooks. The details were posted on Reddit by user nbsp who spotted the traces of AltOS in Pixelbook’s development code.
While no concrete knowledge is available, AltOS could be a dual-boot mode that would be used to run some other operating system alongside Chrome OS–possibly, Windows or Fushia OS as an alternative.
Speculations are also being made that AltOS could be an entirely new operating system Google wants to test. It won’t be surprising as the search giant has a history of experiments in this area.
However, a few commits in the development code increase the possibility of a dual-boot mode in the works. One of the commits describes a “Message string for AltOS picker screen” where the options displayed are “Chrome OS” and “AltOS.”
Another commit has a reviewer comment that references to an internal Google document called “go/vboot-windows.” This further hints that AltOS could bring Windows to Pixelbook and maybe all the compatible Chromebooks in the future. However, nothing can be said at this point. All we can do is wait and see what Google has to offer.
Also Read: Microsoft Beefs Up Chrome’s Security With Windows Defender Extension
