How Chromebooks Will Be Able To Run Windows Apps
Thanks to Google’s collaboration with Parallels, Chromebooks will now be able to run full Windows boots and run Windows applications.
Earlier this year, Google revealed its partnership with Parallels and announced that they will be enabling a full Windows boot inside of Chrome OS. The Verge recently had an exclusive interview with Google, and this article will be going over the key takeaways of that interview. All of the information in this article was given by Cyrus Mistry, the group product manager for Chrome OS.
What Is This Windows Boot?
Parallels Desktop is a full-featured copy of Windows that runs on your Chromebook. This was made possible by the strong partnership between Parallels and Google. The reason that Google chose to work with Parallels is that it has lots of experience with running a whole OS inside of another OS (kind of like a virtual machine). This allows Chromebook users to run a Windows machine on a Chromebook equipped with Chrome OS. One thing they will add in the future is being able to run Windows apps without having to open the actual OS, which is similar to Parallels Coherence Feature.
To be able to run these Windows machines efficiently, the computers need to be pretty powerful. You would probably need a Chromebook that’s used “for power usage,” which is a beefier (and more expensive) Chromebook that typically has an Intel i5 or i7 processor and 8–16 GB of RAM.
Why Did Google Do This?
One of the major reasons Google did was to help enterprises make the switch to Chromebooks. When purchasing a laptop, many people do not consider buying a Chromebook because of its limited capability and inability to run powerful applications. With this feature, however, people will be able to bundle Parallel’s desktop with enterprise Chromebooks, and with the Chrome Enterprise Update, you will be able to easily enable this feature. This will also help the general public start to switch to Chromebooks, especially because Google said that Chromebook commercial sales are up 155% year over year.
Security is a big, if not the biggest point of Chrome OS, and since they are super easy to manage, a lot of schools have started switching to them. The double OS will also help provide companies with the best of both worlds. As said by Mistry, “If you’re the type of person who is 80 or 90 percent in the browser, which by the way is starting to be almost every worker out there, then this is what you want them to be doing.”
Competition
Chrome OS will most likely attract many more consumers with this new update, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have competition. Microsoft has started major efforts in revamping Windows 10X, which is rumored to be much more like Chrome OS by running desktop apps in a sandbox. However, due to the recent events, they have reprioritized this to release in 2021.
Google is making some big strides with Parallels, but due to the massive system requirements compared to a typical Chromebook, it is very uncertain whether or not this will succeed. Either way, it is now shown that Google is trying to fix the main productivity issues with Chrome OS, and that’s a step in the right direction.
