Today, the Chrome OS team is releasing version 100 of its lightweight operating system, which brings a slew of new features to the platform. The most visible change is the addition of a new launcher, which will move from the bottom to the side of the screen and include a few new functions.
The built-in camera app now allows you to save your photos as GIFs, and the Chrome OS dictation tool allows you to modify your text more easily. Support for more than 100 additional devices has also been added to the newly available Chrome OS Flex. Google is creating a revamped ChromeOS.dev portal for developers.
Users will most likely notice the launcher first. The taskbar itself isn’t shifting; we’re only discussing Chrome OS’s version of the Windows Start menu. According to Google, the goal is to free up room for additional open windows. Users can now sort their apps by name, color (if that’s your thing), or manually arrange them in any order that makes sense to them (or you can be like me and just opt for chaos).
Google has modified the search tool in the launcher, which previously displayed a quick preview of the search result. Even before you open the browser, you’ll be able to see a lot more information after this upgrade. This search experience now includes shortcuts, so you can easily snap a screenshot, for example. In terms of voice editing, this is exactly what you’d anticipate. For example, you may now say “delete” to delete the last letter or “move to next character” to move the cursor to the next character.
Pretty basic, to the point where one could wonder why these options weren’t available before, but a very valuable addition for dictation users, the Chromebook Camera’s GIF production is self-explanatory. You can now switch it on with a new toggle, and after that, you can make a five-second GIF.
Chrome OS Flex is an early glimpse of a new endeavor from Google that seeks to deliver Chrome OS to nearly any PC (and older Intel-based Macs). Chrome OS Flex is based on CloudReady, which Google acquired in 2020, and is designed at companies and educational users who want to extend the life of their existing devices. However, anyone with a USB drive may use it to give an older PC — or even a low-powered new one — a fresh lease on life. There’s a clear sustainability component here.
The goal is to provide the entire Chrome OS experience to almost any PC. Given the unlimited amount of conceivable PC setups out there, that may not be the case right now. Google provides a list of verified machines (mainly laptops), but it’s likely that others will function as well — and trying it out is about as difficult as trying out a current Linux distribution, which Chrome OS is clearly built on.
