Leveraging the Power of Chrome OS: Crouton and Linux

As I discussed previously, Chrome OS has a lot of potential beyond its web-centric interface. If you're willing to tinker, you can switch any Chromebox or Chromebook into developer-mode and enable "deeper" access to the Linux underpinnings of the OS. From here, one can install crouton, which is a shell script that places a Linux chroot at your disposal. In short, a chroot is a segregated environment wherein one can run a guest OS inside the main OS. This lets us run a full-fledged Linux distro like Ubuntu right on top of Chrome OS.

To learn how to install crouton, take a look at this excellent guide: http://www.howtogeek.com/162120/how-to-install-ubuntu-linux-on-your-chromebook-with-crouton/
For more information on crouton and all of its features take a look at David Schneider's (crouton's developer) GitHub page: https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton

For Chromeboxes, I would suggest installing the crouton script with the following targets:
sudo sh ~/Downloads/crouton -t xiwi,extension,xfce -r trusty

This will install a chroot running Ubuntu Linux with the XFCE interface (which is very lightweight on system resources, although not as pretty looking as Unity). It also sets it up to run Ubuntu in a window in the Chrome OS interface, much like using a remote-desktop application. (that's the xiwi target). The extension target allows for cool things like universal copy-paste, etc.

If everything goes well, you get something that looks like this:

Ubuntu Linux running in a window inside Chrome OS

This "Linux in a Window" makes for a nice dual-monitor setup.


So now that we have Linux installed, our next step is to get the right apps to make it worth our while.

The first set of apps I recommend installing is WPS's office suite. Chrome OS' biggest lacking feature is a robust native editor for MS Office files. While Google's purchase of Quick-Office and subsequent absorption of its native MS editing capabilities into the Drive suite of apps is a good start, its quite lacking for complex and necessary features such as 'track changes.' The WPS suite fills this gap. http://www.wps.com/linux/

WPS Word Editor

For those of you who make use of the Citrix suite of apps to access applications at work, you'll be pleased to know that the Citrix ICA client can be installed in crouton. It works rather well with the Firefox browser.  You should note, however, that it can be a bit of a pain to get up and running.
For instructions, see here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CitrixICAClientHowTo or here: http://kenfallon.com/installing-citrix-reciver-on-ubuntu-14-04-lts-trusty-tahr/

Other useful apps include:

• Photo/Image Editing: GIMP
• PDF Viewing: EVince
• PDF Editing: (unfortunately, there aren't any good Linux apps for this)
• Video Editing: Pitvi

Of note, Wacom tablets will work in the chroot, now that Chrome OS has basic Wacom tablet support. I think pressure sensitivity is still off the table, however.

Hopefully, this is of some help in enhancing your Chromebox. The next in this series will discuss how to get Virtualbox up and running in crouton so you can run a full instance of Windows inside your chroot! (A bit inception-like, but hey, it works!)

Leveraging the Versatility of Chrome OS

If you take a quick glance at the general feeling towards Chrome OS, it sums up to "inexpensive, browser based operating system that looks cool, but can't do much." That's been the public's perception for the last few years, and while the outlook is positive, its not particularly reassuring. With Microsoft "reinventing" Windows at every turn, I think it's important to point out how versatile Chrome OS can be for both the average and the power user.

Chrome OS has been improving by leaps and bounds. We're up to version 41 on the stable channel and 43 on the bleeding-edge developer channel. We've got offline, fully functional web-apps (including the google office suite), a well rounded file manager, a number of system tools, several re-purposed Android apps and of course, the power of the Chrome Browser. For the casual user of a Chromebook, this is probably more than enough to exist and work on-the-go. But is it enough to be your daily driver?

I consider myself a "sort-of" power user. I scope the internet looking for all of the hardware and software tweaks I can install, but don't quite have the greatest understanding of the nitty-gritty code behind them. It makes for a somewhat dangerous undertaking (for my hardware, at least); so please be cognizant of that and your own computer skills. Modifying your hardware and installing custom software can cause loss of data and your computer itself.

Over the next few posts, I'll go over how I took my two Chromeboxes from a simple Chrome OS system to a team which runs Chrome OS, Ubuntu Linux, and Windows-- all without needing to fall back on a separate Windows computer. These Chromeboxes are my daily driver; and I don't think I'll ever need a different setup again.