Chrome OS is already one of the most secure operating systems in use today – light-years beyond MacOS and Windows in many ways however it is far from perfect. Here is my security wish-list for features I would love to see in future Chrome OS devices. Note, this page is just for security related changes, there are plenty of non-security feature I would like to see as well.
I have been a user of hardware security tokens for a long time. My key-chain always has aFeitian MultiPass FIDO Security Key on it at all times to allow me to authenticate to many web services, including the admin section of KMyers.me. I was shocked to learn that Google has hidden a fully functional U2F token in the Pixelbook. I doubt you really need another reason to buy a Pixelbook but this is really a massive feature that was never officially announced. Here is how you can activate it
Normally it is a very trivial process to get a typical Chromebook into developer mode however this process is very different on the HP Chromebook X2 and other future Chrome OS Tablets. This is because Google actually requires dedicated circuitry to ensure the switch to developer mode was a deliberate action done by the user and not accidental or by a malicious application. Here are the steps to get the HP Chromebook X2 Into Developer Mode and these instructions should also work on all future ChromeOS Tablets
I wrote an article yesterday highlighting some of the changes to ChromeOS 68.0.3440.4 however it turns out that I completely missed two major features. This build of ChromeOS finally brings one of the most requested features to ChromeOS – The ability to easily access your Android Filesystem from within the ChromeOS File Manager and more.
ChromeOS 68.0.3437.0 was released for Pixelbook owners on the “dev” channel on Wednesday and it brings several changes and bug fixes. I have spent the past few days playing around with this release and here is what has changed:
The Steam platform is one of the most popular distribution platforms for PC Gamers and it turns out that you can indeed run the Linux version of Steam on your Pixelbook. I cannot say for sure that all games will run on it but you should be able to install any game that supports “Linux” on your Chromebook. I apologize in advanced for lost productivity caused by following the steps in this guide – you have been warned!
The Atom Text editor has been growing in popularity since it launched a few years ago. Fortunately it is incredibly easy to get the Atom Text Editor to install on ChromeOS via Project Crostini. Here are the steps:
If you were like me who found their Terminal application completely broken after upgrading to ChromeOS 68.0.3431.0, you are likely irritated and mashing the update button for a fix to be delivered a few times a day. I got to thinking this afternoon of a workaround, why not replace it with something a bit more reliable – like Gnome Terminal? It turns out that it works flawlessly and is pretty easy to setup. Here are the steps;
Heads up all Pixelbook Owners, ChromeOS 68.0.3431.0 is currently being pushed to those who are in the “dev” channel. It seems like Google has made several changes to the bottom dock (shelf) such as removing the Profile Photo, moving persistent notifications and allowing the ability to pin Linux applications to the shelf.
I wrote instructions last week on how to get Android Studio to run on ChomeOS via Project Crostini and since then, I have received several requests from readers asking if it is possible to get Microsoft’s Visual Studio Code running on ChromeOS. The answer is yes and here are the instructions