ChromeOS now runs on top of Linux and, er, Zephyr ...

You probably knew Google's ChromeOS is a Linux distribution. But, now, it's running on more than Linux under the hood. I didn't, and I've been covering Chrome OS like paint since the day it arrived. Today, your newer Chromebook also depends on the open-source Zephyr Project Real-Time Operating System (RTOS). Here's Chrome OS's …

[Anonymous Coward]

More data raping

Zephyr's IP stack means your Chromebook can send data to Google when you have turned it off.

Just junk the B'Stards already.

[Peter 68]

Re: More data raping

Itr's open source so you can review it but I don't believe they actually enable the IP stack in the EC builds anyway

[doublelayer]

Re: More data raping

It's licensed under Apache 2.0. Even if it was GPL, there's no guarantee you'd get to see the real source used (all those kernel modifications from Android phones that never got released even though the licenses require it, for example). With Apache, there's not even a need to. They've pointed out why they use it: they work with so many different boards that don't use a standard firmware (thanks ARM, really appreciated) that they have to modify the source. This means that, although the core of Zephyr which I can read is almost certainly in there, the chances are good that the version to be found in the chip has received several changes and I'm never going to see the code that implements them. Those changes may just be functional, and I think it's likely that most manufacturers' are benign, but I can't prove that.

[JulieM]

Re: More data raping

There are two kinds of Open Source licence: weak ("stealing is not sharing") and strong ("not sharing is stealing").

The Apache licence -- Google's favourite -- belongs to the former camp; and actually allows you to declare that a software product is Open Source, without ever releasing a single byte of Source Code.

[karlkarl]

Re: More data raping

Indeed. Though Chromebooks are very useful. They allow me to identify which colleagues to take absolutely no advice from in a technical context.

[Mockup1974]

So if I understand it correctly, it's not Chrome OS that runs on Zephyr, but Chromebooks that have a microcontroller running Zephyr that then boots Chrome OS. So if you install Chrome OS Flex on a generic laptop, Zephyr won't be part of it?

[Peter 68]

Correct, Zephyr runs on the Embedded Controller (EC)

[Neil Barnes]

Google believes in building secure products

and really hates the idea that someone might purchase a chrome book and put a different OS on it.

[Bebu]

Re: Google believes in building secure products

"Google...really hates the idea that someone might purchase a chrome book and put a different OS on it."

As an exercise I replaced ChromeOS on an obsolete intel chromebook with coreboot, Win10 and then Ubuntu but anything that annoys alphabet has to be a bonus.

[v13]

Re: Google believes in building secure products

Why on earth would you do that? You can buy much better hardware at the same price if you don't want the security of Chromebooks, and you also won't have to disassemble them in order to bypass the hardware protection.

[werdsmith]

Re: Google believes in building secure products

Obsolete was the important word. I wanted a lightweight laptop with a reasonable battery life so I bought on old Toshiba Chromebook and put Linux on it. It cost £80.

[Peter 68]

Android also uses ZephyrRTOS in a similar manner for offload through their CHRE sensor hub

[druck]

Who knows? Maybe we'll see a RISC-V-powered Chromebook

Why? It's not going to have anything close to the performance of a cheap x86 based one, no where near as good a battery life as an ARM one, and likely to be more expensive than either, despite saving a couple of cents not having to pay an IP licence.

[werdsmith]

Re: Who knows? Maybe we'll see a RISC-V-powered Chromebook

But there’s something good about doing things a bit different.

[Nintendo1889]

Re: Who knows? Maybe we'll see a RISC-V-powered Chromebook

Because then we can put a better.performing os on it (haiku os).