It has been known for a while that Google plans to merge Chrome OS and Android into a single desktop platform, codenamed “Aluminium OS.” Unsurprisingly, this knowledge has led to many questions about the fate of Chromebooks and Chrome OS. In an attempt to ease the uncertainty, a Google executive sat down to answer a few questions about the future of the platform.
The folks over at Chrome Unboxed recently hosted a private “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) session featuring John Maletis, VP of Product Management for Chrome OS. During that AMA, Maletis reassured followers that, despite speculation, Chrome OS won’t be taking a trip to the infamous Google Graveyard.
I’ve seen speculation in the press around us giving up on Chromebooks and that is so far from the case…I know that there have been memes around Google’s commitment to products in the past… that is not the case [here].
Maletis added that it would be difficult to sunset the platform due to the millions of people who rely on Chromebooks.
We’ve got millions and millions of students, of consumers, of employees at work who are heavily reliant upon what we’ve done with Chromebooks. And so continuity of experience and devices, not to mention business continuity, is really important.
After addressing those concerns, Maletis was then asked about Google’s commitment to support Chromebooks with 10 years of automatic updates. With the OS changing, there was worry that this promise would be rescinded. According to the executive, the commitment is still intact.
A few years ago, we extended our support commitment for Chromebooks from 7 years to 10 years. And that’s a very, very, very important thing to us… So as we’re going through this evolution, we are maintaining that commitment of 10 years of support of these devices from when the platform launches.
The final part of this AMA touched on Chromebooks and migration. Will Chromebook users be able to update their devices to Aluminium OS or will they be stuck on the most recent version of Chrome OS? To this question, Maletis offered the following answer:
In terms of devices being able to migrate over to the new stack, not all devices will be able to just because there are technical specifications…But a lot of the newer devices, we will be working on an ability for customers to migrate over. We are maintaining our support commitment, and where possible, whenever we can with product truth, we will allow migrations.
So, it seems the rollout of Aluminium OS won’t necessarily be the end of Chrome OS. The two platforms will coexist to an extent for some time. However, an excerpt found in a job listing spotted back in November did appear to suggest that the company does plan to phase out Chrome OS eventually. That line explicitly tasked the hire with developing a strategy for transitioning “Google from ChromeOS to Aluminium with business continuity in the future.”
