Chromebooks

ChromeOS

— another software product from Google, originally created just for laptops (unlike Android). Key feature of Chrome OS is its close integration with Web services: until 2016, the system did not provide for the installation of additional software at all - it was supposed to use Web applications opened through the Chrome browser. Actually, Chrome is initially the software basis of the whole OS (hence the name). In 2016, it was possible to install Google Play apps on Chrome OS. Specifically, laptops based on this operating system («chromebooks»), on the one hand, have shown themselves as the most inexpensive and affordable devices, convenient, in particular, for application in the educational sphere. On the other hand, the absence of «native» applications can create significant inconvenience; and Android software is usually poorly optimized under ChromeOS - for number of reasons, developers are not interested in such optimization. And the additional hardware capabilities of «chromebooks» are generally much more modest than those of Windows and macOS. As a result, such laptops are rare, and the prospects for the system itself are rather hazy.