Google To Separate Chrome Browser From Chrome Os

In its initial days, Chrome OS usually got dismissed as a sophisticated web browser due its web-first approach and the lack of app compatibility. Chrome OS has significantly evolved as a platform since then and has reached a position where it can serve as the primary operating system in your PC.

Lacros is coined from Linux And ChRome OS. The project aims to decouple Chrome browser from Chrome OS’ window manager and system UI elements. On the technical side, it makes use of the linux-chrome binary and improves its Wayland support. Engineers at Google renamed the primary Chrome OS binary as ‘ash-chrome’ and tweaked the linux-chrome binary to develop the lacros-chrome binary.

“Lacros can be imagined as “Linux chrome with more Wayland support”. Lacros uses ozone as an abstraction layer for graphics and event handling. Ozone has a “backend” with client-side support for the Wayland compositor protocol,” explains Google.