You can install full versions of Linux on Chromebooks, but not via the in-built feature in ChromeOS.ĭoing so is quite complicated and not something we’ll be covering in this tutorial, but there are of course plenty of useful online guides to take you through the process. Do Chromebooks run full versions of Linux? # For any models before that date, you can check Google’s list of compatible devices.Īs Linux is essentially running within ChromeOS, you’ll benefit from a more powerful Chromebook, but Linux is a lightweight OS anyway. One thing to check is how much storage your Chromebook has, as many models have very small ‘hard drives’ (they’re often fitted with eMMC, which is basically an embedded SD card).Ī lack of storage can be a problem if you want to install lots of apps. If your Chromebook was released in 2019 or later, then it should be able to run Linux. With Linux, you can download GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) which gives you many of the tools that you’d find in the full version of Adobe’s Photoshop, but all for free – and on a Chromebook. For example, while you can edit photos through web apps including Snapseed or Pixlr on a regular Chromebook, they are either very basic or require subscriptions to access the more powerful features. The main advantage is the ability to run full desktop apps on your Chromebook. And here we’ll show you how to get Linux running on your Chromebook. That’s because Google has made Linux available in ChromeOS itself. The good news is that this is much easier than you may imagine, and it doesn’t require you to wipe the hard drive or do complicated things with ‘distros’.

If you yearn for more powerful capabilities and dedicated desktop apps, this can be achieved by setting up Linux on your Chromebook.

Install linux on chromebook