# FreeBSD like Chrome OS (Chromebooks)



## Dakotah Miskus (Aug 13, 2015)

What would be needed to make an OS based on FreeBSD that is like what can be found on Chromebooks I've been thinking about this for a while. If you have any help to give please give it.


----------



## wblock@ (Aug 13, 2015)

It's just work, really.  Set up an installer to install the needed components and configure the system.  Come up with ways to check and update the system with user-friendly interfaces.


----------



## fnoyanisi (Aug 14, 2015)

wblock@ said:


> .....Come up with ways to check and update the system with user-friendly interfaces.



Is this not one of the goals of PC-BSD project (never used PC-BSD though)?

Another confession, I have never used Chrome OS, but having everthing done in a browser is kind of "not satisfactory" to me.


----------



## wblock@ (Aug 14, 2015)

PC-BSD is a full-on desktop.  Chrome is supposed to be a lightweight OS for cheap devices.  FreeBSD can do either, but it takes lots of work.  It's not terribly difficult to set up a system to do that kind of thing.  It's a lot harder to come up with an installer to set it all up on varying hardware, and then ways to update it without breaking the setup.


----------



## fnoyanisi (Aug 14, 2015)

Another difficulty is, and I think this is the reason why there is hundreds of discontinued GNU/Linux distros, to maintain the OS, i.e. providing security updates, keeping software up to date etc...


----------



## kpa (Aug 14, 2015)

fnoyanisi said:


> Another difficulty is, and I think this is the reason why there is hundreds of discontinued GNU/Linux distros, to maintain the OS, i.e. providing security updates, keeping software up to date etc...



As someone put very well on the mailing lists the other day, there is no truly free software. There is always some guy/gal doing work to get things done and that work always has a cost even if it's not money.


----------



## fnoyanisi (Aug 14, 2015)

kpa said:


> ...there is no truly free software. There is always some guy/gal doing work to get things done and that work always has a cost even if it's not money.


+1
Nice one, well said!


----------



## Dakotah Miskus (Sep 2, 2015)

OK, how can I figure out what isn't absolutely necessary to have a working and fully functioning OS that is so stripped down and bare bones like Chrome OS or like TinyCore Linux. TinyCore Linux is only 15MB in size and has a GUI. P.S. Yes, I do know the differences between Linux and BSD.


----------



## fnoyanisi (Sep 3, 2015)

kpa said:


> As someone put very well on the mailing lists the other day, there is no truly free software. There is always some guy/gal doing work to get things done and that work always has a cost even if it's not money.


One more thing to mention here.... the statement becomes irrelevant if free is used as in free speech 



Dakotah Miskus said:


> OK, how can I figure out what isn't absolutely necessary to have a working and fully functioning OS that is so stripped down and bare bones like Chrome OS or like TinyCore Linux.


In the "Porting NetBSD to a new ARM SoC" document, there is "Building the Root Filesystem" section that might give you an idea about what a tiny system might need.

Further to those utilities mentioned in the NetBSD document, you may need to work out what software (Xorg, hal, dbus, fbdev, window manager or a desktop environment etc...?) and drivers are needed to get a your GUI running.


----------



## Oko (Sep 3, 2015)

Dakotah Miskus said:


> What would be needed to make an OS based on FreeBSD that is like what can be found on Chromebooks I've been thinking about this for a while. If you have any help to give please give it.


I am not sure about FreeBSD but DragonFlyBSD works like a charm on couple of them.

http://www.dragonflybsd.org/docs/newhandbook/ConfigChromebook/


----------



## Oko (Sep 3, 2015)

fnoyanisi said:


> Is this not one of the goals of PC-BSD project (never used PC-BSD though)?


PCBSD is ZFS only OS. Good luck running ZFS on Chromebooks.


----------



## jfrey (Sep 10, 2015)

Right now my HTPC is a FreeBSD machine that boots directly into Kodi. You could easily set it up such that it just launches Chromium. Almost everything you need for ChromeOS is in the app store. It'd be more or less a kiosk. If Chromium dies it's the only thing that is restarted. I'm currently trying to make a multi-headed machine to do something similar to this. A single FreeBSD machine should have no problem running a few dozen instances of Chrome. 

Then use stuff like iPython on the backend to handle the 'work'.


----------



## dstyl (Sep 20, 2015)

I think ChromeOS is not comparable to PC-BSD. ChromeOS is comparable to ReactOS. And there are huge differences.
If chroot is possible with the ChromeOS Linux kernel you have a good start.
If iI remember it wright it is all managed code for the user-land in ChromeOS?
What you want to get is something Cygwin like, just for the Chrome environment.


----------



## Adam193 (Feb 23, 2016)

,,l


Dakotah Miskus said:


> What would be needed to make an OS based on FreeBSD that is like what can be found on Chromebooks I've been thinking about this for a while. If you have any help to give please give it.



It's something that has occurred to me and likely to many others who have salvaged obsolete PCs with BSD. It's a good idea, I certainly hope someone gets around to implementing it.


----------



## drhowarddrfine (Feb 23, 2016)

Adam193 said:


> to many others who have salvaged obsolete PCs with BSD.


And buy a new computer for Windows?

I see this all the time. They have no qualms about buying new hardware for their Windows PC but struggle to death trying to get FreeBSD running on old hardware. While I completely understand not wanting to buy new hardware for that Windows fiasco every few years, I've given that up long ago and now buy new hardware, whenever necessary, and install FreeBSD.

Personally, I saved a lot of money over the years gaining Windows hand me down hardware from those people "upgrading" for the next Windows release but such hardware has been elusive lately. I presume it's either the economy, and they're holding on to their systems longer, or they've wised up and realized they no longer need the latest version.


----------



## Adam193 (Feb 23, 2016)

drhowarddrfine said:


> And buy a new computer for Windows?
> 
> Personally, I saved a lot of money over the years gaining Windows hand me down hardware from those people "upgrading" for the next Windows release but such hardware has been elusive lately. I presume it's either the economy, and they're holding on to their systems longer, or they've wised up and realized they no longer need the latest version.




I don't intend to ever give Microsoft another penny. Two of the four laptops I have are older machines their original owners no longer wanted. I imagine the poster would eventually plan on selling new hardware with the Chromeish BSD distro already installed. I put Ubuntu on my dad's computer because he only uses it to browse the web. I was also tired of cleaning up his malware. There many people like him who would be thrilled with a nice little distro running on a cheap laptop.


----------



## Kubitz (Mar 29, 2016)

One other big angle to this is the hardware on which Chrome OS is running. More often than not Chromebooks run a very scaled down single board computer featuring an SoC with on-chip graphics, solid sate eMMC storage, limited USB ports, and a wifi card "stamp module" complete with a custom BIOS from Google. They tend to have a lot more in common with their Android board cousins than an actual PC. If you wanted to run said "BSD Chrome" on one of these platforms it would take a bit of development fortitude making sure FreeBSD can install, boot, and operate all the basic peripherals on boards like these.

However I can appreciate where you are going with the idea. I'm not so much a fan of a Chrome experience but lately I have become totally hooked on the concept of buying a new sub $300 13" notebook and installing FreeBSD on it as my main portable machine. I think part of the lure of running FreeBSD on such simplified hardware is that you could pull off a full desktop experience efficiently with the limited CPU cycles/RAM in a fan-less, solid-state, big-battery, no-nonsense, not-afraid-to-break-it package.


----------



## aragats (Mar 29, 2016)

Adam193 said:


> I don't intend to ever give Microsoft another penny.


Last time trying to buy a laptop from Lenovo online store, I've clicked "chat" and told the guy that I wish to buy a laptop which is in my "cart", but I will pay for the hardware, not for the software, I don't need MS Windows. He gave me $100 discount right away.


----------



## tomxor (Mar 29, 2016)

aragats said:


> Last time trying to buy a laptop from Lenovo online store, I've clicked "chat" and told the guy that I wish to buy a laptop which is in my "cart", but I will pay for the hardware, not for the software, I don't need MS Windows. He gave me $100 discount right away.



That's good to know, but from what I've read Microsoft don't sell licenses to large vendors like Lenovo on a per machine basis but based on the total number of machines they sell per period (assuming everything is windows and simplifying their sales model). It makes sense from a sales stand point because the percentage of non-windows purchases are so tiny that it's not worth the time and effort (money) to record that and claim it back. In other words Lenovo likely just ate your 100$ and already gave it to MS...

The problem with this is most people don't care about the 100$, but they do care about helplessly perpetuating the monopoly. It will probably only change if enough people demand not to pay for windows and make the large vendors hit that threshold where not changing their sales model will hurt them.


----------

