After being very surprised by the acquisition of Neverware, the developers of CloudReady, Google now wants to integrate it directly and officially into Chrome OS, according to a new Chromium Repository that Kevin discovered on About Chromebooks. Since CloudReady has been on its own for a while now, the initial stages of these two code-based merges are obviously small and incremental. It looks like Google is just now starting to turn their heads on how they can merge everything using preliminary code ‘hacks’ at the back.
Kevin expects Google to convert all of Neverware’s GitLab code into internal Google code soon, pointing out that senior software engineer Nicholas Bishop recently posted a new @ google.com email address received. What’s more is that some of the code strings indicate a stable Chrome OS 90 release for the initial Neverware code to appear as part of the official build on the user’s devices – it’s a little more than a week after release.
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What does all this mean for the end user? Actually not much – at least not yet. Neverware has made it clear that CloudReady will continue to be ‘available’ for the time being, with support and maintenance for existing customers. Once it becomes an official Chrome OS offering, existing customers will be seamlessly upgraded. It is important to remember that CloudReady is a solution intended for education and enterprise. It offers a version of Chrome OS to older Mac and Windows devices so they can continue to work and in many cases get new life instead of being thrown in the trash. It enables organizations to embrace cloud resources by giving them secure access to them.
As LaCrOS soon becomes the default browser for Chrome OS and the integration of CloudReady into Google’s own operating system, all indications are that the company wants to extend the life of its devices, both to the consumer and to education and business. Chromebooks and Chromeboxes are currently receiving up to 8 years of updates in some cases, but soon their access to security solutions, updates and features could be greatly expanded, and that’s exciting. All of this will help Google compete on the next level with Microsoft, which has dominated the Enterprise market for decades.
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