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Add to SafariWhen comparing ChromeOS vs Gallium OS, the Slant community recommends Gallium OS for most people. In the question“What is the best laptop OS?” Gallium OS is ranked 38th while ChromeOS is ranked 52nd. The most important reason people chose Gallium OS is:
Many things work out of the box that do not with other distros, such as touchscreens.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro “Just a web browser”
On the other hand it’s pretty difficult to mess up “just a web browser”. You might get a few less phone calls from your elderly relatives about how they broke their fancy new email and internet machine.
Pro Android apps
Android apps add basic offline functionality.
Pro Booting & updating
Chrome OS boots from power off in about 7 seconds. So you don't need to leave it on and consuming power when it's not in use. You NEVER download and update any apps, although the OS does update itself. Web apps live on servers, so they're always up to date and virus free.
Pro Full laptop form-factor
Unlike tablets, the home of most hyper user friendly operating systems, Chromebooks come on an array of devices that don’t require you to buy any flimsy keyboard attachments.
Pro Pushes oneself to use (and learn how to use) cloud based solutions
With this ChromeOS also eliminates the time needed to configure the local environment.
Pro Chromebook hardware support baked in
Many things work out of the box that do not with other distros, such as touchscreens.
Pro Chromebook specific OS
Gallium OS is engineered with Chromebook hardware in mind to make the best use of Chromebook CPU's, limited RAM, and storage limitations.
Pro Easy to install
Using chrx on Chromebook there are only two or three straightforward steps to get Gallium OS running.
Pro Lightweight
Based on Xubuntu and requires a low hardware spec. Thus it supports almost all Chrome OS devices.
Pro Dual boot
Installation option to dual-boot GalliumOS alongside ChromeOS.
Pro Battery life
Efficient in using the battery.
Cons
Con “Just a web browser”
There aren’t really any applications you can get on ChromeOS. If you can do it via Chrome you can do it on a Chromebook, but not much else.
Con No icons on desktop
Chrome OS does not allow to place icons or shortcuts on the desktop, only the background picture can be changed.
Con You might need a cloud printer
If you don’t live in the paperless world yet and you haven’t bought a new printer in the last three years you may need money up for a new cloud enabled printer.
Con Not updated since 2019
Con Bad speaker support
Speaker support is often broken, either no sound or lots of noise/distortion.
Con Not the best looking UI
It's not the best in terms of UI but you can always install themes.
Con Too large
Too large to install on chromebook.
Con Uses Xfce
Not realy useful for touchscreen devices.
Con Firmware update
Required opening the back and removing the firmware write-protect screw and running a script.
