Chrome Story

LaCros Will Change the Way We Use Chromebook

You might not have noticed that I don’t usually make such big claims. This time, however, it is different.

LaCros

LaCros separates Chrome from Chrome OS. The current version of Chrome gets updated whenever you update Chrome OS.

It will stop getting updates when your Chromebook reaches end of life.

Using a browser that no longer gets software updates is not a safe thing to do. With this change, Google can continue to give you Chrome updates even after stopping support for Chrome OS on your Chromebook.

But that’s not what I am excited about

I use two Chrome profiles on my Mac. One has my personal account. The second profile has the Google account that I use for the blog (Analytics and Search Console, etc).

Whenever I have to switch between these two profiles to complete tasks, I tend to use my Mac. It is not easy to do this on a Chromebook. I cannot switch profiles as I do on my Mac or Windows PC.

This, however, is changing with LaCros.

LaCros gives me the ability to create more than one profile, within the same login ID.

Today morning, after I noticed that LaCros has started working, I set up both my profiles on the Chromebook.

And I am writing this article using LaCros.

I can write this article and switch to my other profile to look at Analytics, Search Console, and more on my second profile.

Work in Progress

This is still a work-in-progress project. It is usable, but needs polish and refinement. We might see a few bugs also along the way.

Still, it is really useful when you have to handle more than one task at a time.

Summary

If you use more than one Chrome profile on your PC or Mac, this will be a true game changer for you.

Now, tell me which is the most exciting part for you? Getting Chrome updates even after your Chromebook is EOL or using multiple profiles?

In

13 responses to “LaCros Will Change the Way We Use Chromebook”

  1. James

    “Now, tell me which is the most exciting part for you? Getting Chrome updates even after your Chromebook is EOL or using multiple profiles?”

    Both are very cool indeed. My worry is that they will take away the ability to do two profiles as maybe that’s just an accident of the early days of this. Eventually they might stop the Chrome OS Chrome from being used if it’s out of date and just let you run the LaCros Chrome. Hopefully enough influential people will see how useful two profiles is and allow it to keep going. Ideally by having two Lacros Chromes because the Chrome OS Chrome will be out of date.

    Reply
    1. Dinsan – Bangalore, India – Digital Minimalist & Content Developer. Drinks Tea and writes Stuff (mostly about Chromebooks). My views are mostly copied from others.
      Dinsan Francis

      I never thought about that possibility. It will be really bad if they take away the multiple profiles feature from this 🙁

      Reply
      1. James

        Who knows maybe the real reason there are doing this is to allow multiple profiles in some shape or form. The thing is if they are doing this because of security, surely then they would turn off the Chrome OS Chrome (out of date) when you install the LaCros version? You see my point that there’s a potential conflict of goals there?

      2. James

        Sorry I am wrong I was thinking this was working a different way to which it is. I see now that the multiple profiles is within the Lacros thing, sorry lol. Wow that’s cooler than i thought.

      3. Dinsan – Bangalore, India – Digital Minimalist & Content Developer. Drinks Tea and writes Stuff (mostly about Chromebooks). My views are mostly copied from others.
        Dinsan Francis

        Yaay! 🙂

  • James

    Some of us are proper Chrome OS enthusiasts and hence forgot about multiple profiles on Windows, lol, that’s my excuse.

    Reply
  • Richard Leshko

    EOL updates!

    Reply
  • Ferdinand J. Reinke

    Maybe I don’t understand the need for “End of Life” on Chromebooks. I’ve discarded two as my secondary machine to my primary Mac Book Air. I’d have thought that Google had created the computer that was closest to an appliance like a toaster. But they threw in the EOL as planned obsolesce. Such a shame, because the EOL ones still work.

    I never saw a need for “profiles”.

    Reply
    1. James

      You can install Neverware’s CloudReady on old Chromebooks (or PC or Macs for that matter) which is very close to Chrome OS (no playstore, no family link)

      https://www.ifixit.com/News/30282/how-to-get-updates-on-your-end-of-life-chromebook

      Reply
  • serdarhappy
    Serdar Mutlu

    how do we download the Lactos browser?

    Reply
    1. Dinsan – Bangalore, India – Digital Minimalist & Content Developer. Drinks Tea and writes Stuff (mostly about Chromebooks). My views are mostly copied from others.
      Dinsan Francis

      You don’t. It is part of Chrome OS. Available only in the Canary channel. We might see this on the Dev channel as a flag.

      Reply
      1. Sam

        I have the flag on Beta. Chrome 86. Currently backing up Linux and planning to enable it.

      2. Dinsan – Bangalore, India – Digital Minimalist & Content Developer. Drinks Tea and writes Stuff (mostly about Chromebooks). My views are mostly copied from others.
        Dinsan Francis

        Thank you for sharing!

    • Leave a ReplyCancel reply

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