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Chrome OS 72 Dev Channel preps Crostini USB support, easier Linux package installs and more

Earlier this week, Google released the Dev Channel version of Chrome OS 72 and I had planned to write up some of the new features and fixes. That was 48 hours ago and here I am today.

Why? Because the list of changes in this version was simply massive, and by “list” I mean the very limited descriptions plus the actual code changes. It’s taken me this long to get through everything in the changelog!

Of course, not all of the changes are visual or meaningful in a way that will have obvious benefits. Many are simple fixes or minor tweaks — yes, even code with corrected typos counts as a change — so here are some of the more impactful ones that I’ve read through and gathered.

The first few are implementations of features I’ve previously reported, including:

The following are new, or at least new to me, features:

Again, there are a slew of changes, some I may have missed and some I purposely skipped in this update until I’m sure I fully understand their impact.

Needless to say, there’s plenty of goodies to test in the Dev Channel release for Chrome OS! If you want to sneak an early peek at these and other new features, it’s easy to change over to the Dev Channel, but remember: You will likely see more bugs than on the Stable Channel. Additionally, if you switch back to a lower numbered version of Chrome OS, all local data on your device will be wiped out.

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Kevin C. Tofel

4 thoughts on “Chrome OS 72 Dev Channel preps Crostini USB support, easier Linux package installs and more

  1. GPU/Hardware acceleration and USB support were two things holding me back (I believe Crouton supported USB but it’s been years since I tried it so I can’t remember).

    I’m Chrome OS’s biggest fan, yet sadly I don’t use one personally (yet). But with these features coming hard and fast and me needing a laptop next year, I am undoubtedly going to get one now. I’m ready to jump the Windows ship once and for all.

    1. Campfire is a completely separate build of Chrome OS for the Eve board from what I can tell, so nothing new in here for it that I can see.

  2. hi when will external usb webcams work in linux beta on chromebook for features like brightness contrast saturation and hue on obs and linux4live please let me know thank you

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