this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2023
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Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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What about that could possibly be illegal?
A point that I haven't seen in the other comments is to make sure you fully own the Chromebook. If it's on loan from your school, or if it's provided by your work, then you may be bound by some acceptable use agreement and therefore not allowed to modify the OS.
Stop feeding the troll..
...You wouldn't download a car?!
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
You wouldn't shoot a policeman and then steal his helmet?!
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Crostini is an official feature built by Google that allows you to run Linux on a tightly integrated hypervisor inside Chrome OS. You keep a lot of Chrome OS’ security benefits while getting a Linux machine to play with.
That said, no, it’s not illegal to install a different operating system on your Chromebook hardware. They are just PCs, under the hood. You might lose some hardware security features though, e.g. the capabilities provided by integration of the Titan silicon.
If you had a job at Google, corporate IT would definitely not be happy if you wiped the company-managed OS and installed an unmanaged Linux distro :)
I've done this myself. It's 100% legal to do. The only thing you need to be concerned about is if the distro you want to use is compatible with your Chromebook.
To jail with you!
Uh, you don't have to work at Google on order to do that. Most Chromebooks can be unlocked to work with Linux with a little bit of work. And you wouldn't be at risk of going to jail for that. Worst that could happen is you void your warranty. But it's not a "real crime" or anything like that.
If the Chromebook is your property, you can do whatever you want with it, and it's unlikely that anyone will notice or care. I assume you're in the US, since you appear to be worried about DMCA encryption-related provisions. Don't be. Even if it were 100% guaranteed illegal with all necessary precedents, Google has better things to do with its time than track down individual jailbroken Chromebooks. It isn't like you're going to be selling them in quantity or using them to facilitate ransomeware attacks or something.
However, I'd invest in a used laptop instead, since it's likely to have more internal storage even if it lacks the !!shiny!! factor. Chromebooks are meant to store as little as possible locally, and that isn't how a normal Linux works. I suspect you'd start to get data claustrophobia pretty quickly.
Chromebook's run on ChromeOS which is Linux based...
I know ChromeOS is Linux but I want Ubuntu, but if I'm honest, I would be ok with only using ChromeOS!!
Well, then the answer is obvious, no? You can, but there can be some compatibility issues. And changing your operating system is not a criminal offense. As far as Google internal policies, you would have to ask them.