Borealis, the official Steam gaming support in Chromebooks, has been in development for at least a year now (and likely much longer). Let’s go over some new revelations we’ve found and then take a look back at what we know so far. There are many signs that point to a release of Borealis in the […]
Continue ReadingSearch Results for: borealis
Here are the first Chromebooks that will get Steam gaming (‘Borealis’)
While talking about our breakthough with getting Vulkan to work in Crostini (a full guide is coming soon!), I teased something else that a few folks picked up on. We found clues from the Chromium OS source code that answer a big question that we keep hearing from the community: what Chromebooks are getting the […]
Continue Reading
What Steam Deck Means for Chromebooks and Borealis
Today, Valve made a huge announcement. The company announced Steam Deck, a portable game console powered by Linux and a Windows game compatibility program called Proton. Imagine a Nintendo Switch that can play over 50,000 PC games from the popular Steam library. That is the Steam Deck in a nutshell. It features an AMD processor […]
Continue Reading
Gaming on Chrome OS in a pre-Borealis world
While we all impatiently wait for official support for Steam via Borealis, let’s talk about how you can start playing Windows games today with Steam Play (Proton) using Crostini (Linux on Chrome OS). The experience isn’t the best, but it’s frankly better than nothing. This article will assume that you have Linux installed on your […]
Continue ReadingBorealis, a.k.a. Steam, will live in the Chrome OS settings menu
Yesterday, I spent some time hashing out why I feel that Google will bring Steam to Chrome OS in the very near future. While there’s still some work to be done, it now appears that Google is going all-in on the project and this may be a bigger addition to Chrome OS than we ever […]
Continue Reading
Chromebook Steam gaming container ‘Borealis’ getting broad controller support
In a move that should surprise basically no one, ‘Borealis’ (the inside name for the project that is bringing Steam gaming to Chromebooks) is getting controller support akin to what we currently have on Chrome OS for Stadia and GeForce NOW. Tested on ‘Kled’ – AKA the Acer Chromebook Spin 713 – this addition is […]
Continue Reading
Native Steam (Borealis) on Chrome OS likely arriving mid-2021
Gaming on Chrome OS has undergone some serious changes over the past year or so as platforms like Stadia and GeForce Now has given users the ability to stream high-performance games in the browser without the need for high-end hardware. That said, don’t think we’ve forgotten about the little Chrome OS project referred to by […]
Continue Reading“Borealis” may be the key to bringing Steam to Chromebooks but what is it?
For months, we have been digging and theorizing about exactly how Google and Valve would bring “official” Steam support to Chrome OS. Based on conversations with Google’s product manager for Chrome OS, the developers at Google were working closely with Valve to build a Steam package that would leverage the same container technology use by […]
Continue Reading
Chromebooks set to get diagnostic widgets in the launcher just as Nvidia GPUs get canceled
Thanks to a keen eye and some tinkering by our friend C2 Productions over on ‘X’, it looks like Google is adding some much-needed diagnostic improvements to your Chromebook. Currently only in the Canary channel, the ChromeOS Launcher is set to introduce a slew of new widgets that provide essential information at your fingertips – […]
Continue Reading
Yes, it’s true: NVIDIA GPU Chromebooks are no longer in development
So, yeah; this isn’t the greatest news. While I don’t think this is a cause for great alarm or concern, it definitely isn’t the type of thing you want to hear on the heels of Snapdragon 7c+ Gen 3 Chromebooks also getting canned last week. Alas, that’s where we are, and I’ve known about it […]
Continue Reading
Steam for Chromebook is being readied for prime time in the Stable Channel
The time might finally be coming where Steam games being played on Chromebooks is a standard, included feature of ChromeOS. After years in development at this point, it’s an exciting proposition that would see a bunch of different Chromebook models included in the Steam game revolution set to be unleashed on the market. In the […]
Continue Reading
The Chrome Cast 228: Why mid-range Chromebooks will become the sweet spot
This week on The Chrome Cast, we start the show by discussing a recent video we publish that highlights all the ways ChromeOS is hiding in plain sight all around you. From call centers to trivia at Buffalo Wild Wings to medical establishments, ChromeOS is moving in all sorts of professional directions and as time […]
Continue ReadingGoogle is bringing Nvidia RTX GPUs to Chromebooks
Google is not relenting in trying to make ChromeOS the operating system for the masses. With more and more devices arriving and more features being added on a very consistent basis, the young OS has become extremely versatile but there’s still plenty of room for more. One area, in particular that Google has placed some […]
Continue Reading
Google is testing Steam games for entry-level Intel Alder Lake N100/N200 Chromebooks
I’ll be honest, this shocked me a little bit. Though my review of the excellent Lenovo IdeaPad Chromebook Flex 3i (ugh, that name) was quite glowing, it’s not the sort of device I’d expect to run a bunch of Steam games on any time soon. Yet, with what I’ve found in the Chromium Repositories, it […]
Continue Reading
Does your Chromebook support Steam gaming?
Just in case you hadn’t heard, Google is getting very serious about making ChromeOS a formidable gaming platform. Despite the untimely demise of Google’s streaming game service Stadia, the folks at Alphabet have high hopes that Chromebooks can still attract a wide range of gamers from every genre and platform imaginable. It all started back […]
Continue Reading
