Running on ChromeOS
ChromeOS is an operating system initially released on 2011. By default, ChromeOS supports a Chrome web browser as the primary frontend for users to interact with—thereby giving access to websites and web applications. In 2016, support for running Android applications was added. In 2018, a virtual machine based on Debian Linux was added, making it easier to run any application which could run in a Linux environment.1
Enable Developer Mode and Linux Environment
This guide follows the ChromeOS Linux Setup Documentation
- Open “Settings” > “Advanced” > “Developers” > “Turn on” Linux Development Environment
- Restart your Chromebook
- Open “Terminal” and “Pin” it to your shelf
Install Development Environment
Open the Terminal and run the apt install
command as follows:
sudo apt install git python3 python3-dev python3-venv
Install VS Code
Follow the VS Code Linux recommendations.
- Download the
.deb
package from the website - Move the package into the Linux environment using the “Files” program
- Open the Terminal and install with:
sudo apt install ./<file>.deb
Footnotes
ChromeOS itself is a Linux environment, and you can access its “crosh” shell using ctrl + alt + t. Since it’s a Linux-based environment underneath, there is an alternative way to access the internals with a program called crouton. crouton makes it possible to install Ubuntu or Debian, or install a complete Linux desktop. However, we consider this approach to be more advanced than is necessary for the other material here.