[matejdro]

I guess this is more meant as an replacement for Chrome OS? That one is already pretty locked down, so switching to Android does not change much.

[happosai]

ChromeOS is much more close to regular Linux systems than Android. The vendors had support Linux properly to get into ChromeOS. This allowed google go support ChromeOS laptops for very long period. Also, a a side-effect Chrome OS contractors got to contribute a lot into mainline Linux.

Android Otoh let's vendors get away with shipping binaries that work once on one Android version, making upgrades pain. And thus Android devices are generally stuck with the build they released with.

The Google decision to drop ChromeOS in favour of Android is going is going to be a huge disaster for Linux ecosystem.

[thiht]

I always assumed Chrome OS was some kind of Android build anyway, but apparently not

[exasperaited]

ChromeOS has been converging on Android for a while but never quite gets there. They are asymptotic ;-)

It rather looks like Aluminium OS is the intended solution.

I don't see any problem with it being "locked down", in the sense that it doesn't sound any worse than Chrome OS or Android.

The open question is whether any open source release will happen worth a damn.