They're not "turning ChromeOS into Linux." ChromeOS can and will still be a hardened secure browser-only computer that works identically with your login across systems on the platform. Having separate binaries for the UI shell and the Chrome browser doesn't nullify everything else. TFA even points out that users won't really notice any difference.

It's pretty much turning ChromeOS into Linux.

I remember when - and miss - the OS being "a single Chrome window, that's the shell, that's it". It was simple. Unbloated. Now it's an absolute mess that Google doesn't know what to do with - treat it like an Android device, or treat it like a computer.

One of the main points of the project was for security reasons.

Updates to the Chrome browser build for ChromeOS came out later than the standard Linux/Windows/Mac Chrome builds because the special chromeos build needed time to be integrated/tested with the rest of ChromeOS.

With LaCros, the browser can be updated independently from the rest of the OS.

idk if you've used a chromeos device, but they have an infuriating update schedule where it seems like there are updates daily, and they _always_ require a full system reboot. they apparently can't be consolidated either, so half the time i'll reboot to apply one and immediately get a notification of another

this presumably allows them to ease that a bit and apply some updates with the system still running, with maybe a quicker browser-only restart

> idk if you've used a chromeos device, but they have an infuriating update schedule where it seems like there are updates daily

This has been the opposite of my experience on the stable channel. Perhaps you're on one of the more volatile ChromeOS update channels? Or you use your device infrequently and put it to sleep when not in use, resulting in a similar UX issue that plagues game consoles: the appearance of always having updates when used.

Yes. The beta channel for ChromeOS seems to have a new release every week. I usually ignore it until the Linux shell or Steam stops working, then relent and let it reboot.