According to a report from XDA Developers, Google is working on a project codenamed Campfire that will allow users to dual boot Chrome OS with Windows 10. Rumors have been popping up for months now that the firm is adding some sort of dual boot functionality, but it"s starting to become clear what that actually is.
Ultimately, it"s very much similar to Apple"s Boot Camp, which is a seamless setup experience to dual boot Windows and macOS. According to the report, a Chromebook would need to have at least 40GB of internal storage, with 30GB of that dedicated to Windows 10. That means that entry-level 16GB Chromebooks won"t be able to support the feature, not that Windows 10 would even work, as Microsoft"s own system requirements list the OS as needing 16GB of storage for a 32-bit system or 20GB on a 64-bit system.
Another barrier to entry will be the processor. While the report doesn"t say anything about processor requirements, most ARM-based Chromebooks won"t work with Windows 10. Remember, the only ARM processor that"s supported by Windows 10 is the Snapdragon 835, with Snapdragon 850 support coming later this year. That means that the special OP1 Chromebook chip won"t be able to dual boot Windows 10.
The system requirements for dual booting Chrome OS and Windows 10 would seemingly be 40GB of internal storage, along with an Intel processor or a Snapdragon 835. Perhaps, a Snapdragon 845 will work when the Snapdragon 850 is added to Windows 10 support, being that the chipsets are almost identical.
The report says that the feature, called Alt OS mode, is pretty incomplete right now, but we could see an announcement from Google as early as later on this year. It could be at the firm"s hardware event in a couple of months, and Alt OS/Campfire would be a feature of a possible Pixelbook 2.