Chrome OS to Run Legacy Apps

Google figured out something important: You can sell businesses the future, but they’ll show up with lots of the past.

The company on Thursday showed off changes it had made to Chrome, its operating system for business computing, aimed at enabling companies to run most of their legacy software applications. Dell announced new Chromebooks, as the system laptops are called, and management software to work with the product.

Not incidentally, the changes will make it easier to move a company that is currently using applications written for Microsoft’s Windows operating system. Amazon Web Services, which also offers a type of business computing, Amazon WorkSpaces, has yet to develop such efforts.

Previously, Google has stressed the efficiency gained from making things like documents and spreadsheets in cloud computing-based systems. Benefits include better security, because there’s less data on the local laptop, and easier management, because a single location can keep an eye on people in the office and working from a coffeeshop.