Chrome OS preparing Steam gaming support, starting with 10th Gen Intel Chromebooks

Through a fair bit of digging, we were able to obtain a copy of Borealis, which turned out to be another full Linux distribution. Unlike Crostini, which is based on Debian, Borealis is based on Ubuntu, another popular variety of Linux. Just like the existing Linux apps support, we believe Borealis will integrate itself with Chrome OS rather than being a full desktop experience.

However, we found one key difference between Borealis and a normal installation of Ubuntu, as Borealis includes a pre-installed copy of Steam. This lines up with what we learned at CES 2020, when Kan Liu, Google's director of product management for Chrome OS, shared that the upcoming Steam gaming support would be based on Linux.

I am very curious to see how this will perform. My gut feeling is that they will position this more as an endpoint for Steam's in-home streaming feature than as a way to play games locally on-device, since I don't know of any ChromeBook with more graphical power than whatever integrated GPU Intel stuffs in their low-end processors.