'Project Campfire' effort for dual-booting Windows on Chromebooks is shutting down

It looks like Chromebooks won't be getting an option to run Windows and Linux apps natively via the 'Project Campfire' effort, after all.

Written by Mary Jo Foley, Senior Contributing Editor May 15, 2019 at 2:03 p.m. PT

Windows 10

Google's "Project Campfire" -- a project to allow Chromebooks to natively run Windows desktop and Linux apps -- is being deprecated before it ever debuted. As noted on AboutChromebooks.com on May 15, code removals from "AltOS" (the more official name of Campfire) are indicative that the project is closed.

Since December 2018, activity on the Project Campfire front had gone quiet, according to AboutChromebooks.

If Pixelbooks and other Chromebooks were able to run Windows, users who still want and need Windows to run certain apps would have had a new laptop option available to them.

Google still would have had to pass Microsoft's hardware certification process for Windows 10 before such a feature could come to market. But throughout much of last year, many thought this development was at least somewhat likely to happen.

Neither Google nor Microsoft ever officially acknowledged the existence of Campfire, for what it's worth.