Chromebooks have graduated from the classroom and are able to have some enjoyable. Recent adjustments to the Chrome OS code point out Google is working to carry full RGB keyboards to Chromebooks—a function that means full-blown gaming programs are on the way in which. After all, an RGB keyboard on a non-gaming laptop computer isn’t actually a factor.

Spotted by 9to5Google, this RGB key help allows you to individually regulate the depth of every purple, blue, and inexperienced key mild. This manner, you’ll be able to fine-tune the brightness and coloration of every key, simply as you’ll on a gaming Windows PC. For now, the function is just obtainable through an inside command for devs, but it surely might quickly arrive on upcoming laptops. While Google hasn’t confirmed the function, 9to5Google discovered encouraging proof that the RGB help is certainly meant for upcoming gadgets, not exterior Bluetooth or USB keyboards.

We don’t know which model would be the first to make the leap, nonetheless, a trio of mysterious gadgets codenamed Vell, Taniks, and Ripple give us a touch. Vell, a system powered by Intel Twelfth-gen Alder Lake processors, is reportedly made by design producer Quanta, and the worker who most contributed to Vell additionally helped HP with latest releases. This might level to the upcoming launch of an HP Omen Chromebook, as 9to5Google speculates.

Similarly, Taniks is the work of LCDC, the most important R&D and {hardware} producer for Lenovo, so it’s not a lot of a attain to foretell the forthcoming launch of a Legion-branded gaming Chromebook. As for Ripple, it reportedly pertains to a removable RGB keyboard—so we’d see a Chrome OS equal of Asus’s new ROG Flow Z13.

Chromebooks have been round for a decade however none flaunt an RGB keyboard, or for that matter, a discrete GPU able to enjoying video games natively. To run video games on a Chromebook right now, you both have to be enjoying an Android app or streaming from providers like Google Stadia or Nvidia GeForce Now. Limited {hardware} isn’t the one downside stopping Chromebooks from getting into the digital battlefield. Chrome OS is Linux-based, which suggests you’ll be able to’t simply fireplace up Steam and play by way of your Windows PC library. Not but, at the very least.

In January 2020, a Chrome OS product chief informed Android Authority that the corporate was working to carry Steam to Chrome OS—with assist from Valve. Indeed, a mission codenamed Borealis has lengthy been within the works to get Steam and different Linux-compatible PC video games to run on a digital machine on Chromebooks. It was first uncovered in mid-2020 as a Linux distro based mostly on Ubuntu with a pre-installed model of Steam, and the newest proof within the type of system flags discovered by Android Police suggests Borealis might launch within the coming weeks. Despite the mounting proof, Google has but to place out an official announcement of Steam video games arriving on Chromebook.

Chrome Unboxed has intently adopted the event of Borealis and believes Steam will likely be a everlasting addition to the Chrome OS settings menu within the close to future, and the sport consumer might even come pre-installed on suitable Chrome OS gadgets.

Valve already laid the groundwork for working Steam on Linux when it launched Porton, a modified distribution of Wine, to carry Windows video games to Linux gadgets. Not each recreation is supported, however 80% of Steam’s top 100 games are reportedly playable inside Linux distros. Separately, Valve is readying the launch of Steam Deck, a fast-selling moveable gaming PC that would popularize Linux-based gaming.

Excuse all of the codenames, however the underside line is that there’s sturdy proof suggesting Google will carry Steam to Chromebooks and will function it prominently inside the OS. And with right now’s information, at the very least a number of distributors are able to flip on the RGB lights and switch Chrome OS into a correct gaming platform.