I spent hours testing Googlebook OS on my MacBook; it confirmed my biggest worry

I have been skeptical of Googlebooks since Google's initial announcement in May. Google wants MacBook-like money for Googlebooks before earning my trust, and all the initial teething issues with the platform have only reinforced my concerns.

Thanks to an open source project, I was able to run the real Googlebook OS on my MacBook Pro, without spending money on the real hardware. After spending a few hours poking around, it confirmed my biggest worry.

Getting Googlebook OS onto a Mac is the easy part

Three commands and some patience are all it took

Developer Skylar Taylor-Barrick released an open source tool that downloads Google's recovery image and adapts it to run on Apple Silicon Macs a few days ago.

I'm not going to act like an expert and say I understand everything, but the basic premise of the project is that it allows you to boot Googlebook OS on your MacBook to get a feel for the OS.

It's not an emulator image or a generic Android build; instead, it supports GPU acceleration and Chrome works fully, so the experience is relatively good.

Installation is relatively simple as long as your Mac meets the minimum requirements: 16GB of RAM and at least 60GB of free space. After that, I ran the commands mentioned in the GitHub repo and followed the on-screen instructions.

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The process took me around 30 minutes, but it may take longer or be faster for you depending on your internet speed.

After I completed the installation, I ran the command to boot Googlebook on my MacBook. The first boot took around a minute or two.

It was satisfying to see Google's laptop OS running in a window on my MacBook Pro after a few simple steps. The developer deserves credit for making the process so painless.

It feels like Android on a big screen

And that's exactly what I was not looking for

Google describes Googlebook as the best of Android and ChromeOS combined. To me, it looked like Android with a taskbar running on a laptop. That's what I was not looking forward to.

Almost everything felt familiar within minutes. The interface, from the settings page to the windows and desktop, all seemed familiar. That's understandable because Googlebook OS is based on Android.

The familiarity is not the problem. Anyone with an Android phone will know where everything is on day one.

My problem is that this brought back memories of using Android tablets on and off over the years. Google kept rolling out multitasking improvements, and the hardware kept improving, yet too many apps still felt designed for a phone.

Most of them were just phone apps stretched across a larger display, with wasted space and layouts that ignored the keyboard and trackpad.

I couldn't sign in to the Play Store in the VM, so I never saw how apps behave on Googlebook OS. But nothing about the interface suggested a break from the tablet experience.

If the system looks and behaves like Android, I expect the apps to do the same, and Google hasn't yet given me a reason to believe otherwise. And the early app issues with Googlebook OS only reinforce that feeling.

Not being able to access the Play Store is one thing. What bothers me more is that Google is pushing people toward progressive web apps on Googlebooks, and that includes some of its own apps that have perfectly good Android versions.

PWAs are fine for lighter tasks like checking email or jotting down notes.

But for more demanding tasks, the experience is nowhere near as good as it should be on a laptop. If Google isn't confident in its own Android apps on Googlebook, why should I be?

I wanted Googlebook to feel like a proper laptop OS, with apps that made good use of the larger screen, keyboard, and trackpad. Instead, I got a reminder of why I gave up on Android tablets and switched to an iPad.

A virtual machine only tells part of the story

I know this is not the real Googlebook experience

Running Googlebook in a virtual machine on a MacBook isn't the same as using a real Googlebook. I get that. A lot of stuff is broken, and I couldn't access the Play Store.

Since I could not sign in to a Google account, I never got to try Magic Pointer, the Gemini features Google is selling these laptops on, or the deep Android phone integration.

I also understand the overall experience is a mix of software and premium hardware.

I will stick to Macs

A few hours with Googlebook OS did not change my mind. It made the case for me.

While the VM has limitations, the software feels like Android on a bigger screen, and I have spent years watching that experience fall apart on tablets. I'm not interested in paying Google money again for the same thing.

The deep Android phone integration and Magic Pointer features are tempting, but I can give up on them without a second thought because the apps are what I will use every day.