But the good news is that you’ll need to go through the set up only once, and once installed, coding will be as simple as clicking the VS Code icon on your Chromebook desktop. We should note that even if our Chromebook does support Linux, getting things installed and set up is not quick or painless. So, can you code with Python on your Chromebook? If your Chromebook supports Linux, then yes. And that second Linux computer can indeed run Python and VS Code. And, as we noted, some Chromebooks can run Linux, effectively running a second computer inside of the Chromebook. Linux is mostly used with a command prompt (all text), although Linux desktop user interfaces do exist. What is Linux? It’s an operating system (like Windows and Mac OSX) and it actually powers a huge chunk of the internet. Newer (and more powerful) Chromebooks can run Linux.But, Python and VS Code are not Android apps, so this option won’t help us. Some Chromebooks can run Android apps, so many of the apps on the Google Play Store can be installed on Chromebooks that support Android.Recognizing that you may actually need to install downloadable apps on your Chromebook, Google did provide a couple of options. Chromebooks can’t run programs made for Windows or Mac, so anything that requires a Windows or Mac download and installation (like Python and Visual Studio Code) can’t run on Chrome OS (the Chromebook operating system).

Pretty much anything that you can access via a web browser will run on Chromebooks.īut can Chromebooks run desktop apps, or apps that need to be installed? The answer is it depends. That means that Chromebooks are primarily used for applications and sites that run inside of web browsers. Can Your Chromebook Run Python?Ĭhromebooks are essentially web browser computers. Are you a Chromebook user? We love our Chromebooks, and some (but not all) can indeed be used to learn and code Python.

Visual studio code linux chromebook