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Google Turns Old Macs, PCs into Chromebooks with Chrome OS Flex

27 points by carride 5y ago

yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
So... could a person take an EOL Chromebook, install an aftermarket coreboot+tianocore firmware to get UEFI, and then install this to keep running officially-supported, fully-updated Chrome OS long after the machine went EOL?
- luke2m 5y ago
  People are doing this with cloudready, so I don’t see why not.
  - iszomer 5y ago
    Did you read the article? Neverware's CloudReady was acquired by Google.
    - yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
      Surely that's evidence that it definitely works like that
    - luke2m 5y ago
      Yes, and that’s the reason for my comment.
hulitu 5y ago
Why would someone want to turn its PC into a walled garden ?
- yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
  Because if you can live within that walled garden, it's a very nice garden - faster and safer than Windows, easier to use than many Linux distros, cheaper than a Mac. (I say, typing from my GNU/Linux laptop, but I can see where people would legitimately benefit.)
- jtsiskin 5y ago
  You are not the target market. I volunteered teaching computer skills in a “low income school district”. They had a laptop cart on wheels, with cheap, aging laptops that took multiple minutes to boot up + log in + become useable. And you had to completely turn them off, not put them to sleep, to avoid overheating the cart. You quickly learned to always factor in this time when planning. This is the target market. The PCs were already configured as a “walled garden”.
bertman 5y ago
The installation instructions are "hidden" behind a weird company signup form (https://chromeenterprise.google/os/chromeosflex/#form-section https://chromeenterprise.google/os/chromeosflex/#form-sectio...) Here is the direct link to the installation guide: https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/11552529 https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/11552529
maxloh 5y ago
What's the difference with Chromium OS (its open source counterpart)?
eatonphil 5y ago
Neat, I've been wondering what to do with a very working 2012 macbook pro and its new battery. I did try Ubuntu on it but the mouse settings just weren't for me.

27 points by carride 5y ago

So... could a person take an EOL Chromebook, install an aftermarket coreboot+tianocore firmware to get UEFI, and then install this to keep running officially-supported, fully-updated Chrome OS long after the machine went EOL?

luke2m 5y ago
People are doing this with cloudready, so I don’t see why not.
- iszomer 5y ago
  Did you read the article? Neverware's CloudReady was acquired by Google.
  - yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
    Surely that's evidence that it definitely works like that
  - luke2m 5y ago
    Yes, and that’s the reason for my comment.

hulitu 5y ago

Why would someone want to turn its PC into a walled garden ?

yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
Because if you can live within that walled garden, it's a very nice garden - faster and safer than Windows, easier to use than many Linux distros, cheaper than a Mac. (I say, typing from my GNU/Linux laptop, but I can see where people would legitimately benefit.)
jtsiskin 5y ago
You are not the target market. I volunteered teaching computer skills in a “low income school district”. They had a laptop cart on wheels, with cheap, aging laptops that took multiple minutes to boot up + log in + become useable. And you had to completely turn them off, not put them to sleep, to avoid overheating the cart. You quickly learned to always factor in this time when planning. This is the target market. The PCs were already configured as a “walled garden”.

bertman 5y ago

The installation instructions are "hidden" behind a weird company signup form (https://chromeenterprise.google/os/chromeosflex/#form-section https://chromeenterprise.google/os/chromeosflex/#form-sectio...) Here is the direct link to the installation guide: https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/11552529 https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/11552529

maxloh 5y ago

What's the difference with Chromium OS (its open source counterpart)?

eatonphil 5y ago

Neat, I've been wondering what to do with a very working 2012 macbook pro and its new battery. I did try Ubuntu on it but the mouse settings just weren't for me.