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Google Release Chrome OS Flex
- reaperducer 5y agoHow is this different than the old thin client craze from 20-something years ago?
- hughrr 5y agoWell it's 50000% less shit than Citrix for a start.
- metaltyphoon 5y agoHa ha ha. https://cloud.google.com/citrix https://cloud.google.com/citrix
- hughrr 5y agoKill me now
- jeffbee 5y agoThin client was not "a craze" it was industry bread and butter for decades. It was and maybe still can be considered IBM's core business. Sun sold hundreds of thousands of seats of the Sun Ray. In case your question was serious, a device with ChromeOS is just a Linux box with as powerful a processor, as much memory, and as much storage as you care to supply. There's nothing "thin" about it.
- Gollapalli 5y agoYou know, except for the fact that none of that is on your machine.
- throwawayHN378 5y agoOk but it doesn’t let me download anything
- notyourday 5y agoThis is how to get it: https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/11541904?hl=en&ref_topic=11551271 https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/11541904?hl=e...
- sidcool 5y agoIs this available for personal use?
- tomComb 5y agoGlad to see that this is pure web: will not include support for android apps. Kind of ironic that Microsoft is going to the step of taking googles android and hacking it onto windows, while Google is not adding android to (this version of) their OS. Not exactly sure what the irony is actually, but it’s in there somewhere.
- _zllx 5y agoI think this is gonna be used for school lab computers, like my high school's hand-me-down OptiPlexes from the local state university. Students will only need access to e-learning sites. Android app support would open up a lot of malware or viddy gaming during prescribed pretending-to-watch-course-videos time.
- bduerst 5y agoDoesn't Android-enabled Chrome OS require containers to run properly? I seem to remember there being a pretty high bar (for Chromebooks anyway) of hardware requirements to be able to run android on Chrome OS machines. Even my shitty burner chromebook struggled to run the beta in dev mode. Given that this is targeted at repurposing even older hardware, including Android would probably be creating performance issues.
- pjmlp 5y agoYes it does, here is the Google IO talk https://youtu.be/pRlh8LX4kQI https://youtu.be/pRlh8LX4kQI
- daveidol 5y agoMicrosoft adding Android to Windows seems almost like a reaction to Apple adding support for iOS apps on macOS ARM. That way if iOS apps end up becoming a smash hit on Mac, Windows can keep pace.
- pjmlp 5y agoWSL was born of Project Astoria ashes, Microsof is only doing the second go at it, most likely due to Windows 10X failure and Surface Duo being Android based.
- iddan 5y agoFinally! I remember installing Chromium OS on my netbook back in 2011 and I always felt like a supported build from Google has so much opportunity to renovate old computers
- notyourday 5y agoI have a previous generation Chromebox that I use for video conferencing. It is absolutely infuriating that a modern ChromeOS does not work on it not because the specs are out of date but because Google just does not allow it. It has a supported CPU, a supported wifi, a supported USB and a supported bluetooth a supported disk and a supported amount of memory. But it is out of ChromeOS support window.
- wffurr 5y agoDisable write protect on the firmware and install Flex or a Linux distro. Wish they'd automatically unlock the firmware on devices that fall out of the support window.
- notyourday 5y agoI'm going to try Flex. I don't want Linux on it. It is just a video conferencing box. I want it to be a total appliance. P.S. I just checked - not a single Chromebook/Chromebox are listed on a supported devices list.
- wffurr 5y ago10 to 1 it works well anyway.
- _ea1k 5y agoHave there been any howtos for installing Flex? It does seem like that'd be a possibility, and it'd be a great way to extend the update window if it worked.
- 5y ago
- notyourday 5y agoI see Google still has not realized that they should list the devices it supports in the announcement...
- CraneWorm 5y agoit boots from a usb stick and seems web only so it should run anywhere you can run chrome browser; I suppose?
- protomyth 5y agoWell, drivers are still important since it is an OS and not a layer on top of the installed OS. STEP 2 When you’re ready, install Chrome OS Flex on your PC or Mac to replace your operating system.
- sahaskatta 5y agoHere's the list: https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/11513094?hl=en&ref_topic=11618314 https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/11513094?hl=e...
- darklion 5y agoChrome is notable for being a memory hog; older devices, almost by definition, do not come with modern amounts of memory. I wonder what the performance is going to be like. Also, I question how well optimized Chrome OS can be for PC substrates. It's one thing to run Chrome OS on a device built around what Chrome OS supports; Chromebooks are essentially the Mac hardware model: limited hardware that is known to be compatible with the software running on it. In the wild, though, PCs have a mind-boggling array of different hardware; I wonder how well Chrome OS is going to adapt to that Wild West.
- jklinger410 5y agoDon't they just use the linux kernel for hardware?
- simonmales 5y agoI wonder how this will help get drivers mainlined. And if OEMs will start offering Chrome OS Flex devices off the shelf.
- _ea1k 5y agoChromebooks often come with ~4GB and run pretty well. I think they are just relying on Linux having relatively broad hardware support along with proprietary drivers for the most common video chipsets. I doubt it will be exceptionally hard, given that Chrome OS tends to have relatively limited support for peripherals anyway. Its not like they have to support high performance 3d gaming.
- bduerst 5y ago>Chrome is notable for being a memory hog This meme comes from a misunderstanding of how desktop memory works. Chrome will use as much available RAM as you can give it in order to improve web performance, but it doesn't actually require that much to run.
- redwall_hp 5y agoAnd...modern web cruft is a memory hog. Chrome's built in task manager shows the tab I'm writing this comment in as using a reasonable 50MB of memory. Meanwhile, I have a couple of YouTube tabs that are over 200MB each. The problem is the world doesn't hold web developers responsible for being wasteful.
- ben1040 5y agoThis sounds like the continuation of Neverware, which they acquired at the end of 2020. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/12/google-acquired-neverware-makers-of-cloudready-chromeos-variant/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/12/google-acquired-neve...
- kyrra 5y agoGoogler, opinions are my own. I believe this is exactly what it is.
- bigmadwolf 5y agoSure is. On the top of the installation guide page you are directed to if you sign up for the beta: "Chrome OS Flex is currently released for early access testing and is not suitable for production use. CloudReady is available for immediate stable deployment. Google will automatically update CloudReady devices to Chrome OS Flex, when Chrome OS Flex is stable. We welcome your feedback as we work to improve the product. Send feedback." Have been using CloudReady for a couple of years on a Lenovo X201s used by the kids. Performance is excellent.
- cercatrova 5y agoReminds me of https://www.mightyapp.com/ https://www.mightyapp.com/ which streams Chrome to your desktop.
- notyourday 5y agoThis is a much more interesting technical summary: https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/11547280?hl=en&ref_topic=11618314 https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/11547280?hl=e...
- binkHN 5y agoVery helpful—thanks—goes into a lot of detail regarding Flex versus CloudReady for those who are interested.
- _ea1k 5y agoThe annoying thing is that they can do this, but they won't offer some sort of extended support for old chromebooks. It seems like they could at least keep the user layer up to date and ship patches for critical vulnerabilities.
- vero2 5y agoBlame intel for not updating older devices...
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- mh- 5y agoWhat updates could they need from Intel to keep the OS/userspace up to date?
- jeffbee 5y ago"up to date" implies that fixes are being identified, developed, and distributed. If your wifi card has some flaw, and intel fixes it, and google distributes the fix then your device is "up to date". If you don't care about this property then you also don't care that a Chromebook only gets updates for 7 years. It is, after all, not going to just switch itself off at the end of the support term.
- vero2 5y ago1. Intel spectre/CVE? 2. Note that these old devices have no support from Wayland as intel does not provide drivers 3. These were introductory chromebooks and I am sure OEMs will be annoyed if they are unlimited updates. (or they may be have contracts) 4. Even if google kepps them away from Wayland, users will then expect same performance/features like the new ones - and blame Google.
- livinglist 5y agothat’s how google does things, I won’t be surprised.
- madjam002 5y agoSeriously considering trying this with some of my family members. Windows 10 is such a user hostile OS especially to non-techie people that every time I look at their PC their documents have moved to some new OneDrive location or Edge has reinstalled itself.
- r00fus 5y agoI tried chromebooks a while back and while the cost factor was significantly in favor of them, they fall down in a lot of areas. With Apple Silicon 2020 MBAs they seem to support everything, are significantly faster/quieter/long battery and with discounts are reasonably priced - I'm recommending those for family and so far everyone has loved theirs. I expect the hardware to last a long time - much like the 2010 MBA which lasted my dad 7+ years.
- Dma54rhs 5y agoThe target market for Chromebooks is as far as it can get for the privileged who can buy their kids and close ones latest macbooks, it's like suggesting some sort of sportscar instead of wolkswagen saying with good financing they are not that expensive to keep up.
- brimble 5y agoMy dad picked one (edit: a Chromebook, that is) up a couple years ago, which I thought was great because most of their market is kids and old people (isn't it?) so it'd surely have great accessibility features, and as you note Windows has been getting more and more hostile since at least Win10 (which tricked one of my uncles into paying for OneDrive without even knowing what it was ["something I need to use the computer, I think?"], leaving him confused about where files were going). Nope. Dunno if ChromeOS is subpar, or if Apple's just so far ahead that it's spoiled me, but Chrome OS' accessibility settings seemed pretty poor, and some of what they did have didn't work very well.
- johnx5c 5y ago> Windows 10 is such a user hostile OS That's a bit ironic. Microsoft is only trying desperately to do what Google has already succeeded at with ChromeOS - an OS with no browser choice designed solely to funnel user data to them for data mining and to promote their own services. At least Google are up front about it while Microsoft is trying to dark-pattern their way to the same position.
- zinekeller 5y ago> Reduce e-waste and extend the life of your existing devices by transforming them with a modern OS. Flies in the face of many functional Chromebooks/Chromeboxens losing support (https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/6220366 https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/6220366). Extend the support lifetimes of your first-party hardware and I'll believe you, Google. Unfortunately, you have definitely burnt many bridges over this.
- ignoramous 5y ago> Today, the OS is in early access and you may experience some instability. Tomorrow the OS is EOL and you may experience déjà vu: https://killedbygoogle.com/ https://killedbygoogle.com/ Jk, they won't surely?
- Shadonototra 5y agoif you don't try, you don't exist they should be proud to have such a page do you have yours? oh sorry, you don't even try
- incrudible 5y agoIf you keep killing products quickly after launch, people will hesitate to invest in your products. This is also a problem with startups. I need a problem solved, not be part your incredible journey.
- ignoramous 5y agoUndoubtedly there remain issues with Eric Schmidt style 'let a thousand flowers bloom' approach to product development, though, there is some upside to it, too (gmail, for ex). That said, I doubt the list on killedbygoogle.com parroted around as a badge of honour of having tried even if failed, is one of them... cognitive dissonance be damned.
- squarefoot 5y agoTranslation: lots of cheap 2nd hand Chromebooks/boxes to unlock and flash with an open OS. https://mrchromebox.tech/ https://mrchromebox.tech/
- turbinerneiter 5y agoCan one use Firefox on ChromeOS?
- pa7ch 5y agoYes but it runs through a linux VM so it won't get quite native speed and reduce your battery life. It seamlessly installs as an app you can just open though which is a slick feature of crostini.
- smallerfish 5y agoI hope they've spun up a support organization to back this. Their list of "supported" hardware is pretty thin right now. Are they really planning to scale this to all models? https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/11513094#zippy= https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/11513094#zipp...
- 0x0 5y agoYeah I don't see "MacBookPro18,2" there despite the landing page claiming this OS will work on devices I already own.
- lproven 5y agoBecause that's an ARM MacBook and this is an x86 OS. Don't take the mickey [UK] / don't come the raw prawn [AU] (I don't know a US version). If anyone has a Mac new enough to run the current macOS, whatever that is, then this is not for them. But, as an example, I own a Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro and a 2011 Core i5 Mac Mini, both of which aren't supported any more. They both run MacOS 10.13 and they're perfectly fine, but they can't be updated any more. That makes some people very nervous. I also had a 2008 MacBook that's stuck on Lion. This is perfect for such old kit.
- candiddevmike 5y agoI can't find anymore information about the VDI plug in the workplace section, anyone have a link? Is Google getting into the cloud VDI business, or is it "Chrome os can use VDI tools" handwaving?
- machinerychorus 5y agoMicrosoft used to bundle a browser with their OS, now Google is bundling an OS with their browser. Time is a flat circle.
- eugenekolo 5y agoWill this version, like regular ChromeOS support a Linux Subsystem (Crostini)? I've recently played a bit with a Chromebook I have for work, best I can describe it is as "ok". It's kind of fun to be able to write emails, or journal/blog in Google Docs. I really can't see how I would recommend it to anybody really with just that ability. Even non-tech people like to download the occasional program, and not everything is on the web. The Chromebook is able to run Android apps which makes it slightly more useable (Looks like ChromeOS Flex cannot?). The ability to run Crostini makes it more developer friendly. I was able to set up Android Studio, Python, Gcc, and it's a fairly decent on-the-go dev machine... I don't live such a nomadic lifestyle, but I can see it being pretty fun if you do.
- banana_giraffe 5y agoThe answer to that is "maybe" ( https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/11542901?hl=en&ref_topic=11618314 https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/11542901?hl=e... ): > Support for Linux development environment on Chrome OS Flex varies, depending on the specific model. Review the Certified models list to check if your models support Linux on Chrome OS Flex. The link on that page to the list of supported hardware doesn't actually show which machines support Linux.
- Lutzb 5y agoI was wondering the same thing. So I tried it out with a Thinkpad T430s from 2013, Ivy Bridge. In preparation I've also updated the BIOS to the latest version from 2019 (2.76). Right out of the box Crostini will not run. However adding kvm-intel.vmentry_l1d_flush=always to the kernel boot options enables Crostini.
- inlined 5y agoAm I the only person who's vaguely interested but won't try this until it supports dual boot?
- lproven 5y agoI doubt it will. ChromeOS has a really complex multi-partition setup, with duplicate root partitions that update each other. This is not going to sit well alongside anything else. Secondly, it's intended for old kit. So why bother?
- longstation 5y agoOr running it in a VM?
- lproven 5y agoYou already can. https://www.makeuseof.com/how-to-install-chrome-os-virtual-machine/ https://www.makeuseof.com/how-to-install-chrome-os-virtual-m...
- jdlyga 5y agoThe only computer I might need to use this on is my 2017 Chromebook that's now out of support and can't be updated :(
- seltzered_ 5y agoBizarrely reminds of a decade ago when HP's Open webOS was intended to ship on PCs: - https://www.engadget.com/2011-03-09-webos-will-on-every-hp-pc-shipping-next-year-says-ceo.html https://www.engadget.com/2011-03-09-webos-will-on-every-hp-p... - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sS3Vk821w8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sS3Vk821w8
- dvh 5y agoHow long till it's cancelled? 6 months?
- encryptluks2 5y agoIf this won't support Android apps, it won't get mass adoption.
- vorpalhex 5y agoThey could add that in later. Honestly stuff like this is a great solution for older parents or young kids who really do just need internet browsing.
- jsnell 5y agoCreating the installation media via a Chrome Extension sure is a wonky process. First try: can't actually do it from Linux Chrome, has to be Windows/Mac/Chromebook. Second try, on Windows: Extension downloads the image. Windows asks if I want to allow Chrome to make system changes. Then Chrome crashes. Third try, on the same machine: The exact same image is downloaded again. The progress bar for unpacking the image goes to 250%, and -15 seconds remaining. Writing the USB stick finally works. The extension is able to write raw data to a USB device, which seems like rather privileged hardware access. But there is nothing in the permissions section of the extension suggesting there is anything special about it. That seems really strange. (It was just creating the image that was odd. Once that was done, everything was smooth on a Windows 8-era Samsung laptop.)
- SirGiggles 5y agoPerhaps WebUSB? I recall that flashing Google Android images was possible directly from the browser
- jeffbee 5y agoI wonder if you could have just written the image with Etcher.
- jsnell 5y agoI didn't see a direct download link for the image anywhere, the only documented method is the extension.
- terinjokes 5y agoThe extension just downloads a .bin file from Google and writes it onto the USB stick. There's a separate recovery tool Google provides for Linux users. I imagine it will be available via that script shortly. Edit: The manifest URL is https://dl.google.com/dl/edgedl/chromeos/recovery/cloudready_recovery.json https://dl.google.com/dl/edgedl/chromeos/recovery/cloudready...
- Shadonototra 5y ago
- babypuncher 5y agoI am struggling to think of a reason why I would want to run Chrome OS instead of macOS, Windows, or Linux. Then again, I've never understood the appeal of Chromebooks to begin with.
- JeremyNT 5y agoVersus Mac and Windows, it's free. On all platforms, it's presumably lower maintenance. These advantages probably mostly add up if you have a lot of "dumb" kiosk type systems, like in a classroom setting, where children are already often given Chromium appliances rather than general purpose computers.
- jug 5y agoIt’s a way to consume the web — an ever larger and growing share of where you do or can do your work, consume entertainment and socialize — with a modern and up-to-date browser on computers that may no longer be supported by Microsoft or Apple.
- crb 5y agoThere have been zero reported ransomware attacks on Chrome OS. If you're in a hospital, for example, and all you do is interact with a backend running on an intranet site, that might be a big advantage to you.
- Shadonototra 5y agomacOS/windows are outdated the world is running Android/iOS/Chrome, chromeOS makes sense since it removes the OS from the equation, you are accessing the web directly, local or public For developers, it doesn't make much sense, but for the rest of the world, it is perfect
- alienthrowaway 5y ago> For developers, it doesn't make much sense, but for the rest of the world, it is perfect Developer chiming in - ChromeOS makes a lot of sense since the launch of Linux VMs (aka Crostini)[0]. I get full access to Linux tools & VSCode on a light & cheap[1] Chromebook I can take everywhere without worrying about it being damaged or stolen; I take it to places I wouldn't dare bring a Macbook Pro. Very few workloads require remoting to my heavy-hitter desktop/cloud VM instance via ssh (or Jupyter notebooks) - far fewer than I initially thought. It's perfectly capable of handling Javascript/CSS/HTML and Go/Python projects 0. Sadly, Crostini only runs on Intel Chromebooks 1. I'm talking about than $200-$250 new, full HD screen, Intel Atom that can eke out 8+ hours on battery. I also bought a 2nd hand backup Chromebook for $53 on Goodwill
- Shadonototra 5y agochrome os is much nicer and easier to use than windows/macos too bad they focused on the web, it could have been the perfect alternative to windows, they missed a huge opportunity Chrome OS Flex sounds like the right approach, at least you don't need to buy a new HW.. the name on the other hand.. it's a pretty bad name
- notyourday 5y agoI've successfully have installed ChromeOS Flex onto Asus CN60 Chromebox. This Chromebox has been end of support by Google in SEPTEMBER 2019. It worked. I'm using this box strictly as the video conferencing system for my home office - it is connected to a 42" 1080p TV with a Logitech USB camera and wired for the ethernet. The following are the steps. 1. Opened the CN60 and removed the write protect screw 2. Used the same time to upgrade from 2x 2GB ram modules to 1x 8GB 3. Validated old ChromeOS booted. 4. Powered off. 5. Pushed recovery pin in and while holding it in turned the system on to enter a recovery mode. 6. Control-D to enter developer mode and remove request write protect off 7. Press recovery button again to turn write protect off. 8. ChromeOS clears the local data by itself. 9. ChromeOS says "preparing developer mode" and says not to turn off the system until it has restarted by itself. 10. The system reboots into a developer mode by itself. 11. Ctrl-Alt-F2 on a keyboard to switch to a text based console 12. Enter "chronos" as the login. 13. Ensure that the IP address is assigned - i'm using wired port. 14. Download and run mrchromebox.tech Chromebook/chromebox openfirmware de-googler: curl -LO mrchromebox.tech/firmware-util.sh sudo install -Dt /usr/local/bin -m 755 firmware-util.sh sudo firmware-util.sh Installer recognized the CN60. Select 2 to install a full uefi firmware. system rebooted itself and said there was nothing to boot. 15. Create a ChromeOS Flex USB image on at least 8G USB stick - I used 16G - you cannot use Linux. You MUST use Windows. To do this in Chrome, got o Chrome Web store and install "Chromebook Recovery Utilities" by Google. Run them. Select Google as the Vendor and Chrome OS Flex as the USB. This process is long. During one of the stages the USB creator says that it did over 100% of work and there is a negative number of seconds remaining. Writes to the USB take a LONG time. 16. Plugin the USB into the CN60. Go to the boot menu. 17. Boot off the USB. 18. See the Chrome logo on a white screen 19. Eventually see CloudRun 2.0 installation screen 20. Select install to disk. 21. Wait for the install. The system will turn itself off when it is done. 22. Pull out your USB. 23. Boot off the disk. 24. Setup your main account - i connected it to the a Business Workspace account. It worked.
- zucked 5y agoThere isn't a single Samsung Device on the supported devices list. That seems odd to me, given how many Samsung devices I believe are out there.
- robertlagrant 5y agoWhen's it scheduled for EOLing?
- PaulHoule 5y agoThey need to get Chrome OS running under Enscripen under a real web browser on a real operating system.
- Gollapalli 5y agoNo thanks. I like having control over my machine. I don't want it turned into a glorified thin client. Might as well be honest about the fact that we're moving back to the timesharing systems of the eighties.
- ankurdhama 5y agoLet's wait and watch. If Google makes this as feature-full as the ChromeOS on chrome devices then it will be a nice thing to have but then wouldn't that hamper the sales of chromeos devices?
- chakrihacker 5y agoWhy would someone use this crap?
- pleb_nz 5y agoI'm actually surprised by how many comments here are supportive of this knowing the route google is heading with tracking and market domination tactics.
- vero2 5y agoThe problem is the common user wants thing to just work. I work at a major university. At our science department we tried using 'https://www.horde.org/apps/groupware https://www.horde.org/apps/groupware' for calendar. But fails randomly, refresh issues. The computing centre claims they have everything fine. Groupware has so many bugs. The IT department cannot fix these. Note that every self-hosted nerd will claim they do everything with nextcloud with RPi and all is perfect but it does not work for 100 people. At the end we moved to Google calendar. Everything just works. For us, contributing to science is important than being 100 % open. Before you say iCloud it is much worse at losing mails/calendar sync - BTW, try it with > 20 users... Microsoft is kinda OK but works painfully when using linux or mac devices. It is unfortunate people complain about FAANG without providing replacements.
- rightbyte 5y agoThe concept of auto-sharing calendars with each other is fundamentally wrong anyway. Why enable all this snooping? Especially with know third party offenders. Edit: I use a paper calendar. Works flawlessly.
- abenga 5y agoTo plan meetings with colleagues and such? Remind you when meetings are about to start, have links to online meetings?
- kornhole 5y agoI can see this being a good use case for some enterprises. For a more personal solution not using the latest and greatest from Google, I have been playing around with a FOSS implementation of Android for any PC/tablet called https://blissos.org/ https://blissos.org/. So far it works well on my hardware.
- AHOHNMYC 5y agoFor those who asked direct links on images: https://ahohnmyc.github.io/chromeosflex/ https://ahohnmyc.github.io/chromeosflex/ But there is a pitfall: images are not ISO, but GPT.