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I am writing this comment on Chrome OS Flex and can not say enough good things about Chrome OS Flex. I installed it on my wife's old macbook air (~2013) and it
by andrewmutz 4y ago
I am writing this comment on Chrome OS Flex and can not say enough good things about Chrome OS Flex. I installed it on my wife's old macbook air (~2013) and it brought new life to a machine that we had written off as useless.
The OS does a great job of exactly two things: web browsing and linux stuff. It won't do more than that, but if that's all you need it is great.
I honestly think you could make some decent cash just by buying 9 year old laptops off the internet, installing chrome OS flex, and selling them as perfectly usable chromebooks.
Any questions about what the OS can do? AMA
- dijit 4y agoLast time I ran chromeOS it was those unofficial builds by a guy called “Lex”, needless to say it was a long time ago. Back then it wasn’t possible to run anything other than Chrome itself outside of dev mode, but I’ve seen people running/installing VSCode on chromeOS (not in the web browser). Is that feasible? At the same time as I was seeing this, it appeared that the OS actually has a windowing system now, so you can move windows around and have one on top of the other, is that the case? Any quirks with that?
- andrewmutz 4y agoBy default, there is only web browsers and no Linux. Which is nice because by default there can be no malware and it's a good OS for non technical users. But with one click it installs and makes available Linux. It appears to the user as a debain variant. You can install anything and when you run apps they seamlessly work with the window manager. I've used VScode for software development and it works great. Steam is even available for games, but I haven't tried it. Window manager is the right balance of powerful and simple. Great at manipulating web browser windows (has virtual desktops if you want them), but works fine interacting with Linux apps as well.
- 5d8767c68926 4y agoIs it Google in name only or does it send telemetry of my every click to the mother ship? Would be interested in trying it as a VSCode remote development + minimal Linux utilities platform.
- andrewmutz 4y agoI don't know what sort of telemetry exists. It is easy to try out. From my memory you can use the install USB just as a normal boot drive without installing. So you can go try it out and see if you like it before you install it
- fartcannon 4y agoWhat makes you think websites can't give you malware for your Chromebook? That's like the number one way to get it.
- andrewmutz 4y agoWhat are you referring to? Chrome extensions?
- fartcannon 4y agoI'm referring to the fact that it's connected to the internet.
- e63f67dd-065b 4y agoThe same way all browsers prevent malware? Sandboxing and regular patches to patch holes in the sandbox? The Chrome team is very responsive to vulnerabilities in my experience, they roll out security patches extremely quickly and chrome autoupdates you to the latest version soon after.
- fartcannon 4y agoYes, the same way. That's literally the point I'm making. OPs original comment, "By default, there is only web browsers and no Linux. Which is nice because by default there can be no malware and it's a good OS for non technical users." As if ChromeOS isn't going to get malware the same way all OSes do.
- boddhi 4y agoWhat's also great is you can install apps through Flatpak and Chrome OS Flex will recognize it and you can pin it to your shelf. There's a fork of VSCode called VSCodium through Flatpak, which doesn't send telemetry to Microsoft. I've also installed Steam, Discord, Libreoffice in Flatpak without any issues.
- bitwize 4y agoMicrosoft has a whole blog post about VSCode on Chromebooks in their Crostini Linux environment. Which is just... gah: https://code.visualstudio.com/blogs/2020/12/03/chromebook-get-started https://code.visualstudio.com/blogs/2020/12/03/chromebook-ge... I mean, the fact that it can be done is neat, but on most entry-level Chromebooks it will be a memory hog, and you might be better served with vim or emacs (one or both of which should be learned to functional competence levels by every programmer), because then you'd have more room for running stuff.
- alexnewman 4y agoThe days of underpowered chromebooks is gone.
- doubled112 4y agoThey're still pretty brutal. The BestBuy around the corner from me, for example, is selling an Asus Chromebook with a Celeron N3350/4GB RAM/64GB eMMC and 15.6" 720p screen for $400 CAD. Is this not underpowered? Sure there are other options, but to most people the appeal was the low cost. For $799, I'd just buy a PC.
- alexnewman 4y agomy 4 core top of the line intel 10th gen i7 with 16GB of ram i got for 750$ begs to differ
- bitwize 4y agoA number of models with 4 GiB RAM are still floating around out there; I consider that underpowered if you are going to be running a browser + heavyweight apps (Visual Studio Code is heavyweight). For Windows 1x, 4 GiB is barely usable; ChromeOS does better but today's memory-hungry apps can take that advantage away.
- alexnewman 4y agoI’ve seen such models for 200$ apples and oranges
- kybernetyk 4y agoIs there a terminal emulator included? What shell is installed by default?
- boddhi 4y agoChromeOS has their own terminal app. It installs BASH by default and the linux distro is Debian.
- prmoustache 4y agoWhat does it do better than simply installing any decent linux distro?
- andrewmutz 4y agoThe UX is extremely easy to use. For most users, you're just using web browsers and the window manager for chrome os is designed for just manipulating browser windows. Unless you install Linux stuff (most users don't) you can't download any software. This means no malware is possible. It guides you to store everything in the cloud, which allows you to treat your workstations as cattle rather than pets.
- sorenjan 4y agoCan you install Firefox?
- alexnewman 4y agoIt’s a full fledged Debian
- mattlondon 4y agoYes. You can also install vscode etc. Seamlessly integrated into the UI - cannot tell the difference between "native" ChromeOS apps and e.g. Firefox etc. At least on "normal" Chromebooks anyway you can - I have no direct experience or knowledge of flex.
- wslh 4y agoI tried Visual Studio Code in this release and it doesn't work. Never opens. Tried this old suggestion https://www.reddit.com/r/chromeos/comments/m146zd/visual_studio_code_doesnt_work/ https://www.reddit.com/r/chromeos/comments/m146zd/visual_stu... and the only change I see is that visual studio progress and trying to run until it doesn't after a few minutes.
- prmoustache 4y ago
- ASpaceCowboi 4y agoyou influenced me to install it on my 2011 macbook pro! Thank you
- iainmerrick 4y agoHow well does the trackpad work? Mac trackpads are terrific, and I don’t know if that’s down to the hardware, firmware or software -- I assume a combination of all three.
- Angostura 4y agoThat's odd. My wife is still using a mid-2013 MacBook Air as a daily driver - using MacOS, and it's fine or browsing, Office, e-mail etc etc. In what way was yours 'useless'?
- cutler 4y agoI recently installed the latest OS X Monterey on my early 2013 Macbook Pro with the help of Opencore Legacy Patcher (https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/ https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/).
- Crontab 4y agoI am typing this on a mid-2013 Macbook Air and it doesn't feel useless to me - although I maxed out the RAM to 8GB when I ordered it.
- flatiron 4y agoMy daily driver is a 2013 air on arch. Works 100% perfect for everything I want to do. My work computer is an i7 32 gig beast. I don’t need that for checking gmail.
- raydiatian 4y agoWhy do you smell like a paid shill
- mr_toad 4y agoWait, so they support 2013 MacBooks, but not Chromebooks released in 2016?