Flies in the face of many functional Chromebooks/Chromeboxens losing support (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.
Tomorrow the OS is EOL and you may experience déjà vu: https://killedbygoogle.com/
Jk, they won't surely?
You can pretty accurately model what they will and won't do with this one unusual insight that they're a business.
For instance: are they going to kill Chrome? No, Chrome has given them market dominance as well as a seat at the table to define web standards, improving and shaping the web platform both to be a more appealing product to developers and users, so that they can make more money when they stick ads on it, and to more easily support sticking ads on it. Or, briefly, Chrome - though it's not a paid product per se - makes them huge amounts of money.
What about (from that website) Google Currents? It's the rebranded, corporate-only version of Google+. Its biggest user was almost certainly Google itself, and it was a venue for employee activism and therefore was a threat to corporate profit. Briefly, though it was a paid product, they had few paying users and it cost them money.
A sibling comment mentions the end of legacy free G Suite (formerly GAFYD) accounts for very small users. This was, by definition, a thing that didn't make them money and a thing that was hardly an on-ramp for subscriptions that did make them money. Again, you could predict this.
So what abut Chrome OS Flex? It remains to be seen - it's not as clearly worthwhile as Chrome or even Chrome OS itself. But Google does absolutely make money on Chrome OS Enterprise, which this product is clearly linked with. It's nowhere in the same boat as things they provided out of the kindness of their corporate-personhood heart like legacy free G Suite or Google Reader.
It might end up being a failed experiment, certainly. But "It's a Google product" is a weak signal about whether it's going to get killed, and there are many stronger signals. Let me know when they kill Ads and Cloud.
they should be proud to have such a page
do you have yours? oh sorry, you don't even try
> Flies in the face of many functional Chromebooks/Chromeboxens losing support
On these old hardware you can install Linux or even cloudready. Are you expecting support forever?
I mean... maybe? Why not? At worst, drop to a second tier of support where firmware might not get updated and new features that actually need new hardware don't work, but why should chromebook hardware stop working any more than any other PC? Most of my machines are 5-10 year old machines that Linux happily supports; why should Chrome OS - built on top of Linux - support any less?
I have a Windows laptop from 2010 still working fine, and a lot of Linux enthusiasts also say the same thing. Six years is pathethic for laptop support. Fortunately Google has realised this, but their insistence on not applying this on existing machines is hypocritical.
With a Linux base, it seems like releasing the drivers to mainline and supplying browser updates ought to take care of that. I don't really understand what else would need to go into that so maybe I'm missing something but especially for x86 boxes it should be pretty simple.
Further, if your hardware product requires never-ending software updates just to keep it working, perhaps you should invest in writing less crappy software to begin with.
How about as long as Microsoft? Or Red Hat? Why the hell not?
https://www.ifixit.com/News/30282/how-to-get-updates-on-your...
They charge in like heroes to extend the life of laptops with other company's operating systems and yet the four year old Chromebook that perfectly suits my parents' limited performance needs is being abandoned even though it's still fully functional.
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.
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
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
We deployed this for home office all secretaries as it is cheap and just works.
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.)
I disagree, it actually is very smart, it is easy to do, you do it from your browser, simple, no weird .msi or .exe to run
For me it worked on first try
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The problem is the world doesn't hold web developers responsible for being wasteful.
And if OEMs will start offering Chrome OS Flex devices off the shelf.
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.
https://www.makeuseof.com/how-to-install-chrome-os-virtual-m...
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?
STEP 2
When you’re ready, install Chrome OS Flex on your PC or Mac to replace your operating system.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/12/google-acquired-neve...
I believe this is exactly what it is.
"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.
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.
> 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.
Right out of the box Crostini will not run. However adding kvm-intel.vmentry_l1d_flush=always to the kernel boot options enables Crostini.
https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/11513094#zipp...
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.
I work at a major university. At our science department we tried using '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.
Edit: I use a paper calendar. Works flawlessly.
https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/11547280?hl=e...
https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/11541904?hl=e...
- https://www.engadget.com/2011-03-09-webos-will-on-every-hp-p...
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
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.
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
Might as well be honest about the fact that we're moving back to the timesharing systems of the eighties.