I'm running Flex on an old Lenovo laptop (with decent specs); gives me limited things I can do, but I only takes this when I'm out and about and do not want to take my tablet, one thing I did notice was the increase in the battery usage length to 7 hours and yes I tested that 5 times, over all a decent o.s. that can get small things done, I like it.
chromeos sucks, get a linux distro based on ubuntu. ubuntu based distros are super easy to use, apt is the easiest package manager ever. it also has more apps and you can even run windows programs on it through wine.
You might not like the accusatory nature of this statement but this was ORIGINALLY a distribution of ChromiumOS called Cloudready. By purchasing Neverware, Google has dodged making a version of ChromeOS that is based on THE ChromeOS they use on their Chromebooks. They know how to keep their cards close.
True but they also did alot of "under the hood" tweaks to bring Flex in line with stock Chrome OS. To be honest I owned a Acer Chromebook Cb3-111 and if all you do is stuff in the browser (which is how Chrome OS was born) then its fine for a side machine. I've got it running on 2 older system (one is a lenovo thinkpad L512 and the other is a Lenovo chromebook x131e that became unsupported) and it runs fine on both. Again nothing groundbreaking but good enough for basic computing.
im going to be honest i have used chromiumos and i am not really sure what your point is because chromiumos with google apps installed is borderline identical to normal chromeos, probably always better because chromeos can be locked so you don't have permissions to enable developer mode but if you compile chromiumos yourself that does not apply
in the chromiumos i installed there was even google play store and the android apps worked on x86 CPU which seems to be the big issue for some people, i have a video of it on my channel edit: nvm that is a chromeos build but i used a chormiumos separately and i could post videos of that if someone asks
One note about the media creator: The reason it asks for model numbers is so you can recover other chomebooks, not just flex. All of those other options will install the real chrome OS.
I'm running actual ChromeOS (rammus) via brunch framework on a Thinkpad T550 and I am very happy with it. I can run Android apps and I even rooted the Android container. ChromeOS absolutely flies on this machine (16gb ram, i7). I dual boot it with Windows 11. I get better battery life running on the ChromeOS side, so it is my daily driver. I only boot into Windows to run software unique to Windows.
Just install a linux distro at that point, you will be actually getting a full desktop os, or just stick to whatever old windows os came preinstalled with that laptop unless you wanna use the internet. My advice is to try some lightweight linux distro.
Honestly I'm only interested because of the possibility of running android apps but since that doesn't seem to be possible it's pretty much useless for me
It is clickbait but you can actually get the real ChromeOS on a selected amount of devices via Sebanc's Brunch If you can't you can choose FydeOS, you lazy
I like this but I think doing a fresh install of a Linux distribution, installing Linux over the existing operating system is a better idea. I've installed Linux on old laptops and PCs many times, always 100% success.
Agreed...the limitations of the Chrome OS don't make it very appealing...I have something like a netbook (definitely more powerful) HP 3105m with 8gb RAM that I run Mint on and it works great...mostly use it for work and music in my den/workshop...I'm kind of curious if a version of the Chrome OS can be made to side load on an older Android tablet 🤔
Just installed Manjaro, Zorin and Mint linux distributions one after another on an old laptop - only one of those worked with internet and that one only recognised Ethernet too (others straight up denied both Ethernet and WiFi), I tried everything but couldn't get it to work although on windows they work just fine so issue is not hardware related. it's a 32 bit based CPU so not a lot of options to choose from (even among Linux distributions), just what's available soo yeah now I'm trying Chrome OS! Btw I tried win 10 32 bit too but it was too slow and laggy and Win 8.1 32 bit was a tad bit faster but still not very good...
Tried windows 7 32 bit too, worked wonderfully but as Microsoft's official Win 7 ISO isn't available, I had to get a 3rd party version with plenty of viruses and trojan on it... so I gave up on it
I am happy that google added this functionality, however. I think it might serve as a gateway drug to Linux, considering that ChromeOS is essentially a specialized version of it.
I don't know about you but in my opinion I am like "Who wants to install Chrome OS on their computer" because I don't like Chrome OS but anyways, nice video. Keep it up!
@@KEN4K without any bloat* under the hood edge is based on chromium sure but i must say that chrome itself sucks, too much memory usage and whatnot. i've been using chrome for like 6-7 years and i am not even a microsoft fan but Edge IS way better than chrome in all aspects. that microsoft who is infamous for the bloat in their apps, for once they are doing good in something lol
I'll install Chrome OS just to try it for like a week but I won't stick with it. Just like how I install a random Linux distro from time to time. Edge has the necessary tools that a browser needs without the garbage bloatwares of chrome
Nice video but for anyone interested installing this on an old desktop or laptop please make sure that the devices motherboard supports UEFI/Secure Boot otherwise, even if it says you installed Flex OS successfully, you won't ever be able to boot onto the OS.
Not necessarily true, I was able to install Chrome OS Flex on an old HP OEM PC and an old Lenovo Thinkpad both which neither support UEFI or Secure Boot but was still able to boot and tinker around with Chrome OS Flex
Tip: you can install chrome os on any drive you want you just have to tinker a little in the terminal You can hit ctrl+alt+f2 Enter “chronos” for the username Type in “sudo fdisk -l” and find the exact name of the drive you want to install on Then you can type in “sudo chromeos-install --dst /dev/DRIVENAME --target-bios efi” and boom Edit: never mind, the shortcut was disabled in the stable release along with shell access in general
I find this bizzare, but I never used my school chromebook until my school let me keep it when graduating, where I forced it to run Gnu+linux rather than Google+linux and now I'm really happy with it.
I personally don't have a reason to install ChromeOS on anything right now, but I can see where it might help those who are not technical and need limited choices like doing everything through a browser. Windows just has too many settings and things that can get a user into trouble. The same applies to Linux. For a lot of seniors this is more than enough.
I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you’re referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX. Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called “Linux”, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project. There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine’s resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called “Linux” distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.
GNU/Linux is only great for server room trolls and basement dwelling IT goblins. Some of us use computers to make money, literally I quit my day job and now make money off of my pc. There's really no time for "Linux" I installed it last week and lasted 2 days and reverted back to windows. I actually just received a notification that I've been paid for the month, something that would be impossible using "Linux". It's pretty, it's fast and secure (I suffered a ransomeware attack which prompted me to switch to Linux) but none of my upgrades work properly such as my audio and gpu. Nah thanks
Android programs are written in Java and more recently, Kotlin, they're both interpreted programming languaje (a.k.a. not compiled), so the underlying hardware is irrelevant as long as there's a full featured interpreter (e.g. Dalvik).
Pretty sure ChromeOS is Linux based Which begs the question why use ChromeOS? When you could use an actually functional more lightweight OS that is opensource and doesnt require a google account and also allows any app to be installed much easier
I'm a tad disappointed that Mozilla didn't do the same with Firefox - but then again a lightweight Linux with Firefox is about the same, it's just annoying that Google has the space all to itself.
@@kevinwong_2016 Interesting, never saw that one mentioned anywhere, no wonder it failed. At that time (Chrome OS debut) all I remember from Mozilla was a new phone OS that wasn't compatible with anything, so kind of useless (as in what were they thinking)
Very few reasons to get Flex. The installation drive issue is critical and so obvious that it's hard to believe that it wasn't done on purpose, but I do not know why they would do that
The thing that i do with old laptops is install a very small linux or get linux server and install the things Like a Gui and a browser but chrome os is a great way to solve the issue
It's not that great actually, it's not fully open source. I wouldn't trust it. I prefer using a lightweight distro on the LXQt desktop enviroment of XFCE.
I could have sworn I installed ChromeOS year ago on a random PC or a virtual machine when it genuinely was just a Web browser. Today though to revive old tech I'd prefer to just install a lightweight standard Linux distro for the flexibility.
@Matt React It depends. The Web has been built to be a kind of "safe" OS. With HTML5 and all the applications that run on Javascript libraries, you can do quite a lot within your web browser. I've even used a text editor designed to behave like vim attached to Google Drive all in the web browser.
yknow, I feel like any beginner Linux distro would do the trick. chrome is is literally Linux but more locked-down and personally not a big fan of that lack of support
It’s better for people who just need to use the internet or older people with no tech knowledge. I would never install this on my computer, but I might on my parent’s pc.
I tried it on an old macbook at work, honestly, works much better than a new macbook lol. But I'd really wish we could put an ISO of it on Ventoy or something.
I tried getting this to work in VirtualBox but had no luck. The farthest I was able to get was a loading screen which got nowhere. Apparently VMware users have had better luck though.
Yeah, the RU-vid "app" is just a PWA (progressive web app). It's basically a bookmark with some added features like notifications. It's running on Chrome's browser engine, but in a separate window from Chrome, like a minor reskin with no options to enter URIs. I'm pretty sure most of the "apps" are PWAs. PWAs are better than native apps with website equivalents, IMO. Native apps are heavier and more intrusive/spy-y.
One thing I’m sure most aren’t aware of is that Chrome OS *is* Linux under the hood - more so than Android in fact because there’s an X server (on older builds) and a Wayland compositor (on newer builds) along with a full GNU stack that the Google stuff is running on top of, not just BusyBox and some obscure Java-based display server in the Android case. When you “install Linux” on a Chromebook you’re really just installing an LXC container. Gentoo’s Portage package manager is even used as part of the build process.
I would install a lightweight linux distro rather than installing ChromeOS. It's also gonna be lightweight and it's functionality would be scalable as well.
I have a small micro PC (13*13*2cm) that I brought a few years ago. It has a 64 bit processor (Can't remember speed), 4GB RAM, 64GB Storage (Built in to motherboard) and came with Windows 7. The only upgradable part was the RAM. I had installed and used different Ubuntu based OSs and for the past 4 years had it attached to a TV and used it to view RU-vid, Amazon Prime, Plex etc. I noticed that recently (last 6 months) it was lagging whenever I was streaming so tried a few minimal OSs. I tried a few different Chromium based OSs and none worked. This version worked perfect. boots in less than 20 seconds, no lag, no BS apps/programs taking space/memory. Like Thio.Joe I can't install anything from Playstore (but I don't need to as everything I need to access can be done via a browser). Thank you for the video
installing a lightweight Linux is better if you know how to use Linux. pop_os is really easy to use for basic tasks like web browsing, video calls, etc.
I use Pop_OS myself. Works somewhat good on my Toshiba (Dynabook) Satellite laptop. It even supports a Bluetooth dongle I've been using. ChromeOS Flex doesn't seem to support external BT dongles, AFAIK.
ChromeOS Flex is really a nice initiative but I would prefer FydeOS for chromeOS. Its a solid OS for chromeOS flex alternative with playstore and drive features.. By the way Nice Video. Keep it Up bro. Also would like to see your opinion about FydeOS.
Google did not develop this, they acquired a company called cloud ready. Cloud ready has been producing a version of Chrome OS that can be ported to PCS for some time.
From what I see, chrome OS flex is basically the last chance you have to save a really old computer to give to a child to watch videos or something or for other use
@@abdullah-_-. I would disagree. 10 years ago I would agree, but as of right now Linux is a lot more friendly to new users. Basically if you've ever used Windows, you'll be able to use a Linux distro with any of the common Desktop Enviroments. Also, ChromeOS isn't completely open source. Linux gives you the freedom any other OS can't.
I remember those netbooks. I had one (2010-13) and it ran horribly on windows 7 starter so I just downgraded it to Windows XP Pro and upgraded the Ram from 2 to 4 gigs and it ran flawlessly.
It's funny to see people talking about operating systems for "very old netbooks". I had a total of 4 netbooks. 2 of them had 32-bit processors. One had a 64-bit CPU, but it still refused to boot 64-bit systems (I believe this is a BIOS limitation). Only one of my netbooks actually had a working 64-bit processor. Single core. 1200 MHz. And 1 GB of memory (out of the box). Hmmm, for some reason it seems to me that Chrome OS will not work well on it. In any case, it won't work any better than any lightweight Linux flavor.
If you know how to change settings in the BIOS, you can manually disable what hard drive not to boot. It will make it easier then having to remove the physical hard drive.
9:45 I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you’re referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX. Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called “Linux”, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project. There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine’s resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called “Linux” distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.
@@Marcel-dd9ch Even for them. Times have changed: It's very easy to install, runs very fast, does not sell your data, can run the basic programs needed by a "basic computer user" out of the box, is way more capable and adaptable than Chrome OS.
@@Philipp.. But you Linux apps collect and use your data in common linux distributions after a normal installation, until you harden your system. And no, not all Open Source tools are secure. Take logj ss an example.
Tried this on an old switch tablet book laptop I gave to the kid... It worked smoothly and was nice and responsive. Dealbreaker is not having google apps store. Think kid will have to have a regular Chromebook if he's gonna use it :) Anyhows! Great review and guide. -And oh, btw... If having trouble writing image to media in edge... Install chrome, and try again ;)
@ThioJoe the list of manufacturers is there because it is the chromebook recovery utility. it was used to recover chromebooks before it was used to download chromeos flex
I use normal Chromebooks privately for everything and as a Digital Content Creator (Bloger, RU-vidr, Writer, etc). I just need my MacBook Air for Video Editing and very seldom, complicated Photoshop edits. That may change in the future. LumaFusion and the first Chromebook with a dedicated Nvidia Chip are on the way. Maybe Davinci Resolve will be a thing, also! 😉
@@richards1708 Nah, I'm pretty sure Linux will be more popular once Windows 10's life support ends. Windows 11 has too many requirements and I'm sure people are aware of them.
@@xE92vD I could see that. But still when it comes to compatibility it's crazy how well even current versions of windows works.. I've seen Dos Based systems running on Windows 10!
I tried it, was going to put it on my 7 year old netbook, just for fun. Tried it on a much more recent laptop first and was very disappointed in it. The version of Chrome would not let many websites work properly, there was no app store to add other functionality. It sucked. AndroidOS for PC was far better than that, it basically made your PC an Android device with an app store and everything. Flex is a big fat fail. Still gave your video a like because it is informative, and others might fine use in Flex somehow.
You don't even need to install a package manager, apt is installed by default. You can install every debian package from the official repository or other repositories that support this debian version. You can also install .deb files directly from the ChromeOS filemanager. But you have to consider that Debian is running in a virtual environment, although ChromeOSs virtualization technologies are pretty good, the application will run slower compared to having Linux installed directly on the PC.
ChromeOS is much more secure and easier to use for basic computer users. Any Linux applications can do anything with your data in a normal Linux distribution, if you don't do a lot to block that. On top of that, ChromeOS has sandboxes for everything. With Linux, you may use Flatpak, to reach the same level of security.
Chrome os flex which is based on Linux but limited. Linux Distros have been doing the full works for years. My recommendations for new users Zorin OS, Linux Mint, Linux Lite.
@@ThioJoe Depending on the bios, you should be able to select USB as boot device. On my PC, all partitions are shown as potential boot devices. You can probably change the load order for the devices, putting USB first.
Right now i"m regretting that hte screen on my CR48 died. Be interesting to see if Flex would install on it. Pity Flex appears to not allow installation of Android Apps. That? honestly would be pretty amazing in terms of breathing life into hardware. I love the ChromeOS Interface, but the inclusion of x86 capible apps? That would open so many possibilities.
Great point. I forgot you can install Android on a PC. That might be more flexible than turning the old hardware to a chrome book. Might experiment with that when I have the time...
ChromeOS should've allowed a local account as it is a Linux distribution after all based on Gentoo, which does allow local accounts and online accounts are only on browsers. Instead of ChromeOS, install a light Linux distribution like Gentoo, Arch or Linux Mint (which isn't as light, but better than Windows in resources).
Any chance it will be available for iPad? Not currently in the Apple list. I've got one (2nd Gen I think) that will no longer update iOS so has become virtually useless.
Is there any reason to use Flex? You could just install a lightweight linux distro then install chrome on it. From what I read, Flex can't even run android apps. Maybe a tamper resistant kiosk to run a web app?
I'd be more interested if it has the ability to run Android apps like in proper Chromebook, but last I heard they specifically can't run Android apps on the Flex so there goes the one usecase that interests me over just dual-booting Linux and Win11.
Saw this and thought hey, I have an old netbook just gathering dust so I’ll install Chrome Flex on it. Plugged it in, turned it on and it booted into…Chrome Flex. Seems I had this same idea who knows how long ago, installed the OS and never set it up 😂😂😂
A good option for someone who just needs 'Internet stuff', like web surfing, e-mail, and some video streaming. Very simple OS and not confusing for the user who is not too computer savvy. They don't need to deal with things like updates (they are done automatically) and due to the nature of this OS, it's less susceptible to virus' too. But one comment you made that is incorrect - you mentioned installing it on any PC, even an old netbook. Not so! Many old netbooks have only a 32-bit CPU - you need a 64-bit for Chrome OS. (Which is too bad, because Chrome OS would be ideal on an old netbook for children to use.)
