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Early Access to Chrome OS Flex: The Upgrade PCs and Macs

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Re: Early Access to Chrome OS Flex: The Upgrade PCs and Macs

#41

Post by andrewmutz »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #34
andrewmutz wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Linux features Not sure what you are referring to, but I am writing this post from Chrome OS flex and the linux features work perfectly.

What are the "Linux features" exactly? Can you install packages? What distro or packaging format are they based off?

It's debian. Yes you can install packages. You get a built in terminal running bash but you can install a terminal program or she'll just fine.

Linux app support is extremely good. Everything works with the window manager quite well. Even steam is available for games. Only limits I've hit are when interacting with hardware devices, but I havent done it enough to tell you exactly what the limits are

Re: Early Access to Chrome OS Flex: The Upgrade PCs and Macs

#42

Post by bitwize »

dijit wrote: post #25
andrewmutz wrote: post #23

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…

Last 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…

Microsoft 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-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.

Re: Early Access to Chrome OS Flex: The Upgrade PCs and Macs

#43

Post by LordDragonfang »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #34
andrewmutz wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Linux features Not sure what you are referring to, but I am writing this post from Chrome OS flex and the linux features work perfectly.

What are the "Linux features" exactly? Can you install packages? What distro or packaging format are they based off?

Assuming it's the same as normal ChromeOS, it's a containerized full linux shell that will run most GUI apps in the native window manager. It defaults to Debian, so uses standard apt, but you can make a container with any distro if you have the know-how.

Re: Early Access to Chrome OS Flex: The Upgrade PCs and Macs

#44

Post by wmf »

rufugee wrote: post #36
wmf wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Replacing an EOL version of Chrome OS with a different version of Chrome OS makes no sense.

I think their point is that Google is forcing perfectly good hardware into obsolescence unnecessarily.

Exactly. It makes no sense that Chrome OS gets 6 years of updates but Chrome OS Flex gets 10+ years.

Re: Early Access to Chrome OS Flex: The Upgrade PCs and Macs

#45

Post by LordDragonfang »

mdaniel wrote: post #16
nixcraft wrote: post #3

I wonder if my older "Samsung Chromebook 2 (2014)" model will work with this? Google removed support for that model a long time ago.

Is there a community of "ChromeOS distros" like how LineageOS does with open source Android for older phones? My only experience trying to build ChromeOS was for "Container-Optimized OS" which doesn't have nearly the same "random binary blobs" problem as trying to build for a piece of consumer hardware

The ChromeOS equivalent of LineageOS is usually just installing a normal linux desktop distro, sometimes one that's been been tweaked to have drivers specific to chromebook hardware like GalliumOS (https://galliumos.org/)

Re: Early Access to Chrome OS Flex: The Upgrade PCs and Macs

#48

Post by wffurr »

mdaniel wrote: post #16
nixcraft wrote: post #3

I wonder if my older "Samsung Chromebook 2 (2014)" model will work with this? Google removed support for that model a long time ago.

Is there a community of "ChromeOS distros" like how LineageOS does with open source Android for older phones? My only experience trying to build ChromeOS was for "Container-Optimized OS" which doesn't have nearly the same "random binary blobs" problem as trying to build for a piece of consumer hardware

There's FydeOS (dunno much about it other than it came up in a search for "CloudReady ARM", CloudReady being the name of ChromeOS Flex prior to acquisition) or build-it-yourself ChromiumOS.

Re: Early Access to Chrome OS Flex: The Upgrade PCs and Macs

#49

Post by sorenjan »

I've had two Google Nexus phones and one Android Wear watch, and all three became e-waste before their time purely because Google stopped updating them. In the case of the watch Google actually started sending out "updates" to their own apps that removed functionality from watches with older Android wear, with no possibility to update. It had less features when I threw it away than it had when I bought it.

I'm using Android on my phone not because I want to use a Google made OS, but because it's unfortunately the best option available, since I have other issues with Apple. A Google OS will never be the best option for my real computer, at least I certainly hope so.

I find it slightly hypocritical that the company that deliberately stops updating their own phones and computers based on dates can claim to want to reduce e-waste.

"Each device has an Auto Update Expiration (AUE) date." https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/9367166?hl=en

"Reduce e-waste and extend the life of your existing devices by transforming them with a modern OS." https://chromeenterprise.google/os/chromeosflex/

Re: Early Access to Chrome OS Flex: The Upgrade PCs and Macs

#50

Post by dagmx »

DoctorOW wrote: post #32
dagmx wrote: post #11

Title on HN seems cut off. Missing "have been waiting for" as of right now

Personally I would cut off more. "Early access to Chrome OS Flex" is the factual statement about the topic of the post and "The upgrade PCs and Macs have been waiting for" isn't

Agreed. The latter half is marketing speak and doesn't add much of value in providing information
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