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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

#81

Post by [deleted] »

Zhenya wrote: post #56
sorenjan wrote: post #49

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…

Not defending Google’s actions but it worth noting that not updating devices usually has to do with the SoC supplier ceasing support for the chip by not shipping BSPs which support new OS features. Yes google should have negotiated better support but it’s lack of support has to do more with inability to do so within reasonable means. They have projects ongoing to decouple OS functionality from the base firmware (proj…

[deleted]

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

#82

Post by [deleted] »

car_analogy wrote: post #57
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #21

Meanwhile, the Chromebooks we use at an after-school program where I teach are no longer receiving security updates. I'm not sure how old the machines are, but they're quite speedy compared to other Chromebooks I've used, and perfectly capable of browsing the modern web. I love the idea of Chrome OS Flex, but I wish Google extended the same support to hardware designed for Chrome OS...

Meanwhile 20 year old machines running linux still get updates. How is it that software support became tied to specific hardware? This used to be a solved problem, but with a lot of effort and ingenuity, a few corporations un-solved it, first for smartphones, tablets, and now for whatever Chromebooks count as.

[deleted]

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

#83

Post by car_analogy »

Zhenya wrote: post #56
sorenjan wrote: post #49

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…

Not defending Google’s actions but it worth noting that not updating devices usually has to do with the SoC supplier ceasing support for the chip by not shipping BSPs which support new OS features. Yes google should have negotiated better support but it’s lack of support has to do more with inability to do so within reasonable means. They have projects ongoing to decouple OS functionality from the base firmware (proj…

> not updating devices usually has to do with the SoC supplier ceasing support for the chip by not shipping BSPs which support new OS features

I don't know what a BSP is, but why can I update linux (or indeed almost any OS) on my PC without any support from the motherboard vendor? What OS features need SoC support, and why can the OS not live without them, when it was previously able to do so?

This was the case before smartphones. It is not an advanced feature of linux, developed later, that Android failed to backport. I suspect they broke it deliberately.

To my lay understanding, phone hardware offers approximately the same features today as it did a decade ago - make calls, connect to the internet, interface with the camera and GPS. Occasionally a protocol might change (LTE, 4G, 5G..), but maintaining support for a slightly older, still-in-use protocol or hardware device, that serves the same basic purpose as its new replacement, is the bare minimum - it is not a radical divergence of architecture or functionality that would make maintaining old versions prohibitively difficult.

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

#84

Post by Zhenya »

int_19h wrote: post #80
Zhenya wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not defending Google’s actions but it worth noting that not updating devices usually has to do with the SoC supplier ceasing support for the chip by not shipping BSPs which support new OS features. Yes google should have negotiated better support but it’s lack of support has to do more with inability to do so within reasonable means. They have projects ongoing to decouple OS functionality from the base firmware (proj…

> develop their own support silicon and then the main SoC Their Pixels don't exactly enjoy long support lifecycles, either.

Pixels use Qualcomm SoCs up through pixel 5

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

#85

Post by [deleted] »

sorenjan wrote: post #49

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…

[deleted]

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

#86

Post by [deleted] »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #21

Meanwhile, the Chromebooks we use at an after-school program where I teach are no longer receiving security updates. I'm not sure how old the machines are, but they're quite speedy compared to other Chromebooks I've used, and perfectly capable of browsing the modern web. I love the idea of Chrome OS Flex, but I wish Google extended the same support to hardware designed for Chrome OS...

[deleted]

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

#88

Post by prmoustache »

jeffbee wrote: post #76
prmoustache wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does it do better than simply installing any decent linux distro?

The difference between ChromeOS and any Linux distro is like night and day. The software updates are automatic, unobtrusive, and almost instantaneous. Multitouch input stack actually works. You can attach and detach displays as you like without anything weird happening. And all the binaries are highly optimized with profile guidance and link-time optimization.

> The software updates are automatic, unobtrusive, and almost instantaneous. Multitouch input stack actually works. You can attach and detach displays as you like without anything weird happening.

I don't know about that multitouch thing and what it provides (is it similar to using 2 fingers to scroll down), I never have any weird thing happening when I attach/detach display and I would describe my software update as automatic, unobtrusive and fast on my fedora laptops.

No idea what "binaries highly optimized with profile guidance and link-time optimization" are though.

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

#89

Post by prmoustache »

andrewmutz wrote: post #35
prmoustache wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does it do better than simply installing any decent linux distro?

The 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.

Doesn't seem so extraordinary then. I would treat the last point as a con more than a pro though.

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

#90

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

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

For x86 chromebooks there's https://mrchromebox.tech/ to replace the firmware with a normal UEFI-booting coreboot, and then you just install whatever you want on it because now it's basically a normal PC.

For ARM chromebooks I'm only aware of https://archlinuxarm.org/ and that's still pretty patchy; I hope that something comes together (or that it already exists and I just haven't found it yet).

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