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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

#122

Post by AndroidKitKat »

vorpalhex wrote: post #98
alexnewman wrote: post #47

I love my new flex machines. My favorite Linux distro is that VM. Wish it had android going

Does Flex not have that android-on-chromebook feature?

Unfortunately, no. If they made that available I'd probably switch full time to Flex from Ubuntu.

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

#123

Post by cutler »

Angostura wrote: post #103
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…

That'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'?

I 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/).

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

#124

Post by dinvlad »

As an interesting alternative, Fedora Silverblue is another experiment with immutable OSes for the masses. Haven't played with it myself, but heard good things. The DevEx might not be a solved problem with it though - chaining multiple dev tools with Flatpaks might not provide quite the same experience as having an entire isolated LXD container, as in Chrome OS.

Also, it's too bad Nvidia remains a second-class citizen, even on Chrome OS.

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

#125

Post by copperx »

mbreese wrote: post #95
prmoustache wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It’s not supposed to be extraordinary. It’s supposed to be simple and cheap and robust and working. Storing data in the cloud is part of that contract — if something happens to your computer (physical damage), you can get up and working very quickly with a new one. As in — you buy a new computer, sign in, and you’re done. It’s not a set of trade offs that work for everyone, but it works well for many environments. I…

Does it have an RDP client?

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

#126

Post by Wowfunhappy »

wffurr wrote: post #117
wmf wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

ChromeOS Flex doesn't include the bios, firmware, or secure boot system of standard ChromeOS. It relies on an HAL that limits what can be updated. See https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/11542901?hl=e... for more on the difference.

So say I have a Chromebook and I'd like to not throw it in the trash. Can I give up those things to keep getting security updates?

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

#128

Post by boddhi »

jpalomaki wrote: post #114

Is there more detailed information about supported hardware? I'm especially interested if this supports proper sleep on Intel/Lenovo hardware (instant on, not draining battery too quickly).

Here are the certified models list: https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/11513094

Google collects hardware data from users when they install Chrome OS Flex. You can opt out of it, but Google will continue to collect data anyways as stated in the agreement.

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

#129

Post by scarface74 »

bitwize wrote: post #42
dijit wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

There is absolutely none of my daily workflow where vim or emacs would be a better experience than a full blown modern IDE.

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

#130

Post by scarface74 »

kennywinker wrote: post #99
LoveMortuus wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is actually possible to install non-chrome browsers on ChromeOS either through the App store or just via the console. But I totally understand your point and the options I've listed aren't either user friendly or straight up require you to be able to use a console.

It was always possible to install netscape navigator over top of windows. The crux of the issue was that it was "unreasonably difficult".

It was never difficult to install Navigator on Windows. You downloaded it from the internet and installed it.
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