If Windows 11 Isn’t Your Flex, This New Chrome OS Offers An Alternative
Chrome OS Flex Brings Life To Old Hardware
For systems lacking TPM 2.0 and those simply not interested in moving to Windows 11, the new Chrome OS Flex offers an alternative for now, and perhaps past Oct. 14th, 2025 when Windows 10 hits it’s EOL; at least that’s the date as of now. This is not an OS for the technically inclined, such as those reading this, for a Linux distro will be more powerful and adroit at running the various emulators and applications we use. Instead Chrome OS Flex is a watered down Linux OS designed for the non-technically inclined that just want a computer that works.
The hardware requirements are light, you need is a computer which can boot from USB and has a 64bit x86 processor, as well as 4GB of RAM and 16GB of local storage; sorry no ARM support at this time. The interface is similar to Chrome OS’s Gentoo heritage using the Aura Shell, but taking advantage of Google’s purchase of NeverWare. Prior to being absorbed into Google, NeverWare streamlined the arcane process of installing Chrome OS on a non-Chromebook with their CloudReady product and that is where Chrome OS Flex came from.
There is more information on what the new OS can and can’t do in the link to Ars Technica’s article at the top as well as at The Register.
Google has announced early access to a new version of Chrome OS called Flex, which runs on ordinary x86 hardware, offering the chance to revive older PCs or even out-of-support Macs.
More Tech News From Around The Web
- Emergency updates: Adobe, Chrome patch security bugs under active attack @ The Register
- Wordle Is Watching You @ Slashdot
- Intel Arc Update: Alchemist Laptops Q1, Desktops Q2; 4M GPUs Total for 2022 @ Slashdot
- Intel AXG on Falcon Shores Arctic Sound-M and Future Products at Investor Meeting 2022 @ Serve The Home
I just loaded this up on my old 2015 Macbook Pro. It has breathed new life into an old device. Totally enjoying it so far and I’ve found no issues at all, so far.
So I’ve been using my outdated Mac with Chrome OS all morning and I love it. Took an old device that was literally collecting dust on a shelf and made it useful again. Thank you for sharing this Jeremy!
Nice, glad to hear it!
I did have several questions to post but then clicked the link and most questions were answered. One question I have is will it work with android apps, using android on my chromebook (the one I’m writing this on actually) became so much more of a useful media consumption device when those opened up, console emulators, torrents, VLC, lots of others, totally revived the os in my opinion anyways.
It reminds me of WINDEZ, anyone else remember that? It was a pre-Linux alt-os (it might have been unix bassed but I honestly have no idea) from the pentium 2-3 era that turned anything as old as a 486 into a dedicated web browser so long as it had a modem in it, and you could even get it running on a 386 but now well. It failed pretty big time, it did work but was buggy as fuck, it wasn’t free so there wasn’t much motivation, PLUS linux showed up, and as far as I know the last versions were in Arabic only before disappearing for ever. Hard to even find any info at all on it these days but that’s how it goes sometimes.
Anyways back to flex, I have an old “AMD Vision” laptop I’m excited to play with this on. I wonder how it will be without a touchscreen, chrome os is VERY touch friendly, I wonder if it will work ok without one.
At the moment, no Android apps supported but if you can find an equivalent Linux app you are good to go with it.
Have been running it on several older Windows pcs with no noticeable issues
I tried Chrome OS Flex on a lower spec’d Mini PC from Geekom. It worked great, much more responsive over Windows 11 Pro which came installed. I feel Windows 11 is a bit too heavy of an OS for a Celeron quad core even if Microsoft says it meets the requirements. I personally am not a huge fan of Chrome OS but I think it’s better suited for low powered hardware because it is not a heavy OS like Windows or even some Linux distro’s.