Old laptops live longer: Chrome OS Flex in the video
Watching videos, surfing the web, writing emails: a lot of what we do on PCs these days takes place in the browser. With “Chrome OS Flex”, Google has released a version of Chrome OS that anyone can install and use. We took a closer look at the developer version.
Version:0.1.0
Languages:German
This article, originally published in March 2022, was created for the GIGA theme week “Sustainability” from 5.6. until 11.6.2022 revised and republished. In the overview article you can read what it is all about and find other pieces on the subject.
Revive old computers: Chrome OS makes it easy
A big problem for old hardware is software support. Even functional and still sufficiently high-performance hardware is often no longer supplied with new versions of operating systems. Exactly Google wants to close this gap with Chrome OS Flex. For the first time, the operating system was not released for Chromebooks, but for use on conventional hardware.
the System requirements are extremely low with a 64-bit capable CPU, 4 GB RAM and 16 GB free memory. If you are interested in the operating system, you can also start it directly from a boot USB stick without having to overwrite the currently running system.
We have summarized how you start the system in a separate article:
Chrome OS Flex: A small conclusion
We’ve been looking at the developer version of Chrome OS Flex for a few hours. Just for older hardware we see great potential. The system reacts swiftly, and even our weak test system was consistently usable.
Who primary anyway in the Google ecosystem on the go will quickly find their way around Chrome OS Flex. All recordings made with the Android smartphone end up directly in Google Photos for viewing, bookmarks and passwords from Chrome are imported immediately, documents can be found in Google Docs, all e-mails can be called up with Gmail, and you can turn on YouTube for entertainment. If you only see your computer as an entry point for the Internet – especially with the Chrome browser – Chrome OS Flex is the best choice.
If you use the calculator for more applications, it becomes critical. A large app ecosystem – for example via the Google Play Store, as with some Chromebooks – does not exist under Chrome OS Flex.
But if you need that, you should take a look at Linux distributions that have been optimized for old computers:
In addition, you should of course keep one thing in mind: With the free operating system Chrome OS Flex, of course, fall some usage data on. How much of it Google collects and uses can hardly be checked. The system also has another advantage for Google: Existing users of Google services are tied even more closely to their own services. If the 15 GB of free storage in Google Drive is no longer sufficient, the inhibition threshold is lower to take out a paid Google One subscription for more storage.
As I said, the operating system should only be interesting for those who already use Google services anyway. Chrome OS Flex is up to date in a developer preview available. Some functionality may change before the final version.
