On July 14, after five months in beta, ChromeOS Flex was officially released – which, to recap, is a special optimized version of ChromeOS (incidentally, its name is now spelled together without a space between Chrome and OS), designed primarily for companies and educational institutions and designed to run on older Windows and Mac PCs.
In 2020, Google bought developer CloudReady Google released ChromeOS Flex, the second life of old PCs and Macs and it was this agreement that gave birth to ChromeOS Flex. It’s also telling that Google launched ChromeOS Flex less than a year after the release of Windows 11 – overly high hardware requirements and poor communication left millions of older PCs without an up-to-date OS. And Google did so after Microsoft failed with a lightweight version of Windows with the prefix 10X, which was finally canceled and disassembled into components. ChromeOS Flex has been offered in early access since February, and now a stable build has been released for a wide range of users. The developers of ChromeOS Flex have fixed 600 different bugs during testing.
Google says ChromeOS Flex can be installed in minutes and promises that the OS can work properly on devices of advanced age (up to 13 years old). In fact, almost 400 devices have already been certified, which can work with Flex without problems. The official list of supported devices is dominated by Windows PCs from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, LG, Toshiba and other OEMs, but it also includes some older Macs, including 10-year-old MacBook models. To install the OS, download the image from the official site and transfer it to a bootable USB flash drive.
Google guarantees Flex support through 2030 on most compatible devices, with only a few devices no longer supported in 2022 or 2023.
Minor bugs, stability or loading issues can occur on officially unsupported devices.
Google separately notes the great potential of ChromeOS Flex for enterprise use. Nordic Choice Hotels, one of Scandinavia’s largest hoteliers, was recently the victim of a ransomware attack and with Flex the administration managed to restore the functionality of at least 2000 computers in 48 hours.
ChromeOS Flex looks and works exactly like a regular Chrome OS on any Chromebook – they share the same code base and development cycles. However, be sure to keep in mind that there are some components that ChromeOS Flex either can’t work with or Google hasn’t tested compatibility with, particularly fingerprint readers, optical drives, IR webcams, proprietary connectors, stylus input and Thunderbolt capabilities. There may also be problems with some features, even on certified models, such as Bluetooth, touchscreens, screen rotation, function keys, key combinations and SD card readers.
So the bottom line is that Chromebooks have certainly proved to the world that there is a powerful alternative to Windows, especially in education, where Chromebooks have historically excelled through a combination of affordability and Google services. So, Chrome OS Flex is another alternative to Windows. And a pretty good one, given the very modest hardware requirements.