Chromeos flex
Author: s | 2025-04-25
That's how ChromeOS Flex works. It's even documented! Differences between ChromeOS Flex and ChromeOS - ChromeOS Flex Help (google.com) ChromeOS and ChromeOS Flex share
ChromeOS Flex ChromeOS - ChromeOS Flex
Be a temporary issue. Should you install ChromeOS Flex on your Chromebook? If your Chromebook's AUE date hasn't come around, having ChromeOS Flex doesn't make sense. By using Flex, you lose updates, Android apps, and Linux, all of which are important to the Chromebook experience. Even for those with Chromebooks that are past the AUE date, Flex may cause more harm than good. If you have a Chromebook that came out before Linux and the Play Store were implemented, Flex gives you practically the same experience that you already have. You may gain a few new features you currently don't enjoy, but if your Chromebook can still support Linux and the Play Store, you'll lose access to these features. It doesn't make sense to limit your experience. Before you install ChromeOS Flex, you need to know how to install another operating system on your Chromebook and whether it's worth doing. For most users, upgrading to a new Chromebook is easier than navigating an installment. ChromeOS Flex can help reduce e-waste by breathing new life into an old PC or Mac. Installing ChromeOS Flex on one of these devices is easy to do.
Autologin in ChromeOS Flex - ChromeOS Flex Community
Let us know ChromeOS Flex was installing and a few minutes later (and I’m talking two, maybe three minutes), we received a message that the computer would shut down in one minute, we were to remove the external storage, and power the computer back on. We powered the computer back on, I signed into my Google account, answered a few questions about diagnostic data and syncing bookmarks, and that was it. I was running ChromeOS Flex on my Thinkpad X390. How does it run? ChromeOS Flex boots in less than three seconds. The trackpad is smooth and responsive as is the iconic Thinkpad Trackpoint. Half of the function key options don’t work except for volume, brightness, and Lenovo’s mappable “star” key (it opens Chrome’s bookmarks). The fingerprint reader does not work, though I knew that from reading the documentation prior to installing. The Thinkpad runs cooler overall and I almost never hear the fan. Battery life seems about the same as Windows but I will get a better idea of that over time.I am impressed by how well ChromeOS Flex runs. I understand it is browser based and lightweight by design but it works really well. I can always go back to Windows if I want to but I’m liking the ChromeOS Flex experience so far. I have been inching back into Google services, particularly Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Keep. It is no surprise that ChromeOS Flex handles all of these well. I noticed Docs in particular loaded much faster than in Chrome on Windows. The whole thing is a pleasant experience.The biggest question I am asking myself is who ChromeOS Flex is for? I think a lot of people in techie circles like this community would opt for a traditional Linux distro for the extra flexibility before opting for ChromeOS Flex. The average user will likely run Windows until their PC falls apart and if ChromeOS is in their future they’ll just buy a Chromebook next time and never consider Flex. As for me, I am going to stick with it for a while. I’m happy so far and I haven’t found any roadblocks to what I want to accomplish.R żnice między ChromeOS Flex a ChromeOS - ChromeOS Flex
Resetting a Chromebook with a Powerwash. After logging in to a Google account, connecting to Wi-Fi, and choosing a few settings, we were dropped into a basic ChromeOS desktop. There are a few limitations with the installation. For one, you can't officially activate Developer mode. That would allow you to deactivate the security features of ChromeOS in exchange for more control over the operating system. Linux power users may find this to be a sorely missed feature. A clever Reddit user named Snowwarrior21 found a way to turn on Developer mode on Chromebooks. Spoiler alert: it's not easy. But where there's a will, there's a way. Another problem is that you cannot select the storage device to install ChromeOS Flex onto. Coreboot automatically picks the first internal drive it finds. You'd better hope it chooses the correct drive if you're on a PC. The typical method for changing the drive to install to involves opening a terminal, which is currently blocked on this recovery image. This was slightly annoying as we had to sacrifice our original installation of ChromeOS. ChromeOS Flex user experience What is it like using ChromeOS Flex? It was hard to tell that we weren't on the real ChromeOS. Seamless upgrades and a rock-solid Google Chrome web browser are at your fingertips. The touchscreen, touchpad, and keyboard (including the backlight and ChromeOS-specific keys) worked flawlessly on our device. The Gallery app for photos, music, and videos? Check. SMB file share? Check. Google Drive integration? Check. Everything seemed to work well. Even though it's on the Developer update channel, we didn't encounter major issues or crashes that are expected. Still, we recently switched to the Beta update channel, just in case. After it's out of the technical preview, it will be perfect for reviving an old computer and handing it off to the non-technical folks in your life. There was a minor issue where the speakers and headphone jack didn't work. Even on an official Chromebook, your mileage will vary when it comes to hardware support. Google does not recommend installing ChromeOS Flex on any official Chrome devices, but ChromeOS Flex is supported on several devices. A word about Linux support The number one complaint about CloudReady has always been its lack of Android support. CloudReady 2.0 is not the saving grace we hoped for, and there is no sign of Android support. Linux is listed in settings, but from our experiences and those of others, it generally doesn't work. We've had issues activating it and have tried everything under the sun to get it working. If you run containers and Linux workloads, give CloudReady 1.0 a quick spin. The Linux support works flawlessly. We expect this to. That's how ChromeOS Flex works. It's even documented! Differences between ChromeOS Flex and ChromeOS - ChromeOS Flex Help (google.com) ChromeOS and ChromeOS Flex share Get started with ChromeOS Flex. ChromeOS Flex installation guide. Certified models list. Differences between ChromeOS Flex and ChromeOS. About ChromeOS Flex certified models. Deployment best practices. About ChromeOS Flex updates. Mass deploy ChromeOS Flex. Automatically enroll ChromeOS Flex devices.R żnice między ChromeOS Flex a ChromeOS - ChromeOS Flex - Google
My trusty Thinkpad X390 has been a reliable companion for several years but I recently noticed a drop in performance. I don’t install too much beyond the defaults since most of what I need to get done happens in the browser. I could have refreshed Windows 11 and started over without much effort. I have been thinking about “the next PC”, however, and recalled a conversation I had here on Thurrott.com about moving to Chromebook. The only problem is that my Thinkpad is still in great shape and, all things considered, not that old. I’m not ready to move on to something new. But I am willing to experiment. I did some research and found that ChromeOS Flex, Google’s distribution of ChromeOS for PCs that are not Chromebooks, might work on my Thinkpad. The X390 was not on the officially supported list but the previous models in the X series were. I was feeling adventurous and my son, a Chromebook fanatic, cheered me on. I took the plunge and installed ChromeOS Flex. I will state up front that we still have a Windows 11 desktop in the family office. I can use it any time I need Windows. I rely on Windows for my job but a PC is provided to me through work. I use my Thinkpad a lot, however, and if using ChromeOS could be a viable platform for my personal life it is the best device to test with. Installing ChromeOS Flex was about as easy as I could have imagined. I installed Google’s “Chromebook Recovery Utility” Chrome Extension and plugged in a USB hard drive I had laying around. I ran the extension, chose “ChromeOS Flex” as my device and OS, and let it write a bootable image to the external drive. I rebooted, booted from the USB drive, and when given the prompt to install or run ChromeOS Flex live from the drive, I chose the live image. This let me test ChromeOS Flex to ensure my hardware would work and I liked the experience. The OS itself ran smoothly and after spending an hour playing around I decided to commit to running ChromeOS Flex. After a reboot, I clicked the option to install ChromeOS Flex. I put my son in the driver’s seat and watched as he clicked to confirm we wanted to wipe the internal drive and install. A screen popped up toRunning VPN in ChromeOS Flex - ChromeOS Flex Community
Chromebooks are great devices, capable of carrying out hundreds of commands and built to last many years thanks to impressive hardware and reliable software support. Still, nothing in the world of technology lasts forever. When your Chromebook reaches the end of its life, look at one of our favorite Chromebooks before safely recycling your old device. What if you could breathe new life into your old Chromebook by updating it using current software? Or perhaps you have an old Windows or Mac that you want to try to turn into a Chromebook? If you want to try this, ChromeOS Flex can keep your computer up-to-date with software straight from the cloud. Let's dig in. How does ChromeOS Flex work on a Chromebook? One of Chromebooks' Achilles heels is their support lifetime. After a certain period of time, they reach what is known as the Auto Update Expiration (AUE) date. This date means that Google no longer provides updates, features, security, or otherwise. Chromebooks used to reach AUE in as little as five years, but in 2020, Google announced that some Chromebooks are eligible for nine years of updates. Source: Google ChromeOS Flex isn't new. It's a hybrid between the typical version of ChromeOS and Neverware's CloudReady. The latter takes the open source Chromium OS system and expands its support for PCs and Macs. A few years ago, Google bought Neverware, and we've since received confirmation of Google's goal to merge the two code bases. This is even more evident when loading the ChromeOS Flex installer, as the branding is curiously named CloudReady 2.0, with no trace of ChromeOS Flex in sight. The official Chromebook Recovery Utility extension can be used in the Chrome browser to set up the installer. Google announced that the operating system was stable and ready for wide-scale distribution to PCs and Macs in a blog post on July 14, 2022. When using the installer, you must Powerwash your device, which permanently deletes local files and factory resets your device. The first build of Flex was based on Chromium OS 100. The most difficult part about converting a standard Chromebook to ChromeOS Flex is unlocking the bootloader. This is one of many security features Google touts for its Chromebooks. While installing your own legacy BIOS bootloader is officially supported, ChromeOS Flex uses the newer UEFI standard, which is incompatible. You must replace your bootloader with something like Coreboot. MrChromebox.tech to make the process moderately easy. ChromeOS Flex Chromebook installation When we grabbed an old Chromebook Pixel 2, used the MrChromebox.tech script to install a modified version of Coreboot, and got ChromeOS Flex onto a flash drive, we were ready to go! The installation process felt similar toTroubleshoot ChromeOS Flex devices - ChromeOS Flex Help
ChromeOS Flex ist mit den meisten Windows-, Mac- und Linux-Geräten kompatibel, die in den letzten zehn oder mehr Jahren hergestellt wurden.Was sind zertifizierte Modelle?Damit ChromeOS Flex im Rahmen der regulären Betriebssystem-Updates weiterhin wie erwartet funktioniert, testet, pflegt und zertifiziert Google die Chrome Flex-Funktionen bei vielen einzelnen Modellen. Wir führen eine vollständige Liste der zertifizierten Geräte, das jeweilige Datum der Zertifizierung, Hinweise zur Installation sowie Details zu unterstützten und nicht unterstützten Funktionen. Weitere Informationen finden Sie in der Liste der zertifizierten Modelle.Geräte werden nur zertifiziert, wenn deren genaue Modellbezeichnung und -nummer in unserer Liste der zertifizierten Modelle enthalten ist. Bei ähnlichen Modellen oder Varianten eines Modells können unerwartete Probleme auftreten.Funktioniert garantiertDie folgenden Funktionen funktionieren garantiert bei jedem zertifizierten Modell: Audioeingabe, mindestens eine Methode Audioausgabe, mindestens eine Methode Internes Display, falls vorhanden Videoausgabe Installation Netzwerk: WLAN, Ethernet oder beides, falls vorhanden Touchpad, falls vorhanden Tastatur Ruhemodus aktivieren und fortsetzen System-UI und Grafik USB Webcam, falls vorhandenFunktioniert nicht garantiertDie folgenden Funktionen wurden getestet, funktionieren aber nicht unbedingt bei jedem zertifizierten Modell. Die Liste der zertifizierten Modelle enthält Details zu fehlenden oder eingeschränkten Funktionen für jedes Modell. Automatische Bildschirmdrehung Bluetooth Tastenkombinationen und Funktionstasten, z. B. Helligkeit und Lautstärke Touchscreens SD-KartensteckplätzeNicht getestet oder unterstütztEinige Funktionen werden auch bei zertifizierten Modellen nicht für ChromeOS Flex getestet oder unterstützt. Liste der Ports und Funktionen, die nicht von ChromeOS Flex unterstützt werdenModelle, die nicht auf der Liste der zertifizierten Modelle stehenChromeOS Flex funktioniert möglicherweise ohne Probleme bei Modellen, die nicht auf der Liste der zertifizierten Modelle stehen. Änderungen bei Funktionen und Leistung zwischen den Updates können jedoch nicht garantiert werden. Weitere Informationen zum Installieren von ChromeOS Flex auf nicht zertifizierten ModellenWie lange sind Modelle zertifiziert?Auf jedem Modell auf in unserer Liste der zertifizierten Modelle ist das Datum angegeben, bis zu dem es zertifiziert ist. Wenn Modelle dieses Datum erreichen, geschieht Folgendes: Sie werden aus der Liste der zertifizierten Modelle entfernt. Sie haben keinen Anspruch auf Support von Google. Sie werden nicht mehr in den regelmäßigen ChromeOS Flex-Tests berücksichtigt. Es können Probleme ohne Warnung auftreten. Es sind möglicherweise keine Fehlerbehebungen für Probleme verfügbar.Hinweis: Nach dem Datum Zertifiziert bis könnenChromeOS Flex-zertifizierte Modelle - ChromeOS Flex-Hilfe
Run web applications.Google Account: Sign in with your Google account to sync your data and access Google services seamlessly.File Management: It uses the Files app for file management. You can access files stored locally and in Google Drive.Settings: Access system settings by clicking on the system tray in the bottom-right corner and then selecting the gear icon.FAQCan I install ChromeOS Flex on any PC?ChromeOS Flex is designed for specific hardware compatibility. Check the official website for a list of supported devices.Can I run Windows applications on ChromeOS Flex?It primarily supports web apps and Android apps. Running Windows applications natively is not supported, but you can use web-based alternatives.How often does Chrome OS receive updates?It follows a similar update schedule to Chrome OS, with regular automatic updates provided by Google.Can I access the Google Play Store on ChromeOS Flex?Yes, you can access the Google Play Store to install Android apps on ChromeOS Flex.Is my data safe on ChromeOS Flex?It benefits from the strong security features of Chrome OS, making it a secure operating system. However, always practice good security hygiene, such as using strong passwords and enabling two-factor authentication.PricingChromeOS Flex is available for FREE, as it is an open-source project by Google.However, keep in mind that you may need to invest in compatible hardware if your current PC is not supported.System RequirementsThe system requirements for this OS can vary depending on the specific hardware and build you choose to install.Generally, it is designed to run efficiently on a wide range of. That's how ChromeOS Flex works. It's even documented! Differences between ChromeOS Flex and ChromeOS - ChromeOS Flex Help (google.com) ChromeOS and ChromeOS Flex share Get started with ChromeOS Flex. ChromeOS Flex installation guide. Certified models list. Differences between ChromeOS Flex and ChromeOS. About ChromeOS Flex certified models. Deployment best practices. About ChromeOS Flex updates. Mass deploy ChromeOS Flex. Automatically enroll ChromeOS Flex devices.
Differences between ChromeOS Flex and ChromeOS - ChromeOS
To manage.It can be deployed on any modern PC and Mac. This is especially true for aging hardware configurations that can’t run modern Windows and Mac OS releases. This OS will make them again run quickly, securely, and will never slow down over time. With automatic upgrades and management from the cloud, ChromeOS Flex represents a perfect solution for giving another life to an incredible variety of aging PC hardware.To get Chrome OS Flex up and running, users are required to get its installer ready on a bootable USB stick. Once that installer is booted on the target desktop or laptop PC, the installation will run automatically.Since this OS is almost fully reliant on cloud-based services and apps, the installation will demand access to the internet either via Ethernet or Wi-Fi.Once fully installed, users can engage with a wide variety of apps and services, and enjoy full access to the modern internet, various forms of entertainment, cloud-based apps, an incredible variety of Chrome browser extensions, and even the ability to install and use native Linux apps. How it worksSTEP 1Create a bootable ChromeOS Flex USB drive to try Chrome OS prior to installing it.STEP 2When you’re ready, install ChromeOS Flex on your Windows PC to replace your operating system.STEP 3Deploy ChromeOS Flex to more devices in your organization via a USB drive or network deployment.Windows users can even transform their PC into ChromeOS Flex by installing and using the Chrome browser extension “Chromebook Recovery Utility”, which will prepare a USBChromeOS Flex ChromeOS - ChromeOS Flex
Vernieuw je apparaten met ChromeOS FlexHaal alles uit je huidige hardware met ChromeOS Flex, het snelle, beveiligde, cloudgebaseerde en makkelijk te beheren besturingssysteem voor Mac en pc.De snelste manier om je apparaten nieuw leven in te blazenVoorzie de bestaande apparaten van je school van een eenvoudig, beveiligd en cloudgebaseerd besturingssysteem. Werk efficiënter in de cloud Automatisch profielen downloaden Op afstand de Google Beheerdersconsole beheren Snel opstarten en inloggen Verleng de levensduur van je apparaten Apparaten nieuw leven inblazen voor minder elektronisch afval Krachtigere prestaties Gegevens opslaan in CO2-neutrale datacenters Blijf veilig met proactieve beveiliging Automatische updates krijgen Gepersonaliseerde tips en 24/7 support Minder beveiligingsrisico's zonder dat je antivirussoftware nodig hebt Moderniseer je apparaten in een paar eenvoudige stappenVernieuw een Mac of pc met ChromeOS Flex en de Chrome Education UpgradeChromeOS Flex is een versie van ChromeOS waarmee je de bestaande pc's en Macs op je school kosteloos moderniseert. ChromeOS Flex-apparaten beheren naast bestaande Chromebooks is een fluitje van een cent. Apparaten beheren en inschrijven doe je allemaal met de Chrome Education Upgrade en de Google Beheerdersconsole. Heb je een apparaat van jouw organisatie bij de hand? Volg deze 2 stappen om aan de slag te gaan. STAP 1 VAN 2 Vertel ons wat meer over jezelf We verzamelen deze informatie zodat je je apparaten in de toekomst makkelijker kunt upgraden naar Chromebooks. Alle velden zijn verplicht. 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Je informatie wordt gebruikt in overeenstemming met het privacybeleid van Google. Je kunt je altijd afmelden.STAP 2 VAN 2 Download je nieuwe besturingssysteem Congrats. That's how ChromeOS Flex works. It's even documented! Differences between ChromeOS Flex and ChromeOS - ChromeOS Flex Help (google.com) ChromeOS and ChromeOS Flex shareAutologin in ChromeOS Flex - ChromeOS Flex Community
Destroyed.Step 4: On the Review the changes window, keep all to the default options and click Next.Step 5: Read the note and click Finish. Then, click the Apply button to execute the pending operation. A window may pop up, click Yes.Stage 3. Chrome OS Flex InstallAfter you get a Chrome OS Flex installation disk and make a PC backup, you can start the Chrome OS Flex installation. But before proceeding, you should ensure your PC meets the minimum Chrome OS Flex installation requirements:CPU: Intel or AMD x86-64-bitRAM: 4 GBStorage: 16 GBThen, you can follow the guide below to install Chrome OS Flex on Chromebook and any other PC.Step 1: Insert the Chrome OS Flex installation disk into a computer. Power on this computer and press the BIOS key (F2, F12, Del, Esc, etc.) when the PC logo appears to enter firmware. If these common keys don’t work, you need to search for the BIOS key online for your PC model. Step 2: In the firmware, go to the Boot tab to set the USB drive as the first boot device. Then, press F10 to save changes and exit the firmware. Then, the PC will boot from the Chrome OS Flex installation disk.Tips: If your PC doesn’t boot up from the Chrome OS Flex installation disk smoothly, for example, it boots to a black screen or says that no OS was found, then you can try setting the boot mode to UEFI and see if the PC can boot up successfully. To get more troubleshooting tips, you can refer to this Google page.Step 3: When the PC boots up, you will see a welcome window. Click the Get Started button. Select Install ChromeOS Flex and click Next. Click the Install ChromeOS Flex button. It will warn you that the installation willComments
Be a temporary issue. Should you install ChromeOS Flex on your Chromebook? If your Chromebook's AUE date hasn't come around, having ChromeOS Flex doesn't make sense. By using Flex, you lose updates, Android apps, and Linux, all of which are important to the Chromebook experience. Even for those with Chromebooks that are past the AUE date, Flex may cause more harm than good. If you have a Chromebook that came out before Linux and the Play Store were implemented, Flex gives you practically the same experience that you already have. You may gain a few new features you currently don't enjoy, but if your Chromebook can still support Linux and the Play Store, you'll lose access to these features. It doesn't make sense to limit your experience. Before you install ChromeOS Flex, you need to know how to install another operating system on your Chromebook and whether it's worth doing. For most users, upgrading to a new Chromebook is easier than navigating an installment. ChromeOS Flex can help reduce e-waste by breathing new life into an old PC or Mac. Installing ChromeOS Flex on one of these devices is easy to do.
2025-04-10Let us know ChromeOS Flex was installing and a few minutes later (and I’m talking two, maybe three minutes), we received a message that the computer would shut down in one minute, we were to remove the external storage, and power the computer back on. We powered the computer back on, I signed into my Google account, answered a few questions about diagnostic data and syncing bookmarks, and that was it. I was running ChromeOS Flex on my Thinkpad X390. How does it run? ChromeOS Flex boots in less than three seconds. The trackpad is smooth and responsive as is the iconic Thinkpad Trackpoint. Half of the function key options don’t work except for volume, brightness, and Lenovo’s mappable “star” key (it opens Chrome’s bookmarks). The fingerprint reader does not work, though I knew that from reading the documentation prior to installing. The Thinkpad runs cooler overall and I almost never hear the fan. Battery life seems about the same as Windows but I will get a better idea of that over time.I am impressed by how well ChromeOS Flex runs. I understand it is browser based and lightweight by design but it works really well. I can always go back to Windows if I want to but I’m liking the ChromeOS Flex experience so far. I have been inching back into Google services, particularly Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Keep. It is no surprise that ChromeOS Flex handles all of these well. I noticed Docs in particular loaded much faster than in Chrome on Windows. The whole thing is a pleasant experience.The biggest question I am asking myself is who ChromeOS Flex is for? I think a lot of people in techie circles like this community would opt for a traditional Linux distro for the extra flexibility before opting for ChromeOS Flex. The average user will likely run Windows until their PC falls apart and if ChromeOS is in their future they’ll just buy a Chromebook next time and never consider Flex. As for me, I am going to stick with it for a while. I’m happy so far and I haven’t found any roadblocks to what I want to accomplish.
2025-03-30My trusty Thinkpad X390 has been a reliable companion for several years but I recently noticed a drop in performance. I don’t install too much beyond the defaults since most of what I need to get done happens in the browser. I could have refreshed Windows 11 and started over without much effort. I have been thinking about “the next PC”, however, and recalled a conversation I had here on Thurrott.com about moving to Chromebook. The only problem is that my Thinkpad is still in great shape and, all things considered, not that old. I’m not ready to move on to something new. But I am willing to experiment. I did some research and found that ChromeOS Flex, Google’s distribution of ChromeOS for PCs that are not Chromebooks, might work on my Thinkpad. The X390 was not on the officially supported list but the previous models in the X series were. I was feeling adventurous and my son, a Chromebook fanatic, cheered me on. I took the plunge and installed ChromeOS Flex. I will state up front that we still have a Windows 11 desktop in the family office. I can use it any time I need Windows. I rely on Windows for my job but a PC is provided to me through work. I use my Thinkpad a lot, however, and if using ChromeOS could be a viable platform for my personal life it is the best device to test with. Installing ChromeOS Flex was about as easy as I could have imagined. I installed Google’s “Chromebook Recovery Utility” Chrome Extension and plugged in a USB hard drive I had laying around. I ran the extension, chose “ChromeOS Flex” as my device and OS, and let it write a bootable image to the external drive. I rebooted, booted from the USB drive, and when given the prompt to install or run ChromeOS Flex live from the drive, I chose the live image. This let me test ChromeOS Flex to ensure my hardware would work and I liked the experience. The OS itself ran smoothly and after spending an hour playing around I decided to commit to running ChromeOS Flex. After a reboot, I clicked the option to install ChromeOS Flex. I put my son in the driver’s seat and watched as he clicked to confirm we wanted to wipe the internal drive and install. A screen popped up to
2025-04-03Chromebooks are great devices, capable of carrying out hundreds of commands and built to last many years thanks to impressive hardware and reliable software support. Still, nothing in the world of technology lasts forever. When your Chromebook reaches the end of its life, look at one of our favorite Chromebooks before safely recycling your old device. What if you could breathe new life into your old Chromebook by updating it using current software? Or perhaps you have an old Windows or Mac that you want to try to turn into a Chromebook? If you want to try this, ChromeOS Flex can keep your computer up-to-date with software straight from the cloud. Let's dig in. How does ChromeOS Flex work on a Chromebook? One of Chromebooks' Achilles heels is their support lifetime. After a certain period of time, they reach what is known as the Auto Update Expiration (AUE) date. This date means that Google no longer provides updates, features, security, or otherwise. Chromebooks used to reach AUE in as little as five years, but in 2020, Google announced that some Chromebooks are eligible for nine years of updates. Source: Google ChromeOS Flex isn't new. It's a hybrid between the typical version of ChromeOS and Neverware's CloudReady. The latter takes the open source Chromium OS system and expands its support for PCs and Macs. A few years ago, Google bought Neverware, and we've since received confirmation of Google's goal to merge the two code bases. This is even more evident when loading the ChromeOS Flex installer, as the branding is curiously named CloudReady 2.0, with no trace of ChromeOS Flex in sight. The official Chromebook Recovery Utility extension can be used in the Chrome browser to set up the installer. Google announced that the operating system was stable and ready for wide-scale distribution to PCs and Macs in a blog post on July 14, 2022. When using the installer, you must Powerwash your device, which permanently deletes local files and factory resets your device. The first build of Flex was based on Chromium OS 100. The most difficult part about converting a standard Chromebook to ChromeOS Flex is unlocking the bootloader. This is one of many security features Google touts for its Chromebooks. While installing your own legacy BIOS bootloader is officially supported, ChromeOS Flex uses the newer UEFI standard, which is incompatible. You must replace your bootloader with something like Coreboot. MrChromebox.tech to make the process moderately easy. ChromeOS Flex Chromebook installation When we grabbed an old Chromebook Pixel 2, used the MrChromebox.tech script to install a modified version of Coreboot, and got ChromeOS Flex onto a flash drive, we were ready to go! The installation process felt similar to
2025-04-14