I have to say, after watching many other tech channels recently, this was a refreshing change. No bias, no opinions, no larking about, and no fluff. Just a well-presented and concise overview showing the useful features that most users will appreciate. I've been a long time viewer of this channel but this particular video, on this particular day, for some reason, just made me appreciate it all the more.
Was nice change indeed, he normally bangs on about how bad windows but then shows us more and more each time why windows is still king. Good to see other OS's making chnages that makes them more usable tho.
I just had to say that your videos are always appreciated and so easy to understand. You take a lot of time in setting up your videos and they are never rushed. I learn things every time I watch a video of yours.. thank you!! 😊
This channnel has become my GOTO college. And now with this video, I just converted my Asus UX31A which has been running Linux Mint into a ChromeBook! And I can still get everything that I had in Mint via the VM. Thank you very much for another excellent video.
There is no way I can express how amazed and pleased I am of your videos. Most of the time when I find a RUclips video that looks like it might have the info I want, it has either poor video, poor audio, blasting background music, or the person rambles on for 10 minutes before getting to the subject. Yours have superior quality audio, video, and content. My only complaint is that you have years worth of past videos I want to watch and it’s going to take forever to get caught up. Thanks so much!
This actually made me think that it might be possible to switch to an off the shelf chrome os device install the linux subsystem and do what i usually do but within chrome os - easily the best explanation Ive yet seen and solved some of the frustrations and questions that had me abandon this route before .
Greetings! Here we are back again and your timing sir, is once again impeccable! I just this week acquired an older MacbookPro by saving it from the ewaste bin and was thinking of installing ChromeOS since it will not accept newer versions of MacOS. A bonus, I get to re-watch your video from 4 months ago to remind me how to go about getting the OS. Well done again sir!!!
I do hope your MacbookPro doesn't have an Nvidia gpu or if it does it might just not be used at all (asuming it doesn't cause problems for you) and instead utilize the Intel integrated graphics.
Here I am back again replying from the You Tube app on my newly installed Chrome OS Flex on a Macbook Pro where I over wrote MacOSX Lion. Say what you want about Apple but their displays are awesome.
Very interesting video, Chris. Thank you for passing this knowledge on. Chrome OS Flex appears to be a much more viable option when one considers its Linux VM flexibility.
Brilliant as usual Chris. Definitely going to try Chrome Flex on 5 year old HP laptop that refuse to handle windows 10 now. Tried running Zorin fairly successfully but Windows VM is painfully slow. Was very impressed how fast apps appeared to run in Linux VM on flex. Thanks again - EC - best on RUclips! 👍
I find this video very informative without me having to wonder what this guy tries to tell me. Definitely saves me much time and gives me even some joy again to select which Linux on desktop or on the net I will try for an install. Greetings !! Indeed
Dr. Barnatt, as always, you have pleased us with a thoughtful and up-to-date video! Of course, I wanted to learn as much as possible about using a Linux application in the Chrome OS environment. I recently installed Chrome OS Flex on one of my laptops, but this operating system did not recognize the Wi-Fi adapter. Still, developers need to do a lot of work to ensure the proper level of device support. Good luck in your activities and thank you for your work!
Great video my friend!! I've been running this exact setup on an older laptop and I've had similiar good luck with it!! It really does work great!! Another great video Mr. Barnatt!!!
Thank you! This video kept me from buying a Chrome Book and i installed ChromeOS Flex on my Surface Pro 3 from 2014 (8GB RAM) and it is running really smooth now!
Well done, thank you. I put Chrome OS Flex on an old purple HP Stream netbook. (I'm using it now) This thing is a potato, however, this OS makes it a usable potato.
Hey Chris, good to see that Chrome OS Flex is better now and worked for you. Back when I tried it in early September I had problems such as the GUI using software rendering and the Linux environment not working and not installing at all. That first problem can probably be blamed to my Nvidia GT710 gpu which uses proprietary druvers on Linux and not part of the Linux kernel unlike Intel and AMD devices. It became evident to me that Chrome OS Flex was using software rendering when I noticed that 144p RUclips videos were stuttering and while my GT710 was running pretty cool, my processor (Xeon E3 1240v3) was running very hot and at one point in testing reached thermal shutdown (partly can be blamed on my tiny heatsink at the time). Chrome OS Flex would have been perfect for that PC since I use it more for media consumption on a TV, but the problems I had back them had me going back to Linux Mint, which I do like and my pick for a Linux Distro. I might test Chrome OS Flex once again at some point in the future and I do hope it works better since I have an AMD gpu now.
A 15 minute video that only seemed to last 5 minutes. I've been using a Chromebook for years now and I'm never going back to windows. They're also making gaming Chromebooks now and you can also use Steam, or just retro gaming with the android apps. Excellent video.
Hi, ChromeOS Flex has support built in for DisplayLink type of docking stations. So you connect a dock via an USB cable to the laptop, then you can connect an external monitor, keyboard and mouse to the dock. The desktop will automatically extend to the extra monitor!
I'm pretty sure that I'll be installing Chrome OS Flex on anything that can't handle Windows 11. So, I ~greatly~ appreciate the pointers here. This is great content!
I've just installed it on a neighbour's older celeron N3060 based with 4GB DDR3 RAM and a SATA 128GB SSD. Use case is an old lady just wanting to watch some RUclips and read emails. It was still running W10 but that slowed it down to a halt. Trying to do even the most basic daily things. She was so fed up that she wanted to buy a new laptop. Now it just works. WiFi, Bluetooth, all the easy FN functions. No hassle no fuzz. It is easy it is safe. It does what she wants. Best of all zero cost. Saved a laptop from the landfill and one happy neighbour. What is not to like.
Thanks heaps Christopher - In the past I have tried using Chrome OS via Android Studio on my Linux, but it was such a nightmare to use and so resource hungry. Now I'm gonna set Flex up on that old laptop then use Linux thru the VM. Absolutely awesome!! I had successfully fought off my years-long Solitaire addiction ... but I'm feeling a little twitchy right now.
Great !! My Chome OS Flex is on a first generation MS Surface. I installed the Calibre application. I installed it with the command line given on the calibre site because I need the most recent version 6 . (apt install calibre brings version 5 ) First, I needed to install libopengl0 ( sudo apt install libopengl0) Then I copy paste the script I noticed the script asked for the password which we don't have at the installation step of the linux system. I simply did everything in supervisor mode (# su ). Thanks for all your works
Thanks Chris, I have a Lenovo Pentium Gold 7505 Chromebook. Debian Linux VM obstacles I hit were no ffmpeg hardware encoding (e.g. VAAPI) support, no OBS Studio support - it gives an error message saying it recognises it is running on a Chromebook virtual machine which isn’t supported. OBS Studio does not even try to run. Office 365 stated it was incompatible with my Chromebook and so online 365 access only. 😮 I do like the polished Chromebook interface but the Debian VM isn’t a full Linux OS dedicated alternative for the above reasons.
I have Chrome OS Flex / Linux running on a 2012 Mac Mini. Snappy! & Thank you for showing us the Linux settings stuff, because I was able to increase the size of my virtual drive, I now can have all my Google Drive stuff sync'd to it.
I bought a second hand mini PC 3 weeks ago and last week I added a WD SSD m.2 2280. That was my first SSD but it won't be my last. I spent close to a week distro hopping and finally settled on Mint Cinnamon. I wish I had known about Chrome OS Flex. Hindsight is indeed 20/20! Keep up the excellent work, and thank you.
Update: A gremlin has crept into this mini pc. The system will only boot into the BIOS setup utility and no amount of configuration changes are making any difference. This will be resolved, but it ran fine yesterday, and today it had a snit fit. There are days when I hate computers.
Why? Because the user experience is better. For me, this replaced Ubuntu on my TV PC, and things no longer crash. Boot up is quicker. Shutdown is massively quicker etc. I still run Linux Mint on the desktop (I am in it right now). But for rapid, stable content access and basic computing, Chrome OS Flex works better.
Ahoy, I've always passed on Chrome OS as a playtoy OS. I have to admit that having this Linux Capability (using Debian, my distro of choice) will make me look closer at it. I have multiple mini pcs with Atom & Celeron CPUs and this might be a usable option. In fact I'm typing this on a Liva-Z with a Celeron 3150 GPU running Debian 11... Keep up the great work. I never miss a new video. Cheers, daveyb
while it sure looks good, always keep in mind that this VM will be much slower than your typical debian installation. just so you know, before you may get disappointed.
That was great. I have never take a look at Chrome OS and pleasantly surprised that it is possible to run Linux apps on it. Doubly pleased that its roots are Debian as I'm too used to years of "apt" versus other package managers. As always, thanks!
It is -NOW- possible to install Linux apps. It wasn't earlier on. And because of that, I wasn't interested in Chrome OS before, it was just a dumb OS to me (basically the bare minimum for a browser to run on top of it and very little else).
a friend of mine gave me a lenovo win 11 thinkpad but windows was too flow. so i followed youre directions and the laptop is fast and secure with cromeos flex thank you soo much.
I think i need to give this another go. Last time i tried it on some old machines i couldnt get past the splash screen on the installer. Cheers for another great video.
Some old hardware just never will be supported because of UEFI boot that ChromeOS needs to function, I have an older HP Pavilion mini tower that's limited to 4GB DDR3 RAM, and 1/2 height cards, and runs the latest Solus Linux just fine from legacy grub boot, but ChromeOS Flex not a chance.
A great presentation, Chris. I will soon have a fresh installation of Chrome OS Flex and I hope it will also give me months of easy and flexible use. Thanks again EC!
@@ExplainingComputers Thank you for all the work you put into your videos. Seriously, you explain things in such a way that's easy to understand, even when they're complicated. It's much appreciated.
Well, finally Chrome OS is more than just the bare minimum to run a browser on top of it. I'd like to see a performance comparison of a couple of programs on the Linux virtual machine in Chrome OS Flex vs Linux native install on the same hardware, for instance with your standard filter test in GIMP and Kdenlive project render times.
Great video. I love cheap Chromebooks with Linux. My $130 Chromebook laptop is my default “desktop” machine to access my various headless Raspberry Pi and other servers in my home data center. MacBook is nice but overkill. And Debian is the bonus!
After seeing your previous video on installing Flex gave it a try and am actually pretty impressed. I actually run it from a USB memory stick and it performs well. Nice for a change and maybe as a portable device but as I love fiddling I am happy with another recommendation of yours from around a year ago MX-Linux.
Once again the master pimp drops heavy knowledge. The Barnatt be flexin dem ho's 24/7 like the true OG he is. All the G's be moving to the ChromeOS now, especially after what went down in the hood last summer. Peace out...
The thing that always kept me from a standard Chromebook's OS was the inability to load the Arduino IDE. It appears that Chrome OS Flex would allow the Linux virtual environment to share the USB ports for programming. That would help in a lot of educational applications; I will have to try it.
Why not just stick to Linux then? I'm just not seeing a use-case for 'flex over a regular Linux install with Chrome. I was thinking I could stick this on my garage computer but, it doesn't seem superior to vanilla Linux. Instead of running Linux in a VM, I can just run Linux.
When I want useful unbiased opinions on Computer technology. This is the RUclips channel to get it! This is just what I've been waiting for. I want to install this OS to refresh an old laptop. Thank you Chris! 😊👍
It's refreshing to see an unbiased review from a professional, I've seen so many reviews from diehard Linux nuts who are convinced that full blown Linux is the only way to go.
Thanks for this. I am a Linux fan, daily user and advocate. But I'm also pretty certain that already more people run Chrome OS (Flex) than any single desktop Linux distro. It all depends what a computer is going to be used for. But in some instances Chrome OS Flex I think is the best bet -- and it is certainly easier for most people to use, and delivers a better interface experience than any desktop Linux distro I've ever used. And given the resources that Google can devote, this should come as no surprise.
An excellent video as always. Spurred me to have a go with a couple of old laptops, an ASUS Celeron and an HP i3, which are about 5 years old. The installation of Chrome OS flex went well on both machines. However, the i3 had the Linux addition greyed out so presumably not suitable for this VM. The ASUS allowed the installation to start but failed partway through (I tried it several times). What I found frustrating is that there is very little information on why this happens. The reason for failure is given as 'the Linux feature is still in development and may fail'. The Chrome OS Flex is very fast, but I'm reverting to Linux Mint!
Chrome OS has certainly come a long way. My laptop is a Chromebook and I love it. If all you do is web surfing, streaming, and run office apps you should throw away Windows and run Chrome OS Flex. I run Linux on my PC so I have the same apps on the PC and Chromebook. It's perfect!
I'd be interested in how easily I could get Wine applications running Windows programs within ChromeOS Flex.... unnecessarily difficult, I'm sure, but that's how things go... and half the fun is figuring out how to get such things running. One of the main reasons I haven't played with ChromeOS Flex much is because of it not having the Android integration that they have on mainline ChromeOS, but I bet I could get a decent emulator running within the Linux VM.
The best OS ever, in my opinion, is Chrome OS Flex! particularly for someone who is minimalist like me It simply completes the task without any further complications or roadblocks, going right to the purpose.
Interesting. I would not use this myself as I'm in the process of ditching Google, but I know people that would enjoy this approach to computing and be very happy with it.
This was a good video, unfortunatel in my experience this OS not ready for prime time at all. Kernel panic was locking up a Mac mini X86 and a Lenovo 2in1 laptop. Sure hope this will be resolved in the coming months. Keep up the good work Chris..
Thanks so much for your (extra) fine tutoring skills! I enjoyed watching this, and it gave me more clarity on how to navigate around the Linux terminal on CB. 💜
Loving your video, simple, precise and informative. I'd love to ditch my widows machine in favour of my chrome set up but just can't find a way to play native DVD movies from a USB drive.
My grandsons have a pair of chromebooks issued by schools, but their screens are like10", and can't attach an external monitor for mom (visually impaired) dad and I to see what's on the screen to help with homework. I installed chrome flex on an old Lenovo B575e I had 'laying around', and we have duplicated the software and internet favorites on it to make us old people able to see what's up. Thank you Chrome Devs for making this possible! Now to start stretching the boy's environments to include more linux and RaspberryPi environments for computer science learning.
@@ExplainingComputers Helps keep this old guy's brain active, too. I come from a background of IT Help Desk (users can be SOO creative on how to break computers) but these grandkids can blow them away, which is why I love the RPi computers, can just re-image in 5 minutes and they are back up and running...
Hi, ChromeOS Flex has support built in for DisplayLink type of docking stations. So you connect a dock via an USB cable to the laptop, then you can connect an external monitor, keyboard and mouse to the dock. The desktop will automatically extend to the extra monitor!
Hello, fellow Christopher! Back agian. Thank you for showing us the interesting features of ChromeOS Flex! I've used it a bit. I like it! I have also used FydeOS that is the same thing as what ChromeOS (regular) was, as far as i know, but is jsut open source. I am referring to all of these other OS's for the Raspberry Pi4 4gb or larger, of course !!! 😊 (those are the kinds what i have)
Another good video, much appreciated, for the older machines that don't support VM's, you could try FydeOS instead as it will give you full Chrome OS features like Android apps, I have a couple of really old touch screen PC's that run fantastic with ChromeOS Flex, but wont run full ChromeOS or even linux properly due to low spec, but they will also run FydeOS extremely well.
@@zakofrx Unsure, but you can use the core OS with local account only, but when you install open GAPS for Android support and you want to use the Google Play Store, well you know the answer there, but I was surprised how well the Android apps worked.
thanks very, very much. i've a asus flip book who chrome os says was unsurported but it still runns decent enough to give some life on it. but i'll try this video for testing other apps! thanks a lot!
It would make for a possible great Kodi platform, perhaps in a similar LibreElec is, that is it does one single thing... perhaps could run alongside official Disney+ apps etc via the Google Play Store if it's available.... so in effect creating your own more powerful Firestick? Maybe not for everyone, but still an interesting OS,. Thanks Chris as always for a very interesting review and your insight...! Take care and we'll see you next week :-)
Oh gods, why? Install stripped-down Linux to install a virtual machine with another full-featured Linux just to run normal applications. It feels so wrong...
Not related to this video but: It seems one of the big differences between SBCs for use as a desktop replacement is the availability of a GPU driver. Is there a resource to find out which SBCs, and which distros for that SBC, have GPU drivers? That would make a difference to me on trying something other than a Raspberry Pi.
What you say is true. I am not aware of such a resource. Basically anything with a Rockchip Soc (eg an RK3588 or RK3399) is extremely unlikely to have a desktop Linux GPU driver. And it is fairly unlikely with all non-Pi models. So you are down to x86-based SBCs, like LattePanda models, or a Rock Pi X.
This is great, I had installed chrome OS on an old laptop just to play with, but had pretty quickly got bored with just webapps being available .Not even an email client other than gmail (and unlike android g-mail, it has no support for non-gmail addresses).. I'd heard about the linux support inside chromeos, but didn't really think it would actually work this smoothly with the rest of the OS. Definitely got some more things to check out now.
I would much rather use the Chrome operating system on my TV. Use it every day, but there comes a time when it doesn't update any longer and they leave you hanging. I believe it is every 5 years. Mine didn't make the 5 years because the 5 years starts from the time the machine was manufactured and not when you bought it! Mine had 4.3 years of updates and then no more. I have been using it for 5.5 years now because I don't like the price tag of a new machine. Love your videos. I'm 70 years old and not too sharp with computers nowadays. I used to be pretty good with the old IBM DOS system, so that dates me.
Thanks for this. The reason that I run Chrome OS Flex on a small PC connected to my TV is precisely for the reason you say. Any OS included on a TV never has long-term support. I very much believe that TV should be dumb monitors.
Hi, I'm intrigued by your TV setup with the mini PC running Chrome OS Flex. My question is: how exactly do you control that PC? With a mouse and keyboard? Where are they located? I assume the mini-PC sits near/behind the TV itself. I'm trying to understand how you control it conveniently. Thank You!!! Great Video!!! 😊
I did this and used the TRY version first, I found it a bit slow but I was thinking that was because it was running off the pen drive via USD, but I wouldn't have thought the speed diffrence was so much more different?
Unless you have a very fast USB drive, an operating system will run considerably slower from a USB drive. You cannot guage operating system performance when running from a USB drive. :)
Why can't all content providers be like this guy. Straightforward, easy to follow, plain English and highly informative. Great teacher, keep it up.
I have to say, after watching many other tech channels recently, this was a refreshing change. No bias, no opinions, no larking about, and no fluff. Just a well-presented and concise overview showing the useful features that most users will appreciate. I've been a long time viewer of this channel but this particular video, on this particular day, for some reason, just made me appreciate it all the more.
Thanks for this. I very much enjoyed making this video, so maybe that came through. :)
Never have i seen a video of Chris where he has a bias except for value vs specs maybe
@@ExplainingComputers And I like operating systems and virtual machines, so maybe that's why it hit home for me more in particular.
Was nice change indeed, he normally bangs on about how bad windows but then shows us more and more each time why windows is still king. Good to see other OS's making chnages that makes them more usable tho.
Mr. Barnatt is simply the best.
I just had to say that your videos are always appreciated and so easy to understand. You take a lot of time in setting up your videos and they are never rushed. I learn things every time I watch a video of yours.. thank you!! 😊
This channnel has become my GOTO college. And now with this video, I just converted my Asus UX31A which has been running Linux Mint into a ChromeBook! And I can still get everything that I had in Mint via the VM.
Thank you very much for another excellent video.
Thanks for watching, and great to hear of your successful installation.
There is no way I can express how amazed and pleased I am of your videos. Most of the time when I find a RUclips video that looks like it might have the info I want, it has either poor video, poor audio, blasting background music, or the person rambles on for 10 minutes before getting to the subject. Yours have superior quality audio, video, and content. My only complaint is that you have years worth of past videos I want to watch and it’s going to take forever to get caught up. Thanks so much!
Greetings, and welcome aboard! :) Note that a lot of my content is categorized in the channel's playlist tab.
Love Chris' videos. So informative. I think now I'd watch them for their comedic value alone. His tongue - in-cheek dry sense of humor cracks me up.
This actually made me think that it might be possible to switch to an off the shelf chrome os device install the linux subsystem and do what i usually do but within chrome os - easily the best explanation Ive yet seen and solved some of the frustrations and questions that had me abandon this route before .
Greetings! Here we are back again and your timing sir, is once again impeccable! I just this week acquired an older MacbookPro by saving it from the ewaste bin and was thinking of installing ChromeOS since it will not accept newer versions of MacOS. A bonus, I get to re-watch your video from 4 months ago to remind me how to go about getting the OS. Well done again sir!!!
Greetings! Good luck with your MacbookPro! :)
I do hope your MacbookPro doesn't have an Nvidia gpu or if it does it might just not be used at all (asuming it doesn't cause problems for you) and instead utilize the Intel integrated graphics.
Of course it's going to cause problems... crApple wouldn't have it any other way
Here I am back again replying from the You Tube app on my newly installed Chrome OS Flex on a Macbook Pro where I over wrote MacOSX Lion. Say what you want about Apple but their displays are awesome.
@@sbc_soc_tinkerer Excellent! Well done reducing ewaste. 👍
Very interesting video, Chris. Thank you for passing this knowledge on. Chrome OS Flex appears to be a much more viable option when one considers its Linux VM flexibility.
Brilliant as usual Chris. Definitely going to try Chrome Flex on 5 year old HP laptop that refuse to handle windows 10 now. Tried running Zorin fairly successfully but Windows VM is painfully slow. Was very impressed how fast apps appeared to run in Linux VM on flex. Thanks again - EC - best on RUclips! 👍
Good luck -- I have become a big fan of ChromeOS Flex.
I find this video very informative without me having to wonder what this guy tries to tell me. Definitely saves me much time and gives me even some joy again to select which Linux on desktop or on the net I will try for an install. Greetings !! Indeed
Your vids have helped me greatly in rejuvenating an aging Dell PC that was running Windows 10. Thank you.
Great to hear!
thank you christopher for making it possible for non english natives people to understand you by using a slower voice.
My pleasure.
Dr. Barnatt, as always, you have pleased us with a thoughtful and up-to-date video! Of course, I wanted to learn as much as possible about using a Linux application in the Chrome OS environment. I recently installed Chrome OS Flex on one of my laptops, but this operating system did not recognize the Wi-Fi adapter. Still, developers need to do a lot of work to ensure the proper level of device support. Good luck in your activities and thank you for your work!
WiFi support in Linux in general remains an issue.
Thanks!
Thanks for your support, most appreciated. :)
Great video my friend!! I've been running this exact setup on an older laptop and I've had similiar good luck with it!! It really does work great!! Another great video Mr. Barnatt!!!
Greeting John. It does seem that this is some kind of secret . . .
Thank you! This video kept me from buying a Chrome Book and i installed ChromeOS Flex on my Surface Pro 3 from 2014 (8GB RAM) and it is running really smooth now!
Excellent! Great to hear of your success. I can imagine that Chrome OS Flex runs very well on a Surface 3 Pro.
Well done, thank you. I put Chrome OS Flex on an old purple HP Stream netbook. (I'm using it now) This thing is a potato, however, this OS makes it a usable potato.
Hey Chris, good to see that Chrome OS Flex is better now and worked for you.
Back when I tried it in early September I had problems such as the GUI using software rendering and the Linux environment not working and not installing at all.
That first problem can probably be blamed to my Nvidia GT710 gpu which uses proprietary druvers on Linux and not part of the Linux kernel unlike Intel and AMD devices. It became evident to me that Chrome OS Flex was using software rendering when I noticed that 144p RUclips videos were stuttering and while my GT710 was running pretty cool, my processor (Xeon E3 1240v3) was running very hot and at one point in testing reached thermal shutdown (partly can be blamed on my tiny heatsink at the time).
Chrome OS Flex would have been perfect for that PC since I use it more for media consumption on a TV, but the problems I had back them had me going back to Linux Mint, which I do like and my pick for a Linux Distro. I might test Chrome OS Flex once again at some point in the future and I do hope it works better since I have an AMD gpu now.
A 15 minute video that only seemed to last 5 minutes.
I've been using a Chromebook for years now and I'm never going back to windows.
They're also making gaming Chromebooks now and you can also use Steam, or just retro gaming with the android apps.
Excellent video.
Another excellent piece!
Your abilities to showcase operating systems is top notch!
And this OS looks great too!
Hi, ChromeOS Flex has support built in for DisplayLink type of docking stations. So you connect a dock via an USB cable to the laptop, then you can connect an external monitor, keyboard and mouse to the dock. The desktop will automatically extend to the extra monitor!
I have a USB3 port expander that splits out video. I’ll have to see if this works on mine - thanks
Thanks
Thanks for this, most appreciated. :)
Great job and love the bit of humour you put into these videos.
This video made me think to try Chrome OS Flex on an old laptop!
I'm pretty sure that I'll be installing Chrome OS Flex on anything that can't handle Windows 11. So, I ~greatly~ appreciate the pointers here. This is great content!
Thanks. :)
I've just installed it on a neighbour's older celeron N3060 based with 4GB DDR3 RAM and a SATA 128GB SSD.
Use case is an old lady just wanting to watch some RUclips and read emails. It was still running W10 but that slowed it down to a halt. Trying to do even the most basic daily things.
She was so fed up that she wanted to buy a new laptop. Now it just works. WiFi, Bluetooth, all the easy FN functions. No hassle no fuzz.
It is easy it is safe. It does what she wants. Best of all zero cost. Saved a laptop from the landfill and one happy neighbour. What is not to like.
Thank you for showing us options to 'standard' OS that we probably wouldn't have ever run across!
Greetings Leslie.
Thanks heaps Christopher - In the past I have tried using Chrome OS via Android Studio on my Linux, but it was such a nightmare to use and so resource hungry. Now I'm gonna set Flex up on that old laptop then use Linux thru the VM. Absolutely awesome!! I had successfully fought off my years-long Solitaire addiction ... but I'm feeling a little twitchy right now.
Great !!
My Chome OS Flex is on a first generation MS Surface. I installed the Calibre application. I installed it with the command line given on the calibre site because I need the most recent version 6 . (apt install calibre brings version 5 )
First, I needed to install libopengl0 ( sudo apt install libopengl0)
Then I copy paste the script
I noticed the script asked for the password which we don't have at the installation step of the linux system.
I simply did everything in supervisor mode (# su ).
Thanks for all your works
Thanks Chris, I have a Lenovo Pentium Gold 7505 Chromebook. Debian Linux VM obstacles I hit were no ffmpeg hardware encoding (e.g. VAAPI) support, no OBS Studio support - it gives an error message saying it recognises it is running on a Chromebook virtual machine which isn’t supported. OBS Studio does not even try to run. Office 365 stated it was incompatible with my Chromebook and so online 365 access only. 😮 I do like the polished Chromebook interface but the Debian VM isn’t a full Linux OS dedicated alternative for the above reasons.
I have Chrome OS Flex / Linux running on a 2012 Mac Mini. Snappy! & Thank you for showing us the Linux settings stuff, because I was able to increase the size of my virtual drive, I now can have all my Google Drive stuff sync'd to it.
I bought a second hand mini PC 3 weeks ago and last week I added a WD SSD m.2 2280. That was my first SSD but it won't be my last. I spent close to a week distro hopping and finally settled on Mint Cinnamon. I wish I had known about Chrome OS Flex. Hindsight is indeed 20/20! Keep up the excellent work, and thank you.
Mint is an excellent distro -- I am typing in it right now! :)
@@ExplainingComputers what surprised me was the fact that my Brother laser printer was connected automatically and in wireless mode!
Update: A gremlin has crept into this mini pc. The system will only boot into the BIOS setup utility and no amount of configuration changes are making any difference. This will be resolved, but it ran fine yesterday, and today it had a snit fit. There are days when I hate computers.
Always my favorit Channel every sunday night. Thank you Mr. Barnatt 🙏🏻
Thanks -- and greetings! :)
Why? Because the user experience is better. For me, this replaced Ubuntu on my TV PC, and things no longer crash. Boot up is quicker. Shutdown is massively quicker etc. I still run Linux Mint on the desktop (I am in it right now). But for rapid, stable content access and basic computing, Chrome OS Flex works better.
@@ExplainingComputers i think i must have a pc to experience the Chrome os, than single board Computer to experience the performa ce better.
Very good video, professor 😊! Will try this OS soon… and love the linux integration inside, brilliant!
great, detailed, no-BS channel !!
"everyday... For four months..." That pause was unreal, thought I was watching a serious crime investigatory report.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge I got rid of window now only linux using Mint Thanks for your help all the best to you and yours. From John in Texas
Greetings John.
Ahoy, I've always passed on Chrome OS as a playtoy OS. I have to admit that having this Linux Capability (using Debian, my distro of choice) will make me look closer at it. I have multiple mini pcs with Atom & Celeron CPUs and this might be a usable option. In fact I'm typing this on a Liva-Z with a Celeron 3150 GPU running Debian 11...
Keep up the great work. I never miss a new video. Cheers, daveyb
while it sure looks good, always keep in mind that this VM will be much slower than your typical debian installation. just so you know, before you may get disappointed.
I spied my RUclips page! Thanks for the sneaky peak Chris!
Hi Kevin! :) There you were . . . I always keep up with your videos!
That was great. I have never take a look at Chrome OS and pleasantly surprised that it is possible to run Linux apps on it. Doubly pleased that its roots are Debian as I'm too used to years of "apt" versus other package managers. As always, thanks!
It really is the easiest package manager to use.
It is -NOW- possible to install Linux apps. It wasn't earlier on. And because of that, I wasn't interested in Chrome OS before, it was just a dumb OS to me (basically the bare minimum for a browser to run on top of it and very little else).
it can run a Debian container but I think Chrome OS roots is Gentoo.
0:57 "I'm going to reflect on my experience running Chrome OS Flex, every day.. for four months." followed by a look of absolute soul crushing sorrow
This video is pure GOLD! Now I will installa Chorme OS Flex on some of my old PCs
Good luck! :)
a friend of mine gave me a lenovo win 11 thinkpad but windows was too flow. so i followed youre directions and the laptop is fast and secure with cromeos flex thank you soo much.
Great to hear. :)
One of the best videos on the web about Chrome os flex.
Thanks.
@@ExplainingComputers you are welcome and you deserved.
Thank you! I've been waiting for this video.
:)
I think i need to give this another go. Last time i tried it on some old machines i couldnt get past the splash screen on the installer. Cheers for another great video.
Since my last video, Chrome OS Flex has come out of beta. Good luck! :)
Some old hardware just never will be supported because of UEFI boot that ChromeOS needs to function, I have an older HP Pavilion mini tower that's limited to 4GB DDR3 RAM, and 1/2 height cards, and runs the latest Solus Linux just fine from legacy grub boot, but ChromeOS Flex not a chance.
A great presentation, Chris. I will soon have a fresh installation of Chrome OS Flex and I hope it will also give me months of easy and flexible use. Thanks again EC!
Good luck with it! :)
"I think no computer should be without Solitaire", Christopher Barnatt 2022. Very funny Chris :) Thanks for this wonderful review
Best Chanel ever, for comps. Could you please do a vlog on the pros and cons, off windows 11. 🙏🇦🇺👍
Awesome video. Simple. Clear. Easy to understand and taught me more than I thought I wanted to know ❤. Thanks
Just a tip: you can install multiple programs at once without the confirmation prompt: sudo apt install app1 app2 app3 -y
Yes, I am aware of this, but I wanted to show clearly what I was doing in the video.
@@ExplainingComputers Thank you for all the work you put into your videos. Seriously, you explain things in such a way that's easy to understand, even when they're complicated. It's much appreciated.
Well, finally Chrome OS is more than just the bare minimum to run a browser on top of it. I'd like to see a performance comparison of a couple of programs on the Linux virtual machine in Chrome OS Flex vs Linux native install on the same hardware, for instance with your standard filter test in GIMP and Kdenlive project render times.
That would be great wine also
Great video. I love cheap Chromebooks with Linux. My $130 Chromebook laptop is my default “desktop” machine to access my various headless Raspberry Pi and other servers in my home data center. MacBook is nice but overkill. And Debian is the bonus!
After seeing your previous video on installing Flex gave it a try and am actually pretty impressed. I actually run it from a USB memory stick and it performs well. Nice for a change and maybe as a portable device but as I love fiddling I am happy with another recommendation of yours from around a year ago MX-Linux.
Greetings Geoff. :)
Once again the master pimp drops heavy knowledge. The Barnatt be flexin dem ho's 24/7 like the true OG he is. All the G's be moving to the ChromeOS now, especially after what went down in the hood last summer. Peace out...
yeah man bigup master G Barnatt
Now that's it; Loads of good stuff and grant links. Great video
And like always, thank you for another great video.
Благодарим ви!
Thanks for your support, most appreciated. :)
The thing that always kept me from a standard Chromebook's OS was the inability to load the Arduino IDE. It appears that Chrome OS Flex would allow the Linux virtual environment to share the USB ports for programming. That would help in a lot of educational applications; I will have to try it.
Why not just stick to Linux then? I'm just not seeing a use-case for 'flex over a regular Linux install with Chrome. I was thinking I could stick this on my garage computer but, it doesn't seem superior to vanilla Linux. Instead of running Linux in a VM, I can just run Linux.
Hi James, and I think you are right. It should be possible to run the Arduino IDE with USB port access.
When I want useful unbiased opinions on Computer technology. This is the RUclips channel to get it!
This is just what I've been waiting for. I want to install this OS to refresh an old laptop.
Thank you Chris! 😊👍
Great demo of Chrome OS Flex capabilities. Thanks!
Excellent video as usual, so many things to try with older hardware!
Lovely Jubbly! If you like it, then I'll have to try it out. Looking forward to your next video!
Greetings Perry.
@@ExplainingComputers ...and Greetings back at you! It is always wonderful to be greeted by you. Wishing you a great day!
It's refreshing to see an unbiased review from a professional, I've seen so many reviews from diehard Linux nuts who are convinced that full blown Linux is the only way to go.
Thanks for this. I am a Linux fan, daily user and advocate. But I'm also pretty certain that already more people run Chrome OS (Flex) than any single desktop Linux distro. It all depends what a computer is going to be used for. But in some instances Chrome OS Flex I think is the best bet -- and it is certainly easier for most people to use, and delivers a better interface experience than any desktop Linux distro I've ever used. And given the resources that Google can devote, this should come as no surprise.
Such a useful video. Brilliantly explained. Thank you very much
An excellent video as always. Spurred me to have a go with a couple of old laptops, an ASUS Celeron and an HP i3, which are about 5 years old. The installation of Chrome OS flex went well on both machines. However, the i3 had the Linux addition greyed out so presumably not suitable for this VM. The ASUS allowed the installation to start but failed partway through (I tried it several times). What I found frustrating is that there is very little information on why this happens. The reason for failure is given as 'the Linux feature is still in development and may fail'. The Chrome OS Flex is very fast, but I'm reverting to Linux Mint!
Chrome OS has certainly come a long way. My laptop is a Chromebook and I love it. If all you do is web surfing, streaming, and run office apps you should throw away Windows and run Chrome OS Flex. I run Linux on my PC so I have the same apps on the PC and Chromebook. It's perfect!
I'd be interested in how easily I could get Wine applications running Windows programs within ChromeOS Flex.... unnecessarily difficult, I'm sure, but that's how things go... and half the fun is figuring out how to get such things running.
One of the main reasons I haven't played with ChromeOS Flex much is because of it not having the Android integration that they have on mainline ChromeOS, but I bet I could get a decent emulator running within the Linux VM.
I've yet to try WINE, but it may be interesting as you suggest! Certainly on my list to have a go.
The best OS ever, in my opinion, is Chrome OS Flex! particularly for someone who is minimalist like me
It simply completes the task without any further complications or roadblocks, going right to the purpose.
Interesting. I would not use this myself as I'm in the process of ditching Google, but I know people that would enjoy this approach to computing and be very happy with it.
This was a good video, unfortunatel in my experience this OS not ready for prime time at all.
Kernel panic was locking up a Mac mini X86 and a Lenovo 2in1 laptop.
Sure hope this will be resolved in the coming months.
Keep up the good work Chris..
Thanks so much for your (extra) fine tutoring skills! I enjoyed watching this, and it gave me more clarity on how to navigate around the Linux terminal on CB. 💜
Loving your video, simple, precise and informative. I'd love to ditch my widows machine in favour of my chrome set up but just can't find a way to play native DVD movies from a USB drive.
My grandsons have a pair of chromebooks issued by schools, but their screens are like10", and can't attach an external monitor for mom (visually impaired) dad and I to see what's on the screen to help with homework. I installed chrome flex on an old Lenovo B575e I had 'laying around', and we have duplicated the software and internet favorites on it to make us old people able to see what's up. Thank you Chrome Devs for making this possible! Now to start stretching the boy's environments to include more linux and RaspberryPi environments for computer science learning.
Very interesting.
@@ExplainingComputers Helps keep this old guy's brain active, too. I come from a background of IT Help Desk (users can be SOO creative on how to break computers) but these grandkids can blow them away, which is why I love the RPi computers, can just re-image in 5 minutes and they are back up and running...
Hi, ChromeOS Flex has support built in for DisplayLink type of docking stations. So you connect a dock via an USB cable to the laptop, then you can connect an external monitor, keyboard and mouse to the dock. The desktop will automatically extend to the extra monitor!
Adding solitaire was most important! Thanks for your videos, and I really appreciate them every time!
Always such informative videos Chris 🤠👍
Thanks 👍
🙏🏻 Thank you so much Chris! This video is exciting!
Interesting as always
Thanks for sharing your experiences with all of us 🙂
Very nice video 👍👍👍. It would be great if you could sometime make videos about Next-Cloud on x86 and on ARM. I think no one could explain it better.
Hello, fellow Christopher! Back agian.
Thank you for showing us the interesting features of ChromeOS Flex! I've used it a bit. I like it! I have also used FydeOS that is the same thing as what ChromeOS (regular) was, as far as i know, but is jsut open source.
I am referring to all of these other OS's for the Raspberry Pi4 4gb or larger, of course !!! 😊
(those are the kinds what i have)
Greetings fellow Christopher! :)
Tthank you a lot i have manage to install office in my chrome book using for video
Excellent!
Very impressive Chris, thanks!
Greetings Chris. :)
Another good video, much appreciated, for the older machines that don't support VM's, you could try FydeOS instead as it will give you full Chrome OS features like Android apps, I have a couple of really old touch screen PC's that run fantastic with ChromeOS Flex, but wont run full ChromeOS or even linux properly due to low spec, but they will also run FydeOS extremely well.
Does it still have the Google spyware etc.. Or can you use it without any Google tracking??
@@zakofrx Unsure, but you can use the core OS with local account only, but when you install open GAPS for Android support and you want to use the Google Play Store, well you know the answer there, but I was surprised how well the Android apps worked.
thanks very, very much. i've a asus flip book who chrome os says was unsurported but it still runns decent enough to give some life on it. but i'll try this video for testing other apps! thanks a lot!
thank you for sharing this this really helps✊😁
No problem 😊
It would make for a possible great Kodi platform, perhaps in a similar LibreElec is, that is it does one single thing... perhaps could run alongside official Disney+ apps etc via the Google Play Store if it's available.... so in effect creating your own more powerful Firestick?
Maybe not for everyone, but still an interesting OS,. Thanks Chris as always for a very interesting review and your insight...!
Take care and we'll see you next week :-)
Oh gods, why? Install stripped-down Linux to install a virtual machine with another full-featured Linux just to run normal applications. It feels so wrong...
Great review for the Chrome OS flex.
After all those nights tossing and turning deciding which distro to choose!
Thanks for another informative video. I very much enjoy your sense of humor.
:)
Not related to this video but:
It seems one of the big differences between SBCs for use as a desktop replacement is the availability of a GPU driver. Is there a resource to find out which SBCs, and which distros for that SBC, have GPU drivers?
That would make a difference to me on trying something other than a Raspberry Pi.
What you say is true. I am not aware of such a resource. Basically anything with a Rockchip Soc (eg an RK3588 or RK3399) is extremely unlikely to have a desktop Linux GPU driver. And it is fairly unlikely with all non-Pi models. So you are down to x86-based SBCs, like LattePanda models, or a Rock Pi X.
thank you Chris for another simply explained video :-)
The best feature is being able to pin Solitaire to the shelf. Just need Freecell and Spider to add to that list.
Thanks so much Chris, love the video!
This is great, I had installed chrome OS on an old laptop just to play with, but had pretty quickly got bored with just webapps being available .Not even an email client other than gmail (and unlike android g-mail, it has no support for non-gmail addresses).. I'd heard about the linux support inside chromeos, but didn't really think it would actually work this smoothly with the rest of the OS.
Definitely got some more things to check out now.
I would much rather use the Chrome operating system on my TV. Use it every day, but there comes a time when it doesn't update any longer and they leave you hanging. I believe it is every 5 years. Mine didn't make the 5 years because the 5 years starts from the time the machine was manufactured and not when you bought it! Mine had 4.3 years of updates and then no more. I have been using it for 5.5 years now because I don't like the price tag of a new machine. Love your videos. I'm 70 years old and not too sharp with computers nowadays. I used to be pretty good with the old IBM DOS system, so that dates me.
Thanks for this. The reason that I run Chrome OS Flex on a small PC connected to my TV is precisely for the reason you say. Any OS included on a TV never has long-term support. I very much believe that TV should be dumb monitors.
i have a relatively new but slower pc handed down from a relative, so this os works very well for me, thanks for the tips
Great to hear.
Thanks for the upload and a comment for the algorithm.
:)
Hi, I'm intrigued by your TV setup with the mini PC running Chrome OS Flex. My question is: how exactly do you control that PC? With a mouse and keyboard? Where are they located? I assume the mini-PC sits near/behind the TV itself. I'm trying to understand how you control it conveniently. Thank You!!! Great Video!!! 😊
I did this and used the TRY version first, I found it a bit slow but I was thinking that was because it was running off the pen drive via USD, but I wouldn't have thought the speed diffrence was so much more different?
Unless you have a very fast USB drive, an operating system will run considerably slower from a USB drive. You cannot guage operating system performance when running from a USB drive. :)