At the beginning of this year, Google introduced a new tool known as ChromeOS Flex. With this tool, anybody can breathe new life into an older Windows or Mac notebook by running Chrome OS on it. Following the release of ChromeOS Flex in “early access,” Google has announced that the operating system is now prepared to “scale globally” to a greater number of Macs and PCs.
The fundamentals have not changed. You may test whether or not your system is functioning correctly by creating a bootable Chrome OS installation on a USB drive by visiting the ChromeOS Flex website. If the test is successful, you will be able to completely replace the operating system on your previous machine with Chrome OS. Concerning the new features, Google claims it has validated compatibility with more than 400 distinct types of devices. One of the goals of the early access programme was to enable Google to collect a significant amount of user input and to address about 600 issues that have been discovered over the course of the past few months.
ChromeOS Flex may be installed by anybody, although Google is primarily marketing it as a tool for companies and schools to extend the usable life of ageing technology. Instead of manually updating each computer with a USB disc, IT teams may instead deliver Flex across their networks, which is a far more efficient method. Additionally, Google emphasises that Flex devices may be controlled via the Chrome Enterprise Upgrade. This upgrade enables departments to manage applications and policies across a whole fleet of computers and is available for purchase by businesses.
All of this transpires around one and a half years after Google purchased Neverware, the firm that came up with the concept of enabling people to convert their outdated personal computers into Chromebooks. Neverware’s CloudReady software will be migrated to Flex in the next weeks, and the standalone CloudReady product will be discontinued as a result of the widespread rollout of ChromeOS Flex. However, this should not be a significant problem for anyone because Flex is now reliable and includes certain capabilities that CloudReady did not have, such as support for Google Assistant.
