Google’s Chrome OS Flex early access program is available to anyone willing to provide their name, email, and company details. It won’t get Android apps themselves, or Linux (at least officially). Instead, Google announced this week that it is remaking CloudReady as “Chrome OS Flex” by putting a bunch of Google stuff into it: Chrome sync, Google Assistant, and some Android phone integrations. So my fear was that Google would acquire and eventually smother CloudReady, eliminating one good way to extend a device’s life without signing up for targeted advertising. Sometimes its lack of Google-tied features was a bonus. I rescued more than a few old laptops with CloudReady. CloudReady was an ideal old-computer OS, with its lighter memory and processor requirements and regular security updates.

The firm made a version that worked on many older Windows and Mac devices-and, in some cases, end-of-life Chromebooks. Neverware’s CloudReady is based on the open-source roots of Chrome and Chrome OS, Chromium and Chromium OS.

Rescuing an end-of-life Chromebook Pixel with CloudReady

Windows vs mac vs chrome