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    Meet Chrome OS Flex, Google’s new weapon for desktop domination

    Google’s Chrome OS platform has come a ridiculously good distance in an extremely brief time.Back when it launched in 2010, Chrome OS actually was only a browser in a field — a dead-simple working system designed to behave as a portal to the net and never way more. The software program had no desktop, no job bar, and barely even something in the way in which of settings. It was basically only a full-screen browser window — and that is it.Fast-forward to 2022, and Chrome OS is a completely featured and impressively polished computing resolution. Between the platform’s ongoing growth and the speedy evolution in how all of us use computer systems, Chromebooks at the moment are a genuinely sensible and infrequently advantageous possibility for enterprise, private, and education-related use.The trick now for Google, significantly on the enterprise entrance, is getting corporations to surrender the Windows behavior and really give Chrome OS a attempt.Part of that problem is closing the gaps with how some corporations nonetheless strategy computing. Plain and easy, whereas Chrome OS would possibly have the ability to deal with 95% of a typical group’s wants, plenty of locations nonetheless depend on legacy applications that function solely within the Windows atmosphere. So slightly over a 12 months in the past, Google got here up with a strategy to deal with that and supply enterprises the power to run Windows apps inside Chrome OS with nearly no ongoing effort.[Get fresh Googley insight in your inbox with my Android Intelligence newsletter. Three things to know and three things to try every Friday!] But the opposite a part of the problem is just the truth that making a leap to the entire different platform is a frightening and likewise expensive change — particularly when most corporations have stockpiles of still-functioning previous Windows programs sitting round and accumulating mud.That’s precisely the place a brand new effort known as Chrome OS Flex comes into play. Chrome OS Flex is a wild new program that makes it nearly laughably straightforward to transform any previous Windows or Mac system into a completely functioning Chrome OS system — one which’s up to date each 4 weeks, identical to an everyday Chromebook, and at all times as safe as might be. The craziest a part of all? The software program and every little thing round it’s fully free and obtainable for anybody — companies, colleges, and even people — to make use of.The Chrome OS Flex muscleIf you’ve got been studying this column and following the Chrome OS ecosystem for lengthy, the idea behind Chrome OS Flex would possibly sound acquainted. And it ought to.Chrome OS Flex is actually an evolution of a third-party software program setup known as CloudReady. CloudReady used Google’s open-source Chromium code to create a Chrome-OS-like atmosphere that might be utilized to any previous pc after which up to date frequently through CloudReady’s personal ongoing efforts.It was a superb setup, however as an unofficial, non-Google-associated mission, it got here with some inevitable limitations. CloudReady could not play video from Netflix or sure different streaming companies with out pretty complicated workarounds, as an illustration. Some Google companies, similar to Drive and Maps, did not at all times work as anticipated within the CloudReady atmosphere. The exceptionally efficient Powerwash system for resetting a Chrome OS system wasn’t obtainable inside CloudReady in any respect. And normal Google options like Google Assistant, which has turn out to be a core a part of the Chromebook productiveness bundle, have been lacking solely on CloudReady-converted computer systems. In December of 2020, although, Google purchased the corporate behind CloudReady. Chrome OS Flex is the results of that buy — a freshly Googleized model of the CloudReady idea, now that includes native integration with the remainder of the Google ecosystem and with most of these previous asterisks stripped away.And beginning as we speak, anybody can obtain the brand new software program, load it onto a USB drive, and have it up and operating on any previous Windows or Mac system in a matter of minutes.”You get this [opportunity] to refresh your PCs and Macs with our fast and secure operating system,” says Thomas Riedl, Google’s director of enterprise and schooling merchandise. “At the same time, you also get an opportunity to try new hardware that fits your needs.”Chrome OS Flex provides you nearly all the advantages of a full-fledged Chromebook, in different phrases, with none of the related prices or commitments. All you want is a Windows or Mac system and about 5 minutes to make the transition and provides your present system a complete new life. And it is one which’ll be instantly recognizable to anybody who’s ever used a Chromebook.Chrome OS Flex vs. the usual Chromebook experienceWhat’s most fascinating about Chrome OS Flex, much more than its CloudReady predecessor, is how impossibly related the expertise is to the usual Chrome OS setup on the floor. At first look particularly, most folk most likely would not discover any distinction.Here, for illustration, is a screenshot of the principle Chrome OS Flex desktop interface: Google

    Yes, that is Chrome OS Flex — nevertheless it might simply as nicely be Chrome OS itself.

    Even essentially the most observant Chromebook aficionados amongst us could be hard-pressed to inform that aside from what you see on a local Chrome-OS-running Chromebook system.Chrome OS Flex will get up to date on the identical cadence as the usual Chrome OS software program, too, and any units operating Chrome OS Flex might be managed proper alongside common Chromebooks within the Google Workspace Admin device.”There are so many great benefits to effectively leverage a huge Windows fleet and bring it into the Chrome OS family without having to go through new hardware purchases first,” Riedl says.So what is the catch? Believe it or not, there actually is not one. From Google’s perspective, anybody utilizing Chrome OS Flex is clearly turning into extra engaged with the general Google ecosystem and all the companies round it. And whereas the software program itself could also be free, corporations and colleges are more likely to proceed investing in each Workspace and future Chromebook units for the all-in-one managed expertise Chrome OS Flex is part of.That being mentioned, for all of its similarities, a transformed Chrome OS Flex pc will lack a number of the advantages you get with a full-fledged Chrome OS system. Foundationally, it is not doable for a transformed system to have the identical end-to-end safety mannequin an precise Chromebook can present, when the processor and verified {hardware} are all a part of the only identical bundle.Beyond that, Chrome OS Flex computer systems will not presently have the ability to entry the Google Play Store and benefit from the Android apps on Chrome OS benefit. That’s one thing Google advised might change finally however wasn’t doable on this present early model of the trouble (which, by the way in which, is technically nonetheless in an “early access” state).The aforementioned Windows-app compatibility setup additionally will not be obtainable throughout the Chrome OS Flex atmosphere, which is perhaps a superb factor — as we might be going through some dizzying M.C. Escher-esque moments if we transformed Windows computer systems to Chrome OS after which ran Windows inside ’em (probably even with Chrome operating throughout the Windows window inside the Chrome OS working on the previous Windows pc — yeesh! My head hurts).But the core Chrome OS Flex expertise genuinely is free and broadly obtainable, and updates for transformed units will proceed roughly indefinitely — as long as the related {hardware} is ready to help it. (Officially, Chrome OS Flex may have a “certified device list” with dates for a way lengthy full help is assured — identical to CloudReady did — however you may set up the software program on any pc you need, even when it is not on that record, after which proceed to get updates with none actual cutoff. Google simply cannot assure full compatibility exterior of the units and dates on that record.)As for anybody who was already utilizing CloudReady, as soon as Chrome OS Flex strikes out of its present testing section and into a completely steady state, all present prospects will obtain an over-the-air replace that’ll seamlessly shift them from the newest CloudReady construct to the newest Chrome OS Flex equal — a transition that was rigorously deliberate to make sure “nobody feels punished or disincentivized,” as former CloudReady product director Forrest Smith, who’s now working as a Google product supervisor on the Chrome OS staff, advised me.The different million-dollar query in my thoughts is that if/when the identical easy transition might work on present Chromebooks as nicely. After all, a full-fledged Chromebook has a set period of time by which it receives ongoing working system updates — and whereas that window of help has been prolonged significantly lately, it nonetheless places a agency finish date on a Chrome OS system’s lifespan and the time by which it is advisable to make use of.CloudReady by no means supported that risk, because the absolutely built-in nature of official Chromebook {hardware} made it tough to override the default working system and guarantee full compatibility. Now that the software program is an official a part of Google, although, that might someday change — possibly.As of now, Chrome OS Flex would not formally help set up on present Chromebooks — solely Windows and Mac computer systems. But broadly talking, Smith tells me he thinks they will “shoot a lot higher on broad, solid hardware compatibility” as time goes on. And he and Riedl each emphasised that that is very early days for this system and that issues will solely develop from right here.In different phrases, time will inform. But the ambitions listed here are excessive, and just about something’s doable.The larger Chrome OS imageSo that is the sensible facet of this. From a bigger-picture perspective, although, the implications of Chrome OS Flex are huge.When Google first acquired CloudReady again on the finish of 2020, I wrote that the corporate had “quietly set the stage for a Chrome OS explosion.” Go, go, gadget time-machine:
    The very definition of what a Chromebook is might increase exponentially. Instead of a Chromebook being a pc created and offered explicitly to run Chrome OS, a Chromebook might basically turn out to be any pc on which Chrome OS is put in. Converting an previous Windows or Mac system right into a Chromebook … needs to be nearly the identical as shopping for a brand new pc with Chrome OS, virtually talking.
    And which means individuals — and maybe most critically, corporations — might take an deserted previous Windows or Mac pc out of storage and switch it into a completely purposeful, official-update-receiving Chromebook, with minimal price, ample benefits, and few to no asterisks connected.
    Fourteen months later, and right here we’re. That’s precisely what’s occurring.Make no mistake about it: This is a large leap ahead for Chrome OS and its capacity to invade the desktop computing area — particularly within the enterprise and schooling realms, the place easy streamlined administration is important and dusty previous computer systems are aplenty.Big issues are most actually a-brewin’ right here within the land of Googley issues. And what we’re seeing now might critically shift the state of desktop computing — once more.Want much more Googley information? Sign up for my weekly publication to get next-level suggestions and perception delivered on to your inbox.

    Copyright © 2022 IDG Communications, Inc.

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