Google's ChromeOS Flex turned my old MacBook into new frustrations
- Reference: 1659956412
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/08/08/chromeos_flex_review/
- Source link:
Google [1]bills ChromeOS Flex as a "cloud-first, fast, easy-to-manage and secure operating system for PCs and Macs."
I think "a slightly posh version of Chrome OS" is a more accurate description.
[2]
Google also reckons the OS offers "a sustainable way to modernize devices that you already own."
Google's claim that ChromeOS Flex is ecologically responsible is optimistic
I already own a 2017 MacBook Air 7.2, which one of my kids retired. Four years of use at school and university had left it dented and a little rattly, but operational – save for a battery that seldom holds more than a few minutes’ charge.
I decided to try ChromeOS Flex and see if it would make the machine the kind of computer I could leave in my home office as a tolerable backup if my main machine suffered a misfortune.
[3]
[4]
Installing the OS requires you to first add the Chromebook Recovery Utility to Google's Chrome browser. The Utility walks you through the process of creating a boot disk on a USB drive or SD card.
To run ChromeOS Flex you need to divert your target machine's boot process away from its internal drive to the boot disk you just created – which usually involves a keypress during restart to produce the choice of running from the boot disk or a full installation.
[5]
Google's boot disk creation process is uncomplicated – if you've taken care to select fast media. I didn't. I optimistically dived into my [6]USB stick collection and found one of the required 8GB or greater capacity – but forgot to consider speed.
The stick I chose – a weird one from ASUS that [7]looks like a Starfleet logo – turned out to be unusably slow when used to run the OS without installation on the MacBook's SSD.
I know: silly me.
[8]
After some negotiations with my offspring, who admitted they had gone without the data on the MacBook's disk for eight months and wouldn't miss it, I went for a full install.
[9]
ChromeOS Flex desktop. Click to enlarge
An hour later, the MacBook had become a ChromeOS FlexBook – after a few jittery moments of on-screen white noise during the install process. Setup was slick and simple – once I fed the machine my Google credentials and a Wi-Fi password it just started working.
If you've used a Chromebook you know the drill: Google offers a few apps, but expects you'll do almost everything in its Chrome browser.
I'm one of [10]those people using Google's legacy (free) version of the Workspaces cloudy productivity suite. Here at The Register we also use Workspaces. Signing in to ChromeOS Flex therefore gave me a very familiar experience – and some frustrations.
In Windows or macOS, Chrome is good at allowing tabs to be logged into different Workspaces accounts. ChromeOS Flex treats whichever Google account you tie to the OS as the boss of the machine. Adding my Reg account took more effort than I wanted.
One thing ChromeOS Flex can't do is run Android apps. Other Chromebooks can, so this is a significant omission. [11]Zwift, the cycling metaverse I employ and enjoy for early morning exercise, is available on Android and I quite fancied using the MacBook as a backup machine for that, and as a test of ChromeOS Flex's ability to do things like handle multiple simultaneous Bluetooth connections while running a graphics-intense application.
Sadly we'll never know, because the OS is so disappointingly browser-based.
[12]Chromebooks are here to stay thanks to COVID, even though shipments crashed: IDC
[13]The sad state of Linux desktop diversity: 21 environments, just 2 designs
[14]Google is designing its own Arm-based processors for 2023 Chromebooks – report
Which brings me to some obscure browser history.
In the mid-2000s, a thing called an SSB – which stood for "single site browser" or "site-specific browser" – briefly became popular. SSBs offered a browser window slaved to a single website and shorn of an address bar and all navigation buttons. SSBs convinced the OS they were applications that deserved a place in the ALT-TAB rotation.
SSBs were persistent: you could create a shortcut to a web page and it would always spawn in its own SSB window. Just like an application.
I never understood why SSBs didn't take off, and using ChromeOS Flex made me pine for them – because constantly being kicked into another Chrome tab is not much fun. Yes, it's possible to pull tabs out into their own window, but that takes time.
Desktop tourism? PCs and alternative devices have increasingly diversified into myriad and marvellous forms, so I've decided that in 2022 I'll use a different one each month and share the experience. This article is the latest part [15]in this series of mini-reviews and is actually the July instalment for reasons too tedious to detail.
If Google had brought an SSB-like experience to ChromeOS Flex, I feel the product would be much more useful.
I also found the OS immature. I wanted to include some screenshots of my experience in this story. Doing so in ChromeOS – not Flex – requires a three-way keypress that includes the "Show Windows" button included in Chromebooks.
MacBooks have no such key. And if Google has documented how to emulate one, I could not find evidence.
I therefore turned to Chrome Extensions. Most of the screenshot-taking extensions I found issued ominous warnings they could control all data in a browser window. I decided to risk that, dear reader, but couldn't find one that would reliably take a screenshot of the entire ChromeOS Flex experience with multiple windows and Google's taskbar unfurled
If something as simple as a good screenshot is hard to do, what other frustrations might await users?
Too many, I fear. So while I was able to get through a day's work in the OS, moving back to Windows was a relief.
Google bills ChromeOS Flex as a fine way to connect to virtual desktops. I tested that by using the Chrome Remote Desktop extension to connect to my workhorse Windows laptop, which was connected to an external monitor at the time.
At the end of my time working in ChromeOS Flex I wanted to reinstall macOS
ChromeOS Flex shoe-horned both the built-in-display and external screen into an unusable strip across the center of the MacBook screen. Once I yanked the HDMI cable from my Windows laptop, desktop access was smooth and slick, but needed a little work to resize the remote machine to a usable size.
At the end of my time working in ChromeOS Flex I wanted to reinstall macOS. The MacBook would still be a machine of last resort, but at least it would be more usable, more often. I suspect it would be more manageable, too, given that owners of the Windows and macOS fleets Google has targeted with ChromeOS Flex may already be familiar with client-wrangling tools.
I also came away thinking that Google's claim that ChromeOS Flex is an ecologically responsible alternative to junking old endpoints is optimistic. My MacBook's power supply has kinked cables: how long before they give out? And how long will the rattly and floppy hinge remain viable?
I'll therefore happily put ChromeOS in the recycle bin. And suspect the MacBook really belongs there, too. ®
Get our [16]Tech Resources
[1] https://chromeenterprise.google/os/chromeosflex/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YvEzI7THWtirb@Gv3EHhFAAAAFE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YvEzI7THWtirb@Gv3EHhFAAAAFE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YvEzI7THWtirb@Gv3EHhFAAAAFE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
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[6] https://twitter.com/hashtag/historyofusbsticks?src=hashtag_click
[7] https://twitter.com/ssharwood/status/1258232624587223040
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YvEzI7THWtirb@Gv3EHhFAAAAFE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://regmedia.co.uk/2022/08/08/screenshot_chrome_os_flex_desktop.jpg
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/18/google_keeps_legacy_g_suite/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/08/zwift_as_metaverse_review/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/02/idc_chromebook_tablet_trackers/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/17/linux_desktop_feature/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/02/google_chromebook_chips/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/Tag/Desktop%20tourism/
[16] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
moving back to Windows was a relief
Damn, that's harsh.
Re: moving back to Windows was a relief
The harsh reality is Google are a Linux shop - mostly - and so anything that is marginally better than the typical user experience their developers encounter on a daily basis is assumed to be the best experience possible.
When in reality desktop Linux is (more specifically its UI offerings) still woefully lacking on the user experience front and at least a decade behind MacOS and Windows.
Re: moving back to Windows was a relief
Well, the first step backward in IT was thinking an OS designed at the end of the Sixties was the cool new thing.... till then people used to think forward, not backward.
Re: moving back to Windows was a relief
Do you have the same backwards opinion on staff "designed" at the end of the 60's?
Newer doesn't necessarily mean better. It should do, but the world is getting dumber not brighter.
Alternatively
I do real work on an older lappie than that, and far from top of the range even when first built. Maximum RAM, an SSD and a lightweight Linux desktop make it better than new. The one I replaced with this is still doing sterling work for a friend at 11-12 years of age.
Mind you, nobody has been attacking the mains lead on those.
Re: Alternatively
Even on Windows (and ignoring the rubbish built into Windows 11 to try and make users upgrade their hardware), the addition of an SSD (and possibly a bit of RAM) to any older laptop will make it feel like new. Or even better than new.
I've suggested to many friends and family that they really should save themselves the cash and upgrade to an SSD and all, so far, have agreed.
Those heady days of the late 90's and early 2000's where every new generation of CPU made huge leaps in terms of performance are long behind us and it's rare for your average user to need or even care about the latest and greatest developments in hardware.
Re: Alternatively
"I do real work on an older lappie than that"
Well, I recently changed from a 15-years old 2-core CoreDuo to a modern Intel i7-12700H with 32 GB of RAM and PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs. Yes, it definitely is faster, but better? I don't know. The older one had definitely a better keyboard. Also the old screen was 1920x1200, while the new one is only 1920x1080, so I definitely lost some real estate to the common misconception that laptops are only used to watch movies.
My point is, "new" doesn't necessarily mean "better", no matter the money you put into it.
"I never understood why SSBs didn't take off,"
They're alive and well. They're called PWAs. (Progressive Web App.)
Err no they are not. PWAs are not SSBs and vice versa.
Aren't Electron based apps the SSB equivalent of today?
If so, they should have stayed dead.
No, with electron you have a copy of chrome running per electron app you have running, with SSBs they just told your browser to spawn a special window and used your browser engine to power it and they told your browser to stay alive in the background as long as the window was open.
Notice when you pay with PayPal on some sites a new window pops up that has no URL bar or buttons at top, that is close to what a SSB was.
In fact Firefox itself is an SSB, the whole UI is a webpage rendered inside a window with no decorations.
Beta worked fine, full release not so much
I tried a couple of Beta versions of Chrome OS Flex (via USB 3 sticks) on my 2012 Mac Mini, they worked fine, once I'd fed in my Google account everything just worked.
The full released version though hung after I'd entered my account and flat out refused to boot fully.
Maybe they don't support 10 year old Minis, which is fine I suppose, but it's odd that the Betas were fine but not the final version
Making a bed to sleep in
I think "a slightly posh version of Chrome OS" is a more accurate description.
I haven't tried it yet but that is what I would be expecting, not even "posher" to be honest.
Google also reckons the OS offers "a sustainable way to modernize devices that you already own."
Seems reasonable where "modern" means an OS which launches a browser which is "all you need".
I also came away thinking that Google's claim that ChromeOS Flex is an ecologically responsible alternative to junking old endpoints is optimistic. My MacBook's power supply has kinked cables: how long before they give out? And how long will the rattly and floppy hinge remain viable?
Keeping something going till end of physical life where it would have been binned otherwise seems reasonable to me.
Chromebooks, ChromeOS, Flex, and all the rest, are fine if they suit your needs and, for many people, they will. But not everyone.
This is not for you. Simple as that.
Paris Hilton has no angle when wearing a cloak of invisibility ->
Re: Making a bed to sleep in
Linus also reckons the t Linux offers "a sustainable way to modernize devices that you already own."
There fixed it for you...
Remember Google giveth and Google sucketh your life from the re-purposed machine.
Re: Making a bed to sleep in
You could install a later version of macOS onto a Mac forced into obsolescence by Apple by using a patcher from [1]DosDude1 , otherwise you could install Windows or one of the more polished Linux distros.
And all three would be better options than turning it into yet another Google data endpoint by installing ChromeOS.
[1] http://dosdude1.com/software.html
Firefox still my browser of choice
Has a "Take a screenshot" button built in (which is hidden away in items you can add to toolbar via Customise Toolbar...).
I also like that there are RSS feed Extensions available (which used to be built in), but not in Chromium Browser [at least not last time I looked]).
Was going to try ChromeOS Flex on an older Dell Optiplex that's supported, but won't bother now.
Probably better using a lightweight X-Windows based desktop variant from Linux Mint or Xubuntu or Debian etc.
SSB Features are in Chrome
You can create an SSB Shortcut in Chrome by going into the application menu, more tools, "create shortcut" and then check the box for "open as window". This will create a shortcut in the launcher that will launch a website as a primary window.
Google creates substandard user experience shocker!
I'm shocked, I tell you.
Not sure what was expected..
To me, ChromeBooks already seem like fisher-price systems to give to the kids to write their school report in Google Docs on and nothing else.
Not sure why anybody would expect more out of it than that.
Keep in mind that 'The Cloud' is someone else's computer.
Someone else owns it. Someone else controls it. Can someone else look at your data? The police and alphabet agencies think they have a right to. I prefer to keep control of my own data. Not everybody is doing something dodgy. Most of us are reasonable honest, regardless of what the paranoid control freaks in charge think.
Backups for your data are as simple as a flash drive or a portable hard drive. Interment or no Internet can be a pain when everything is cloudy.
As an aside, everything computering, including the Internet thingies, have has a UPS on the mains powering them. Around here (US of A), area wide power failures don't seem to affect the Internet feed.
I’ll take that MacBook off your hands
It’s newer than my main Mac desktop machine at home…
Re: I’ll take that MacBook off your hands
I know, right? My NEWEST laptop is a 2018 MacBook Air. A 2017 is a fully functional modern laptop that can run current macOS. There's absolutely no reason to even remotely consider recycling it.
I know the article was really about how ChromeOS is crap, but that line was just offensive.
Modern Computing
> Google says this is ‘modern’ computing – if so it feels like a backward step
Welcome to the 2020ies. "Modern computing" nowadays does indeed mean "backwards step", at least from the user experience point of view (and sorry, as a user that's something I care strongly about).
Windows is a nice example, progressively getting worse version after version, but others just jumped ahead: More pretense, less usability, less freedom, more monetization (and please make it as annoying and counterproductive as possible to show the lusers who's boss).