{"slug": "chromeos-flex", "name": "ChromeOS Flex", "category": "os", "category_name": "Operating systems and desktop", "description": "", "recommenders": 5, "commenters": 8, "warners": 0, "score": 5.28, "rising": -0.31, "first": "2025-11-23", "latest": "2026-09-10", "why": "I booted chromeos flex on a >12 year old laptop earlier this year and had a good experience with it.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 5, "neutral": 4, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "I booted chromeos flex on a >12 year old laptop earlier this year and had a good experience with it.", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "chromeos.google", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://chromeos.google/products/chromeos-flex/", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["ChromeOS Flex"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 794359553, "item_id": 49647472, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49647472", "by": "devy", "date": "2026-09-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "in particular to Google's ChromeOS Flex", "excerpt": "This makes strategic sense in multiple ways: 1. Rust's memory safety design will help Microsoft improve a gigantic portfolios of products that have been known to have lots of CVEs and 70% of them are memory safety issues, according to Azure CTO Mark Russinovich's talk at RustCon last year.[1] 2. Windows 11's forceful push to retire millions of legacy PC hardware by putting Windows 10 EOL last October was absurd for m", "context": "", "use_case": "Reviving old PC hardware", "switched_from": "", "story": "Rust is tier-1 language at Microsoft"}, {"id": 785517136, "item_id": 49094821, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49094821", "by": "farfatched", "date": "2026-07-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "If you still want ChromeOS, try", "excerpt": "If you still want ChromeOS, try https://chromeos.google/intl/en_au/products/chromeos-flex/ If you want to boot a Linux distribution, try https://docs.mrchromebox.tech/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "More Tailscale tricks for your jailbroken Kindle"}, {"id": 769826017, "item_id": 48114126, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48114126", "by": "lurn_mor", "date": "2026-05-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's a great stopgap OS for older hardware.", "excerpt": "You can install ChromeOS on a Mac: https://chromeos.google/products/chromeos-flex/ It's a great stopgap OS for older hardware.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Googlebook: Designed for Gemini Intelligence \u2013 Coming Fall 2026 \u2013 Googlebook"}, {"id": 757264448, "item_id": 47329028, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47329028", "by": "konaraddi", "date": "2026-03-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I booted chromeos flex on a >12 year old laptop earlier this year and had a good experience with it.", "excerpt": "I booted chromeos flex on a >12 year old laptop earlier this year and had a good experience with it. I wrote a bit about it here https://konaraddi.com/writing/2026-01-01-chromeos-flex/ (tl;dr tried to use fedora at first but no luck with WiFi out of the box then I used chromeos flex and it worked out of the box)", "context": "", "use_case": "reviving old laptop", "switched_from": "Fedora", "story": "$3 ChromeOS Flex stick will revive old and outdated computers"}, {"id": 753883376, "item_id": 47117711, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47117711", "by": "manjose2018", "date": "2026-02-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Put ChromeOS Flex on them", "excerpt": "https://chromeos.google/products/chromeos-flex/ 1. Find older Intel Core Based Windows Laptops (at least 6GB of RAM) 2. Put ChromeOS Flex on them 3. Students will be sad it is still ChromeOS, but they will be happy it is like 3x faster. I had an old Windows laptop laying around and I did this for my 80 yr old parents and they were super happy.", "context": "", "use_case": "Install on old laptops", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Chromebook Leads for K-8 School In Need?"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["reviving old pc hardware", "reviving old laptop", "install on old laptops", "repurposing old thinkpad", "considered for dad's computer"], "compared": [{"slug": "fedora", "name": "Fedora", "co": 1, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49643546", "title": "Rust is tier-1 language at Microsoft", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49093569", "title": "More Tailscale tricks for your jailbroken Kindle", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48111545", "title": "Googlebook: Designed for Gemini Intelligence \u2013 Coming Fall 2026 \u2013 Googlebook", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47885596", "title": "Ubuntu 26.04 LTS Released", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47325381", "title": "$3 ChromeOS Flex stick will revive old and outdated computers", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47298161", "title": "I replaced my freelance SaaS stack with 5 single-file HTML tools", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"neutral": 1}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-03": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-04": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 794359553, "item_id": 49647472, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49647472", "by": "devy", "date": "2026-09-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "in particular to Google's ChromeOS Flex", "excerpt": "This makes strategic sense in multiple ways: 1. Rust's memory safety design will help Microsoft improve a gigantic portfolios of products that have been known to have lots of CVEs and 70% of them are memory safety issues, according to Azure CTO Mark Russinovich's talk at RustCon last year.[1] 2. Windows 11's forceful push to retire millions of legacy PC hardware by putting Windows 10 EOL last October was absurd for m", "context": "", "use_case": "Reviving old PC hardware", "switched_from": "", "story": "Rust is tier-1 language at Microsoft"}, {"id": 785517136, "item_id": 49094821, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49094821", "by": "farfatched", "date": "2026-07-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "If you still want ChromeOS, try", "excerpt": "If you still want ChromeOS, try https://chromeos.google/intl/en_au/products/chromeos-flex/ If you want to boot a Linux distribution, try https://docs.mrchromebox.tech/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "More Tailscale tricks for your jailbroken Kindle"}, {"id": 769826017, "item_id": 48114126, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48114126", "by": "lurn_mor", "date": "2026-05-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's a great stopgap OS for older hardware.", "excerpt": "You can install ChromeOS on a Mac: https://chromeos.google/products/chromeos-flex/ It's a great stopgap OS for older hardware.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Googlebook: Designed for Gemini Intelligence \u2013 Coming Fall 2026 \u2013 Googlebook"}, {"id": 766215251, "item_id": 47888453, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47888453", "by": "lproven", "date": "2026-04-24", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Companies with cloud-based IT are deploying ChromeOS Flex as a response to ransomware attach.", "excerpt": "This isn't true any more, and hasn't been for some years, you know. It was true but times change. Microsoft chose to kill off Windows 10, which it once promised would be the last desktop Windows ever. Its replacement is bigger, slower, stuffed with adverts and upselling attempts, and has an artificial demand for TPM 2. That's driven thousands of people to check out Linux, and if you don't know anything about Linux, t", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ubuntu 26.04 LTS Released"}, {"id": 757264448, "item_id": 47329028, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47329028", "by": "konaraddi", "date": "2026-03-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I booted chromeos flex on a >12 year old laptop earlier this year and had a good experience with it.", "excerpt": "I booted chromeos flex on a >12 year old laptop earlier this year and had a good experience with it. I wrote a bit about it here https://konaraddi.com/writing/2026-01-01-chromeos-flex/ (tl;dr tried to use fedora at first but no luck with WiFi out of the box then I used chromeos flex and it worked out of the box)", "context": "", "use_case": "reviving old laptop", "switched_from": "Fedora", "story": "$3 ChromeOS Flex stick will revive old and outdated computers"}, {"id": 757225344, "item_id": 47326584, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47326584", "by": "lurn_mor", "date": "2026-03-10", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "With a future of ChromeOS Flex running on millions of older hardware", "excerpt": "I blogged about the shift to 'local only' web apps that seem to be proliferating: http://www.undr.com/understatement/2026/feb13_web_apps_work_locally/index.html With a future of ChromeOS Flex running on millions of older hardware, the browser is the new 'App Store'. ...and congrats on reducing your dependency on third party tools!", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "I replaced my freelance SaaS stack with 5 single-file HTML tools"}, {"id": 753883376, "item_id": 47117711, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47117711", "by": "manjose2018", "date": "2026-02-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Put ChromeOS Flex on them", "excerpt": "https://chromeos.google/products/chromeos-flex/ 1. Find older Intel Core Based Windows Laptops (at least 6GB of RAM) 2. Put ChromeOS Flex on them 3. Students will be sad it is still ChromeOS, but they will be happy it is like 3x faster. I had an old Windows laptop laying around and I did this for my 80 yr old parents and they were super happy.", "context": "", "use_case": "Install on old laptops", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Chromebook Leads for K-8 School In Need?"}, {"id": 746667344, "item_id": 46666709, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46666709", "by": "arianvanp", "date": "2026-01-18", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "slapped ChromeOS Flex on it", "excerpt": "I used my ThinkPad T430s for 12 years. I got it second hand from a developer I looked up to when I was in college and it carried me through a large part of my career. Loved that machine to death. When I finally replaced it with a Framework a few years back I've regretted every second of it. The ThinkPad still lives. I refurbished the batteries and slapped ChromeOS Flex on it and donated it to a Ukrainian refugee who ", "context": "", "use_case": "repurposing old ThinkPad", "switched_from": "", "story": "Spirit of ThinkPad"}, {"id": 736419120, "item_id": 46026195, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46026195", "by": "liveoneggs", "date": "2025-11-23", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I am, unironically, considering this for my dad's computer", "excerpt": "I am, unironically, considering this for my dad's computer: https://chromeos.google/products/chromeos-flex/", "context": "", "use_case": "Considered for dad's computer", "switched_from": "", "story": "Are consumers just tech debt to Microsoft?"}]}