[Daniel's Intro] (Subtitles by: Chaimann)
There are lots of different operating systems in the world, starting with the most popular and recognizable ones like Windows, the Linux kernel and macOS, and going as far as the unusual ones like Haiku, TempleOS and KolibriOS.
But have you ever heard of Chrome OS (aka Chromium OS)?
Simply put, it's a browser-based operating system.
There are also computers made by Google - the Chromebooks, so eventually people made this even as a separate kind of computer with this system on board - named Chromebooks, just like the OS itself.
If you've ever watched Dmitry Bachilo's holiday videos, you might have seen that he always had an ASUS Chromebook with Chrome OS on it on his desk.
And now, quite recently, Google released Chrome OS Flex in July 2021, a fork of the mainstream Chrome OS that is optimized for legacy PC and Mac hardware.
The Chrome OS Flex is offered as a "second life" for old computers in companies and educational facilities.
In the end I was very curious and asked what this OS was all about. How does it work and, as they say, how does it taste?
In this video, we will take a look at Chrome OS Flex, install it, write it on a flash drive step by step, and explore it a little bit.
Well, let's begin, I guess.
Before we get to Chrome OS Flex itself - let's take a short look at the history of this system: how it came to be and where it all started in the first place.
It all began back in 2009, when Google announced a new system on July 7.
Later, the company announced that Chrome OS was not going to be released on personal computers, but only on netbooks, as they had some actuality back then.
During the presentation of the system, the Chrome OS technical director said that it consumed about sixty times less disk space than the latest version of Windows at the time, which was Windows 7.
Just to remind you, Windows 7's official system requirements needed at least 16 to 20 GB of free hard disk space, based on the OS' bit requirements (32-bit or 64-bit).
As for the Chrome OS, it only needed from 1GB to 3GB to be fully functional.
After the system was presented, the source code for it was made freely available by the name of Chromium OS.
There are few differences between Chromium OS and Chrome OS - whereas the first one exists entirely as a source code and does not include any proprietary components, the second one comes with Google services included in the package.
Chrome OS was based on Gentoo GNU/Linux distribution from the very beginning as well as the Chromium OS project, which is based on the same distro.
At the Google I/O conference, the company has announced two upcoming Chromebooks from Samsung and Acer.
Samsung's Chrome OS laptops came out on June 15, 2011, which makes this the birthday of the system.
Acer's laptop came out a little later, in July 2011. These devices were popularly known as "Chromebooks".
But before Samsung and Acer, there was a Chromebook prototype in 2010, essentially the earliest of the first, the Google CR-48.
Google was sending it out to the developers, schools, and companies that were interested in it.
This machine has a 12-inch screen; a Wi-Fi and 3G adapters; a slot for SD cards and VGA output; and as the drive here is an SSD.
It is likely that the processor installed here is Intel, but which one it is, it was not reported anywhere - even no stickers that identify exactly the model of the processor, or in the BIOS.
With the first versions of Chrome OS, you could only install a few apps that supported native startup, and the rest of the Chrome OS apps were just web extensions.
One year after the system's release, a global update is available with which Chrome OS has shifted away from its original "web browser OS" concept and has become more like a desktop operating system.
In addition, the system added support for the recently launched Google Drive service and dropped support for Adobe Flash Player in the system itself, although the Chrome OS Flash Player remained in the sandbox.
As of 2014, the system now supported Android mobile device synchronization, as well as the ability to run applications from Google Play.
This innovation, I believe, began to increase the popularity of Chrome OS in the eyes of ordinary users.
In that same year, the system received a new Material Design look and feel.
Starting with Chrome OS 69, which came out in 2018, there was now a Debian-based virtual environment support.
This will allow the students to use programming languages and various development tools as well as the applications in a dedicated secure environment isolated from the Chrome OS, according to Google.
In addition to the original Chrome OS from Google, there was also a CloudReady OS made by Neverware.
The basic concept of this modification was to turn outdated and low-powered laptops based on x86 processors into the "Chromebooks".
And in 2020, Google quietly bought that one company that was developing this particular distro, and so in 2022, the Chrome OS Flex comes out based on that system.
Chrome OS has a market share of more than 5% in the US, but if you take a global view, it's only 1.1%.
The OS is being actively developed and enhanced with new features.
So, where is Chrome OS used?
Basically, apart from "Chromebooks" this system is not used anywhere, however, in general, no one and nothing prevents you to install this system on your own PC.
As previously mentioned, the Chrome OS has a market share of more than 5% in the US, but if you take a global view, it's only 1.1%.
It is popular in various educational facilities in the US.
All right, I tried to tell you about the history as briefly as possible, so now we can start burning the installation image to a flash drive and install this system on a real PC.
Where can you download all of this stuff...?
No, you can't download it from the official website, as you may have thought.
In order to download the image, go to the Chrome Web Store, search for the "Chromebook Recovery Utility" application and download it.
After you open the app and the starting screen is displayed, which says that "You'll need an 8 GB or larger USB flash drive or SD card that you don't mind erasing".
Plug the flash drive into the computer and move on to the next step.
After that we need to enter our Chromebook's model number or select it from the list.
I don't have a Chromebook so in my case I am choosing the "Google Chrome OS Flex" manufacturer and a model of the same name.
After that we have to choose our flash drive, which should be at least 8 GB, and then you will be warned about the fact...
...that it will download and write a full Chrome OS image to the specified flash drive, deleting all the data on it.
Let's press "Create now" and let it finish downloading and writing.
For the most part, the time it takes to create a boot image will depend on your internet speed - for me personally, it took 45 minutes to do it from the start to finish.
After all that waiting, we now have a flash drive with a full-fledged Chrome OS living on it.
But now that we've written everything down, let's proceed to testing the OS on a real computer.
We will test it on an ASUS F80L laptop. It was released in 2007 and has Windows Vista on board.
This laptop has 2GB of RAM and an Intel Pentium T3200 processor running at 2GHz on the m478 socket.
The laptop's motherboard makes it easy to replace not only the Wi-Fi module, the hard drive or RAM, but the entire processor.
A 160GB hard drive from Seagate.
It has a 14-inch display with a resolution of 1280x800 pixels and a 16:10 aspect ratio.
It has no discrete graphics - only an integrated one from Intel.
This laptop currently has 3GB of RAM installed and used to be heavily used by my dad, but now he's not using it so it's basically unused, which is why I decided that I would test Chrome OS here.
And you can't install this system on a virtual machine like VMware or VirtualBox - you'll get a bootloop.
So, let's get started.
The system boots up in under 5 minutes on this laptop, counting from the black screen to the Chrome OS logo.
I was, to say the least, confused by this kind of trick, which made me look at the system requirements.
So, here they are: a 64-bit processor, 4GB of RAM and 16GB of disk space.
But hold on, is this really meant for old computers in general? So either the laptop from 2007 is already more than an old computer, or I just feel the concept has blurred...
Okay, whatever. This is what it is...
After the startup, we are welcomed by the setup window, where you are prompted to select the language and the keyboard layout.
Then we are offered two choices: to either try the full Chrome OS Flex right now from a USB drive, or install it on your PC.
I just want to install it, so the second option is the one I choose.
However, I ran into an unpleasant disadvantage here: they won't let you select or partition the disk that you want to install Chrome OS on.
It will just erase the entire disk and take all the space for itself.
Perfect, nothing to say about it.
Still, that's okay, I have a full hard drive backup, so it won't be a problem for me to restore everything back.
Yet they warn us twice before formatting and make us think, like "are you really sure you want to format the whole disk? do you really need it?"
Once we have agreed with the data being deleted, the system installation begins. It takes up to 20 minutes, and when it's done, the computer will gracefully shut down.
Oh, by the way, the fluid spin animation that is shown here is just a regular video clip that can be paused - who knows, I found it hilarious.
After the system is installed, we boot from the hard disk, wait for the final load and see the initial setup. Once again.
As usual, we choose the language and the keyboard layout, and then click next. This is where you will be asked to connect to the Wi-Fi network and accept the terms of use;
The system will subsequently check for updates and ask you whether you or your child will be using this computer.
If you specify that this computer will be used by your child, you will be able to set parental controls on it.
Then, you will be asked to sign in to your Google account or turn on guest mode.
This one will have my personal Google account.
After logging in, the system offers all sorts of synchronizations;
bind your computer and your phone into one: meaning that you can send SMS from your computer, surf the Internet using a mobile SIM card on your PC and other interesting features.
But I don't need all of that, skipping...
Yay, the system is now installed: we get the main screen and a welcome window containing tips and various tutorials about the system appears in front of us.
We'll start with the desktop.
It has no icons, and you can't even create an application shortcut on the desktop - there is no such function.
Here is how the main menu looks like: a search bar and the last 5 launched applications.
The menu, however, can be maximized to the full screen and allows you to see a list of all installed applications.
In the bottom right corner you'll find the notification and settings center - which looks almost exactly the same as in Android: you can manage Wi-Fi and Bluetooth networks there; turn on or off DND, ...
...the "Night mode", record your screen or adjust the keyboard layout.
Further down are the sliders to adjust your screen brightness and the volume of the sound.
A Google account avatar, a button for logging out, shutting down, locking, and a button for opening the system settings are found at the top of the panel.
By the way, here is what the lock screen on this system looks like. To log back in you have to enter your Google account password.
The Phone Hub is located next to the notification center, which is what the system asked us to set up in the beginning - the phone-to-pc pairing application.
And now I suggest that we move from looking at the system's interface to the set of programs installed.
And let's start with the most essential part of the system: the browser.
Of course you have a Chrome browser her - it would be very absurd if the standard was something else.
In addition to the browser you have a default set of Google services, starting with Gmail and YouTube and ending with the Calendar and Google Drive.
But they all essentially open up a web version of these services, so what about native apps?
As for native applications, here's what we have: ...
- the Camera app: as the laptop does not have a webcam, the app will freeze on loading screen, making it impossible to see the interface.
[and neither my face]
- the Settings app: this is where the interface looks very pleasant, having all the settings in one list, ...
...but at the same time there is a split in groups on the left, clicking on them will scroll to the desired section in a single list.
- A calculator: simple, handy, nothing superfluous. Should be able to insert letters.
Want to download something interesting? No problem, the Chrome Web Store is ready to serve you some applications!
Still, the proposed list of applications will be a little boring, but will do its thing.
The menu also contains a folder called "Linux Applications" in which you can find the Terminal, however, when you open it you are prompted to go to the developers section in the Settings, ...
...one thing to mention, however: it's missing for some reason, whether I'm being horribly dull in this sense, or whether it's just a fault on the Chrome OS side.
- Screen Recorder. Quite handy, although it's not just a screen recorder, but also a screenshot app.
Generally speaking, I think we're done with the standard applications.
Bus is it possible to run Android apps here?
Sadly, no. Chrome OS Flex does not support running Android apps or Google Play.
Gee, that's disappointing, I wanted to see that feature :)
When it comes to the regular Chrome OS, just do it - because it's supported, and even has the instructions on how to start it in the official Google help.
So, what do we have in the end?
Unfortunately, this OS doesn't seem to take off in the consumer circle of users.
Some people might not like the fact that they're too tied to Google services, and some others might not like the small number of available apps for Chrome OS.
Some people don't even see any point in this system.
However, for a "print-and-type documents" computer, this system is more than enough, I think.
Which is why, traditionally, I want to ask you about your thoughts on this system.
Would you risk using it on your real PC? How would you use this system for yourself...?
And what is your conclusion?
I would love to see your opinions in the comments.
And that's about it.
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Thank you for watching. Until we meet again!~