30 Days in ChromeOS

I survived 30 days in ChromeOS as a poweruser. I don’t use Chrome Browser and I don’t enjoy using Andorid apps. This is how I used ChromeOS like a desktop instead of a mobile phone. No, I didn’t enable developer mode for this.
Website Guide: christitus.com/30days-chromeos/ .
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[@bpw]

This is the beauty of computing, there’s is always a way to make any computer work for people and you don’t need to spend tons of money to have a decent computer with ChromeOS.

[@bakeraus]

Exactly, it serves a purpose and if you are in the Google eco system for work or daily life it's a great option.

[@nickgrassel754]

So many caveats to that 'decent' qualifier. I will admit that there are use cases where Chromebooks and Chrome boxes are 'succeeding' in school and business application and individual uses. But you have SO many things you just can't do even though you are using better hardware. Pass.

[@jonah5814]

Spyware included

[@nickgrassel754]

@@jonah5814 You ARE right. However Chrome OS is not impervious to virusesm spyware and malware. (But it is close). From my use experience with WIN 10 and previous I have had very little trouble going back to WIN 95 with malware. I've always run at least a free AV. Now I rely mainly on Defender and an occasional cloud scan. To be explicitly clear though, I downloaded something over a year ago which was supposed to help me organize files for burning to dvd or Blu-ray. It didn't seem to be doing what I wanted. Rather than scan the folder I wanted and group it into disc size chunks it seemed to be indexing everything and it seemed like it was going to try to write it all to one disc, so I aborted it. I continued to look for the type app that I wanted and later noticed that that program had changed the extensions of those files it had touched and encrypted them. Thank goodness it was so poorly written Ransomware that I was able to stop it that early and easily. I had terabytes of work videos which were technically off site backups on a handful of external drives. They weren't' touched and I now use a usb strip with individual power switches and keep them offline when I don't need them I archived the files manually that were hit but no one has come up with a decrypter for it yet. The encrypted Files were easily replaced. BACKUP, backup, backup.

[@pentasteve9723]

@@nickgrassel754 no, Chrome OS is the spyware.

[@almosthelpless9374]

I think pre-installed Linux is the key to desktop adoption more widely. I wouldn't use Chrome OS daily, but it does seem useful and I've heard it's great for educational environments since Chromebooks are easy to administrate.

[@AyaWetts]

its a big key, so companies know who uses Linux. Right now every Windows machine sold that has Linux installed on it by the user, is counted as Windows marketshare still...

[@diginomad6016]

@@AyaWetts preinstalling Linux as default is still not a thing. Lenono mentioned that thinkpads will treat Linux as first class citizen and still blaming the virus and didn't happen. Let's wait..

[@fmlazar]

That really doesn't escape the fact that a user still needs the command line to keep a Linux desktop running smoothly. OS X is pretty much the benchmark for a Linux/Unix OS for the technically unwashed masses. I have nothing against the command line personally, but to expect someone who's never going to be a gearhead to operate a Linux desktop is simply not realistic given the current shape of things.

[@fmlazar]

@keithsze001 There is no such thing as a noob-friendly Linux Distro, just distros that are the least user-hostile. I will say this again....if you have to use a command line on any operating system, it's user-hostile, plain and simple.

[@AyaWetts]

@@fmlazar I used Manjaro KDE for weeks without ever using a command line... I only used it for stuff I chose to, I probably could have gotten away with never using it really.

[@Patricia-kk8tr]

For the past two months I used Chromebook to browse (Vivaldi) and run a few debian programs like Calibre book management, I realized I didn't need anything more powerful. It's rock solid, great battery and a lightweight design. And cheap!

[@SA77888]

Been watching a lot of your vids recently......youre a good teacher, very good at breaking things down and explaining them clearly.

[@ObsidianMercian]

Great video, I really enjoy your unbiased, open minded approach. We bought Chromebooks for our children and they work well for their needs (education). The relatively low cost (but good performance) is also a big plus.

[@KuzonEmbers]

Chris thank you so much for this video! I work retail in South Africa and for the majority of people these laptops are great (especially low-income households). Now I can show them this as reassurance🙌🏾

[@hamatawah3698]

I have seen a previous video that you stated chrome OS was a masterpiece unappriciated, underrated... you truly keep focus on the OS itself and not the developer name/brand.

[@brc537]

Thanks for the vid and showcasing ChromeOS. I'm an original CR-48 user and it has come along way since those days. Most people can use it as a daily drive since we all line onine for the most part.

[@megumicarrot]

it’s great to see someone showcasing how much one can really do with ChromeOS Chromebooks are pretty neat cheap devices that i feel get too much hate

[@KuzonEmbers]

For sure - the problem is these basement dwellers who rock gaming desktops with RTX 3090s and Intel Core i9s and scoff at low-end systems just because they can afford better.

[@v.m.a.d.l.e.6972]

Geeks tend to get pretty smug when it comes to computers (specialy the younger ones who never knew the old ones), and they will call crap to anything under certain specs that they consider "the minimum". It is all a matter of perspective. In reality you can use any 10 year old pc, nowadays, windows itself doesn't require much, specially if you optimize it to remove all the bloatware. You only need a powerful equipment if you want to play the latests games at good quality, or if you do heavy load work like video encoding and such. Chromebooks are more than enough for the average user who doesn't do any of that.

[@Bob-of-Zoid]

@@KuzonEmbers How about the fact that it's stinking Google? Sure, some twits will talk shit about them, without considering their practicality for traveling... but I promise you, the big turn off is that the whole device is part of the spyware with connections to hundreds of corporations, constantly feeding them information on your whereabouts, habits, and what all they can extrapolate from the mountain of small details they can harvest, so they know more about you than your own parents, and can manipulate you to the point you may even defend them!

[@Bob-of-Zoid]

@@v.m.a.d.l.e.6972 I used to surf the Usenet on 28k, so I have few complaints these days, and yet still an ever increasing need for speed myself! (

[@CurrentAffairs341]

@@KuzonEmbers Chromebooks are not necessarily low-end systems ;-) Im a cloud/Big Data Developer mines quite a beast I almost use it exclusively. Truth is you can get low end or high end PCs and Chromebooks. Both O/S have advantages and disadvantages depending on what you want to do, but the world is moving to cloud in less than 10 years even Windows will be in the cloud your PC will be a basic terminal.

[@meowcula]

I appreciate how you do these. I also like your other video... or a part of a video... where you talked about de-googling chrome OS and such. I wouldn't use this either, but it's nice to have a look. Everything has its place and its use. Including low power devices for portable use.

[@refusist]

bought my mom a chromebook years ago and everytime I visit her I'm just so pleased to use it. no bs it just werks. really the best "distro" for noobs

[@justawhitecat]

i get where you're coming from but i think linux mint is the best distribution for beginners as it is like a first taste into linux as it is more similar to other distributions unlike chromeOS which looks nothing like any other linux distribution

[@dutchbachelor]

​@@justawhitecat You don't actually like your mum? Torturing her with having to learn Linux? And you want to be on call to solve all the problems they run into? If you are interested in computers, want to expand on that, have SOME technical aptitude and understand which online knowledge sources you can trust, sure, learning Linux is one of the single best things you can do to build a solid computing understanding foundation. But for your Mom, aunt, uncle or friends, neighbours and distant relatives? Who know nothing about computers and actually do not WANT to learn? Who just want to get things done securely? ChromeOS will be my recommendation ALL the time. I have no time to spend troubleshooting Windows or Linux for them. I can leave it with them and know they are safe on the internet, no viruses, no malware and the thing will just keep on chugging. Also, if you choose even a halfway decent one their user experience will be so much better / faster / smoother. A really zippy OS, with less options to get lost in. Nothing really serious that can be misconfigured or deleted by accident. And if a Chromebook breaks? I laugh, pick up a new one for half the price a PC (or an older ThinkPad and put ChromeOS Flex on if I am really feeling like McScrooge) costs and for a quarter of a Mac, log in and am back up running where I left off in MINUTES. All Apps, Files, Settings and shortcuts will be just like I want them and where I left them. Instead of probably a day's worth of installing, configuring and updating your system and then getting your backups on it, like you have to do with a Windows or Linux Computer. Mac will save you a couple of hours there because there is no bloatware, the update process is faster, the out of the box configuration is good and pretty secure and Time Machine backups are easier. But it's still gonna take hours instead of minutes.

[@steveforbes6303]

I work for an internet advertising firm. I work remotely and everything is via a web interface. I am now on my second ChromeOS laptop. The only issue with the first one was the memory. The current ThinkPad deployment has 8gig of memory and a Ryzen5 processor and this thing does not skip a beat. At any given time I can have 12 to 15 tabs open, video conferencing, VOIP, and more. It gets used hard for 8 to 10 hours a day without issue. I hated it at first because I was coming over from a Mac but once I got the basics down, there was no issue at all.

[@Keyshooter]

imho chromeOS is like the perfect linux for normies, not to bash it or anything, i actually mean it as something good

[@aqlee3518]

things i don't like in chrome os: read-only android container & chrome audio server

[@taher9358]

Personally the ui in the OS looks really clean and simple to me! I very much welcome that unlike the Windows puzzling ui which we are all used to at this point.

[@wistals3deniks]

The most crazy thing is that a 300 euro laptop by a advertising company has no adds, while a 2000 euro monster pro windows pc is filled to the brim with addware by the OEM and candycrush adds by Microsoft.

[@Bob-of-Zoid]

Actually, one big problem with Windows is that Microsoft can't make up their mind about anything! They can't even categorize shit in a sensible manner. The only thing puzzling to me about Windows is how anyone can like it, and even defend Microsoft for making such garbage, and charging you to be spied on!

[@sixunity1171]

@@wistals3deniks but its not lmao

[@ravitejaknts]

@@wistals3deniks Google might be an ad comapny. But they reallu know where to show ads. ofcourse we all love to cry on Google, but I will give them atleast that. If anything, I will say Google made ad situation a lot better on Internet.

[@mrwoodcat]

@@wistals3deniks the user base is still not big so they need to keep it clean to make more coming. when user is say big enough, pretty sure they'll slap adds everywhere or massive data farming in the background

[@markh.6687]

Chris on the job! Maybe one of the Chrome spin-offs fix some of these issues. It's been a while since I played with any of them.

[@edselrivera2085]

I got one and I'm in love. I use it to see videos, my emails and web browsing. I also found the calendar app and the word app very useful too. I have an iPhone and I can't sync it with the chrome book, but I also don't want to spend the money on a Mac so it is fine with me.

[@ChrisThompsonthetechguy]

I've had a pixel boat since I first came out with the core i7 and 16 gigs of RAM. I have been able to use it as a at minimum laptop replacement for years.

[@dominikveraguth6423]

Hey Chris Love your Vids!!

[@danzthename]

I got a ChromeOS convertible tablet. It's fun for people who like to tinker and the UI is really nice imo. And if you have an older family member who constantly makes every internet mistake they can possibly make, Chromebooks seem to remedy that. I got my mom one, and she never has trouble with it or gets any weird malware.

[@neilthomas6042]

I just purchased it and your guide gave me some ideas. One thing I would say is that I like the mobile versions.

[@wilhelmsarasalo3546]

I used to spend four months out of the year in Helsinki. I had a Chromebook, the old Samsung one in my backpack and my cellphone worked as a hotspot. If a client needed help here in California, I would just sit out a round of Petanque, whatever and access their stuff remotely. And it was also a portal to my Google Apps. Worked great.

[@stormbowman7148]

I have used ChromeOS on a daily basis through the Neverware solution, and I absolutely loved it. My beef with some of the Linux apps was that the scaling is not good when running 4K. ChromeOS looks beautiful, but the Linux applications look really bad. That kind of drove me back towards my PopOS install. I know Google have worked on the scaling, so it might not be an issue anymore. I have not tested that. I liked the fact that the system gets out of my way, and let me work. I used ChromeOS for dotnet development with VSCode and JetBrains Rider. In our house all laptops, except my work laptop, are running ChromeOS. We don't need anything else to get by at a daily basis. We have an Acer ChromeBook 14 and the Lenovo Duet, which I absolutely love and bring everywhere.

[@shurmurray]

Very interesting video, but I personally wish to see more on actual work done on this setup. Especially programming using different languages and stacks. What c/c++ compilers are available? How python (and especially it's libraries) works? Java and C# development? Also would be interesting to see arduino programming, CADs and 3d printing software, working with video and sound (video editors, DAWs). Everything associated with making something.

[@aspartns]

Since you have linux environment, any compile available on linux should work.

[@kebabimpaler]

You really gave it a fair shot excellent video

[@daviel]

I have a question regarding UEFI systems, I have a somewhat corrupted efivars folder/partition where it said I have multiple dupe boot entries. Not only that, it has over 200 files in it and it is jam-packed. Are you able to help me fix my efivars? And any advices to manage it properly in the future. Many thanks in advance, cheers.

[@LautaroQ2812]

Chris, could you give your opinion on the Brave browser main points of "ditching Big Tech" and "blocking all ads" but promoting itself on KZbin ads? I was willing to try it again (I did years ago when it first came to existence), but after getting the ads I thought it was kind of defeating the point and thought might as well stay with Edge since I already have all my data there and I do use collections lol. Also, is Brave Mobile good? Thanks. Good video. I always thought of ChromeOS like something light but that you required internet or you couldn't use it for anything. I can see the potential, as it was intended to, for school work during school hours. Besides that I feel it's a bit less flexible for a normal user that does not know you or follow your tutorial :P

[@srikargottipati]

You should do a video on Fedora Silverblue/Kinoite which has an immutable file system, containers called toolboxes etc. Its super cool Chris

[@rusty9060]

Yea, I want to see a video as well

[@joel530johnson2]

I go back to before PCs. I wrote my first program in 1969. That said, I had to use DOS, and then Windows. In 2009 I got retired, so I got a part time job at Best Buy selling computers. While there I saw a chromebook and started playing with it. Someone bought one and brought it back, so I got it with an employee discount. I fell in love with it. I still needed Windows 7 for Quicken, but after a few years I didn't need it any longer. I converted my 2008 laptop to Linux Mint, but use the Chromebook as my daily driver. I am not a power user, or a gamer, but the Chromebook more than meets my needs. I understand that a Chromebook (or Linux) is not for everyone, but for old farts, like myself, it is easy to use and is safe.

[@ChrisTitusTech]

Its a very consistent experience I will say. My wife loves her chromebook. For me, its a bit limiting since I do so much on a computer, but I can totally see how a person would just use a chromebook. Its like an Apple laptop that doesn't bankrupt you hehe. FYI, I used to work at Best Buy as well in the early 2000s.

[@TimothyUnkert]

Great video! I run Linux apps on my Chromebook and love it!

[@sglasgowaz]

Curious if FireFox mobile install, hitting settings and changing to desktop mode would change the flow.

[@satysin630]

I tried out Chrome OS recently when they released the Flex stuff and it is a pretty nice DE. I really wish it were possible to have a *proper* Linux system with it and not Linux in a container and all that jazz you get using their developer mode. Something like a vanilla Debian or Fedora system and the Chrome OS shell would be very interesting imho.

[@Bob-of-Zoid]

So then just get a "Netbook" style computer that you can install Linux on, there are even some made with Linux preloaded (Pinebook and a few others).

[@satysin630]

@@Bob-of-Zoid That's not what I want. I want a high quality machine be it a desktop or laptop running Linux but with the nice and light Chrome OS shell experience for my DE rather than say GNOME or KDE.

[@fuseteam]

sounds like galiumos' goal

[@STONE69_]

Use a Linux Distro with Google Chrome Browser, same thing.

[@ravitejaknts]

@@STONE69_ Nope, you miss out on Android - Chrome OS connectivity. Google Assistant if you use so.

[@qorrymarzuki]

Hi Chris, first I'm a big fan of your work. My laptop (HP Pavilion Gaming 15) runs better because of you. But I have a serious question, I'm a student and I use office 365 students. Office 365 students comes with crap features like one drive and skype for business, which can't be uninstalled unless I uninstall all of the office. Is there any way I can uninstall them? Thank you

[@505509richard]

Lurve chromebooks. We (the whole IT dept) do home working via chromebooks into Windows. Quick, light, cheap, passively cooled, and self maintaining.

[@mrme8521]

I installed brunch chromeos on my $2000 surfacebook 3. Honestly, I like it A LOT more than windows. I hardly boot into windows anymore. I even do most of my development in it.

[@huttonwarren7355]

Hey Chris, I noticed that you don’t have a big bar on the top of your screen when you open brave. For some reason I can’t seem to get rid of that. How did you?

[@Dreamscape_xo]

honestly I am trying to find a guide for maximizing chromeOS on arm chips because they so power efficient but lacks the software support to make it good for power user, hope that you will do a guide for it in the future

[@kristopherleslie8343]

Chris Chrome OS can be installed on almost anything so to say it can’t game is actually a bit wrong on your part. But other than that glad to see you check it out and as always another awesome video from you!

[@abhabh6896]

Everything has its use case. Its nice for people who only need some stuff online, like sending mails, watching media and writing an essay.

[@mathisblair2798]

My mom uses arch Linux for minimal browsing so... i wont buy this.

[@kenbaird7067]

I have had a chromebook for 2 years now after my windows10 desktop expired. I find it does all I need and very well. As a retired prof electrical engineer I was surprised at what it could do for $NZ350. A great device. Thanks for your excellent video.

[@Tintin-hh1gf]

I used fydeos for 8 month its a forke of chrome os and its been doing an amazing job. I only need a laptop to code, web browsing , sshing to my servers and doing my homework on docs or word. Im a it mayor student and all my class mates laugh at me when i told them im going to main chrome os from kubuntu. When i had windows on it( Lenovo yoga pro 3) had like 4h max, when i had chrome os i could have double (most of the time was on sleep and on windows i shutdown). Now an update to fydoes broke compatibilty with my touchpad and touchscreen and now i main fedora

[@BikingWIthPanda]

so if you run a 'regular' linux distro on here and use 'powertop' what kind of power use differential is there between the two? do the mobile version of firefox and "Linux" version of firefox have different battery use optimisations? are there any benefits at all to using the mobile version?

[@AkshayYadavAKY]

I have lenovo Chromebook, very cheap laptop, 11 inches, mostly using for Citrix receiver - windows remote connections, I'm also very impressed with power management, it will work for 2-3 days with light usage, on another side, I m playing openttd in this laptop and it runs just fine, I am genuinely satisfied with this lil Laptop.

[@Daniel_VolumeDown]

I am wondering what,is the diffference in battery life when you would install this "new" "chrome os flex" (or "cloudready" (but now google bought cloudready) or "fyde os") and when you would install some standard "linux" distribution.

[@Nomad-qm3zf]

Your channel is literally exactly what I needed

[@ferfromla]

This is the way to go for those who need just a primary computer to email and surf the net. These are cheap, work well, update automatically, and are easy to learn to use. The Play Store is also packed with useful apps, and as long as you are not a power user, these machines will do all anyone needs for basic computing.

[@davetrimble4895]

What, pray tell, is the equipment and software you use to create this video? Have you ever created any videos on how you create videos? The video is excellent, thank you!

[@febis3]

Great video, thanks!

[@creativityhub1350]

I bet it also does great at telemetry.

[@andrewpalm2103]

I'm a Debian and Fedora user, but I recently installed ChromeOS Flex on an old Thinkpad T420s just to see what it was like. Things work pretty well overall, but the Linux development environment (essentially a VM) will not install properly. I did some searching and found that this is a longstanding problem, and not just on my hardware. So this may or may not work on someone's particular machine. That being said, I've found enough low-key games in the Web Store for my Evening Relaxing Grandpa use case to be satisfied.

[@mathisblair2798]

Yeah man Chrome os? Likes to be the only thing installed or running. To hell with the entire chrome os line and production.

[@AskIveSolar]

What a jewel. Didn't even think to install apps from command line. Gotta get the desktop version of brave. Who knew

[@bobbytaraantino]

May I ask where did you get that home screen layout on Brave browser? @5:39

[@jordangreen8309]

ChromeOS is really great - stable, light weight, and flexible. If you are deep in the Google ecosystem (android user) it's even better. I compare it to getting a macbook with your iphone, that's how good the integration is. Google has also been very keyboard friendly for a long time and I find that my workflow is way faster in ChromeOS than it is in Windows. Then you have Crostini as well which just expands the flexibility even further. I've been coding in VS Code and IntelliJ, also use MySQL Workbench, and more. When people say chromebooks are just a browser and nothing else, you can tell they've got outdated information. PWAs are the future for most users, and chromebooks are paving the way behind the scenes.

[@Bob-of-Zoid]

As long as it's spyware, it has ZERO value to me. If anything, they have been paving you behind the scenes all along.

[@jordangreen8309]

@@Bob-of-Zoid You're on youtube my guy. Don't get self righteous on me acting like you have zero tolerance for "spyware". Google already has your info, you hypocrite. You give google your real name and tell them all your interests by watching and commenting on videos. What do you think is happening to you behind the scenes?

[@jreaves11]

I cabbot download a runnable (executable) version of Libre Odffice or Open Office. I prefer either of these to Google Docs. Please advise as to what I need to do to make this happen.

[@JDMorris81]

I'm in the market for a new laptop. Would this good a good setup for Android development since you can run Android apps natively?

[@jonczarnecki8143]

I tried to install it on my 9year old desktop but it gets stuck on the brunch files says its applying patches and doesnt ever finish

[@tacioandrade]

I'm a ChromeOS user today for one simple reason the great battery at an acceptable cost. I have a Lenovo notebook with an 8th generation i7, but whose battery no longer reaches 3 hours of high power, as I sometimes spend all day on the street, I decided to upload a Windows VPS to the cloud and buy a used ChromeOS that I found for a sensational price here in the city of a person who bought it for the bride and she did not adapt to it. I can't say that ChromeOS is a mature operating system, for example I suffer a lot with the use of OneDrive (which I use for the low cost of storage in Brazil) or when I need to use Android apps like Anydesk to do remote access and they don't work so well like on a Windows or Linux PC. But despite everything, today I'm happy with ChromeOS with just over 1kg of weight, battery of over 8 hours of autonomy (to have something like this in Brazil, I would have to spend 5 or 6 times the value of the Chromebook I have or suffer with a Windows computer that would make me want to kill my clients and family for its poor performance). Now with Windows VPS + Parallels Client (it was the best RDP client I found) + Android Apps + Linux Shell, I have been able to get decent performance on the street in emergency customer support jobs.

[@xchrisdw]

Does anyone know where Chris gets his wallpapers from? Every video for a year or two now, he's always good amazing wallpapers.

[@wisnoskij]

Can the standard chromebook even run desktop firefox usably? Modern browsers are pretty bloated.

[@AkiiOnTheRoad]

A phone with 8g 12g or 16g RAM and a top grade Arm cpu could outperform a average laptop if chrome os combined with Android can be installed on the phone and when plugining in a monitor it just shows the chrome os desktop. We can normal office jobs and light development jobs on the phone. The premise is that the applications must be optimized or maybe providing native api by Google to rewrite the applications daily used.

[@ulroxvladtepes4023]

I tried to install this on a friends old laptop, but I believe his intel chip was simply too old to get it running. It was too bad. Would have liked to see it in action on that machine. And you asked what I think about daily driving it. I think I would honestly prefer making one of those DYI raspberry laptops, mainly because I've grown incredible fond of that machine. That said, I wouldn't hate it.

[@pdacore]

I see you have the same problem with desktop Firefox as I do. The maximize button is just gone. It's the only Linux GUI app I have installed on my Chromebook that exhibits this behavior. I take that back, I installed Tor browser which is based off Firefox to test and it has the same behavior in Linux on Chromebook. The Maximize button is just plain gone and I haven't figured out how to get it back.

[@debjeetchowdhury3259]

Right click is not working in my laptop when I run chrome OS flex. What to do?

[@johnblackledge4009]

I now own 3 Chromebooks, 2 in the office and 1 for travelling. And this from an ex-professional Windows programmer of 20 years. Does that say it all?

[@PLANETWATERMELON]

Great video as always. I also found a video on 10 things you can do on a Chromebook that might surprise you and doesn’t involve any special mode or Linux.

[@kelvinhbo]

Do 30 days OpenBSD next.

[@78arpitagarwal50]

May I know are you using a chromebook in this video or installed chrome os flex/cloud ready.

[@jacobcardon6166]

I use it for remote streaming my gaming PC if I need windows using the Linux container with parsec/steam link, everything else is done through chrome os, I've managed to even get a kvm through virt-manager working within crostini as well

[@sergestar4536]

Are u running this on a laptop or pc and what are the specs. Can I install this fully on my laptop

[@Techkomsan]

Good Video 👍

[@mathisblair2798]

God ya know it sounds awesome if only google wasnt involved in ANY way. But... Thanks for the research. I hesrd that installing Linux on chromebooks takes a ton of extra steps, is that right?

[@dutchbachelor]

Yep, that's right. And it depends on what you want. If you want a privacy focused computing experience. No, this isn't for you. But few people have the skills to do that correctly. i.e. If you run an Android phone with stock OS, I'd say you really need to clean that up first and start using things like Lineage, /e/OS or GrapheneOS. If you don't, the whole exercise is pointless and you run the risk of being called a hypocrite. Having a SAFE experience? ChromeOS checks all the boxes. User friendliness? Show me ONE Desktop OS that is better. One. Battery life? Maybe the Apple M chipped devices are better or come close, but nothing else will. And those devices are multiple times the price of a decent Chromebook.

[@El.Duder-ino]

Thx for this vid Chris! I would use Chrome OS in a multiboot with other OS's, unfortunately as far I know its not supporting partition install and multiboot😕

[@aaabbb8777]

Some websites (like banking) block you out if you are running Linux. I wonder if they allow Chrome Flex?

[@olegyamleq7796]

thanks, great video, does anyone know if I can use my new Chromebook to send high res audio to my DAC?

[@pattyneill4358]

hi! i recently converted an old chromebook 11 3120 to a linux distro : linuxlite . i bricked it in trying to install ubuntu & gallium , but revived it with linuxlite , no more chrome OS but i lost the audio somewhere in the mix , do you know how to bring back audio thru the ubuntu terminal , it would be most appreciated . everything else works , .

[@kevingarand1426]

I don't understand the issue, sure it's not an "all in one, do everything" device, however it is a clean UI that doesn't crash, you can run linux apps underneath and they are adding new features all the time. I have a Google Pixel Slate and it works perfectly for what I need and with Google Flex and the ability to add that OS to a powerful laptop, I think this is up and coming. I do love linux too by the way.

[@tytytfghghg]

This is a kick ass OS for old laptops, I used Linux , windows lite but nothing comes close to the speed of Chrome flex os, no linux distro.

[@dmitriollariischimji2910]

I'm really interested in streaming gaming from a local pc, any article or video??

[@Praxss]

Good thing about chrome os is, it is polished as hell/haven and battery optimization But some drawbacks like not supported for proctored exam, pearson vue, etc

[@mjs28s]

"But some drawbacks like not supported for proctored exam, pearson vue, etc" Is that true if you enable Linux to? Or is Pearson, etc. only work on windows / mac?

[@koigoi]

Pearson and Protored Exam absolutely hhave the money to afford chrome os development, so there's little excuse

[@Praxss]

@@mjs28s it only works with windows and mac(x86 platform)

[@twb0109]

And it's as consistent (visually) as MacOS

[@Bob-of-Zoid]

OS's don't support specific software, software is made to work with OS's, so you are blaming the wrong ting. Anyhoo, it's spyware, and I won't touch it with a 50' pole!

[@josephzamer5802]

I wander how its works with python dev or some simples java script + Visual Studio code?????

[@rdsalvani]

Hi Cris, I really wanna try ChromeOS on old slow machine. But Im still wondering, can I use MS Office apps like Word, Excel & Powerpoint? Coz I dont like features from spreadsheets and others from google itself.

[@justawhitecat]

well in that case i'd recommend using a different distribution like linux mint, as it has libre office (free and open source microsoft office) and it's lightning fast. installed it on my computer and made my intel celeron feel like an i5

[@Rajorsi]

Why Firefox didn't load up in the tablet mode ?

[@denisbosnjak5977]

Can you make a video on how to instal chrome os on a device that used windows beforhand?

[@ibrahimhalloush3227]

Thx, great video 📸

[@coolusername7589]

I used chrome os for 2 months with the Linux developer mode environment. I got sick of the os itself, so I converted the Chromebook to arch.

[@KevinTofel]

Nice overview Chris! A couple of things, as someone who has used Chrome OS mostly full time since 2011. People that want to put Chrome OS on an old computer can’t use the Chrome Recovery media / extension. That’s for restoring Chrome OS on an existing Chrome OS device. When creating the media, you have to specify your Chromebook model, I.e. it has to have been a Chromebook. However, Google recently introduced Chrome OS Flex for this scenario, based on its purchase of CloudReady / Neverware. Second is a huge pro that’s not covered: Security. I’d argue that Chrome OS is at or near the top of security based on its architecture. There’s a reason it doesn’t run or use any antivirus app, for example. That’s partly because of the Linux underpinnings, and also because of how Android and Linux apps are sandboxed in a container and/or a custom VM that Google implemented called crosvm. Lastly some of the cons erode if you simply spend more on Chrome OS hardware. Not all of them, of course. But there are very capable Chromebooks with 16 GB or more of RAM (my daily driver from 2018 is one of many), up to a Core i7 and speedy NMVE M.2 drives. Performance is less of an issue and this opens up new features like full native Steam OS , which is rolling out now. Cheers!

[@androtekman6131]

What is best alternative OS for a Vista era laptop?

[@FLasH3r]

How did you install ChromeOS ?

[@WolfiiDog13]

I really wish Google allowed us to do something similar on Android, with the hability to enable a Linux subsystem. There's some amazing Android tablets and Samsung Dex phones that could benefit from that, it would greatly expand the limits of what you can do on mobile devices.

[@STONE69_]

Try Graphine Linux or E OS for Android phones.

[@bluesangel75]

It's funny I started to do the same on a Lenovo Duet - except I'm running Stable. I was disappointed by Firefox PlayStore version too. Going to add some Flatpak applications. Issues I have : cut/paste not working between ChromeOS and Terminal, playing videos forward in browser - usual shortcuts or move of cursor not similar to Linux/Windows - it's awkard.

[@NormanF62]

Chris might use it on the road where saving weight in what you carry with you is desirable but not at home. Like he said, ChromeOS is meant for mobile use and that’s where it really shines. In the workplace and in schools.

[@garymartin9777]

Man home users disagree with you. I'm one of them.

[@Rasspor]

I bought a chrome book. It functions much better then my kindle fire. I also, enabled the linux feature on it added a large screen monitor to it and use it for a monitor system to watch you tube videos on.

[@smarfbag8714]

I remember using a chromebook for school. God those chromebooks gave me a bad taste in my mouth about chromebooks after all of your chrome os videos i can say that my opinion on chrome os has changed. Thanks for the video.

[@karlsse]

Umm I can't press control and o cus it makes it say help line disabled... Help!

[@maikvandenheuvel7775]

Why do you change te repositorys to Sid instead of Bullseye?

[@nakdickson]

The way he says "don't do this" always sounds cool lol

[@cliffsalisbury7714]

Is there a way to use Thunderbird this way?

[@gastroalchemy4499]

which chromebook did you use

[@robertdowner2328]

I have been on every comment section regarding Google Chrome Flex OS. My aunt gave me a Dell Latitude e6400 Core 2 duo with 2 gigs of ram, lol windows 10 32 bit was on it but ran so sluggish you could barely use it. I just heard about Google Flex OS, installed it on this old Laptop and was amazed that google Chrome ran fluently, youtube played perfect and it was nice and snappy even on 2 gigs ram. Google OS needs to be the next competition to Windows 10-11. They need to keep adding features to Google OS, gaming support and more driver support but keep the bloatwear out. It would be the ultimate OS.

[@garymartin9777]

2 gig is barely enough to run chromeOS.

[@robertdowner2328]

I am running it on a core 2 duo laptop with 2 gigs of ram, although not perfect it still runs decent., Google Chrome OS is not filled with bloatwear so therefor it runs smoother. I only put it on the laptop because I didnt want to junk it. @@garymartin9777

[@BayuSanjaya]

What windows system that it use? Wayland? X11?