Buying a Chromebook was a BIG MISTAKE - Chrome OS Flex

[@sentry1042]

the intro is like watching a bunch of overly supportive dads during a practice match

[@melonmelon2848]

Those are some cool dads I don't mind though

[@meric12131415]

Indeed 🤣

[@meric12131415]

@1488 Dental 🤣

[@khalilahd.]

And I love it😂😂😂

[@scottieapplseed]

I loved the intro sooo much!

[@airplanenut6242]

I spent $36 to upgrade my in-laws 3-4yr old laptop to a 500gb ssd and the difference is mind blowing. It was almost unusable before and now it feels just like a new computer for light tasks (which is all they did anyway). It’s so aggravating how long oem’s stuck to spinning drives, and you have to wonder how many people bought new computers because they didn’t realize all they needed was an ssd.

[@Raneyguything64]

I recently got a new laptop, and while shopping around I was astonished at how many new laptops still use fucking mechanical hard drives

[@DipJyotiDeka]

@@Raneyguything64 Anything with a mechanical boot drive is mostly unusable. Unless its linux or chromeos

[@TheRideGaming]

@@DipJyotiDeka yeah. I work with old computers with hdds sometimes, and after getting used to the speed of ssds, there is no going back

[@Thewaterspirit57]

That’s because HDDs are still less expensive than SSDs. Literally, a new HDD at 2TB is 50, while a low tier SSD could be $110, with it being really lucky if you find a 1TB version in stock for that price

[@Raneyguything64]

@@DipJyotiDeka Trust me, I know. When I built my first PC I used a 2TB mechanical drive I had laying around. Took around 5 minutes to get to the login screen, and another 5 to open a browser. The SSD I got was the best $100 I had spent up to that point. My laptop has an nvme SSD in it and it's significantly faster to boot. I could never go back to an HDD.

[@HKlink]

I can definitely confirm the SSD upgrade makes a world of difference. Recently wanted to throw away my mom's old computer since it runs like garbage, checked the specs to see why it ran so poorly, and noticed it had a perfectly good i5-4400 in it. It was just paired with 4GB RAM and a hard drive. Upgraded to a nice 16 gig kit and a zippy SSD, and wham bam, it's like a new machine! My mom uses it for work and we have some security cameras, I installed the program to peek into the cameras, but she never ended up using it because it just made the whole thing slow down to a crawl. After the upgrade, it could easily handle twenty Firefox tabs, basic image editor, remote desktop connection, and the camera software at the same time. It really is like a new machine now. She's super happy with it :) It's like I bought her a whole new computer for 120 bucks.

[@davidunwin7868]

I did the same with an old Dell 1st Gen i5 or i7 (like it makes a difference it's that old). SSD, Ram and battery upgrade and it's like a new computer.

[@flameshana9]

I hate to break it to you but the ram upgrade is the only thing that mattered. The hard drive won't be an issue once you get going (for light users anyways). So even the SSD isn't necessary. For people that just browse the web they barely need anything aside from 8gb of ram. Pretty much everyone in my family has an old laptop so I know the limits of old machines.

[@joeltaylor7741]

@@flameshana9 sorry but that's just wrong. The main complaint from both tech-savvy and non-tech-savvy is always "it just runs so slow" and that's primarily about how long it takes to boot up, and then how long it takes for programs to open. Both my gf's and my mum's laptops would take 5+ minutes to turn on and open a browser. My gf in particular never used hers because it was so bad (and windows updates would genuinely be left overnight and still be going in the morning). My mum was wanting to buy another new laptop. I bet with them both that if they each spent £30 on a 500gb Crucial MX500 for me to swap into their laptops, and if they couldn't describe the improvement as "monumental" then I would buy the SSDs from them for my pc. Neither of them would give up the SSDs.

[@Galafador]

@@flameshana9 I can vouch that SSD actually mattered more than RAM in most instances. I have a 9 y/o laptop, and on year 6-7 or so it was so slow I can barely do anything with it without frustration. swapped the HDD to SSD, then swapped the DVD Drive to the HDD. basically ran like new after that. didn't touch the ram at all (8GB) still using the machine to this day

[@flameshana9]

@@joeltaylor7741 An SSD is always a good upgrade, but you said that a program made it slow to a halt. The cpu/gpu didn't change, so having a faster drive doesn't suddenly make you able to run programs when you couldn't before. Only the ram can do that. When something is slow to start up that's the drive. But when you can't run several things at once that's ram.

[@potorrero]

This video made me love my Thinkpad even more. 8 years being my main machine and still going strong.

[@rohaitaskhan6037]

bad ssd connector on my t570 Fucked up my nvme Slot.

[@j12325]

Time needs you to send it now in trash can and bring a new macbook

[@marianoalvarez6467]

@@j12325 why not just new Thinkpad?? Why overpriced Mac book?

[@j12325]

@@marianoalvarez6467 we only have one life, and i think we should try diffrent things instead of sticking to one particular thing or brand for whole life. Macbooks also have many things to offer which is worth giving a try rather than becoming a ThinkPad only or macbook only guy for whole life

[@marianoalvarez6467]

@@j12325 agreed on trying new but apple is overpriced plain and simple. You have to admit I'm correct on that

[@SilentKaliSmoker]

I finally updated my HDD to a SSD a while back. The change in speed was more than I thought. It makes such a big difference for not a big price. Depending on the size obviously.

[@koilamaoh4238]

SSDs are quite cheap now a days with china spreading their offbrands, which work fairly well at a 1/4 of the price.

[@nikostalk5730]

@@koilamaoh4238 china's SSD have a big problem. They using old 3D TLC process. The cells will degrade very fast on writing, also you can see it on a small-space, like 64\128gig. But your purpose is just to setup a fast internet-browsing machine - it's cheap and nice option

[@DrenImeraj]

If you have a model with a CD-ROM drive, you can buy an HDD tray that will replace your CD-ROM drive with your existing HDD. This way you can get a small SSD, and use your existing HDD for your larger applications. Another perk is that you dont have to back up your data from your HDD to your SSD, since it's already there.

[@koilamaoh4238]

@@DrenImeraj Yea thats fine with PCs, fairly basic. Most laptops now a days dont even have that cdrom anymore, unless its old; as cdrom drives are a dying tech, no one cares for them. I barely even use my BD-r drive.

[@kx1ml837]

@@nikostalk5730 so thats why my pc somehow works even slower than any hdd yes it loads faster but everytime i right click an app, it took literally a minute just to pop up a menu action

[@speckkatze]

A comparison to a lightweight linux distro would have been interesting, just to see how much of a difference the operating system could make.

[@octaviolopez9966]

linux have apps, chrome os not

[@devin8656]

I was hoping they would do this as well. Lightweight distros have been shown time and time again to breathe new life into old machines with the only issue typically being the battery life can be poor depending on the make and model.

[@KarrasBastomi]

Arc?

[@ivanhfrd]

Here you go :) In my personal experience, when running antix only some things were faster, like opening certain apps and loading webpages, but it's not worth it. Chrome os is easier to use, has more features and is overall faster than antix, linux mint (cinnamon, xfce and mate), kali linux and pop! os didn't even run. The only downside that wasn't mentioned in the video, is on some systems the boot time is stupid slow compared to linux (~12 seconds linux and 1:30 minutes chrome os.) After spending a stupid amount of time tinkering, if you are a diehard "more fps" fan, go for antix. But if you don't mind loosing a bit of performance for WAY more comfort and overall snappiness go for Chrome os flex. Sorry for any grammatical mistakes, English is not my first language. Thank you for the time!

[@Finkelfunk]

That's like comparing Usain Bolt to an anemic child with Leukemia and a mental disability in a 100m sprint. Practically ANY Linux distro will absolutely and utterly DESTROY any OS on old machines. The Linux Kernel is so efficient, it can literally run on a toaster. Like what do they expect to see here? Like, a fully usable Gentoo system can use as little as 64mb of RAM, install a DE and you won't even break 200mb of RAM usage. Linux still remains the undefeated king when it comes to old Laptops. And while antiX is a solid recommendation, Lubuntu is not.

[@Yoaru]

i love how one of the probationary employees got out of his probation and instantly first thing is acting like a cheerleeder with other known members of LTT really adds character and gets them used to this

[@VeraTR909]

Yeah they really seem to build up their newer people, would have loved to work at such a company.

[@knightwolf3511]

i think ltt with the whole probation idea is really unquie

[@Yoaru]

@@VeraTR909 yeah i feel like their way of being themselves while being able to work at their full potential while the vibe they have kinda helps you with confidence, I mean just look at denis, or any other staff for that matter on their first videos ( except dan 😏 he got instantly used to it and first moment he showed up he had like the whole confidence in the builsing acquired) and their videos now !

[@Scout819]

@@knightwolf3511 I think he said once on WAN show that the probation is a legal requirement in Canada. I think they just keep those people off camera though to kinda cover their butts if that person doesn't work out, or something like that.

[@klaxoncow]

@@knightwolf3511 Probation is actually a legal requirement in Canada. And it doesn't sound like a bad idea at all. That, for a few months, both employer and employee can try each other out and, during probation, either party can ask for a "no fault" divorce. Not just that the employer can see if the employee is any good before properly hiring them, but it also works the other way, in that employees can also call it off with "no fault", if they discover that it really doesn't work for them either. Like, check that the "marriage" is going to work out for both sides, before actually walking down the aisle and saying "I do". It seems like a good idea to me, so I don't know why other countries don't also have this too.

[@2etheth]

A video where Linus goes over different benchmark programs to run on your own system at home would be cool. Diving more into the meanings of the results and tips on things you can do without just upgrading components to better your performance. As always love these videos you guys put out.

[@rubindublone5932]

Get pretty easy better performance with (probably clean windows install, but who cares) Overclocking combined with undervoling. At least that's my opinion, would be stoked to hear someone else's

[@xinniethep00h]

I definitely second this.

[@2etheth]

@@rubindublone5932 I'd also love a video on the basics of overclocking from Linus. There's lots of videos out there but i trust what they put out more in their videos lol.

[@chessprince1164]

@@2etheth Videos about Overclocking exists If this it not enough Der8auer shot Videos in EN

[@BlackChief0]

@@chessprince1164 but we want Linus' soothing voice to teach us

[@spikeshartell4675]

TBH I've always found switching to an SSD does do quite a lot for an older computer but another thing that works well in conjunction with that upgrade is to also upgrade the ram. Older laptops generally have upgradable ram and even if it's only a 2GB jump it still helps quite a lot

[@LolbeeSFM]

I have an old 2017 MacBook Air and I plan to do this exact thing since its still good, just a pain in my ass at times.

[@ajddavid452]

​@@LolbeeSFMiirc a 2017 macbook air has soldered ram and a soldered ssd, pretty much zero repairable parts inside

[@honorablejay]

Here's something I find really sad: I work in IT, and the techs that work at one of our other sites are convinced that a SSD does not improve performance. So while my site has been happily upgrading computers consistently over the past two years, that team is struggling to figure out why MS Teams slows down their computers so much.

[@umamifan]

That is so stupid that I refuse to believe anything you just said.

[@honorablejay]

@@umamifan I'm assuming you've never worked in a corporate environment? :D

[@umamifan]

@@honorablejay Oh I know how it goes. It's just, I've never seen it get to this level before. Godspeed you for sticking around. I would've lost it

[@xeroxcopy8183]

the magic of updates updates = automatic slowdown

[@javajav3004]

please forward them any videos about it

[@rjt135]

This should be an advertisement for old enterprise Lenovo laptops. Widely available, reliable, and surprisingly serviceable.

[@tralphstreet]

The biggest problem they have is shit battery life, which is kind of a deal breaker when you consider they're laptops. My old Thinkpad T430 lasts a whole 5 minutes off of the plug. Literally.

[@lefteris19]

old ThinkPads are the best budget laptops

[@doqtorisykero7971]

@@tralphstreet I mean, that will happen to every laptop with a battery out there, ever. Replacement ThinkPad batteries are also relatively cheap.

[@tralphstreet]

@@doqtorisykero7971 Even new ones struggle to get past 3 hours.

[@monochrome_linux]

The major reason why its the go to laptop for all the linux enthusiasts out there. super reliable and user upgradable and repairable.

[@Alias_Anybody]

I think the test would be way more interesting if he also compared an old with a fresh install of Win10 (which one did he use?) as well as also tested Lubuntu to at least offer a baseline for Debian Linux systems as an alternative.

[@Finkelfunk]

But why test it against something like Lubuntu, when any Ubuntu version is kind of notorious for their bloat? This just goes to show: LTT _needs_ some more staff that can use Linux, not just Anthony. There's hundreds of great, blazing fast, light weight distros out there apart from Lubuntu which isn't even one of the most popular choices.

[@Alias_Anybody]

@@Finkelfunk Well, people call the snap packages bloat which is true to a point, but usually comfort functions and nice animations equal "bloat", and Lubuntu already lacks a bunch of them. I mean he did mention AntiX but that's certainly not as modern and easy as a any Ubuntu. Then there's Fedora but being cutting edge is pointless on old hardware. Let's not even start with Arch. You have to keep in mind that the people using those machines most likely wouldn't be enthusiasts, even minor details like the rock solid translations of the UI in Ubuntu may matter.

[@Daniel_VolumeDown]

@@Finkelfunk I don't know if you tried lubuntu but except from snapd lubuntu should be pretty well optimized. Ps. I wonder how lubuntu compares to fedora lxqt spin

[@Finkelfunk]

@@Alias_Anybody The enthusiast point is the most important one here. But people always assume that it's rocket science to install an operating system when it's really not, most of the time you just follow instructions on a wiki. Comfort functions don't necessarily mean bloat, bloat is anything that is installed but serves little to no purpose for the task at hand as well as unclean code bases. That being said: I personally haven't driven Lubuntu, but I've tested Ubuntu and I'm not a big fan of Canonical. Also I personally believe Arch is actually a VERY good variant especially for low spec PCs since it is a suckless distro which means lightning fast, lightweight, responsive and flexible with no bullsh*t attached. I know bleeding edge is not for everybody, but that is my first choice for old laptops. Combine that with a Lightweight DE or if you feel fancy use KDE, with a few tweaks the performance hit is still rather minimal and the system runs fast and reliable.

[@Alias_Anybody]

@@Finkelfunk Anything that's not preconfigured is a burden during setup. Not an issue for people who know what to do and how to do backups, but for the masses it has to be idiot proof and quick to reinstall. Even without a wiki. Base isn't that important as long as browser, office and file manager are there and ready.

[@W0lfenstrike]

Been using SSDs since 2012 and ever since, I've been a HUGE advocator for using an SSD on EVERYTHING possible, from my dad's 2007 HP PC to my sister's HP Netbook (remember those?), even a cheapo SSD can bring a seemingly "dead" laptop back to life, it's INSANE.

[@warthunder1969]

Honestly Chrome OS Flex is just the Chrome OS I used back in 2015 in college - back before the linux container or android apps on chrome were even a thing ( I had a cheap $100 chromebook back then). Running it on any fairly modern machine if all you do is stream, type up a few docs etc is honestly just as good of an experience as it was then. Its not for gaming, video editing or heavy lifting - just the basics.

[@HoloScope]

I have ADHD so it's better to have a Chromebook since I can't do much but WORK on it. It's better to not have the ability to do other things at all rather than using a PC and attempting to stop myself from doing other things.

[@genderender]

I used a chromebook all throughout college. Did run into annoyance towards the end, but having a very thin ARM laptop that ran a mostly modern OS and had a solid 10 hour battery life easily outweighed any cons in 2015 for only $250

[@trexeyesonly55]

sorry but it is not enough even for basics..

[@genderender]

@@trexeyesonly55 Which is why i used it for all 4 years of college

[@HoloScope]

@@trexeyesonly55 yeah I only used it for two years of school and used it up until I finished school, definitely not enough lmao

[@heherencs24]

1:00 looking a bit SUS

[@rosskrt]

You guys never cease to amaze me with your sponsor segues. I'm always stuck thinking about when and even if you will ever run out of ways to do them

[@degru4130]

Curious how Brunch compares. I think Google is targeting exclusively the list of supported models and making sure they are totally rock solid rather than making merely any computer work "ok" and as fast as possible, because it's intended for enterprise and schools with older computers rather than enthusiasts. Ive run Flex's predecessor on ThinkPads myself and it works quite nicely tho. I think the main lesson here is literally just getting an SSD and more RAM is a huge upgrade for any old computer regardless of what it's running.

[@szoszk]

Brunch Framework works amazingly well on my old laptop with an SSD. Like battery life was about half an hour on Windows for example, and now I can watch a whole movie in bed without plugging it in. Watching videos in Full HD in general was not really possible on Windows with that laptop, now it is no problem, even with a bunch of tabs open.

[@brandontibbetts4214]

Wouldn't a better test have been to compare a fresh install of ChromeOS on these devices vs. a fresh install of their original OSs? I mean who knows what kind of bloat or malware found its way onto these old machines while they were being used. Reinstalling any fresh OS would get rid of all that.

[@PeterAuto1]

did they say if it was a fresh install or not? I assumed the compared fresh installs.

[@prxvelosity]

0:57 wow that’s my name

[@musek5048]

0:52 that moment was a thing of subliminal beauty lol

[@digantamajumder5900]

2:40 "I'll buy you a computer but not connected to the Internet" - that's soo Indian

[@Neoxon619]

I had a feeling this follow up was gonna happen after Linus bought a Chromebook for his son a while back. Also, David was killing it with the cheerleading intro.

[@DarthRambo007]

Too bad the official distro doesn't support playstore apps,would have made it impressive fpr school and other applications

[@olevaar8995]

Using Brunch on an old 2--in-1 from 2015. It's great. Battery life went from 4-5 hours to around 7. Initially. Battery age has reduced that back somewhat, but I dread to think what the battery life would be in Windows at this point. Linux apps have me covered for tasks like development and simple image editing. I mostly use the android apps for stuff like the android versions of Icewind Dale, Baldur's Gate etc. Overall happy with it, and Linux applications work surprisingly well.

[@harrytsang1501]

I installed brunch on my 2018 hp that power throttles. That little laptop ran every OS from windows 10, 11, Ubuntu, ChromeOS to macOS. Just remember to install the brunch image inside a ext4 partition instead of FAT32, massive performance difference when updating. Chrome os ran really well but battery life is best among all the OS unless I manually choose the governor on Linux. Browser performance is best on Chrome OS. The Android apps are snappier than equivalent on windows or macOS. Linux apps work well enough to get the job done, but the GUI does feel "virtualized" like parallels on mac. Terminal applications are at full speed, the same level as WSL on windows.

[@konstantinosmerikakis6206]

I had an Hp laptop with an i3 6006u and 4 gb of ram and an hdd ... installed linux mint went faster but not to the degree i would like and then opened it up and changed the hdd with an ssd and the difference is huge . Just change your hard drive and install something lite like linux .

[@KingKrouch]

The best use I got from a Chromebook was flashing Coreboot on it and installing a Linux distro (like Fedora with Suckless DWM). They’re otherwise useless, especially if Google drops software support.

[@wanderingwobb6300]

There's also x86 android and Bliss OS that could be interesting choices although usually I would agree and just go Linux.

[@SaHaRaSquad]

I can also recommend MXLinux (based on AntiX) for devices with a harddrive. It boots noticeably faster compared to some other distros.

[@spht9ng]

They're useless for the LTT tech savvy crowd but for absolute noobs who don't care and don't know anything about computers (especially older people) it's a really good option and the built-in Google integration is of value.

[@arnox4554]

@@SaHaRaSquad MX Linux is the true Windows replacement for Windows power users. Stopped distro-hopping once I discovered it and I can't say enough good things about it. AntiX is more for much older computers. It's insanely light, but it's gonna be missing a few quality-of-life features as a result. Q4OS might be pretty interesting as well since it's definitely the most Windows-XP-like distro of them all. Even has a full XP theme for it for Trinity.

[@monochrome_linux]

lol. now thats peak computing. I had my fair share of DWM in my life but I would rather use Sway or Gnome (Wayland FTW)

[@RobAryeeArc]

1:25 8/10 segue to the sponsor

[@PeanutButterWasTaken]

Definitely Linus’ best so far.

[@nicatisfound]

"To see how many 1080p videos can run at once without any studder..." My laptop when running 1 720p30 fps video ☠️

[@josephleoned]

Owned a Chromebook for over 6 years. Long story short... Linus is right. Edit: I'm not speaking for everyone. As a normal everyday computer to serve the standard purpose a laptop should serve, Chromebooks are king. For people like me who wish for those exclusive features, any other OS is for the best.

[@alexrogers777]

care to elaborate?

[@khalilahd.]

Lmfao I’m sorry you went through that 😂

[@josephleoned]

​@@alexrogers777 Basically Chrome OS comes with so many limitations, especially on behalf of their actual Chromebooks themselves, and Linus had touched on that concept in this video so it just reinforces the frustrations of my experience with a Chromebook personally

[@darin7553]

Chromebooks can be good for linux

[@arnox4554]

@@darin7553 Everything is good for Linux.

[@uncookedpanzer6888]

I've got a T440p with an SSD, CD drive replaced with an HDD port, Quad core i7 CPU with 16GB of ram. Also some cruddy integrated graphics. It's a beast and I'm surprised at how fast it is.

[@MrKillswitch88]

Odd the T440P does have an dedicated gpu unless dead or disabled while the regular T440 often doesn't have one at all just blank pads on the board.

[@uncookedpanzer6888]

@@MrKillswitch88 Yeah, sadly mine doesn't have the GT730M GPU. It instead has Intel 4600HD Graphics that can do some light gaming. In order to get the best performance out of the integrated GPU, you have to keep the laptop plugged in which is rather annoying and if you don't, you get stutters

[@handsomeharold5726]

its wild that the thinkpad did as well as it did! ive been a big advocate for getting a used thinkpad (though newer than the x220) over a brand new laptop in the 100-300$ price range for a while. Their build quality for the X, T, W, and P lines are amazing, and if the battery is dead after all these years, they tend to be super easy to find cheap new replacements for on places like ebay sense these machines sold in such large quantities to business customers (as well as cheap replacement parts) I have a T540p and a T580 which is my daily driver when i need a laptop. was able to swap out the trackpad and battery real easy, upgrade the ram, and have a super solid laptop for about 650$ CAD all in.

[@da_pawz]

Same... but for windows 10, my recommendation is the one that using 4th Gen Intel or newer (like T440, X240 or E440) i5 or i7, 8GB RAM and SSD storage... That good enough for daily light office work and web browsing

[@JorgetePanete]

It's*

[@bland9876]

My friend still uses my old ThinkPad twist. It had a few issues but the power level of it is still awesome. You mention swapping the battery and doing it on the twist would be harder than find some older devices where you just pull the two tabs in the battery falls out. My friend says he gets about an hour hour and a half of battery life and he mostly plugs into the wall anyways. The fan did die on it once and we had to replace it. The only other weird thing that happened was that the device stopped working if a hard drive was plugged in. That's how I found out that it also has an msata drive. No idea why it stopped booting with any drive plugged into the SATA port but We got a 128 gig msided drive and away he went. We actually had windows installed on the 24 GB msata drive that originally came with the machine but having to have a thumb drive plugged in the entire time is pretty annoying.

[@clydefrosch]

they're ok, if you can live with the resolution and upgrade internals

[@handsomeharold5726]

@@clydefrosch well there are newer thinkpads than an x220. my roommate just got a T480 for about 300$ iirc and thats a laptop from 2018 shich has a great screen anx upgradability

[@TeoHarlan]

cool video, but I definitely would have liked to see how the "chromebooks" faired vs running Linux as that would be the more path for an older computer.

[@MFSA8988]

depends on what you need. You cant use the play store, so all you get is a simple file storage system to manage your data, and a browser. With linux, you can at least install apps/games

[@0neGal]

I can't help but notice you marked Jamie's ThinkPad as an X220 at 11:15, when it is in fact an X230, it's both on the bezel, and instantly noticeable by the, subjectively speaking, worse keyboard it also has... Along with the I/O being slightly different. With all this, Jamie himself also refers to it as an X230 at 1:55, I guess an editor made a tiny mistake. Just couldn't help not pointing it out...

[@KarrasBastomi]

Ah.... r/thinkpad spills the beans.

[@Aysku]

Also an editing error at 1:07

[@jamiepilkey]

Fun fact: I have an actual good X220 keyboard, new in box to install in it. I bought it 8 years ago and never got around to the swap. 😂

[@cancertomato1798]

unpopular opinion: the old keyboards look nicer but the new ones feel better for typing, especially 40 series and up

[@stickaaay]

I'd be interested to see how this compares to a Linux distro. A guy I used to work with said he switched to Ubuntu for his wife's old laptop and it performed noticeably better than Windows.

[@andmicbro1]

Many Linux distros can breathe new life into old PCs. Some bigger distros can actually be pretty intensive too, but I used Linux Mint Debian Edition on an old PC and it only used about 600 MB of RAM! It really is like making an old PC new again! That said, I’d recommend trying it out first, and if the hardware is very old or underpowered you may want a minimalist distro like Puppy Linux that is meant to run on minimal hardware.

[@jeschinstad]

Chrome OS is a GNU+Linux distro, like Ubuntu. In fact, the first versions of Chrome OS was based on Ubuntu. ChromeOS still uses some components from Ubuntu, but of course, the browser is the window system, which makes it unique.

[@alialiyev6168]

Using Manjaro. Very happy

[@jeschinstad]

@@Batwam0: It was originally based on Ubuntu, yes and then rebased on Gentoo. Still uses components from Ubuntu, such as Upstart.

[@RivaldoAldoduapuluhlimajuli]

@@andmicbro1 Man I am rocking Linux Mint XFCE for my primary driver as Windows 10 eats up RAM. I code Laravel and VueJS, and when doing local development on Windows 10, it eats RAM that I cannot even preview the result at the browser (as Windows 10 already take some RAM up). Dualbooting to Linux Mint XFCE, it goes as light as a feather, I can code + run dev both Laravel (On Atom) and VueJS (On VSCODE), while opening opera, watching youtube, opening google docs, sheets, some API docs, and stackoverflow haha (Lenovo IdeaPad 3 with Ryzen 7 5700U + 8GB DDR4 Soldered RAM as the culprit. I know the CPU is decent, but the RAM is the limit)

[@ThisIsTechToday]

Dangit, that Segway freaking got me 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@jdrakeh]

It's something of a hassle to get Brunch configured but, once you do, it's pretty easy going. Do note that you do have to manually update Chrome from a repo if you're using Brunch, though (or at least you did when I was last using a machine running Brunch).

[@dinozaurpickupline4221]

what config?

[@humboldtsbest2265]

These intros lately have been amazing

[@Harey0407]

Can confirm the SSD is the biggest upgrade you can make to an older computer. The old workstation (its some Dell SFF desktop) I use as a media center has had its Core i3 replaced with an i5 I had, and the ram upgraded from 4 to 8 GBs, All that and a distro of Linux started up pretty slowly on a mechanical HDD, at least compared to Windows 10 on an SSD (never actually timed it, but for sure under 20 seconds).

[@owenshotspot]

Love the video, but a couple things to consider. -the mm size is not the only thing you need to consider when getting a new m.2 drive. SATA m.2 and NVMe m.2 slots are not comparable with eachother, make sure you know what you need. Also, some older/cheaper Chromebooks may use eMMC/mini PCIe storage instead. -the screw is the firmware write protect screw. It prevents the firmware from being changed, or custom firmware being written, among other things. This may not always be a screw, sometimes it is the battery, a switch, or cr50 that can be removed with a special cable (SuzyQ). You don’t need to put the screw back, but you can for security purposes.

[@EGOS42]

I just urged my uncle to buy a Chromebook. Thank you for the information in this video because now I realize it wasn't a mistake. Mislabeled keys and the potential to not have basics like volume controls work correctly would have just confused him. We could have saved some money but in the end it would have been more hassle to convert his old Windows laptop. Besides we would have likely needed to buy an SSD to speed things up and to preserve his original drive in case he wants Windows back for some reason.

[@TruthDoesNotExist]

yeah but you could have just put linux instead and then if he wanted to he could use it as a real computer if he really wanted to or at least be able to put pictures on it

[@robotortoise]

If he can't even figure out how to set the volume, I don't think a Linux distro would have helped, unfortunately. You vastly overestimate the average user's tech savviness and willingness to learn.

[@0w3nn]

you should have just bought a new windows laptop

[@TruthDoesNotExist]

@@robotortoise again theirs nothing to learn, the web browser is already installed and pinned to the task bar, it even has libre office which is basically a open source Microsoft office also preinstalled and offline which cannot be said about chrome, linux has everything chrome OS has to offer and much more, there is absolutely no reason to use chrome OS unless you want to open yourself up to spyware and even viruses now since all the normies are getting chromebooks. and on top of all that, chromebooks are much more expensive than just buying a used laptop. I bought my laptop that's an I7 16gb of ram with a 120gb SSD for 120$, a third the price of a used chromebook, it has linux on it and I'm able to use it as a real computer and not just limited to a webbrowser

[@TruthDoesNotExist]

@@0w3nn or a used one, you can save a lot buying an older computer and will probably end up with better specs and even repairbility

[@XLessThanZ]

My favorite feature is ChromeOS Flex's ability to restore each user's Desktop to any ChromeOS computer logged into. I've had my drive crash once in the middle of the work day. I reinstalled ChromeOS to a blank drive, logged in, and I was up and running in about 30 minutes. I now keep a spare ChromeOS laptop available for situations like this. My primary ChromeOS computer is an old iMac. 👍🏽

[@ekim4926]

The right path for an old laptop, especially a ThinkPad is to install Linux on it No ifs or buts whatsoever

[@Finkelfunk]

ThinkPad + Arch Name a more iconic duo, I'll wait

[@niuchajianfa6222]

0:05 im convinced this is Dennis Liao's doing

[@kazi1]

😂

[@xFrozenxSnowx]

Still rocking a X230 for the few times I need a laptop. It is still kicking especially with a mSATA SSD

[@DrathVader]

Could be even snappier with 2.5 inch SATA if you have any laying around, iirc the mSATA on those was SATA II only

[@xFrozenxSnowx]

@@DrathVader maximum throughput yes. Random I/O really depends on the quality of the SSD controller and NAND. I can't be arsed to swap the HDD for 2.5in SSD at the time so I got mSATA SSD installed instead.

[@pixelomega3042]

Obviously late here, but I always figured that if less OS overhead was the goal on a lower end (older maybe) pc, I thought Linux would always be the 1st option, especially cause Google is data collection numero uno

[@NoobNe_23]

same late

[@DoubleMonoLR]

Except desktop Linux is a pain in the a** and seemingly has little to no speed advantage. The reason for it's image as being such a great os seems to be largely due to condescending and even aggressive people that have spent a huge amount of time learning how to use it. They'll respond to basic issues with 'you only need to ' and proceed to list multiple command line instructions. I had Windows 7 on an old Core Duo laptop with lots of battery life left, worked great, but as I had no use for it I installed (Manjaro)Linux. What a shambles, Linux even managed to annihilate the battery by constantly spinning up the hdd - even when manually put to sleep, it would wake up immediately when it was not being used at all. It was also faster on Windows, despite the thin Linux installation. Never mind the terrible, random interface, overlapping settings apps, basic stuff that doesn't work, repeated requirements due to issue command line instructions, flat battery(I wonder why) during an update making it unbootable (I had to use command line instructions to repair it), etc. I haven't even found it to be more stable, though the os itself is clearly better than all the apps you have to use in it. I've tried multiple desktop Linux variants over the years, but have found them universally pointless except where the use is very specific and restrained - such as my htpc on a thin client, which uses little more than a browser. Albeit the only real advantage of Linux then is being relatively secure, smaller, and can boot off usb into ram(for puppy linux, which I use) if wanted. Even that had problems though, I had to manually edit things just to get sound out of hdmi & analog via 3.5mm at the same time. Settings, apps, etc are also still scattered and utterly inconsistent, it just doesn't matter so much with this use. ie: it all adds up with how Linux is overwhelmingly used, in specific and/or controlled builds(by specialists) for specific uses - Android phones/tablets/TVs, servers, routers, etc.

[@pixelomega3042]

@@DoubleMonoLR Def see where you're coming from, I had a Linux class in high school, so I got to sit with it in a controlled environment for 2 yrs. That being said, I'm curious what specific distributions you've used? From the experiences you've stated, it seems like you've gone after more specialized builds (manjaro aside), rather than more mainstream options. For example, if you're open to it, I'd like to recommend Zorin OS, it's a small offshoot of Ubuntu, that is designed with Windows users in mind, in that, the desktop environment is built to look as similar to windows as possible and interactions with said environment are built to feel similar to that of Windows. Just a thought, as I obviously don't know the full extent of your experience, and I've had nothing but a good time with Zorin.

[@user-zv2gr3tu1l]

@@DoubleMonoLR My experience was more or less the same say 5 years ago, but I'm currently on Fedora and it's been really smooth, general performance has been better than Windows but gaming has been hit and miss. As for battery, on my Dell E6440 it's a little less than on Windows, (around 30 minutes less) on my Thinkpad it's at least 1 hour more, and on my Huawei laptop it's the same as Windows. Keep in mind that on a clean install, Linux would totally suck out the life of that poor battery but TLP improved that drastically (I wish it was the default on distros, but sadly it isnt). As for a really old laptop, my acer aspire one (with GMA 965? iirc graphics and an old intel Atom, and a 5600RPM HDD), Windows just barely functions. Yes, Windows 10 installs, but other than that it's plain unusable. Heck, even Minecraft doesn't run because Windows only has OpenGL 1.4 support but Linux has OpenGL 2.1, which can run up to minecraft 1.12 i think. Perf was abysmal ofc, but hey it runs i guess. Audio issues are the same story, used to be really bad but has been very good with pipewire. Nothing to say here really, pipewire is just a massive step up, and yes audio on linux was horrible before it and pulse. but now its good. Finally, distro choice. I can't blame you for choosing it, but manjaro is kinda terrible. Distros generally don't matter, but manjaro is "special" to put it in a way. Chris titus' opinion on linux distros is more or less the same as mine, so feel free to check out his video on the topic (and his channel in general, makes good content, albeit a little clickbaity at times)

[@jeffgelman23]

ChromeOS is a linux based OS. (it has linux as it's kernel). 👍👍👍

[@TemmieTem]

i'd love to see this channel do something similar to this with light-weight linux distros

[@ivanhfrd]

I am not LTT but this should be interesting :) In my personal experience, when running antix (a literal 500mb linux distro lol) only some things were faster, like opening certain apps and loading webpages, but it's not worth it. Chrome os is easier to use, has more features and is overall faster than antix, linux mint (cinnamon, xfce and mate), kali linux and pop! os didn't even run. The only downside that wasn't mentioned in the video, is on some systems the boot time is stupid slow compared to linux (~12 seconds linux and 1:30 minutes chrome os.) After spending a stupid amount of time tinkering, if you are a diehard "more fps" fan, go for antix. But if you don't mind loosing a bit of performance for WAY more comfort and overall snappiness go for Chrome os flex. Sorry for any grammatical mistakes, English is not my first language.

[@otakuotaku6774]

We all agree that the intro is amazing

[@ForViewingOnly]

LTT, this is really great content. I'm getting on a bit now after a career in electronics and I.T. since the early 90's, and I try to avoid sitting in front of a computer screen as much as possible nowadays, but this subject drew me in... as have other LTT vids that KZbin has suggested to me in recent months. Just wanted to say great work... and that's coming from a cynical former techie turned tech-avoider.

[@thomasfriedl3137]

That sponsor segue was the most creative thing I have ever seen on this channel

[@datachu]

Honestly, I'd love a comparison between ChromeOS performance gains (and apparently, losses) on old laptops with some popular beginner-friendly Linux distros. Just make sure Linus isn't the one who installs them lmao. I feel like at the very least your driver compatibility should be a much, much smoother experience on Linux. Ex. those drivers for the volume up/down keys and mute LED will probably just work instantly, and everything on your keyboard is almost guaranteed to be mapped correctly in my experience (with many makes/models) Brightness adjustment can be a headache to get working with some laptops but it should be doable as well. Oh and that weird Mac video driver issue that ChromeOS couldn't handle, that should just auto detect during your Linux installer. I've done Ubuntu on Macs many times.

[@Praderanoire]

I revived my old 2012 macbook pro using Pop!_OS, and would highly recommend it over chrome OS flex. You retain a lot of the ability of the laptop and dont get tied to web apps in the same way. Throw in an SSD and its insane the difference.

[@TheRealAdam23]

Honestly I really like my little $100 Lenovo Flex 3 chromebook or whatever the hell it’s called. Google suite of apps, mainly docs, very nice and useful. Works perfectly fine for browsing and 4k video playback with display out available. Came with a responsive touch screen that can be awesome to switch back and forth from while working. Works perfectly fine for cloud gaming, the display looks just fine. Runs emulation from PS1 down very well with few exceptions Super lightweight and size is decent in terms of portability without build quality feeling cheap. I feel like they catch too much hate to be honest. Some of it is deserved but for an easy, stable, somewhat fast out of the box experience it does about everything it needs to quite well for the awesome low costs they usually come with

[@TheRealAdam23]

And for the privacy freaks that hate google out there… I actually feel you. I run a pixel with grapheneOS and I usually even leave Orbot running on it too. I have USBs with Tails sitting around and do certain sensitive tasks in a VM regularly. But I also don’t mind selling my soul to be able to do normal things that de-googled and Linux devices are simply not well-capable of…. Like ease of use, fluid gaming, banking apps, etc…. Which is the same reason I also have the new iPhone every year.

[@Kuemmel234]

Those old thinkpads are pretty cool and in my opinion really solid value since refurbished units are all over ebay - I'd rather pay for that, than any other entry level laptop. At this point you'd get something more modern of course, but I (also) got a x230 for a few bucks a few years before COVID for uni - apart from replacing the the battery and SSD, it was perfect for linux and I used it for throughout my bachelor and master courses, so really recommend going for something like that. Even then it was only 200 bucks + whatever the cheap msata SSD cost me (an SSD that fits the radio card).

[@brandobond]

I have the same Thinkpad and it is awesome (mine has Windows 7). Over ten years old and still runs fine. I expected it would be obsolete but it still does the basic things I need it for (watching videos and browsing the web when I am traveling). Never bought the giant battery that attaches to the bottom and doubles the battery life though. Would be neat to have.

[@xaq7745]

You do realize that Windows 10 and 11 literally require the same minimum system requirements, a decade later? I have a Thinkpad X220 that has never faulted me from day one. Dual-booting Linux Mint for half a decade definitely makes a difference. If ChromeOS Flex keeps it alive, I'm all for it.

[@Ryan-ct3rv]

Be careful on window 7. It's no longer recieving security updates unless you're paying out the ass for long term support. Try linux mint, it has a similar workflow to the windows 7 conventions, should perform better, and you're not exposing yourself by running outdated software. You really should never connect a device running outdated software to the internet, it's asking for trouble.

[@ArmyBoiSweat]

The hp chromebooks i have (ive had two) run awesomely for their exact purpose, which is to be a tablet with a better keyboard and more ports. Theyre light, easy to use and fast to boot with a very long lasting battery. To throw into a backpack and toss around, then open a web browser for an hour at a time, they work perfectly

[@bcraftr]

2012 ThinkPad is a monster in this comparison

[@KevinTofel]

Great video. Lots of commentary suggesting that a lightweight Linux distro would be interesting to see on these older machines. I don’t disagree, but ChromeOS Flex essentially *IS* a Linux distro managed by Google and the ChromiumOS team. Chromebooks (and therefore ChromeOS and CrOS Flex) run on Linux with a basic desktop interface and browser. And for devices certified to run ChromeOS Flex, you can enable the Linux option which gives you a Terminal and a recent install of Debian; it shares the same kernel as ChromeOS / Flex for that function. You can then install whatever Linux apps are available for your device architecture; I do this with a Chromebook to run VS Code, other browsers, Audacity, etc…

[@agentcrm]

The advantage of a linux distro is you're not restricted to web based apps.

[@marcelbromm2625]

@@agentcrm plus your OS itself isnt a spyware anymore lol

[@Get-Rekt]

Yeahh, basically everything is unix, rright? You have your freebsd, dragonflybsd, haiku, macOS, GNU/Linux, iOS, iPadOS, Android, it's all just unix and basically the same thing 😍❤‍🔥😻 No. Fucking not. The fact it is based on linux doesn't mean crap if it's locked down and the user experience is something completely different. I just can't compare ChromeOS to Arch saying it's basically the same thing. It just doesn't work that way 😢

[@peejae082004]

There's an option to run the Linux Development Environment on Chrome OS which allows you to install and run desktop Linux apps. Chrome OS can run Linux apps but I haven't found a good way to run Android apps on Linux. I was previously running Q4OS (Debian 11) before running Chrome OS. For my needs, I'm sticking with Chrome OS.

[@KevinTofel]

@@agentcrm Agreed but you're not limited to CLI apps with the Linux feature of ChromeOS. I have multiple GUI apps that work seamlessly alongside the web apps of ChromeOS. ;)

[@lightjack0540]

Brunch is (from my experience) a way better experience than ChromeOS Flex. The Wifi on my Surface Go didn't work on flex, but worked out of the box with brunch. In addition to that the Play Store and Linux work flawlessly in brunch. The only things that are worse with brunch are the installation procedure, which is not ideal, and that you have to manually update brunch, and enable updates for chrome OS via brunch flags before they get installed. So, if you want to have a true Chromebook experience, brunch is probably the way to go, but do remember that you may need to take a couple extra steps for setup.

[@elus89]

It's amazing how much the MacBook Pro improved for 2012. Using one right now with said tabs and 1080p without a hitch.

[@BrendenPragasam]

Seeing this retested with some new cheap SSDs in them would a great follow-up!

[@killallsuvivors]

I have a old (2017) N3060 celeron laptop it had an old 1tb hdd in it. I swapped that for a cheap 128gb ssd and installed mint os and now it's usable enough to laugh at. The laptop has 8gb of ram but the 1.6ghz 2 core celeron will never use 8gb of ram and really using any more than 3gb will see the cpu pinned by the demanding task such as running windows. So why this laptop was ever sold in that configuration with 8gb of ram and windows installed even in 2017 is a mystery. But yeah it went from a 10 minute usable boot time to a 1 minute usable boot time.

[@fatihemreyasar]

I have the same x230 in the video and I can say when you upgrade to SSD and 16gb ram this machine is a beast. So you dont even need to install any os other then Windows. It has even the egpu support and replaceable battery. Best part is there are brands sells new battery for this device. Note: Addition to that CPU also upgradable and msata ssd can be added without removing HDD

[@temjim]

True...I'm using my x230 on linux(16gb ram & SSD) together with my m1 macbook, for most experience the difference is not that significant really.

[@mosemister]

As this is a "save my laptop" story. I would have loved to see linux as an option too as another comparison While I know Linus doesn't think Linux is for the basic population. But even so, if the viewer is looking for an option for a secondary computer for offloading workloads or something

[@Freakmaster480]

Mint really has gotten so easy to use. Anyone with the knowledge to install an os could probably make it work

[@aeonremnant]

@@Freakmaster480 That isn’t the point. When Windows fucks up it’s fixable by the general population, albeit hard. When Linux fucks up it’s a fresh reinstall because most people are terrified to even touch the terminal and that’s where 99% of fixing happens. Linux isn’t a friendly OS to nearly anyone, even the process of selecting a disto alone isn’t friendly to almost anyone. Windows is “do the windows 11” and ChromeOS is “do the ChromeOS”, it’s far simpler to get around the bad parts of using an OS.

[@aeonremnant]

In which case it’s still a bad idea to include Linux. Realistically the performance uplift you’re going to see from a ‘normal’ distro like Ubuntu is going to be around the same as ChromeOS, yet it’ll not include any of the Linuxisms that Linux is known for. I think we both know that nobody is realistically getting Arco and stripping it down to nothing so they can driver optimise their components and run as close to metal as possible with as little headroom loss as little. That’s a power user/systems administrator thing. I just don’t see why Linus would bother, for most people Linux isn’t a good OS.

[@Freakmaster480]

@@aeonremnant When linux fucks up it isn't a full reinstall. At absolute worst you can use timeshift which is something just about anyone with a phone and the patience to watch a youtube video can figure out how to do. It's more effort than windows but by no means is more basic troubleshooting on linux outside the ability of an average person willing to do a little looking around.

[@aeonremnant]

​@@Freakmaster480 By being willing to touch Terminal and learn Linux you're already past the average person, the average person won't even pick a Distro. Timeshift doesn't have these problems, and that's great, but I think we can agree when we say not many people are going to configure and use it if they just want Office 365 suite stuff. It's hard to not tunnel vision as a techhead, I get that as well, and as much as I say 'oh building a PC isn't hard' it absolutely is hard for most people, for me and you it isn't hard to pick up and learn Linux, but it's absolutely mindbogglingly difficult for a majority of humanity. The sad truth is that most people use their phone, maybe a laptop given from work, and if they're lucky a smart TV, all of that is easy setup with little to no thought put in, a full PC is a different animal, especially when said animal is running Linux. If Linux screws up in any way that requires a terminal it's past most people, and even then a majority struggle with basic troubleshooting, some can use basic google and learn to use it, but that absolutely isn't most people, we're down to fractions of average people at this stage alone since it has the requisite of being interested enough in Linux to learn about it. Most people have the depth of PC knowledge to turn it on and use Libre Office, maybe they know advanced user apps, but they're entering new territory by doing something as basic as network configuration. Is Linux friendly to most? Fuck no, no chance. Is it friendly if you can do basic google and follow instructions? Sure it is. Do most people know how to do basic google and follow instructions? *FUUUUUUUCK NO*, NO WAY DO I HAVE THAT MUCH FAITH IN HUMANITY. xD

[@THEmuteKi]

You said that you didn't have time to spend on it but I just spent an evening setting it up on a Yoga L13 (gen 1) and can say quite confidently that Brunch is INCREDIBLE, *and* you can dual boot with it with no fear of disk wipes. Touch works, screen orientation works. For something that feels like as much of an awesome computer crime as a Hackintosh, I'm astounded how simple it was to set up. The only issue I had was that I didn't have UEFI and GPT set up for Windows 10, so you'll need to do that first to get booting to work properly with grub for windows; I'd had legacy boot enabled so W10 installed with MBR and Grub for Windows installed in BIOS mode, and so booting failed. I still can't believe how easily it worked

[@RedRacerTURBO]

im really curious how it would have stacked up to just a clean install of each laptop's original OS for comparison. Either way, very interesting!

[@benwu7980]

Yeah, and / or a de-bloated / tuned Windoze. I guess the idea was to just take whatever they brought, and see if Flex was actually faster than the existing install. Personally, some lightweight linux's are much more appealing, but that was mentioned, and leads to a far deeper rabbit hole.

[@benwu7980]

@No Scope GG Well, it can be, if get a driver issue on trackpad isn't working, or audio isn't, or networking when do an install. ( in context of the video) Windows can indeed have those same issues, as I guess Flex can ( never tried Flex), but troubleshooting Linux is generally harder, especially if going outside of plain Debian/Ubuntu into lightweight builds.

[@remy-u8t]

I wished next time when you were comparing Chrome OS, you would also see how fast Linux would be on the devices to see the performance impact of them.

[@Suirula]

@@IRNoahBody Yes you can. ChromeOS isn't even in the top 50 of the lightest.

[@classydays43]

I remember I swapped out my old HDD to an SSD, swapped out the Core i3 with an i5 (you could do that on laptops once upon a time) and doubles the RAM. And the theal compound was dry so I replaced that and, I tell you what, that old Acer ran like a dream until the hinge broke. Boot time took like four seconds, gaming was possible (for games before 2013 but that's no biggie because the gaming industry sucks now), and it ran way cooler. I just wish older machines had more support, so it's cool to see Chrome stood where Window's won't.

[@bigbubba0439]

I'm sure plenty of schools would buy those computers BEFORE they installed chrome os on them

[@lmore377]

Brunch is honestly amazing. On my laptop (Dell latitude e7470) windows chugs a bit and daily driving a Linux distro has its own set of problems but after a little bit of initial tinkering chrome os w/ brunch runs flawlessly for me. Everything you'd expect on a normal Chromebook works on it (Linux vm, Android apps, phone hub, nearby share, etc.) and battery life is definitely a lot better. Another cool thing is connecting to / switching wifi networks is wicked fast (like less than a second or 2 between clicking connect and having a fully functioning connection). Really the only problem I have is the android container doesn't start correctly if I log in too fast after a cold boot but if I just wait like 10-15 seconds before logging in it starts fine and has no issues even when going into/out of sleep.

[@aycc-nbh7289]

Maybe you could compare ChromeOS to another free-to-use OS such as Linux/Kubuntu. I’m not sure whether a free operating system could necessarily be the only gimmick that Google can necessarily use, especially if other OS’s such as Kubuntu are extremely fast and were free to download and use since before ChromeOS even existed.

[@jeschinstad]

For a special purpose laptop, like for writing, a lightweight distro can be a great deal better, because you don't need the heavy load of a browser. For instance, if all you want is a word processor, running Alpine Linux with just Weston and Abiword, should be blazingly fast. I had such a "Feature PC" setup with Ubuntu on ARM back in 2009. (On an IGEPv2) It was perfectly fine for everything except web. I actually used it as my office PC for quite some time, because it was silent and didn't add any heat. It eventually got replaced by a VM.

[@naturedetectiveminecraft6362]

My issue with using Linux is they Google Chrome always manage to somewhat break

[@kumbah2006]

@@naturedetectiveminecraft6362- what about using Brave? :)

[@Praneel-oy6ws]

A bit of information about the brunch framework:- I had tried it on my old laptop in the prospect of breathing some some more life into it but all that ended up happening was chaos! It had installed correctly but failed to boot up consistently and would give me tons of cryptic errors.Even when it did boot up it would stop responding as soon as you open an app even though that old computer had 8 gigs of ddr3 1600mhz memory and an SATA SSD. What was even more frustrating was that later on it just decided to stop working completely. Thereby I can't fully recommend it on any old systems (specially with i3 2-4th gens)

[@seankkg]

The best part about this title is that I didn't realize it was uploaded "1 minute ago," it could have been uploaded any year since Chromebooks were released.

[@FrankFromAcc]

LTT absolutely knocking it out of the park the last few weeks. All the mainline vids have been A+ so good to see.

[@TjPhysicist]

6:32 i'll be honest this USB browser thing is SO GOOD. Used to be you had to wrestle with all kinds of nonsense and 3rd party applications to create a bootable USB stick. Heck there;s an android recovery website you can just plug in your phone and it just directly connects to it via the browser, it's awesome.

[@ronmaximilian6953]

I'd be interested to see a further dive into this by installing light versions of Linux. Frankly, I'm going to be doing this myself. I picked up an SSD for my mother's old laptop and I'm going to replace Windows 7 with Zorin.

[@noahhallows1034]

I use an old laptop with Fedora

[@eduardosantiago6948]

@@noahhallows1034 fedora really is a godd option

[@ronmaximilian6953]

@@noahhallows1034 I regularly use Ubuntu and need to be very familiar with it.

[@noahhallows1034]

@@ronmaximilian6953 I use Ubuntu before Fedora and it wasn't any more difficult to set up then windows. Linux can be complicated but if you are just using it like a chromebook it is not very hard to use.

[@noahhallows1034]

@@IRNoahBody Because Linux is not run by one company there are different Linux distros for different use cases. For example the Raspberry pi foundation have a very light weigh distro for the raspberry pi because it isn't that powerful, Windows would be unusable on a raspberry pi. As I said before some Linux distros are very easy to use but some like Arch are not, Arch is hard to use because it is made for and by people who like tinkering with there OS, ChromeOS and Archs' user base don't overlap at all making that a unfair comparison. A better comparason would be to Ubuntu or it's derivatives. Linux does not get slower over time normally, because it mostly runs on servers that would be a major issue that would be fixed. In summary there are Linux distros that are as fast or faster then ChromeOS because ChromeOS is a Linux distro with google spyware, there are some Linux distros that are easy to use and it does not get slower over time. Also I am writing this on a old laptop running Linux.

[@amofilmes1]

well, i will stick to manjaro or linux mint / lubunto way better compatiblity, great battery life (with a little apt install) really easy to install apps. and overall has almost every feature that i would like in a toaster pc. i used it on my old 2006 dell, with core 2 duo, 2 gb of ram, and a slow hdd, and it did boot really fast (most of the time), cannot say about battery life since it died back in 2010, but it did give a "humf" to it. would be nice to see a comparison between installing those systems and chrome os to old systems.

[@WJCTechyman]

I agree. My HP EliteDesk has a Gen.4 Core i5 and is not compatible with Windows 11 in an easy way. I also have a Lenovo ThinkCentre with a Core 2 Duo and I am running some form of Ubuntu on it. The comparison between "Alt+OS" from Windows or Chrome would be neat to see.

[@50shadesofbeige88]

I'd like to see the improvement with all laptops using the same or similar SSD. If you're going to replace Windows with Chrome OS, then replacing that old spinning disk with an SSD makes sense anyway.

[@johnsimon8457]

7:33 - look how damn easy it is to remove an old disk. look at it!

[@tl1882]

mine just needs the battery to be removed i think

[@a_plastic_bag]

IMO all laptops should have something like this.

[@Maruchipawa]

Tactical reload

[@NigelMelanisticSmith]

Biggest downside of Brunch is the manual update process. Chrome OS Flex's updates are alot easier, especially if you setting up a device for a non-tech person.

[@Le_Nam]

wow in my country the chromebook aren't a thing, i don't even know it exit until you guy mentions it

[@user9267]

Why would you install ChromeOS? You can just install any Linux Distro and it'll be just about as light without stealing all of your data

[@amaan8299]

Damnn the intros are getting better and better 😂

[@aldenhunt]

I have minimal experience with Chrome OS, but I wonder if the public claims of battery life improvements could come from the improved UX/efficiency. Even if the actual battery life is slightly worse, having more usable time (i.e. less time waiting for boot, tabs to open, etc.) might make you perceive it as having better productivity / charge.

[@itsAlphaFox]

12:10 that bounce was perfect

[@kinggalactix]

Dude, when I was in grade 5, we got ACTUAL TOUCHSCREEN LAPTOPS. You could actually use other things than Chrome. Now it's non touch screen Chromebooks.

[@SpookyPancakes]

HOW RICH ARE YOU 💀 /j

[@kinggalactix]

@@SpookyPancakes I wasn't rich, but darn I was lucky. I got the touchscreen chromebook

[@SpookyPancakes]

@@kinggalactix oh a Chromebook I thought you meant like a surface or something

[@saltxlightdesign]

i turned my macbook 2012 11 inch into a chromebook recently and runs significantly better than macos did. I love using this laptop now

[@deadzone8]

Biggest criticism I can give, and was extremely surprised LTT missed this, was each machine's specs, at least process and RAM specs would of helped give some insight. Aside from the MacBook the other machines seem to have offered a bit of options to CPU and RAM, I have an x230 and remember it being available with a few i5 and i7 options, mine even came with an ssd from the factory, but I did buy mine used from ARROW when they did run the refurb shop.

[@davyrivera]

Also... we have no inkling of the health of the hard drives. Boot times can take forever if there are a ton of disk errors forcing repeated tries to get a good read of the data.

[@P4NCH1]

Personally, I would install MX Linux, Linux Mint Xfce, Lubuntu (like you commented), Bodhi Linux or any other distro with a lightweight desktop environment (Xfce, LXDE, Moksha, etc) and call it a day.

[@jesusborregon6633]

I have used a real chromebook and brunch Framework, and it works super great. It is the exact same thing as a real chromebook except that the function keys layout is weird, and that the block mayus key is converted into the search key.

[@cretinomicon]

Damn, I had the same model HP G56 as my first laptop and computer to really call my own, and I hated it with all my being. All my friends had pcs with GT 400s and GTX 600 series cards at the time and I was so jealous playing Garrys Mod and Minecraft with them at 15-20fps. Amazing how I could power through those framerates and be happy with it at the time.

[@TaymonsterAnimation]

Man I gotta say, these last videos are just a marvel to watch. Props to Linus and his team for this kind of rare tech content that is both entertaining and interesting!

[@rebeccawiens4224]

Thanks to this video, I have (somewhat) successfully turned my Lenovo Flex 15 into a Chromebook. It came with Windows 10, I took the risk of upgrading it to Windows 11 and subsequently accidentally leaving less than 15 GB on my hard drive. Needless to say my laptop didn't like this and would stay functional for about 5 minutes before recovery mode kicked in. I bought a new laptop and relegated this one to the basement. After a few months of hibernation, it seemed to be doing better, but chrome truly breathed new life into it. It has now become my parents' choice laptop for streaming to their TV (a high honour), and I think it will become my go-to "light work" laptop.

[@joshuamethven]

Brunch worked great for us on an older MSI gaming laptop (budget-ish model) until an update to the OS broke it and we ended up trying Chrome OS Flex after for stability on a more official channel and it's been fine ever since. RIP to the terminal and play store but hey, it's faster and snappier than ever before. Not to mention those insane boot times.

[@theiangupta]

I love how it said "For your data" before "For free"!

[@Custmzir]

4:49 He ha. 'Steams'

[@TheSmilePerson]

5:11 if you are wondering why the MacBook Pro lasted longer it is because of macOS. macOS optimises the battery and power consumption depending on its percentage unlike other laptops that run windows 10. It’s also the reason why all MacBooks old or new have longer lasting batteries than most modern windows laptops

[@speedy3d524]

The intro…… was awesome

[@HumorProfundo1]

I CAN DOWNLOAD CHROMEOS ANYWHERE I WANT???

[@user-oo6ww6bl5x]

Account made October 2017 He's not sh tposting us! We found our man!

[@amindervisevic2674]

lets gooo, first james smith

[@Antimony-ing]

JAMESZSMITH OFFICIAL

[@MasterKey2004]

Currently my laptop is useless because of installing chromeos flex, it took a lot of time to open that drive from the blue screen of windows. Other big problem I faced was the Wi-Fi not showing up in the device even with all settings turned on, only Ethernet made the LAPTOP work even then only browser based apps would work and they are way more buggy compared to the windows software. For months I feel guilty for making the single laptop of this house useless because I couldn’t find a simple solution online

[@Arylist]

bro turned a macbook into a chromebook

[@FrotLopOfficial]

My girlfriends mom had an old 2009 Dell Latitude and it was unbearably slow. Swapped her drive with an SSD and it was a night and day difference. It was set up as a Plex server and is still being used to this day!