Can Google's Chrome OS Flex Kill MacOS?

Google announced Chrome OS Flex which could be installed everywhere. I tried it as my main machine and… this article will be different.

With me already shivering for the negative replies, I’ll be sharing what I think could be corrected in Chrome OS and my thoughts on what I think this could be used for.

Introduction

Google released what it calls Chrome OS Flex about a week ago(approximately) and I thought well, it’s about time we have a look at this. I thought of doing this for a month, but… Yeah… I had to let go in the middle and I’ll say why I did this later in this article.

Here’s my almost 1 week journey to the unknown place. Yes… I call it an unknown place because although I have used chrome os before, it was not my Chromebook nor was it chrome os Flex and I used it just for browsing.

If you want a video format and recording of me struggling in Chrome OS, I am making a video of it over on my YouTube Channel, so stay tuned for that.

First Off… I Get It

I’m pretty sure that there is nobody as crazy as me(or maybe there is) to use Chrome OS for development, designing, and editing. I know that Google did not create this OS with developers in mind. This is more of an experiment done for my curiosity to try something new.

Getting Started

The only way you could get chrome os flex is through the chrome recovery utility which is a chrome extension used for creating bootable flash drives. And for this, I have to install a Chrome browser for some reason. YES, you cannot run it in edge or brave(or any other chrome based browser). The rest of the process was a fairly simple process. Although it used VERY less space in the system, you will have to give a complete disk for it. So there is nothing called dual boot here. Once done you are finally in the world of Google where literally everything you see is from Google.

Installation

This was probably the easiest and the shortest part of the whole process. All it asks is to sign in, answer some questions, wait while it “data mines” my account, and be done!

Setup & What I Realize

The setup was all mixed up for me. Installing Linux and a quick sign-in was one part of the setup which was very easy. The real difficult part was setting up and installation of the applications and frameworks I need. More on that later.

Here’s what I realized Soon After Installation

The discrete graphics(in my case, Nvidia GTX 1650) did not work at all. The intel graphics worked well, but once switched to Nvidia, it just restarts every 20 seconds not showing any login screen.No Play Store is available in Chrome OS which means the only way I can install most of my apps is through Linux, which is partially a virtual machine in Chrome OS.

Development/Designing

Developing anything in here is… rocky. Although you can install almost any Linux app in it, it’s still containerized into the Linux virtual system. This means that not only will it be slower, it will also be filled with bugs that were impossible to occur in usual Linux distros.

Here is where I had to say goodbye to the visual studio(as you can expect), Game Maker, Build Box, etc. Developing a game was restricted only to Godot and Unity3d. Developing anything else like websites, apps, etc was again very buggy and filled with small but many obstacles which wasted too much time. I was not able to install flutter at all even after following the documentation(I assume this is me not knowing how chrome os works).

Designing was where this shines… If you are using Figma.

Figma could be easily used in chrome os since it is completely web-based and Chrome OS is meant for this. Of course, Adobe XD, Sketch, and other apps did not work here. I did not try Wine(utility) to install XD since I know it’s probably not gonna work.

Who Could Use This For Development

Overall If you are a developer, You could use chrome os if all you do is HTML, CSS, js in a very simple editor(like VSCode). But, personally, I still prefer windows for this.

It comes to design if you are a UI/UX designer using Figma, Chrome OS works for you but if you decide to use any other software it does not.

Editing

If you have been following my YouTuber channel you might notice my irregular video uploads. Well, the reason for this is presented in front of you.

I used to use Adobe Premier but I ended up switching to Davinci Resolve recently for editing videos. But my latest video uploaded uses… You guessed it, Kdenlive(ok you didn’t guess it). And the experience editing it was VERY bad at least in Chrome OS when compared to Resolve. If you are wondering why I couldn’t Resolve in Chrome OS, it’s because… Well… NVIDIA. At the end of the day, I stopped using kdenlive and rather went with an online video editor, which worked well.

So here I was struggling to go out of my comfort zone and ended up making stuff more complicated.

Gimp was able to run in here which made me smile(metaphorically btw) and I was finally able to edit an image. But… it was still breaking and crashing in between so… I don’t what today.

In the end, it was not good at all for editing anything. Honestly, if you are editing a video, audio, or an image in Chrome OS, you either love to google so much that you sacrificed your computer for it, or you have an old computer(or maybe I am missing something).

Who Should Use Chrome OS Flex In General?

Honestly, I can think of one(I would love to know your opinions on who should use it). This is probably useful for people who want their system to be completely web-based.

If it had a play store in it, then this would have a whole new purpose. But since this has nothing but Linux as its installation medium, Why not consider just using Linux although this is up to you(maybe I’m leaving a specific use case here).

And a Huge Note, I’m not saying that Chrome OS is bad at everything, I’m just saying that if you chose Chrome OS FLEX for the following uses, then there are some alternatives that you could consider.

For Old ComputersAntix LinuxMx LinuxXubuntuManjaro XfceLive OS(runs under 200 MB)Bodhi Linux(runs under 200 MB)Tiny Core(not recommended, all though this run using under 5 MB!)If You Think Chrome OS Looks GoodElementary OS (A simpler version of mac)Manjaro KDE/GNOMEPop OSUbuntuGaruda Linux, etcWhat Chrome OS Could Do Better?

I’ll keep it short here. There is not a lot to do. Just enable play store in it. THAT”S IT!. I mean… this would bring a whole new meaning to “Play Store”. Although this would still not be my use case, I’m sure this would reach a whole bunch of vast audience. So… Yeah…

And now you might wonder if play store is available in flex, then the marketing for chromebooks would go down. I get it, and I have a solution for that as well(although it’s completely subjective). What if you just add a better integration and stability to chrome os(not flex)? Maybe add a better integration with other google devices… Maybe add some additional good looking themes available only in Chrome OS? And just make it more premium.

What Have I Learnt? (Conclusion)

Apart from learning that Chrome OS Flex is certainly not for me, I also learned that Google is trying to point chrome os towards a very limited amount of audience. But, I think this is a good decision since it attracts people towards Chrome OS and a basic idea of how it works.

If you are interested in more tech you might want to check out my YouTube channel where I’ll make more videos on tech, development, design, and editing. Ok, that’s about it in this post, I hope you enjoyed it, and I’ll meet you next time :)

You’re Awesome :)

FadinGeek

First Published here