It was released in February this year and is available in the early testing phase.ChromeOS Flex Tools, currently released by GoogleOfficial version, allowing more old PCs to be converted into ChromeOS devices and continue to be used, while also reducing the problem of electronic waste disposal.
According to Google, more than 400 devices have been verified so far, including laptops promoted by Apple, Dell, HP and other devices. These devices can be transformed into smoothly running ChromeOS devices through this tool.
The ChromeOS Flex tool originates from the CloudReady software service of Neverware, which Google acquired at the end of 2020. It can turn old Windows PCs and Mac models into ChromeOS devices, giving these devices that would have been eliminated a chance to be reused.
Compared with the early test version released in February this year, Google said that the official version has made more than 2 corrections and adjustments based on the feedback collected previously, and can run normally on more than 600 devices, including Apple Mac Mini, MacBook, MacBook Air, or Lenovo's early ThinkPad X400 Carbon and other models.
Even models that haven't been officially verified by Google can be turned into ChromeOS devices through the ChromeOS Flex tool as long as they meet basic requirements. However, this is currently limited to models with x86 architecture processors and has not yet been added to support Arm architecture models.
In addition to making old computer devices reusable, Thomas Riedl, Google's director of products, enterprise, and education, cited the example of Nordic Choice Hotels, a chain of over 200 hotels. When one of the group's hotels was attacked by ransomware, the ChromeOS Flex tool restored over 2 PC devices to operation in just two days.
In addition, Google also quietly made a name adjustment this time. In the future, it will no longer use the "Chrome OS" name with spaces, but will adjust it to the connected "ChromeOS" name.
