$3 ChromeOS Flex stick will revive old and outdated computers

Skidaddle

Interesting idea - could it be done for a Linux distro?

ivell

This is great! Only concern I have is that it seems Google is moving to Android Desktop OS. So would ChromeOS be supported in the future? What about the hardware support in this case?

functionmouse

Fighting obsolescence with "most likely to become obsolete" OS

beAbU

This is a bootable USB memory stick with ChromeOS Flex on it.

dpoloncsak

There has to be a very niche market for people who want ChromeOS on their device but do not have the technical know-how to do so, or without a device that can flash an iso. I guess for $3 it's not really a cash-grab or anything. Kinda nice to see vendor-supported live USBs honestly

greatgib

Old outdated computer will probably not have usb-3 so using it as a live-cd will be painfully slow.

gradientsrneat

A Google partner is selling 3000 USB sticks with Linux distribution (ChromeOS) installers? Honestly that's not a lot. It probably won't make a dent in either ChromeOS or Linux without considerable marketing effort and the right user expectations.

hn_acc1

I mean, a "live" option booted off a USB drive is pretty common for linux? Pretty sure Slackware has one, and probably most other distributions? I think this actually installs ChromeOS Flex? I guess Google will do anything to increase their ad-delivery surface?

jgalt212

Can I use this to upgrade my Chromebook that Google won't upgrade anymore?

konaraddi

I booted chromeos flex on a >12 year old laptop earlier this year and had a good experience with it. I wrote a bit about it here https://konaraddi.com/writing/2026-01-01-chromeos-flex/ (tl;dr tried to use fedora at first but no luck with WiFi out of the box then I used chromeos flex and it worked out of the box)

WarOnPrivacy

Looks like we can do free it from here. https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/11541904?hl=e... I'm trying it now to upgrade a 2017 Acer Chromebook.