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Most Mac customers wouldn’t dream of changing macOS with something however the newest replace, however Google needs you to a minimum of contemplate an alternative choice: Chrome OS.
Google describes its new Chrome OS Flex as a “free and sustainable manner” to put in Google’s on-line OS on any Mac or PC. The target market is cash-strapped faculties and companies in search of “trendy computing with cloud-based administration,” nevertheless it’s fairly tempting for normal customers too. Chrome OS Flex presents the identical breezy interface as you’d get on a Chromebook (minus the Android apps) with Google’s expansive library of internet apps and extensions working the present.
It sounds loopy nevertheless it’s not. Chrome OS Flex isn’t made for the efficiency of right now’s Apple silicon Macs. Slightly, it’s for the 1000’s of Macs and PCs gathering mud on cabinets and tucked away into drawers that haven’t been turned on or up to date in years. They’re gradual and clunky with not sufficient house or reminiscence however nonetheless have some life left in them. And Google needs to squeeze each final bit out of them.
Chrome OS has by no means cared about specs in the best way Macs and PCs do. Positive you may get Core i7 Chromebooks with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, however high-end specs are largely pointless. Chrome is designed to be a speedy cloud-based OS that received’t get slowed down with log and cache recordsdata. As such, Chrome OS Flex solely wants 4 GB of RAM and 16 GB of storage, so any outdated Mac will do. Google says Chrome OS Flex might be put in in “a couple of minutes” and has been examined on Macs as early because the 2009 MacBook, although principally, any comparatively latest mannequin will work so long as the Mac has a working Web connection.
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Google CEO Sundar Pichai tweeted that it brings “the identical velocity, safety and ease of Chrome OS to current {hardware},” and it seems like an incredible resolution. Chrome OS Flex is ideal for an outdated Mac that may’t correctly run Huge Sur or Monterey that you simply wish to give to a toddler or aged guardian. Google’s apps are clearly the main target, however you possibly can nonetheless entry your iCloud apps too: Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Images, Drive, Notes, and Reminders, in addition to Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.
To get began, you possibly can join early entry on the Chrome OS Flex web site. After registering and downloading the Chrome Restoration Extension Utility, Google will present directions for the right way to create a bootable drive on a USB keep on with a minimum of 8GB of storage that can be utilized to both completely set up Chrome OS Flex in your Mac (and change the model of macOS that’s already on it) or run immediately from the USB drive. As well from the drive in your Mac, maintain Command-R at startup, choose Startup Safety Utility, and choose Enable booting from exterior or detachable media. Then restart whereas holding down the Possibility key and choose the Chrome OS Flex drive.
I’m a longtime Mac consumer however I even have a Chromebook. Chrome OS is extraordinarily light-weight in comparison with Home windows and macOS, with a lot of the heavy lifting happening within the cloud. Booting up takes seconds, apps open in a flash, and there aren’t any slowdowns to talk of ever. The place even the latest Macs can battle below heavy masses and take a half-hour or extra to replace, Chrome OS units want little upkeep or know-how. Briefly, they only work. And now, your dusty outdated Mac will too.
Michael Simon has been protecting Apple for the reason that iPod was the iWalk. His obsession with expertise goes again to his first PC—the IBM Thinkpad with the lift-up keyboard for swapping out the drive. He is nonetheless ready for that to come back again in model tbh.
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