Google Wants to Turn Your Old Mac into a Chromebook With Chrome OS Flex

[Luba]

Google says "Apple Macbook Pro 9.2" is verified to work. I googled Apple Macbook Pro 9.2 and I guess it's a 2012 13" MacBook i7. I have an old 2010 15" MacBook i7, and I guess that's a MacBook Pro 6.2? I never knew my MacBook Pro were called by these identifiers. Apple Store and Apple Support hardly ever used them with me.

 

[ahurst]

Yes, but you haven't used Lion after 2015. Now it's completely unusable. My point is if I was officially able to upgrade my oldest MacBook I would've done so and there's no reason to use your Mac on the OS it came with till the end of the days.
For example mine came with Leopard and App Store was released in Snow Leopard. I would've missed out a lot.

I now use MacBook Air 2020 and I'm glad I'm on the latest release of macOS.

Ah, I get what you mean. Yeah, I'm fully on board with keeping up to date with the latest macOS when possible (happy with Monterey on my MBP), I was just pointing out that old versions of macOS are still very usable for long after their official "best before" dates, so you don't need to install ChromeOS or Windows immediately after your Mac stops getting major release updates (or even security updates, provided you stay off Safari and aren't doing anything sensitive). Apologies for misunderstanding if you weren't saying otherwise

 

[mi7chy]

Why? Why would anyone do this?

If you want a working browser. Have you used Safari lately? I use my MBA M1 as a Chromebook with Chrome installed. If Chrome browser wasn't available I'd seriously consider wiping and installing ChromeOS if it was available.

 

[mi7chy]

Or just install Ubuntu or Mint Linux instead.

Unless you like ease and simplicity. Speaking from someone who uses MacOS, Windows, Linux, ChromeOS, etc.

 

[jailbreak74]

anyone have any suggestion on what I can run on my polycarbonate MacBook 2,1? It doesn't work on most websites anymore. Im looking to upgrade it to an SSD when I have some spare cash. Thx !

 

[szw-mapple fan]

Windows on an old Mac? That’s going in the wrong direction (my main computer is running Windows 11 so I’m not anti-Microsoft or anti-Windows).

It depends actually. Windows (at least Windows 10) performs very well on older machines if only because Windows also needs to run on low end devices. Usually it works just as well or better than the last supported macOS in terms of responsiveness and RAM management. I had no issues running it on my very old MBA 2012. I've found that macOS is much better optimized for more recent hardware.

 

[ahurst]

That's not true at all. Any number of seemingly-benign websites can be compromised and loaded with webkit exploits that will instantly pwn any non-updated machine. The fact that you're visiting MacRumors is evidence that you visit sites beyond the most secure services from Apple, Google, etc.

People have a misconception that malware is only related to shady and illegal sites, but it can be anywhere--- lets say you want to convert 5 liters to gallons and you click on the first website that shows up in the search results, promising to be an easy measurement conversion calculator. If it's your unlucky day and you're running an old web browser or old OS, congrats on becoming a new spambot or cryptominer.

Outside of web browsing (which constantly brings new remote code to your machine), it's probably safe to use some non-web internet services on an old/nonsupported machine if you're behind NAT.

Assuming most exploits are relatively browser version/OS-version specific, how likely is it that a given exploit is going to actually succeed and do something nefarious if you're running Mavericks or Lion or something? For PowerPC macs at least, the general consensus I've seen is that you're pretty much never going to encounter a Tiger/Leopard-targeting, PowerPC-comatible exploit in the wild in the modern era, so as long as you're not entering your credit card info or anything you'll be fine. Or do sites like that have lookup tables of browsers/OSes and corresponding exploits to maximize target audience, so it's trivial to target old and uncommon OSes/browsers?

 

[Enlightened Doggo]

Sometimes is not a question of being a good/bad idea. Some people cannot afford to buy a new mac when there are no more upgrades.

The sad part is that Macs can run newer versions of the OS without problems, it is Apple who decides when to make them obsolete.

It's not even a matter of affordability. If your old machine still runs like new, why spend money and create waste upgrading? My 2012 Air still runs totally fine. I only replaced it because I needed more power. It's truly a shame these machines don't receive updates anymore.

 

[mi7chy]

I can think of easier ways to turn my Mac into garbage.

Turn it on and run Safari.

 

[mi7chy]

PC desktop/laptop timeline is run Windows until it's too heavy then run light Linux, BSD, ChromeOS Flex, etc.

Apple Silicon Mac/Macbook timeline is throw it away and buy a new one when MacOS updates stop.

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

There's no need to run macOS Monterey on older macs. Just run them on the OS with which they shipped!

For the 2015 MacBook Air 11" pictured, macOS Sierra still works wonderfully, without all the weird discolorations and permission popups.

It should run fine with Mojave too. You'd at least want High Sierra to get the APFS file system that is designed for SSD drives. Mojave is a better option than High Sierra though, runs fine on 2015 machines, and is quite stable.

 

[rhett7660]

The single use case I can think of is that your OS can no longer browse the internet because nobody's making a modern web browser for it anymore.

Not sure if you've tried, but the internet now essentially refuses to work if you try surfing on an old Mac. I got Lynx going on an eMac the other week... couldn't do much better than that.

Can you elaborate on this, as I am still running a 2011 MBP and haven't run into any issues surfing the web. I also have a mid 2010 MP which seems to still be doing fine.

 

[venom600]

It depends actually. Windows (at least Windows 10) performs very well on older machines if only because Windows also needs to run on low end devices. Usually it works just as well or better than the last supported macOS in terms of responsiveness and RAM management. I had no issues running it on my very old MBA 2012. I've found that macOS is much better optimized for more recent hardware.

Windows 10 has less than three years of support left. Windows 11 doesn't run on any Mac without hacks.

I genuinely don't get the big deal. This is at best a rebranding of an existing product that already does the same thing. I run CloudReady on an old PC for my mom who never does anything outside the browser anyway and it works great. ChromeOS just runs better than Windows on old hardware.

 

[thebrightsideoflife]

It is cool – you can use an older Mac with a new software stack and up to date security. Never understood why Apple declared some Macs obsolete with declaring Metal the new standard later versions got patched from the community to keep older Macs with new MacOS versions in the game. However I‘m more interested whether OSS can catch up so that I can use my M1 after Apple do not provide security updates anymore.

 

[szw-mapple fan]

Windows 10 has less than three years of support left. Windows 11 doesn't run on any Mac without hacks.

I genuinely don't get the big deal. This is at best a rebranding of an existing product that already does the same thing. I run CloudReady on an old PC for my mom who never does anything outside the browser anyway and it works great. ChromeOS just runs better than Windows on old hardware.

No disputing that, but Chrome also lacks a lot of the things that make more fully featured Windows apps that some people find useful. If you’re really just looking for a light weight OS, there are a number of Linux distros to choose from where you can also install Chromium.

 

[saulinpa]

When following the instructions listed on their site to build a USB installer, you do get to select your hardware, and in this case it tells you to select the Google Flex OS option... There's a dropdown with a long list of devices.

Thanks. So not completely abandoned. Neverware used to show Chromebooks on a support list. Now they have lots of other things but no Chromebooks on their Flex OS list.

 

[mi7chy]

Thanks. So not completely abandoned. Neverware used to show Chromebooks on a support list. Now they have lots of other things but no Chromebooks on their Flex OS list.

What's your point? I have a $230 Lenovo Duet ChromeOS tablet that was bought early 2021 and has updates until 2028 so about 8 years of support and has a working browser unlike Safari.

 

[saulinpa]

What's your point? I have a $230 Lenovo Duet ChromeOS tablet that was bought early 2021 and has updates until 2028 so about 8 years of support and has a working browser unlike Safari.

No real difference than if you bought from Apple. They are still releasing software for some 7 year old iPads

I have an older Chromebook that Google no longer provides updates for. They bought a company that was supporting it and removed their support pages.

 

[michaelsviews]

This. Running an old unsupported OS on a device with Internet isn't a good idea.

You could find 3rd party software to make up for the security updates.........................

 

[chucker23n1]

You could find 3rd party software to make up for the security updates.........................

For your browser, sure. Good luck upgrading ColorSync and ImageIO that way.

 

[Nermal]

That's a 13"

Which, incidentally, is not one of the supported models.

 

[chucker23n1]

Linux has a UI as easy to use a Windows or macOS

lol

 

[NavySilver]

Great, this thing just bricked my Late 2011 (one of the last non-Retina machines) MacBook Pro😑 it's otherwise a piece of e-waste accumulating dust in my garage anyway but still bitter I don't get to try it.

 

[Macaholic868]

I’m with those who would install Windows if the system isn’t too old. If it is, like my 2012 Mac Mini, or if I don’t want to shell out the money for a license then I’d roll with Linux. I want to install apps like LibreOffice, my web browser of choice, etc. and don’t like an OS built to spy on you. I know Microsoft is doing a lot more on that front with Windows 10 and 11 but that stuff is easy enough to turn off.

 

[venom600]

No disputing that, but Chrome also lacks a lot of the things that make more fully featured Windows apps that some people find useful. If you’re really just looking for a light weight OS, there are a number of Linux distros to choose from where you can also install Chromium.

Linux is not the answer. It's too complicated for a novice and it's a pain to setup. Chrome OS is super simple. It just works most of the time. That's the beauty of it.

Oh and Chrome OS is a linux distro. 😛