Google's ChromeOS Flex Now Available to Turn Old Macs into Chromebooks

[ian87w]

Apple has gotten better about this over time. The latest Mac OS supports my 2015 MBP and the 2015 MBA. That's 7 years, not bad, and the next version may even keep support. Generally they also provide security updates 1-2 versions back, so on a 2013 Mac, you're probably fine running Big Sur.

Thing is, we now have 10 year old computers that can stiill run basic tasks just fine. With SSDs, longevity has been extended as well. Of course, Apple has a second agenda. I'm sure Apple wants to drop all intel macs from support ASAP so they can ditch the x86 code and focus on their own silicon.

It's not just Apple. Even Microsoft does it with Windows 11, dropping support off anything older than intel 8th gen CPUs, dropping machines as recent as 2017/18. And Windows 12 is coming in 2024, and I have a feeling that Microsoft is going to be Apple-like, dropping support off CPUs every few years. So much for Windows 10 being the "last version of Windows."

 

[mjs916]

Google has officially released ChromeOS Flex, a method of replacing the operating system on older PCs and Macs that essentially turns them into Chromebooks.

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“We are Google ChromeOS Flex. Lower your shields and surrender your Macs. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your machine will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.”

- Google or The Borg… hard to tell

 

[maxoakland]

Apple has gotten better about this over time. The latest Mac OS supports my 2015 MBP and the 2015 MBA. That's 7 years, not bad, and the next version may even keep support. Generally they also provide security updates 1-2 versions back, so on a 2013 Mac, you're probably fine running Big Sur.

My late 2016 MBP isn’t supported on the next version of MacOS and I got it in 2017

 

[hagar]

Have you tried a clean install after formatting to the apple file system?

Yes.

After retrying with the x.3 update it seemed to finally work fine: fast boot times and acceptable launching of apps. But after a while the issue creeped back in my system.

I assume the SSD part of the Fusion Drive (24Gb) is too small and Big Sur and Monterey can’t deal with it.

 

[Flood4]

Big Sur crawls on a spinner. Get yourself an cheap SSD and a usb enclosure, clone your fusion drive to it, then boot from it. That's what I did to my 2009 iMac.

You can change the HD on most (all?) old Mac. Not need to boot from it. Just swap them. (But yeah, easier to transfers data)

 

[tubular]

None of my Mac equipment has sufficiently bad karma to be reincarnated as a Chromebook.

 

[FelixDerKater]

Chromebooks should not be allowed in education.

 

[bag99001]

Chromebooks should not be allowed in education.

I wouldn't go QUITE that far...but I do get depressed how little we really push the tech - many in IT leadership in education just think the cheapest and easiest to manage SCREEN is the be-all-end-all and don't understand how much more we could be doing with a better, more full-featured product.

 

[deevey]

That’s not always the case. My 2015 iMac is useless after upgrading to Big Sur. Due to issues between the OS and Fusion Drive it takes 10 minutes to boot and launch MS Word. So this looks like a compelling alternative.

Getting an SATA SSD in there would leave you with a decent, up-to-date desktop machine. It's easy enough to do it yourself, or pay a repair shop.

You could also clone your Fusion drive OSX install to an external USB SSD and boot from it which would also be a better option than running Chrome OS on what is still, a very capable machine.

 

[Just sayin...]

Okay - I've read the article and the overwhelming avalanche of negative comments about trying to run Chrome on an old MacBook. We have an old, retired 2010 MacBook (MC516LL/A) with a 250GB HD and 4GB RAM that literally takes 15-20 minutes to boot. It isn't supported by any recent MacOS - I believe High Sierra (10.13.X) is the latest OS version that is supported, but it isn't even remotely acceptable in terms of performance. Given that I'm not interested in spending anything on this project but would be interested in re-purposing said hardware, what would the brain trust recommend here? I like the idea of avoiding e-waste, having a cheap beater for basic computational tasks (web browsing, e-mail: Gmail, etc.) that is somewhat secure, and wouldn't make me too sad if it were dropped/destroyed or stolen. And yes, I have a new 16" MacBook Pro, but would experience considerable grief it were lost/stolen/destroyed.

 

[hagar]

Getting an SATA SSD in there would leave you with a decent, up-to-date desktop machine. It's easy enough to do it yourself, or pay a repair shop.

You could also clone your Fusion drive OSX install to an external USB SSD and boot from it which would also be a better option than running Chrome OS on what is still, a very capable machine.

Thanks. I forgot about that option. I’ll go for that.

 

[fhall1]

Okay - I've read the article and the overwhelming avalanche of negative comments about trying to run Chrome on an old MacBook. We have an old, retired 2010 MacBook (MC516LL/A) with a 250GB HD and 4GB RAM that literally takes 15-20 minutes to boot. It isn't supported by any recent MacOS - I believe High Sierra (10.13.X) is the latest OS version that is supported, but it isn't even remotely acceptable in terms of performance. Given that I'm not interested in spending anything on this project but would be interested in re-purposing said hardware, what would the brain trust recommend here? I like the idea of avoiding e-waste, having a cheap beater for basic computational tasks (web browsing, e-mail: Gmail, etc.) that is somewhat secure, and wouldn't make me too sad if it were dropped/destroyed or stolen. And yes, I have a new 16" MacBook Pro, but would experience considerable grief it were lost/stolen/destroyed.

It will cost "some" but not a lot.....see here: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...to-upgrade-performances.2123815/post-26167377

 

[torontotim]

Okay - I've read the article and the overwhelming avalanche of negative comments about trying to run Chrome on an old MacBook. We have an old, retired 2010 MacBook (MC516LL/A) with a 250GB HD and 4GB RAM that literally takes 15-20 minutes to boot. It isn't supported by any recent MacOS - I believe High Sierra (10.13.X) is the latest OS version that is supported, but it isn't even remotely acceptable in terms of performance. Given that I'm not interested in spending anything on this project but would be interested in re-purposing said hardware, what would the brain trust recommend here? I like the idea of avoiding e-waste, having a cheap beater for basic computational tasks (web browsing, e-mail: Gmail, etc.) that is somewhat secure, and wouldn't make me too sad if it were dropped/destroyed or stolen. And yes, I have a new 16" MacBook Pro, but would experience considerable grief it were lost/stolen/destroyed.

My wife still uses her 2009 white unibody MacBook. You just need a cheap SSD and maybe bump up the RAM. It is smooth and she regularly does Zoom meetings etc on it.