ChromeOS Flex lets businesses (or anyone) turn aged PCs and Macs into ChromeOS machines for free. I toured a Google QA lab to learn more about the effort's successes and challenges.
Earlier this fall, I visited Google's New York City offices for a private press tour of its ChromeOS Flex lab, as well as for a preview of the company's Chrome Summit conference the day before the main event. I saw plenty of ChromeOS features, updates, and use cases throughout the day, but it was ChromeOS Flex that really stood out.
PCMag covered ChromeOS Flex back when it launched in 2022, but I won't blame you if it's slipped from your memory since then. It had indeed slipped mine. The feature, initially (and still mainly) aimed at businesses and education, allows users to install a version of ChromeOS on Windows or macOS machines from a flash drive for free. The idea is to breathe new life into old hardware, or transform an existing fleet of systems into ChromeOS machines with no need to buy new computers en masse.
The Chrome Summit and my private conversations covered topics ranging from IT management and security to bringing ChromeOS to healthcare facilities, factory floors, and more. But ChromeOS Flex -- despite not being new -- was the most interesting thread in Google's efforts to increase ChromeOS adoption that I saw throughout the day.
The first part of my tour day was all about ChromeOS Flex, and it started by visiting the Flex inventory and lab at one of Google's Manhattan offices.
I won't walk through exactly how Flex works or how to get it running here -- it's not new, after all, and Google's Flex page has an excellent guide and FAQ. In a nutshell, ChromeOS Flex is a special version of the OS designed to run on a wide swath of past Windows and macOS machines. It's built on the back of the main version of ChromeOS, so the team can update and develop accordingly rather than reinvent the wheel.
Google maintains a certified list of laptops and desktops that are compatible with Flex. Manual testing work goes into verifying that each machine on the list remains compatible, and I saw samples of many of the listed models in the Flex inventory room (shown above) at the office. This is an even larger undertaking than it may sound, especially when you consider Google has committed to supporting any system on its certified list for at least 10 years. Here's another look at some verified machines in the lab's storage room...
Having been at this process for years, the Flex team has a pretty good idea of what systems will be compatible by looking at the basic components. Even then, however, every machine behaves slightly different and must be individually checked and tested. Small differences in hardware and design can make the difference, so no assumptions are made.
A remote-access lab for engineers in this office (below), used to test patches from afar, helps this process, in coordination with a much larger operation at Google's West Coast facilities.
After 10 years of support, these certified systems may keep working after subsequent updates, but having moved out of the testing and verification timeline, they will not be tested or updated further to guarantee functionality.
While individuals can give their old PCs a new lease on life, too, ChromeOS Flex is still largely aimed at business administrators and large-scale operations. The idea is to bring a large fleet of systems -- whether old MacBooks, vintage Windows laptops, or touch-screen kiosks -- online into a modern ecosystem with very little startup cost or effort.
This initiative naturally serves Google's aim of having more ChromeOS users and customers. But the commitment to individually testing systems and supporting them for a decade is admirable, and I can assert, having met some of the personnel involved, that it comes from a passionate team. The logistical overhead and manual effort involved are as daunting as they are impressive.
Moving through the rest of my day and onto previewing the Summit show floor proved how much ChromeOS has grown since its inception and the potential role that Flex can play.
Chrome Summit is a much more public-ready environment, with booths ready for customers and partners visiting the event. Google already has major partners who have taken on ChromeOS-based point-of-sale (POS) systems, such as Domino's and Burger King; POS is the kind of task well-suited to the simpler ChromeOS ecosystem. Brand-new machines work well for this, too, of course, but all the better if these companies (or smaller, less-well-resourced businesses) can rejuvenate their strategies by bringing older hardware up to date with a modern, online-focused operating system.
ChromeOS has more complicated and vital use cases, too, demonstrating how the platform has moved beyond its initial use case for cheap tablets and laptops largely bound for classrooms. That's a reputation that has stuck with ChromeOS and Chromebooks, and while it's still a realistic assessment (and a major selling point), it's become somewhat pejorative, hinting that the operating system can't cut it in "real" business environments.
Aside from POS kiosks, I saw how ChromeOS is being deployed in vital industries like healthcare, with workers moving quickly between patient rooms and tapping their badges to resume operations on another ChromeOS machine. We also learned how a large manufacturing client, Standard Industries, modernized its systems by moving entirely to ChromeOS, including on the factory floor of nationwide facilities.
Examples of businesses embracing ChromeOS involve both new systems and old Windows setups revamped with Flex. Organizations using Google Workspace (and more recently Gemini AI) have more IT management options, security settings, and traditional business options than ever. Google also recently acquired Cameyo, a virtualization platform, to roll out Windows apps seamlessly to ChromeOS systems -- the demo showed how much easier a web-based workflow can be than a classically complex virtualization workflow.
These are just some of the business scenarios embracing ChromeOS, but as one Google representative put it, inertia remains a big obstacle. Many large entities have always used Windows, or are burdened with old Windows hardware and can't front the cost for hundreds or thousands of new machines.
Selling the advantages of ChromeOS is one battle, and ChromeOS Flex is a key tool in this effort -- it is, in essence, a way to try the OS for free while also modernizing existing, possibly dated, hardware. Satisfied businesses might then opt for new ChromeOS machines in the future, while Google is also rolling devices to partners with ChromeOS Flex preinstalled from the factory.
Some businesses will persist in sticking with Windows out of preference or necessity, and to others, the versatility of ChromeOS is nothing new. But Google's professional ecosystem has come a long, long way.