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
I'd say the majority of people don't know how to install an OS on a device and having the ability to run Chrome on what is likely e-waste is a good thing.
I applaud the efforts of people/groups like MrChromeBox who figure out how to flash linux onto Chromebooks. There are great designs like the Samsung Galaxy book in red with Amoled display (thin metal body) unfortunately it only has 8GB of ram.
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?
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.
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)
Slax (https://www.slax.org/) runs entirely off of a USB stick. There's other options that have been around for awhile aimed at simple experiences for older and weak hardware.
Back in the netbook era, there were quite a few that tried to be internet browser focused like peppermint OS, though I don't know how well any of them faired with the rise of chromeos.
I still love Peppermint OS and have used it on several low end boxes.
It also didn't try to be internet browser focused, it just gave you easy ability to make the OS browser focused. Out of the box, it was like a better Lubuntu. You had the opportunity to chose what web based apps/services you would add.
You’re overestimating how old a pc has to be not to support Windows 11. My parents have a Latitude 5470 (I think?) with a 7th gen i5, 16gb memory, 1tb ssd, and most definitely USB 3. It’s a perfectly adequate machine for running a browser + office suite, but according to Microsoft it’s e-waste because of Windows 11’s TPM-2 requirement.
Obviously for the HN crowd there are workarounds (my mom has actually been getting along with PopOS pretty well), but this could probably have met her needs just as well.
Yeah, I have a 2019 Core i9 machine with 40 GB of RAM and a (for the time) decent GPU. It refuses to install Windows 11 because of lacking the right kind of TPM it seems.
I wouldn't put Chrome OS on it though -- Debian runs quite nicely. :)
This is a bootable USB memory stick with ChromeOS Flex on it.
Some people in the comments seem to think it's a live USB stick. But the press release says:
"a straightforward way to install a secure, cloud-first operating system on compatible laptops"
Thanks for summarising
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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
I'd say the majority of people don't know how to install an OS on a device and having the ability to run Chrome on what is likely e-waste is a good thing.
I applaud the efforts of people/groups like MrChromeBox who figure out how to flash linux onto Chromebooks. There are great designs like the Samsung Galaxy book in red with Amoled display (thin metal body) unfortunately it only has 8GB of ram.
It kind of makes sense for it to be a partnership with Back Market, which also sells used hardware.
That way, the ChromeOS USB key can be an add on to the purchase of some old laptop that can barely run Windows anymore.
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.
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?
Google guarantees ChromeOS Flex support for each supported model for a certain amount of time, see https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/11513094
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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.
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)
Interesting idea - could it be done for a Linux distro?
Slax (https://www.slax.org/) runs entirely off of a USB stick. There's other options that have been around for awhile aimed at simple experiences for older and weak hardware.
Back in the netbook era, there were quite a few that tried to be internet browser focused like peppermint OS, though I don't know how well any of them faired with the rise of chromeos.
I still love Peppermint OS and have used it on several low end boxes.
It also didn't try to be internet browser focused, it just gave you easy ability to make the OS browser focused. Out of the box, it was like a better Lubuntu. You had the opportunity to chose what web based apps/services you would add.
Is that what a live USB is say with Ubuntu
Not sure if ChromeOS Flex is supposed to wipe the host OS or just run on top of it.
I do not understand this question.
Is there a reason you cannot install Linux ? Linux can be installed from a USB and should work on any system running windows 10.
If Linux is too heavy for your system, there is always NetBSD. I have NetBSD on an AMD 300MHz (= PII) with 512 MB memory and it runs fine.
Funny I actually got an old netbook maxes out 2GB of ram, 32 bit, probably looking at some kind of Debian with i3-wm
I got it for nostalgia, the physical design of the laptop even though it's a thique brick
Possibly Antix https://antixlinux.com/ ?
Yeah saw a few options for these 32 bit netbooks
That was basically my question – why install ChromeOS instead of a light Linux distro?
Old outdated computer will probably not have usb-3 so using it as a live-cd will be painfully slow.
You’re overestimating how old a pc has to be not to support Windows 11. My parents have a Latitude 5470 (I think?) with a 7th gen i5, 16gb memory, 1tb ssd, and most definitely USB 3. It’s a perfectly adequate machine for running a browser + office suite, but according to Microsoft it’s e-waste because of Windows 11’s TPM-2 requirement.
Obviously for the HN crowd there are workarounds (my mom has actually been getting along with PopOS pretty well), but this could probably have met her needs just as well.
Yeah, I have a 2019 Core i9 machine with 40 GB of RAM and a (for the time) decent GPU. It refuses to install Windows 11 because of lacking the right kind of TPM it seems.
I wouldn't put Chrome OS on it though -- Debian runs quite nicely. :)
Can I use this to upgrade my Chromebook that Google won't upgrade anymore?
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?
Fighting obsolescence with "most likely to become obsolete" OS