Google Releases New OS for PC's Free

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MrAl

Joined Jun 17, 2014
11,389
Google released a new operating system for PC's and other.
It was originally their OS for Chromebooks.
It's a bit new so not sure how well it works, but it is free and they say it installs in minutes and is not bloat ware.
They call it Google OS Flex.
If you try it out please let us know how it goes.
 

Thread Starter

MrAl

Joined Jun 17, 2014
11,389
Is it, and will it stay free? Google describe it as "free-to-download". Are they considering charging for it at some point, once many people have installed it and committed to its use?
Well knowing google the way i do over the years they wont charge for it.
What they will do is fill it full of advertising links until your head falls off :)

Seriously though there's no way to know for sure what they will do.
From what i have been reading now though, it does not run Windows programs natively. They are saying the only way to do that is to run them remotely on another machine that has windows 10 installed.
So it may be next to useless for me.
If anyone has a Chromebook they may be able to tell us what it is used for.
You can also download it to a USB drive and boot up from that to test it, just like Linux did in the past.
 

bassbindevil

Joined Jan 23, 2014
824
The big question is what hardware it supports. Can I plug in my Wi-Fire long-range Wi-Fi adapter, Pinnacle DC10+ video capture card, or Space Orb game controller? Admittedly I don't actually use any of those things now...
 

Thread Starter

MrAl

Joined Jun 17, 2014
11,389
The big question is what hardware it supports. Can I plug in my Wi-Fire long-range Wi-Fi adapter, Pinnacle DC10+ video capture card, or Space Orb game controller? Admittedly I don't actually use any of those things now...
They are saying you can convert an older laptop to use this OS and get good results. But i was asking about any Chromebook users because that would tell us right away what it can do, except for running Android Apps because i found out the OS does not support Android apps yet only Chromebooks do.

But to try it you can download to a USB drive and run from that. I might try this but i some other more important things i have to do that involves computer maintenance.
 

KeithWalker

Joined Jul 10, 2017
3,063
I did a bit of research on notebooks a few months ago when my old Win7 laptop passed away. I decided against a chromebook for two main reasons. The first is the way that google systems intrusively capture your preferences and uses that to flood your system with "appropriate" advertising. It also steers your searches towards their paying advertisers. The second and main reason was because all the data is stored on the cloud, for which, no doubt, there will be regular charges. I like to keep possession of my data where only I have access to it when I need it. I would assume that the "free" download uses the cloud too.
Just as a matter of interest, I settled for a very inexpensive 11" notebook running Windows 10-S. It contains no "bloatware" and in spite of the publicised limitations on what software can be installed on it, I have installed the Arduino IDE software and added ATTiny processor programming capability to it without any problems.
 

Thread Starter

MrAl

Joined Jun 17, 2014
11,389
I did a bit of research on notebooks a few months ago when my old Win7 laptop passed away. I decided against a chromebook for two main reasons. The first is the way that google systems intrusively capture your preferences and uses that to flood your system with "appropriate" advertising. It also steers your searches towards their paying advertisers. The second and main reason was because all the data is stored on the cloud, for which, no doubt, there will be regular charges. I like to keep possession of my data where only I have access to it when I need it. I would assume that the "free" download uses the cloud too.
Just as a matter of interest, I settled for a very inexpensive 11" notebook running Windows 10-S. It contains no "bloatware" and in spite of the publicised limitations on what software can be installed on it, I have installed the Arduino IDE software and added ATTiny processor programming capability to it without any problems.
Oh that's interesting. Yes i believe this new OS uses the cloud extensively bu ti did not read of any charges 'yet'. It not only uses the cloud for data, it also uses the cloud for computing, from what i have read. So part of the OS isnt even installed on the device itself, i think.

I guess time will tell we would be hearing about stories once a lot of people start using it.,
Unfortunately, i dont think i can use it for anything i regularly do except maybe surfing the net.
 

Thread Starter

MrAl

Joined Jun 17, 2014
11,389
Using the cloud for computing means that it will be useless off-line.
Yes, and Microsoft is trying to do that with Win 11 too.
The trend i see is that they all try to snag users with a 'subscription' so they can get money out of users every single month. I see this all over now. Microsoft tried this years ago directly but it wasnt allowed back then. They probably found a work around using the cloud, or they will eventually.
They all want to become like the gas and electric company where you have to pay them every single month.
 

KeithWalker

Joined Jul 10, 2017
3,063
Long live XP! It's the most stable software platform around. I am still using it to run hardware control and measurement applications I made for it twenty years ago. It is stable because I turned off the updates. Even though Microsoft hasn't supported it for years, they still try to sneak an occasional "update" in, probably to make it unusable for the ones who still use it.
 

Thread Starter

MrAl

Joined Jun 17, 2014
11,389
Long live XP! It's the most stable software platform around. I am still using it to run hardware control and measurement applications I made for it twenty years ago. It is stable because I turned off the updates. Even though Microsoft hasn't supported it for years, they still try to sneak an occasional "update" in, probably to make it unusable for the ones who still use it.
Yeah you never know what Microsoft is up to :)
I also read that in Win11 they are trying to eliminate users from using any browser other than Edge. Not sure if that will hold up or not. They tried something like this years ago but the US gov stopped them.

I guess it is a little hard to judge what is fair and what is unfair business practices, but i've seen MS do some really stupid stuff that they would not have been able to do had there been someone to stand up for the users.
There are a lot of people using Linux just because of this.
One thing that was really strange was when they changed the 'message box" API to only allow a certain number of horizontal characters across the box, when before that they left it up to the developers. I saw a lot of gripes over this from developers because they made a lot of software with the previous message box rules and now that they changed, all of their software became broken. It bugged me too because i liked to set the number of chars across myself also not have some built in limit that made no sense.
Sure you can construct your own message box, but it's a lot more code. I've done this now though i was more or less forced to and that is what i mean about MS.
Granted, the API message box is kind of limited anyway,, only so many buttons allowed, but it was very handy for many developers.
 

MrSalts

Joined Apr 2, 2020
2,767
If you're told a "product" is free, then the product isn't actually the "product". You or your data is likely the "product" in the transaction. There is no such thing as a free lunch. With a Google OS, EVERYTHING on your hard disk can be scanned to understand who you are, what you like, what you've done, what "memories" the OS will remind you of, what offers you get, ...
 

k1ng 1337

Joined Sep 11, 2020
940
If you're told a "product" is free, then the product isn't actually the "product". You or your data is likely the "product" in the transaction. There is no such thing as a free lunch. With a Google OS, EVERYTHING on your hard disk can be scanned to understand who you are, what you like, what you've done, what "memories" the OS will remind you of, what offers you get, ...
I've long held the belief that any company that gives away a product for "free" where they are seemingly losing millions on manpower and server resources clearly has ulterior motives. If they didn't have these motives, they would not be at the top of the US exchange because business would be unsustainable. It's then laughable the general population will blame these companies for privacy invasion when the user blazed through TOS after TOS that they didn't care to read.

I recently had a "free" invoicing program where I made many invoices. One day a notice popped up saying it's time to pay for full service which locked me out. I made a complaint and the developers were nice enough to point out in the TOS, deep in the fine print, that allowed them to charge me AND keep a significant portion of my business data. The sad part is you need a degree in law to decipher most TOS as one legal term always references to another and fighting these clauses is futile without an army of lawyers.
 

Thread Starter

MrAl

Joined Jun 17, 2014
11,389
I've long held the belief that any company that gives away a product for "free" where they are seemingly losing millions on manpower and server resources clearly has ulterior motives. If they didn't have these motives, they would not be at the top of the US exchange because business would be unsustainable. It's then laughable the general population will blame these companies for privacy invasion when the user blazed through TOS after TOS that they didn't care to read.

I recently had a "free" invoicing program where I made many invoices. One day a notice popped up saying it's time to pay for full service which locked me out. I made a complaint and the developers were nice enough to point out in the TOS, deep in the fine print, that allowed them to charge me AND keep a significant portion of my business data. The sad part is you need a degree in law to decipher most TOS as one legal term always references to another and fighting these clauses is futile without an army of lawyers.
Things changed when large corporations came about.
Then things changed even more when 'big tech' came about.
Long ago and even now if you went down town and talked to a bunch of people you would be protected by free speech. Today if you go on a social media platform you are not.
What's the difference?
The difference is laws did not keep up with technology and from what i can see they never will.

But back on point, i guess the people who like the Chrome OS will be those that like the Chromebooks. I never used one and probably never well because my computer needs are much different than what a Chromebook can ever do for me, at least from what i understand about these things.
If surfing the web was all that i did maybe it would work for me, but i use the computer for, duh, computing (ha ha), so i need an actual computer not a web surfer machine.
 

MrSalts

Joined Apr 2, 2020
2,767
Long ago and even now if you went down town and talked to a bunch of people you would be protected by free speech. Today if you go on a social media platform you are not.
What's the difference?
Before big tech, I would ask people to leave my party (or not invite them to the next party if all they did is rail on about Nixon or the war or... whatever. Since I wasn't "the government", I was completely allowed to keep them away from my parties or tell them they had to leave if they didn't change the subject.

Like here at ACC (little Tech in your vernacular), if the mods or the site owners don't like what we talk about, they are free to shut us down by deleting a post or even banning us. They are a private company, not the government, so they are not violating anybody's first amendment rights.

I'm having real trouble understanding how you conflate big tech with a government entity. Big tech is a company and a company can control their image, the safety of their users, the experience they want their users to have. If they don't envite. you back or if they kick you out, it has nothing to do with any freedom of speech - the first amendment only applies to the government keeping you quiet, not big tech keeping you quiet.

My question, should we be upset with big tech, or should we be upset with our poor education system that didn't adequately teach some students about the first amendment?
 
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Thread Starter

MrAl

Joined Jun 17, 2014
11,389
Before big tech, I would ask people to leave my party (or not envitemthem to the next party if all they did is rail on about Nixon or the war or... since I want "the government", I was completely allowed to keep them away from my parties or tell them they had to leave if they didn't change the subject.

Like here at ACC (little Tech in your vernacular), if the mods or the site owners don't like what we talk about, they are free to shut us down by deleting a post or even banning us. They are a private company, not the government, so they are not violating anybody's first amendment rights.
I'm having real trouble understanding how you conflate big tech with a government entity. Big tech is a company and a company can control their image, the safety of their users, the experience they want their users to have. If they don't envitemyou back or kick you out, it has nothing to do with any freedom of speech - the first amendment only applies to the government keeping you quiet, not big tech keeping you quiet.

My question, should we be upset with big tech, or should we be upset with our poor education system that didn't adequately teach the some students about the first amendment?
Well thanks for that but i knew that long ago yet i still said what i said.
It's not up to me anyway what goes on behind the scenes so that's that anyway .
I dont really want to get into this though so back to the main topic please.

I intended to try out Chrome OS but i just have too many other things going in right now in the computer arena. I was also working again on my own personal "Photo Shop" because i did not like any of those kinds of programs i tried in the past even some of the expensive ones. I've been working on it for years now on and off and have a host of built in functions now, but there's always room for one more. I also work on a number of other programs also and i could not do that with Chrome OS at least not yet. I also want to get deeper into Android programming and since the Chrome OS does not allow running those apps yet i cant even start to do that with Chrome.

Interesting side line, i thought i read that Win 11 can do Android apps. I'll have to look into this more. That would be great for Android programming you could run them right there and then to test your program code, wouldnt have to upload to an Android device or use one of the slow simulators. I dont know how good the apps run under Win 11 yet though.
 

MrSalts

Joined Apr 2, 2020
2,767
Well thanks for that but i knew that long ago yet i still said what i said.
It's not up to me anyway what goes on behind the scenes so that's that anyway .
Good to know that you knowingly use non-applicable examples to justify your position. Thanks for saying it out loud.
 

metermannd

Joined Oct 25, 2020
343
Long live XP indeed... but Windows 7 is a very close second.

I'd been using a virtual app to run Windows on my Mac, but after I belatedly swapped to a newer Mac with the M1 CPU, I lost that option and it seems that Windows virtualization won't be possible without the ARM version of Windows (and Microsoft is apparently stingier than Scrooge when it comes to making those licenses available).
So, I bought a refurb'd small format PC to host the few apps for which I need Windows (some coding and EPROM burning apps, along with others). It came with Windows 10, and when the setup DEMANDED a Microsoft account login BEFORE I could complete the setup, I dug out my W7 DVD and did a full wipe / load of W7 instead!
 

Thread Starter

MrAl

Joined Jun 17, 2014
11,389
Long live XP indeed... but Windows 7 is a very close second.

I'd been using a virtual app to run Windows on my Mac, but after I belatedly swapped to a newer Mac with the M1 CPU, I lost that option and it seems that Windows virtualization won't be possible without the ARM version of Windows (and Microsoft is apparently stingier than Scrooge when it comes to making those licenses available).
So, I bought a refurb'd small format PC to host the few apps for which I need Windows (some coding and EPROM burning apps, along with others). It came with Windows 10, and when the setup DEMANDED a Microsoft account login BEFORE I could complete the setup, I dug out my W7 DVD and did a full wipe / load of W7 instead!
Hello,

Oh win 10 setup demands a MS user account? I didnt know that.

But MS gets more and more demanding as time goes on. Have you seen the demands for installing Win 11 ? They are now hardware based also.
My guess is that they are trying to take over the computer to the point where they can control just about everything on the computer. We can only hope that little tech comes along with a good alternative to the big tech software and their demands.
If we were back in the 1980's i would just design my own operating system, but today it's too complicated to do everything yourself. I had a nice little system up and running for the Z80 CPU back in the late 1980's and early 1990's.
 
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