Google announced Chrome OS Flex and that they were killing CloudReady in favor of Flex and many of our parallel customers have asked whats next for them? Chrome OS Flex is designed by default to be limited. Users of Chrome OS Flex will not get the Android subsystem nor will any PC's manufactured more than 2 years ago will not be able to run the Linux container. Flex also removes the ability to access the shell ie command line. So with that users will be limited to PWA's. With CloudReady you had the ability to use the command line and to use basic command line utilities and Google is removing that from Flex which has some users scratching their heads. What can they do?
Enter PC/OS Desktop...
PC/OS Desktop while traditionally used as a fat client solution; meaning you have desktop applications installed can also be installed and used only the web browser installed via the 'Minimal Install' What this allows you to do is use PC/OS Desktop like you would a Chromebook or Chrome OS Flex. PC/OS Desktop includes the Microsoft Edge browser so when you sync with Google all your PWA's, Bookmarks, Settings, Extensions will be automatically set up on your PC/OS Installation via sync. You can even use the Google administration tools that you are accustomed to using to administer you PC/OS Desktop installations
PC/OS Desktop also gives you shell and command line access so many of those utilities that sysadmins and developers are accustomed to are present and ready to use without the use of container technology. Google in order to use Linux (Crostini) on Flex or Chromebooks limits Crostini technology on older systems. With PC/OS Desktop you have no such limitations. Its full Linux and through the DISCOVER Software store you have full access to the totality of Linux based software. There are no special "projects" to make sure that basic functionality works on PC/OS Desktop. With Chrome OS and Flex you are limited in what your system can do under Linux.
If you are a CloudReady customer we strongly suggest you take a look at PC/OS Desktop. If you need a full desktop environment with a localized Office Suite, e-mail client and more you will find that the full installation suits your need. If you work in the Google ecosystem, Gmail, Docs, Calendar, Drive, and meet we highly recommend you install PC/OS Desktop with only the minimal install for uninterrupted user.
If you are a CloudReady home user or individual user we recommend PC/OS Desktop which is free to download and use and has the same capabilities.
You can get more information here:
https://www.pc-opensystems.com/p/pcos-desktop.html
You can download it here
https://distro.ibiblio.org/blacklab/pc-os/pc-os-20-04-desktop-amd64.iso
https://distro.ibiblio.org/blacklab/pc-os/pc-os-20-04-desktop-amd64.md5
https://distro.ibiblio.org/blacklab/pc-os/pc-os-20-04-desktop-amd64.sha256
