neowin[.]net/news/google039s-new-chrome-os-flex-wants-to-turn-your-old-pc-and-mac-into-a-chromebook/
thurrott[.]com/mobile/chrome-os/262878/quick-look-google-chrome-os-flex
neverware[.]com/freedownload#intro-text
chromeenterprise[.]google/os/chromeosflex/
Why it matters...
With millions [billions?] of Windows PCs & laptops orphaned in a few years, Flex could be a Windows-like replacement OS.
Chrome, as in Chromebooks, is basically Android's sibling OS for larger screens than phones & tablets, and like Android, it's open source. Unlike Windows or Linux, there is no complete setup ISO that works on loads of hardware configurations -- Android & Chrome give you loads of code that has to be adapted to whatever hardware you want to run it on. Importantly, the open source part does not extend to the Play Store or any of its related services. Google bought neverware -- a company that developed a version of the Chrome OS that installs more like Linux & Windows, called CloudReady -- and now Google has released a preview or beta version of their Flex OS based on CloudReady.
There's a lot that just unknown so far... CloudReady had a free consumer / home version, and Google may or may not offer anything similar, though anyone can download, install, & use Flex today. CloudReady did not include the Play Store or services -- Flex eventually might. CloudReady could run VirtualBox, the free VM software [e.g. you could run Windows & Windows software], though it did require installing a Linux add-on -- Flex may or may not, and if not, hacks *may* become available.
Flex installation isn't hard, but it's a bit unique... you use the Chrome extension for recovering Chromebooks to create a setup USB stick/drive with around 10 partitions using Linux file systems. As soon as you're done Windows may start throwing fits -- the only way I could stop the pop-up warnings was to eject the USB stick. OTOH Windows didn't mind when I used a USB external hard disk [SSD]. The USB stick or drive can [only?] be erased using the same Chrome extension you use to create it, BUT, while I got the USB stick back easily enough, I had to use Paragon HDM 17 to delete the partitions on the external drive. You can use something like Paragon's Linux File Systems for Windows, or possibly Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 [WSL2] to view the files on the setup USB stick/drive [see Note], & presumably an installed copy of Flex. It is possible to run Flex *live* off the USB stick, though Google does not recommend it.
Note: WSL2 does not include the capability to work with USB sticks -- you need to add/use the USB/IP open-source project.
docs.microsoft[.]com/en-us/windows/wsl/connect-usb
