For bonus points: I'm trying to figure out if this will work on Chromebooks. So you flash a coreboot+tianocore build (mrchromebox is a popular prebuilt option) to convert your EOL chromebook to a normal UEFI laptop... and then install Chrome OS Flex, and get a supported Chrome OS device again? I can't see any reason it wouldn't work...

What CPUs does Flex support though? This would be great to recover EOL Chromebooks. There are literally millions of them out there that are dead now, but would perform perfectly with Flex.

If you try it and it's good this would be worth doing a Show HN post for.

You can already do this with Neverware CloudReady, which Chrome OS Flex is basically a rebrand of.

https://www.ifixit.com/News/30282/how-to-get-updates-on-your...

I think the chances are pretty good, I have an old Toshiba Chromebook 2 running Cloudready, several years past the end of official support.

seems like they would be doing this with Flex if they could support the old CPUs.

That was my first thought too.

They charge in like heroes to extend the life of laptops with other company's operating systems and yet the four year old Chromebook that perfectly suits my parents' limited performance needs is being abandoned even though it's still fully functional.

I have installed it onto an Asus CN60 which is not supported by ChromeOS since Sep 2019:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30354398

Blame intel for not updating older devices...

What updates could they need from Intel to keep the OS/userspace up to date?

"up to date" implies that fixes are being identified, developed, and distributed. If your wifi card has some flaw, and intel fixes it, and google distributes the fix then your device is "up to date". If you don't care about this property then you also don't care that a Chromebook only gets updates for 7 years. It is, after all, not going to just switch itself off at the end of the support term.

1. Intel spectre/CVE? 2. Note that these old devices have no support from Wayland as intel does not provide drivers 3. These were introductory chromebooks and I am sure OEMs will be annoyed if they are unlimited updates. (or they may be have contracts) 4. Even if google kepps them away from Wayland, users will then expect same performance/features like the new ones - and blame Google.

that’s how google does things, I won’t be surprised.