Turn old laptops in Chromebooks

[wvjohn]

Interesting idea.

http://qz.com/632197/heres-how-to-bring ... ign=buffer

Every few years, we replace the electronic devices in our lives, because they start to feel slow, or won’t work with the latest programs. But we don’t often throw out the old ones, either out of inertia or because they’re not the sort of thing you can just toss into the garbage can. But there’s a new solution, first highlighted by Joanna Stern at the Wall Street Journal (paywall), that might break the endless cycle of replacement and help restore your old laptop to some of its former glory.

Neverware, an operating system developer from New York, has developed a program called CloudReady, that can turn hundreds of models of computers from the last decade into usable machines. Neverware developed a version of the operating system found on Google’s Chromebook laptops. The startup has been working with school districts in the US to revive old computers for classroom—for a fee—but is now offering a free version of its software for personal computers.
Here’s what you do

As Stern points out, many computers from the last decade have enough power to run the lightweight programs found on Chromebooks and Neverware’s software allows them to do just that. There’s a long list of requirements and computers Neverware has tested its software on, but even if your laptop isn’t on the list, it’s worth trying either way (as long as you’ve backed up all the data on your old computer), as it might still work and the software is free. Here’s what to do for an old Windows computer:

On your newer computer, go to Neverware’s site and download the software onto a USB stick with 8 GB of space. Neverware says this might take up to 20 minutes, so be prepared.
Head to the Google Chrome web store and download the Chromebook Recovery Utility. Open the program, click the gear icon, choose “use local image” and then look for the .zip file you downloaded onto the USB stick.
Turn on the old laptop, plug in the USB stick and boot up the computer from the USB (which usually involves holding down a button).
Click on the system tray and then “Install CloudReady.” A program to walk you through the setup will then pop up, allowing you to choose whether you want to erase the entire hard drive and start fresh as a Chromebook, or partition the hard drive and keep your old data and old operating system on the computer.
Once you’ve walked through all the steps and the installation finishes, the computer will shut itself down. Unplug the USB stick, turn the computer back on, and you should be all set.

(You can also use CloudReady to revive old Macs too with a similar process which you can follow along on Neverware’s site.)

Stern said that on the old laptops she tested out, the computers worked as they were supposed to—the speakers, mice, and keyboard shortcuts all worked—and generally were far faster than they had been before their updates. But one problem will still remain: If your old laptop’s battery life had deteriorated, CloudReady won’t be able to do much for that. Though if you keep your old computer plugged in, it should be a welcome addition back to your digital family.

[wvjohn]

Here's the link to neverware http://www.neverware.com/freedownload

[FlyingPenguin]

I'll have to try this.

[Genom]

Yeah, I did that to a old netbook and it made it quite usable on a day to day for all the minor stuff I might do on my tablet

[ZYFER]

How might this work for just running off a flash drive? Have an older laptop, but IDE drives hard to come by these days, nor is it really worth the investment.

[FlyingPenguin]

In this video I posted yesterday on recycling old laptops for DOS gaming, the guy mentioned that he replaces dead IDE drives with Compact Flash: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=59123

There's a cheap mini-IDE to compact flash adapter available:
http://www.amazon.com/Syba-Compact-Adap ... B0036DDXUM

Not good for running Windows unless you disable the swap file so you don't burn out the compact flash with writes, but fine for DOS and I wonder if it wouldn't work decently for this as well?



Write speeds wouldn't be great, but then again write speeds on those old mini-IDE drives were nothing great either.

[FlyingPenguin]

Reviews on NewEgg for that CF Card adapter point out that whether you can boot from a CF card or not depends on the card. Some cards tell the BIOS they are removable and that prevents an OS from booting from it, although DOS won't care. Peeps are talking about getting it working and what cards do and don't work:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

[FlyingPenguin]

Just started installing this on an old Dell Inspiron 9400 laptop (Core 2 Duo). Won't work on Core M CPUs like the one in the Ispiron 6000 I also have lying around.

BTW: You CAN boot a live OS off the Flash drive alone without installing it on the hard drive. You actually boot into that first to start the installation.

[FlyingPenguin]

Runs very well on the Inspiron 9400. Youtube videos play okay full screen. Strangely I have no speaker audio but headphones work fine. Need to research that one.

[FlyingPenguin]

The speaker issue on the laptop is broken hardware - the headphone jack is broken and won't switch to the speakers. I plugged in an old HP Bluetooth USB dongle and it was instantly detected and then I paired it with a Jam BT speaker.

Also installed it on an HP Athlon II X2 desktop PC that runs Win7 like a pig with 3GB - even with a clean install. I had just done a clean Win7 install on it to put it in the carity pile, but wasn't happy with the performance. However it runs CloudReady Chromebook like a champ. Performance is very snappy and it feels just like Chrome in Windows. Fully screen HD YouTube video playback is no problem. Script heavy sites like CNN.com work just fine.

This will likely be the OS I stick on most old charity hardware from now on.

BTW: Performance is excellent if you just boot from the USB stick.

[wvjohn]

cool. I have an old core2 duo/xp sitting in the garage and an old dual core amd dell desktop. might play with it one of these days.