Steve and I have been working independently of each other on ways to bring older computers abandoned by Microsoft as not compatible with their current Operating System (OS) Here's some history about OSs and how our work is coming together.
My journey into using personal computers coincided with the introduction of Windows For Workgroups, 3.1 in April 1992. This more or less coincided with Linus Torvalds writing a kernel / OS, in September 1991 which later became known as Linux, for his own computer hardware, because what was available didn't do what he wanted. This software was modelled on an earlier OS called Unix which was developed again from something earlier, a pattern that is repeated time and time again.
Ten years earlier In 1982, Microsoft (MS) developed PC DOS for IBM x86 PCs. It also was called IBM Dos, but the code was identical to PC DOS or MS DOS. For legal reasons, both variations were owned by MS and MS had bought this as 86-DOS from the Seattle Computer Co. where (I like this bit) it was known internally as QDOS, which stood for Quick and Dirty Operating System.
Back to Linux. Because of the way the licensing of Linux is, developers are allowed to build on others' work, resulting in families of OSs. For example, Debian, established in August 1993, 2 years after Linux was written and one of the oldest distros, is used as a basis for the more popular distros such as Ubuntu and Mint because Debian will install and work on more generations of PCs than others, e.g X86, 32 bit., 64 bit, etc. Because of this, a PC which will no longer run the latest iteration of Windows (11) can have a Linux based OS which is fully up to date with current standards and, said by many, more secure than MS. The installation comes with Office suites (Libre Office) with which MS Office is highly compatible, and other every day apps and a host of specialist apps. In mamy cases, it may be possible to run Windows Apps on Linux using WINE. My preferred OS is Linux Mint LMDE and I have installed this on a wide range of PCs, from a Sony Vaio which originally came with Vista to a Dell which came with Win 10.
Google dabbles with Linux, but doesn't shout about it. A number of manufacturers produce ChromeBooks Which run on the Google Chrome OS, which uses a Linux kernel, probably modified by Google for its own purposes. They run Google Apps in the cloud, so have reduced hardware with reduced cost. Google also have a downloadable OS called Flexi Chrome, which when installed on a PC effectively turns it into a ChromeBook. This is what Steve is interested in. Google maintains a list of PCs which it guarantees are compatible with Flexi Chrome. PCs regularly drop off that list and new ones added, so there are restrictions on what will run Flexi Chrome. Many PCs will run a Linux OS that will not run Flexi Chrome. It seems to me that in that instance, install Linux and access the Google Apps in the cloud with your Google Account. Recently I have looked at Linux Lite which is a small installation in the Debian / Ubuntu family
Another minimalist installation is Linux Arch which is not user friendly and needs mor looking at. The bootable USB Stick doesn’t boot up into a try before you buy system. These OSs allow older PCs to be brought back into service. They may take a bit longer than newer machines to boot up but are perfectly serviceable.
Leonard.
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