Stefan Mileschin

Convert old PCs to Chromebooks

Google bought a company called Neverware that sells software to transform old personal computers and Macs into Chromebook devices.

The acquisition was announced today by Neverware on Twitter, and Google later confirmed the news in a statement. Google had taken part in the company’s Series B funding round three years ago.

Neverware’s software is called CloudReady OS, and though it’s primarily aimed at schools and enterprises that want to transform fleets of machines into Chromebooks, there’s also a free Home edition that anyone can use.

CloudReady OS is a full-fledged computer operating system that’s based on Google’s Chromium. As the company says, it’s designed to run on older hardware such as Windows PCs that no longer receive any official updates and security patches.

This could be ideal for schools and businesses that have aging computers but lack the budget to replace them.

Google wants to make CloudReady an official product and the Neverware team is joining the Google Chrome OS team.

Neverware said in an FAQ that there won’t be any changes to the free Home Edition or its support policies at this time. It said CloudReady will “continue to be available as-is, and we’re committed to supporting and maintaining existing customers”.

One thing that will be changing is that while the CloudReady OS is based on Chromium, it can’t access the Google Play Store, which means Android apps can’t run on it. The acquisition makes it likely that some sort of support will soon arrive.


https://fudzilla.com/news/pc-hardwar...cycling-outfit