Chrome OS dual boot

Hey all, new member to the forums. This looks like an active community, much better than where I came from.

I've been looking at ways to try to get Chrome OS on my HP laptop, but it doesn't appear to be simple. Looks like I download it to a flash, and use the flash as bootable drive to format partition of the HDD.

Is it that simple or am I missing something?

 

You can't really get the official "Chrome OS" on non-chromebooks, but you can can install CloudReady which is a free version based on Chromium OS and is almost identical to Chrome OS.

Get it here: https://www.neverware.com/freedownload

I noticed you have Dual boot as the title. Dual booting CloudReady / MS Windows might be very tricky. I would look to see if there is a guide. The main reason is CloudReady has some really crazy partition layouts. When I installed it by itself it had something like 27 partitions, and I'm not sure of the reason.

Anyway, install CloudReady to a USB flash drive and boot it to check it out.

 

Do these alternatives allow using Google play apps, or native Google apps equivalent to word /excel? Read that chromium wouldn't, so started trying to explore the dual boot.

But heck, if I don't need dB, don't plan on doing it then.

 

If you want to use GP apps, just buy a Chromebook. You can find many 2-3 year old models that are officially supported by Google for Play Store access for $100 or less.

 

I've got the new p65 limited edition on pre order, and am trying to get gp to work on it

 

I would love to be able to dual boot Chrome OS on my dell 2 in 1 and be able to use android apps instead of in emulation as I do now. A surface go, with chrome OS dual booted would be KILLER acutally!

 

I know this is an old thread, but just wanted to mention I have CloudReady (free version of ChromeOS) dual booting with Windows 7 on my old HP ZBook 15 and it works fantastic. I just removed the 1TB SATA SSD prior to installing the ChromeOS onto the mSATA and I use the BIOS boot selection menu (displays automatically with the right BIOS settings) to choose which OS will load. CloudReady also runs fine from a 16GB Sandisk mini-USB flash drive that is the size of the typical USB receiver that my Logitech mouse uses, so on a laptop that has only one drive or a crappy BIOS that doesn't allow any custom user options you could use one of those and leave it in a USB port for a "dual boot" setup. This OS seems like it is kind of limited, (like a Chromebook would be,) but I really love how simple it is. Perfect for web surfing and kind of an interesting geeky thing to tinker with.

What started this for me is my hate for Windows 10 filth and looking for an alternative. I've been tinkering with Linux to try to build my technical skillset with that option, and I decided to venture into this sub-forum out of curiosity. I'm pleasantly surprised with CloudReady's ease of use.



Here's the "Control Panel" for making adjustments to hardware and peripherals.

The storage system management is also pretty nice. Looks a lot like a browser version of "My Computer" (Windows File Explorer)...

Heck, even my WiFi connected printer works with it. I didn't even have to do anything to set it up, LOL.

@Ultra Male should give this a try since he wasn't too thrilled with Linux.

 

Me too, I am not a Linux lover at all.

 

OK, I clean installed everything on the HP ZBook and now it is triple booting W7, Linux Mint 19 Cinnamon and CloudReady... no trace of the sucky Windoze OS X cancer filth left on my laptop.

 

Where do you get ChromiumOS ISO for download?

 

From post #2 in this thread (quoted below).

It's technically called "CloudReady" and I really like it (as you can tell). It's not a power-user OS, but it's definitely simple and works great for basic puttering around on the web and stuff like that... just like a Chromebook does. Installing it is a brainless process. Just temporarily remove any drives you don't want to get screwed up by it on accident. I was not given the option of what drive to install to and it totally hosed my Windows+Linux setup. It did not even try to install itself on the unallocated mSATA drive space. When I clicked on the "Next" button it immediately started tearing it up. I was expecting the next page to be a list of configuration options to choose from.