![]() But assuming you are running the appropriate browser, you’ll be able to connect with your serial gadgets with a simple interface that should be familiar to anyone who’s worked with more traditional terminal software. As of this writing it only works on Chrome/Chromium (and by extension, Microsoft Edge), so Firefox fans will be left out in the cold unless Mozilla changes their stance on the whole Web Serial API concept. But now you’ve got a new choice - instead of installing a serial terminal emulator, you can simply point your browser to the aptly-named. There’s plenty of choice out there, from classic command line tools to flashier graphical options, which ultimately all do the same thing in the end: let you easily communicate with gadgets using UART. ![]() That assumes you know how to install, tweak, and maintain Linux.Ĭontinue reading “Linux Fu: The Chrome OS Flex Virtualization” → Posted in Hackaday Columns, Linux Hacks, Slider Tagged chrome, flex, Linux FuĪrguably one of the most important pieces of software to have in your hardware hacking arsenal is a nice serial terminal emulator. There are several distributions that are made for that purpose and, honestly, even most of the major distributions will work fine on older hardware with a little tweaking to turn off some of the more resource-costly features. The other option, of course, is to just install Linux on that old hardware. Unfortunately, Chrome OS Flex has a very different use case and I would only recommend installing it if you meet the exact use case it addresses. ![]() Seems attractive to take that only Windows 7 laptop and repurpose it to run Chrome OS, especially if you can run Linux apps on it. However, Google has recently pushed out Chrome OS Flex which is meant to install on a spare laptop you might happen to have hanging around. If you have a real Chromebook, you can also use it to run certain other kinds of programs via virtualization. Like Android, Chrome OS is based on some variant of Linux, but it is targeted at the “cloud first” strategy so Chromebooks typically don’t have a huge amount of storage or compute power. You’ve probably heard about Google Chromebooks. The Flex Desktop is user-friendly and responsive
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