I thought I needed a new laptop until I tried ChromeOS

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My 2017 MacBook Air had been sitting in a cabinet for the better part of three years when I finally pulled it out again. Not because I had a plan for it — just because I was reorganizing and felt guilty throwing money at a new machine when a perfectly good laptop was gathering dust ten feet away.

Chromebooks have a few downsides, and I didn’t want to replace my main MacBook with one. But ChromeOS Flex — Google’s version designed to run on almost any hardware — turned out to be a different conversation entirely. Thirty minutes and a USB drive later, I’d given a machine I’d quietly retired a completely different operating system, and it was better for it. Now, it’s my main laptop for traveling and coffee shop visits.

My MacBook Air had been sitting in a cabinet for three years

I needed a laptop 9 years ago, and the Apple Store delivered it the same day

Credit: Jonathon Jachura / MUO

Back in 2017, I needed a new laptop and the Apple Store app had same-day delivery, so I used it. It showed up that afternoon — something that still felt a little unreal, and that I thought about more than once while using it over the years.

Writing, browsing, the usual. When I upgraded to a 2019 MacBook Pro in 2021, the Air got pushed to the back of the rotation and eventually stopped being touched at all.

The sticking point was macOS itself — I was stuck on Big Sur 11.6 and couldn’t…

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