Last week, I wrote about how ChromeOS Flex didn't convince me as a great replacement for Windows 10 if you're trying to revive an old laptop, and how I preferred Zorin OS instead. However, since then, an interesting new alternative was brought to my attention: FydeOS.

FydeOS is based on the ChromiumOS project, which also serves as the basis for ChromeOS itself. That means it's incredibly similar in many ways, but compared to ChromeOS Flex, FydeOS actually has the upper hand in a few ways that make this the definitive way to revive an old laptop, especially if you're using a tablet or 2-in-1. I took it for a spin and I came away very impressed with what's been achieved here. If you can't or won't upgrade to Windows 11, FydeOS is a legitimately great option.

A very touch-friendly OS

The ChromeOS inspiration does have benefits

In another article I wrote last week, I mentioned how Linux is not a great experience on tablets. It functions, but it really does feel like it's taking a desktop UI and making it work with touch, rather than designing an experience for touch, if that makes sense, which is not too dissimilar to Windows 11 (though it's worse). That's an area where ChromeOS has a big advantage over typical Linux distros, and thankfully, that same benefit translates wonderfully over to FydeOS.

I installed the operating system on an old 2-in-1 HP laptop I have lying around, and for almost the entire time, using touch was incredibly natural. There was one single exception during setup, where, after creating my Fyde account, I tried to set a separate password for this PC, and the keyboard wouldn't pop up. Thankfully, I just backed out and used my account password paired with a PIN, which I prefer anyway. That worked fine with touch.

Aside from that snag, everything else about this operating system feels great with touch. I can swipe up from the bottom of the screen to open the home screen (which doubles as the app list). Swipe and hold to open the task manager. Swipe inward from the left side of the screen to go back. Scrolling and navigation otherwise felt great with touch, and everything was really responsive, it was easy to resize and move windows, and so on.

The desktop experience isn't sacrificed, either. Simply rotating the keyboard back into a usable position instantly switched me to a new UI where the shield (taskbar) was always visible and the app launcher was no longer full screen. Apps also run windowed and become fully resizable, making it a very natural experience on a desktop, too. The only downside I noticed is that it didn't play nice with my laptop's touchpad, so two-finger scrolling didn't work. This laptop didn't have precision drivers on Windows, so I suspect support for it is more hit or miss because it predates the more universal standard we've had for the past few years.

Android apps actually work

FydeOS does what Google won't

One of the coolest things about a Chromebook is that most modern devices can run Android apps, complete with the Google Play Store. Google didn't find it worth it to include this feature in ChromeOS Flex, though, so if you're getting this operating system hoping for that feature, you're in for disappointment. ChromeOS Flex is little more than a glorified web browser.

FydeOS fixes this by providing full Android app support without too much hassle. Setting up Android is as easy as launching the Android app for the first time, which will set up the Android subsystem and enable you to install apps from the included Store. These apps should work without Google services, though your mileage may vary.

But if you do need Google services, FydeOS makes it really easy to install GApps, too. This unofficial implementation of Google's mobile services includes the Google Play Store, so you can access the full range of Android apps, and it works pretty perfectly here. It does require a bit of setup as you need to disable rootfs checks in FydeOS, but a quick look at this tutorial will get you up to speed in no time flat.

Once setting this up, I installed apps like Beeper, Nintendo Music, and Vivaldi, and they all worked totally fine. They're very responsive to touch, with all the gestures I'm used to, and I could easily resize Beeper's message list and chat view, too. This is even an improvement over something like Bluestacks for Windows, where I was unable to listen to Nintendo Music through the Android app. From my time with it, everything seems to just work. I even managed to use Slack's annoying email sign-in, meaning my email app was able to properly direct me to the Slack app. I did see some glitches with the automatic time setting not always working properly, and once the Google Play Store said I needed to sign in again, but after retrying, it went back to normal without too much hassle.

Linux is here, too

Yes, you can still use it for development

If you're more of a desktop user, it's possible that simply being able to run Android apps isn't enough of a selling point for you, but thankfully, there's another aspect of ChromeOS that's usually loved and it's still present here: a Linux development environment. The Linux environment in FydeOS comes with the APT package manager, which is one of the more popular options out there, so you should have plenty of packages available to install.

By doing this, you can get closer to a more typical desktop operating system. I didn't delve too deep into it, but installing VLC was a fairly trivial task, and it gives me what's arguably the best media player out there. You could install desktop web browsers and much more this way, though FydeOS does warn you that the GPU-based renderer for the Linux subsystem is disabled by default to provide a more stable experience. If you need GPU rendering, you can re-enable it, but keep in mind FydeOS also doesn't support Nvidia GPUs.

It's not perfect, but it's close

Some minor issues here and there

For all the praise I can give FydeOS, it's worth noting that the experience isn't absolutely perfect, though how great it is also depends on where you are and the computer you have. As I mentioned, my touchpad doesn't seem to be properly supported, which means I have no way to scroll without using an external mouse or the touch screen. This also seems to affect the way the left-click works, as physically clicking the touchpad sometimes won't register an action, and it's more effective to just tap the touchpad instead. The right-click works fine, though.

I've also noticed some weirdness with the touch keyboard when I try to use the Portuguese input method, as the touch keyboard's layout changes completely, adding all kinds of keys that even physical Portuguese keyboards don't have. Worse yet, they don't work. It's easier to just use the US English layout for touch, and only switch to the Portuguese layout when using the physical keyboard on my laptop. Then again, if you're in the US, this doesn't really matter.

These are also just the experiences of one person in a relatively short period, so it's possible other issues will arise over time, but still, from what I've seen, this is an excellent way to bring an old PC back to life. It's a lightweight solution that works very well, and it easily does better than Google's offering for your old PCs. I highly recommend giving it a go.