Will Framework Laptop 12 support ChromeOS or will there be a Chromebook edition?
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You can’t install normal ChromeOS on a non-chromebook. You could, however, use ChromeOS Flex. Note that there is no android app support and no linux capabilities.
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Correct, but there was the Framework Laptop Chromebook Edition, which I just noticed is discontinued 
My understanding is that it had full ChromeOS on it.
I would love to have a modular, repairable, upgradeable Chromebook with touchscreen and stylus support.
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No mention yet from the team, but it does seem like a great platform to put chromeOS onto, so it could definitely be introduced in the future!
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Didn’t even notice it was discontinued…thanks for bringing that to my attention.
If you look at the price for the Framework Chromebook Edition, it started @ $999, which means it costed at least $1000 after tax. The average price of which is something like $300–specifically because Chrome OS is a Google product. Unlike Windows, there’s no attached license. Yes, it was a very nice laptop, but it was too expensive to be a good Chromebook. I believe what Framework was trying to do, was test interest in their product in the educational sector. They clearly misjudged the value proposition and their place in the market, at that time. Incumbents like Apple, HP and Dell all offer substantial benefits for volume purchases and I don’t remember that being part of the deal.
This time around, however, they are targeting the educational sector as their key demographic and they advertise volume purchases in the promotional material. This is a wise decision, especially now that they’re more established, so they’re value proposition is more “stable”. Expecting IT administrators to kind of just…“stumble” upon Framework’s offering, when making bulk purchase decisions for school districts, was a rather daft business decision.
I think what’s going to happen is, they will start by offering Windows laptops first, since those are easiest and their Windows offerings are already known. Then, they go to Google and renegotiate the contract to implement a “2025 Framework Chromebook Initiative” or something along those lines. It’s probably far more difficult to get a Chromebook made than a Windows laptop.
After all, you can install Windows on a Raspberry Pi, but Google has to certify devices to run its OS.
You’re not wrong but only because most people’s understanding of what a Chromebook is comes from 2012. I daily drove Framework Chromebook at work for two years and as a developer a Chromebook is really just a really solid Linux distro. In the desktop environment everything just works and you have the Crostini layer for all the heavy lifting development tools. Best of both worlds really.
The Framework Chromebook actually filled a very interesting niche where the “halo” ChromeOS devices were all completely unrepairable and often times much more expensive. With 64 GB of memory and a fast NVMe my Framwork did everything I needed it to do. Unfortunately shifting security requirements at work forced me to start using a company provided device.
I really wish the Framework 12 device supported ChromeOS. I think it would be a lot closer to what people expect a ChromeOS device to be. Flex support without the dedicated Titan-C chip that Chromebooks have is generally pretty poor (with some features like pin login not available) and unfortunately not every device gets the Crostini developer tools (IMHO a huge oversight on the part of Google).
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I would also love to have proper ChromeOS support for the 12. However, Flex could be viable in the meanwhile. Has anybody tried to it confirm the basics all work? Particularly bluetooth and wifi?
Framework as a chromebook turned out to be, unfortunately, economically nonfeasible. Most chromebooks are used as expendable tools for travelling and education, and you most often need a sturdy machine you won’t regret breaking or losing, rather than performance powerhouses. (thats’s exactly how I use my Dell 3100 2in1)
If you need a powerful machine and use it in low-distraction mode, you’re better off with full linux or windows with appropriate applications. But it costs more.
For the sake of curiosity, would it be possible to download the Framework Laptop Chromebook Edition recovery media from the Chromebook Recovery Utility extension and install ChromeOS on the Laptop 12 that way? It’s likely a naive and noob-like mindset as I don’t know what other hardware supports it would need, but I’d be interested in learning if this is an option.
The Chromebook Edition used a different motherboard that used coreboot + depthcharge instead of a UEFI firmware. brunch is an unofficial project to run ChromeOS images on UEFI hardware, though I’d expect ChromeOS Flex to be a better solution for most people (unless you need one of the missing features, most notably Android app support).
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My understanding about the Framework Chromebook is that it’s a product that Google approached Framework about making, and Google made a commitment to buy a certain number of them for their employees. Some Google employees use Chromebooks, either because they prefer them or because they are working on ChromeOS development, and the company needs high end Chromebooks to offer them; nobody is going to accept a $300 education Chromebook or even a mid-tier $600 Chromebook instead of an XPS or the like, and the developers (unlike most ChromeOS users) need lots of RAM and storage.
But the market for high end Chromebooks is limited. Basically it’s Google employees, C-level employees at companies that have adopted Chromebooks across the enterprise (everybody else gets mid-level Chromebooks, but executives need something that will look impressive at conferences and board meetings), and people who are developing applications for ChromeOS. Ultimately it didn’t turn out to be popular enough to justify doing an updated version, so Framework discontinued it.
I also would love a modular touchscreen stylus supporting Chromebook. There have to be dozens of us, dozens!
I don’t fit any of those categories. Anyone who has discovered the benefits of ChromeOS, but can afford nice hardware would want one. I love my Galaxy Chromebook, but the battery is about shot and the processor is several generations old by now.