Cloud operating system for old laptops?

[Zourous]

Anyone know any that are free, with no account needed, that work well or am I just dreaming?

[LeMarchand]

I've used https://porteus-kiosk.org/ for library machines, but it might be a bit "throwaway" for your needs. Also, you'd need to build in a manual update schedule as automatic updates cost.

[dmj]

Any of 100 different linux flavours

[jthompson]

Chrome OS Flex springs to mind. There's a list of supported hardware here - https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/11513094?sjid=7841116599265458691-EU

 

Or Chromium OS (personally never tried that).

 

Edit: I'm assuming here that "use as a guest" is available out of the box.

 

I remember yonks ago there was one called JoliOS, but that died years ago. I don't knwo if there's any non-Chromium equivalent.

Edited September 8, 2023 by jthompson

[mavhc]

https://oofhours.com/2023/05/02/creating-a-kiosk-with-linux/

 

Set it to run in private mode and log out after 10 mins idle or something

[CyBeRkId2002]

Also worth considering the implications of something like this in regards filtering and, more importantly, monitoring given the KCSIE guidance. If they are unauthenticated, how can you tell who is who

[dhicks]

Anyone know any that are free, with no account needed

 

If this is for a school with a Google Workspace domain, you can make ChromeOS Flex devices managed device for a one-off £30-ish fee, then you can put them in kiosk mode (with a filtering application, if you want) and just load a web browser or a specific website.

 

If you want a Linux distribution that has good general hardware support, then the x86 version of Raspberry Pi OS is (perhapse surprisingly) a good choice - based on Debian, with a nice usable desktop, and can be put into kiosk mode to just load a browser quite easily.