Google's $3 USB stick for revamping old laptops with ChromeOS Flex has sold out — and proves I was right about Chromebooks

A hand putting a ChromeOS Flex USB stick into a laptop, next to a hand holding the USB stick.

Last month, Google partnered with Back Market to launch an emergency recovery kit for aging PCs: the ChromeOS Flex USB Kit. It's essentially a USB drive with ChromeOS installation files on it, so you can convert just about any old laptop into a Chromebook in the space of a few minutes.

The kit costs just $3 / £3 (and €3 in Europe), and according to Windows Central, has sold out pretty quickly. A fresh batch of USB drives should be available soon, but in the meantime, the popularity of this plug-and-play solution for outdated hardware is vindication of something I've always said about Chromebooks (and ChromeOS).