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Re: Buying Chromebooks for their hardware, not their OS

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On 2014-03-07, Hils <hils@saynotospam.net> wrote:
> On 2014-03-07 07:23, Hendrik Boom wrote:
>> On Thu, 06 Mar 2014 15:05:22 +0000, RS Wood wrote:
>> 
>>> Well, I guess it is a small bit different. You see - when I buy a
>>> Chromebook not only am I not paying a Windows tax for my hardware, but I
>>> am getting a laptop with a sleek form factor that gets an amazing
>>> battery life. To get these things from a Windows PC you generally have
>>> to pay a giant premium.
>>>
>>> In closing, if you are in the market for some sleek Linux hardware at a
>>> low cost I would highly recommend checking out the Acer C720[5] or the
>>> HP 14"[2]
>>> Chromebooks.
>> 
>> So far the Chromebooks I've seen have ARM processors and small hard 
>> drives (albeit SSD) or Intel processors and a big hard drive the better 
>> part of a terabyte).  I'd love one with an ARM and a large hard drive.  
>
> Wouldn't a netbook for which Linux distros have already been developed
> be a better bet? The Google website doesn't give much away about the
> Chromebook hardware, but somehow I can't see it running Debian and
> Gnome. (Having said that, the battery life of my Debian/Gnome laptop is
> about two hours.)

I've still got an aging netbook (Starling, by System76) and love it - it's
perfect for what I do, and Bodhi flies on it.  But the hardware is close to
dead: doesn't power up reliably (failing hard disk I think), the battery is
dead and can't be replaced, and you have to jiggle the power cord to get it to
power (Apple's magsafe attachment is really useful; I'm sure I damaged this
one by tripping over the power cord and yanking the plug out at an angle that
damaged teh socket).  

So I'm looking for a replacement, and since the only netbooks around are now
used stuff on ebay, Chromebooks look like a reasonable option.

The first chromebooks were ARM chipped and somewhat underpowered, but Samsung,
Acer, and HP all offer Intel (Haswell) chip machines that run well and that
Bodhi and other have had an easy time developing software for.  So it's easy
to get Linux on one.

There are two approaches, apparently.  I'm still learning about this.  One
approach is installing the Linux OS while the chromebook is in developer mode.
It's probably irreversible, but you're installing Linux because you dislike
ChromeOS.  The second method installs Linux like an application so you boot up
into ChomeOS and then run the app, which gets Linux going - slower, but you
can keep the original software intact and have an easier time selling the
machine if you give it up.

I like the idea of ChromeOS for my aging parents, but for me it's close to
unusable because there are no web apps for things I like to do (there's no
ChromeOS SSH or Terminal client that I can find, for example), I usually have
poor network connectivity that makes GoogleDocs-like solutions impossible, and
I mistrust Google anyway.

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Thread

Buying Chromebooks for their hardware, not their OS RS Wood  <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-03-06 15:05 +0000
  Re: Buying Chromebooks for their hardware, not their OS Randy Westlund <Vorzakir@invalid.invalid> - 2014-03-06 22:49 +0000
    Re: Buying Chromebooks for their hardware, not their OS greymausg <maus@mail.com> - 2014-03-07 09:09 +0000
    Re: Buying Chromebooks for their hardware, not their OS Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> - 2014-03-07 10:46 +0000
  Re: Buying Chromebooks for their hardware, not their OS 2phar <none@example.com> - 2014-03-06 18:12 -0500
  Re: Buying Chromebooks for their hardware, not their OS Hendrik Boom <hendrik@topoi.pooq.com> - 2014-03-07 07:23 +0000
    Re: Buying Chromebooks for their hardware, not their OS Hils <hils@saynotospam.net> - 2014-03-07 07:49 +0000
      Re: Buying Chromebooks for their hardware, not their OS RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-03-07 10:21 +0000
        Re: Buying Chromebooks for their hardware, not their OS Hils <hils@saynotospam.net> - 2014-03-07 11:49 +0000
          Re: Buying Chromebooks for their hardware, not their OS RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-03-07 12:21 +0000
            Re: Buying Chromebooks for their hardware, not their OS Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2014-03-07 19:43 -0400
        Re: Buying Chromebooks for their hardware  not their OS "wjwlsn" <ibillwilson@gmail.com> - 2014-03-07 15:02 -0600
    Re: Buying Chromebooks for their hardware, not their OS root <NoEMail@home.org> - 2014-03-07 19:24 +0000
      Re: Buying Chromebooks for their hardware, not their OS Alister <alister.ware@ntlworld.com> - 2014-03-07 19:48 +0000
      Re: Buying Chromebooks for their hardware, not their OS Roger Blake <rogblake@iname.invalid> - 2014-03-07 21:52 +0000
        Re: Buying Chromebooks for their hardware, not their OS greymausg <maus@mail.com> - 2014-03-08 11:55 +0000
      Re: Buying Chromebooks for their hardware, not their OS Rich <rich@example.com> - 2014-03-07 22:17 +0000
        Re: Buying Chromebooks for their hardware, not their OS Jerry Peters <jerry@example.invalid> - 2014-03-08 20:52 +0000
  Re: Buying Chromebooks for their hardware  not their OS "jonh" <jon@nada-sub.co.uk> - 2014-03-07 01:55 -0600
  Re: Buying Chromebooks for their hardware  not their OS "tdk" <forum.tdk@squte.com> - 2014-03-07 19:06 -0600
    Re: Buying Chromebooks for their hardware  not their OS "q.kontinuum" <achsis_of_elvis@yahoo.co.uk> - 2014-03-17 07:53 +0100
      Re: Buying Chromebooks for their hardware  not their OS Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> - 2014-03-17 14:22 +0000
      Re: Buying Chromebooks for their hardware  not their OS "tdk" <forum.tdk@squte.com> - 2014-03-18 14:46 -0600

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