Chromebooks

[strongbad]

Does anyone have one or know anything about them? My current laptop might as well be a desktop because the battery is shot and it is fuckin huge (17in). I'm traveling soon and a Chromebook seems like it would cover everything I need in a simple manner. Thoughts??????? Fuel my consumerism pls

[strongbad]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00MMLV7VQ?vs=1
Dam very tempting. I didn't even think about dualbooting with ubuntu but that sounds like a great idea

[snoorkel]

i don't know, wouldn't a tablet with a peripheral keyboard be more useful? considering you can only use web browser, email, maps... Android would be more versatile, or even a Surface 2... personally I wouldn't choose a chromebook over a phone or over a notebook, despite the low cost.

[bluaki]

Chromebooks are great if you want:
* Cheap ($150~$300)
* Great battery life
* Tiny / super portable
* An overall pleasant, "just works" experience
* An actual keyboard (not tablet) and good trackpad
* Something to just browse web, edit documents, and maybe access remote servers

But not good at all if you want:
* To run any Windows-only or Mac-only software
* To run non-Chrome Linux software without much tinkering (and sacrificing a lot of battery life)
* 3D Games
* Powerful CPU or any sort of dedicated GPU
* A premium or high-end feel (except Chromebook Pixel)
* Large built-in storage to hold a lot of videos or whatever (you can carry extra storage devices instead)
* A large screen

I have an Acer C720, which I bought over a year ago for $200 (2GB RAM, 16GB SSD, Celeron 2955U). It doesn't seem to be in production anymore, but the one you linked is probably its closest current equivalent.

Overall, I recommend Chromebooks, but it really depends on your use-case.

[spoiler=some notes about comparing models]* Some of them have ARM CPUs, which don't work as well with dual-OS because of BIOS differences and some limited Linux software compatibility
* Whether Intel or ARM, even these budget processors shouldn't feel very sluggish for casual tasks. Some especially complicated web pages (or google drive documents) might take a couple seconds to finish loading, but it's not too noticeable. They're nothing like the kind of slugishness you might be familiar with from old laptops.
* Like with most budget laptops, screens are mostly 1366x768. There's a fairly steep price hike if you want any better: the Acer 15" model is $350 for 1080p (it also has better RAM+storage+CPU)
* If you want dual-OS, 2GB RAM is plenty usable, but running 4GB is a fairly drastic improvement. The difference is a lot less noticeable if you stick to ChromeOS.
* 16GB SSDs give you about 10GB of free space for user content. Installing a second OS consumes around 4~8GB of that depending on how much stuff you install.[/spoiler]

I actually have a very deep technical understanding of ChromeOS

[bluaki]

i don't know, wouldn't a tablet with a peripheral keyboard be more useful? considering you can only use web browser, email, maps... Android would be more versatile, or even a Surface 2... personally I wouldn't choose a chromebook over a phone or over a notebook, despite the low cost.

In my opinion, a Chromebook is definitely better for actually getting stuff done:
* A real laptop keyboard is better than a flimsy tablet-attached keyboard for both typing speed and not needing a desk
* On-screen keyboards are even worse
* Keyboard shortcuts are great
* I like trackpad better than touchscreens
* Most ~10" tablets are quite a bit more expensive than a typical small Chromebook.
* You can just run Ubuntu or whatever else instead of ChromeOS if you want to
* Desktop/laptop Chrome has a lot more features than Android browsers

ChromeOS does have an apps system too, but it's mainly for offline versions of web sites like gmail and google docs. What about Android is more versatile? All the useful apps I know of are just for things you can access just as easily (if not even moreso) from a desktop/laptop web browser.

I don't really care for tablets, but I think Chromebooks and ultrabooks are great.

[ME##]

i don't know, wouldn't a tablet with a peripheral keyboard be more useful? considering you can only use web browser, email, maps... Android would be more versatile, or even a Surface 2... personally I wouldn't choose a chromebook over a phone or over a notebook, despite the low cost.

yeah.  i still honestly do not understand what purpose the chromebook has.


and jesus, i just decided to look up the chromebook pixel and google seriously thinks it can charge macbook prices for these things?  what the hell

[bluaki]

i don't know, wouldn't a tablet with a peripheral keyboard be more useful? considering you can only use web browser, email, maps... Android would be more versatile, or even a Surface 2... personally I wouldn't choose a chromebook over a phone or over a notebook, despite the low cost.

yeah.  i still honestly do not understand what purpose the chromebook has.


and jesus, i just decided to look up the chromebook pixel and google seriously thinks it can charge macbook prices for these things?  what the hell

The new Chromebook Pixel model released just last month is actually like $300 cheaper than the 2013 model.

In terms of purely hardware, it's a pretty good machine and about what you would expect from that price point. The only major hardware detriment is the storage size: max 64GB (non-removable). In all other hardware respects, it's either on par with (CPU, RAM) or better than (display, battery, size, weight) the more expensive 13-inch Macbook Pro models.

The OS lowers its perceived value, and honestly at that price most people probably are better off getting something that Windows supports, but that doesn't change the hardware price. Google makes it to be the best device to develop ChromeOS on and as a reference machine for other manufacturers to inherit features from; they don't even try to market them to normal people because they know it's pointless, but they let anyone who actually wants it buy it.

If I had that much money to burn on a laptop, I'd prefer Chromebook Pixel over a Macbook, because I almost exclusively use Linux and I dislike Mac keyboards and its screen really is great. But I'm an oddity, and even I would probably prefer something that makes things easier and can dual-boot Windows once in a while like maybe the newest XPS 13, even at the sacrifice of some screen quality.

I believe that ChromeOS actually is a fully capable platform, but it's one that nobody really develops notable software for. The Chrome Web Store supports apps that do anything you'd expect a non-Administrator desktop application to do.

[strongbad]

yeah bluaki you've basically confirmed that a chromebook would be perfect for me
is your's 11.6"? seems like a workable screen size.

also, what OS have you dualbooted alongside chromeOS?
i am thinking of getting like a 32gb flash drive with ubuntu or whatever OS would be more suitable and boot off of that when chromeos isn't up the the task at hand. good idea?

[bluaki]

The easiest and most popular way to handle another OS alongside ChromeOS actually isn't exactly dual-booting.

There's a script available called crouton which lets you set things up so that, while you're in ChromeOS, you can at any time essentially start up an Ubuntu session that runs alongside it. The 16GB internal SSD on Chromebooks is enough to fit it fairly easily; you don't need a flash drive. Both systems are set up to share the same Downloads folder, which makes using them together even easier. While the Ubuntu session is running, you can press a keyboard combination to switch between having it or ChromeOS fill up your screen. It doesn't require much tinkering; it takes about 3 terminal simple commands for initial set up, then one terminal command to run it. More details here: https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton

The way it actually works is based on the fact that ChromeOS itself is Linux. It just uses the same kernel from ChromeOS to run software from Ubuntu in a separate simultaneous graphical session. It automatically manages quite a few other things to make both systems work together better. This setup isn't perfect though: last I checked, the most annoying nuance to using it is that you can't really adjust volume from within the Ubuntu session, so you have to briefly flip back to ChromeOS whenever you want to change volume levels.

Yes, my Chromebook is also 11.6" screen size. I think this is a good size. A lot nicer to use and carry than the big 17" laptop I used to use before I got it.

[strongbad]

that's so cool
from some brief reading it sound like you can get a lot of steam games to work through ubuntu on crouton which is crazy
i'll post with my results if/when i get a chromebook in the next couple weeks

[bluaki]

that's so cool
from some brief reading it sound like you can get a lot of steam games to work through ubuntu on crouton which is crazy
i'll post with my results if/when i get a chromebook in the next couple weeks

Don't count on steam being decent. Even the base Steam client needs a lot of storage space.

You can get more space by either buying a bigger SSD (if your model supports replacing it) or maybe a flash drive (I'm not sure how well this would work). Even with the space, you're still on one of the lower end Intel CPUs with integrated graphics. Sure, you have enough power to run 2D stuff, but not much more than that. Maybe some really old 3D games can have tolerable frame rates.

[strongbad]

seems like lots of people have had success with either an SD card or a 32gb usb 3.0
and i only really play 2D games anyway so no worries. just being able to play FTL is enough lol

[snoorkel]

could a chromebook be a good thin client via rdesktop in Ubuntu   

[bluaki]

could a chromebook be a good thin client via rdesktop in Ubuntu  

ChromeOS itself also has an RDP client (and a VNC one too). No need to use Ubuntu for that.

Possible problems with using it as a RDP thin client:
* 1366x768
* The keyboard might annoy some people trying to control other systems. No caps lock key. No F11/F12 keys. ChromeOS maps things so that you can use Alt+Super as caps lock. It also maps all 12 function keys to Super+{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0,-,=}

[snoorkel]

could a chromebook be a good thin client via rdesktop in Ubuntu  

ChromeOS itself also has an RDP client (and a VNC one too). No need to use Ubuntu for that.

Possible problems with using it as a RDP thin client:
* 1366x768
* The keyboard might annoy some people trying to control other systems. No caps lock key. No F11/F12 keys. ChromeOS maps things so that you can use Alt+Super as caps lock. It also maps all 12 function keys to Super+{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0,-,=}

still pretty cool 

Been considering one of these for a while now.
I've been looking for a cheap replacement for my crackbook for light document writing/editing away from home.

check it out - runs on C batteries. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Brother-Electric-typewriter-EP-43-/151648570100?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item234ef58af4