Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

ASK HN: Has anyone adopted Chrome OS as their primary OS?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 59 posts

ASK HN: Has anyone adopted Chrome OS as their primary OS?

#1

Post by scorpion032 »

I'm in the market for a new device (and also an OS), having used exclusively Mac OS for the most of last decade.

Recently I used Chrome OS, in break time, and I like the simplicity. I'm wondering and interested to know if Cloud9, EC2 and such platforms kind of enable remote development well enough?

Specifically, mostly interested in how it would work out for web-development and Data Science.

Re: ASK HN: Has anyone adopted Chrome OS as their primary OS?

#2

Post by cyberpip »

Chrome OS is okay but typically leaves me wishing I had a more flexible system. Sure, you can install Linux apps on some models (not my Samsung Chromebook Pro because of the old kernel it shipped with!), or flip the developer switch, but I'd hate for this to be my main system. They're making strides with every release but given Google's track record with support and listening to community feedback, I probably wouldn't purchase another (though maybe a sub $200 "disposable" model?). They also EoL these things so one day it will be frozen in time and your only option will be to flip the developer switch which warns you on every boot that you're in developer mode, though there may be a way to remove that with hardware a hardware modification. There is some chatter on the product forums about enabling "unknown source" installations on ChromeOS, but it's been open for years now and progress is slow on that front. I'd only suggest it as a supplemental system, not a main one. A used Thinkpad can run Chrome.

Re: ASK HN: Has anyone adopted Chrome OS as their primary OS?

#3

Post by chuhnk »

After my macbook pro keyboard became completely unusable and keys literally started to fall off I went out and bought a Pixelbook and handed my Macbook in for repair. I'll tell you right now, I'll never go back and I immediately understood that Apple are truly screwed. The macbook is dead and they don't even know it. All developers will eventually move to a Chromebook, Surface or whatever else.

Chrome OS for me is perfect, especially since they introduced linux support and android apps. I can run anything I need, I do not feel like I took a step back, in fact I feel like I leaped forward by pushing towards a cloud first experience. I was already using Google for all my apps, spend most of my time in the browser and I personally have not felt any pain beyond adjusting to my new keyboard layout.

I highly recommend everyone ditch their macbooks and buy a Pixelbook.

Re: ASK HN: Has anyone adopted Chrome OS as their primary OS?

#4

Post by jfsantos »

I've used a Chrome OS device for a long time as my primary device. I'm a researcher and never do any "real" development besides some web stuff or writing code locally, though (most of my code runs on clusters). However, using just web stuff like Cloud9 was not for me, so one of the first things I did with my Chromebook was to install crouton.

If you need to run any specific stuff locally, get a Chromebook that has an Intel CPU, not an ARM. Some stuff (especially proprietary binaries) are not available for ARM. If you get a device with a touchscreen, Android apps sometime will be good enough for things that do not work well on Linux (e.g. Skype).

Re: ASK HN: Has anyone adopted Chrome OS as their primary OS?

#7

Post by InTheArena »

I've tried but failed. There are a couple of key issues: 1) The first is that the chromebook that I purchased before the Crostini announcement (Asus C302CA), which was very much a flagship laptop remains unsupported. The wonderful software update hell of the google ecosystem bit me here.

2) I do a lot of work on airplanes, so not everything can run on a cloud instance. Apple cost too much (and has a remarkable lack of native apps for things like netflix). I also need it to fit on a airplane without jamming my elbows into my sternum due to size. The Chromebook has the form factor, but not the flexibility to work when the net is spotty(again, Crostini probably helps this out).

What I ended up doing ironically was a Surface Go. Great keyboard, nice form factor, and WSL support. 8GB of RAM (which is really needed by notebooks) and it works on plane.

Re: ASK HN: Has anyone adopted Chrome OS as their primary OS?

#10

Post by wlesieutre »

InTheArena wrote: post #7

I've tried but failed. There are a couple of key issues: 1) The first is that the chromebook that I purchased before the Crostini announcement (Asus C302CA), which was very much a flagship laptop remains unsupported. The wonderful software update hell of the google ecosystem bit me here. 2) I do a lot of work on airplanes, so not everything can run on a cloud instance. Apple cost too much (and has a remarkable lack o…

Netflix is one of very few examples where I expect the upcoming Marzipan iOS -> Mac app conversion to be decent.

If the quality of Apple’s own Stocks/News/Home conversions is anything to go by it’s not going to make for good software. But I’d take it for offline Netflix viewing.

Post reply on HN