Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://galliumos.org/ has done a lot for this space. They're doing a great job at normalizing a *buntu distro across the various chromebook hardware.
Interesting. Support looks patchy, only about 50% of listed devices are fully supported. https://wiki.galliumos.org/Hardware_Compatibility I searched for fully functional 2016 models and found only Acer Chromebook 11. Closer inspection revealed their information was inconsistent and that only 2014-2015 models work - 2016 models apparently don't and use the unsupported NVIDIA Tegra K1 processor. http://www.acer.com/ac…
GalliumOS has good-to-very-good support for almost all Intel Chromebooks, but does not support any ARM models yet.
GalliumOS works very well on the 2015 Pixels. It was a lot of work to get there.
And as with all Linux laptops throughout history, you should definitely check the hardware compatibility list first.