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Chrome OS: Ready for Web Development [video]

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Re: Chrome OS: Ready for Web Development [video]

#71

Post by jchw »

mosselman wrote: post #57
idm wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I made a separate account for the Chromebook. I don't associate any personal info with this account. Of course, most people will reuse their existing accounts, but it's not strictly required to provide personal details in order to use a Chromebook.

It still sounds like something I’d not be interested in: having to be so defensive around the os. Apps are already annoying, but if you can’t trust the OS itself, then why bother with it at all?

That's the reality I feel every time I boot into Windows to be honest. I work at Google so I am definitely biased but candidly those OneDrive ads in Explorer pissed me off pretty badly, as does start menu ads, Cortana notifications, automatically installing Candy Crush, and so many other things. You can disable most of that, but then I hear there's still telemetry getting sent back to MSFT even after you disable every tickbox in site.

Of course, the obvious solution is to run a good Linux distro or OpenBSD, but frankly it's hard to live with purely just Linux for me. ChromeOS has the advantage of things like near perfect High DPI support.

Re: Chrome OS: Ready for Web Development [video]

#72

Post by stickfigure »

dman wrote: post #32
mav3rick wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chromebooks have a 5 year support policy. It's not a couple of years.

That is worse than other alternatives - PCs and Mac machines.

Not if you measure in $/yr of service.

Also... you've got to treat a laptop pretty gingerly to have one last more than 5 years. Mine are in pretty rough shape by then.

Re: Chrome OS: Ready for Web Development [video]

#73

Post by mooman219 »

idm wrote: post #46
zwaps wrote: post #18

So it does everything that Linux does, but you can also send all your personal data automatically to google. Wow, what a value proposition!

I made a separate account for the Chromebook. I don't associate any personal info with this account. Of course, most people will reuse their existing accounts, but it's not strictly required to provide personal details in order to use a Chromebook.

Do you have an example of when your were personally attacked with you private data by Google? If you're going to say ads in general, you know targeting can be disabled? I see all this constant distrust towards Google, but they're probably the best example of keeping your data secure. (According to market share) 99% of people are running an OS that collects some amount of telemetry data about them already, but Chrome OS, with a <1% market share is the real offender? People are less vocal about companies that actually lose your data, like Equifax, Facebook, and even Canonical had a data breach. I know it's fun to pick on the biggest players, but mid size and small companies have atrocious security practices that are actually abused.

Re: Chrome OS: Ready for Web Development [video]

#74

Post by pjmlp »

jvagner wrote: post #59
pjmlp wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not having 8GB and a powerful enough CPU?

OK, is Crostini different than the Linux VM? 'cause that does work.

Having a proper battery friendly dual core GNU/Linux laptop with 8GB, which sometimes struggles to load everything, having seen the hardware specifications of Pixelbook, the testing platform for Crostini, I have some doubts anything less powerful can take the load of Chrome + Android containers + Linux VM/containers, including the required harddisk space.

Crostini is the codename for the official Linux VM support.

Re: Chrome OS: Ready for Web Development [video]

#75

Post by swebs »

no_protocol wrote: post #63
soared wrote: post #56

If anyone is looking to pick up a chromebook, I maintain an ongoing list of chromebook black friday deals that includes most of the relevant specs (except linux/android support) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12L9SM7k-Z6LSsGvdi7do...

Can you add a column for whether or not these have cellular data capabilities? The HP Chromebook I bought in 2014 has cellular data and if I ever replace it I'll probably want one with the same.

Processor architecture would be helpful as well. Many games and other closed source applications don't work with ARM processors even though they support Linux.

Re: Chrome OS: Ready for Web Development [video]

#76

Post by WildGreenLeave »

benforreal wrote: post #58
SniperOwl wrote: post #38

Did he say 75% off? Can some elaborate the discount?

I was at the Chrome Dev Summit - we got 75% off coupons at registration, so it was advertised as for attendees only. Even so, it wasn't a real coupon code - you go to a site, enter the code, and tell them what app you're working and they get back to you. Not quite sure how "required" that is, but they were required form fields

Was that a personal coupon code or a generic one? In other words, can you share it or not? :)

Re: Chrome OS: Ready for Web Development [video]

#77

Post by tree_of_item »

pjmlp wrote: post #13
youeseh wrote: post #3

Who is this really for? Students who have a cheap Chromebook and couldn't write / test code due to OS restrictions? Developers who have a Chromebook (and love it) and wanted to use it for everything?

You need a flagship Chromebook for proper Crostini support.

Why do you think this? Crostini works fine on low end Chromebooks.

Re: Chrome OS: Ready for Web Development [video]

#78

Post by chewz »

I am really happy with ChromeOS + Debian Stretch (via crouton not crostini) running on my Macbook Pro Retina.

It has taken away all pains of macOS, the screen estate and keyboard (2015 model) are great. What's not to like?

But what I like most is the ability to re-create my working environment on any hardware from USB key in 15 minutes.

Re: Chrome OS: Ready for Web Development [video]

#79

Post by Skunkleton »

writepub wrote: post #70
zwaps wrote: post #18

So it does everything that Linux does, but you can also send all your personal data automatically to google. Wow, what a value proposition!

Just pointing out that windows and Mac collect comparable amounts of personal information, especially if you want to use their app stores. Oh, and Ubuntu siphons data to Amazon. So - if you really want no one snooping around by default, you should be on a more obscure Linux distro, that so devs don't support out of the box. For instance, one can find a Spotify app for Ubuntu/Debain, but you'll have to struggle on Arc…

https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/spotify/

Re: Chrome OS: Ready for Web Development [video]

#80

Post by jancsika »

zaxcellent wrote: post #12
azangru wrote: post #2

Interesting. Any advantage of using Chrome OS for Web development compared to just any plain Linux distro (e.g. Ubuntu)? Or, even more interesting, compared to MacOS? Because from the video, it feels as if Crostini is a second-class citizen on Chrome OS (all that talk about Linux in a container). Why choose Chrome OS at all?

(I'm crostini developer) Chrome OS has some natural advantages as an OS e.g. it's always updated and secure, device drivers just work. Chrome OS is also the only desktop OS with Android support maintained by Google. Because Crostini uses Linux containers, more Linux programs can be used in development than MacOS, and any linux distribution that runs under LXD can be used. Chromebooks can also be found in certain plac…

> device drivers just work

Hm, I've got an ASUS C201 where I use crouton to run Debian Stretch.

* audio craps out after three or four switches between Stretch and ChromeOS. It craps out in ChromeOS such that it locks up videos and they won't play. I have to restart to get it to work again.

* the animated spinning wheel cursor in XFCE4 somehow locks down the entire input. Luckily it usually displays only in a file dialog so I can just mash for awhile and break out of the loop.

* I can't use the hotkey to switch between ChromeOS and Debian because it locks down on a blank screen and I have to hard reboot.

* I can't leave XFCE4 on the screen because when it tries to wake back up from the blank screen it locks down and I have to hard reboot.

* hot keys for audiolevel up/down sometimes don't work. Usually it makes me anxious that audio is about to crap out on ChromeOS. Then in the next few minutes... audio craps out in ChromeOS.

Now, with crostini can you get GPU-acceleration with the Linux distro inside the container? Because with crouton it doesn't seem possible. (Rankly speculating that the XFCE4 spinning wheel cursor lock-up has something to do with lack of GPU-acceleration, but could be wrong.)

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