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

Unboxing a $100 Chromebook

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 186 posts

Re: Unboxing a $100 Chromebook

#121

Post by edent »

dark-star wrote: post #117
shrubble wrote: post #4

https://www.microcenter.com/product/649971/evolve-iii-maestr... On sale $59.99 ; regular price $79.99. Smallish keyboard however...

Why are deals like this always only available in the US? Here in Europe it's really hard to find any Laptops or Chromebooks for less than 200€

Don't forget, EU prices include sales tax. Online shopping in the US doesn't (as I understand it).

However, in the UK, there are Chromebooks for around £120 - https://www.currys.co.uk/computing/laptops/laptops/chromeboo...

Re: Unboxing a $100 Chromebook

#122

Post by agraddy »

fragmede wrote: post #86
agraddy wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience is that the touchpad on Chromebooks is high quality and really nice (I prefer it to a lot of other touchpads I've worked with). I can also boot fully into Linux (slightly different than what is described in the tweets), however when using Linux, the touchpad becomes terrible. I'm guessing if I spent time figuring out the proper drivers I could probably get it working nice on Linux too but it just hasn't…

You’re looking for https://galliumos.org/ , which takes the touchpad drivers out of chromeos and puts them into an xfce4 Linux distro

Thanks so much! I figured there was something out there but really didn't want to spend the time looking for it.

Re: Unboxing a $100 Chromebook

#123

Post by agraddy »

mongol wrote: post #108
agraddy wrote: post #54

I do all my work on an under $200 Chromebook. I have a VPS where I do all the actual work. I use Mosh and TMUX for connecting and saving my different projects (I'm a freelance developer who is often juggling multiple clients). Basically, the Chromebook is just an SSH client and a web browser (I can also boot into Linux if needed - slightly different than described in the Tweets). I've been doing this for years. The b…

What is the VPS if I may ask? Is it an EC2 instance..?

I use a $5 Digital Ocean "droplet".

Re: Unboxing a $100 Chromebook

#124

Post by onli »

coldblues wrote: post #111

Sorry to bring this out of the blue, but I can't resist. The developer in these tweets is surprised that this Chromebook can run Flutter applications. This just shows how bloated and slow software development has become. Why wouldn't a low-powered device such as this run an application without a problem? I guess when you're developing and testing on thousand dollar computers, you don't really consider all the million…

Flutter btw is quite good for that, at least the app side of things (author was focused on web). I test our flutter app regularly with an old underpowered phone and it always worked well, with performance only getting better with newer versions - probably the project's work against shader stutters helps old devices as well.

Re: Unboxing a $100 Chromebook

#125

Post by agraddy »

Theodores wrote: post #95
agraddy wrote: post #54

I do all my work on an under $200 Chromebook. I have a VPS where I do all the actual work. I use Mosh and TMUX for connecting and saving my different projects (I'm a freelance developer who is often juggling multiple clients). Basically, the Chromebook is just an SSH client and a web browser (I can also boot into Linux if needed - slightly different than described in the Tweets). I've been doing this for years. The b…

Kudos for that. There must be some feeling of accomplishment turning in work done on a toy computer, designed for eight year old kids and with no discernible CPU. I have slipped into working almost exclusively on a Chromebook for a pet project that is going rather well. I have this realisation that I have actually completed something without getting off the sofa. The 'dim' screen is not a problem, the keyboard is act…

I like to work outside at different parks (in the shade under a covering) and haven't noticed any "dim" screen issues.

One of the nice things about working with an under-powered system is that you know any users who use what you build probably are viewing it with a device that has more power.

Re: Unboxing a $100 Chromebook

#126

Post by baisq »

agraddy wrote: post #54

I do all my work on an under $200 Chromebook. I have a VPS where I do all the actual work. I use Mosh and TMUX for connecting and saving my different projects (I'm a freelance developer who is often juggling multiple clients). Basically, the Chromebook is just an SSH client and a web browser (I can also boot into Linux if needed - slightly different than described in the Tweets). I've been doing this for years. The b…

How do you handle backups?

Re: Unboxing a $100 Chromebook

#127

Post by WoodenChair »

edent wrote: post #121
dark-star wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are deals like this always only available in the US? Here in Europe it's really hard to find any Laptops or Chromebooks for less than 200€

Don't forget, EU prices include sales tax. Online shopping in the US doesn't (as I understand it). However, in the UK, there are Chromebooks for around £120 - https://www.currys.co.uk/computing/laptops/laptops/chromeboo...

Yeah but sales tax in the US is still way lower than your average European VAT and varies by states. Several states have no sales tax at all (New Hampshire, Delaware, Montana, Oregon, Alaska).

Re: Unboxing a $100 Chromebook

#128

Post by baisq »

dark-star wrote: post #117
shrubble wrote: post #4

https://www.microcenter.com/product/649971/evolve-iii-maestr... On sale $59.99 ; regular price $79.99. Smallish keyboard however...

Why are deals like this always only available in the US? Here in Europe it's really hard to find any Laptops or Chromebooks for less than 200€

"why is everything more expensive and salaries lower in poorer places?"

Re: Unboxing a $100 Chromebook

#129

Post by agraddy »

prox wrote: post #100
Theodores wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kudos for that. There must be some feeling of accomplishment turning in work done on a toy computer, designed for eight year old kids and with no discernible CPU. I have slipped into working almost exclusively on a Chromebook for a pet project that is going rather well. I have this realisation that I have actually completed something without getting off the sofa. The 'dim' screen is not a problem, the keyboard is act…

I have been using an iPad as a remote workstation. Powerful enough, some great apps and a small package to carry around.

I've debated what I want to use for my next device. I've definitely considered getting an iPad as an option.

Re: Unboxing a $100 Chromebook

#130

Post by jeroenhd »

edent wrote: post #78

I guess the real question is - why is Flutter so resource heavy and slow? We live in an age of algorithmic optimisation. Surely it should be unremarkable that a cheap computer can run modern services?

That $100 machine is more powerful than some CAD workstations we had fifteen years ago. A Celeron N4020 is hardly a powerhouse by modern standards, but it'll beat a 15 year old Xeon with the same core count hands down and doesn't even need a fan.

It's terrible how we have such low expectations of hardware just because it's cheap. Cheap hardware has become incredibly powerful but its owners are forced to struggle with laggy, bloated applications because "well, it's cheap, what did you expect".

Post reply on HN