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Unboxing a $100 Chromebook

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Re: Unboxing a $100 Chromebook

#131

Post by SahAssar »

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #21

> Like, real Linux, not some weird virtualized or translated environment. Ah, no. It is very much specifically in a container inside a VM. Now, full credit where it's due: You're unlikely to notice. Performance is good, they've done work integrating it (filesystem integration, forwarding windows to the host display servers through Sommelier). But native it is not. (Details: https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumo…

Seems like the FAQ makes a distinction between running the default container and running custom containers. From the description it seems like when using the default terminal app it is a container, not a VM, and when running custom containers it is in a VM: https://chromeos.dev/en/linux/linux-on-chromeos-faq#am-i-run...

Re: Unboxing a $100 Chromebook

#132

Post by Wowfunhappy »

agraddy wrote: post #56
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #29

How are the keyboard and trackpad? IMO, bad trackpads are the biggest pitfall of cheap (and not-so-cheap) laptops, by far. At least with a bad screen you can still generally read the interface without too much trouble, but a bad trackpad can make a computer really frustrating to use!

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…

> My experience is that the touchpad on Chromebooks is high quality and really nice

Have you used the really cheap ones though? I have had very bad experiences with the touchpads on ChromeOS devices used by schools.

Re: Unboxing a $100 Chromebook

#133

Post by Havoc »

>A few minor stutters

I consistently get a single stutter around the March 2016 mark when doing a page reload even on pretty powerful hardware.

...but I see not when scrolling the timeline back, suggesting some sort of caching issue perhaps

Re: Unboxing a $100 Chromebook

#134

Post by jason0597 »

baisq wrote: post #126
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?

As per the comment:

> it is also nice knowing that I never have to worry about losing my device since all of my actual work is on a server I can login to using just about any other device including my phone.

Re: Unboxing a $100 Chromebook

#135

Post by baisq »

jason0597 wrote: post #134
baisq wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you handle backups?

As per the comment: > it is also nice knowing that I never have to worry about losing my device since all of my actual work is on a server I can login to using just about any other device including my phone.

Okay, but what if the server burns like it happened to OVH, or your account gets suspended for no reason and they shred all your data, or you simply fat-finger an rm command? How do you (the grandparent) handle that?

Re: Unboxing a $100 Chromebook

#136

Post by public_defender »

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #49
public_defender wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is correct, but also a lot of these machines can native boot Linux if you enable developer mode. It's not the most frictionless experience in the world, but it can work pretty well.

Oh sure; x86 Chromebooks that support https://mrchromebox.tech firmware upgrades are actually some of the nicest Linux laptops on the market once they've been unlocked and flashed. I just want to call out that the author is precisely backwards and Crostini is a VM and a container and not bare Linux on hardware. Edit: There's also Crouton, for an intermediate option that does need developer mode.

I didn't know about Mr. Chromebox. Very cool. You can also press CTRL+D at boot when you have dev mode enabled to boot an OS from external storage. This is viable on ARM architectures with, for example, Arch Linux ARM.

Re: Unboxing a $100 Chromebook

#137

Post by Wowfunhappy »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #59
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also 300% more expensive than the computer in the GP...

The Micro Center link above has it listed for $60.

Oh, I didn't realize they were the same computer! that's quite the price difference!

Re: Unboxing a $100 Chromebook

#138

Post by [deleted] »

rvdginste wrote: post #106

With these kinds of really cheap devices, it always makes me wonder whether you are not better off buying older used hardware instead... especially if you are looking for a cheap linux laptop. For example, some time ago I got a Thinkpad X200 tablet in good condition off ebay for that price. I was mainly interested in the tablet functionality, but it's a nice little laptop that is still usable today. Even if you are s…

[deleted]

Re: Unboxing a $100 Chromebook

#139

Post by Jemm »

pjmlp wrote: post #102
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…

Welcome to 1994, when I started doing that on IBM X Windows terminals or Hercules green phosphore terminals, depending on the availability on the compute center.

Loved the long persistence displays. So easy on the eyes.

Re: Unboxing a $100 Chromebook

#140

Post by bla3 »

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #21

> Like, real Linux, not some weird virtualized or translated environment. Ah, no. It is very much specifically in a container inside a VM. Now, full credit where it's due: You're unlikely to notice. Performance is good, they've done work integrating it (filesystem integration, forwarding windows to the host display servers through Sommelier). But native it is not. (Details: https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumo…

The tweet says "in a container". It _is_ real Linux in a container. I think the part you quoted is supposed to mean "not WSL".
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