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Unboxing a $100 Chromebook

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Re: Unboxing a $100 Chromebook

#151

Post by wildrhythms »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #132
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…

> 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.

Yes, the older Chromebooks have some terribly inconsistent trackpad experiences. There is an older Acer model (circa 2017) that had one of the worst I've ever seen... way too sensitive even with the settings adjusted, palm detection didn't seem to work at all, and after just a month or two of normal use trackpads started double-activating (we had a whole fleet of these!)

Newer models are better. I'm sure software updates have fixed a lot of the palm detection issues. But similar situation with Windows laptops, PC notebook manufacturers are 20 years behind Apple on trackpads.

Re: Unboxing a $100 Chromebook

#152

Post by Wowfunhappy »

stkdump wrote: post #149
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think this computer has a touchscreen?

Right. I think most Chromebooks do, but this one seems to be the exception.

I teach programming classes in elementary schools around NYC, so I have a lot of experience with very low-end Chromebooks, and most of them don't have touchscreens.

With the exception of one particular school, these computers are all perfectly adequate performance-wise, but the awful touchpads just ruin everything.

Re: Unboxing a $100 Chromebook

#153

Post by farmin »

davidbanham wrote: post #146
farmin wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What apps do you use on ipad for development?

I use Blink to mosh in to a server where I do my work through tmux, vim, etc. I use Safari to view the stuff I’m building. There’s a Safari dev tools plugin which sucks compared to Firefox dev tools but it’s okay in a pinch. I use NoMachine to remote into the graphical desktop environment of the server on the rare occasion I need to use a real browser.

That's cool. Didn't know Safari had dev tools on ipad. I did try blink. I wanted to get vscode running via SSH plugin from a vps but didn't have patience to figure it out. Then I realised I should just use my laptop.

Re: Unboxing a $100 Chromebook

#154

Post by limeblack »

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…

Audio latency needs to be worked on but other then that virtualization does a pretty good job.

Re: Unboxing a $100 Chromebook

#155

Post by jt2190 »

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…

Here’s a list of ChromeOS Flex supported devices

https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/11513094

Re: Unboxing a $100 Chromebook

#156

Post by prox »

farmin wrote: post #153
davidbanham wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Blink to mosh in to a server where I do my work through tmux, vim, etc. I use Safari to view the stuff I’m building. There’s a Safari dev tools plugin which sucks compared to Firefox dev tools but it’s okay in a pinch. I use NoMachine to remote into the graphical desktop environment of the server on the rare occasion I need to use a real browser.

That's cool. Didn't know Safari had dev tools on ipad. I did try blink. I wanted to get vscode running via SSH plugin from a vps but didn't have patience to figure it out. Then I realised I should just use my laptop.

You also have various dev tools as apps. What’s also nice is to use a VNC to get the power of my workstation when I am away. Another big selling point is the long battery life.

Re: Unboxing a $100 Chromebook

#157

Post by yx827ha »

anothernewdude wrote: post #112
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.

Sure, but it became a waste of time once they stopped allowing you to upgrade the storage - this used to be the best path to a cheap linux laptop. Not any more.

Some devices do have soldered down eMMC storage, but others have M.2 slots for NVMe storage. The later can be easily upgraded. Some of the newer AMD Chromebooks have an eMMC to NVMe bridge in M.2 form factor, so these can be upgraded as well.

Re: Unboxing a $100 Chromebook

#158

Post by Klaster_1 »

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?

The charts demo stutters on my gaming PC in Firefox...

Re: Unboxing a $100 Chromebook

#159

Post by rmbyrro »

baisq wrote: post #135
jason0597 wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

This problem is pretty much solved transparently by most, if not all cloud providers.

Re: Unboxing a $100 Chromebook

#160

Post by nelsontky »

permo-w wrote: post #144
dTal wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd have thought that would be even lower spec than the Chromebook.

would it? I'm curious to know

Nope it really depends on the plan/pricing you get. The cheapest "droplet" is lousier than a chromebook but there is a wide range of VPSes of varying specs you could choose from! https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/droplets/concepts/cho...
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