The Chromebook Pixel (2015) Review • Hacker News Board

Re: The Chromebook Pixel (2015) Review

#41

Post by pkulak » Sun, Mar 22, 2015, 5:56 PM UTC

resoluteteeth wrote: post #2

The real review here seems to be by BittenRottenApple in the comments, rather than the actual anandtech article. In particular I think this part sums up the main issue I have with the Chromebook Pixel: The entire conceit of Chrome OS is that it's sort of a diet computer. It does the basics, and just the basics. Chrome OS will give you internet, basic word processing through Google Docs, video via YouTube, and the res…

ChromeOS is apparently the very first operating system to only run apps targeted to it.

Re: The Chromebook Pixel (2015) Review

#42

Post by spinchange » Sun, Mar 22, 2015, 5:57 PM UTC

stevecode wrote: post #34

$1299 for 64gb ssd ? I wish it had atleast 500gb ssd :(

This! Yes, it is a "netbook," but 64gb is becoming my minimum requirement for a mobile phone. Even a 128gb option would be appreciated.

Re: The Chromebook Pixel (2015) Review

#43

Post by superbaconman » Sun, Mar 22, 2015, 6:05 PM UTC

pkulak wrote: post #38

yincrash wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crouton is essentially that 'official' way. It's maintained by a hardware engineer from Google. https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton

And I guess now there's a Chrome extension that lets you just run Ubuntu (or whatever you installed) in a browser tab? It's interesting that this is nearly what I've naturally arrived at with my current work MacBook. I got so tired of trying to get various Linux-y things running (and through OS updates) on OS X that I just created a Vagrant box that I can wipe and re-install at my leisure. Now 90% of my actual work i…

This has also been my OSX experience. I bought a Toshiba CB2 a couple months back to see if ChromeOS could handle my workflow; It does. I want a pixel bad!

Re: The Chromebook Pixel (2015) Review

#44

Post by Scarbutt » Sun, Mar 22, 2015, 6:20 PM UTC

JoshTriplett wrote: post #39

DrPsion wrote: post #20

I wish Google had an official way of putting a Linux distribution on these machines. I know they want people working in Chrome OS but for me it just isn't enough. If I could buy the Pixel and have an official way of putting Debian or something on it to make it a proper laptop I probably would buy one. I love the design, the specs are very decent and the display is beautiful.

There is an official way. Turn on developer mode, open a shell, run "sudo crossystem dev_boot_legacy=1", then reboot and hit ctrl-L to boot a PC BIOS (SeaBIOS) that can install Linux. Then install and run any Linux distribution you like.

I guess this is different from running crouton? just curious, if what you say is possible, then why bother using crouton? for not wiping ChromeOS?

Re: The Chromebook Pixel (2015) Review

#45

Post by rifung » Sun, Mar 22, 2015, 6:31 PM UTC

pkulak wrote: post #38

yincrash wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crouton is essentially that 'official' way. It's maintained by a hardware engineer from Google. https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton

And I guess now there's a Chrome extension that lets you just run Ubuntu (or whatever you installed) in a browser tab? It's interesting that this is nearly what I've naturally arrived at with my current work MacBook. I got so tired of trying to get various Linux-y things running (and through OS updates) on OS X that I just created a Vagrant box that I can wipe and re-install at my leisure. Now 90% of my actual work i…

Wait you can run Ubuntu on a browser tab? That sounds completely awesome. Now I really want one.. I just wonder if there's going to be enough space with the tiny SSDs they ship

Re: The Chromebook Pixel (2015) Review

#46

Post by rifung » Sun, Mar 22, 2015, 6:32 PM UTC

dublinben wrote: post #37

nextos wrote: post #18

It's really irritating that: * It's difficult to open/service so you can't flip the switch which allows flashing Coreboot that easily * You can't upgrade it's minimal storage, and there's no LTE * The keyboard is non-standard: no super key (great for WM) and no dedicated home/end

You can actually upgrade the storage quite easily with an SD card.

Would this be fast enough though?

I'm not too familiar with hardware constraints but I remember when people were comparing microSDs on phones vs built in storage one of the big issues was that the speed on microSDs was way worse.

Re: The Chromebook Pixel (2015) Review

#47

Post by macspoofing » Sun, Mar 22, 2015, 6:33 PM UTC

gygygy wrote: post #23

rayiner wrote: post #10

The battery life is great, but the thing that worries me about all non-Apple laptops with sealed batteries is the lack of an official battery service. If I buy an Apple laptop, I know that for $130-200, they'll swap out the battery pack once it's capacity goes down. That does wonders for resale value. What's the story with the original Pixel?

If that is your only reason for selecting an apple produce over something else, then that's just a little naive.

It's not. It's actually a really good reason to buy electronics. Apple supports their devices very well.

Re: The Chromebook Pixel (2015) Review

#48

Post by nextos » Sun, Mar 22, 2015, 6:55 PM UTC

rifung wrote: post #46

dublinben wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can actually upgrade the storage quite easily with an SD card.

Would this be fast enough though? I'm not too familiar with hardware constraints but I remember when people were comparing microSDs on phones vs built in storage one of the big issues was that the speed on microSDs was way worse.

Yeah, and in this case it seems it has a USB 2.0 connection?

Re: The Chromebook Pixel (2015) Review

#49

Post by mark_l_watson » Sun, Mar 22, 2015, 7:16 PM UTC

dagw wrote: post #19

I get the feeling that these Chromebook Pixels aren't made for the public. My theory is that they're the result of an internal Google compromise between ChromeOS managers who want their team to dog food Chromebooks and ChromeOS developers who replied "Get me a compromise free, top of the line chormebook, and I might consider it". The only real customers they care about are Google developers and they don't care about…

Inside Google in 2013 the Pixels were very popular, across the company. I base this on seeing what people carried around.

For the general public, I think that the Pixel is just a little too expensive.

Re: The Chromebook Pixel (2015) Review

#50

Post by JoshTriplett » Sun, Mar 22, 2015, 7:35 PM UTC

Scarbutt wrote: post #44

JoshTriplett wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is an official way. Turn on developer mode, open a shell, run "sudo crossystem dev_boot_legacy=1", then reboot and hit ctrl-L to boot a PC BIOS (SeaBIOS) that can install Linux. Then install and run any Linux distribution you like.

I guess this is different from running crouton? just curious, if what you say is possible, then why bother using crouton? for not wiping ChromeOS?

Right. Crouton lets you run Linux in a chroot under Chrome OS. This lets you completely replace Chrome OS with your Linux distribution of choice. Both make sense depending on what you're trying to do.