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I switched from Mac to a Lenovo Chromebook

blog.johnozbay.com

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Re: I switched from Mac to a Lenovo Chromebook

#181
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A Chromebook gets you the elegant UI, touchpad gestures, slim vertically integrated system architecture and the reliable sleep mode of a MacBook without Liquid Glass. Plus Chromebooks have the better keyboard layout IMHO.

I .. don't get how anyone can consider ChromeOS to have a elegant UI. I have a chromebook for traveling and light web dev work since years .. and it works, because I rooted it and allmost do not have to use the UI(I need the terminal and chrome dev tools). In general it got better, but is still horrible inefficient and not ergonomic. Or did you mean it looks good? Well, maybe, but for me a elegant UI means it does no…

I have one of those Morphius Chromebooks (ThinkPad Yoga C13, 16GB RAM + real SSD) and it's unusably slow in ChromeOS. I flashed the coreboot package and installed openSUSE, and now it's my primary machine and absolutely usable with 6+ hours battery life.

I don't understand how Google could screw up Gentoo so badly.

Re: I switched from Mac to a Lenovo Chromebook

#182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's like Linux users who scream about Arch KDE Plasma being better than Kubuntu XFCE++ and change their entire GUI every year. They're obsessing over rounded corners lining up. None of this matters that much. It's more serious on iPhones cause it's glitchy in ways that will interfere with basic usage, also yet another "we need old phones to feel slower" update.

Really hilarious to complain about inconsistency in macOS and then encourage jumping to linux where you have one GTK app, one QT app, an electron app, and some secret fourth thing all running simultaneously with zero consistency or adherence to any kind of human interface guidelines.

Versus macOS, where you encounter one Cocoa, one SwiftUI/UIKit, the same Electron app, a Catalyst app and a Flutter GUI fighting you for attention. Apple is lucky Windows exists, otherwise they'd be the most Balkanized OS in the mainstream.

Re: I switched from Mac to a Lenovo Chromebook

#183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any? Crostini is neat and all, but it's a VM running inside of ChromeOS, so it's restricted in what it can do.

The entire system firmware is open source, so it’s relatively straightforward to replace the system firmware with Coreboot and EDKII to boot normal UEFI Linux. It works excellent. mrchromebox.tech and docs.chrultrabook.com have all the nitty gritty details.

x86 only tho

Re: I switched from Mac to a Lenovo Chromebook

#184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really hilarious to complain about inconsistency in macOS and then encourage jumping to linux where you have one GTK app, one QT app, an electron app, and some secret fourth thing all running simultaneously with zero consistency or adherence to any kind of human interface guidelines.

Both the gnome project and KDE have HI guidelines. Also, I don't understand how this is magically better on mac os. Mac os doesn't have electron apps? Get real, it's the same bullshit on every desktop OS. At least we can all agree it's more consistent than windows.

There's no QT vs GTK situation on Mac. Windows has more of a mix of UI, but at least compatibility tends to be preserved.

Besides that, macOS and Windows each only have one DE and one window system. So in tutorials or IT help, it's enough info to specify that you're using "Mac" or maybe "Mac Tahoe," not "Linux, Debian Trixie, KDE Plasma, on Wayland." Not to mention hardware-specific issues, though those aren't Linux's fault.

Re: I switched from Mac to a Lenovo Chromebook

#185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both the gnome project and KDE have HI guidelines. Also, I don't understand how this is magically better on mac os. Mac os doesn't have electron apps? Get real, it's the same bullshit on every desktop OS. At least we can all agree it's more consistent than windows.

There's no QT vs GTK situation on Mac. Windows has more of a mix of UI, but at least compatibility tends to be preserved. Besides that, macOS and Windows each only have one DE and one window system. So in tutorials or IT help, it's enough info to specify that you're using "Mac" or maybe "Mac Tahoe," not "Linux, Debian Trixie, KDE Plasma, on Wayland." Not to mention hardware-specific issues, though those aren't Linux'…

None of this has to do with consistency, though, which is the topic at hand.

I mean, maybe you can say Windows has "one window system". But Microsoft has over a dozen GUI frameworks, and then they don't even use them. Teams is electron, believe it or not. I mean, in windows TODAY you can find UIs from 1995 to today in there.

And that's just Microsoft software! The pre installed shit. Don't even get me started on applications. Let me tell you, that's not a problem on KDE or GNOME.

Re: I switched from Mac to a Lenovo Chromebook

#186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ChromeOS is the absolute last desktop operating system I would choose to use for myself. Linux, macOS, and Windows would have to be completely dead and buried before I would switch, and at that point I might just consider abandoning tech altogether and joining an Amish commune or something.

When was the last time you tried ChromeOS, out of curiosity? I'd always reach for Linux first, but I'm hard-pressed to put Windows or macOS in second place when both are so miserably bloated.

It's not about bloat, it's about Google. The only tech company I despise more than Google is Facebook.

Re: I switched from Mac to a Lenovo Chromebook

#187
I have had fun with a $40 Chromebook on which I installed Linux (I can't remember the exact flavor). It great low power portable for writing on the go when I don't want to worry about bringing a more expensive machine around, but sadly the screen cracked and it would have cost more than $40 to fix
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