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Maryland will hand out 133k Chromebooks to the public

statescoop.com

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Re: Maryland will hand out 133k Chromebooks to the public

#81

Post by graphe »

JaDogg wrote: post #61
graphe wrote: post #17

Instead of creating jobs, or trying to help businesses, let's buy 133,000 laptops because lack of Chromebooks are what are holding people back. 28 million can't be spent better than buying Chromebooks.

Please do not create jobs. Seriously, this is a good way to get people related to politicians in various places that just pay a salary. Now the whole neighborhood is worse off. This will only lead to corruption and nepotism. Helping businesses with something like an incubator is a good idea, and these businesses can create jobs instead of the government creating jobs. Hopefully, these Chromebooks will make it easier…

Let's accept that corruption will occur in all situations. What would be the best way to use Mr. A's tax from Mr. B's perspective for Mr. C?

Re: Maryland will hand out 133k Chromebooks to the public

#82

Post by 1letterunixname »

balozi wrote: post #37

tl;dr: Industrial waste being dumped on communities Handing out 133,000 devices is not enough without including a complete lifecycle management mechanism which will recover and recycling all 133,000 devices at the end of their useful life. Otherwise this is just industrial waste being dumped on unsuspecting communities. The Chromebooks will be in landfills in 3 years.

Or whatever the AUE timer says.

In my experience, homeless people use phones and laptops until the wheels fall off.

Perhaps more of the essential consumables and durable goods society uses should have a responsible public or nonprofit coalitions supply chain: generic medications, microhousing, cereal and pulse crops, basic major electronic components, and software. Leaving everything to the magic invisible hand leads to the Charles Dickens' utopia of healthcare personal bankruptcy, widespread homelessness, and unlivable wage jobs we have now.

Re: Maryland will hand out 133k Chromebooks to the public

#83

Post by shortrounddev2 »

graphe wrote: post #20
robertlagrant wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea is people get Chromebooks, not that people get something of the value of $300.

I can't think of any good scenarios from buying a bunch of crappy Chromebooks for any purpose. What's the best that can happen?

I think the idea is that internet connection is a basic necessity in modern society. A chromebook can help you look for a job, pay bills, etc. For kids it's an educational lifeline.

I actually did all my CS work via a Chromebook in 2013 with a VPS I ssh'd into. Coded everything in vim with makefiles. Was a crucible, but these days I use IDEs

Re: Maryland will hand out 133k Chromebooks to the public

#84

Post by shortrounddev2 »

Rebelgecko wrote: post #33
CapstanRoller wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There’s plenty of free cash/food/shelter around for those who need it. There's plenty, but very little is actually given to those who need it.

Ironically, the most recent survey in the special unhoused enforcement zone near me found that the number of people living on the streets was almost identical to the number of empty beds at the shelter.

A lot of homeless people don't go to shelters because they can be more dangerous than sleeping on the street

Re: Maryland will hand out 133k Chromebooks to the public

#85

Post by nolist_policy »

shimon wrote: post #36
madars wrote: post #13

Recent Chromebooks are extremely nice devices. For example, $299 at BestBuy gets you an Asus CM3401. It has AMD Ryzen CPU (with similar performance as 8th gen mobile i7), 1080p screen, and an M.2 SSD you can upgrade yourself. Downside is the weight -- 1.8kg (almost 4lbs) -- and that 16 GB RAM model costs extra. But perfectly good for using Crostini (ChromeOS's Linux VM -- you can run your favorite Debian programs, in…

The used/refurbished market for Chromebooks is great for buyers, too. There's not much demand for used Chromebooks so you can get something quite nice for personal/kid use around $100-200.

Sure, but always check how long they receive updates. Chromebooks get 8 years of updates, 10 years for models released after 2021.

Re: Maryland will hand out 133k Chromebooks to the public

#86

Post by madars »

1letterunixname wrote: post #74
madars wrote: post #13

Recent Chromebooks are extremely nice devices. For example, $299 at BestBuy gets you an Asus CM3401. It has AMD Ryzen CPU (with similar performance as 8th gen mobile i7), 1080p screen, and an M.2 SSD you can upgrade yourself. Downside is the weight -- 1.8kg (almost 4lbs) -- and that 16 GB RAM model costs extra. But perfectly good for using Crostini (ChromeOS's Linux VM -- you can run your favorite Debian programs, in…

Sorry, no. See also: AUE.

It has auto-updates until June 2031 (almost 8 years from now), and you can reflash it to Linux after. Sounds like a pretty decent vendor promise for a $300 device to me. Windows/macOS don't promise me anything.

Re: Maryland will hand out 133k Chromebooks to the public

#87

Post by solarkraft »

nolist_policy wrote: post #85
shimon wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The used/refurbished market for Chromebooks is great for buyers, too. There's not much demand for used Chromebooks so you can get something quite nice for personal/kid use around $100-200.

Sure, but always check how long they receive updates. Chromebooks get 8 years of updates, 10 years for models released after 2021.

That's a pretty great policy - and such a stark contrast to "maybe 3 years of security updates if we feel like it" on Android (Pixels aren't the norm!).

Re: Maryland will hand out 133k Chromebooks to the public

#88

Post by solarkraft »

ge96 wrote: post #27
madars wrote: post #13

Recent Chromebooks are extremely nice devices. For example, $299 at BestBuy gets you an Asus CM3401. It has AMD Ryzen CPU (with similar performance as 8th gen mobile i7), 1080p screen, and an M.2 SSD you can upgrade yourself. Downside is the weight -- 1.8kg (almost 4lbs) -- and that 16 GB RAM model costs extra. But perfectly good for using Crostini (ChromeOS's Linux VM -- you can run your favorite Debian programs, in…

I wonder what is the percentage of people that would even consider "run [their] favorite Debian programs..." on their Chromebook.

It's so easy that it's great for education. Want to teach somebody Linux? If they have a Chromebook, there's very little you have to go through to get a near-native Linux shell (you can even open ports!).

Re: Maryland will hand out 133k Chromebooks to the public

#89

Post by nolist_policy »

type0 wrote: post #65
kube-system wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Couldn't they at least have put a lightweight linux distro on it? ChromeOS is a lightweight Linux distro.

So what? Red Star OS is also Linux distro.

ChromeOS is not worse than Windows 11, which would be the alternative here. Ironically enough ChromeOS has no Ads in the OS itself compared to Windows.

Re: Maryland will hand out 133k Chromebooks to the public

#90

Post by explaininjs »

shortrounddev2 wrote: post #78
explaininjs wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can assure you the state already has plenty staff on hand with plenty of training on giving out free stuff. And even if they don’t: jobs program.

The state could administer other tasks it's good at more effectively if it didn't need to spend human resources on such a program. >jobs program so is the point to help the poor, or is it to pay government workers to do unnecessary work?

You repeat yourself.

In all seriousness, it’s amusing to see how many people in this thread want to apply capitalist principles to a welfare program. The two are opposite - the goal here is to lose as much capital as possible.

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