Chromebooks are Disgusting Abominations

[Joshua the Writer]

My hatred of chromebooks comes from middle school.

My middle school's wi-fi connection was poor and went down at least once a week. Hecking everything on the chrome book requires an active internet connection, so that often haulted lessons entirely. The worst part about this whole thing was that the school still had a few perfectly functioning ThinkPads, and the computer lab courses opted to use the Windows 7 desktops instead.

This was around 2014-2017, by the way. And from what I've seen, chromebooks have improved at all.

The only feature that was added to chromebooks in recent years was the inclusion of the Google play store so it can run some android apps natively, but only stuff like the android version of libre office and social media apps would be able to run on those dirt cheap laptops with severely underpowered hardware.

If you want a cheap laptop, a used thinkpad with linux mint would be a better option. In fact, I am considering exactly that for a new machine to use specifically for writing and schoolwork, as I don't need to be lugging around my gaming laptop everywhere.

 

[tkcartoonist]

I know someone who has taken old, unsupported Chromebooks and put Linux on them. It's a bit of a process though, considering how locked down they are software and hardware wise. I know he had to mess with some jumpers/a chip (depending on the Chromebook's age) to do so.

 

[Princess Viola]

My only issue with the suggestion that Linux is a better choice if you need a cheap laptop over a Chromebook is that ChromeOS is a Linux distro so you're already using Linux if you have one is that I think most of the target market for the ultra cheap Chromebooks would have almost zero knowledge of what Linux even is, much less know how to install it and figure out how to use it.

Sure, there are plenty of distros out there that are easy to install and are beginner-friendly, but a lot of people lack the technical know-how to even do that (or they're just afraid of screwing up and bricking their system). Lots of computer users just know how to turn their computers on and off, login, use the programs they use, and download and install new programs - that's really the extent of most their knowledge (discounting misellaneous stuff like 'knowing how to connect to the internet, set their desktop background, etc., of course)

The way I view it is like: do you have even the most basic level of computer literacy? Absolutely, getting a used Windows laptop that's a few years old and putting Linux on it is give you a better experience than trying to use one of those sub-$200 Chromebook if you just need a cheap laptop for one reason or another.

But if you don't? Those Chromebooks are probably still your best option (unless you wanna suffer with an awful sub-$200 Windows laptop that just barely meets the requirements for Windows 11, has only 4 GB of soldered RAM, and 64 GB of eMMC storage - these are all the same and they're all pure goobahj; if you really need a cheap Windows laptop [and you don't wanna go the used route], ~$300 is the cheapest you should go because around that price, you're gonna at least get 8 GB of RAM that's upgradeable and an SSD - typically 128 or 256 GB - that's also upgradeable)

 

[FilterFreq]

I think it's a ploy to sell underpowered laptops to people who don't know about Linux.

I bought a Chromebook for kicks in 2016-2017 and found out the hard way that even a dumpster dive laptop running something like Ubuntu would be at least 20x better. I sold it almost immediately, and hoped to never think about Chromebooks ever again.

Since then, some members of my family have bought really underpowered Chromebooks (and god forbid, Windows laptops) that take ages to boot up and don't do much of anything. I've learned with age not to touch that one with a 10-foot pole, but I always volunteer myself to go tech shopping with anyone who needs a guide. That's really the best thing you can do -- educate people on better deals when they feel like listening, and mind your own business otherwise

But of course, the unfortunate truth is that there are horribly overpriced, underpowered systems littering the store shelves everywhere and that's not going to change anytime soon. Because someone will take that chance

 

[honeytoast]

I was very fond of my laptop in high school. It was refurbished and was bought for me because my parents realized that I needed a computer for writing essays. Used it in college for the first couple of years too, worked fine for me.

I feel a little old reading this thread. Perhaps your school should've not switched to using laptops if they had a poor connection.

 

[Outdated]

I bought a Chromebook for kicks in 2016-2017 and found out the hard way....

I did exactly the same thing, tried installing Linux on one, discovered it's more closely related to a phone than a computer.

 

[Judge]

Has anyone followed a specific set of instructions for such a transition? Just wondering.

Such as....

https://itsfoss.com/install-linux-chromebook/

 

[Joshua the Writer]

I did exactly the same thing, tried installing Linux on one, discovered it's more closely related to a phone than a computer.

Yeah, exactly. They might as well have the tablet version of Android on there.

 

[Outdated]

Has anyone followed a specific set of instructions for such a transition? Just wondering.

Yes, as mentioned above I played with it and had one running Fedora, but not for very long before I reverted it back to it's original state. Performance was extremely poor, and that was with a much dumbed down version of Fedora. The entire episode was a big waste of time.

 

[Joshua the Writer]

Yes, as mentioned above I played with it and had one running Fedora, but not for very long before I reverted it back to it's original state. Performance was extremely poor, and that was with a much dumbed down version of Fedora. The entire episode was a big waste of time.

Do you think the XCFE edition of Linux Mint could have been better?

 

[velociraptor]

I think it's a ploy to sell underpowered laptops to people who don't know about Linux

They were chiefly intended for people who do everything in a browser online, but the marketroids have been pushing them as an affordable one-size-fits-all budget computing solution. That's rather dishonest. If you are someone who spends 99% of your time in Chrome then a Chromebook is probably a good value for you.

 

[Joshua the Writer]

They were chiefly intended for people who do everything in a browser online, but the marketroids have been pushing them as an affordable one-size-fits-all budget computing solution. That's rather dishonest. If you are someone who spends 99% of your time in Chrome then a Chromebook is probably a good value for you.

The downside comes in when the best office tools are not browser based or web apps, such as MS Office or Libre Office. Even other productivity tools are thankfully not browser based, such as pretty much most quality video editors, streaming software, etc.

 

[Outdated]

Do you think the XCFE edition of Linux Mint could have been better?

The desktop version is what makes the difference.

The only real difference between the different distros is how up to date (or how far out of date) they are. Any distro can run any desktop. When you're playing with strange new hardware the very last thing you want to do is play around with out of date and poorly maintained distros.

Ubuntu or Fedora are the only real choices. And Fedora is an RPM based system which is much more compact in it's downloading and installing of extra programs. It took me a while to get a desktop to appear at all, difficult to find a graphics driver that worked, and then I only ran the LXDE desktop. It was still too slow and clunky to use.

 

[velociraptor]

The downside comes in when the best office tools are not browser based or web apps, such as MS Office or Libre Office. Even other productivity tools are thankfully not browser based, such as pretty much most quality video editors, streaming software, etc.

I have an older laptop that still runs Linux Mint decently enough and I use Firefox and Libre Office on it for writing and blogging. It's serving my needs well and I'm happy. I do run Windows 11 on my Photoshop system, which is pretty souped up, but that's my main use for Windows.

 

[Outdated]

I'll need to buy another laptop soon, if I want to start travelling again then I'll want my internet with me. It has to be a real laptop that can run a decent operating system. It doesn't need to be anything over the top but it certainly won't be a chromebook or similar.

I haven't run Windows in over 10 years, I'll do the same as I did last time, it's very first boot will be from a thumbstick with Linux on it.

 

[Judge]

Frankly just looking at the specs of most any Chromebook is enough for me to can the idea of running Linux on it. It's nice to know it can run hardware well below the level of Windows requirements, but when you get down to under 8 GB of memory it just seems to me a matter of "why bother?"

The one thing I will continue to appreciate about Linux is its ability to run older hardware platforms. Which I may put to the test with my older computer, an i5-3570k with 16 GB of memory and an Nvidia 650Ti card. Plenty of power for basic applications and Photoshop 5.5, but all components that go back about a dozen years. The only drive I'm using for that computer presently is Linux Mint 21.3, though I'm wondering if it will still run Mint 22.0 just fine?

Though I'm still keeping an eye on Ubuntu to see if they do decide to up their hardware requirements for future incarnations of their Linux OS. I know they've got their feelers out in the marketplace, but it may be some time before they share what information they accumulate in the meantime.

 

[Lemon Zing]

Google is coming out with a new TV Streamer box to replace their Chromecast range. So they're gonna stop supporting Chromecasts in the near future.