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Offline bloodlineTopic starter

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Chromebook... :(
« on: February 09, 2014, 10:26:10 PM »
My girlfriend won a chromebook in a competition... It's an HP CB2 and the story so far is that it is truely a horrible machine.

The hardware seems ok, but feels like a $200 laptop, it is a adequate in performance... The real problem is ChromeOS... Nothing works, I've downloaded plenty of "apps" from the play store thing, but mostly they just don't work...

I was always quite excited by the concept, but now I'm just fed up... Going back to my iPad and MacBook.

I need to try and figure out how to get Debian on it before it ends up in the bin :-/

Offline AmigaFreak

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Re: Chromebook... :(
« Reply #1 on: February 09, 2014, 10:58:25 PM »
I had a Samsung Chromebook at one point that I was able to get into development mode and install Ubuntu. Once ChromeOS was gone, it was an OK machine. However I too ended up not liking it, So I sold it in the end.
-- Joshua E. Horn

"Um... I think my computer let out the blue smoke! What should I do?!?!?"
 

Offline kickstart

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Re: Chromebook... :(
« Reply #2 on: February 09, 2014, 11:54:36 PM »
Google dont care about performance or usability but the privacy of this "OS" is crap for sure.
a1200 060
 

Offline NovaCoder

Re: Chromebook... :(
« Reply #3 on: February 10, 2014, 03:58:52 AM »
Life begins at 100 MIPS!


Nice Ports on AmiNet!
 

Offline gertsy

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Re: Chromebook... :(
« Reply #4 on: February 10, 2014, 04:50:17 AM »
$ ?

You forgot to mention, "in the corporate arena".  They were probably "given" away with corporate Googley Apps Subscriptions. :)
« Last Edit: February 10, 2014, 07:07:38 AM by gertsy »
 

Offline Duce

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Re: Chromebook... :(
« Reply #5 on: February 10, 2014, 07:32:40 AM »
Feels like a $200 laptop because it is a $200 laptop :)  Well, $279 MSRP, but can be found quite easily for $200 online.

The Chromebook Pixel however is the nicest hardware I've ever used in a laptop, but Chrome OS is hard to get past.  Google has done wonders making it more operational offline, but it's still not much more than a paperweight unless you have fulltime connectivity, and that's something I for one simply don't have.

As much as things are going "cloud", these things simply aren't ideal for 95% of even the enthusiast/techie crowd.

Can install Linux variants on most of them, but the low end Chromebook's like the CB2 just don't have a hell of a lot of grunt to run a real OS, that Exynos CPU is a little anemic, sadly.  I was quite happy with the Pixel once I got Ubuntu installed on it, but ultimately went back to my Mac laptop simply because there's some apps I can't run in Linux and I run Windows on all my Mac laptops.
 

Offline bloodlineTopic starter

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Re: Chromebook... :(
« Reply #6 on: February 10, 2014, 09:23:41 AM »
Quote from: NovaCoder;758710
They must be doing something right....

Google’s Chromebook Outsells Apple’s MacBook In US In 2013

The MacBook Air is 5 times the price of the chromebook, of course it's going to sell more.

My girlfriend held off buying an new MacBook Air when she won the competition for the Chromebook... Now she's going to wait for the next Air refresh before buying one.

I'm still having trouble getting a proper OS on this bloody thing! Battery life is terrible too... :(

Offline nicholas

Re: Chromebook... :(
« Reply #7 on: February 10, 2014, 10:38:31 AM »
Quote from: bloodline;758719
The MacBook Air is 5 times the price of the chromebook, of course it's going to sell more.

My girlfriend held off buying an new MacBook Air when she won the competition for the Chromebook... Now she's going to wait for the next Air refresh before buying one.

I'm still having trouble getting a proper OS on this bloody thing! Battery life is terrible too... :(


Hi Matt,

Put it in developer mode and install Debian, then install TLP for OSX level battery life.

http://linrunner.de/en/tlp/docs/tlp-linux-advanced-power-management.html#installation
“Een rezhim-i eshghalgar-i Quds bayad az sahneh-i ruzgar mahv shaved.” - Imam Ayatollah Sayyed  Ruhollah Khomeini
 

Offline kamelito

Re: Chromebook... :(
« Reply #8 on: February 10, 2014, 12:43:12 PM »
Thanks for sharing your experience.
I nearly bought one yesterday as a linux machine.
it was an Acer C720.

Kamelito
 

Offline bloodlineTopic starter

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Re: Chromebook... :(
« Reply #9 on: February 10, 2014, 07:15:14 PM »
Quote from: kamelito;758725
Thanks for sharing your experience.
I nearly bought one yesterday as a linux machine.
it was an Acer C720.

Kamelito


To be fair, the Acer might be a better machine. I'm using the HP Chromebook2... Tonight I'll try and follow Nicholas' advice and see if I can get Debian on it.

Offline bloodlineTopic starter

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Re: Chromebook... :(
« Reply #10 on: February 16, 2014, 11:04:15 AM »
It would appear that the Linux distributions for this chrombook are far less mature than even the Raspberry Pi (which I have found infinitely more fun), and the poor build quality is starting show... The screen is already loose and the case creaks when it is moved.

The track pad is horrible, sometimes (and at random) misinterpreting multifinger gestures as move events!?!?

Battery life is bearable, but nothing compared to what I expect from a mobile device.

I really can't recommend this device to anyone, save up, pay more, get a proper laptop. 11" MacBook Air is back at the top of my shopping list :)

Offline r.cade

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Re: Chromebook... :(
« Reply #11 on: February 16, 2014, 10:50:52 PM »
I have the little Samsung 11" Chromebook with 3G and it works well for what it was expected to do.  It runs Chrome + (almost) all my extensions and that's what it was designed for.  

It was not meant to be a full laptop with regular OS, so if you bought it with that in mind, of course you will be disappointed.
 

Offline Thorham

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Re: Chromebook... :(
« Reply #12 on: February 16, 2014, 11:00:06 PM »
Quote from: bloodline;758966
MacBook Air is back at the top of my shopping list
Don't pay more for less. Don't get Apple.
 

Offline NovaCoder

Re: Chromebook... :(
« Reply #13 on: February 16, 2014, 11:31:17 PM »
Quote from: r.cade;759010
I have the little Samsung 11" Chromebook with 3G and it works well for what it was expected to do.  It runs Chrome + (almost) all my extensions and that's what it was designed for.  

It was not meant to be a full laptop with regular OS, so if you bought it with that in mind, of course you will be disappointed.


That's correct, don't buy and Chromebook if you want to run a standard OS.   It's targeted at people that just want web access and not much else, kind of like a tablet with a keyboard built in.

I'd seriously consider buying one if I didn't need Windows for doing a little bit of coding, there's really not much else I use my PC for these days.
Life begins at 100 MIPS!


Nice Ports on AmiNet!
 

Offline nicholas

Re: Chromebook... :(
« Reply #14 on: February 17, 2014, 02:06:27 AM »
Quote from: bloodline;758966
It would appear that the Linux distributions for this chrombook are far less mature than even the Raspberry Pi (which I have found infinitely more fun), and the poor build quality is starting show... The screen is already loose and the case creaks when it is moved.

The track pad is horrible, sometimes (and at random) misinterpreting multifinger gestures as move events!?!?

Battery life is bearable, but nothing compared to what I expect from a mobile device.

I really can't recommend this device to anyone, save up, pay more, get a proper laptop. 11" MacBook Air is back at the top of my shopping list :)


This is a simple way to run a proper Linux on it.

https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton
“Een rezhim-i eshghalgar-i Quds bayad az sahneh-i ruzgar mahv shaved.” - Imam Ayatollah Sayyed  Ruhollah Khomeini