5 ms·

Maybe I'm overestimating the potential success, but it staggers me that Google only released their Pixel laptops with ChromeOS. I would absolutely buy it if it

by kris-s 10y ago

Maybe I'm overestimating the potential success, but it staggers me that Google only released their Pixel laptops with ChromeOS. I would absolutely buy it if it had Ubuntu pre-installed on it with working drivers (and I think a ton of developers would finally have a legitimate competitor to a MacBook Pro).

Navarr 10y ago
The purpose of Pixel is to be a "top of the line" product for their operating system. Wishing it had a different OS is sort of missing the point of why it exists in the first place.
- Crito 10y ago
  The annoyance comes from the hardware being slicker than the software.
jstanley 10y ago
I think you're overestimating the potential success. The vast majority of developers who want to run Ubuntu are more than capable of installing it on their own.
- creshal 10y ago
  See also, the success (or lack thereof) of the Dell XPS Developer Edition.
  - izacus 10y ago
    Considering the fact that you can't even buy the developer edition outside US (or so Dell EMEA says), it looks like Dell is sabotaging it itself.
    - achamayou 10y ago
      Can you not? The UK website seems to have it for sale.
    - smhg 10y ago
      The list of countries where you can get it seems quite extensive: https://bartongeorge.net/2016/03/31/live-in-europe-next-gen-xps-13-developer-edition/ https://bartongeorge.net/2016/03/31/live-in-europe-next-gen-...
      - izacus 10y ago
        Both Dell Germany and Austria said that they cannot deliver them (last month). I do admit I did not try UK since they usually refuse to send things overseas to the continent.
  - eikenberry 10y ago
    And the machines aren't really competitive against Thinkpads. They are still the standard Linux laptop for everyone I know.
untog 10y ago
I don't think Google is really interested in providing that, though. I doubt they make a lot of money on the hardware - it's all about the software, mindshare for ChromeOS. I also think you overestimate how popular a machine like that would be. Dell offers Ubuntu laptops and they certainly haven't taken over the planet.
- zxcvcxz 10y ago
  I've never seen an advertisement for a Dell computer running Ubuntu though. I've seen a ton of ads for the chromebook. If google ran an ad campaign for chromebooks running Ubuntu I think it could easily compete with chrome os.
  - jethro_tell 10y ago
    What do they get from that? I don't think they want to compete with chromeOS, I think they want to sell chromeOS. The only person who would benefit from that is you which is why people buy them and install ubuntu. I use a chrome book for my daily driver. I used to want a ubuntu machine with chrome but after a little effort and getting a setup of crouton that works for me, I actually just want a browser with a shell. Which part is primary and which is secondary is really semantics when I get to working. I do everything in the browser or the shell with the exception of password safe which is an android app run inside the browser. I'd also like the android kindle app but that is blocked form working for some reason (I believe on amazon's side).
- jethro_tell 10y ago
  They also do goofy shit like ship a touchpad with a driver that can't be merged upstream because it would have to remove a chunk of the standard driver. Like how the fuck would that work? Don't get me started on the wifi but that's hit or miss.
teekert 10y ago
What about something like this: https://www.entroware.com/store/apollo https://www.entroware.com/store/apollo ?
- buro9 10y ago
  I agree with kris-s. I want: * USB Type-C * A great screen * A good keyboard * Great CPU * OK storage (or ability to dismantle and put my own SSD in) * Touch screen I essentially want a MacBook Pro with touchscreen and Linux. I know this... but I'm a really heavy Google user and if I'm not exclusively in Chrome then I'm dev'ing in a debian (with i3wm) I do not want OSX at all. I could just get a Macbook Pro and blow away the OS, but no. The Pixel looks perfect, except as a dev machine I'm unconvinced that spending the money just to discover later that it's going to not work for whatever reason is a good idea.
  - jethro_tell 10y ago
    why don't you pick up a c720 or whatever for $100 and mess around with it as far as using a chroot. IT actually works pretty well and you can either run debian chroot and i3 in the second vty or just a cli debian that you can ssh to if most of your tools are CLI.
    - jalami 10y ago
      I do this, am on it right now, except I don't chroot. Just wiped out ChromeOS entirely because it's pretty nasty and installed Linux on SeaBios. I even bought a second one since it worked so well.
  - heartbreak 10y ago
    The MBP doesn't have USB C either. The MacBook does, but then you lose the CPU, storage, keyboard, and still haven't got a touchscreen.
  - jamespo 10y ago
    look at the hp spectre x360... no usb type-c though (but do you really need that?)
melling 10y ago
You are a rounding error. There's not a large enough market. Also, consider how you are comparing a $2000 laptop to a Chromebook. What's the market again?
stuaxo 10y ago
Do they have a decent amount of storage, I thought they were very cloud oriented. My Ubuntu laptop could do with more storage, but I can't really justify the next size SSD jump.
- jalami 10y ago
  I know a lot of the Chromebooks allow swapping out the mSata pretty easily. I've done it with my C720, swapped in a 128gb. I know the new Pixel is more locked down than the last, but haven't looked into it enough to say.
Crito 10y ago
I don't know if they fixed it with the later versions, but the first Chromebook Pixel has a nasty issue where the "don't check for google's signature on boot" flag can unset itself if your battery drains. Real pain in the ass. Keep backups...
simon_weber 10y ago
https://galliumos.org https://galliumos.org comes pretty close to this. I had all the hardware working on my Pixel in little more than the time it took to install.
st3v3r 10y ago
Developers still use a ton of commercial software. As an app developer, I'm still using things like Photoshop, Illustrator, Sketch, Office, etc. So until those come to Linux (or the open source alternatives gather enough traction that designers and such use them too), I don't think a Pixel laptop running Ubuntu would be enough.

by kris-s 10y ago

Navarr 10y ago

The purpose of Pixel is to be a "top of the line" product for their operating system. Wishing it had a different OS is sort of missing the point of why it exists in the first place.

Crito 10y ago
The annoyance comes from the hardware being slicker than the software.

jstanley 10y ago

I think you're overestimating the potential success. The vast majority of developers who want to run Ubuntu are more than capable of installing it on their own.

creshal 10y ago
See also, the success (or lack thereof) of the Dell XPS Developer Edition.
- izacus 10y ago
  Considering the fact that you can't even buy the developer edition outside US (or so Dell EMEA says), it looks like Dell is sabotaging it itself.
  - achamayou 10y ago
    Can you not? The UK website seems to have it for sale.
  - smhg 10y ago
    The list of countries where you can get it seems quite extensive: https://bartongeorge.net/2016/03/31/live-in-europe-next-gen-xps-13-developer-edition/ https://bartongeorge.net/2016/03/31/live-in-europe-next-gen-...
    - izacus 10y ago
      Both Dell Germany and Austria said that they cannot deliver them (last month). I do admit I did not try UK since they usually refuse to send things overseas to the continent.
- eikenberry 10y ago
  And the machines aren't really competitive against Thinkpads. They are still the standard Linux laptop for everyone I know.

untog 10y ago

I don't think Google is really interested in providing that, though. I doubt they make a lot of money on the hardware - it's all about the software, mindshare for ChromeOS. I also think you overestimate how popular a machine like that would be. Dell offers Ubuntu laptops and they certainly haven't taken over the planet.

zxcvcxz 10y ago
I've never seen an advertisement for a Dell computer running Ubuntu though. I've seen a ton of ads for the chromebook. If google ran an ad campaign for chromebooks running Ubuntu I think it could easily compete with chrome os.
- jethro_tell 10y ago
  What do they get from that? I don't think they want to compete with chromeOS, I think they want to sell chromeOS. The only person who would benefit from that is you which is why people buy them and install ubuntu. I use a chrome book for my daily driver. I used to want a ubuntu machine with chrome but after a little effort and getting a setup of crouton that works for me, I actually just want a browser with a shell. Which part is primary and which is secondary is really semantics when I get to working. I do everything in the browser or the shell with the exception of password safe which is an android app run inside the browser. I'd also like the android kindle app but that is blocked form working for some reason (I believe on amazon's side).
jethro_tell 10y ago
They also do goofy shit like ship a touchpad with a driver that can't be merged upstream because it would have to remove a chunk of the standard driver. Like how the fuck would that work? Don't get me started on the wifi but that's hit or miss.

teekert 10y ago

What about something like this: https://www.entroware.com/store/apollo https://www.entroware.com/store/apollo ?

buro9 10y ago
I agree with kris-s. I want: * USB Type-C * A great screen * A good keyboard * Great CPU * OK storage (or ability to dismantle and put my own SSD in) * Touch screen I essentially want a MacBook Pro with touchscreen and Linux. I know this... but I'm a really heavy Google user and if I'm not exclusively in Chrome then I'm dev'ing in a debian (with i3wm) I do not want OSX at all. I could just get a Macbook Pro and blow away the OS, but no. The Pixel looks perfect, except as a dev machine I'm unconvinced that spending the money just to discover later that it's going to not work for whatever reason is a good idea.
- jethro_tell 10y ago
  why don't you pick up a c720 or whatever for $100 and mess around with it as far as using a chroot. IT actually works pretty well and you can either run debian chroot and i3 in the second vty or just a cli debian that you can ssh to if most of your tools are CLI.
  - jalami 10y ago
    I do this, am on it right now, except I don't chroot. Just wiped out ChromeOS entirely because it's pretty nasty and installed Linux on SeaBios. I even bought a second one since it worked so well.
- heartbreak 10y ago
  The MBP doesn't have USB C either. The MacBook does, but then you lose the CPU, storage, keyboard, and still haven't got a touchscreen.
- jamespo 10y ago
  look at the hp spectre x360... no usb type-c though (but do you really need that?)

melling 10y ago

You are a rounding error. There's not a large enough market. Also, consider how you are comparing a $2000 laptop to a Chromebook. What's the market again?

stuaxo 10y ago

Do they have a decent amount of storage, I thought they were very cloud oriented. My Ubuntu laptop could do with more storage, but I can't really justify the next size SSD jump.

jalami 10y ago
I know a lot of the Chromebooks allow swapping out the mSata pretty easily. I've done it with my C720, swapped in a 128gb. I know the new Pixel is more locked down than the last, but haven't looked into it enough to say.

Crito 10y ago

I don't know if they fixed it with the later versions, but the first Chromebook Pixel has a nasty issue where the "don't check for google's signature on boot" flag can unset itself if your battery drains. Real pain in the ass. Keep backups...

simon_weber 10y ago

https://galliumos.org https://galliumos.org comes pretty close to this. I had all the hardware working on my Pixel in little more than the time it took to install.

st3v3r 10y ago

Developers still use a ton of commercial software. As an app developer, I'm still using things like Photoshop, Illustrator, Sketch, Office, etc. So until those come to Linux (or the open source alternatives gather enough traction that designers and such use them too), I don't think a Pixel laptop running Ubuntu would be enough.