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Serious question for HNers: Does anyone actually buy these for ChromeOS? Every time I hear these discussed it seems to center around what you can do with them t

Serious question for HNers: Does anyone actually buy these for ChromeOS? Every time I hear these discussed it seems to center around what you can do with them that involves a new OS, either Windows or Linux. So is it really the product in demand or just the demand for hardware not bound down with a bundled OS License?

pgeorgi 9y ago
HNers probably replace the OS as soon as possible. Those schools and companies looking for a low maintenance thin client platform won't (or they'd lose the "low maintenance" appeal)
ekidd 9y ago
Yes! I have a very nice Samsung Chromebook Plus, which folds into a tablet, and which has a pen, but for roughly 1/3rd the price of the new Chromebook Pixel. I use it as a large format document reader, and as an easy-to-secure, easy-to-wipe, easy-to-restore travel machine. It's also great for sketching out design diagrams on a table in a meeting. The fact that the Chromebook Plus also runs Android apps is a huge plus. I've never unlocked it to install Linux, because that reduces the security guarantees, which were a major selling point for me when travelling.
lllr_finger 9y ago
I buy them for anyone in my family that "just wants a laptop to browse the web", as they are fast, secure, cheap, and easy - with great battery life.
paulryanrogers 9y ago
A coworker had one. IIRC she used it primarily for writing.
dgacmu 9y ago
Yeah - I bought one for taking out of the country and on a two week family vacation (which included some stretches of camping) so that I could manage things remotely while I was gone. It's not my Macbook Pro. But it worked really well for light-duty tasks. The biggest annoyance was that I can't run my password manager on it, so I was hand-copying long strings of hard-to-type garbage from my phone fairly frequently. I wondered if I'd switch over to it. I haven't. I like larger laptops, I prefer the MBP keyboard, and I generally need to be able to run more stuff locally. But I'm glad I have it, I use it around the house when my mac is plugged into a monitor in my office, and I'll definitely use it for all future international travel. (Asus Chromebook Flip, FWIW.)
vinceguidry 9y ago
I bought one and used it briefly before deciding it wouldn't serve my needs. I thought I could keep it in my car so I didn't have to haul a laptop everywhere I went. Bonus was the security of keeping my MacBook at home and only having a cheap-o Chromebook in the car. ChromeOS wasn't a problem. I was able to get a development workflow going just fine, I planned on using Mosh to shell into a development machine and I was on my way to figuring out a fluid way to edit files through perhaps SSHFS. The problem was the hardware itself, which, after years of getting spoiled by MacBooks, left a lot to be desired. The keyboard sucked, the screen sucked, but the real deal breaker was that the battery life was utter crap, and it drained while it was sitting in my car. This made it unusable and I eventually gave it away. I could spend the money and get better hardware, but at that point it's competing with my MacBook.
- Filligree 9y ago
  > I could spend the money and get better hardware, but at that point it's competing with my MacBook. I spent the money, bought a high-end C302CA, and found it does indeed compete with my Macbook... resulting in rarely using the Macbook. Figures, really, but I have no objections to this outcome.
sowbug 9y ago
Yes. My wife and I have three kids. We have at least four Chromebooks sitting around the house for anyone to pick up and use. We used to have a couple OS X machines, but other than occasional video editing that we now do in the Instagram app, they were never used for anything a Chromebook couldn't do. My kids' schools all use Chromebooks, too, so it's easy for them to resume work when they get home. I am an engineering manager at Google. I carry around an Asus C302CA for meetings, and I'll occasionally use it to SSH into a corp machine. I do have a Linux workstation at work for coding. I also use the nearest Chromebook to SSH into a personal VPS where I keep stuff I want online other than the usual cloud content. And I have a couple Raspberry Pis at home for misc hacking. The main value of ChromeOS to me is that the machines never break, and other than making sure my family enables U2F on all their accounts, there aren't any best practices, fine-tuning, or maintenance for the fleet of machines that I maintain as a dad. Favorite models including years past: Acer C720 (fast and cheap but screen wasn't great); Toshiba Chromebook 2 (IPS, full HD, love the keyboard); Google Pixel 2 (remains the perfect laptop of any kind, but it was hard to find in quantity); Asus C302CA (currently the best; great screen + touch, OK battery, hinged design is very nice for impromptu shared viewing sessions and presentations).
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- redial 9y ago
  > I am an engineering manager at Google. Well then, not biased at all.
VLM 9y ago
I use mine the same way I use a windows computer at work; Chrome for the world is on the web now, including office applications. I also install a SSH client and VNC/rdesktop. That's about it. My main development system is a very beefy virtual image on a vmware cluster, more capable than any laptop I could buy. I VNC into it over a vpn, doesn't matter much if my VNC host is mac/android/chromeos... Asking what I'd do if the network is down is kinda like asking what I'd do without electricity or water. Locally the odds of failure are about the same, and I'd simply fix it or move where it works.

pgeorgi 9y ago

HNers probably replace the OS as soon as possible. Those schools and companies looking for a low maintenance thin client platform won't (or they'd lose the "low maintenance" appeal)

ekidd 9y ago

Yes! I have a very nice Samsung Chromebook Plus, which folds into a tablet, and which has a pen, but for roughly 1/3rd the price of the new Chromebook Pixel. I use it as a large format document reader, and as an easy-to-secure, easy-to-wipe, easy-to-restore travel machine. It's also great for sketching out design diagrams on a table in a meeting. The fact that the Chromebook Plus also runs Android apps is a huge plus. I've never unlocked it to install Linux, because that reduces the security guarantees, which were a major selling point for me when travelling.

lllr_finger 9y ago

I buy them for anyone in my family that "just wants a laptop to browse the web", as they are fast, secure, cheap, and easy - with great battery life.

paulryanrogers 9y ago

A coworker had one. IIRC she used it primarily for writing.

dgacmu 9y ago

Yeah - I bought one for taking out of the country and on a two week family vacation (which included some stretches of camping) so that I could manage things remotely while I was gone. It's not my Macbook Pro. But it worked really well for light-duty tasks. The biggest annoyance was that I can't run my password manager on it, so I was hand-copying long strings of hard-to-type garbage from my phone fairly frequently. I wondered if I'd switch over to it. I haven't. I like larger laptops, I prefer the MBP keyboard, and I generally need to be able to run more stuff locally. But I'm glad I have it, I use it around the house when my mac is plugged into a monitor in my office, and I'll definitely use it for all future international travel. (Asus Chromebook Flip, FWIW.)

vinceguidry 9y ago

I bought one and used it briefly before deciding it wouldn't serve my needs. I thought I could keep it in my car so I didn't have to haul a laptop everywhere I went. Bonus was the security of keeping my MacBook at home and only having a cheap-o Chromebook in the car. ChromeOS wasn't a problem. I was able to get a development workflow going just fine, I planned on using Mosh to shell into a development machine and I was on my way to figuring out a fluid way to edit files through perhaps SSHFS. The problem was the hardware itself, which, after years of getting spoiled by MacBooks, left a lot to be desired. The keyboard sucked, the screen sucked, but the real deal breaker was that the battery life was utter crap, and it drained while it was sitting in my car. This made it unusable and I eventually gave it away. I could spend the money and get better hardware, but at that point it's competing with my MacBook.

Filligree 9y ago
> I could spend the money and get better hardware, but at that point it's competing with my MacBook. I spent the money, bought a high-end C302CA, and found it does indeed compete with my Macbook... resulting in rarely using the Macbook. Figures, really, but I have no objections to this outcome.

sowbug 9y ago

Yes. My wife and I have three kids. We have at least four Chromebooks sitting around the house for anyone to pick up and use. We used to have a couple OS X machines, but other than occasional video editing that we now do in the Instagram app, they were never used for anything a Chromebook couldn't do. My kids' schools all use Chromebooks, too, so it's easy for them to resume work when they get home. I am an engineering manager at Google. I carry around an Asus C302CA for meetings, and I'll occasionally use it to SSH into a corp machine. I do have a Linux workstation at work for coding. I also use the nearest Chromebook to SSH into a personal VPS where I keep stuff I want online other than the usual cloud content. And I have a couple Raspberry Pis at home for misc hacking. The main value of ChromeOS to me is that the machines never break, and other than making sure my family enables U2F on all their accounts, there aren't any best practices, fine-tuning, or maintenance for the fleet of machines that I maintain as a dad. Favorite models including years past: Acer C720 (fast and cheap but screen wasn't great); Toshiba Chromebook 2 (IPS, full HD, love the keyboard); Google Pixel 2 (remains the perfect laptop of any kind, but it was hard to find in quantity); Asus C302CA (currently the best; great screen + touch, OK battery, hinged design is very nice for impromptu shared viewing sessions and presentations).

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
redial 9y ago
> I am an engineering manager at Google. Well then, not biased at all.

VLM 9y ago

I use mine the same way I use a windows computer at work; Chrome for the world is on the web now, including office applications. I also install a SSH client and VNC/rdesktop. That's about it. My main development system is a very beefy virtual image on a vmware cluster, more capable than any laptop I could buy. I VNC into it over a vpn, doesn't matter much if my VNC host is mac/android/chromeos... Asking what I'd do if the network is down is kinda like asking what I'd do without electricity or water. Locally the odds of failure are about the same, and I'd simply fix it or move where it works.