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I think I'll stick with my Toshiba Chromebook CB35. - It runs native Linux - Works awesome for every day web development - 1080p IPS display - $350 bucks to

by nickjj 9y ago

I think I'll stick with my Toshiba Chromebook CB35. - It runs native Linux - Works awesome for every day web development - 1080p IPS display - $350 bucks total If anyone wants to see how to set that up (it requires installing GalliumOS which is a native Linux OS for Chromebooks) and read a full review it's over at https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/transform-a-toshiba-chromebook-cb35-into-a-linux-development-environment-with-galliumos https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/transform-a-toshiba-chromeboo....

chx 9y ago
Very important observation: this article links to a M.2 2242 SSD with 64-512GB capacity and there seems to be ample stock on Amazon.com. This is important because the second SSD on the ThinkPad T470 and consequently the ThinkPad Anniversary 25 can only be a 2242 one and they are a major PITA to find. While some 2242 drives were broken for a few months it has been fixed a week ago https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-T400-T500-and-newer-T/T470-unable-to-detect-M-2-SSD-2242-after-updates-inlcuding-BIOS/m-p/3801672#M118817 https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-T400-T500-and-newer-T/... on the T470 so I fully expect the TA25 to come with the fix. Because what is missing from the Lenovo forum thread is that Transcend 512GB is the only one actually available at such a capacity and physical size. And, I am guessing, everyone will be getting the only laptop with modern specs and a usable keyboard, right :) ?
- nickjj 9y ago
  Surprisingly enough, the keyboard on the Toshiba is really good. I think I even type faster on it than my desktop keyboard. Trackpad is a different story (I guess it's average but I suck with trackpads in general because I rarely use it). I feel like it takes me 10 seconds to select text with a trackpad when I could do it in like 1 second with a mouse. Watching me use a trackpad is easily comparable to an ape trying to use hand tools.
  - chx 9y ago
    Try convincing a Tesla owner to give it up for a Yugo before trying to convince a classic ThinkPad zealot -- someone with a six year old ThinkPad T420s, who kept it because of the superior keyboard -- to give it up for some random keyboard and no TrackPoint.
- crtasm 9y ago
  Earlier models as well, the t450s for certain. I tried to buy a 2242 in the UK about a year ago and gave up in the end (though amazon may have had stock, I don't shop there).
Pigo 9y ago
I bought a Pixel a few years back, knowing full well that it was a luxury expense compared to the other Chromebooks out there (and yet still cheaper than what I'd spend on just about anything else out there). One of the coolest parts was getting so much free drive storage with it, but now that seems to be something you get with a lot of Google products. I always have a Windows machine from work, but VS Code runs on both machines. I have to say I still use my Pixel everyday and it's held up very well, I can still open it with one finger, it's as fast as the day I got it even after updates, and I use it with anything after I got a USB-C docking station from Plugable (and learned how to run Linux with Crouton). Before I got the docking station I didn't even realize USB-C actually does network connections too. I also learned how much i don't really care for touch screens, they either get dirty really easy or I'm a lot greasier of a person that I ever realized.
- mrbill 9y ago
  I bought the non-LS Pixel, the 2015 model. Great machine, felt very well built, etc.. but I had no use for the touchscreen, and eventually sold the system to a friend while it still had some resale value left. My normal Chromebook workflow just couldn't justify the $1K model versus one of the $200-350 "low end" units with a FHD non-touchscreen.
IntelMiner 9y ago
Just to add to this. If you want something a little more "beefy" The Dell Chromebook 13 also checks almost all those boxes - Runs Native Linux (GalliumOS or otherwise. Mainline kernel support was added for all hardware in 4.9) - Works awesome for every day use. Coding, browsing etc - 1080P IPS display (touch screen model also available, apparently?) - Intel Core i5 - 8GB memory - 8-10 hour battery depending on usage
- RussianCow 9y ago
  > 8GB memory Is this actually accurate? I'm on the Dell website[1] and all the Chromebook models seem to only have 4GB. Or am I looking at the wrong product? [1]: http://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-notebooks/chromebook-3380-with-dell-professional-sleeve-13/spd/chromebook-13-3380-laptop http://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-noteboo...
  - IntelMiner 9y ago
    This should be the one you're after http://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/cty/pdp/spd/chromebook-13-7310 http://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/cty/pdp/spd/chromebook-1... It's specifically the "Dell 7310" model Chromebook
    - RussianCow 9y ago
      Got it, thanks!
- karmajunkie 9y ago
  How's the hibernate on it these days? That's and battery life are always the sticking points for me on making the jump.
  - IntelMiner 9y ago
    Works flawlessly AFAICT
Markoff 9y ago
how is it compared to refurnished Thinkpad X1 for same price with 8GB RAM, SSD disk, etc.? I find hard to find justify prices of these chromebooks
- nickjj 9y ago
  I haven't tried that Thinkpad. If you can mod it to run GalliumOS and swap in a bigger SSD I'd say go for it, but I have no complaints with the Toshiba.
- awalton 9y ago
  The new ones having much better local storage helps... it's honestly my second biggest complaint (behind the first, which is with my kernel version jack autosense has literally never worked correctly, so I have to manually toggle between headphones and the built-in speakers, which is maddening, but that's what you got when you wanted to run generic Linux and not ChromeOS or Linux-over-ChromeOS. I haven't had a chance to compile one of the kernel versions after the community upstreamed all of Google's drivers into Linus's tree). Despite being called a "Chromebook", it's really more of an Ultrabook, albeit one with slightly less refinement than a MacBook. However, it's still a pretty sturdy machine and fills the role of a travel ultrabook pretty well. The screen's form factor and the random-shitty-key-free keyboard were honestly the two biggest selling factors for me, and I'm quite enjoying them both. It's much more convenient to code on than any other laptop of its size I've used, thanks to the screen's unusual aspect ratio and high DPI. The biggest things I don't like about it are all about refinement; scrolling isn't as nice as two-finger scrolling on a Mac, you can accidentally hit the power button and suspend-to-disk the machine if you don't forget to configure your machine to disable to power button after boot, keyboard doens't have a "Fn" key, so you can't use the multimedia keys and the F-keys without some software jiggery-pokery... and just small bits like that. Most of these are complete non-issues if you intend on using ChromeOS... but I have absolutely no desire to turn my PCs into the same kind of walled gardens that we have in the mobile space.

by nickjj 9y ago

chx 9y ago

Very important observation: this article links to a M.2 2242 SSD with 64-512GB capacity and there seems to be ample stock on Amazon.com. This is important because the second SSD on the ThinkPad T470 and consequently the ThinkPad Anniversary 25 can only be a 2242 one and they are a major PITA to find. While some 2242 drives were broken for a few months it has been fixed a week ago https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-T400-T500-and-newer-T/T470-unable-to-detect-M-2-SSD-2242-after-updates-inlcuding-BIOS/m-p/3801672#M118817 https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-T400-T500-and-newer-T/... on the T470 so I fully expect the TA25 to come with the fix. Because what is missing from the Lenovo forum thread is that Transcend 512GB is the only one actually available at such a capacity and physical size. And, I am guessing, everyone will be getting the only laptop with modern specs and a usable keyboard, right :) ?

nickjj 9y ago
Surprisingly enough, the keyboard on the Toshiba is really good. I think I even type faster on it than my desktop keyboard. Trackpad is a different story (I guess it's average but I suck with trackpads in general because I rarely use it). I feel like it takes me 10 seconds to select text with a trackpad when I could do it in like 1 second with a mouse. Watching me use a trackpad is easily comparable to an ape trying to use hand tools.
- chx 9y ago
  Try convincing a Tesla owner to give it up for a Yugo before trying to convince a classic ThinkPad zealot -- someone with a six year old ThinkPad T420s, who kept it because of the superior keyboard -- to give it up for some random keyboard and no TrackPoint.
crtasm 9y ago
Earlier models as well, the t450s for certain. I tried to buy a 2242 in the UK about a year ago and gave up in the end (though amazon may have had stock, I don't shop there).

Pigo 9y ago

I bought a Pixel a few years back, knowing full well that it was a luxury expense compared to the other Chromebooks out there (and yet still cheaper than what I'd spend on just about anything else out there). One of the coolest parts was getting so much free drive storage with it, but now that seems to be something you get with a lot of Google products. I always have a Windows machine from work, but VS Code runs on both machines. I have to say I still use my Pixel everyday and it's held up very well, I can still open it with one finger, it's as fast as the day I got it even after updates, and I use it with anything after I got a USB-C docking station from Plugable (and learned how to run Linux with Crouton). Before I got the docking station I didn't even realize USB-C actually does network connections too. I also learned how much i don't really care for touch screens, they either get dirty really easy or I'm a lot greasier of a person that I ever realized.

mrbill 9y ago
I bought the non-LS Pixel, the 2015 model. Great machine, felt very well built, etc.. but I had no use for the touchscreen, and eventually sold the system to a friend while it still had some resale value left. My normal Chromebook workflow just couldn't justify the $1K model versus one of the $200-350 "low end" units with a FHD non-touchscreen.

IntelMiner 9y ago

Just to add to this. If you want something a little more "beefy" The Dell Chromebook 13 also checks almost all those boxes - Runs Native Linux (GalliumOS or otherwise. Mainline kernel support was added for all hardware in 4.9) - Works awesome for every day use. Coding, browsing etc - 1080P IPS display (touch screen model also available, apparently?) - Intel Core i5 - 8GB memory - 8-10 hour battery depending on usage

RussianCow 9y ago
> 8GB memory Is this actually accurate? I'm on the Dell website[1] and all the Chromebook models seem to only have 4GB. Or am I looking at the wrong product? [1]: http://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-notebooks/chromebook-3380-with-dell-professional-sleeve-13/spd/chromebook-13-3380-laptop http://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-noteboo...
- IntelMiner 9y ago
  This should be the one you're after http://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/cty/pdp/spd/chromebook-13-7310 http://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/cty/pdp/spd/chromebook-1... It's specifically the "Dell 7310" model Chromebook
  - RussianCow 9y ago
    Got it, thanks!
karmajunkie 9y ago
How's the hibernate on it these days? That's and battery life are always the sticking points for me on making the jump.
- IntelMiner 9y ago
  Works flawlessly AFAICT

Markoff 9y ago

how is it compared to refurnished Thinkpad X1 for same price with 8GB RAM, SSD disk, etc.? I find hard to find justify prices of these chromebooks

nickjj 9y ago
I haven't tried that Thinkpad. If you can mod it to run GalliumOS and swap in a bigger SSD I'd say go for it, but I have no complaints with the Toshiba.
awalton 9y ago
The new ones having much better local storage helps... it's honestly my second biggest complaint (behind the first, which is with my kernel version jack autosense has literally never worked correctly, so I have to manually toggle between headphones and the built-in speakers, which is maddening, but that's what you got when you wanted to run generic Linux and not ChromeOS or Linux-over-ChromeOS. I haven't had a chance to compile one of the kernel versions after the community upstreamed all of Google's drivers into Linus's tree). Despite being called a "Chromebook", it's really more of an Ultrabook, albeit one with slightly less refinement than a MacBook. However, it's still a pretty sturdy machine and fills the role of a travel ultrabook pretty well. The screen's form factor and the random-shitty-key-free keyboard were honestly the two biggest selling factors for me, and I'm quite enjoying them both. It's much more convenient to code on than any other laptop of its size I've used, thanks to the screen's unusual aspect ratio and high DPI. The biggest things I don't like about it are all about refinement; scrolling isn't as nice as two-finger scrolling on a Mac, you can accidentally hit the power button and suspend-to-disk the machine if you don't forget to configure your machine to disable to power button after boot, keyboard doens't have a "Fn" key, so you can't use the multimedia keys and the F-keys without some software jiggery-pokery... and just small bits like that. Most of these are complete non-issues if you intend on using ChromeOS... but I have absolutely no desire to turn my PCs into the same kind of walled gardens that we have in the mobile space.