5 ms·

Alright, you like a challenge, so what's the purpose of a ChromeBook outside of a plastic cutlery-equivalent of a device destined to quickly end up in a landfil

by bitL 8y ago

Alright, you like a challenge, so what's the purpose of a ChromeBook outside of a plastic cutlery-equivalent of a device destined to quickly end up in a landfill, contributing to unnecessary damage of environment? Do you feel good about working on an unsustainable disposable device, meditating how much of a chess master you are these days? Did you meet people that actually decided to move forward with this project and understood their real, not stated motivations? Did you truly align with it?

NegativeK 8y ago
I've downvoted you due to the combative tone of your question.
- bitL 8y ago
  And? I am giving a strong negative feedback so that author might incorporate it to their own biological reinforcement learning system. Being nice and agreeable doesn't do anyone favor, it just allows bad decisions to continue unobjected. Similarly as you use downvotes for disagreeing, with which I completely agree (to disagree).
detaro 8y ago
Where's the data that chromebooks have shorter useful lives than other laptops in the same price class? Other laptops on average? It's possible that's the case, but not obvious to me.
- bitL 8y ago
  How much of a lifetime could a device with soldered on 2GB of RAM and 32GB of eMMC storage have? How much repurposed could it be? Pricier Chromebooks with HiDPI screens and Core-M or better processors are still castrated in one way or the other comparing to general computing devices, yet approaching their price levels. What's the point for a developer? "It just works"? "It's just safe!" due to mandatory secure boot and BIOS reflashes? "Hey, look ma, a cheap computer, let's buy it as a gift!" for regular Joes?
  - pjc50 8y ago
    How many laptops are ever upgraded? You're stuck with the original processor and whatever wear and tear the thing has accumulated. I know I have a small stack of obsolete or half-dead laptops from across the years, and the only upgrade that was ever worth the hassle was hard disk -> SSD. The "just works" aspect is extremely useful for non-expert users.
    - tomjen3 8y ago
      I know I have put extra RAM in laptops and once brought a new battery. You are correct in that you are limited to the chipset that came with them, but HDD->SSD is not a trivial upgrade.
    - bitL 8y ago
      I keep thinking about older ThinkPads with Core processors - there is a huge aftermarket with many original parts, many of those notebooks are basically on the level of contemporary i5 notebooks with thicker body and worse screens, but with upgradeable RAM and storage. And you can have them for the price of current Chromebooks. If a trend in the industry is towards limiting upgradeability, in the direction of rent-seeking by first subscriptions, soldering everything onto mainboard, limiting connections, later perhaps rental fee for equipment like it is with car leasing, a trend which I consider insane, can't I object to it? Chromebooks are basically a prime example of this trend, while regular notebooks didn't embrace it fully yet, but are getting there as well. Can't a company with arguably the best predictive platform in the world model and foresee the effect on environment, or is it just profit and mindshare that matters these days?
  - UncleEntity 8y ago
    I doubt a developer would buy such an underpowered machine in the first place. That said, I currently use a laptop that's seriously underpowered (by choice when I bought the thing ~7 years ago) with 4GB of RAM running Fedora and it does everything I need -- never once have I found I wasn't able to compile whatever random code I happen to be playing with at the moment. If ever I had to do serious dev work (like, it was my job) I'd need a better laptop but for the tinkering I do it works out just fine...though I did have to give up on Blender hacking a while back because of OpenGL versioning issues and I can't afford to buy a fancy new machine. That might not be an issue anymore, haven't checked on the OpenGL compatibility in quite a while TBH. I actually used to hack on Blender with a 2GB netbook (also running Fedora) before I got my current "beast" so those things aren't completely worthless as you would suggest.

by bitL 8y ago

NegativeK 8y ago

I've downvoted you due to the combative tone of your question.

bitL 8y ago
And? I am giving a strong negative feedback so that author might incorporate it to their own biological reinforcement learning system. Being nice and agreeable doesn't do anyone favor, it just allows bad decisions to continue unobjected. Similarly as you use downvotes for disagreeing, with which I completely agree (to disagree).

detaro 8y ago

Where's the data that chromebooks have shorter useful lives than other laptops in the same price class? Other laptops on average? It's possible that's the case, but not obvious to me.

bitL 8y ago
How much of a lifetime could a device with soldered on 2GB of RAM and 32GB of eMMC storage have? How much repurposed could it be? Pricier Chromebooks with HiDPI screens and Core-M or better processors are still castrated in one way or the other comparing to general computing devices, yet approaching their price levels. What's the point for a developer? "It just works"? "It's just safe!" due to mandatory secure boot and BIOS reflashes? "Hey, look ma, a cheap computer, let's buy it as a gift!" for regular Joes?
- pjc50 8y ago
  How many laptops are ever upgraded? You're stuck with the original processor and whatever wear and tear the thing has accumulated. I know I have a small stack of obsolete or half-dead laptops from across the years, and the only upgrade that was ever worth the hassle was hard disk -> SSD. The "just works" aspect is extremely useful for non-expert users.
  - tomjen3 8y ago
    I know I have put extra RAM in laptops and once brought a new battery. You are correct in that you are limited to the chipset that came with them, but HDD->SSD is not a trivial upgrade.
  - bitL 8y ago
    I keep thinking about older ThinkPads with Core processors - there is a huge aftermarket with many original parts, many of those notebooks are basically on the level of contemporary i5 notebooks with thicker body and worse screens, but with upgradeable RAM and storage. And you can have them for the price of current Chromebooks. If a trend in the industry is towards limiting upgradeability, in the direction of rent-seeking by first subscriptions, soldering everything onto mainboard, limiting connections, later perhaps rental fee for equipment like it is with car leasing, a trend which I consider insane, can't I object to it? Chromebooks are basically a prime example of this trend, while regular notebooks didn't embrace it fully yet, but are getting there as well. Can't a company with arguably the best predictive platform in the world model and foresee the effect on environment, or is it just profit and mindshare that matters these days?
- UncleEntity 8y ago
  I doubt a developer would buy such an underpowered machine in the first place. That said, I currently use a laptop that's seriously underpowered (by choice when I bought the thing ~7 years ago) with 4GB of RAM running Fedora and it does everything I need -- never once have I found I wasn't able to compile whatever random code I happen to be playing with at the moment. If ever I had to do serious dev work (like, it was my job) I'd need a better laptop but for the tinkering I do it works out just fine...though I did have to give up on Blender hacking a while back because of OpenGL versioning issues and I can't afford to buy a fancy new machine. That might not be an issue anymore, haven't checked on the OpenGL compatibility in quite a while TBH. I actually used to hack on Blender with a 2GB netbook (also running Fedora) before I got my current "beast" so those things aren't completely worthless as you would suggest.