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A few years ago I picked up a $300 Chromebook, spent $50 to upgrade the SSD size (swapped the SSD card in it) and now I run GalliumOS on it (native xubuntu but

by nickjj 8y ago

A few years ago I picked up a $300 Chromebook, spent $50 to upgrade the SSD size (swapped the SSD card in it) and now I run GalliumOS on it (native xubuntu but optimized for Chromebooks). So for $350 you get a 1080p IPS panel laptop that weighs under 3 pounds and has an SD card, headphone jack and other goodies. It easily runs a bunch of Dockerized web apps without being slow. One of the best portable computing devices I ever spent $ on. I still use it almost every day 2.5 years later. Details can be found 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...

paulcarroty 8y ago
So for $350 you can buy much better laptop on ebay. Example: https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-PROBOOK-650-G2-I7-6600U-8GB-256GB-NO-OS/273407193643?epid=6019183665&hash=item3fa856b22b%3Ag%3Aaz0AAOSwxrNbcv6l&LH_BIN=1 https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-PROBOOK-650-G2-I7-6600U-8GB-256G...
- benplumley 8y ago
  This is a listing for a second-hand laptop, if the Chromebook had been bought second-hand too it would have probably cost significantly less than this.
  - paulcarroty 8y ago
    This "second-hand laptop" is much more powerful than chromebook and can be found for less money. I just use the same price range.
    - Theodores 8y ago
      But you don't get the minimalist Chromebook keyboard. Plus laptop CPU thermal management has a lot of problems. I would prefer a modern and fanless Chromebook to an old laptop where the fans are whirring away the whole time for no evidence of performance gain. I am hoping that there will soon be an eight generation Pentium inside a high end Chromebook with that Chromebook running linux things like a web server natively. No idea how the IDE is going to work running that way but that is where I would like my dev environment to be going. You can still get refurbished Chromebooks, I bought a Dell one and I think that come the apocalypse there will be cockroaches and my Dell Chromebook running, if nothing else, as it is that indestructible. Plus charging seems optional. It goes for days.
      - paulcarroty 8y ago
        > Plus laptop CPU thermal management has a lot of problems. The business class machine means no thermal problems and keyboard problems by default - probably many people who use Pentium on Acer just don't know.
    - nutjob2 8y ago
      And a second hand Chromebook is cheaper than the new Chromebook price point. I guess you could then suggest stealing a non Chromebook laptop as a "better deal" to support a specious argument.
- rukenshia 8y ago
  > CORNER OF PALM REST SMASHED AND CRACKED, SPREADS TO BOTTOM COVER I assume parent spoke about a new Chromebook, not a used (broken) one
- nickjj 8y ago
  The Chromebook is brand new straight from Amazon. Google says your ebay laptop costs somewhere between $900 and $1,400 in new condition depending on what model it is. Yours is also "smashed and cracked" with no AC adapter based on the description. I don't really mind if there's something faster because I spend time developing 10,000+ line Dockerized Rails apps with the Chromebook along with having a bunch of browser tabs open and streaming music, etc.. and it all runs great. That Chromebook I mentioned is just a perfect storm of high quality components at a good price. I hope it lasts another 5+ years.

by nickjj 8y ago

paulcarroty 8y ago

So for $350 you can buy much better laptop on ebay. Example: https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-PROBOOK-650-G2-I7-6600U-8GB-256GB-NO-OS/273407193643?epid=6019183665&hash=item3fa856b22b%3Ag%3Aaz0AAOSwxrNbcv6l&LH_BIN=1 https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-PROBOOK-650-G2-I7-6600U-8GB-256G...

benplumley 8y ago
This is a listing for a second-hand laptop, if the Chromebook had been bought second-hand too it would have probably cost significantly less than this.
- paulcarroty 8y ago
  This "second-hand laptop" is much more powerful than chromebook and can be found for less money. I just use the same price range.
  - Theodores 8y ago
    But you don't get the minimalist Chromebook keyboard. Plus laptop CPU thermal management has a lot of problems. I would prefer a modern and fanless Chromebook to an old laptop where the fans are whirring away the whole time for no evidence of performance gain. I am hoping that there will soon be an eight generation Pentium inside a high end Chromebook with that Chromebook running linux things like a web server natively. No idea how the IDE is going to work running that way but that is where I would like my dev environment to be going. You can still get refurbished Chromebooks, I bought a Dell one and I think that come the apocalypse there will be cockroaches and my Dell Chromebook running, if nothing else, as it is that indestructible. Plus charging seems optional. It goes for days.
    - paulcarroty 8y ago
      > Plus laptop CPU thermal management has a lot of problems. The business class machine means no thermal problems and keyboard problems by default - probably many people who use Pentium on Acer just don't know.
  - nutjob2 8y ago
    And a second hand Chromebook is cheaper than the new Chromebook price point. I guess you could then suggest stealing a non Chromebook laptop as a "better deal" to support a specious argument.
rukenshia 8y ago
> CORNER OF PALM REST SMASHED AND CRACKED, SPREADS TO BOTTOM COVER I assume parent spoke about a new Chromebook, not a used (broken) one
nickjj 8y ago
The Chromebook is brand new straight from Amazon. Google says your ebay laptop costs somewhere between $900 and $1,400 in new condition depending on what model it is. Yours is also "smashed and cracked" with no AC adapter based on the description. I don't really mind if there's something faster because I spend time developing 10,000+ line Dockerized Rails apps with the Chromebook along with having a bunch of browser tabs open and streaming music, etc.. and it all runs great. That Chromebook I mentioned is just a perfect storm of high quality components at a good price. I hope it lasts another 5+ years.