I recently spent $50 on eBay to get an old Pentium II "ultraportable" laptop. It's very thin, has an acceptable screen size and resolution (1024x768), a keyboar

I recently spent $50 on eBay to get an old Pentium II "ultraportable" laptop. It's very thin, has an acceptable screen size and resolution (1024x768), a keyboard bested only by my ThinkPad, and is fantastic for the two things I'm using it for: a) All the exercises from programming books (currently PAIP; after that I'll resume SICP). (It can easily run Emacs, SLIME, and SBCL.) b) Web browsing, both with Chrome and links2. Did you hear the part where it cost $50? And how it runs all the software I want? Now, I'll admit it's not quite as small, nor as glossy, nor quite as fast as a Chromebook. And I do love the web, and could manage most of my life with nothing more than a browser. But I absolutely do not have a spare $500, and even if I did, I could get an <strike>iPad 2</strike> Android tablet, beefier netbook (nevermind a netbook with more flexible OS options: I'd probably dualboot ChromiumOS and "real" Linux), a Kindle DX and normal-sized Kindle, 10 of the aforementioned craptops, or any number of more practical things. Even if I was told to spend it on a novelty computer, I'd be tempted to get an OLPC for $200 and use the rest on...well, anything. This rant brought to you by someone who actually likes ChromeOS. What the heck will someone who's on the fence about it going to think?