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My son came home with a Chromebook and I'm trying my hardest to make him hate it by talking as much shit about it every chance I get. I made sure to get him a d

My son came home with a Chromebook and I'm trying my hardest to make him hate it by talking as much shit about it every chance I get. I made sure to get him a desktop with games, dual boot windows and ubuntu and stress that if there's anything he wants to do, we can do it.

mike_d 5y ago
Since he is basically going to have a Chromebook for the rest of his school career, and likely part of his professional life, why not help him to understand it and set him up to be successful? Even if you have a personal dislike for something, your job is to enable your son to be prepared for his life ahead.
- bluSCALE4 5y ago
  I see what you're getting at but there's really nothing Chrome OS offers that can't be replicated on x86 and M1 machines. If he really wants to use it, I'll just VM Chrome OS, get him a touch screen monitor and call it a day. Chrome OS and iOS for that matter are garbage through and through by design, not by nature and I'll never stop preaching that... basically, if I took your stance, I'd be putting my son at a huge disadvantage the more I think about it.
  - mike_d 5y ago
    This is like people who think they are vegan so their pets should be too. At no point in the future is your kid going to say "wow dad thanks for teaching me how to stand up to the corporate overlords and opening my eyes to what shit iOS is!" Instead the conversation is going to be "Dad can you loan me money for rent this month? I replaced the proprietary freedom hating operating system on the cash register with an open source alternative and corporate had to fly someone out to fix it so they fired me."
    - bluSCALE4 5y ago
      You keep thinking that. At the end of the day, if you understand an OS, you can figure out mobile OS in a weekend. Try to setup a web server and write a React application using CI/CD pipeline. While it can be done, it takes hours on mobile and minutes in a Desktop OS. If anything, the tablet will be cannibalized by the Desktop OS as we're already seeing so arguing that I'm doing harm is a moot point.
op00to 5y ago
What lesson are you teaching your child?
- bluSCALE4 5y ago
  That Chrome OS is locked down and doesn't let you do anything nerdy like programming. I learned how to use a computer by using it and crashing it, I've shown him the browser, I've shown him terminal, how to use tab to auto-complete and how to use man and VIM style keys to navigate it. I've also thought him about PC gaming, Discord, Minecraft servers, that sort of thing. Honestly, I think just him knowing how to use a mouse and keyboard and liking them is an accomplishment. I've locked down his tablets because he's fallen for all the "modern evils" like Messenger Kids and endless games that ask for money. I'll likely open it back up so he can explore again, but when I was a kid, doing something as simple as playing online required tunneling services and setting that up actually taught you something useful. So yeah, it's tough but I don't think glorifying dystopian devices ecosystems like iOS and ChromeOS is a good idea.

mike_d 5y ago

Since he is basically going to have a Chromebook for the rest of his school career, and likely part of his professional life, why not help him to understand it and set him up to be successful? Even if you have a personal dislike for something, your job is to enable your son to be prepared for his life ahead.

bluSCALE4 5y ago
I see what you're getting at but there's really nothing Chrome OS offers that can't be replicated on x86 and M1 machines. If he really wants to use it, I'll just VM Chrome OS, get him a touch screen monitor and call it a day. Chrome OS and iOS for that matter are garbage through and through by design, not by nature and I'll never stop preaching that... basically, if I took your stance, I'd be putting my son at a huge disadvantage the more I think about it.
- mike_d 5y ago
  This is like people who think they are vegan so their pets should be too. At no point in the future is your kid going to say "wow dad thanks for teaching me how to stand up to the corporate overlords and opening my eyes to what shit iOS is!" Instead the conversation is going to be "Dad can you loan me money for rent this month? I replaced the proprietary freedom hating operating system on the cash register with an open source alternative and corporate had to fly someone out to fix it so they fired me."
  - bluSCALE4 5y ago
    You keep thinking that. At the end of the day, if you understand an OS, you can figure out mobile OS in a weekend. Try to setup a web server and write a React application using CI/CD pipeline. While it can be done, it takes hours on mobile and minutes in a Desktop OS. If anything, the tablet will be cannibalized by the Desktop OS as we're already seeing so arguing that I'm doing harm is a moot point.

op00to 5y ago

What lesson are you teaching your child?

bluSCALE4 5y ago
That Chrome OS is locked down and doesn't let you do anything nerdy like programming. I learned how to use a computer by using it and crashing it, I've shown him the browser, I've shown him terminal, how to use tab to auto-complete and how to use man and VIM style keys to navigate it. I've also thought him about PC gaming, Discord, Minecraft servers, that sort of thing. Honestly, I think just him knowing how to use a mouse and keyboard and liking them is an accomplishment. I've locked down his tablets because he's fallen for all the "modern evils" like Messenger Kids and endless games that ask for money. I'll likely open it back up so he can explore again, but when I was a kid, doing something as simple as playing online required tunneling services and setting that up actually taught you something useful. So yeah, it's tough but I don't think glorifying dystopian devices ecosystems like iOS and ChromeOS is a good idea.