5 ms·

Roughly 7-8 years ago I was going to be traveling and didn't have a suitable machine to take with me so I went online and found an Acer CB3 for $100 new– I thin

by ics 3y ago

Roughly 7-8 years ago I was going to be traveling and didn't have a suitable machine to take with me so I went online and found an Acer CB3 for $100 new– I think the retail then was double that, maybe a little more. I bought two, one for myself and one for my mom who was struggling with her aging MacBook both in operation and physical heft. I immediately dropped crouton onto mine and made it my Linux daily driver for the next year. It ran xfce, emacs, and firefox like butter, silently, and never got warmer than a good lap friend. Battery life for (literally) days. It looked good too, with a very simple white case and sturdy black keycaps. The trackpad even was fine. When my work started to involve heavy graphics and multimedia again my daily use dropped, mostly replaced by a newer Mac, and was eventually relegated to closet storage not to be charged or even turned on for at least two years. Now it's 2023, my mom stopped using hers maybe two years ago in favor of a new and even more portable iPad. I have a daughter who is 3 approaching 4. She's interested in computers, tries to touch type on my desk computer, and is no longer a walking hazard to all non-stationary objects. I dug the old Chromebook out of the closet, plugged it in, and the damn thing works. Once the OS connected to the internet it was kind enough to inform me that its version of ChromeOS was EOL and and that there were no newer supported versions for my hardware. But it works. Even browsing the web normally has no issues beyond the occasional spruce goose'd site which could probably bring down the heftiest workstation anyway. It hasn't been locked out of any usage that I can tell but hopefully soon I'll be able to sit down and see to removing ChromeOS entirely for a fresh linux install. There isn't much of a point to all that I've typed out besides some personal nostalgia. I tend to agree with all the comments which come up about Google's worsening business practices in general, surveillance-enabling behaviour, lack of product support, etc. While they seem to still be investing in it, I hope this product space doesn't eventually die in Google's hands. It's disappointing to me that there are not multiple vendors trying to offer something similar: a streamlined linux desktop experience on decent hardware that isn't fussy and is cheap.

vorpalhex 3y ago
Recently I had to setup a Windows computer and a Macbook. Both sucked. It was miserable. Lots of dialog after dialog after dialog. Disabling crap just to get like functional local file storage. Turning off news and stocks and notifications galore. Linux is fine in this regard as a poweruser but has it's own rough edges. I think for the moment it is actually ahead despite occasionally having to pop into terminal for the odd task. I just can't believe how horrible using a computer is for a non-poweruser. It is abusive. No wonder so many people hate computers when this is the experience they have.
- ghaff 3y ago
  >I just can't believe how horrible using a computer is for a non-poweruser. I think it's more that computers have filesystems and a ton of other stuff--unrelated to crapware in many cases--that a lot of people don't understand, don't want to understand, and that a lot of people reading this are probably somewhat contemptuous of them not understanding. So they use phones that don't require them to understand any of that stuff and ask family/friends to help them when they get out of their very narrow comfort zone for some reason.
  - viraptor 3y ago
    > don't understand, don't want to understand They're a threshold for when things are complicated and not wanting to understand something is fair. But as an adult, you very likely have a home with an address, which contains a room with a common name, which contains a folder, which contains your documents (birth certificate or something similar). That means you already understand filesystems. As a non-poweruser that's all there is to it - beyond that is just being uncomfortable with something you haven't encountered.
  - vorpalhex 3y ago
    As someone who actually works with a lot of basic computer users, you are incorrect. Nobody has ever struggled to understand files or folders. My 80 year old aunt has a preference for the names of her email folders. My 11 year old nephew has a sorting system for his little game mods. No the main issue is exclusively "crap". To quote my mom on a recent call: "How do I make this thing go away?" (It was a notification about some new cloud service). Breaking user patterns is a close second - especially anything to do with file management.
    - ics 3y ago
      > Nobody has ever struggled to understand files or folders. It sounds more like your family members have an aptitude for pragmatic organizational habits. This works for my parents but a common enough question from others is along the lines of "what do you mean where did I put it, I thought the computer was supposed to remember it?!" No amount of encouragement around the fact that they must have saved, likely named, and at least reopened a particular document dozens of times makes the concept stick in a satisfying way.
freedomben 3y ago
I've had a similar experience. Also that buying replacement power cables is easy and pretty cheap. On Black Friday a few years ago there was an HP Chromebook with touch screen and 8 GB of RAM on sale for a really good price, enough so that I temporarily lifted my absolute ban on HP products to buy. It was my wife's beloved computer for many years until a kid threw it in anger and shattered the screen D-:
tamiral 3y ago
older family members use Chromebooks and it's amazing. All they need it for is social media, bank stuff, browsing news sites. I've bought one 6 years ago and mom has never looked back. We even set it up via hdmi to a tv and watch youtube videos with zero issues.
- bookofjoe 3y ago
  My seven year old grandson was given a new Chromebook on his first day of second grade in Upper St. Clair, Pa., along with each of his classmates. It stopped working after two weeks and he came home the next day with a new one.
rakoo 3y ago
> There isn't much of a point to all that I've typed out besides some personal nostalgia. There is a very real point: as a society, we don't really need new computers. Some people want new ones, because games, video editing, the usual suspects, but for a large majority of us, including developers, we don't actually need more. Computers from ~5 years ago are enough. Computers with processing power of ~5 years ago are enough. If that aspect could be more widely spread, maybe we wouldn't have such a frenzy over always new stuff and be content with the old, and have an actual, real impact on climate change, on exploited countries and minors, on pollution. We need to be developing software towards old computers, not new computers. The older the better.
- bcrosby95 3y ago
  No no, consume! Think of the shareholders!
- prpl 3y ago
  there's a name for that: consumer durable goods. Computers (and even phones) are just transitioning into that category.
- freeAgent 3y ago
  Unfortunately, part of the problem people run into is software/security updates. Microsoft cut off a bunch of PCs from circa 2017 with Windows 11 (though Win10 is still getting updates for now). Google has cut off security patches for machines that were still sold new just a few years ago (and through some vendors...still sold "new" today!). Apple also cuts off updates for sufficiently old PCs. Basically, unless the average person figures out how to install Linux, and it suits their needs, their computers still have a finite shelf life due to software support.
qingcharles 3y ago
That's good to hear it still worked OK. I recommend Chromebooks to lots of people who have trouble using Windows and end up calling me when their storage is entirely filled with malware. The issue I had was the really short support/EOL for these things. They finally just switched it up -- I think they now receive 10 years of support, which is even better than Apple's great 7 years. Another reason to use them.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

by ics 3y ago

vorpalhex 3y ago

Recently I had to setup a Windows computer and a Macbook. Both sucked. It was miserable. Lots of dialog after dialog after dialog. Disabling crap just to get like functional local file storage. Turning off news and stocks and notifications galore. Linux is fine in this regard as a poweruser but has it's own rough edges. I think for the moment it is actually ahead despite occasionally having to pop into terminal for the odd task. I just can't believe how horrible using a computer is for a non-poweruser. It is abusive. No wonder so many people hate computers when this is the experience they have.

ghaff 3y ago
>I just can't believe how horrible using a computer is for a non-poweruser. I think it's more that computers have filesystems and a ton of other stuff--unrelated to crapware in many cases--that a lot of people don't understand, don't want to understand, and that a lot of people reading this are probably somewhat contemptuous of them not understanding. So they use phones that don't require them to understand any of that stuff and ask family/friends to help them when they get out of their very narrow comfort zone for some reason.
- viraptor 3y ago
  > don't understand, don't want to understand They're a threshold for when things are complicated and not wanting to understand something is fair. But as an adult, you very likely have a home with an address, which contains a room with a common name, which contains a folder, which contains your documents (birth certificate or something similar). That means you already understand filesystems. As a non-poweruser that's all there is to it - beyond that is just being uncomfortable with something you haven't encountered.
- vorpalhex 3y ago
  As someone who actually works with a lot of basic computer users, you are incorrect. Nobody has ever struggled to understand files or folders. My 80 year old aunt has a preference for the names of her email folders. My 11 year old nephew has a sorting system for his little game mods. No the main issue is exclusively "crap". To quote my mom on a recent call: "How do I make this thing go away?" (It was a notification about some new cloud service). Breaking user patterns is a close second - especially anything to do with file management.
  - ics 3y ago
    > Nobody has ever struggled to understand files or folders. It sounds more like your family members have an aptitude for pragmatic organizational habits. This works for my parents but a common enough question from others is along the lines of "what do you mean where did I put it, I thought the computer was supposed to remember it?!" No amount of encouragement around the fact that they must have saved, likely named, and at least reopened a particular document dozens of times makes the concept stick in a satisfying way.

freedomben 3y ago

I've had a similar experience. Also that buying replacement power cables is easy and pretty cheap. On Black Friday a few years ago there was an HP Chromebook with touch screen and 8 GB of RAM on sale for a really good price, enough so that I temporarily lifted my absolute ban on HP products to buy. It was my wife's beloved computer for many years until a kid threw it in anger and shattered the screen D-:

tamiral 3y ago

older family members use Chromebooks and it's amazing. All they need it for is social media, bank stuff, browsing news sites. I've bought one 6 years ago and mom has never looked back. We even set it up via hdmi to a tv and watch youtube videos with zero issues.

bookofjoe 3y ago
My seven year old grandson was given a new Chromebook on his first day of second grade in Upper St. Clair, Pa., along with each of his classmates. It stopped working after two weeks and he came home the next day with a new one.

rakoo 3y ago

> There isn't much of a point to all that I've typed out besides some personal nostalgia. There is a very real point: as a society, we don't really need new computers. Some people want new ones, because games, video editing, the usual suspects, but for a large majority of us, including developers, we don't actually need more. Computers from ~5 years ago are enough. Computers with processing power of ~5 years ago are enough. If that aspect could be more widely spread, maybe we wouldn't have such a frenzy over always new stuff and be content with the old, and have an actual, real impact on climate change, on exploited countries and minors, on pollution. We need to be developing software towards old computers, not new computers. The older the better.

bcrosby95 3y ago
No no, consume! Think of the shareholders!
prpl 3y ago
there's a name for that: consumer durable goods. Computers (and even phones) are just transitioning into that category.
freeAgent 3y ago
Unfortunately, part of the problem people run into is software/security updates. Microsoft cut off a bunch of PCs from circa 2017 with Windows 11 (though Win10 is still getting updates for now). Google has cut off security patches for machines that were still sold new just a few years ago (and through some vendors...still sold "new" today!). Apple also cuts off updates for sufficiently old PCs. Basically, unless the average person figures out how to install Linux, and it suits their needs, their computers still have a finite shelf life due to software support.

qingcharles 3y ago

That's good to hear it still worked OK. I recommend Chromebooks to lots of people who have trouble using Windows and end up calling me when their storage is entirely filled with malware. The issue I had was the really short support/EOL for these things. They finally just switched it up -- I think they now receive 10 years of support, which is even better than Apple's great 7 years. Another reason to use them.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]