5 ms·

To the reports about "sunsetting" ChromeOS and/or merging it with Android I can only say: good riddance! I bought a Lenovo Ideapad Duet Chromebook back in 2020,

by rob74 2y ago

To the reports about "sunsetting" ChromeOS and/or merging it with Android I can only say: good riddance! I bought a Lenovo Ideapad Duet Chromebook back in 2020, but the performance (with the dreaded interminable Linux out-of-memory hangs when having too many tabs open in the browser) and battery life were consistently worse than comparable Android tablets, so by now it's mostly gathering dust...

hmlwilliams 2y ago
I'm with you on the sunsetting of ChromeOS, but I'd like to offer a counterpoint to your experience of the Duet. I've been using the newer Lenovo Duet 5 with PostmarketOS[0] (linux for ARM) as a daily driver for more than a year and it is almost always great (minus no functioning webcam, which is abysmal anyways)! [0] https://postmarketos.org/ https://postmarketos.org/
jillesvangurp 2y ago
Some of these devices probably make nice Linux laptops if you can get them unlocked.
- fwip 2y ago
  Iirc, it's very easy to run regular Linux on pretty much every Chromebook. Some of them have some driver issues, though.
  - yjftsjthsd-h 2y ago
    I would personally say that "easy" depends a little bit; if your device is listed on https://docs.mrchromebox.tech/docs/supported-devices.html https://docs.mrchromebox.tech/docs/supported-devices.html then yeah it's dead easy to reflash the firmware and install any old distro and off you go. Anything not supported by that is a little more annoying because you need a distro that can deal with the default firmware's non-UEFI boot process. I'm very fond of my ARM Chromebook flashed with postmarketos, but it is a little less supported because of the boot process (and in some cases yeah hardware support isn't 100%).
    - 71bw 2y ago
      TIL newer chromebooks are codenamed after Skyrim locations. Interesting
      - yjftsjthsd-h 2y ago
        My understanding is that it's more generic than that; their codenames are apparently drawn from video games in general. Which, yes, is fascinating.
moondev 2y ago
What makes you think it's a software bottleneck instead of the 4GB RAM
- nolist_policy 2y ago
  I'd say ChromeOS works fine with 4Gb RAM too. The problem with the Duet is it's 4Gb RAM and a lame 2020 smartphone processor which pushes memory reclaim latencies firmly into the noticable range.
  - izacus 2y ago
    And extremely cheap eMMC storage which makes every I/O access about the same speed as reading an SD card.
daghamm 2y ago
I have owned multiple chromebooks and they have all been fantastic. Maybe limited in some regards, but still the best computing devices I have used.
- jolmg 2y ago
  Never used a chromebook. My very rough conception from when they first came out is that it's a cheap laptop with an OS that tries to present a web browser as the OS. Now, I'm reading comments here about getting them "unlocked" and about them having a non-UEFI (and I guess a non-BIOS) boot process, and that sounds awful, to put it kindly. It sounds like user-hostility and vendor lock-in. What other reason is there to forego a standard boot process for a proprietary one? How are they the "best computing devices [you've] used"?
  - bigfatkitten 2y ago
    > What other reason is there to forego a standard boot process for a proprietary one? Secure boot that actually works. https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/verified-boot/ https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/...
  - nolist_policy 2y ago
    It's even worse than you think. Chromebooks run open source Coreboot and you can get the code here: https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/third_party/coreboot/ https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/third_party/cor...
yjftsjthsd-h 2y ago
I've been taking the exact opposite view: Android is a messy, ugly OS, from the unmaintained hacked-up kernels to the user-hostile UI, and I've wished that they'd scrap it and rebase those usecases onto the shockingly vanilla Gentoo spin that is ChromeOS.
- b112 2y ago
  I'd just be happy if by law, security updates had to be updated monthly, with weekly and daily for certain criticals, for a minimum of 5 years. And maybe a 10% revenue fine, yes revenue, for each missed metric.
  - bigfatkitten 2y ago
    Chrome OS devices (depending on release date) are good for up to 10 years. https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/6220366?hl=en https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/6220366?hl=en
  - eviks 2y ago
    Such a draconian measure for measly 5 years?
  - anybody8824 2y ago
    In the EU, this will be the case from next year on (2025-06-20). No monthly security patch frequency requirement, but instead "security updates [...] need to be available to the user at the latest 4 months after the public release of the source code of an update of the underlying operating system" [1]. Complying with this new regulation and bumping the Linux kernel version during the device life cycle was also a topic at this year's Linux Plumbers Android MC. [2][3]. This is necessary because the Linux LTS support timeframe is shorter than the by law mandated minimum support period of 5 years. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41128358 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41128358 [1] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/1670/oj https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/1670/oj [2] https://youtu.be/b9xXCNYMWjY?si=yxDJUbJHko8HvFTA&t=458 https://youtu.be/b9xXCNYMWjY?si=yxDJUbJHko8HvFTA&t=458 [3] https://lpc.events/event/18/contributions/1740/attachments/1458/3412/Device%20Longevity.pdf#page=8 https://lpc.events/event/18/contributions/1740/attachments/1...
xattt 2y ago
A number of kid environments depend on Chrome. Google is basically giving their pie back to Apple now.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]

by rob74 2y ago

hmlwilliams 2y ago

I'm with you on the sunsetting of ChromeOS, but I'd like to offer a counterpoint to your experience of the Duet. I've been using the newer Lenovo Duet 5 with PostmarketOS[0] (linux for ARM) as a daily driver for more than a year and it is almost always great (minus no functioning webcam, which is abysmal anyways)! [0] https://postmarketos.org/ https://postmarketos.org/

jillesvangurp 2y ago

Some of these devices probably make nice Linux laptops if you can get them unlocked.

fwip 2y ago
Iirc, it's very easy to run regular Linux on pretty much every Chromebook. Some of them have some driver issues, though.
- yjftsjthsd-h 2y ago
  I would personally say that "easy" depends a little bit; if your device is listed on https://docs.mrchromebox.tech/docs/supported-devices.html https://docs.mrchromebox.tech/docs/supported-devices.html then yeah it's dead easy to reflash the firmware and install any old distro and off you go. Anything not supported by that is a little more annoying because you need a distro that can deal with the default firmware's non-UEFI boot process. I'm very fond of my ARM Chromebook flashed with postmarketos, but it is a little less supported because of the boot process (and in some cases yeah hardware support isn't 100%).
  - 71bw 2y ago
    TIL newer chromebooks are codenamed after Skyrim locations. Interesting
    - yjftsjthsd-h 2y ago
      My understanding is that it's more generic than that; their codenames are apparently drawn from video games in general. Which, yes, is fascinating.

moondev 2y ago

What makes you think it's a software bottleneck instead of the 4GB RAM

nolist_policy 2y ago
I'd say ChromeOS works fine with 4Gb RAM too. The problem with the Duet is it's 4Gb RAM and a lame 2020 smartphone processor which pushes memory reclaim latencies firmly into the noticable range.
- izacus 2y ago
  And extremely cheap eMMC storage which makes every I/O access about the same speed as reading an SD card.

daghamm 2y ago

I have owned multiple chromebooks and they have all been fantastic. Maybe limited in some regards, but still the best computing devices I have used.

jolmg 2y ago
Never used a chromebook. My very rough conception from when they first came out is that it's a cheap laptop with an OS that tries to present a web browser as the OS. Now, I'm reading comments here about getting them "unlocked" and about them having a non-UEFI (and I guess a non-BIOS) boot process, and that sounds awful, to put it kindly. It sounds like user-hostility and vendor lock-in. What other reason is there to forego a standard boot process for a proprietary one? How are they the "best computing devices [you've] used"?
- bigfatkitten 2y ago
  > What other reason is there to forego a standard boot process for a proprietary one? Secure boot that actually works. https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/verified-boot/ https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/...
- nolist_policy 2y ago
  It's even worse than you think. Chromebooks run open source Coreboot and you can get the code here: https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/third_party/coreboot/ https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/third_party/cor...

yjftsjthsd-h 2y ago

I've been taking the exact opposite view: Android is a messy, ugly OS, from the unmaintained hacked-up kernels to the user-hostile UI, and I've wished that they'd scrap it and rebase those usecases onto the shockingly vanilla Gentoo spin that is ChromeOS.

b112 2y ago
I'd just be happy if by law, security updates had to be updated monthly, with weekly and daily for certain criticals, for a minimum of 5 years. And maybe a 10% revenue fine, yes revenue, for each missed metric.
- bigfatkitten 2y ago
  Chrome OS devices (depending on release date) are good for up to 10 years. https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/6220366?hl=en https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/6220366?hl=en
- eviks 2y ago
  Such a draconian measure for measly 5 years?
- anybody8824 2y ago
  In the EU, this will be the case from next year on (2025-06-20). No monthly security patch frequency requirement, but instead "security updates [...] need to be available to the user at the latest 4 months after the public release of the source code of an update of the underlying operating system" [1]. Complying with this new regulation and bumping the Linux kernel version during the device life cycle was also a topic at this year's Linux Plumbers Android MC. [2][3]. This is necessary because the Linux LTS support timeframe is shorter than the by law mandated minimum support period of 5 years. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41128358 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41128358 [1] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/1670/oj https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/1670/oj [2] https://youtu.be/b9xXCNYMWjY?si=yxDJUbJHko8HvFTA&t=458 https://youtu.be/b9xXCNYMWjY?si=yxDJUbJHko8HvFTA&t=458 [3] https://lpc.events/event/18/contributions/1740/attachments/1458/3412/Device%20Longevity.pdf#page=8 https://lpc.events/event/18/contributions/1740/attachments/1...

xattt 2y ago

A number of kid environments depend on Chrome. Google is basically giving their pie back to Apple now.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]