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Man I got a computer engineering degree in 2015 with a $200 Chromebook chrooted into Debian. And I worked professionally for years on an 8gb MacBook Air. The Ne

Man I got a computer engineering degree in 2015 with a $200 Chromebook chrooted into Debian. And I worked professionally for years on an 8gb MacBook Air. The Neo is definitely something younger me would be interested in.

xattt 7mo ago
> $200 Chromebook chrooted into Debian Are there even any x86 Chromebooks left at that price point? They are only one that are still capable of chrooting into Linux. ARM Chromebooks remain locked up.
- mattnewton 7mo ago
  There were a bunch of intel atom ones IIRC. I got my degree with a used EEEpc with one of those.
  - xyzzy_plugh 7mo ago
    As did I. The most unbelievable part is that we used that tiny keyboard.
    - uka 7mo ago
      EEEPc ? Oh, I used to dream of having an EEEPc ... I got my degree using old C64 - had to manually encrypt packets with pen and paper to use https. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKHFZBUTA4k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKHFZBUTA4k
- officeplant 7mo ago
  ARM chromebooks run the Debian containers just fine. It's just at settings toggle to enable it and you don't even need dev mode.
- toast0 7mo ago
  Looking at BestBuy, category chromebook, the first one that comes up is $150, intel n4500. I don't know if this is particularly current or what, or if it's easy to setup to run another OS or whatever, but it meets your price and architecture criteria. https://www.bestbuy.com/product/hp-14-chromebook-intel-celeron-n4500-2021-4gb-memory-64gb-emmc-modern-grey/JJGQJQJK9P/sku/6612977 https://www.bestbuy.com/product/hp-14-chromebook-intel-celer...
coldtea 7mo ago
I mean, never mind younger us. I have a M5 MBP and even I am tempted for a Neo for travelling
- glhaynes 7mo ago
  There is truly no space in my device repertoire for a Neo and I can say that with confidence because of how much time I've spent trying to find one.
  - zephen 7mo ago
    "Finding Neo"
jjice 7mo ago
Did the same for my freshman year of Uni on a $99 Chromebook. Java and C dev on 4GB of ram wasn't an issue. That said, I quickly upgraded to a 4 year used Thinkpad and that was a huge difference.
- teiferer 7mo ago
  C dev wasn't an issue back in the 1 GB or 256 MB or 16 MB days either. You just didn't use to have a Chrome tab open that by itself is eating 345 MB just to show a simple tutorial page.
  - billforsternz 7mo ago
    C dev wasn't a problem with MSDOS and 640K either. With CP/M and 64K it was a challenge I think. Struggling to remember the details on that and too lazy to research it right now.
JCattheATM 7mo ago
The problem is like all Apple stuff it's just needlessly limiting and has few advantages over alternatives.

xattt 7mo ago

> $200 Chromebook chrooted into Debian Are there even any x86 Chromebooks left at that price point? They are only one that are still capable of chrooting into Linux. ARM Chromebooks remain locked up.

mattnewton 7mo ago
There were a bunch of intel atom ones IIRC. I got my degree with a used EEEpc with one of those.
- xyzzy_plugh 7mo ago
  As did I. The most unbelievable part is that we used that tiny keyboard.
  - uka 7mo ago
    EEEPc ? Oh, I used to dream of having an EEEPc ... I got my degree using old C64 - had to manually encrypt packets with pen and paper to use https. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKHFZBUTA4k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKHFZBUTA4k
officeplant 7mo ago
ARM chromebooks run the Debian containers just fine. It's just at settings toggle to enable it and you don't even need dev mode.
toast0 7mo ago
Looking at BestBuy, category chromebook, the first one that comes up is $150, intel n4500. I don't know if this is particularly current or what, or if it's easy to setup to run another OS or whatever, but it meets your price and architecture criteria. https://www.bestbuy.com/product/hp-14-chromebook-intel-celeron-n4500-2021-4gb-memory-64gb-emmc-modern-grey/JJGQJQJK9P/sku/6612977 https://www.bestbuy.com/product/hp-14-chromebook-intel-celer...

coldtea 7mo ago

I mean, never mind younger us. I have a M5 MBP and even I am tempted for a Neo for travelling

glhaynes 7mo ago
There is truly no space in my device repertoire for a Neo and I can say that with confidence because of how much time I've spent trying to find one.
- zephen 7mo ago
  "Finding Neo"

jjice 7mo ago

Did the same for my freshman year of Uni on a $99 Chromebook. Java and C dev on 4GB of ram wasn't an issue. That said, I quickly upgraded to a 4 year used Thinkpad and that was a huge difference.

teiferer 7mo ago
C dev wasn't an issue back in the 1 GB or 256 MB or 16 MB days either. You just didn't use to have a Chrome tab open that by itself is eating 345 MB just to show a simple tutorial page.
- billforsternz 7mo ago
  C dev wasn't a problem with MSDOS and 640K either. With CP/M and 64K it was a challenge I think. Struggling to remember the details on that and too lazy to research it right now.

JCattheATM 7mo ago

The problem is like all Apple stuff it's just needlessly limiting and has few advantages over alternatives.