6 ms·

I switched from Mac to a Lenovo Chromebook

134 points by speckx 6mo ago

baal80spam 6mo ago
But why?
haght 6mo ago
[dead]
hmokiguess 6mo ago
Chrome OS? No, thank you. I'll stay with macOS and keep hoping for the Asahi Linux dream
- bitpush 6mo ago
  Why?
  - hmokiguess 6mo ago
    I try to stay away from Google if I can, I know Apple isn't perfect either but I am more aligned with them despite it.
  - allthetime 6mo ago
    Apple portable hardware is unparalleled. Linux is what runs the internet. For now, my old gaming PC runs as a Linux server hosting all my dev services and home lab projects and my MacBook is where I work with them and build apps that consume them. It would be nice to have the server setup mirrored on a laptop I could take places with me.
- jjtheblunt 6mo ago
  you can run Arch proper in UTM.app on macos...utm is available on the app store or open source, and wraps the apple silicon hypervisor.framework. it works fantastic magic. i had dual booted Asahi for a year or so, but really for no good reason once i realized UTM existed.
  - Scarbutt 6mo ago
    Do you use x64 emulation with UTM? If so, how's the performance?
    - jjtheblunt 6mo ago
      No. It's all native Arm. In the UTM app, when creating a new VM, there's an option to say it's going to be "Linux" (generically at that point), which exposes a checkbox which allows you to specify use of Apple Silicon hypervisor.framework, and specifically _not_ x86 emulation. I use hypervisor.framework, never use x86 emulation, and the result is great. Tested with both Fedora for ARM and Arch for ARM (perhaps CachyOS's bundling of Arch works there, but i did it lower level because i'm an old nerd).
      - traderj0e 6mo ago
        This is what I thought, but idk why the literature about this is never clear that it's ARM Linux only.
        jjtheblunt 6mo ago
        which literature? (that question posed, i had to sleuth around to disambiguate oft repeated misinformation before figuring this all out)
        traderj0e 6mo ago
        I don't have it in front of me, have just seen conflicting info on a lot on articles about virtualization on Mac. Well wait, UTM's official website clearly says it does support x86 if you're ok with the emu performance hit. Is that wrong?
        intelkishan 6mo ago
        It does support x86 at higher performance costs.
- mkurz 6mo ago
  If you are on a M1 or M2 chip you can live the dream _now_ already and install Asahi (Asahi Fedora Remix or Asahi Alarm https://asahi-alarm.org/ https://asahi-alarm.org/ - which I am a maintainer of). It works really great (daily driving it since 4 years now...) M3 support is coming soon as well...
  - hmokiguess 6mo ago
    No way! I'm on M1 Pro, may be making the move finally ... how's the peripheral support these days? I use a Thunderbolt Display with the Studio Display. Any other particular things I should know?
leecommamichael 6mo ago
Death to liquid glass!
sermah 6mo ago
TL;DR: The author traded a full-fledged workstation with “Liquid Glass” for a web browser with a keyboard.
- haght 6mo ago
  [dead]
midnight_eclair 6mo ago
no, thanks
KillenBoek 6mo ago
Author admitted he did nothing worthwhile that justified a full fledged workstation and adopted a tablet with keyboard. As a Mac user I was pleasantly surprised when I switched to a arch Linux based distribution.
loloquwowndueo 6mo ago
Good Lord, what next? “I switched from Mac to Windows and you can too”? Might make sense if the Chromebook can be degoogled and set up with a clean Linux distro. Barring that, a regular laptop with Linux may be an option.
- skc 6mo ago
  He could write the same exact post but swap the word "Mac" for "Windows" and the comment section here would be markedly different.
- wmichelin 6mo ago
  Framework has always been appealing to me as a Mac competitor
  - tverbeure 6mo ago
    If I could choose only 1 criterium to select a laptop, it's the quality of the trackpad. So far, I haven't tried anything that comes close to a Macbook.
    - loloquwowndueo 6mo ago
      *criterion. criterium is not even a typo, it’s an actual word but it doesn’t mean what you think it means, unless you’re planning to use your laptop while bicycling.
      - tverbeure 6mo ago
        As a Belgian, I’m very familiar with cycling criteriums, but we use the same word for both! :-)
    - Terretta 6mo ago
      > So far, I haven't tried anything that comes close to a Macbook. The trackpad on Apple's newest iPad Pro keyboard case is excellent. Downside: whenever you go back to your Macbook you'll try poking the screen a lot.
internet2000 6mo ago
Talk about throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
_imnothere 6mo ago
I can't think of any valid reason for a person with sane mind to do this. Yes, macOS is somewhat closed, but it's definitely more open than ChromeOS.
- ryeguy_24 6mo ago
  Ha, same. I absolutely love everything about my MacBook Pro.
  - ant6n 6mo ago
    ...except the operating system. And the silly notch. And the weird keyboard. And the hard palm-cutting corner. And the reflective screen. and the finger-print-magnet materials. And the small amount of RAM. and the small SSD. And the weight. Other than that, it's perfect! (On the blance,still better than any other laptop)
- babypuncher 6mo ago
  ChromeOS is the absolute last desktop operating system I would choose to use for myself. Linux, macOS, and Windows would have to be completely dead and buried before I would switch, and at that point I might just consider abandoning tech altogether and joining an Amish commune or something.
  - bigyabai 6mo ago
    When was the last time you tried ChromeOS, out of curiosity? I'd always reach for Linux first, but I'm hard-pressed to put Windows or macOS in second place when both are so miserably bloated.
    - babypuncher 6mo ago
      It's not about bloat, it's about Google. The only tech company I despise more than Google is Facebook.
- bigyabai 6mo ago
steviedotboston 6mo ago
I mean I could. I could also do fent. But I don't.
throwaway613746 6mo ago
[dead]
wildekek 6mo ago
I don't really get what the problem with MacOS is. It never gets in my way, so why would I switch? Yes, I found Liquid Glass ugly and two days later I completely forgot about it.
- cryo32 6mo ago
  This is what happened for me. Total waste of effort complaining about it.
- traderj0e 6mo ago
  It's like Linux users who scream about Arch KDE Plasma being better than Kubuntu XFCE++ and change their entire GUI every year. They're obsessing over rounded corners lining up. None of this matters that much. It's more serious on iPhones cause it's glitchy in ways that will interfere with basic usage, also yet another "we need old phones to feel slower" update.
  - bluegreenyellow 6mo ago
    How many? Many are using chromebooks and not complaining. Many use Linux and not complaining - as I work at a University. A majority need only a browser.
    - traderj0e 6mo ago
      It's overall very few. Most people using Chromebook or other Linux or Mac in a university are just using it for work and not obsessing over details.
  - TiredOfLife 6mo ago
    Kubuntu is Ubuntu with KDE not Xfce
    - traderj0e 6mo ago
      You can install Xfce in Kubuntu (well also Xfce++ isn't real)
bak3y 6mo ago
No, no I can't.
coredog64 6mo ago
I actually tried this last year and the show stopper was Citrix. The version for Chromebooks is some abomination that hasn't been kept recent and so fails validation with my employer's Citrix infra.
- deleted 6mo ago
  [deleted]
fg137 6mo ago
Sounds like the author could have used just about any laptop in the world and it would serve him well. So, what's the point of the article?
xacky 6mo ago
Might become more interesting if the Android powered laptop rumors are true.
egl2020 6mo ago
I went the other way: from a Pixelbook to a Macbook Air. I mostly do SW development in the CLI, so the Linux subsystem on the chromebook was fine, as is macports/homebrew/etc. on the mac. I would still be using the Pixelbook if I could have replaced its battery. The low-end Air had good price-performance tradeoff, and the Neo would probably be today's choice.
- bruki 6mo ago
  I am in a similar boat. I already have Mac Mini M4 and don't do any fancy development stuff, especially not in my free time. But can't for the sake of me decide if I should go with Air M4 to match the specs, or just go full lightweight and get Neo.
bruki 6mo ago
Ragebait pandemic spread here too?
shibaprasadb 6mo ago
I am not very tech-savvy, mostly into Analytics - DS. I love my Mac. The whole UX is far superior compared to Windows or a Chromebook.
hilti 6mo ago
[flagged]
- john_strinlai 6mo ago
  sorry, what conclusion am i supposed to get from looking at their submissions? are you suggesting they are a bot? a lenovo employee? just say what you mean instead of being cryptic about it
  - dinkleberg 6mo ago
    Assuming they are pointing out what looks like karma farming which isn't really in the spirit of the site.
    - deleted 6mo ago
      [deleted]
- bigyabai 6mo ago
  [flagged]
- deleted 6mo ago
  [deleted]
- traderj0e 6mo ago
  speckx didn't author the original article, so I don't care
curtisblaine 6mo ago
> - If you rely on / heavily use AI tools, you can easily use Claude's Web App etc so that's super cool but also things like Jan also exist for Linux and I haven't tried, but you can use that as well for a more native experience. Sure, Claude Web App is an adequate replacement to full-fledged Claude Code, and then there is also something that I didn't bother to try but maybe you can try it after you bought a new laptop. What the hell.
NDlurker 6mo ago
What is that terrible font? I've never seen an "h" look like that
- tolerance 6mo ago
  My initial guess was that migrating to a non-MacOS machine precludes the freedom to view the original Futura typeface on one's personal website. "The Future" must be some shoddy free alternative. Except "The Future" is a paid typeface inspired by Futura and designed by the Klim Type Foundry. [0] The odd lowercase "h" is an alternative glyph probably meant for display sizes. [1] In addition to this for some reason the author is using the Light weight font for body text instead of Regular weight... [0]: I love Söhne – https://klim.co.nz/blog/soehne-design-information/ https://klim.co.nz/blog/soehne-design-information/ [1]: https://klim.co.nz/fonts/the-future/#open-type/ss06/example https://klim.co.nz/fonts/the-future/#open-type/ss06/example
cryo32 6mo ago
I love these articles. I await the inevitable post-mortem 6-9 months down the line.
Aurornis 6mo ago
Going from complaining about Apple not having enough polish in the fine details of their UI to suggesting we all switch to Chromebooks is so completely inconsistent that there must be other motivations. In one post they're complaining about things like Apple having the search bar in different locations in different apps, and in the next post they're seriously trying to tell us that a laptop that requires modifying the software and running shell commands copied from the internet so you can run a text editor to change settings and drivers is the solution? They dropped a note about how they haven't actually tried development on the chromebook at the end but say they assume it would be okay. For someone telling us to switch to Chromebooks, they haven't even finished doing their own homework Linking to an SEO spam website called technical.city for performance comparisons is another clue that this choice was driven by something else first and the reasoning was backfilled. The new MediaTek part is fast, but there's more to laptop performance than a single bar chart from a site citing ancient benchmarks like PassMark. I can't read this as anything other than an attempt to make a contrarian choice and then present it as the superior alternative.
- bigyabai 6mo ago
  It's possible that your own opinions are coloring this perspective. As a Linux user, if you gave me the choice between switching back to macOS or dailying ChromeOS instead, it's objectively (sadly) true that the ChromeOS machine would do a better job handling my daily tasks. Going back to macOS would require me to keep multiple desktop machines around for gaming, filesystem manipulation and native Linux containers. ChromeOS would be viable for all of those. > You can technically game on some Chromebooks, but come on. I just want the Steam edition of Dwarf Fortress, really =) > If you were trying to do native Linux development on a Chromebook you'd be going through more obstacles. Not really. Crostini has been supported for years, and it uses less resources than macOS containers while supporting normal filesystems instead of virtualizing it on APFS like Docker does.
  - deleted 6mo ago
    [deleted]
  - inventor7777 6mo ago
tristor 6mo ago
The idea that I could do the things I do regularly on a Chromebook is laughable in the extreme, and I'm not even that much of a crazy power user. No thanks.
DeathArrow 6mo ago
I'll use Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD, ReactOS, Haiku, anything but not ChromeOS.
codeduck 6mo ago
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. No.
nolist_policy 6mo ago
I don't know why the author plays down the versatility of Chromebooks/ChromeOS so much. You can install the Linux Dev VM with 5 clicks in the settings. You get a fully featured Debian VM with nested virtualization support and seamless Wayland, VirGL and USB passtrough.
- sowbug 6mo ago
  That's where I spend all my Chromebook work time. I run VSCode, Claude Code, and Opencode in the VM. The Tailscale package is wonky, so I use the Android app instead. Except for that wrinkle, it all just works. It's not my main machine, but for $300 (2023 dollars) it's excellent for tinkering on the couch with Netflix on TV in the background.
ramses0 6mo ago
I'm relatively uniquely qualified to weigh in here... I've been linux-native for decades now on my home desktops (debian), and the last time I used windows for work was ~2005-ish with work Mac laptops, and "disposable" chromebooks at home for personal use + travel. 1) It started with Crouton (open source, "let's get access to the underlying linux system"), and worked pretty well. IIRC you had to switch to "dev mode" to get access to it. 2) Crostini and all the layer-cake isolation is wildly impressive! ...it's more VM-based with suuuper adjudicated interaction boundaries between `chromeos` and the underlying linux vm. Arch overview: https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-library/guides/containers/crostini-developer-guide/ https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-library/guide... Seneschal (file management/isolation): https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/platform2/+/HEAD/vm_tools/seneschal/README.md https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/platform2/+/HEA... Sommelier (gui passthrough/punch-through): https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/platform2/+/HEAD/vm_tools/sommelier/README.md https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/platform2/+/HEA... 3) I've recently (intentionally) switched to their new "Baguette" beta VM/Container (you can talk to google AI mode about it, but general access docs and links are fairly sparse: "...a ChromeOS architectural shift (arriving around v142-146) that enables containerless Linux Virtual Machines, running directly via KVM instead of LXD. It removes the middle container layer for increased efficiency and flexibility, allowing for advanced features like direct PCI passthrough, while providing improved storage management compared to legacy Crostini." 4) I think over the last ~15 years I've gone from 4gb => 8gb => 16gb (just recently) and sticking with "premium-ish" dev-centric laptops (mostly: linux, git, web dev, inkscape, random hacking, etc). Currently the Acer Spin 714, previously Samsung XE930QCA... both "tablet adjacent" with full fliparound or "tent style" for watching a movie or doodling with styluses. Bang-for-Buck, I was able to get the Spin714 for ~$300 @ 16gb ram (used-ish, off ebay) which is a STEAL, and similar story for the Samsung one. They're definitely very capable machines, and treating them as "dumb terminals with a VM I can pop open and scp files to a remote host or git push" is fantastic! HOWEVER: beware! Google w/ Baguette is stupidly complicated on how to open a port on the device itself for other computers to be able to access servers on the local device. I argued with the google AI for like an hour trying to figure out the best way to allow `git pull my-chromebook.localdomain:./Git/some-repo` and eventually had to settle on a raw `ssh` reverse proxy pipe where I was pulling from `my-other-machine.localdomain:localhost:2222:./Git/some-repo` which was forwarded back (over SSH) to the chromebook itself. It used to be that you could rationally: `python -m http`, open an "enable port forwarding" thingy in the terminal settings and be able to connect to the service w/o much ceremony. Nowadays they're effectively nanny-ifying the OS and it's getting much harder to do the same thing (removing visible UI for port forwarding, needing hidden settings deep links or `chrome://flags` stuff to be able to access a server/service RUNNING ON YOUR OWN MACHINE FROM WITHIN YOUR OWN NETWORK). Supposedly the cool kids are using tailscale or whatever, but it's literally `localhost<->localhost` and I don't want to have to set up a VPN or whatever to make that work, I just want to doodle on local web services in a VM on a machine that can get stolen and not end up losing all my personal/private files. Also, ask google AI mode: "when is google phasing out chromebook and chromeos and presumably near-native linux support on their machines?" => """Court documents and executive statements reveal a plan to retire the existing ChromeOS software stack by 2034. This legacy system is expected to be replaced by a unified platform internally codenamed "Project Aluminium," which migrates ChromeOS fully onto the Android tech stack.""" ...so ~8 more years of `chromeos`/`linux` and then it'll no longer be the year of linux on the desktop! Yes, they can be very comfortable and very capable machines, but they're losing a bit of their central spirit and developer-friendliness over time.
slashdave 6mo ago
Some of us actually want to get work done
doener 6mo ago
But I don't want to.
tapoxi 6mo ago
I really enjoy ChromeOS, though I'm worried a lot of its simplicity will go away as Google transitions to Android-based laptops. My wife and I use an Asus Chromebook Flip as a kitchen/living room computer that we don't need to think about. No software updates, it just surfs the web and we can flip it into tablet mode if we want to.
notme43 6mo ago
Not even a Mac user and have been legitimately considering a move like this. My desktop and Thinkpad run Gentoo. A NAS I have at home is the build host. I am a business software consultant, and a common thread in all of my interactions is: I need to be prepared. If I'm fiddling with "hang on my mic doesn't work" or "i need to reboot", I look silly. An onsite visit might be in an executive board room, or a closet in the back of a warehouse with a TV from 2007 and a VGA connector. If I need software installed quick, like Zoom or something, Flatpak gets me 95% there. Yes, I could use Ubuntu or something normal, but I like portage and long for the day I can use FreeBSD seriously on the desktop. So enter Chromebooks, which come with portage, can use Flatpak, and the OS is basically just a web browser. Plus, I don't have to wrestle with SELinux, or any of the other nitty gritty stuff that gets in the way of real work™. It's either a PWA or an Android app, and it just works.
deleted 6mo ago
[deleted]
theanonymousone 6mo ago
A Mediatek chip rivalling Apple M2? Is this claim supportable?
- ototot 6mo ago
  It's basically dimensity 9400, and I think it's fairly comparable.
weezing 6mo ago
Why would I do that?
tthayer 6mo ago
I have to switch between an M4 macbook pro and a Lenovo Chromebook Plus multiple times a day and I will say, while it isn't terrible, the keyboard and trackpad on the Lenovo have nothing on the Macbook. The experience with using USB devices (yubikey in particular) through the android layer is also real shitty.
porphyra 6mo ago
> no fucking way there's a Mediatek chip out there that's as good as M2?!? right!? Actually Mediatek is pretty underrated. Isn't the upcoming Dimensity 9600 Pro on par with the M5 [0]? And they also designed the CPU part of the GB10 in the NVIDIA DGX Spark, which is roughly on par with the CPU of the AMD AI Max+ 395 and M3 Max 14 core [1] [2]. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/1so1wyv/dimensity_9600_pro_on_n2p_with_m5_level_single/ https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/1so1wyv/dimensity... [1] https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/compare/17762799?baseline=15161960 https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/compare/17762799?baseli... [2] https://browser.geekbench.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=m3+max https://browser.geekbench.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=m3+max
tantalor 6mo ago
Choosing an OS 101 https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/mx4dni/choosing_an_os_101/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/mx4dni/cho... Do you fear technology? > Yes Is your daddy rich? > No ChromeOS
vile_wretch 6mo ago
> Figma and Spotify have some of the best web apps out there as well, so that's all good too! The Spotify web app is still much more limited than the desktop app. > Did you know that Adobe ported Photoshop etc to web, with all the AI bells and whistles and the web apps perform incredibly well? Perfect if all you need out of Photoshop is the AI portion, I guess. > As a side note, it is no surprise that Adobe's suite of creative apps [...] now work incredibly well on the web across all operating systems They literally don't. > Quickshare (the Airdrop alternative) ACTUALLY WORKS Saying this like Airdrop isn't one of Apple's most bulletproof "just works" features ever
- 10729287 6mo ago
  In my experience it’s definitely not. It works maybe 80% to 90% of the time but it’s still not enough for me to use it with confidence.
- fragmede 6mo ago
  Airdrop still doesn't work when I share directly from my phone. If I hit share, and then choose the airdrop target directly, it doesn't work. If I open airdrop and share to the same device, then that works. For cross-platform local sharing, I use KDE-connect.
- 4ndrewl 6mo ago
  I got to this point before I realised this wasn't written by a human.
- whywhywhywhy 6mo ago
  > Apple's most bulletproof "just works" features ever It only just works if all devices are logged in to the same Apple account. Otherwise you have to allow a 10 minute window in the phones settings. Work Mac laptop not logged in won’t see an iPhone unless you go into settings. My home and work PCs I both own can’t even be airdropped to, I know some people think this adds value to Mac machines but in a world where the most powerful gpu isn’t on a Mac it actually makes the apple ecosystem feel like trash if you’re someone working on the top end of computing and can’t send a file from your workstation to your phone.
bastard_op 6mo ago
>> it seems that Signal's team is actively working on linking additional Android devices, and very soon we can simply solve this by using Signal for Android. Wishful thinking, this has been a problem since tablets (android or ios) were a thing and trying to use one linked to your phone.
aykutseker 6mo ago
Grass is greener works at month two. By month nine your muscle memory is still wrong.
Jamesbeam 6mo ago
I do not agree with what he wrote, but I had an enjoyable reading experience, which is rare these days. That is some clean blog design.
yegle 6mo ago
To me the most amazing thing of using Chromebook is that you can run the Tailscale _Android_ app and get your ChromeOS connected to your tailnet.
hirvi74 6mo ago
I love Liquid Glass. I think a lot of the complaints are whiny and pedantic. I do agree a bit of tender love and care could be used to clean up some GUI elements, but people act like Liquid Glass fried their logic board and rendered their machine utterly unusable.
- fragmede 6mo ago
  The problem is, on iOS it's buggy. Floating opaque rectangles blocking you from seeing what you're doing. Software keyboard not being accounted for in the layout so you can't click buttons. It looks different; sure, whatever. It's getting in the way of actually using it that raises ire.
  - hirvi74 6mo ago
    Interesting. I mean, I completely believe you, but I've been using macOS 26/iOS 26 since release, and have not run into any issues like you are describing. I have experienced the keyboard issue, but it was on one specific website, so I am not sure how much of that can be attributed to Liquid Glass or the device OS compared to the website itself. I have other keyboard issues, but I cannot confidently attribute them to Liquid Glass.
Marsymars 6mo ago
I have this exact laptop - I just use it for casual web browsing, but it does have a significant problem that I've encountered - although it has a 3.5mm stereo port, it's unusable due to static sounds. Possibly this bug that's been floating around for the past 6 years: https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/172339479 https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/172339479
- tantalor 6mo ago
  It's probably simply defective, I would warranty/replace it.
  - Marsymars 6mo ago
    Hm, that's possible. Not sure I use headphones enough with it to bother going through a warranty replacement, but I'll keep that in mind in case I get motivated with some free time to do so. The static pattern seems odd to me, but I assume would make sense if the root cause was identified: * Plug headphones into laptop: no static. * Open youtube tab: Static. * Mute audio: Static. * Tab away from youtube: Static stops after ~10s. * Tab back to youtube and start video: Static resumes. * Adjust volume: No effect on static. (At normal listening volumes, static isn't audible over music audio.) I'll note that there are various reports of something almost identical being triggered by a ChromeOS software update ~6 years ago across multiple brands of Chromebooks, e.g. https://old.reddit.com/r/chromeos/comments/fx9y19/samsung_chromebook_static_with_headphones/ https://old.reddit.com/r/chromeos/comments/fx9y19/samsung_ch...
clear0250 6mo ago
So we're calling normal usb ports "old school" now?
- wtallis 6mo ago
  The type-a ports that are 30 years old, have always been frustrating to orient correctly, and are significantly constrained in data rates and power delivery compared to type-c that has been common for a decade? Yes, calling that "old school" is reasonable.
deafpolygon 6mo ago
> Apple's software incompetence is absolutely universally hated Weird. Maybe he spent too much time on ChatGPT and got AI psychosis.
copypaper 6mo ago
I just have a workstation at home that I SSH into from whatever device I feel like (within my tailnet). All my tools available on the CLI and vscode available via remote-ssh. You can connect from an iPad, macbook, chromebook, etc. The only thing it doesn't handle well is creative apps (video editing, blender, photoshop, etc.). Obviously this whole setup requires an internet connection, but I'm rarely without one so it works great for me. Anyone else do something similar?
fattybob 6mo ago
I’m expecting delivery of a used Lenovo yoga thinkpad simply to run one piece of software that I previously ran on an older intel Mac using a virtual windows drive, sadly the security on that software (dongles!!) will not and possibly will never run on new Apple silicon, so I’m gonna be lugging a win machine around for any projects that call upon that security software. I worked with the developer and tried a a patched software key for the same security, but sadly it didn’t work either. I’ll still be sticking to Mac for most of my work as I just prefer the way things predictably operate, but I am now going to have a windows toy to play with too, even if it’s actually for work !
cromka 6mo ago
Are these ARM Chromebooks actually fully hackable to use any other Linux OS? AFAIK Google upstreams DTBs for them?
massysett 6mo ago
“Liquid Glass and Apple's software incompetence is absolutely universally hated,” Author is in a bubble. I know many iPhone users and none complain about Liquid Glass. When it landed on my phone, I shrugged.
BirAdam 6mo ago
My biggest issues with ChromeOS revolve around crap keyboards, bad/clunky Linux implementations (unless you just replace ChromeOS, but why not just get a cheap or older laptop?), and not trusting Google at all.
627467 6mo ago
I investigated this path. In terms of comparable performance per watt komapnio laptops are competitive. But not on price. Then there's the aspect of how open/closed each ecosystem is. While iOS is an prison like ecosystem, macos still remains quite open, more open than many chromebooks. Asahi linux exist and i was surprised to see that these arm chromebooks just lack bios/uefi that allows me to install anything other than chromeos. So, yeah, you can virtualize other OS on chromeos but so can you on macos
h4kunamata 6mo ago
I am Linux user, moving from a terrible macOS to a dying Chromebook OS, has to be the worst take by 2026 standards.
randomeel 6mo ago
I am never using ChromeOS ever. The reasons are too many to list here.
randomeel 6mo ago
I am never using ChromeOS. The reasons are too many to list here
pjmlp 6mo ago
Basically someone that doesn't take advantage of macOS features, doesn't develop for Apple platforms, is happy with a thin client OS, alright I guess.
tempestnick 6mo ago
I recently had to turn in my work Macbook and started using personal Lenovo Thinkpad E14 -- last or second to last gen. I have to say that everything, aside from keyboard and hardware (ie CPU, storage etc) on it is bad. Screen is bad, sound si horrible, webcam makes me look like I died a couple of days ago -- all gray and blurry, battery is obviously have nothing on Apple silicon laptops, fans are noisy, touchpad is bad, all is bad. But what impressed me the most are USB-C ports. They are somehow bad too. There's no grip, there's no feedback, you just kind of put a cable somewhere in them and hope it doesn't arc -- because sometimes it sounds like electrical arcing in there. Not quite pencil in a bucket, but not far off. And the thing is new, how do you manage that on a new business laptop? I'm very impressed, in the worst way possible.
Pfhortune 6mo ago
I'm interested in the hardware on this... does anyone know if this laptop can boot arm64 Linux natively? Perhaps with an alternate bootloader install? I've read about plenty of other Chromebooks that can do that, but I can't find any info on booting Linux on this one. ChromeOS would be so much more compelling if it could be degoogled... An Ungoogled-ChromiumOS would be amazing.
taffydavid 6mo ago
I have had fun with a $40 Chromebook on which I installed Linux (I can't remember the exact flavor). It great low power portable for writing on the go when I don't want to worry about bringing a more expensive machine around, but sadly the screen cracked and it would have cost more than $40 to fix

134 points by speckx 6mo ago

baal80spam 6mo ago

But why?

haght 6mo ago

[dead]

hmokiguess 6mo ago

Chrome OS? No, thank you. I'll stay with macOS and keep hoping for the Asahi Linux dream

bitpush 6mo ago
Why?
- hmokiguess 6mo ago
  I try to stay away from Google if I can, I know Apple isn't perfect either but I am more aligned with them despite it.
- allthetime 6mo ago
  Apple portable hardware is unparalleled. Linux is what runs the internet. For now, my old gaming PC runs as a Linux server hosting all my dev services and home lab projects and my MacBook is where I work with them and build apps that consume them. It would be nice to have the server setup mirrored on a laptop I could take places with me.
jjtheblunt 6mo ago
you can run Arch proper in UTM.app on macos...utm is available on the app store or open source, and wraps the apple silicon hypervisor.framework. it works fantastic magic. i had dual booted Asahi for a year or so, but really for no good reason once i realized UTM existed.
- Scarbutt 6mo ago
  Do you use x64 emulation with UTM? If so, how's the performance?
  - jjtheblunt 6mo ago
    No. It's all native Arm. In the UTM app, when creating a new VM, there's an option to say it's going to be "Linux" (generically at that point), which exposes a checkbox which allows you to specify use of Apple Silicon hypervisor.framework, and specifically _not_ x86 emulation. I use hypervisor.framework, never use x86 emulation, and the result is great. Tested with both Fedora for ARM and Arch for ARM (perhaps CachyOS's bundling of Arch works there, but i did it lower level because i'm an old nerd).
    - traderj0e 6mo ago
      This is what I thought, but idk why the literature about this is never clear that it's ARM Linux only.
      - jjtheblunt 6mo ago
        which literature? (that question posed, i had to sleuth around to disambiguate oft repeated misinformation before figuring this all out)
        traderj0e 6mo ago
        I don't have it in front of me, have just seen conflicting info on a lot on articles about virtualization on Mac. Well wait, UTM's official website clearly says it does support x86 if you're ok with the emu performance hit. Is that wrong?
        intelkishan 6mo ago
        It does support x86 at higher performance costs.
mkurz 6mo ago
If you are on a M1 or M2 chip you can live the dream _now_ already and install Asahi (Asahi Fedora Remix or Asahi Alarm https://asahi-alarm.org/ https://asahi-alarm.org/ - which I am a maintainer of). It works really great (daily driving it since 4 years now...) M3 support is coming soon as well...
- hmokiguess 6mo ago
  No way! I'm on M1 Pro, may be making the move finally ... how's the peripheral support these days? I use a Thunderbolt Display with the Studio Display. Any other particular things I should know?

leecommamichael 6mo ago

Death to liquid glass!

sermah 6mo ago

TL;DR: The author traded a full-fledged workstation with “Liquid Glass” for a web browser with a keyboard.

haght 6mo ago
[dead]

midnight_eclair 6mo ago

no, thanks

KillenBoek 6mo ago

Author admitted he did nothing worthwhile that justified a full fledged workstation and adopted a tablet with keyboard. As a Mac user I was pleasantly surprised when I switched to a arch Linux based distribution.

loloquwowndueo 6mo ago

Good Lord, what next? “I switched from Mac to Windows and you can too”? Might make sense if the Chromebook can be degoogled and set up with a clean Linux distro. Barring that, a regular laptop with Linux may be an option.

skc 6mo ago
He could write the same exact post but swap the word "Mac" for "Windows" and the comment section here would be markedly different.
wmichelin 6mo ago
Framework has always been appealing to me as a Mac competitor
- tverbeure 6mo ago
  If I could choose only 1 criterium to select a laptop, it's the quality of the trackpad. So far, I haven't tried anything that comes close to a Macbook.
  - loloquwowndueo 6mo ago
    *criterion. criterium is not even a typo, it’s an actual word but it doesn’t mean what you think it means, unless you’re planning to use your laptop while bicycling.
    - tverbeure 6mo ago
      As a Belgian, I’m very familiar with cycling criteriums, but we use the same word for both! :-)
  - Terretta 6mo ago
    > So far, I haven't tried anything that comes close to a Macbook. The trackpad on Apple's newest iPad Pro keyboard case is excellent. Downside: whenever you go back to your Macbook you'll try poking the screen a lot.

internet2000 6mo ago

Talk about throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

_imnothere 6mo ago

I can't think of any valid reason for a person with sane mind to do this. Yes, macOS is somewhat closed, but it's definitely more open than ChromeOS.

ryeguy_24 6mo ago
Ha, same. I absolutely love everything about my MacBook Pro.
- ant6n 6mo ago
  ...except the operating system. And the silly notch. And the weird keyboard. And the hard palm-cutting corner. And the reflective screen. and the finger-print-magnet materials. And the small amount of RAM. and the small SSD. And the weight. Other than that, it's perfect! (On the blance,still better than any other laptop)
babypuncher 6mo ago
ChromeOS is the absolute last desktop operating system I would choose to use for myself. Linux, macOS, and Windows would have to be completely dead and buried before I would switch, and at that point I might just consider abandoning tech altogether and joining an Amish commune or something.
- bigyabai 6mo ago
  When was the last time you tried ChromeOS, out of curiosity? I'd always reach for Linux first, but I'm hard-pressed to put Windows or macOS in second place when both are so miserably bloated.
  - babypuncher 6mo ago
    It's not about bloat, it's about Google. The only tech company I despise more than Google is Facebook.
bigyabai 6mo ago

steviedotboston 6mo ago

I mean I could. I could also do fent. But I don't.

throwaway613746 6mo ago

[dead]

wildekek 6mo ago

I don't really get what the problem with MacOS is. It never gets in my way, so why would I switch? Yes, I found Liquid Glass ugly and two days later I completely forgot about it.

cryo32 6mo ago
This is what happened for me. Total waste of effort complaining about it.
traderj0e 6mo ago
It's like Linux users who scream about Arch KDE Plasma being better than Kubuntu XFCE++ and change their entire GUI every year. They're obsessing over rounded corners lining up. None of this matters that much. It's more serious on iPhones cause it's glitchy in ways that will interfere with basic usage, also yet another "we need old phones to feel slower" update.
- bluegreenyellow 6mo ago
  How many? Many are using chromebooks and not complaining. Many use Linux and not complaining - as I work at a University. A majority need only a browser.
  - traderj0e 6mo ago
    It's overall very few. Most people using Chromebook or other Linux or Mac in a university are just using it for work and not obsessing over details.
- TiredOfLife 6mo ago
  Kubuntu is Ubuntu with KDE not Xfce
  - traderj0e 6mo ago
    You can install Xfce in Kubuntu (well also Xfce++ isn't real)

bak3y 6mo ago

No, no I can't.

coredog64 6mo ago

I actually tried this last year and the show stopper was Citrix. The version for Chromebooks is some abomination that hasn't been kept recent and so fails validation with my employer's Citrix infra.

deleted 6mo ago
[deleted]

fg137 6mo ago

Sounds like the author could have used just about any laptop in the world and it would serve him well. So, what's the point of the article?

xacky 6mo ago

Might become more interesting if the Android powered laptop rumors are true.

egl2020 6mo ago

I went the other way: from a Pixelbook to a Macbook Air. I mostly do SW development in the CLI, so the Linux subsystem on the chromebook was fine, as is macports/homebrew/etc. on the mac. I would still be using the Pixelbook if I could have replaced its battery. The low-end Air had good price-performance tradeoff, and the Neo would probably be today's choice.

bruki 6mo ago
I am in a similar boat. I already have Mac Mini M4 and don't do any fancy development stuff, especially not in my free time. But can't for the sake of me decide if I should go with Air M4 to match the specs, or just go full lightweight and get Neo.

bruki 6mo ago

Ragebait pandemic spread here too?

shibaprasadb 6mo ago

I am not very tech-savvy, mostly into Analytics - DS. I love my Mac. The whole UX is far superior compared to Windows or a Chromebook.

hilti 6mo ago

[flagged]

john_strinlai 6mo ago
sorry, what conclusion am i supposed to get from looking at their submissions? are you suggesting they are a bot? a lenovo employee? just say what you mean instead of being cryptic about it
- dinkleberg 6mo ago
  Assuming they are pointing out what looks like karma farming which isn't really in the spirit of the site.
  - deleted 6mo ago
    [deleted]
bigyabai 6mo ago
[flagged]
deleted 6mo ago
[deleted]
traderj0e 6mo ago
speckx didn't author the original article, so I don't care

curtisblaine 6mo ago

> - If you rely on / heavily use AI tools, you can easily use Claude's Web App etc so that's super cool but also things like Jan also exist for Linux and I haven't tried, but you can use that as well for a more native experience. Sure, Claude Web App is an adequate replacement to full-fledged Claude Code, and then there is also something that I didn't bother to try but maybe you can try it after you bought a new laptop. What the hell.

NDlurker 6mo ago

What is that terrible font? I've never seen an "h" look like that

tolerance 6mo ago
My initial guess was that migrating to a non-MacOS machine precludes the freedom to view the original Futura typeface on one's personal website. "The Future" must be some shoddy free alternative. Except "The Future" is a paid typeface inspired by Futura and designed by the Klim Type Foundry. [0] The odd lowercase "h" is an alternative glyph probably meant for display sizes. [1] In addition to this for some reason the author is using the Light weight font for body text instead of Regular weight... [0]: I love Söhne – https://klim.co.nz/blog/soehne-design-information/ https://klim.co.nz/blog/soehne-design-information/ [1]: https://klim.co.nz/fonts/the-future/#open-type/ss06/example https://klim.co.nz/fonts/the-future/#open-type/ss06/example

cryo32 6mo ago

I love these articles. I await the inevitable post-mortem 6-9 months down the line.

Aurornis 6mo ago

Going from complaining about Apple not having enough polish in the fine details of their UI to suggesting we all switch to Chromebooks is so completely inconsistent that there must be other motivations. In one post they're complaining about things like Apple having the search bar in different locations in different apps, and in the next post they're seriously trying to tell us that a laptop that requires modifying the software and running shell commands copied from the internet so you can run a text editor to change settings and drivers is the solution? They dropped a note about how they haven't actually tried development on the chromebook at the end but say they assume it would be okay. For someone telling us to switch to Chromebooks, they haven't even finished doing their own homework Linking to an SEO spam website called technical.city for performance comparisons is another clue that this choice was driven by something else first and the reasoning was backfilled. The new MediaTek part is fast, but there's more to laptop performance than a single bar chart from a site citing ancient benchmarks like PassMark. I can't read this as anything other than an attempt to make a contrarian choice and then present it as the superior alternative.

bigyabai 6mo ago
It's possible that your own opinions are coloring this perspective. As a Linux user, if you gave me the choice between switching back to macOS or dailying ChromeOS instead, it's objectively (sadly) true that the ChromeOS machine would do a better job handling my daily tasks. Going back to macOS would require me to keep multiple desktop machines around for gaming, filesystem manipulation and native Linux containers. ChromeOS would be viable for all of those. > You can technically game on some Chromebooks, but come on. I just want the Steam edition of Dwarf Fortress, really =) > If you were trying to do native Linux development on a Chromebook you'd be going through more obstacles. Not really. Crostini has been supported for years, and it uses less resources than macOS containers while supporting normal filesystems instead of virtualizing it on APFS like Docker does.
- deleted 6mo ago
  [deleted]
- inventor7777 6mo ago

tristor 6mo ago

The idea that I could do the things I do regularly on a Chromebook is laughable in the extreme, and I'm not even that much of a crazy power user. No thanks.

DeathArrow 6mo ago

I'll use Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD, ReactOS, Haiku, anything but not ChromeOS.

codeduck 6mo ago

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. No.

nolist_policy 6mo ago

I don't know why the author plays down the versatility of Chromebooks/ChromeOS so much. You can install the Linux Dev VM with 5 clicks in the settings. You get a fully featured Debian VM with nested virtualization support and seamless Wayland, VirGL and USB passtrough.

sowbug 6mo ago
That's where I spend all my Chromebook work time. I run VSCode, Claude Code, and Opencode in the VM. The Tailscale package is wonky, so I use the Android app instead. Except for that wrinkle, it all just works. It's not my main machine, but for $300 (2023 dollars) it's excellent for tinkering on the couch with Netflix on TV in the background.

ramses0 6mo ago

I'm relatively uniquely qualified to weigh in here... I've been linux-native for decades now on my home desktops (debian), and the last time I used windows for work was ~2005-ish with work Mac laptops, and "disposable" chromebooks at home for personal use + travel. 1) It started with Crouton (open source, "let's get access to the underlying linux system"), and worked pretty well. IIRC you had to switch to "dev mode" to get access to it. 2) Crostini and all the layer-cake isolation is wildly impressive! ...it's more VM-based with suuuper adjudicated interaction boundaries between `chromeos` and the underlying linux vm. Arch overview: https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-library/guides/containers/crostini-developer-guide/ https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-library/guide... Seneschal (file management/isolation): https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/platform2/+/HEAD/vm_tools/seneschal/README.md https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/platform2/+/HEA... Sommelier (gui passthrough/punch-through): https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/platform2/+/HEAD/vm_tools/sommelier/README.md https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/platform2/+/HEA... 3) I've recently (intentionally) switched to their new "Baguette" beta VM/Container (you can talk to google AI mode about it, but general access docs and links are fairly sparse: "...a ChromeOS architectural shift (arriving around v142-146) that enables containerless Linux Virtual Machines, running directly via KVM instead of LXD. It removes the middle container layer for increased efficiency and flexibility, allowing for advanced features like direct PCI passthrough, while providing improved storage management compared to legacy Crostini." 4) I think over the last ~15 years I've gone from 4gb => 8gb => 16gb (just recently) and sticking with "premium-ish" dev-centric laptops (mostly: linux, git, web dev, inkscape, random hacking, etc). Currently the Acer Spin 714, previously Samsung XE930QCA... both "tablet adjacent" with full fliparound or "tent style" for watching a movie or doodling with styluses. Bang-for-Buck, I was able to get the Spin714 for ~$300 @ 16gb ram (used-ish, off ebay) which is a STEAL, and similar story for the Samsung one. They're definitely very capable machines, and treating them as "dumb terminals with a VM I can pop open and scp files to a remote host or git push" is fantastic! HOWEVER: beware! Google w/ Baguette is stupidly complicated on how to open a port on the device itself for other computers to be able to access servers on the local device. I argued with the google AI for like an hour trying to figure out the best way to allow `git pull my-chromebook.localdomain:./Git/some-repo` and eventually had to settle on a raw `ssh` reverse proxy pipe where I was pulling from `my-other-machine.localdomain:localhost:2222:./Git/some-repo` which was forwarded back (over SSH) to the chromebook itself. It used to be that you could rationally: `python -m http`, open an "enable port forwarding" thingy in the terminal settings and be able to connect to the service w/o much ceremony. Nowadays they're effectively nanny-ifying the OS and it's getting much harder to do the same thing (removing visible UI for port forwarding, needing hidden settings deep links or `chrome://flags` stuff to be able to access a server/service RUNNING ON YOUR OWN MACHINE FROM WITHIN YOUR OWN NETWORK). Supposedly the cool kids are using tailscale or whatever, but it's literally `localhost<->localhost` and I don't want to have to set up a VPN or whatever to make that work, I just want to doodle on local web services in a VM on a machine that can get stolen and not end up losing all my personal/private files. Also, ask google AI mode: "when is google phasing out chromebook and chromeos and presumably near-native linux support on their machines?" => """Court documents and executive statements reveal a plan to retire the existing ChromeOS software stack by 2034. This legacy system is expected to be replaced by a unified platform internally codenamed "Project Aluminium," which migrates ChromeOS fully onto the Android tech stack.""" ...so ~8 more years of `chromeos`/`linux` and then it'll no longer be the year of linux on the desktop! Yes, they can be very comfortable and very capable machines, but they're losing a bit of their central spirit and developer-friendliness over time.

slashdave 6mo ago

Some of us actually want to get work done

doener 6mo ago

But I don't want to.

tapoxi 6mo ago

I really enjoy ChromeOS, though I'm worried a lot of its simplicity will go away as Google transitions to Android-based laptops. My wife and I use an Asus Chromebook Flip as a kitchen/living room computer that we don't need to think about. No software updates, it just surfs the web and we can flip it into tablet mode if we want to.

notme43 6mo ago

Not even a Mac user and have been legitimately considering a move like this. My desktop and Thinkpad run Gentoo. A NAS I have at home is the build host. I am a business software consultant, and a common thread in all of my interactions is: I need to be prepared. If I'm fiddling with "hang on my mic doesn't work" or "i need to reboot", I look silly. An onsite visit might be in an executive board room, or a closet in the back of a warehouse with a TV from 2007 and a VGA connector. If I need software installed quick, like Zoom or something, Flatpak gets me 95% there. Yes, I could use Ubuntu or something normal, but I like portage and long for the day I can use FreeBSD seriously on the desktop. So enter Chromebooks, which come with portage, can use Flatpak, and the OS is basically just a web browser. Plus, I don't have to wrestle with SELinux, or any of the other nitty gritty stuff that gets in the way of real work™. It's either a PWA or an Android app, and it just works.

deleted 6mo ago

[deleted]

theanonymousone 6mo ago

A Mediatek chip rivalling Apple M2? Is this claim supportable?

ototot 6mo ago
It's basically dimensity 9400, and I think it's fairly comparable.

weezing 6mo ago

Why would I do that?

tthayer 6mo ago

I have to switch between an M4 macbook pro and a Lenovo Chromebook Plus multiple times a day and I will say, while it isn't terrible, the keyboard and trackpad on the Lenovo have nothing on the Macbook. The experience with using USB devices (yubikey in particular) through the android layer is also real shitty.

porphyra 6mo ago

> no fucking way there's a Mediatek chip out there that's as good as M2?!? right!? Actually Mediatek is pretty underrated. Isn't the upcoming Dimensity 9600 Pro on par with the M5 [0]? And they also designed the CPU part of the GB10 in the NVIDIA DGX Spark, which is roughly on par with the CPU of the AMD AI Max+ 395 and M3 Max 14 core [1] [2]. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/1so1wyv/dimensity_9600_pro_on_n2p_with_m5_level_single/ https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/1so1wyv/dimensity... [1] https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/compare/17762799?baseline=15161960 https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/compare/17762799?baseli... [2] https://browser.geekbench.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=m3+max https://browser.geekbench.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=m3+max

tantalor 6mo ago

Choosing an OS 101 https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/mx4dni/choosing_an_os_101/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/mx4dni/cho... Do you fear technology? > Yes Is your daddy rich? > No ChromeOS

vile_wretch 6mo ago

> Figma and Spotify have some of the best web apps out there as well, so that's all good too! The Spotify web app is still much more limited than the desktop app. > Did you know that Adobe ported Photoshop etc to web, with all the AI bells and whistles and the web apps perform incredibly well? Perfect if all you need out of Photoshop is the AI portion, I guess. > As a side note, it is no surprise that Adobe's suite of creative apps [...] now work incredibly well on the web across all operating systems They literally don't. > Quickshare (the Airdrop alternative) ACTUALLY WORKS Saying this like Airdrop isn't one of Apple's most bulletproof "just works" features ever

10729287 6mo ago
In my experience it’s definitely not. It works maybe 80% to 90% of the time but it’s still not enough for me to use it with confidence.
fragmede 6mo ago
Airdrop still doesn't work when I share directly from my phone. If I hit share, and then choose the airdrop target directly, it doesn't work. If I open airdrop and share to the same device, then that works. For cross-platform local sharing, I use KDE-connect.
4ndrewl 6mo ago
I got to this point before I realised this wasn't written by a human.
whywhywhywhy 6mo ago
> Apple's most bulletproof "just works" features ever It only just works if all devices are logged in to the same Apple account. Otherwise you have to allow a 10 minute window in the phones settings. Work Mac laptop not logged in won’t see an iPhone unless you go into settings. My home and work PCs I both own can’t even be airdropped to, I know some people think this adds value to Mac machines but in a world where the most powerful gpu isn’t on a Mac it actually makes the apple ecosystem feel like trash if you’re someone working on the top end of computing and can’t send a file from your workstation to your phone.

bastard_op 6mo ago

>> it seems that Signal's team is actively working on linking additional Android devices, and very soon we can simply solve this by using Signal for Android. Wishful thinking, this has been a problem since tablets (android or ios) were a thing and trying to use one linked to your phone.

aykutseker 6mo ago

Grass is greener works at month two. By month nine your muscle memory is still wrong.

Jamesbeam 6mo ago

I do not agree with what he wrote, but I had an enjoyable reading experience, which is rare these days. That is some clean blog design.

yegle 6mo ago

To me the most amazing thing of using Chromebook is that you can run the Tailscale _Android_ app and get your ChromeOS connected to your tailnet.

hirvi74 6mo ago

I love Liquid Glass. I think a lot of the complaints are whiny and pedantic. I do agree a bit of tender love and care could be used to clean up some GUI elements, but people act like Liquid Glass fried their logic board and rendered their machine utterly unusable.

fragmede 6mo ago
The problem is, on iOS it's buggy. Floating opaque rectangles blocking you from seeing what you're doing. Software keyboard not being accounted for in the layout so you can't click buttons. It looks different; sure, whatever. It's getting in the way of actually using it that raises ire.
- hirvi74 6mo ago
  Interesting. I mean, I completely believe you, but I've been using macOS 26/iOS 26 since release, and have not run into any issues like you are describing. I have experienced the keyboard issue, but it was on one specific website, so I am not sure how much of that can be attributed to Liquid Glass or the device OS compared to the website itself. I have other keyboard issues, but I cannot confidently attribute them to Liquid Glass.

Marsymars 6mo ago

I have this exact laptop - I just use it for casual web browsing, but it does have a significant problem that I've encountered - although it has a 3.5mm stereo port, it's unusable due to static sounds. Possibly this bug that's been floating around for the past 6 years: https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/172339479 https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/172339479

tantalor 6mo ago
It's probably simply defective, I would warranty/replace it.
- Marsymars 6mo ago
  Hm, that's possible. Not sure I use headphones enough with it to bother going through a warranty replacement, but I'll keep that in mind in case I get motivated with some free time to do so. The static pattern seems odd to me, but I assume would make sense if the root cause was identified: * Plug headphones into laptop: no static. * Open youtube tab: Static. * Mute audio: Static. * Tab away from youtube: Static stops after ~10s. * Tab back to youtube and start video: Static resumes. * Adjust volume: No effect on static. (At normal listening volumes, static isn't audible over music audio.) I'll note that there are various reports of something almost identical being triggered by a ChromeOS software update ~6 years ago across multiple brands of Chromebooks, e.g. https://old.reddit.com/r/chromeos/comments/fx9y19/samsung_chromebook_static_with_headphones/ https://old.reddit.com/r/chromeos/comments/fx9y19/samsung_ch...

clear0250 6mo ago

So we're calling normal usb ports "old school" now?

wtallis 6mo ago
The type-a ports that are 30 years old, have always been frustrating to orient correctly, and are significantly constrained in data rates and power delivery compared to type-c that has been common for a decade? Yes, calling that "old school" is reasonable.

deafpolygon 6mo ago

> Apple's software incompetence is absolutely universally hated Weird. Maybe he spent too much time on ChatGPT and got AI psychosis.

copypaper 6mo ago

I just have a workstation at home that I SSH into from whatever device I feel like (within my tailnet). All my tools available on the CLI and vscode available via remote-ssh. You can connect from an iPad, macbook, chromebook, etc. The only thing it doesn't handle well is creative apps (video editing, blender, photoshop, etc.). Obviously this whole setup requires an internet connection, but I'm rarely without one so it works great for me. Anyone else do something similar?

fattybob 6mo ago

I’m expecting delivery of a used Lenovo yoga thinkpad simply to run one piece of software that I previously ran on an older intel Mac using a virtual windows drive, sadly the security on that software (dongles!!) will not and possibly will never run on new Apple silicon, so I’m gonna be lugging a win machine around for any projects that call upon that security software. I worked with the developer and tried a a patched software key for the same security, but sadly it didn’t work either. I’ll still be sticking to Mac for most of my work as I just prefer the way things predictably operate, but I am now going to have a windows toy to play with too, even if it’s actually for work !

cromka 6mo ago

Are these ARM Chromebooks actually fully hackable to use any other Linux OS? AFAIK Google upstreams DTBs for them?

massysett 6mo ago

“Liquid Glass and Apple's software incompetence is absolutely universally hated,” Author is in a bubble. I know many iPhone users and none complain about Liquid Glass. When it landed on my phone, I shrugged.

BirAdam 6mo ago

My biggest issues with ChromeOS revolve around crap keyboards, bad/clunky Linux implementations (unless you just replace ChromeOS, but why not just get a cheap or older laptop?), and not trusting Google at all.

627467 6mo ago

I investigated this path. In terms of comparable performance per watt komapnio laptops are competitive. But not on price. Then there's the aspect of how open/closed each ecosystem is. While iOS is an prison like ecosystem, macos still remains quite open, more open than many chromebooks. Asahi linux exist and i was surprised to see that these arm chromebooks just lack bios/uefi that allows me to install anything other than chromeos. So, yeah, you can virtualize other OS on chromeos but so can you on macos

h4kunamata 6mo ago

I am Linux user, moving from a terrible macOS to a dying Chromebook OS, has to be the worst take by 2026 standards.

randomeel 6mo ago

I am never using ChromeOS ever. The reasons are too many to list here.

randomeel 6mo ago

I am never using ChromeOS. The reasons are too many to list here

pjmlp 6mo ago

Basically someone that doesn't take advantage of macOS features, doesn't develop for Apple platforms, is happy with a thin client OS, alright I guess.

tempestnick 6mo ago

I recently had to turn in my work Macbook and started using personal Lenovo Thinkpad E14 -- last or second to last gen. I have to say that everything, aside from keyboard and hardware (ie CPU, storage etc) on it is bad. Screen is bad, sound si horrible, webcam makes me look like I died a couple of days ago -- all gray and blurry, battery is obviously have nothing on Apple silicon laptops, fans are noisy, touchpad is bad, all is bad. But what impressed me the most are USB-C ports. They are somehow bad too. There's no grip, there's no feedback, you just kind of put a cable somewhere in them and hope it doesn't arc -- because sometimes it sounds like electrical arcing in there. Not quite pencil in a bucket, but not far off. And the thing is new, how do you manage that on a new business laptop? I'm very impressed, in the worst way possible.

Pfhortune 6mo ago

I'm interested in the hardware on this... does anyone know if this laptop can boot arm64 Linux natively? Perhaps with an alternate bootloader install? I've read about plenty of other Chromebooks that can do that, but I can't find any info on booting Linux on this one. ChromeOS would be so much more compelling if it could be degoogled... An Ungoogled-ChromiumOS would be amazing.

taffydavid 6mo ago

I have had fun with a $40 Chromebook on which I installed Linux (I can't remember the exact flavor). It great low power portable for writing on the go when I don't want to worry about bringing a more expensive machine around, but sadly the screen cracked and it would have cost more than $40 to fix