4 ms·

It's far from crap, it's my standard day to day laptop now, has been since November. I still have my lenovo laptop for when I need it, but that's pretty rare

by EwanToo 14y ago

Cowen 14y ago
It's now my primary laptop as well. I've gotten 95% of my development tools working properly on it. Granted, most of those tools are command-line based (i.e. vim, git, python, etc.), so it's not really a surprise. The only barriers keeping this from becoming my only computer are things that I never expected it to conquer in the first place. I didn't get it with the expectation it could run IntelliJ/Arduino, so no hard feelings there. I now reach for the Chromebook far more often than I do my (older generation) Macbook Air.
- wes-exp 14y ago
  What is it about the Chromebook that you prefer over the Air?
  - dman 14y ago
    Price.
  - edtechdev 14y ago
    It's 4x cheaper ($250 vs. $1000), for one. If you realize you are spending 90% of your time doing work (or not) in the Chrome browser, why not just get a Chromebook then? A lot of people are arguing that Chromebooks are better for school kids, too, than more expensive desktops, laptops, or even ipads. I have a mac laptop at work, which I only keep around for video editing, but you can even do basic video editing in the browser nowadays, with sites such as WeVideo and Pixorial.
  - Cowen 14y ago
    Price is a non-issue since I've already bought both, though it is certainly keeping me from upgrading to a newer Macbook Air. Why spend so much to upgrade to a laptop that I'll barely use? With the Chromebook, I get longer battery life, a lighter frame, a faster startup time, no fans/heating issues, and more consistent keyboard shortcuts (there's only one set to remember because there's only one app). Some of these might not be issues with the MBA line anymore, but mine is a first-gen machine. Aside from the things I mentioned in my original comment, my Macbook Air is really just a keyboard, web browser, and terminal to me. Well, the Chromebook is too, and it's a better one at that.
macspoofing 14y ago
Do you do anything besides typical "web-stuff" on it? Granted, I spend quite a bit of time in my browser, but then I have that pesky development-thing I do. I like my iPad, but it hasn't replaced my laptop.
- EwanToo 14y ago
  I do a lot of ssh stuff from it, there's a pretty decent ssh client available and that helps a lot. When I first got it, the default ssh client was javascript based, but you could get the native code version by joining a specific Google group and then installing a development version of the same ssh client, not sure if thats changed yet
- georgemcbay 14y ago
  If you find ChromeOS limiting, you can always install a full Linux distro on the machine. My Samsung ARM Chromebook has two partitions, one of which loads into ChromeOS and one which loads into a full Ubuntu/ARM rootfs.
  - EwanToo 14y ago
    How do you find Ubuntu on it? I bought by arm chromebook totally expecting to put ubuntu on it, but I've just never got round to it

It's far from crap, it's my standard day to day laptop now, has been since November. I still have my lenovo laptop for when I need it, but that's pretty rare

by EwanToo 14y ago

It's far from crap, it's my standard day to day laptop now, has been since November. I still have my lenovo laptop for when I need it, but that's pretty rare

Cowen 14y ago

It's now my primary laptop as well. I've gotten 95% of my development tools working properly on it. Granted, most of those tools are command-line based (i.e. vim, git, python, etc.), so it's not really a surprise. The only barriers keeping this from becoming my only computer are things that I never expected it to conquer in the first place. I didn't get it with the expectation it could run IntelliJ/Arduino, so no hard feelings there. I now reach for the Chromebook far more often than I do my (older generation) Macbook Air.

wes-exp 14y ago
What is it about the Chromebook that you prefer over the Air?
- dman 14y ago
  Price.
- edtechdev 14y ago
  It's 4x cheaper ($250 vs. $1000), for one. If you realize you are spending 90% of your time doing work (or not) in the Chrome browser, why not just get a Chromebook then? A lot of people are arguing that Chromebooks are better for school kids, too, than more expensive desktops, laptops, or even ipads. I have a mac laptop at work, which I only keep around for video editing, but you can even do basic video editing in the browser nowadays, with sites such as WeVideo and Pixorial.
- Cowen 14y ago
  Price is a non-issue since I've already bought both, though it is certainly keeping me from upgrading to a newer Macbook Air. Why spend so much to upgrade to a laptop that I'll barely use? With the Chromebook, I get longer battery life, a lighter frame, a faster startup time, no fans/heating issues, and more consistent keyboard shortcuts (there's only one set to remember because there's only one app). Some of these might not be issues with the MBA line anymore, but mine is a first-gen machine. Aside from the things I mentioned in my original comment, my Macbook Air is really just a keyboard, web browser, and terminal to me. Well, the Chromebook is too, and it's a better one at that.

macspoofing 14y ago

Do you do anything besides typical "web-stuff" on it? Granted, I spend quite a bit of time in my browser, but then I have that pesky development-thing I do. I like my iPad, but it hasn't replaced my laptop.

EwanToo 14y ago
I do a lot of ssh stuff from it, there's a pretty decent ssh client available and that helps a lot. When I first got it, the default ssh client was javascript based, but you could get the native code version by joining a specific Google group and then installing a development version of the same ssh client, not sure if thats changed yet
georgemcbay 14y ago
If you find ChromeOS limiting, you can always install a full Linux distro on the machine. My Samsung ARM Chromebook has two partitions, one of which loads into ChromeOS and one which loads into a full Ubuntu/ARM rootfs.
- EwanToo 14y ago
  How do you find Ubuntu on it? I bought by arm chromebook totally expecting to put ubuntu on it, but I've just never got round to it