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I have the first CR-48 Chromebook that Google sent out a few years ago. The first iterations of Chrome OS were a disaster. It was basically a full-screen versio

I have the first CR-48 Chromebook that Google sent out a few years ago. The first iterations of Chrome OS were a disaster. It was basically a full-screen version of Chrome browser behind a login window. Ugh. However, for kicks and grins I pulled out the CR-48 a little while ago and was pleasantly surprised that I was able to update to the latest version and - gasp - it was actually quite usable! I have been using it on and off ever since (it sits in our conference room as a general note-taking and projector device) and I must say - there's absolutely something to this thing. The battery life is great (like 9 hours), screen is OK, keyboard is nice. Trackpad is still miserable. For the most part my non-professional-work-life lives in a Chrome window anyway (gmail, google docs). If it had a decent text editor (I guess there's a SSH app you can get) I could see it working pretty well as a web development machine. But for the proverbial "Aunt Tillie", this would be not a terrible device if the iPad was a little too simple. Auto-updates, Chrome syncing, Google docs? Pretty compelling.

lemma 14y ago
I recently installed lubuntu on mine and was pleasantly surprised with the performance, although its probably not what Google had in mind. At least I'm still running chromium.
redegg 14y ago
> gasp - it was actually quite usable! It was the opposite for me. I've been using it for some time and stopped due to the constant crashing. Each new update I had hoped the stability would improve, but it seems they're for new features only the new models could flawlessly run. Alas, I gave up a month ago. It's sitting in my pile of netbooks.
- Osiris 14y ago
  I have a CR-48 and I don't recall ever seeing it crash. Are you referring to a kernel panic or something that crashes the whole machine or just a browser tab crashing? My CR-48 is my 7 year old daughter's machine to play flash games and such. Unfortunately, the CPU/GPU is a but underpowered for full screen Adobe Flash content.
  - redegg 14y ago
    No, it just gives me this screen: http://www.techjawa.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/chromeos_ponyRecovery.png http://www.techjawa.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/chromeos_...

lemma 14y ago

I recently installed lubuntu on mine and was pleasantly surprised with the performance, although its probably not what Google had in mind. At least I'm still running chromium.

redegg 14y ago

> gasp - it was actually quite usable! It was the opposite for me. I've been using it for some time and stopped due to the constant crashing. Each new update I had hoped the stability would improve, but it seems they're for new features only the new models could flawlessly run. Alas, I gave up a month ago. It's sitting in my pile of netbooks.

Osiris 14y ago
I have a CR-48 and I don't recall ever seeing it crash. Are you referring to a kernel panic or something that crashes the whole machine or just a browser tab crashing? My CR-48 is my 7 year old daughter's machine to play flash games and such. Unfortunately, the CPU/GPU is a but underpowered for full screen Adobe Flash content.
- redegg 14y ago
  No, it just gives me this screen: http://www.techjawa.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/chromeos_ponyRecovery.png http://www.techjawa.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/chromeos_...