6 ms·

Went to Best Buy, typed "laptop", first result Toshiba - Satellite 15.6" Laptop - 4GB Memory - 320GB Hard Drive - Satin Black Model: C855D/S5103 • SKU: 8119044

Went to Best Buy, typed "laptop", first result Toshiba - Satellite 15.6" Laptop - 4GB Memory - 320GB Hard Drive - Satin Black Model: C855D/S5103 • SKU: 8119044 62 Ratings $279.99 That's 2x the ram and I get 320 HD which even if you don't want to use it for storage it's pretty awesome when running any OS that supports virtual memory. Have you looked at how much virtual memory your average Linux distro ends up using? That was just the first hit. There's plenty of machines in the same price range as a chromebook that have better specs, more power and therefore more freedom.

fishtoaster 14y ago
To be fair, that one is more than twice the weight of a chromebook (5.5 lbs vs 2.5).
- tacticus 14y ago
  and a much worse battery life and significantly larger. That's not a laptop that's a luggable
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
- greggman 13y ago
  And arguably more than twice as powerful. You can run nearly every Windows app including games like Call of Duty, Portal, Farcry etc. You can run Photoshop, Lightroom, Office etc.. You can run VC++, gcc and even have room to store your project. All things you can't do on the same priced Chromebook. Only 1 year ago before the Retina MBP every MBP being carried by the majority of geeks around Silicon Valley weighed 5.6lbs yet that did not stopped them from carrying them as laptops
seabrookmx 14y ago
Why would you want to use virtual memory? I bet that laptop has a 5400 rpm hard drive - there is no way I want it to be swapping on and off of it at every opportunity. The OS would grind to a halt. For most developers' usage, you'd be better off with a 32gb SSD than with the 320gb slow-as-hell spinner drive. Not to mention a cheap 15.6" laptop gets terrible battery life. My $250 Chromebook gets 6.5-7hours, even when running Ubuntu via crouton.
- tacticus 14y ago
  just a quick question. With crouton you still get the large developer mode warning right? and it requires either a keystroke or a 30 second to pass correct? and do you have the arm one or another?
  - seabrookmx 13y ago
    Yeah you have to have your chromebook in dev mode, so you'll see the warning. You can press ctrl+d to skip it. I have the original Series 5 which has a dual core Atom.
- greggman 13y ago
  All the standard macbooks that have HDs come with 5400rpm HDs. Apparently the majority of Silicon Valley has no problems getting work done on a 5400rpm HD. As for battery life I'd personally rather have a machine I can get real work done with shitty battery life than one with great battery life on which I can't get real work done. There's a huge list of things I can do on the machine with an HD, virtual memory, and a real OS that I can't do on the Chromebook. In fact Chrome will even run better on the machine with the HD as it won't kill off tabs when it gets low on memory. It also won't get low on memory as quick as it has twice the memory.

fishtoaster 14y ago

To be fair, that one is more than twice the weight of a chromebook (5.5 lbs vs 2.5).

tacticus 14y ago
and a much worse battery life and significantly larger. That's not a laptop that's a luggable
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
greggman 13y ago
And arguably more than twice as powerful. You can run nearly every Windows app including games like Call of Duty, Portal, Farcry etc. You can run Photoshop, Lightroom, Office etc.. You can run VC++, gcc and even have room to store your project. All things you can't do on the same priced Chromebook. Only 1 year ago before the Retina MBP every MBP being carried by the majority of geeks around Silicon Valley weighed 5.6lbs yet that did not stopped them from carrying them as laptops

seabrookmx 14y ago

Why would you want to use virtual memory? I bet that laptop has a 5400 rpm hard drive - there is no way I want it to be swapping on and off of it at every opportunity. The OS would grind to a halt. For most developers' usage, you'd be better off with a 32gb SSD than with the 320gb slow-as-hell spinner drive. Not to mention a cheap 15.6" laptop gets terrible battery life. My $250 Chromebook gets 6.5-7hours, even when running Ubuntu via crouton.

tacticus 14y ago
just a quick question. With crouton you still get the large developer mode warning right? and it requires either a keystroke or a 30 second to pass correct? and do you have the arm one or another?
- seabrookmx 13y ago
  Yeah you have to have your chromebook in dev mode, so you'll see the warning. You can press ctrl+d to skip it. I have the original Series 5 which has a dual core Atom.
greggman 13y ago
All the standard macbooks that have HDs come with 5400rpm HDs. Apparently the majority of Silicon Valley has no problems getting work done on a 5400rpm HD. As for battery life I'd personally rather have a machine I can get real work done with shitty battery life than one with great battery life on which I can't get real work done. There's a huge list of things I can do on the machine with an HD, virtual memory, and a real OS that I can't do on the Chromebook. In fact Chrome will even run better on the machine with the HD as it won't kill off tabs when it gets low on memory. It also won't get low on memory as quick as it has twice the memory.