The problems exposed show that being a distributor is harder than it seems; > The “developer mode” boot screen is scary and unhelpful. Then put your own bootl

The problems exposed show that being a distributor is harder than it seems; > The “developer mode” boot screen is scary and unhelpful. Then put your own bootloader ? You can do this by accessing the hardware: http://www.chromium.org/_/rsrc/1381990807648/chromium-os/developer-information-for-chrome-os-devices/acer-c720-chromebook/c720-chromebook-annotated-innards.png http://www.chromium.org/_/rsrc/1381990807648/chromium-os/dev... and removing the write-protect screw. Of course the chromeOS team is making sure it's not easy to bypass their security features, and it has the (desired?) side effect of preventing this kind of mass-scale re-purposing. > Kernel updates wipe out the custom kernel modules. Then put your own kernel. Being a distributor means taking responsibility about what's running on your hardware. Make your own repositories, recompile the kernel(you can even automate it), and while you're at it, add all those packages you're installing in the script(hello .deb package downloaded over http), and VERIFY THEIR SIGNATURES with apt. About the kernel, you could also make sure the upstream kernel supports the trackpad, and then make sure the (intermediary) distributors pick up the associated patches, so it's a burden off your plate in the mid/long term. You could also probably pay Canonical (or anyone else) to do this job.