6 ms·

I bought a Chromebook Pixel 2015. The first thing it asks, when you turn it on, is for an Internet connection. You cannot go past the first-boot panel until y

by nfoz 12y ago

I bought a Chromebook Pixel 2015. The first thing it asks, when you turn it on, is for an Internet connection. You cannot go past the first-boot panel until you give it internet access, then agree to Google's ToS which says you'll let them auto-install updates at anytime, and then let it try to download updates from Google. Then you must log in to a Google account. I didn't bother with ChromeOS enough to see how well offline apps work. The laptop does not have any screws, and I'm told the SSD is soldered on even if I knew how to take the laptop apart without breaking it. That being said, there are magical keystrokes you can use to bypass even the intro "first boot" panels to switch the laptop into "developer mode" which you can use to wipe ChromeOS and install a real Linux. Much of the hardware isn't supported by mainline kernels, but Google has a lot of that sourcecode online, so I'm trying to compile my own module to get the touchpad to work in Debian. That's all experirence with a different product than what we're talking about here, but my anecdotal observations are that ChromeOS fundamentally expects internet access, and it might not be possible to upgrade the hardware and get a comfortable setup with a real Linux or BSD.

emidln 12y ago
I don't know about modern chromebooks, but I have an Acer C7 that I spent $199 on and then added another $240 for it to have a 128GB SSD, 16GB RAM, a working bluetooth module, and an upgraded battery. $440 total and it's been a solid dev machine running first chrubuntu and now crouton. I've mentioned before that the only issue I've had with it is lack of CPU horsepower for clojure-based work to get into the REPL, which as I understand, is slightly fixed on later iterations (or other models). All of my hardware (AFAICT) works under Linux, and I use Google Hangouts, Skype, Steam (for TFC), and vim/tmux on it routinely.
- bluedino 12y ago
  $440? You could get a Lenovo T440 for a few bucks more in the Lenovo outlet
  - akhilcacharya 12y ago
    It could end up being better in terms of battery life and portability if OP had bought a C720.
    - emidln 12y ago
      My battery lasts about 9 hours on a charge with normal usage (testing/developing in vim with Python (using python-mode+jedi) and Clojure (using vim-fireplace and nrepl-middleware) against Postgres, Mongo, Elasticsearch, Redis, and Storm. The original battery was somewhere in the 4-5 hour range.
  - emidln 12y ago
    And I'd still need to spend another $300 for the SSD, 16GB ram, and a new battery (batteries on used laptops are miserable, and not up to the 8 hours of usage I demand). It would also be heavier.
derefr 12y ago
> ChromeOS fundamentally expects internet access ChromeOS devices are less "surprising" in this sense, if you think of them not as computers per se, but as (the fat-client equivalent to) thin client appliances that boot into a Citrix session connected to a machine-instance running within the Google cloud. It's not a perfect analogy—you can use [some carefully-written apps on] the device without internet access once you've set it up, and so forth—but thinking in those terms lets you predict what ChromeOS will tend to do in a given situation quite well.
pgeorgi 12y ago
How to open the Pixel 2015: remove the two glued-on rubber strips on the bottom, remove the 15-or-so screws below them, remove the bottom plate. Once you're there, you can even turn a screw (or pull a jumper on some devices) to unlock the write protection of the firmware flash chip. https://johnlewis.ie/custom-chromebook-firmware/rom-download/ https://johnlewis.ie/custom-chromebook-firmware/rom-download... provides tested replacement firmware that make running 'regular' operating systems more comfortable on many Chromebooks (no more security measures in the form of scary warning screens and 'return to factory' key combos). That may kill warranty - or not. I find that this is a pretty reasonable trade off between providing an 'unbreakable' secure-by-default (hence the auto updates, which also cover firmware) configuration that is also reasonably safe against drive-by attacks (that's why the jumper is inside the device) while allowing people to use their hardware differently if they want. This doesn't rely on security problems that are used as 'jail break' elsewhere. And yes, the SSD is soldered on. There's not a whole lot of space in that box, and soldering makes things so much more compact. (Disclosure: I work on Chrome OS firmware)

by nfoz 12y ago

emidln 12y ago

I don't know about modern chromebooks, but I have an Acer C7 that I spent $199 on and then added another $240 for it to have a 128GB SSD, 16GB RAM, a working bluetooth module, and an upgraded battery. $440 total and it's been a solid dev machine running first chrubuntu and now crouton. I've mentioned before that the only issue I've had with it is lack of CPU horsepower for clojure-based work to get into the REPL, which as I understand, is slightly fixed on later iterations (or other models). All of my hardware (AFAICT) works under Linux, and I use Google Hangouts, Skype, Steam (for TFC), and vim/tmux on it routinely.

bluedino 12y ago
$440? You could get a Lenovo T440 for a few bucks more in the Lenovo outlet
- akhilcacharya 12y ago
  It could end up being better in terms of battery life and portability if OP had bought a C720.
  - emidln 12y ago
    My battery lasts about 9 hours on a charge with normal usage (testing/developing in vim with Python (using python-mode+jedi) and Clojure (using vim-fireplace and nrepl-middleware) against Postgres, Mongo, Elasticsearch, Redis, and Storm. The original battery was somewhere in the 4-5 hour range.
- emidln 12y ago
  And I'd still need to spend another $300 for the SSD, 16GB ram, and a new battery (batteries on used laptops are miserable, and not up to the 8 hours of usage I demand). It would also be heavier.

derefr 12y ago

> ChromeOS fundamentally expects internet access ChromeOS devices are less "surprising" in this sense, if you think of them not as computers per se, but as (the fat-client equivalent to) thin client appliances that boot into a Citrix session connected to a machine-instance running within the Google cloud. It's not a perfect analogy—you can use [some carefully-written apps on] the device without internet access once you've set it up, and so forth—but thinking in those terms lets you predict what ChromeOS will tend to do in a given situation quite well.

pgeorgi 12y ago

How to open the Pixel 2015: remove the two glued-on rubber strips on the bottom, remove the 15-or-so screws below them, remove the bottom plate. Once you're there, you can even turn a screw (or pull a jumper on some devices) to unlock the write protection of the firmware flash chip. https://johnlewis.ie/custom-chromebook-firmware/rom-download/ https://johnlewis.ie/custom-chromebook-firmware/rom-download... provides tested replacement firmware that make running 'regular' operating systems more comfortable on many Chromebooks (no more security measures in the form of scary warning screens and 'return to factory' key combos). That may kill warranty - or not. I find that this is a pretty reasonable trade off between providing an 'unbreakable' secure-by-default (hence the auto updates, which also cover firmware) configuration that is also reasonably safe against drive-by attacks (that's why the jumper is inside the device) while allowing people to use their hardware differently if they want. This doesn't rely on security problems that are used as 'jail break' elsewhere. And yes, the SSD is soldered on. There's not a whole lot of space in that box, and soldering makes things so much more compact. (Disclosure: I work on Chrome OS firmware)