Author Topic: Chrome Book  (Read 473 times)

Offline dangbert

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Chrome Book
« on: January 16, 2013, 07:39:47 PM »

I have been looking at Acer's Chrome Book, which is supposed to have a 320gig hd.  Is there any way to install PCLinuxOS on, what by all accounts is the most popular sub-laptop computer on Amazon?

I have looked at it and it appears to be totally cloud based.  Cloud is okay, but I am from the old school and want to be able to download items from the repository to my hd, not get an app and link to something somewhere else.  The ad material makes it appear that Chromium OS is another flavor of Linux.  That may be true, but it is a very odd and particular flavor.  One that I can definitely do without.

Now that the rant is over, back to the original question, "Can one install PCLinuxOS on an Acer Chrome Book?"  If so, are there any unusual hoops to jump through or do you merely put PCLinusOS on a jump drive and boot? (Assuming you can boot from a USB port on the Chrome Book, that is)

Thanks

Deb


Offline µT6

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Re: Chrome Book
« Reply #1 on: January 16, 2013, 08:01:11 PM »
i did a small search and found this article, it is not so easy to do and is for the ubunfantastic distro

it also seems that the chromebook has a modified bios that won't be friendly with you so you won't be able to install the distro you wish as easy as you would like to do it

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/12/how-to-install-ubuntu-on-acers-199-c7-chromebook/

i think that you are better by just using it the way it is because the modifications could be end up voiding warranty
"A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?"

Albert Einstein

Offline dangbert

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Re: Chrome Book
« Reply #2 on: January 16, 2013, 09:15:08 PM »

I know it would void the warranty and I can learn to live with Chromium OS (though it is the least user friendly/intuitive OS I have seen to date).  I have also seen the article on Chrubuntu (what a mouthful).  But I have tasted steak, why would I want to go back to hamburger?  ;-) 

So, if I cannot have the best OS on the Chrome Book (yeah, I bought one and its not bad), I will learn to live with Chromium OS :-(.

Thanks

Deb

Offline µT6

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Re: Chrome Book
« Reply #3 on: January 17, 2013, 05:56:51 AM »
probably the best decision

why do you say that is not intuitive and user friendly?
"A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?"

Albert Einstein

Offline Georgetoon

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Re: Chrome Book
« Reply #4 on: January 17, 2013, 08:10:29 AM »
I've been looking at buying a Chromebook.  Each time I explore doing so, I realize I'm giving up a lot.  No LibreOffice, no Gimp, no KMyMoney, no Thunderbird or Firefox...just too much stuff I'm used to having that help me get things done.

I have a tablet running Android 4.1 and it has a docking keyboard.  So, if I just want to surf the internet, I use the tablet.

If I  get another laptop/notebook, it'll be something I can reliably install PCLinuxOS on so I can work done.

If I do buy a Chromebook, it's with the understanding it'll function like the tablet. Just for surfing, nothing more.

Toonfully,

Mark
-----------
Lenovo 14" ThinkPad Edge (0578F5U) with Core i3 Processor(i3-370M) 2.40 GHz 4GB RAM
Acer Aspire 9300 Laptop
Desktop Icy Dock system with AMD PHENOM X4 QUADCORE 9650 2.3GHZ 4MB L1 , ‎NVidia GEFORCE 9400GT 1GB 2X DVI PCIE graphics card, 22" Chimei monitor.

Offline µT6

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Re: Chrome Book
« Reply #5 on: January 17, 2013, 11:51:25 AM »
i agree with you george, it is the idea of the chromebook and the android device with keyboard will surely do the same at similar price, but with a lot less storage space
"A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?"

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Offline dangbert

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Re: Chrome Book
« Reply #6 on: January 17, 2013, 12:13:20 PM »

I have been playing with the Chromebook all morning.  At first I thought I was nothing more than a dumb terminal off Google's Cloud.  I am finding out that my first impression was not all that far off.  Chrome OS is a Linux OS but Google is playing Microsoft and their "You gotta get everything from us" routine.

You can read and write  LibreOffice docs.  However, you can not do so natively, but have to use an app to do so.  The app is slow, but it does work.

For $200, as a back up when you are traveling or what ever, its not bad.  As an actual "working" notebook/laptop it is severely lacking. 

I have not gotten the "chops" to try to install ChrBuntu on it yet.  I really would not void the warranty, because everything can be reset to factory spects with just a reboot and logging into the Developer mode.  But there is that great unknown in doing this and I just have not taken the plunge.  What I would really like to see is someone move ChrBuntu over to PCLinuxOS.  There are many reasons I could not do it, but it would be nice if someone could.

Deb