So my school forced everyone to buy a Chromebook G4 Education Edition which came with ChromeOS and we had to sign some shady e-policy. Days after I got it, I opened it up and manually reflashed the BIOS so I could use SeaBIOS and install Arch Linux.

Great, so I went on to instal Chrome and it was really slow and performance heavy, then I installed the new Firefox and it ran a lot faster...

*So hehe, Firefox works better than Chrome on a Chromebook!*

Me: Fuck I love my chromebook!

The world: Why would you love Chromebooks, you cant even do anything with ChromeOS?!

Me: *Sit's down and listens to music and podcasts for 3 hours* Oh look, still got 82% battery...

Anyone here uninstalled *Linux* to replace with another OS, or is the traffic all one way?

I always see these Linux vs Windows vs MacOS debates. But you guys are forgetting the most important and best OS there is!

ChromeOS.

Got bored and threw a wrapper for devRant together and god damn it chromeOS why do you have to add a line to separate the window bar from the main content, would have looked slick!

I think google play just had a stroke..

!rant
Bought a Chromebook last weekend. Best. Decision. I've. Made.
It's so great. It's so light, it uses USB C to charge (so when I go to visit my parents halfway across the country, I can bring 1 cable for my phone, switch, and laptop), and it's the perfect Android development device, since it runs Android apps and you can use Android studio within crouton.
I have never loved a new device so much, and I remember the days when I mocked Chromebooks because they sucked. Android app support turned that around.

Ok, so I REALLY HATE ChromeOS. MY story is this: I'm using Chrome, and I want to get a file from my computer to my phone. Simple enough, I just plug my phone in, and... oh, wait! First it has to open two new windows for my phone's two storage areas. Ok, fine. I close the windows, get my file prepared, and I click/drag it over to the folder I want. Except, the computer doesn't FUCKING see it as a device anymore. It knows it's attached, but it doesn't fucking communicate with it. Ok, maybe it's a cord problem. Nope! Same issue. Maybe I need to update? Nuh-uh! That doesn't work either, since my computer's not supported anymore! And, the cherry on the top of the fucking shitcake that this whole situation is, the Files app, the one that you use to view the stuff on your hard disk? OH, IT JUST GOES AND CRASHES. I can open it! Nothing shows up. No devices work. It's just stuck like that until I reboot my machine.

God... FUCKING damnit, chromeOS.

I see loads of rants complaining about getting asked for tech help. And then I see Linux getting recommended as an OS.

Me? I'm telling everyone to use ChromeOS so they leave me the fuck alone.

In the future, I'll tell everyone they are too fucking stupid to own a computer and phone is the way to go.

Systems thinking, people.

Ok that's nice and all Google but how about you fix the fucking UI, laggy interfaces, janked and half baked tablet mode and just all round fix what you broke from chromeOS 70 onwards?

You know.. make sure things are stable before pretty?

Got another one of my boring questions for us all to hopefully discuss a little.

With all the talk about the Librem 5 starting to ramp up more and with my little delve into UBports, was curious as to what other devs would be interested in/want/need from a mobile Linux operating system.

For me it's simple but mostly creature comforts.

1. Consistency and convergence, give me the ability to run a full desktop environment along side the mobile DE but make it consistent between the two (Looking at you Microsoft with your continuum)

2. Doesn't loose the customisability of Linux, let me install any Linux application I want and customise the theme and icons (Something I have a gripe with UBports)

3. Have accompanying operating system with an echo system, so have a wearable OS, a desktop OS and mobile OS, having that tie between the 3 is amazing as a heavy android and chromeOS user.

Would love to bring some of these things to reality but don't have any knowledge of how to do it, personally would love to see elementary OS have a crack at this (Wont happen but got to deam!)

Lets talk about our dream phone!

Here's what mine would be...

Screen: 1440p AMOLED highly saturated screen.
CPU: Snapdragon 845 (Or whatever is on top)
RAM: 4-6 GB
Storage: 16 GB internal OS reserved storage for the OS only but on the side would have 2 slots with the same locking mechanism as the sim tray to hold 2 hot swapable storage or battery modules.
OS: A modular version of stock android (By modular i mean a version of stock android that is designed to be installed on any device)
Speaker: Dual front facing stereo
Ports: 2 usb-c ports on the bottom.

Special features: A portable desktop experience that when plugged into a monitor would give a chromeOS style experience with the phone acting as a touchpad.

Looking forward to trying out ChromeOS for a while.

I like the idea of a minimal OS. Frankly while Windows, macOS and Linux are all incredible bits of engineering, they all suck ass and are maddeningly frustrating.

Usually I'm on a computer to complete a task and just want the OS to quietly do its job and leave me out of its myriad personal crises. I don't want to see or hear from that fucker.

If experience tells me anything it's that I'll be swearing at the Chromebook within the week.

But, the fact I'm trying shows I haven't lost hope.

Fucking hell my Chromebook is a confusing little cunt...

I use the Samsung Chromebook plus with a 64 bit based ARM CPU but the chromeOS installation is 32 bit... Buuuuuut it will prefer 64 bit android applications and runs the Linux container at 64 bit!

How does that even fucking work?!?!

(Yes I know Google blah blah, privacy blah, your opinion is noted and ignored ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

Putting my grandmother on a Chromebox from Windows 8 was the best family IT decision I ever made

So im a massive ChromeOS fan and would love to own a Pixelbook but cant afford it at this time...

I've been watching a few late reviews and all they do is complain about the price and "limited selection of things" chromeOS has, just watched a reviewer pull an iPhone X out of his pocket.

A pixelbook has the same functionality as an android phone and more for roughly the same price, why can't people see full comparisons rather than just oh its not windows, really shits me!

*laughs like a crazy mad man*

It's finnaly fucking happening!
No more need for developer mode and now I just need to wait for gamemaker studio 2 to be released on Linux (yeah it'll never happen I know)

Alright dev's, I have pretty much given up on ChromeOS and Chromebooks, my Samsung Chromebook Plus is far from the rock solid stable and battery sipping champion it used to be, constantly crashing, sluggish, 4 hours of battery at most, terrible android performance and the list goes on (Plus fucking bullshit Pixel device exclusive features can fuck off)

I use my Macbook Pro more than ever but the lack of being able to install Linux is a massive blow, so I'm looking for some laptop recommendations and here are the criteria.

1. Don't want a tablet
2. Prefer a clamshell but will deal with a convertibal
3. Max price of $1000 AUD (~$4.25 USD)
4. If it has dedicated graphics, prefer AMD
5. Prefer windows to not be pre-installed but can deal with it if it is

Was previously looking at the XPS line but um... Base model 13 inch is ~$1600 AUD so nope .-.

Fire away people!

I've recently gotten this idea to take a Chromebook and run Linux on it.

Why a Chromebook, you ask? Well ChromeOS is a Linux kernel, boots using coreboot, and Google now requires that OEMs support LVFS (fwupd), i.e. the Chromebook is a very Linux friendly laptop.
Some other reasons I would use a Chromebook are: it's cheap, basically useless otherwise, amongst other things.

So, what do you guys think, good idea or not?

Holy shit we finnaly have ChromeOS AVD's!!!

Can't wait to get home and start optimisation and porting! :-D

WSL in Windows 10 to get Linux stuff. Crostini (a lightweight ChromeOS container tailored for Linux) running in ChromeOS to get Linux stuff.

If you want Linux, just get a proper laptop for Linux man.

I hate Chrome Books/ ChromeOS. I was recently told that at my job we would be using Chrome Books and I am not excited, chrome os is essentially a mobile software on a real computer, the only redeeming factor is the Linux support in the developer betas.

Chrome books suck.

I'm so disappointed about these day developers, they rather make web than native app. Google technologies ? pls. The only reason why they afraid to make app on the windows 10 is losing customer of their crappy Chrome OS, oh not to mention they don't even have the stable SDK for their native solution on the ChromeOS. So they trick developers to make web more than native, PWA, SPA ? why dont you just make a native windows applications ????

With the news of ChromeOS going to be able to run all android apps, did it occur to anyone else that ChromeOS, which if you believe the prevailing opinion, is "Just a browser", will now be able to host other browsers? Firefox for android, opera for android etc...

I love technology!

devRant help me!

I'm getting a lovely little tax return and am in the middle on what laptop to buy.

MacBook Pro (I like MacOS and build quality, fight me)
or
PixelBook (I'm a google fanboy and love ChromeOS so once again... Fight me)

What do you think would be the best option keeping in mind the PixelBook will run Linux apps as well...

Google should really add support for Linux on Chromebooks. I don't see a reason to pay £1k for a Pixel Book just for build quality and great looks. However, having native Linux support and being able to use something more useful than ChromeOS would be hugely attractive and I would consider buying it.

Did any of you try using Android Studio on ChromeOS?

Does it work faster compared to bloated Windows or OS X?

It's a sad day when ChromeOS is starting to look tempting when buying an $850 chromebook (i3, 1080p) is compared to an equivalent windows machine (Celeron, 768p)...

I thought I left that hell behind .-.

Woo time for a Chromebook rant against Samsung!

So they just 'revised' the Chromebook plus (Currently using v1 to write this) and I was intrigued because they ditched the Samsung made ARM chips for an intel CPU.... Buuuuuuuuuut... It's a fucking celeron... Of all fucking things to put in a half thousand dollar laptop, at least an m3 would be useful. Then I find out they are ditching the full metal body, it's heavier, thicker, same 3GB of RAM, ditching the 3:2 aspect ratio (Fucking why?!) and the 'upgraded' keyboard doesn't even have back lighting...

Ugh, makes me want a pixel book more, double the price and a million times the performance and quality -.-

I have an idea for Android desktop. I was wondering if it would be possible to build the open source Android and chrome os code into one entity and then have them both installed on your phone.

Basically when using phone the user would use Android, and when an HDMI connection is detected, it launches chrome os on the external display.

Is this possible? I know Android has an HDMI connection event hidden in their API. I'm just unsure if the kernels will play nicely together.

Best Linux distro for a 2-in-1 laptop that I also want to use as a tablet? Are there any that can run Android apps natively (like ChromeOS but not ChromeOS because I also wanna do dev)?

Anyone else ever had trouble using EAP networks on chromeOS? Been having to deal with it and doesent seen to want to work no matter what