Up until recently I owned a Pixelbook, and the Linux layer (Crostini) made ChromeOS a very viable development platform. The one thing I missed was the ability to start virtual machines (and I believe this may have been addressed on newer ChromeOS hardware)
Really a lot. I recently installed CloudReady (equivalent of ChromeOS Flex) on a 8th Gen Dell latitude. From Gimp to running 3 different chrome browsers with different profiles. All just works.
It really is impressive how much a cheap computer can do with the right software now a days. Cheapest I see glancing at amazon right now is $75. Chump change in the first world.
Probably even the cheapest part of schooling equipment too now. Never seen a textbook go for less than $100, at least in my experience.
I still really miss my dell mini laptop. It fit my small hands well and was easily lighter than a book.
I used to throw it into one of those mini fashion backpacks and bike to the park to write a bit of code on nice days.
Not much fear of breaking it because it was so cheap. Had external batteries too which I sometimes brought an extra of to swap out (which actually sounds crazy compared to how most laptops are now a days)
It still does the job quite well, naturally I took advantage of being able to expand it to 8 GB and replacing the HDD with a SSD one.
And despite my Linux vs Windows posts, it is actually Linux based, and was bought that way, also a proof that even that didn't help when regarding some common Linux Desktop themes.
Anyway, it has served me well during my travels, like you I am used to take it everywhere.
When it finally dies, it is going to be quite hard to find a good replacement that takes over similar responsibility.
preaching the choir my dear, whenever I see "new big web project" all I see is people sending a few bits of text .. sure it's coated with useless 4k vids and high res banners, but the cruft of the protocol is still a little bit of text. And considering the average brain speed of the population, a fast minitel would suffice :cough:.. hell, the human / system impedance might even improve.
Expired Chromebooks are cheap, and great for installing Linux.
For my purposes, a $100 used Chromebook is perfectly adequate, and is the sort of device I can take on a hike, kayak, or bike ride, and not worry if it's lost, stolen, or damaged.
What is the best source to learn more about replacing ChromeOS with Linux? When I was briefly considering this, I found most of the Chromebooks came with non-replaceable eMMC (<64GB), soldered ram (~4GB), or 720p resolution.
I am willing to adjust my performance expectations considerably, but the non-expandable storage has made me think I am in for a world of annoyance if I want to use anything other than a web browser.
The trick isn't to shop for /most/ Chromebooks. The trick is to shop for /decent, expired/ Chromebooks. Chromebooks are designed around planned obsolescence, and all come with a use-by date, after which they stop updating:
Chromebooks near or past the planned obsolescence date can be had for a song, including decent models. The market is close to non-existent, so there's a glut of them.
My Chromebook has a 3200x1800 display, 16GB RAM, and takes an SD card (for expandable, albeit slow, storage). That's plenty for most of the types of work I'd like to do on a boat. It was under $200, almost expired. New, it would have been close to a grand.
The most popular way to install Ubuntu is with crouton:
The key annoyance (really the only difference from a "real" laptop) is you have to hit a special key sequence on every boot.
I definitely don't think of it as a "world of pain." I wouldn't use it as my primary laptop, but it's great as a device I can use in places I'd never take my primary laptop.
