[ale] Ot: chromebook

Sat Aug 22 08:08:47 EDT 2015

TL;DR - I travel. Been through a few different devices. A $200-300 Dell 11in
laptop would be my choice today.

How I got there ...

I traveled for a year using only a Nokia N800 and BT keyboard.  Found the screen
size an issue. The BT keyboard was the type that folded in half to reduce size.
No number run, no top row F1-F12 either. To get to those is a chord of Fn+alt or
something like that.  Together, both those devices weigh under 2 lbs.  Battery
life sucked - perhaps 4 hrs with after market batteries. Swapping batteries was
a reboot of the Debian-based OS. Had to carry a charger, extra batteries,
separate GPS device, pretty soon it would have been better to have a laptop.

When tablets came out, I got everything setup and attempted a 3 week trip across
Europe with a 10in Acer and USB keyboard portfolio.  In about 40% of the
locations, I was unable to connect back to my servers. At the time, Android
didn't have enough tools for me to figure out why that happened.  I was addicted
to the small size.  Some of the hotels didn't have wifi - only wired ethernet in
the rooms. This usually happened at the nicer hotels.

After that trip, I started looking for a netbook ... acquired one for free - an
Asus Eee that a relative had been using. He had claimed an iPad was all he
needed on travel and I took advantage to get the Eee.  Traveled for about 3 yrs
with that device. Always hated the low resolution - felt like I was missing more
than half the pixels - which was true compared to 1200p home system.  I started
noticing it was getting slower - not really - XUbuntu had just become so bloated
so I felt the GUI as getting slower. the 2G of RAM was never an issue. Did 5
continents with the Asus, It is small, clunky, yet capable.

Eventually, the C720 was released and there were step-by-step instructions to
blow away ChromeOS (ran it here for 5 min before wiping). The CPU inside should
be as fast as a C2D from a few years earlier and have 8hrs of battery and screen
was 768p. I could live with that.  Those are the good things. My travel since
getting the C720 has been mostly USA and only 1 overseas trip, but enough to
know it works.  The weight, size, battery life have me addicted to 11in
netbooks. Still, for me the keyboard is a real issue - knowing I could have
gotten a dell with the same CPU, more RAM, nicer keyboard for about the same
price after all the mandatory upgrade really bothers me - even today. The 2G of
RAM was an issue until I figured out to double the swap partition size from 2G
to 4G. Since doing that, the system lockups have completely ended. I blame
firefox bloat on that. I only run 5 programs on the machine (basically).
* firefox
* thunderbird
* xterm (yes, the pure xterm)
* KeePassX
* x2go client
Sure, there are hundreds of other things on the laptop for convenience when at
home, but outside the house, I use x2go to remote back home and surf from there
almost always. Never trust a foreign network, folks.  Plus, I don't want to
confuse the NSA by having my traffic come from strange places. ;)

I was like you and didn't get a laptop until very late. I didn't see the point
when I had a POWERFUL desktop available to me from anywhere in the world that
cost 1/3rd what a crappy laptop cost AND the desktop was 2-3x faster.  For my
needs, the portable device is just a remote access thing - not needed to compile
(or run) java.

BTW - I've had a 15in Dell laptop since about 2006 - on the 3rd one now. The
current Core i5 (1st gen) hasn't left the house much the last 4 yrs - since I
got the Asus Eee. It is a boat that I simply don't want to carry. There isn't
any need these days - a chromebook can handle everything now - including
recording presentations.  I use it daily to run (2) 24in monitors which connect
into my normal desktop - a VM running inside a private cloud under KVM. That
desktop is available to me from anywhere in the world over x2go. Of course, the
1200p resolution has to be reset to 768p when accessed from the chromebook. It
is a slight hassle, but not too bad.

Get the Dell, dude. ;)

I've been noticing lots of cheap lenovos with respectable specs recently. Guess
people really do care if you screw over your customers with NSA-like software.
Who knew?

On 08/21/2015 07:08 PM, Scott Plante wrote:
> Thanks for sharing your experience DJ--and thank you too Johnny!
> 
> 
> I guess I'm coming from the other direction--I'm currently using an iPad 2 I
> won with a bluetooth keyboard case, which while much better than the onscreen
> keyboard, is still a long way from a proper keyboard. It had no function
> keys, no escape key (kills me in vi or bash over ssh), and no delete key. It
> also has no network port, but can't even use a USB NIC. Normally that's not
> an issue, but it would be handy (as a small portable device) for setting up a
> router or bringing into the server room to diagnose problems.
> 
> 
> I always preferred desktops to laptops for my daily work. I tend to just stay
> at work late rather than work from home much. I mostly use it at lunch for
> reading the paper--we like to read and discuss the news while we eat. I also
> bring it to the pub for those important questions about who was in what 1983
> movie or who sang in what year the currently playing song. The smartphone
> could work, but the iPad w/ keyboard is easier. It is available for
> occasional emails and to VPN/ssh into systems at work in case of emergency
> and I've used it to monitor a process running on the weekend while watching
> TV, but I don't do a great deal of work on it. I'll also watch a movie on it
> when stuck in the airport for a long layover. So while the power of a full
> laptop would occasionally be nice, if it gets big and clunky enough I don't
> take it with me (a low bar), then it's lost it's purpose.
> 
> 
> I would happily accept another new free iPad! But they're pretty expensive
> for what you get if you're paying out of pocket. The lack of Flash support,
> and hence the dependence on devoted apps is sometimes an issue.
> 
> 
> I think the lack of memory is an issue with all of these devices these days.
> It seems like a lot of websites are expecting a lot of memory these days.
> Some of it may be the browser, but I think it's more the Javascript
> programming sucking up more and more memory. But then I tend to keep too many
> tabs open. This one SD Times article titled "The future of Javascript is
> Now", which I happen to have open at the moment, is taking up 109 MB of
> memory!!! It displays in several pages, but the one I have open taking 109mb
> contains 4335 BYTES of actual article text. Some of the difference comes from
> the ad graphics, but I'd say a lot comes from whatever Javascript framework
> they're using allocating a ton of memory it doesn't need.
> 
> Dell has a new Chromebook coming out in Sept that might be a possibility.
> Escape, but no delete or function keys. The memory goes up to 8GB though.
> It's hard for me to tell about the form factor until I see it in real life.
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> 
> From: "DJ-Pfulio" <DJPfulio at jdpfu.com> To: ale at ale.org Sent: Friday, August
> 21, 2015 3:23:49 PM Subject: Re: [ale] Ot: chromebook
> 
> Been running Ubuntu Server + openbox on a C720 for 18 months. I would NOT buy
> this machine again.
> 
> You can find real laptops, refurb for $140 with normal keyboards. The funky
> chromebook keyboard layout sucks. The missing keys suck. F11, F12, DELETE are
> the ones I miss the most, but there isn't any pgup/dn, home/end either.
> 
> None of the F1-F10 keys are labeled. I touch type, but sometimes miss those.
> 
> 
> Don't bother with any chromebook is my advice. Took me $140+ to "upgrade" the
> chromebook to make it useful. Out of all those upgrades, the missing DELETE
> key and the 2G of soldered-on RAM were the biggest.
> 
> There are work-arounds for the limited m2-SSD (violate the warranty) and lack
> of ethernet port (USB3 adapter).
> 
> Wish I'd have bought the $280 Dell with the same CPU, 4G of RAM, 500G HDD,
> ethernet port AND normal keyboard, dude.
> 
> Did I mention how much I hate the chromebook keyboard?!!!!!!
> 
> 
> 
> On 08/21/2015 01:38 PM, Scott Plante wrote:
>> I guess that would be this Acer. Also available online at that price till
>> tomorrow (8/22). 
>> http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/814044/Acer-Chromebook-11-With-116-HD/
>> 
>> 
>> Have any of you had good luck loading regular Linux distros like Ubuntu,
>> Fedora, or openSUSE, on these things?
>> 
>> Scott
>> 
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> 
>> From: "Boris Borisov" <bugyatl at gmail.com> To: "Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts"
>> <ale at ale.org> Sent: Friday, August 21, 2015 1:21:43 PM Subject: [ale] Ot:
>> chromebook
>> 
>> I'm in Office Depot on N druid hills and noticed they have chromebooks for
>> $129. Is not on the shelf probably has gone fast. Check your local store.
>>  