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Comment by leggomylibro | Hacker News Reader

Yeah, that's my biggest fear for this computer. I would snap up two or three in a heartbeat if I could put my favorite Linux distro on it.

My little 10" ARM chromebook has already left my more powerful laptop gathering dust. It seems like 'just a browser' at first glance, but it becomes so much more when you add a chroot which can launch X sessions into Chrome tabs. These Microsoft ARM machines are encouraging, since they should bring new entries into the ultraportable market, but I think I'll hold off until it's clear that we'll have options with regards to the software.

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"Disabling Secure Boot must not be possible on ARM systems."

#20 in https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/com...

Digital restrictions management lockdowns prevent installing Linux.

There's nothing to stop any company from making its own laptops with ARM processors, designing them to run Linux, and pre-installing Linux. You could do it yourself. Maybe this is your chance to become rich and famous.

Not sure why your first thought is to ride on the back of Microsoft's work...

Having access to a large target market gives you advantageous pricing negotiation and support from SoC designers, board manufacturers, etc.

Sure, you could create a brand new electronics brand and try to market it. But it would be super expensive and take a long time to get off the ground.

Which simply avoids the issue I raised. How long has Linux been going?

> My little 10" ARM chromebook has already left my more powerful laptop gathering dust. It seems like 'just a browser' at first glance, but it becomes so much more when you add a chroot which can launch X sessions into Chrome tabs.

So you claim running X sessions in Chrome tabs is better than running X directly?

Well...yes, sometimes.

You could run a WM in a chrome tab, but I prefer breaking out individual programs. Like, I can have KiCAD running in one tab, with the datasheets for parts I'm using in nearby tabs. Or I can just break an IDE out into its own window. It's a small screen, so having the whole browser window dedicated to the program is nice, and you can even use fullscreen mode and navigate with ctrl+[shift+]tab.

ChromeOS has a nice UI. Certainly much nicer than XFCE running in a browser tab.

> Like, I can have KiCAD running in one tab, with the datasheets for parts I'm using in nearby tabs.

To me this rather sounds like one should use another window manager than the default one that usual GNU/Linux distributions install if one has a small screen.

I'm no GNU/Linux wizard, but I somehow expect that such a window manager already exists.

It does, and it's called ChromeOS.

So you claim ChromeOS is a window manager?

I also use this setup.

In fact, ChromeOs acts as a Window Manager, because it deals with how each application is organized in the screen/ shown to the user; in this setup, no Chrome Apps are used (only programs from chroot are used)

tl;dr: It can be thought as a WM, although it isn't one

ChromeOS is an OS. It includes a window manager "Ash". Saying ChromeOS to imply its own native window manager (rather than a generic Linux one running in a chroot on ChromOS) makes sense in context. Or at least enough sense that your question seems more mocking than clarifying.

I mean, there are tiling window managers that are happy to tab windows; I use i3 and do this all the time. Bonus: tiling window managers are a great use of limited screen real estate even when showing multiple windows.

But you know what you really want. Full fledged linux experience with all the drivers backed by Google for 12 hr battery life. ChromeOS isn't even scratching the surface of how linux can maximize use of the hardware. I mean you expect to actually do productive work on tabs that load javascripts on an ARM machine?

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