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Comment by addicted | Hacker News Reader

I haven’t really used Chromebooks, so this is a genuine question, and not meant to be rhetorical.

In a 3 OS ChromeBook, what does ChromeOS bring to the table that Linux and Android don’t already cover?

In my first hand experience:

- Working hardware and driver stack - including HW video decoding/encoding and graphics acceleration (there are laptops that work with Linux well, but even the verified ones can be hit and miss at times - e.g. wierd Dell XPS issues with USB-C).

- Very good support for high-res retina screens (Linux is getting there but font rendering is still better on CrOS).

- Reliability - it's really hard to break a ChromeOS device (software-wise). It can almost always just be powerwashed and your next login completely restores it back to how you remember it. Don't underestimate this for less developer use-cases.

The last point is especially useful for schools and companies- having laptops which you can easily replace within minutes is very useful for many employees. Especially since CrOS comes with good enterprise management suite.

Security. Linux and Android will still be sandboxed.

It's slowly getting there with Snap.

I'm not sure what you mean by this comment but I got snaps working on the Debian Stretch Termina if you're having trouble and need help.

Thank you but I don't need help, my comment maybe wasn't really clear. I was just pointing out Snap as a good sandboxing tech for apps in the Linux world.

Hardware acceleration for video so the battery doesn't die a quick and noisy death (like with Chrome or Firefox on a normal Linux distribution).

This has been the big difference for me of using a Chromebook+Crostini vs installing Linux on a typical PC. The battery life on the chromebook just lasts forever and is buttery smooth out of the box while the laptops with linux installed have always had markedly worse battery life than when running their intended OS in my experience.

Same contrast between a very powerful Windows laptop and a chrome book. Windows still feels choppy compared to the chrome book.

Ease of use for a very non-technical user.

Maybe 10 years ago I would have agreed but nowadays not so much, the latest Ubuntu is very polished and I had a lot of success with it with completely non-technical users.

My 83-year-old mom is running Manjaro now. She hated Windows 10 enough to try it.

Personally it's not the UX that I'm afraid of but when random drivers don't work or updates break things. Once upon a time I enjoyed learning and doing that kind of thing but nowadays I just don't have the time.

Admittedly I haven't installed Linux for a few years and don't even have my own computer now so maybe the situation has improved.

Ease of use for technical users as well.

Small disk space which converts to cheap hardware. It uses the cloud as a drive.

Battery life, convenience of being able to wipe the whole thing and having your settings restored completely (if you're ok with storing everything with Google, of course)

>(if you're ok with storing everything with Google, of course)

*online. You don't really need to keep anything with google other than a log in. My kids have chromebooks, and a google account for logging in and machine control, but then once logged in, they have access to entirely non google resources. (outside of the browser).

Surveillance by Google.

I'd be ok if it just stopped at Google.

edit: (government didn't have access to the data)

I don't really get this attitude. I trust the government more than Google

... to do what? You can vote to change the government in most countries, you can't with Google. But Google won't leak your data and will delete it when you request it. What do you trust the government to do better? Or what do you think google will do with it?

Edit: I understand you don't want Google to have your data, that is fully your choice. I'm just curious what risk you are concerned about.

> You can vote to change the government in most countries, you can't with Google

There's a point for the government. Google is basically beyond my influence. They can do whatever they want with nearly no public oversight.

Google might leak my data. Just like countless other private companies have leaked my data.

> what do you think google will do with it

god only know but the government already has all my sensitive information as it is. Warn about leaking SSN or tax information or addresses...but the government knows all that already. It's nothing new to them

Google has no power to make you do anything or to directly do anything to you.

That is untrue of the government.

People say this and yet I have much more unwanted interaction with Google than with the government.

Exactly, a private corporation has no public control/oversight board. Our government is run for and by the people. I wonder where this mindset was started.

Agreed. I'm of the mindset that the government is me basically. Maybe I disagree with them sometimes but I have the ability to change their behavior. I have no control over private companies (even if they are publiclly traded)

Unfortunately, Android covers that already.

Management tools oriented toward enterprise and other organizations.

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