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Comment by hyperman1 | Hacker News Reader

I've wondered about this a while ago: Is it possible to do real work on an android or chromebook device.

I'm on trains, busses, ... a lot, in general without internet. And I just take a laptop. Dont care about mac win or linux. I do some bookkeeping in a spreadsheet, or some programming, I write some text.

I hate to do anything productive on this (cheap) smartphone. No keyboard or mouse, basic software is missing,... It's great for consuming content, for a quick search or checking a map. But as soon as I want to do something, it all falls apart experience-wise. So I waste time in a game or HN when im on a bus, instead of doing something I like or have to.

So how do you people do it?

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Termux on Android plus Apple Bluetooth keyboard plus Chromecast to anything with HDMI port is the most compact / portable enviroment I have. And quite powerful with latest VIM, node, nvm, Go, awscli, gcloud and whatever you like.

For everyday work I use ChromeOS on MacPro 13 and 10 year old Thinkpad x230. With Debian sid in chroot. All apps work in GUI (so in Chrome as apps) like Instagram, Tinder, Spotify, Youtube Music, even MS Word. There is also VirtualBox included.

I haven't used Windows laptop in 10 years or so. What am I missing?

You’re running ChromeOS on a 13 year old Mac Pro? What am I missing?

On 13 inch Macbook Pro Retina 2015..

I prefer a small factor notebook (or netbook if they become relevant again) with as long battery life as I can find. As soon as the smartphone breaks down I pull out the compact laptop and do what I need to do. I haven't seen any reason to do anything else that isn't a hyperspecific kludge. Especially when you are issued a work laptop.

best buy guy is right: a cheap windows laptop can do everything a chromebook or linux machine can do and more, probably better.

However (this is big) cheap windows boxes come loaded with, basically, viruses right from the manufacturer so you need to be technical enough to clean them up.

Chromebooks are better if you can't uninstall all of the junk from Toshiba or whoever but vanilla windows on the same price point is, by almost every measure, better.

You realize that MS lets you download an app which puts an installer for a clean Windows install on a usb stick?

does it clear this? https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-steer-clear-of-windows-...

I had not heard of that. Is it a new thing?

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