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Comment by AnIdiotOnTheNet | Hacker News Reader

> I mean, for most people a computer is either a Netflix + Internet + Office machine (they live in these apps, so the rest of the OS doesn't really affect them) or a device which runs significantly worse OEM software,(in which case, good UX was a lost cause anyways.)

I really wish tech people would stop with this fantasizing that users don't have good reasons for the choices they make. This is why Linux Desktop has consistently failed for decades: the conception that it is "good enough" for "most non-technical people" because they've imagined some ultra-simplified usecase and then convinced themselves that they've made an appropriate replacement. Absolutely nothing good comes of this mentality.

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It works if you have a massive enterprise sales team and a couple billions for hardware development. See Chromebook.

I don't see many people giving up their desktops for Chromebooks. Let's take a look at the stats [0]... Doesn't look like ChromeOS is significant. Hell, it doesn't even seem to beat Linux.

Granted, there might be other sources (I found this with 1 minute of Google searching), but I doubt they'll paint a much different picture. Chromebooks are just big smartphones and are not a sufficient tool for the tasks which people actually use Desktop computers for.

[0] https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide

ChromeOS is a joke if you are offline or need to do any local work. Their 'file browser' has got to be an inside joke its so bad.

Its a great device for browsing + youtube/netflix + FB + gdocs. Which is why its so popular in edu because they basically give it away. And its enough for most people.

> ChromeOS is a joke if you are offline or need to do any local work.

I used to feel that way until I learned that recent Chromebooks can run Android apps and come with a Linux in a VM, and I am now a very happy Chromebook user. All the software I need is a browser, Emacs, git, SBCL, LaTeX and a few standard Unix tools: I use Chrome and run everything else in the Linux VM.

(And you're right that the file browser is very limited, fortunately I only need it ocasionally to move files between the Linux VM and the ChromeOS file system).

Google has been making half hearted attempts to merge ChromeOs and Android or at least provide a proper Linux distro without resorting to chroot hacks or replacing the fw.

I'm sure they have internal builds which are pure Linux with a compatibility layer to run ChromeOS legacy. There is absolutely no reason a Chromebook can't run that - but then its just another laptop and loses the marketability.

I think I like the current Linux (Debian 9) in a VM approach: it's off by default, easy to turn on for people who want Linux, runs fast enough (for me at least), and is simultaneously fairly well integrated but isolated so you can't easily screw up your Chromebook: if you hose your Linux installation, Chrome OS is still fine and you can just delete the VM and start over.

Crostini is still an esoteric dev only feature. No user is going to use it, or even be aware. When they need to run any apps or work with files, they don't have any options.

Why can't ChromeOS be a standard Linux distro which runs apps in a flatpak (and validated by Google). That way you can't screw up your machine, you don't really lose any perf, and you have the best of both worlds.

I think I agree with you if you change "dev only" to "prior Linux-user only" (I am a non-dev Linux-user and know plenty of others).

Flatpak sounds worth exploring, although many of the cheaper Chromebook have pretty limited storage space.

You're right. Although being a Linux user I'm pretty sure you know your way around a terminal and are the equivalent of a power user.

Chromebooks are targeted at people who find even Windows too complex.

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