You don't need to turn developer mode on for this feature. That means you get verified boot , updates (including your Linux distro) as well as the security guarantees of Chrome OS. Crouton requires you to give up all of that. You can't get sync without signing in. Cloud sync is the foundation of the OS. It's what makes it stateless. If you don't like that it's not for you but stop spreading half truths about the product in bad faith.