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Comment by alchemist1e9 | Hacker News Reader

Does anyone happen to know what is the cheapest mass produced and typically available used or otherwise dirt cheap chromebook that this works on. Yes I know there is a supported list and I just need to spend a few hours researching but this is the kind of knowledge that certain people might just know and be willing to share.

How low can we go?

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I would also love to know. There seems to be a gulf between garbage chromebooks and decent ones, and I don’t want to spend days researching it. :/

What are your parameters for "decent"? The real question though is: what's your budget? Without spending days researching it, I can tell you a $1,000 Chromebook is going to be better than a $700 Chromebook is going to be better than a $400 Chromebook is going to be better than the $100 Chromebook I got from a Black Friday sale.

You can find a better deal if you spend days researching, but who has time for that? Spending more money gets you a better one.

I was kinda hoping there are $50 used one that work fine with stripped down minimalist Linux setup, maybe MATE or even lighter. Then I’d probably just buy 10 of them and leave them flung about, one in each room.

I’m half joking half serious.

Edit: Ok yeah there are bulk sellers of various Chromebooks that are going for like $30/laptop. i.e - “Dell Chromebook 11 P22T 3120 Non-Touch - Unlocked - Bulk Discounts”

Looks like I’m more serious than I expected. Just need to build a fast way to flash and image them.

Maybe "mobile thin clients" work as well, those are more or less just Celeron ultrabooks. Roles that require use of a mobile TC would also require calm minds too.

Any hardware you know of that runs Linux? Does mobile mean LTE modem maybe?

A cheap mobile thin client with builtin LTE with drivers running Linux sounds like a dream come true, if it exists.

If you have FreeCycle in your area just do a Wanted: Old Chromebooks.

Never hurts to ask.

4gb, ram is king. Past that, hard drive space. Dell Wolf is incredible. Past that, R751Ts are my secret weapon. Both $30-40

Excellent suggestions. Thank you. Both are market as supported and have ebay volume it.

I’m see some Wolf as low as $10/device in bulk.

Perhaps I need to invest a few days to learn how to image these quickly with my own platform.

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