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Comment by richardpetersen | Hacker News Reader

The reason I purchased mine today is that I will never purchase a Windows 8 machine because I hate them and I can't afford a Mac. So the only other OS and that is supported and is cheap is ChromeOS. Its all well and good saying Linux, However you have to buy a Windows 8 laptop before you can even put Linux on it.

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I can't afford a Mac

Consider buying used, either from Craigslist or a dealer; three-year-old Macs are still very nice and cost about half to a third of new ones (I know, because I sell my firm's old Macs on Craigslist).

If you're proficient with hardware, it's also possible to dramatically improve performance by installing a cheap SSD.

I did - I got a PowerPC G4 or G5. The problem was I couldn't upgrade it past os 10.5 and the latest version of chrome at the time wouldn't run on anything less than 10.6 or something like that so nothing would work properly.

They have opened up there BIOS, and putting Linux on it is just as easy as any other laptop. Been using one for 1.5 years now.

what in chrome or windows 8?

Chromebook. See Crouton.

Wow love it :-)

Yep. I'm on work's Windows 7 laptop right now and hating it. (Linux Toshiba brightness bug is too annoying to live in Ubuntu.) Next netbook I buy will likely be one of these.

Or go with a 'Hac' - get a cheap laptop that can run Mac OS X, they work surprisingly well, updates and all...

You could object and get your Windows(~$200) money in pre-Windows 8 era. Not sure about how it works now.

No OEM is going to pay $200 for Windows, so they're not going to refund you $200 for Windows. $40 is more realistic.

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