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Comment by dublinben | Hacker News Reader

Chromebooks (with either Google Drive or Office Online) are as work-worthy as Windows RT devices. Both are perfectly capable if your work only entails answering emails, browsing the web, and light word processing. If you need to do anything that isn't possible in a web-app, you'll quickly find yourself turning to a different device.

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Or put your chromebook in dev mode, and turn it into a full-fledged linux machine with crouton. I tried it on a $200 Acer, worked great. And the battery life is much longer running linux at the command line.

For developers, installing Crouton turns the Chromebook into a fantastic portable machine. My Acer c720 has been able to handle everything I've thrown at it, and generally lasts a full day (10-12 hours) between charges.

I keep seeing this meme, and it persuaded me to buy a Samsung Chromebook, specifically with the intent of putting Linux on it.

It's awful. Forget about accelerated graphics from that nice chip - the drivers are proprietary. Oh, and so are the DSP drivers, so no HD decoding. Enjoy pressing Ctl-D every boot; don't mis-type or you'll wipe the drive. The keyboard lacks essentials such as "home", "end", and "delete". The Crouton OS and ChromeOS get into fights sometimes. HDMI is a crapshoot. I never did get VLC to stream the webcam. The finish is about as durable as whitewash. And so on.

If you're a developer reading this thread and considering buying a Chromebook because it looks like a nice machine for the price, PLEASE don't. Do yourself a favor and buy a used thin 'n' light business-class laptop from 2006-8. You'll take a medium hit on battery life and weight, but you will get a comfortable, well-designed, durable, powerful machine for your money.

If you only use the CLI (using crosh) it works fine.

The parent is using Crouton on Acer c720, which has an x86 (Haswell) processor, and is much closer in performance to a modern netbook. The Samsung Chromebook has a fairly dated ARM processor, and the performance on Ubuntu isn't great, but acceptable for my uses (Python and Javascript coding in vim, running a dev server, testing with Chromium). You're not going to have much luck with anything that expects hardware acceleration, but you can switch back to the ChromeOS side with two keystrokes.

I agree with your recommendation though, wait and get the Samsung 2 if you want ARM, or any of the other x86 Chromebooks.

EDIT: And you don't need to type Ctrl-D, it just makes it boot quicker when the bootloader is unlocked

I use mine to take notes and do a little programming at the command line. I use vim so I don't need those "keyboard essentials." I'm doing nothing with graphics or video. I'm writing text and code.

That stuff is what "work" means to me, so my (Acer) chromebook is a pretty decent work machine. For bigger stuff I break out the 17" System76 but for travel I take the chromebook.

I put Ubuntu on my $200 Chromebook. Works great for programming, statistical analysis using R, org-mode, and pretty much anything else for work that I throw at it.

Windows RT devices do have a native version of Office though - in fact I think that's one of their main (only?) selling points.

I know it's limited compared to the full x86 version (I've only played with one briefly), but I suspect it fills a gap that the Chromebook can't for people who aren't comfortable using "office" web apps.

in fact I think that's one of their main (only?) selling points

I have a 32 GB Surface RT. Here are some of its many selling points:

1. Memory card slot to upgrade storage to 96 GB

2. USB port that can be used to connect and charge devices

3. 10.6" touch screen

4. Cost only $179

5. Runs full version of Microsoft Office 2013

6. Runs full version of OneNote which is a must-have app

7. Unbelievably good Type keyboard with magnetic locks

8. Built-in standard Windows utilities (ex: RDP client)

9. Built-in kickstand

10. Tons of apps/games

11. Multiple user profiles on one device

I have a 64 GB iPad Retina as well. My three kids actually fight over the Surface and the loser is left with the iPad.

That definition is gradually encompassing more and more 'work users.' There are a lot of jobs were the corporate 'killer apps' are web apps, even in the "knowledge worker" space.

For these, a remaining reason to buy windows is "what if I need x." WIndows does everything chromes does, plus some other stuff so its alway going to win that argument. Office online is another step to making that argument moot.

I'm not sure that Google is actively targeting workplaces with chrome, but I wouldn't be surprised to some workplace shift.

ATM, I think there are a lot of users that use 80% web, 10% native apps with decent web based alternatives and 10% irreplaceable native. Since IT departments know what's installed on machines, they'll know for sure if/when a switch is possible.

Can you explain where 'light word processing' becomes 'real world processing' and therefore beyond the capabilities of a web app.

The number of use cases that can't be performed adequately (and in some cases - performed better) in a web app is shrinking and will continue to do so. The native to web app gap is shrinking, especially on non-mobile devices where memory and CPU are less constrained.

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