
Replying to myself once more.. Still stinging from losing a few hundred dollars on the dud ultrabook, I bought a $199 new C720 chromebook -- but one of the Haswell-based ones, not ARM. After entering into developer mode on the chromebook, one can enable a legacy BIOS boot mode, at which point it's trivial to install a regular Linux distro via bootable USB stick. I've been using this for a bit, with Kubuntu. The C720 only has 2GB of RAM, but that's easily enough to run a few terminal windows, gcc-avr and chrome, which is about all I wanted it for. Suspect this was definitely a better choice than going for an ARM-based chromebook, in terms of easy of installation/maintenance. ChromeOS runs Linux under the hood, so there's decent Linux support for everything on the book-- although of course, you do need either a bleeding-edge kernel version, or be willing to patch an old version yourself. (This will rapidly become less of a problem as time goes by) On 21 February 2014 18:33, Toby Corkindale <toby@dryft.net> wrote:
Toby Corkindale <toby@dryft.net> writes:
Thanks -- your first-hand experiences were exactly what I was after. I think you've confirmed others' suggestions that the chromebook is going to be more hassle than it's worth to run Linux upon, at least at the moment.
*sigh*
The epilogue to this thread goes:
I bought a second-hand 11"Intel ultrabook; same kind of size, weight and battery run time as the chromebook. And because it was second-hand, it cost as much (used) as a brand-new chromebook does. It booted up fine once, then never again. No idea why, but the process of taking it home seems to have completely killed the blasted thing. Around that time, I discovered it was already missing some screws from the case, making me think it was a known-dodgy unit that someone had tried fixing and then just on-sold. Going to see if I can get a warranty claim honoured on it, but I feel doubtful about that happening.
So now I have no money and no new laptop. :( Kinda wishing I'd either bought a new chromebook (despite hassle of getting Linux onto it) or just not been a tight-arse in buying a cheap used laptop! :/
T
-- Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer Things fall apart; the center cannot hold Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world