Google rolls out new, cheaper Chromebooks 'for everyone'

[candtalan]

I would love to know if Ubuntu can be sensibly used on this hardware
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/18/samsung_cheaper_chromebooks/
Anyone please?

[carl4926]

Almost certainly

ChromOS is a susestudio remix of openSUSE 11.4 (which FYI is now end of life) but (will probably get evergreen support)

[Gnawnsense]

A couple people at my school recently got them through the partnership program Google worked out with different academic programs. The machines looked pretty neat for while I watched them dink around. I would definitely rather carry around a Chromebook than my WiFi Galaxy Tab, that's for sure.

The price tag wasn't TOO steep before, but honestly, this go-around makes them pretty hard to pass up. I don't mind cloud computing for a spare device, and for cloud computing, ChromeOS actually looked pretty decent at the time for what I would need it to do.

Good find, thanks for the link! :)

[ojdon]

Almost certainly

ChromOS is a susestudio remix of openSUSE 11.4 (which FYI is now end of life) but (will probably get evergreen support)

No it's not!?! It's based on Gentoo for a start. When on earth have you got that info from? There isn't even a Ubuntu ARM port for the processor in this Chromebook so don't know where you have got "Almost certainly" from, either.

Anyway, been wanting this ARM Chromebook to surface for ages. Just wish I had the money to buy one. It's perfect for what I need from a machine.

[Sableyes]

Hmmm if I read right, the new ones will have an ARM processor?

Ubuntu doesnt support ARM very well does it? Everyone seems too prefer Debian or Puppy on ARM devices.

[neu5eeCh]

I don't even have cell phone service where I live, let alone 3G, 4G or any kind of public wireless (unless I go into town). The Chromebook remains a useless piece of junk for someone like myself. I do need a more portable laptop however. Looking at a $300 Asus laptop at RadioShack (Running Win7) that seems like a much, much better deal in any circumstance.

[carl4926]

No it's not!?! It's based on Gentoo for a start. When on earth have you got that info from? There isn't even a Ubuntu ARM port for the processor in this Chromebook so don't know where you have got "Almost certainly" from, either.

Anyway, been wanting this ARM Chromebook to surface for ages. Just wish I had the money to buy one. It's perfect for what I need from a machine.
You are correct
My mistake
I have something in my mind but I'm struggling to put a finger on it

[mikewhatever]

Ah, if only Canonical could get Samsung to put Ubuntu properly on such amachine, that would have been real nice.

[mr john]

its still pretty steep for a computer thats minus a proper OS

[NormanFLinux]

You can work in "off-line" mode with it and for most people it won't replace their regular desktop.

But its a useful adjunct for "working in the cloud" when you want to be as productive as possible without having to wait for everything to load up. There are times like that when you don't want to wait to start your work.

The fast boot time is the Chromebook's greatest advantage.

[mastablasta]

Looking at a $300 Asus laptop at RadioShack (Running Win7) that seems like a much, much better deal in any circumstance.


if the laptop has Atom 2800 (or 2600) - those have poor linux support for their GPU. Intel outsourced them and so the drivers are closed (available only in Windows and MeeGo). Reverse engineering project has started but so far i believ only supports 2D and HD movies.

a better way is to go with somehting that has AMD.

i was looking for quite some time for somehting a bit bigger than 10", yet with full linux support and descent battery life. finnaly settled on HP dm1 (AMD E450). it cost arround 320 $. unfortunatelly it comes with win7 starter only. all other netbooks were sold with no OS installed but this one. the good side is it can have up to 8GB ram and it has 500GB disk and bluetooth. i only tried Kubuntu in live mode and everythign seemed to work fine. i read it works even better with a few proprietary drivers installed (FGLRX and it probably needs those for wi-fi as well.

battery life is 5h-6h. can be increased up to 6-7h with some power management (on a new battery).

so i can't really call Chromebook cheap. it's light, portable and probably has good battery life but that is it.

[neu5eeCh]

Thanks Mastablasta, all good information.

Here is the laptop I'm looking at:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=13057167#tabsetBasic

I want something small, lightweight and that I can throw into a bag. I'm only going to be using it for word processing (I'm a writer), browsing and E-Mail. I almost wish it used SSD rather than a HDD (for durability). If I end up purchasing it, I'll keep the WIn7 partition and install Xubuntu/Voyager in another.

The only question marks are the chipset:

AMD A50M Fusion Chipset

And the graphics controller:

ATI Radeon HD 6290

I have a hunch that hibernation and suspend won't work with the ATI graphics controller. Edit: Uh-oh, just found this (http://askubuntu.com/questions/46348/i-cant-install-on-acer-aspire-one-722).

[mamamia88]

you can get a netbook with a processor that actually works with most distros.

[mikewhatever]

if the laptop has Atom 2800 (or 2600) - those have poor linux support for their GPU. Intel outsourced them and so the drivers are closed (available only in Windows and MeeGo). Reverse engineering project has started but so far i believ only supports 2D and HD movies.
Closed drivers don't necessarily mean bad Linux support. Look at Nvidia and AMD for example. Intel just can't get it right, not with outsourced, and not with home grown graphics drivers. Drivers take time to mature, and Intel is rather late to the party, I am afraid.



i was looking for quite some time for somehting a bit bigger than 10", yet with full linux support and descent battery life. finnaly settled on HP dm1 (AMD E450). it cost arround 320 $. unfortunatelly it comes with win7 starter only. all other netbooks were sold with no OS installed but this one. the good side is it can have up to 8GB ram and it has 500GB disk and bluetooth. i only tried Kubuntu in live mode and everythign seemed to work fine. i read it works even better with a few proprietary drivers installed (FGLRX and it probably needs those for wi-fi as well.


battery life is 5h-6h. can be increased up to 6-7h with some power management (on a new battery).

That's really not a netbook, it's a small laptop, and comparing it to the Chromebook doesn't make much sense really.



so i can't really call Chromebook cheap. it's light, portable and probably has good battery life but that is it.
May be not, but remember that you also get 100GB of online storage for two years. That's about 100$ of an added value.

[mastablasta]

I have a hunch that hibernation and suspend won't work with the ATI graphics controller. Edit: Uh-oh, just found this (http://askubuntu.com/questions/46348/i-cant-install-on-acer-aspire-one-722).

actually the 722 should work with 12.04. however i read some reviews and aside from poor frame it comes with 4 cell battery i believe and also you might experience overheating. maybe some of the issues were already fixed. i think they have AMD c-60 CPU inside now as well.

the 756 model also works with linux (all intel inside). but again so far has only 4 cell battery which will give about 4 hours. fan is loud and there is some overheating possible. good side is a thin frame and has USB 3.0. and CPU is a bit more powerfull than atom.

ok both of these should work with 12.04 (756 work out of the box i read, 722 needs tweaking))
review for 722: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Acer-Aspire-One-722-C62kk-Notebook.74907.0.html
review for 756: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Acer-Aspire-One-756-Subnotebook.81609.0.html

this one needs a boot partition to be created during instalation (as it has UEFI) the rest as i read should work (proprietry drivers might be needed), much better frame but battery is kind of weak for this CPU.
lenovo s205: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Lenovo-IdeaPad-S205-Fusion-Subnotebook.59357.0.html

this one is like mine only i have australian/asian version (came with 500Gb disk and only 2GB ram). this one doesn't have any USB 3.0 ports:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/HP-Pavilion-dm1-4027ea.67318.0.html
http://asia.cnet.com/product/hp-pavilion-dm1-amd-fusion-e-450-processor-1-65ghz-45630072.htm

they were also selling Asus X401u or something like that. it's a thin 14" ligth laptop with AMD C60. works out of the box with linux but you need to get the one with 4GB ram as ram is soldered and can not be upgraded. battery life is descent (abotu 4,5-5 hours).
Also Dell with B815 (Celeron) comes with Ubuntu preloaded. but that's already 14" laptop (they were selling it there for about 300$). it's weight is 2.2 kg. 6 cell battery lasts only about 3 hours (becuase of stronger and more power bhungry CPU), but i saw a stronger 9 cell is available online. build is very sturdy.


Closed drivers don't necessarily mean bad Linux support. Look at Nvidia and AMD for example. Intel just can't get it right, not with outsourced, and not with home grown graphics drivers. Drivers take time to mature, and Intel is rather late to the party, I am afraid.
In this case the problem is they are closed source and windows only. i have no problem using proprietary drivers. but in this case they di not make them for linux (apparently they are available for Meego). you can check the threads abotu people complaining of poor GPU linux support.


That's really not a netbook, it's a small laptop, and comparing it to the Chromebook doesn't make much sense really.it's a netbook. screen is only slightly bigger than the classic 10" which it turned out to be too small for many people. so screen is 11.6" weight is 1.6 kg with battery. CPU is as i read slightly stronger than intel Atom (and uses more power) but GPU is much more powerful.


May be not, but remember that you also get 100GB of online storage for two years. That's about 100$ of an added value.oh, forgot about that. but that's only for two years. hmm....
i mean if you have linux on your desktop you could easilly make your own storage accesible online (safe and secure). that and flash drives are cheap and can hold pletny of data). portable HD are a bit more expencive and heavier...

also since i was traveling arround the country where internet is slow i doubt the online storage would be a good idea there. but i can definatelly see its appeal here in Europe or perhaps in some other coutnries with faster internet access available.

[drawkcab]

Lenovo x120e (e350) or x130e (e450/i3) Thinkpad. Yeah, it's not the lightest 12" out there but the durability and function is worth the trade off. Got my x120e e350 for $300.

[mikewhatever]

...

In this case the problem is they are closed source and windows only. i have no problem using proprietary drivers. but in this case they di not make them for linux (apparently they are available for Meego). you can check the threads abotu people complaining of poor GPU linux support.

Mego is a Linux distro, you know, and there is also a CedarView driver in the Ubuntu repositories (http://packages.ubuntu.com/precise-updates/x11/cedarview-graphics-drivers), which is offered to 12.04 users through Additional Drivers. I don't know your info sources, perhaps you can explain in detail where this idea of a Windows only driver comes from. It's also worth mentioning that quite a few other vendors (notably Aple and Samsung (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerVR)) use PoweVR licensed graphcs, but apparently, Intel is the only one, AFAIK, that can't get it working properly. Ever heard of wrong resolutions or black screens on iPads because of drivers?



it's a netbook. screen is only slightly bigger than the classic 10" which it turned out to be too small for many people. so screen is 11.6" weight is 1.6 kg with battery. CPU is as i read slightly stronger than intel Atom (and uses more power) but GPU is much more powerful.

What you choose to call it is irrelevant, IMHO, anything that has a 500GB HDD and 8GB of RAM is not a netbook. AMD E450 (http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Bobcat/AMD-E%20Series%20E-450.html) is a dualcore 1.65GHz CPU with multithreading, again, IMHO, it's more then lots of avarage users will ever need, ...and if a 10" screen is too small for some, perhaps they should look at something called notebooks.


oh, forgot about that. but that's only for two years. hmm....
i mean if you have linux on your desktop you could easilly make your own storage accesible online (safe and secure). that and flash drives are cheap and can hold pletny of data). portable HD are a bit more expencive and heavier...

also since i was traveling arround the country where internet is slow i doubt the online storage would be a good idea there. but i can definatelly see its appeal here in Europe or perhaps in some other coutnries with faster internet access available.

I am not saying that Chromebooks are for everyone, certainly not for you. In fact, they don't make much sense when people think of them as notebooks, or when compaired to notebooks. However, if you start thinking of them as cloud devices or as tablets for typing, you'd avoid concept confusion, and things might fall into place. It shouldn't be too hard now that they are ARM based.

[neu5eeCh]

actually the 722 should work with 12.04....


Wow, mastablasta. You're awesome. Thanks for the links and info. The review on the 722 gave me pause. I'd like Linux to just work. I've really been spoiled by the 'buntu ecosystem and don't want to use Windows if I can avoid it. It's not ideological. I just find the LInux OS's to be better. If I could find a sub-notebook with Linux pre-installed (at a reasonable price), I would snatch it up.

[mastablasta]

Mego is a Linux distro, you know, and there is also a CedarView driver in the Ubuntu repositories (http://packages.ubuntu.com/precise-updates/x11/cedarview-graphics-drivers), which is offered to 12.04 users through Additional Drivers. I don't know your info sources, perhaps you can explain in detail where this idea of a Windows only driver comes from. It's also worth mentioning that quite a few other vendors (notably Aple and Samsung (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerVR)) use PoweVR licensed graphcs, but apparently, Intel is the only one, AFAIK, that can't get it working properly. Ever heard of wrong resolutions or black screens on iPads because of drivers?
.

they will bring you 2D acceleration i believe. drivers are still very buggy it seems as bugs are sitll opened on them even in 12.10. hwoever i've seen more threads abotu how they work in meego. i think cedarview made propper drivers for meego. i know meego is using linux kernel.

anyway seems driver works for some not for others:
http://daily.siebler.eu/2012/06/ubuntu-12-04-driver-for-intel-cedarview-atom-n2000-und-d2000-serie/

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/944929

it will probably work well in the future. i would (and have) avoid it for now.

--

yeah the 11.6" are apparently called sub-notebooks now...
well whatever. there aren't many propper netbooks anyway. last time i saw it was this spring when i was checking out the super light (0.8kg i believe) Asus EEE with 8GB SSD, and (unfortunatelly crappy) 1,3 Atom CPU with Meego preinstalled. they were selling it at 170 EUR here. an interesting price if only it had a little stronger CPU and maybe a propper up to date linux (Ubuntu ?!). apparently the CPU in it couldn't even play videos in full screen.

[Mikeb85]

I am very interested in these Chromebooks, especially if I could run Ubuntu on them. But even with the Chrome OS, I could see it being very useful. In our household we now use mostly cloud apps (including the full range of Google products), very little installed apps. Not to mention, the power and efficiency of this laptop is something I would love to test. Seems like it would be plenty useful for the average user.

[Copper Bezel]

Yeah, I actually find the idea of a cloud OS really attractive, and Chrome OS is really nice in hand, with a fairly nice window manager, for instance; I also really like the keyboards. (The lack of the drag-to-the-top-edge gesture for maximizing windows is a conspicuous omission given the well-accomplished side-snapping behavior that's much less complete in Shell, though. Using Aurora, then Shell, then back again, I think I'd learn to hate both, because each has half of a consistent and intuitive tiling system.)