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Why there's no good reason to buy a Chromebook

Posted by the_doctor on · 11 comments
ZDNet; By Larry Seltzer 		Mail this story
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Why are Chromebooks not selling, except to school districts? The better question might be why would anyone buy a Chromebook when they do so little? Microsoft takes an utterly different and more useful approach.

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Comments (11)

flufferbeer ·
Last pair of links approved by the questionably "F/OSS-friendly" Google Inc ;)

my 2c
jdixon ·
> Last pair of links completely "approved" by Google Inc's PR Dept ;)

I can't argue, but it's better than Microsoft's PR Dept. :)
flufferbeer ·
> it's better than Microsoft's PR Dept

Google has been much much better than M$ in terms of promoting F/OSS..... at least it seems that way SO FAR!!

-fb
Bob_Robertson ·
If I can't install Debian on it, I don't want it. If I'm going to sit down to a keyboard, it's going to be a full-bore system. Even if it's a really really thin one.

I compromise on a phone, because with a phone I want a limited use device.
BernardSwiss ·
And it seems that anything I try to post to ZDNet comments is still automatically blocked as alleged "spam".
jdixon ·
> If I can't install Debian on it, I don't want it.

Well, ChromeOS is simply a stripped down version of Linux, so it should be possible. Googling "Installing Debian on a Chromebook" gave me more hits than I have time to research at the moment.
Ridcully ·
I have also seen that schools are being drawn to Chromebooks for a few reasons: cheap, secure and very simple with respect to maintenance.
Bob_Robertson ·
JD, I've heard of it being done. I'd consider it if I didn't have all the laptop I need.

It must be able to run Wizard 101. It would be nice if they'd come up with a native Linux client.
herzeleid ·
I have a cheap chromebook and like it. I don't do heavy duty gaming on it, but it's great for email, social media, video chats, music and video watching. The fact that it is a zero maintenance device is definitely a plus. I save my tinkering and hacking for my conventional computers.
jdixon ·
> I have a cheap chromebook and like it.

I have a bootable chromium os iso image burned to a USB drive for booting my Dell Mini-9. I've tried it, and It's usable, but I prefer a full Linux system for most purposes.

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