Quote:
Originally Posted by rcentros
I'll grant that Android (though built on the Linux kernel) is not a Linux distribution, but that argument doesn't really apply to ChromeOS, a GNU/Linux distribution based on Gentoo Linux. Basically a Chromebook is Linux running the Chrome browser. It can now run Android applications (using a virtual machine) and it also runs Linux applications (in a container). And Chromebooks have been consistently outselling Macs for the last year, or year and a half. They are becoming a significant part of the "desktop" world (desktop referring to desktops and/or laptops).
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Its been a while since my foray and lightning exit from chromebook. I figured I would install Linux on it, even though its already "Linux" (but without the functionality of full Linux), but promptly discovered it lacked the resources to make it practical (fast onboard storage).
I found ChromeOS horribly limited for my needs. Browsing, email, wordprocessing, yes. Anything else, not really. For example, a recent visitor to these boards discovered installing Calibre on a chromebook is hard to impossible, at least for a "dumb" end user. So no, a Chromebook is only Linux in a very limited sense. It lacks the functionality of a full Linux install.
I am unfamiliar with running Linux apps in a container on one. Maybe that would have worked for the user wanting to run calibre. If so, no one advised him. IME chromebooks are only good for what they're designed for, and are most certainly no replacement for a windows/linux/mac PC. Even with Android apps, which, IMO are again no replacement for a real PC and not much good for serious heavy duty work.
But if you want argue chromeos and android are "Linux" let's just say everything including Windows is C with a bit of assembler. Ah, to heck with it. It's all binary. So they're all the same? Clearly not.