Quote:
Originally Posted by Pajamaman
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).
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I didn't install Linux on the Chromebook, but I'm using the built-in Crostini (which is Debian 10 – "Buster"). That's basically all I use (on the Chromebook). I've even installed an email client and Firefox in this Linux "container." I've played around with Android apps a bit but not much. I don't think I've actually used
anything ChromeOS was originally designed for (online Google Docs, etc.). I guess I still use the Chrome browser sometimes and share files on Google Drive. But even with a "real" Linux computer I share files on Google Drive and use the Vivaldi browser (based on Chrome) when Firefox has trouble with a specific site.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pajamaman
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.
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A Chromebook wouldn't be my first choice either. But, nevertheless, sales are soaring (up 277% year to year, last quarter) and this Linux platform is becoming popular in the market (outselling Macs now). The reason I bought a Chromebook was to see if they would run some screenwriting applications — the question came up a lot on the forums. They will — everything I threw at it ran. But I'm sticking with a Chromebook for another reason, that is (if you're using it for writing) it's a very cheap, light platform with a
12-14 hour battery life — and a real keyboard. The battery life is the main draw for me.
As for Calibre, after reading your post, I tried installing it. Installation went without a hitch but, as PeterT mentions, there's no direct Calibre access to the USB port — so that makes it useless for DeDRM and easy integration.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pajamaman
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.
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I can't argue with much here, except to mention that Chromebooks weren't really designed for writing applications and yet they work really well for this (so long as its a Linux application). Even a moderately priced Chromebook comes with 32 or 64 GBs of online SSD storage and most seem to include microSD slots for long-term storage. A 16 GB Chromebook I found on Shop Goodwill for $27 has enough room and power to run all the Linux writing applications I wanted to use it for.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pajamaman
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.
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ChromeOS and Android are not the same. Android uses the Linux kernel (so it's based on Linux) but it uses some kind of funky java (or something like java) front end GUI. ChromeOS, on the other hand,
is Linux. It's a very specialized (and limited) Gentoo version of Linux basically designed to run the Chrome browser. Over time it's gotten more capabilities, but without the Linux Debian sub-system, I would (personally) have zero interest in it.
Even Windows 10 has a Linux subsystem built-in now, mostly for development. And, in their Azure division, Microsoft even uses an
internal Linux Distribution, called CBL-Mariner. I keep wondering when Microsoft will release their own Linux Distribution — I'm convinced that, eventually, they will. And, instead of a Linux subsystem, they'll use a Windows VM for running "legacy" Windows programs.
https://betanews.com/2021/07/12/micr...d-cbl-mariner/
Maybe not. We'll see.