Chromebooks

[mortals]

I bought a Acer C710 Chromebook last week

Chromeos seemed ok but I have now installed archlinux on it as I felt chromeos was really limited & locked down (this is a feature for some people).
Admittedly I did buy it to install linux on it but kept chromeos on it for a week to test it out
I also got 100GB of google drive for 2years with it

I think it's pretty cool for people who just want to browse.

The 1.1Ghz sandybridge cpu is really quick.
Battery life is also pretty good.

Not sure if anyone is interested or has looked into the underlying design of chromeos, some of it is really cool -

• 2 seperate kernel partitions so there's always a fallback kernel
• Cached User Data is encrypted using eCryptfs
• firmware / BIOS chip has hardware toggle for write protection
• Secure boot

I seem to get better battery life and more speed from linux compared to chromeos but I did notice chromeos always used over 1GB of RAM seemed to have a huge list of running background processes.

One cool thing with chromeos was it just worked out of the box tho I even had it connected via HDMI to 1080p screen playing youtube and videos
I think I should buy my parents a chromebook each tbh as they only really browse the internet on their expensive laptops

 

[MrWhippy]

Cool.

My dad has got £200 to spend on a Chrome book. He likes the look of the HP Chromebook 11 but I have read some positive reviews of the C720 and told him to get that instead.

Is there anything better than the C720 for £200?

I was in exactly the same boat, and favouring the c720, but i went into a shop full of staff in garish purple shirts and had a play with all of them, and walked out with a HP 11inch, because the screen and keyboard were miles better, and that won me over. I was initially a bit worried i'd made a duff decision after a LONG time researching, but that only lasted a couple of days.

now i'm very happy with the hp, it does what i bought it for perfectly (email, web browsing and playing HD mkvs from usb stick). and although it's not an intel chipset, you can still mess with the os. I had it running arch linux on day two. gone back to chromeos now though, as for me, the device is just for net/films, and chrome does that fine.

 

[naisdes]

Other than one being white and the other black, does anyone know the difference between the HP Chromebook 11-1126UK and 11-1132UK?

I might pick one up because it's going for £179.99 at the moment for some work purposes as all of it is web browser based, and initially I was thinking of getting a MBA 11 for that. It has to be 11", slim and light, and when you compare the £179.99 to the £600 odd something (with mate's discount), it's very tempting. I have a main gaming PC already and a Mac Mini for my everyday things.

It's really just for productivity purposes. I have an iPad Mini already for all my mobile gaming and media consumption. Now I could use that for work too and maybe even buy a Bluetooth keyboard case to go along with it, but a small laptop would still be more convenient.

The work I would be doing involves checking my work emails (based on Gmail), and inputting a lot of data via various websites.

 

[Jonny L]

Just managed to get steam working in ubuntu on my c720, Mount & Blade (an old favourite of mine) runs like a dream!

 

[whiskycycle]

Other than one being white and the other black, does anyone know the difference between the HP Chromebook 11-1126UK and 11-1132UK?

Other than black or white, I don't actually think there's any difference.... could be wrong though.

After using my whitey version for about 7 weeks, it's really really hard to justify keeping the MBA I've had for 2 years. Nothing I've done on the Chromebook has required grunt and the MBA's currently relegated to playing with Yosemite!

The HP11 _is_ lacking in grunt compared to some of the Intel-powered CBs, but in all honesty, the quality of the HP11's keyboard and screen swung it.... I don't need lightning quick and - for me - ChromeOS just works.

 

[Columbo]

I'd love to get Mint working on mine. Any guides anywhere?

 

[emu]

Just been offered a hp pavillion 14- c100sa second hand for 100 pounds

Would this be ok to run linux?

 

[bsteam]

^^ Yeah mate should do.

 

[emu]

got offered a straight swap of hp chrome 11 in white in the end only a few weeks old so mint

i know the cpu isnt the best but wtf is going on with the screen and speakers

they are superb

its quick enough for me

my plan was to bin the big windows 7 laptop and use the chromebook and also purchase a cheap netbook for about 50 pounds

just in case i need to use itunes or some other windows programs

anybody tried the js torrent client?

can this thing output to tv?

 

[torchxit]

you would have to pay me to use chromebooks its a waste of money

 

[emu]

you would have to pay me to use chromebooks its a waste of money

Thanks for your quality input

My 7 year old did his power point presentation homework on the chromebook this evening

All backed up to the cloud

 

[Columbo]

you would have to pay me to use chromebooks its a waste of money

Great post, would read it again as its obviously an educated and well balanced comment based on the thorough testing and objective use of the OS.

 

[Ben Cole]

you would have to pay me to use chromebooks its a waste of money

Yep. This is just the kind of input I come into the Chromebook thread for.

Just purchased one myself. Something new to try and to be honest the aesthetics of the HP 11" Chromebook just made me WANT!

 

[DiCe!]

Parents have an old Acer netbook, its so slow and clunky, all they do is use facebook, emails and the odd web browsing so Im thinking of getting them the HP 11" one, how have peple found it? Are they idiot (parent) proof

 

[emu]

Parents have an old Acer netbook, its so slow and clunky, all they do is use facebook, emails and the odd web browsing so Im thinking of getting them the HP 11" one, how have peple found it? Are they idiot (parent) proof

only had mine a day but i love it

it just works no mallware or viruses to worry about and the screen is superb

this would be ideal for your parents in fact im getting my mum one

just set up this

https://github.com/kzahel/jstorrent

its free on that page

and now have an external drive plugged in to handle to torrent downloads

 

[emu]

forgot to add its two fingers pressed on the touchpad to simulate right click

 

[Columbo]

Well I'm getting to love my C720 more and more. It's simplicity, speed and battery life continue to impress me and it's absolutely perfect for armchair browsing, I can only see Chrome OS going from strength to strength.

 

[Snax]

Can chromebooks play MKV films yet? I am hoping VLC is ported across on android as the only thing stopping me from getting one is the lack of codec support.

 

[Columbo]

I dont use mine heavily as a media player but I've played a few mkv files fine through the standard file manager.

I'd suspect high bitrate full HD rips might pose a bit of a problem though.

 

[Cheetah Designs]

I am looking for a little machine that will allow me to do some Java development work whilst on the go. I won't be running any massive projects but will need to run something like Intellij so will need Linux of some sort.

I did used to have the grey Samsung chromebook but it was unusable when I put linux on it. I am guessing this will be down the processor being ARM or down to the fact it had both operating systems running at once.

I've just seen the Acer 720 that has an Intel processor and I am wondering whether it will be any better....can anyone comment? Will I be able to install something like linux mint and just go - or am I going to have issues/there are some unsolved problems? Will I still have to have both operating systems running at once or can I choose on boot?

Also - what is the fan like? I HATE noise, which is part of the reason I loved the Samsung Chromebook (it was completely passive)...are these Acer ones noisy?

EDIT:

From my Googling there appears to be an i3 version of the Acer 720 but I can't find it for sale anywhere in the UK...is it coming to the UK?