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The Linux Journal reminisces about the Asus Eee and considers how close the world came to getting a GNU/Linux Desktop as a result of it being on the market. While the article is a bit light on the machinations that Microsoft carried out behind the scenes to impair their utility and cap the growth of netbook sales, especially any with GNU/Linux pre-installed, it does cover a lot of other important aspects about the netbook phenomenon. The Eee was really one of the first if not the first netbooks available. Being small and relatively inexpensive, the netbooks were not practical to use for running the slow, bloated, legacy operating systems that remain all too common among original equipment manufacturers (OEM) even today. Instead the Eee came with a good distro pre-installed and could accept just about any light 32-bit distro in its place. It is hard to overstate how popular these machines became.
It's almost impossible to believe, a decade later, how popular netbooks were in the wake of the Eee. Way past popular, actually: the netbook was the best-selling computer in the world in 2009, with seven-fold growth from 2008 and some 20 million sold. That accounted for almost 10% of the entire computer market at a time when the recession saw desktop computer sales fall 12%, the worst decline in its history.
[...] Netbooks and the Eee were so successful, in fact, that research analysts who followed Apple—whose top executives had famously called the machines "junk"—warned the company that it had better do something to compete. Mac sales fell in 2008, the first decline in five and a half years, and an analyst told Computerworld: "Vendors are waking up to the fact that people respond to so-called 'good-enough' computing. They don't really need all the power of a Core 2 Duo CPU most of the time."
(Score: 4, Disagree) by DannyB on Tuesday November 06 2018, @03:30PM (6 children)
IMO: Chrome OS / Chromebooks are the best shot at mass market "year of the Linux desktop".
New Chromebooks with the latest Chrome OS are in the process of getting the ability to securely run Linux apps. (That means the Linux app cannot compromise the Chrome OS, and thus your Google account.) Making it secure is the hard part.
Chrome OS already runs Android apps in a separate sandbox.
So on one "cheap" chromebook device you can have Chrome OS apps, Android apps and (coming soon) Linux apps. (Or put it in developer mode, use Crouton and run one or more Linux desktops today.)
Chromebooks are cheap. They are taking over education (a good thing). That means a whole generation of students who know Chrome OS. School districts get volume pricing. They can negotiate with multiple hardware vendors. Google makes it possible to create classrooms and accounts for students, and then "join" the devices to the school so that the school has total control over the device. Everything is in the cloud. Modern apps now develop for web browsers. If a chromebook is lost, stolen or eaten, then the district can replace it, and the student instantly has all of their class work and documents available. I hear some districts get them as cheap as $67 / unit. That starts to compete very well with dead-tree format textbooks.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Tuesday November 06 2018, @04:10PM (4 children)
So given the set of Chromebooks in stock at a particular store, how does one figure out which do and do not have a kernel new enough to support Crostini? Or is it better to buy a Chromebook sight unseen over the Internet without having tried its screen and keyboard?
(turns on someone else's Chromebook)
(presses Space as prompted)
(presses Enter as prompted)
How should the owner of a Chromebook in developer mode that is too old for Crostini protect the Chromebook from this sort of accidental powerwash?
Good luck using apps in the cloud while offline, such as on a moving school bus.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday November 06 2018, @05:27PM (2 children)
I keep good physical control of my device. And have backups. I don't have a better answer. I do wish there was a better answer. I think Crostini will be a better answer.
Despite this, chromebooks ARE getting huge uptake in schools. There must be a reason. Like management of devices. Cost effectiveness. Security. Ease of re-wiping for use each new school year. Etc. The cloud does work at school and probably at home. Based on videos I see on YouTube, it is apparent some districts even issue chromebooks to faculty and staff. Use Google Docs and other apps.
IMO, in time this problem will go away. I anticipate the time when all new chromebooks have the capability to use the latest Chrome OS with Crostini. Today there are lists of which devices will and won't get Crostini support. If that is a major factor in your purchase decision of a chromebook, then definitely research.
All I can say is I am very happy with my Pixelbook. Crouton is not perfect. But it's almost as good as running an actual linux distribution install. I can do everything I want. Run GUI apps. Run command line apps. Youtube downloader. FFmpeg to convert files. Eclipse. Java.
I just make sure I keep good backups.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Tuesday November 06 2018, @06:59PM (1 child)
I agree that nothing's perfect about Chromebooks. Here are some more edge cases where their limits are prominent:
Children, especially with younger siblings, are more likely to lack the ability to "keep good physical control of [their] device."
Having backups, even regularly tested backups, is one thing. Time to travel from where you physically are to where your backups are and perform the restoration is another. So is recovery of work since the last daily opportunity to back up.
So much for starting on homework during the often substantial bus ride home, and so much for the ability of children whose parents are working poor or who are between a layoff and a new job to complete their homework.
If only physical stores made these lists available to shoppers without each shopper having to buy a smartphone and subscribe to a cellular data plan...
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday November 06 2018, @11:18PM
The number of such children who use developer mode is definitely not the main stream.
I keep the most important backups on Google Drive. Less important things are harder to get to, but are on my own cloud server.
That's a good point. Developers of such software might consider building "offline" enabled web applications. Like Google Docs, etc.
And there are Chrome OS Extensions. Of course, I don't develop course ware for schools. (Although I do develop specialized accounting software used by schools. And it is web based. But not specifically so that it can be used by chromebooks. Mostly because web based software "software as a service" is easier for customers, it is zero install and zero maintenance for customers. So I do have opinions about how web based software might work with chromebooks.)
Wouldn't that be nice. But as I suggested, I think it is not a long term problem. Of course, we will see.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Tuesday November 06 2018, @08:15PM
https://9to5google.com/2018/11/01/chromebooks-to-never-receive-linux-full-list/ [9to5google.com]
This just came out. I'm not sure that it is complete, however. Still looking into it.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by digitalaudiorock on Tuesday November 06 2018, @04:53PM
I have a close friend who opted for a Chromebook after being 1000% fed up with his previous Windows laptop. He couldn't be happier with it. As little as I think of Google I at least have to give them credit for bucking the trend of operating systems that use all the resources you can throw at them before the user even fucking does anything...as with Windows and Mac. Granted, it was somewhat self-serving as it allows them to go with less expensive hardware, but I can still appreciate as someone using very modern (but lean) Linux on really old hardware.
If I'm not mistaken, they also don't use systemd...at least certainly not by default, as far as I know. Clearly Google has no need nor desire to drink the RH kool-aid on that "if-I-wanted-that-I'd-use-Windows" trend.