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Want a free Chromebook? All you have to do is take a Linux course offered by the Linux Foundation and its yours. The offer is from Sept first to the thirtieth so if you want a Dell Chromebook with a 1.4Ghz CPU and 4GB of RAM for free? Best grab one ASAP.
Keep in mind when siging up for these courses, while the Chromebooks are free, the courses most certainly are not. According to the Class Schedule posted on the Linux Foundation site, prices range from $0 (Introduction to Linux) to $2500 and up for most everything else.
Promotion Eligibility:
This promotion is available to anyone who purchases either a scheduled or elearning Linux Foundation training course between September 1, 2015 and September 30, 2015.
The following purchases are not eligible for this promotion:
- Free courses (such as the edX LFS101x course)
- The India-only LFS201/LFCS Bundle
- Corporate training
- Linux Foundation Events
- Discounted instances of LFS201 Essentials of System Administration and related bundles
(Score: 2, Informative) by SunTzuWarmaster on Sunday September 06 2015, @02:44PM
I have a chromebook and like it a lot. I'm a soylent techie, so my story may not be universal, but here are some things that I like about it:
1 - PRICE: You can get a chromebook for $129. ONE HUNDRED and TWENTY NINE dollars (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/acer-11-6-chromebook-intel-celeron-2gb-memory-16gb-emmc-flash-memory-moonstone-white/8610161.p?id=1219351773817). To put this in perspective, I could re-buy my phone for $150. I tell people that "this price screws with your head". You start to think things like "disposable computer" at this price.
2 - Configuration. I use Chrome. Like, a lot. The fact that I have the chromebook set to automatically download all updates, all apps, and sync certain folders to be enabled offline is amazing. Less than an hour of total configuration and everything "just works".
3 - Chrome. Generally, a full Chrome browser is embarrassingly better than my smartphone. It can stream tabs to chromecast, ssh into computers, configure routers, etc. A notable test is the "putlocker video test". Phone can't quite pull it off, but Chromebook can.
4 - Battery/weight. at 13 hours of battery life and 3 pounds, it is light and strong. It can realistically be used all day. Compare this to an Ultrabook ("best laptop battery of 2015") at 6ish hours, 3 pounds, and $600 (4.6 times the cost).
5 - Full keyboard. The keyboard is JUST good enough to matter. I can write on it for over three hours without it being a superpain (real keyboard would be nicer, but you know). I developed a Chrome app using nothing but a chromebook. It's powerful enough for lightweight software development and comfortable enough to do it. I challenge you to do that from a tablet or smartphone.
6 - Extras. Mine came with 100Gb of storage for 2 years and 12 airplane wifi passes a few years ago. That's nice, especially at this price point.
Generally, for $129, you can get a computer which can do anything on the web, last for over 10 hours, has a full keyboard, weighs 3 pounds, and comes with some extras. Compare this cost to an android tablet ($160, doesn't have a keyboard), an ipad ($300, no keyboard), netbook ($120 range, but isn't going to be updated/configured as well), or laptop (4 times the cost and only 20-40% more functionality, bad battery life). That price point makes it a nearly ideal travel computer (ssh into a real machine for real work), D&D computer, "writer's laptop", note-taking/E-mailing device, or generally a "treat it like crap" computer. At home I have a two-monitor supercomputer, but when traveling I mostly just need some internet and a keyboard. For bonus points, the chromebook, with a Chromecast, turns any (hotel) TV into a monitor, solving the biggest weakness.