I still don't get the point of Chromebooks. You need the exact same hardware as a real laptop, you don't get to save on anything, in fact it's worse, since browsers are usually heavier than real apps.
But you get less functionality, and have to hack into it even if you can to make it your own.
They're even worse for browsing, as you can only install addons and adblockers allowed by Google, which are deliberately gimped.
At least we get to enjoy freedom on our PCs - the smartphone-ification of computers is a worrying trend (this applies to games consoles too).
I've used and defended ChromeOS for power-users for a while now, though I'm rather less interested in it after the last year or two, and especially with this "Googlebook" push.
The good of it is, you get a state-of-the-art browser, constantly auto-updated against any security vulnerabilities and locked down against any type of hacking or malware, with first-class support for audio, video, bluetooth, and things like that that have tended to be hit-or-miss with Desktop Linux on bare metal. Contrary to lots of tech community noise, UBlock Lite continues to work fine and is perfectly adequate for blocking ads. You can indeed save local files and use them fine.
You also get a full Linux OS with command-line and desktop apps working fine. Pretty much everything you could want to do Linux-y works. Android apps work locally too, if that's helpful to you. So it seems, or seemed, like the best of both worlds to me.
Alas, nowadays, Google seems rather less interested in it, and Googlebooks sound much more limited to me. Meanwhile, Apple also discourages, though has not blocked (yet?) installing apps outside their App Store, and wants you to keep all your data and messaging in the Apple ecosystem. Microsoft is trying to do the same regarding apps, and apparently, at least some configurations of Windows 11 will force you to log in to a OneDrive account and then upload your files to it, delete them locally (!), and try to bill you to access them if they take up more than a gig or something.
I already decided months ago anyways that my next laptop is going to be a Framework running native desktop Linux, since it's much easier to troubleshoot in the LLM era, and it seems like every other desktop OS just keeps getting worse.
bryanlarsen · · focus · HN ↗
While there won't be many there definitely will be some; I know of an ~8 year old Chromebook currently in active use.
torginus · · focus · HN ↗
But you get less functionality, and have to hack into it even if you can to make it your own.
They're even worse for browsing, as you can only install addons and adblockers allowed by Google, which are deliberately gimped.
At least we get to enjoy freedom on our PCs - the smartphone-ification of computers is a worrying trend (this applies to games consoles too).
ufmace · · focus · HN ↗
The good of it is, you get a state-of-the-art browser, constantly auto-updated against any security vulnerabilities and locked down against any type of hacking or malware, with first-class support for audio, video, bluetooth, and things like that that have tended to be hit-or-miss with Desktop Linux on bare metal. Contrary to lots of tech community noise, UBlock Lite continues to work fine and is perfectly adequate for blocking ads. You can indeed save local files and use them fine.
You also get a full Linux OS with command-line and desktop apps working fine. Pretty much everything you could want to do Linux-y works. Android apps work locally too, if that's helpful to you. So it seems, or seemed, like the best of both worlds to me.
Alas, nowadays, Google seems rather less interested in it, and Googlebooks sound much more limited to me. Meanwhile, Apple also discourages, though has not blocked (yet?) installing apps outside their App Store, and wants you to keep all your data and messaging in the Apple ecosystem. Microsoft is trying to do the same regarding apps, and apparently, at least some configurations of Windows 11 will force you to log in to a OneDrive account and then upload your files to it, delete them locally (!), and try to bill you to access them if they take up more than a gig or something.
I already decided months ago anyways that my next laptop is going to be a Framework running native desktop Linux, since it's much easier to troubleshoot in the LLM era, and it seems like every other desktop OS just keeps getting worse.