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by chrisfarms 3511 days ago
As surprised as I am to say this; I think Google could steal a large chunk of the developer market overnight with some slight changes to Chrome OS.

I needed an emergency machine last week (My 2011 Pro finally died), and I opt'd for a £200 Chromebook (EDGAR), thinking all I need is a browser and a terminal right this second and I'd worry about what Apple is doing later.

A solid Linux laptop with working sleep, working wifi, great battery life. Tad underpowered but hey it's £200. I'm _really_ impressed.

If Google relaxed the constraints a little on the OS, or supported a Crouton-like workflow for containers without having to stick it in dev-mode, they could make A LOT of developers very happy.
2 comments
mi100hael 3511 days ago
I can't recommend Dell's Developer Edition laptops enough. I switched from a MacBook Pro about 6 months ago and haven't run into any of the usual obnoxious Linux-on-a-laptop headaches like sleep or wifi.

http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/555/campaigns/xps-linux-lapt...

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mercer 3511 days ago
I'm leaning toward the XPS but I keep hearing that the trackpad is pretty shitty. Can you confirm/deny that?
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mi100hael 3511 days ago
It's not as good as the force trackpad on the current MBP, but it's not bad, either. My only real gripe is that the physical click is a little heavy & loud. I'd put it in the same ballpark with prior generations of MBPs that physically clicked. You can always go play with one at a Micro Center or other box store.
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eloisant 3511 days ago
Don't you get a real, regular Linux distribution when using Crouton?
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chrisfarms 3511 days ago
You do, and xiwi (X11 in a window) is almost magic in letting me spawn a proper terminal emulator integrated with ChromeOS's window manager (Aura?).

...but it feels like a bit of a hack. I have to have the laptop in dev mode and there's a slight fear that an automatic update might prevent the chroot from working, or that my stateful downloads directory might disappear.

My thought was that ChromeOS is kinda where OS X 10.0 was... a great UI on top of a great base that just works. That's what drove many of us to Apple when we got bored of re-configuring linux, it's what made many of us recommend Apple to friends/family.... Apple have dropped the ball, Google is in a pretty good place to pick it up.

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