[pdfernhout]

You can install GalliumOS GNU/Linux on the right Chromebook and also reflash the firmware to get rid of that startup screen.

https://wiki.galliumos.org/Installing

https://wiki.galliumos.org/Firmware

I'm writing this on an Acer CB5-571 (4GB RAM; Intel Celeron Dual-Core 3205U 1.5 GHz) that I did that with. Nice GNU/Linux machine for about ~US$350 total including upgrading the SSD with a ZTC 128MB. You can use it with Linux without upgrading the original 16GB SSD -- I just wanted more space. There is also one with a faster processor that costs more.

It runs Visual Studio Code and Node.js smoothly -- and even Minecraft (passable) and Steam streaming to a Windows desktop (laggy).

The battery life after about a 1.5 years seems to be about 3 to 4 hours or so under GalliumOS (but I have not measured it exactly). It used to be more like 7 or 8 hours under Chrome when I first got it.

It has a centered track pad (no number pad) which is very important to me in a laptop. A lot of 15" laptops have number pads and off-center trackpads which make them hard to use in your lap.

That said, sure, I might prefer something faster, with more storage, and with a backlit keyboard. I dropped it which damaged the power connector, and the third-part charger seems to create erratic track pad issues when it is plugged in. I did not like the textured finish so bought a hard shell case for it. But I liked saving $1500 to $2000 bucks over buying another Macbook Pro after the last one had graphics issues from the lead-free solder melting on the graphics array.

It has been an interesting learning experience for me about the low-end of laptops. Definitely money well spent as far as bang for the buck and self-education -- even if I have my eye on something with a stylus next. Maybe the next version beyond the Lenovo 720 15" (which could run Windows games in dual boot at 4x the price of the CB5-571) -- or maybe some other converted Chromebook if a 15" one comes out with a stylus at a good price.

[_ix]

This sounds pretty good, actually. The trouble I have is that I'm looking to spend some good money on a laptop, but I think it's ultimately going to disappoint; why should I spend 2-3K on a laptop that only check x/y boxes where x < y? Maybe I'm just unreasonable.

[pdfernhout]

Right. It makes sense to prioritize what you really needs vs. nice to haves. And very few laptops don't have compromises of some sort.

You could look at it this way -- as an experiment, you could buy a cheap Chromebook that runs GalliumOS well (check the wiki first for compatibility). If it doesn't work out, you're only out $300 or so and some time. You could then revert it to ChromeOS and still have a machine for travel or guests that you don't care too much about if it gets broken or stolen. Or you could give it to a a friend or relative who is not very computer savvy and just wants to surf the web.

(No need to upgrade the internal SSD at first until you are sure you like it. Btw that was 128GB not MB as a typo. You can also easily stick a slim profile flash drive on one for extra storage too.)

[_ix]

I took the plunge, but it's barely a plunge at all. I purchased an open box Acer at Microcenter for $180 bucks. Sadly, this model only comes with a 32GB drive and no capacity to upgrade it, but I don't really care. If I like this way of computing well enough, I may spring for a slightly more expensive model. But at under $200, I didn't have much to lose. Thanks for the detailed advice.

So far, I'm really impressed by Gallium. I understand why some might raise some exception with even more fragmentation in yet another software distribution, but it really does make sense in this case, especially with the touch screen on this model.

[pdfernhout]

You're welcome! Best of luck with it.

I had to take my Acer CB5-571 apart to upgrade the drive. But obviously it may depend on the exact model whether something might be soldered in. Mine came with a M.2 16GB drive and no touch screen, so obviously a different model. Here is a video similar to what I did to upgrade the M.2 flash drive. I went with the 128GB size because it seemed like the 256GB size was if-ier for compatibility. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3Ud-ReH50o

One reason I upgraded the drive in size because the original drive in the Chromebook failed at some point. In addition to a 128 GB M.2 drive, I also bought another 16GB M.2 drive because I was not sure about compatibility (which turned out to be useful as mentioned later).

You may never need extra space depending on what you want the laptop for though. And more easily, you can also just use, say, a Samsung 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Fit (MUF-128BB/AM) in one of the USB ports if you want lots of storage (maybe with a slight battery life loss or perhaps slower drive performance). I find such a drive also warms up a lot when I do a lot of copying to one for backup though.

What I went through with the changeover was a little complex since the first time I installed GalliumOS I did not upgrade the firmware first or, alternatively, us the MrChromebox scripts to set the GBB flags. Instead just set the dev_boot_legacy flag from the ChromeOS command line (which requires battery power to maintain and tells the original firmware to do a legacy boot). Then I accidentally let the battery run down when using the original firmware (when away on a trip) and lost that special boot setting (a peril mentioned on the "Installing" and "Firmware" pages). I could not figure out how to change that boot setting again without temporarily swapping in another M.2 drive and installing regular Chrome on that one -- since I had wiped Chrome entirely and not done a dual boot, and I did not want to overwrite the existing GalliumOS install with ChromOS via a USB-driven install and lose my user data. And I don't think you can boot from USB without that flag being set (as implied on the "Firmware" page).

I also installed GalliumOS the first time without UEFI booting or the firmware upgrade that makes that possible. I wanted to upgrade the firmware to avoid that battery-run-down issue affecting booting in the future and to also get rid of the possibility of someone wiping the drive by pressing space on startup. But then I also switched to UEFI booting after upgrading the firmware (I didn't have to switch, just wanted to try it). That meant my old GalliumOS install would not boot becauge I had installed it under the legacy boot setup. I could not easily figure out how to upgrade the existing install and repartition correctly to have the needed UEFI boot files in the right places. I ended up deciding to just wipe the drive and start over with a fresh install (and then restore a backup of my user data I made before starting the firmware upgrade). I think an in-place upgrade from legacy to UEFI boot should be doable -- especially if I had had a working UEFI install on another Chromebook to examine and copy stuff from. But people online just said wiping and reinstalling was a lot easier given the need for a new partition scheme.

But I learned a bunch along the way, so that was good. And if I had just upgraded the firmware in the first place and gone with a UEFI install from the start, I would not have had those other difficulties.