[luser001]

Ummmm. It is possible to run a full-blown Ubuntu including arbitrary kernels etc. Some are doing it.

This is just an easier method if all you want is access to a powerful Debian userland: it turns out that Debian already solved the problem of creating a self-consistent cross-compiled directory tree ages ago so it makes sense to reuse that solution here.

[flyinprogramer]

Ubuntu is still not ChromeOS -- my point is simply, why has Google not pursued the "lets build a $250 dev box for startups" avenue... since we've been playing this game going on 4 years now with not much traction beyond the dev community.

[_ea1k]

Do these machines have traction in the dev community? Aside from a couple of blog posts like this, I haven't really seen much.

AFAIK, most sales are still to schools and a few enterprise installations: http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/03/maybe-those-chromebooks-wer...

"Still, with over 2,000 schools now using Chromebooks, the real market for these devices sure seems to be in the education space. Over the last year or so, I’ve heard from a number of educators that they prefer to use Chromebooks with their students than an iPad (their students probably think the exact opposite…). Not only are they obviously cheaper and come with service contracts and management consoles for administrators, but having a full keyboard and larger screen clearly make them attractive devices in the view of many teachers and school administrators. The fact that the devices auto-update regularly and are pretty much safe from viruses also makes for an attractive selling point when compared to traditional laptops. For Google, of course, this also means many of these kids will grow up in the Google ecosystem of Gmail and Google Drive, which surely isn’t going to hurt it once these students go on to college or get jobs."