Replying to myself once more.. Still stinging from losing a few hundred dollars on the dud ultrabook, I bought a $199 new C720 chromebook -- but one of the Haswell-based ones, not ARM. After entering into developer mode on the chromebook, one can enable a legacy BIOS boot mode, at which point it's trivial to install a regular Linux distro via bootable USB stick.
I've been using this for a bit, with Kubuntu. The C720 only has 2GB of RAM, but that's easily enough to run a few terminal windows, gcc-avr and chrome, which is about all I wanted it for. Suspect this was definitely a better choice than going for an ARM-based chromebook, in terms of easy of installation/maintenance. ChromeOS runs Linux under the hood, so there's decent Linux support for everything on the book-- although of course, you do need either a bleeding-edge kernel version, or be willing to patch an old version yourself. (This will rapidly become less of a problem as time goes by) On 21 February 2014 18:33, Toby Corkindale <[email protected]> wrote: >> Toby Corkindale <[email protected]> writes: >> >>> Thanks -- your first-hand experiences were exactly what I was after. >>> I think you've confirmed others' suggestions that the chromebook is >>> going to be more hassle than it's worth to run Linux upon, at least at >>> the moment. > > > *sigh* > > The epilogue to this thread goes: > > I bought a second-hand 11"Intel ultrabook; same kind of size, weight > and battery run time as the chromebook. And because it was > second-hand, it cost as much (used) as a brand-new chromebook does. > It booted up fine once, then never again. No idea why, but the process > of taking it home seems to have completely killed the blasted thing. > Around that time, I discovered it was already missing some screws from > the case, making me think it was a known-dodgy unit that someone had > tried fixing and then just on-sold. Going to see if I can get a > warranty claim honoured on it, but I feel doubtful about that > happening. > > So now I have no money and no new laptop. :( > Kinda wishing I'd either bought a new chromebook (despite hassle of > getting Linux onto it) or just not been a tight-arse in buying a cheap > used laptop! :/ > > T -- Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer Things fall apart; the center cannot hold Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world _______________________________________________ luv-main mailing list [email protected] http://lists.luv.asn.au/listinfo/luv-main
