OK. Here it comes, a new thread and a surprising one. It happened for the first time in my work life that I was handed hardware. As you know, I am working in the education sector and could not believe my eyes when I was asked if I needed hardware for my classes. I was like, not really, but they gave me a cheapish Chromebook, an ARM device. To be more precise it is the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3. Seems to be very recent and also very weak spec wise. I did not try it out yet, no time.
I read that I can use Linux apps on it in parallel, even install a whole DE.
Has someone of you experience with Chromebooks? I will definitely play with ChromeOS on the weekend.
Chromebooks
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gutterslob
- Resident Tranny
- Posts: 1126
- Joined: Thu Aug 08, 2013 7:13 pm
Re: Chromebooks
No experience with Chromebooks. I know there’s a “Linux (Beta)” option somewhere in the ChromeOS settings that installs a sort of “Linux subsystem for ChromeOS” which is Debian or Ubuntu based, iirc (apt repository and natively accepts .deb files). Not sure about being able to install/run a whole DE or WM, but apps shouldn’t be an issue as long as there’s an ARM build available.
Word of advice; don’t bring it into your home network until you’ve set it up outside and turned off all location settings (if possible) and even then I would still recommend using a VLAN or SSID that’s connected to a VPN (if your router supports acting as a VPN client), because certain system apps in ChromeOS are known to bypass the VPN tunnel, so installing your VPN via the Android Play Store on ChromeOS is not a full proof solution. If you can’t, then at least assign a DNS filtering address (NextDNS, dnsWarden, AdGuard Public DNS, etc) via the Secure DNS setting. ChromeOS is known to be super invasive, sometimes worse than Android.
Edit:
If you intend to completely replace Chrome OS with a Linux distro (if your employer allows it), you’ll need a kernel that works with your specific ARM processor. Github has a few projects, so maybe you can find one dedicated to your specific Lenovo model. Generic ARM versions of distros might work if the distro documentation states so, but in general it’s a bit hit and miss due to the nature of ARM chips and the various manufacturers that make them.
Word of advice; don’t bring it into your home network until you’ve set it up outside and turned off all location settings (if possible) and even then I would still recommend using a VLAN or SSID that’s connected to a VPN (if your router supports acting as a VPN client), because certain system apps in ChromeOS are known to bypass the VPN tunnel, so installing your VPN via the Android Play Store on ChromeOS is not a full proof solution. If you can’t, then at least assign a DNS filtering address (NextDNS, dnsWarden, AdGuard Public DNS, etc) via the Secure DNS setting. ChromeOS is known to be super invasive, sometimes worse than Android.
Edit:
If you intend to completely replace Chrome OS with a Linux distro (if your employer allows it), you’ll need a kernel that works with your specific ARM processor. Github has a few projects, so maybe you can find one dedicated to your specific Lenovo model. Generic ARM versions of distros might work if the distro documentation states so, but in general it’s a bit hit and miss due to the nature of ARM chips and the various manufacturers that make them.
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ivanovnegro
- Minister of Truth
- Posts: 5449
- Joined: Wed Oct 17, 2012 11:12 pm
Re: Chromebooks
First of all, thanks Gutterslob. I also found a lot of information when I had time to scroll the webs on my phone. I am really busy at the moment. Could not even try the whole thing out for real until some days ago.
This device is a giveaway because we are all self employed and they bought them for cheap. So it is actually mine now and I have the freedom to install whatever I want, that is great. Otherwise I am not even sure if I would have taken it.
This one is relatively recent, from last year with support till 2033, does not sound bad if true. As it is ARM and very new, like Gutterslob said, installing a whole Linux distro on it seems daunting. But yes, I can install all Android apps, even from F-Droid and use Linux on it, I have just to activate developer mode and it uses Debian in a VM, interesting. I had no time to play with Linux yet, but installed already, like advised Mullvad and then VLC from the Play Store, works like a charm. Before I fiddled with the DNS settings, yep. Thumbs up Slobster.
ChromeOS itself uses web apps obviously or how they are called now, progressive web apps. It is totally usable when you use everything in the browser, of course it is Chrome and I already have a Google account, but you can install something else from the Linux VM or the Play Store, Firefox is therefor a possibility.
At the moment it works great. Battery life is magical. It is advertised as being 12 hours, but I used it more than that working with it. It was close to 15 hours with word processing and a ton of tabs open, also blasting music in the background. In standby it is almost 19 hours! Wtf?! I guess it is the ARM chip. It is totally silent, no fans and not getting hot at all. I mean it is a nice toy. But I guess it cannot replace my Thinkpad and the Google spyware is of concern. Though it has only 4 GB of RAM and still runs very fluently, but at some point it can get slower, e.g. using two Chrome windows with ten tabs opened or more each and yet, it can do that.
It weighs only 1.3 kg, so it weighs less than my X201 (I use a 9 cell battery) and has a bigger screen (14") and FullHD at 1080p, the X201's screen (12") is crap.
The keyboard is something entirely different compared to my Thinkpads and everything is soldered here, the RAM and the eMMC, in a plastic body though it looks good enough. ChromeOS probably comes close to the Budgie desktop that I never used. So it has more of a Linux vibe than Windows.
Let's see how long it will take me until I am fed up and flash it. :) Still I am surprised. I can do almost anything from the web and get real shit done. But the requirements for a language teacher are pretty low.
This device is a giveaway because we are all self employed and they bought them for cheap. So it is actually mine now and I have the freedom to install whatever I want, that is great. Otherwise I am not even sure if I would have taken it.
This one is relatively recent, from last year with support till 2033, does not sound bad if true. As it is ARM and very new, like Gutterslob said, installing a whole Linux distro on it seems daunting. But yes, I can install all Android apps, even from F-Droid and use Linux on it, I have just to activate developer mode and it uses Debian in a VM, interesting. I had no time to play with Linux yet, but installed already, like advised Mullvad and then VLC from the Play Store, works like a charm. Before I fiddled with the DNS settings, yep. Thumbs up Slobster.
ChromeOS itself uses web apps obviously or how they are called now, progressive web apps. It is totally usable when you use everything in the browser, of course it is Chrome and I already have a Google account, but you can install something else from the Linux VM or the Play Store, Firefox is therefor a possibility.
At the moment it works great. Battery life is magical. It is advertised as being 12 hours, but I used it more than that working with it. It was close to 15 hours with word processing and a ton of tabs open, also blasting music in the background. In standby it is almost 19 hours! Wtf?! I guess it is the ARM chip. It is totally silent, no fans and not getting hot at all. I mean it is a nice toy. But I guess it cannot replace my Thinkpad and the Google spyware is of concern. Though it has only 4 GB of RAM and still runs very fluently, but at some point it can get slower, e.g. using two Chrome windows with ten tabs opened or more each and yet, it can do that.
It weighs only 1.3 kg, so it weighs less than my X201 (I use a 9 cell battery) and has a bigger screen (14") and FullHD at 1080p, the X201's screen (12") is crap.
The keyboard is something entirely different compared to my Thinkpads and everything is soldered here, the RAM and the eMMC, in a plastic body though it looks good enough. ChromeOS probably comes close to the Budgie desktop that I never used. So it has more of a Linux vibe than Windows.
Let's see how long it will take me until I am fed up and flash it. :) Still I am surprised. I can do almost anything from the web and get real shit done. But the requirements for a language teacher are pretty low.