The new Plus category of Chromebooks is an assurance that you’ll get a higher level of performance and features but still at a reasonable starting price.
With Chromebook Plus, you’re guaranteed to get at least the following specs, with a starting price of $399:
- 12th-gen Intel Core i3 or AMD Ryzen 3 7000 processor or better
- 8GB or more of memory
- 128GB or more of storage
- 1080p-resolution IPS LCD or better
- 1080p webcam with temporal noise reduction
Unless you can easily upgrade the RAM, Storage, and replace the OS when it loses support, it’s still ewaste.
Yes, installing Linux is possible, but it isn’t easy. I put GalliumOS on my old high school Chromebook.
It is worth noting that they updated their support to be 10 years moving forward, so I disagree with the eWaste sentiment. I agree that Linux as a permanent alternative isn’t super easy, and I say that typing from a Chromebook running Debian 12.
You can upgrade the RAM and storage on some of them. Installing either Linux or windows is also possible.
Possible != easy. Putting Linux on any old Windows PC is dead easy, takes not even half an hour. Linux on a Chromebook? Easily hour+ long headache on your first time.
What makes it so difficult, even though they use similar hardware?
Whenever I read this kind of thing (and people seem to say it pretty often), it seems really weird to me. Same goes for complaining about distro installers. An hour of possible headache/irritation and then you use the machine for years. Obviously it would be better if stuff was easy, but an hour just seems insignificant in the scheme of things. I really just don’t understand seeing it as an actual roadblock.
(Of course, there are other situations where it could matter like if you had to install/maintain 20 machines, but that’s not what we’re talking about here.)
Oh yeah, its absolutely not a huge deal if you already have a chromebook and just want to keep using it. But if I’m buying a new laptop and I know that putting another OS on it will be unnecessarily difficult, I’m just going to pick a different laptop.
Good point when you frame it that way, but also worth acknowledging that relative to the alternatives, it is an uphill battle that most won’t be bothered with. My experience involved reading this site + joining their discord + digging into Github for troubleshooting, which is not a viable option for 80% of users
ChromeOS is Linux.
Well yes but actually no
I read this in Maurice Moss’ voice
Apple laptops you can’t upgrade any of those things and they sell like hotcakes. It’s really not something most people do.
Chromebooks have their niche, beyond education they’re good as second laptops where you’re really only doing mostly browser stuff. Mine is getting on a bit now, a 2017 pixelbook… but it doesn’t go EOL until next year and I’ll probably keep it beyond that because it just works… only thing I’d like really would be a bigger screen.