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?
Easily hour+ long headache on your first time.
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.
128GB eMMC storage
Man, I feel like there’s no excuse for not having at least a 256/512gb SSD these days. They’ve gotten pretty cheap, and you got laptops like HP Pavilion having a 1tb SSD in their laptops for $450. Chromebooks are known for being super cheap, but this doesn’t look like great value.
Google wants you to not store locally though, only in their servers at a cost once you pass the “free storage” amount.
Jesus Christ the comments here are super toxic. Literally any piece of news is gonna be complaining.
They’re being toxic to Google. Do you really care about that?
Negative comments on tech devices that aren’t up to par are warrented. I, for one, and glad that news of this new product is getting honest treatment.
People wouldn’t complain if there was nothing to complain about
impressive! the ultimate botnet machine!
Are Chromebooks more susceptible to that than a Windows machine?
Far less, since they’re quite locked down (hence their popularity in education).
I suspect it was just a reference to google spying on people.
Okay that was my thought. I didn’t know if something became public in the chromeOS security world that I missed
i was talking about the botnet that is google itself, with chromebooks being a literal physical part of it.
Are you referring to privacy concerns or something else. Because when I think of the word botnet I think of DDoS attacks. Do you think Google’s doing something like that?
google is a machine learning, data harvesting botnet most ppl opt in consensual.
I mean that’s what we want right? To be able to opt in consensually. What do you think pays for Gmail, Google maps, YouTube, etc all the “free” services that most of us use every day?
