Chrome OS

[LightyKD]

Hey everyone!

Once again I have been playing around with Chrome OS and because I'm such a Google fanboy, I really want to ditch Windows and go completely Chrome but I'm not sure if there are any art programs on the OS that come close to GIMP. Aside from that I'm using Hexxeh's x86 port and it has no flash, sound and java support. I found this page...

https://gist.github.com/dz0ny/3065781

but I think, things would be hella easier if the script wasn't one massive wall of text and if things were broken down to, "what to type in for X feature". I'm currently running Chrome OS from a USB stick and the OS is fairly fast (at times faster than using windows). The lack of torrent ability is a bit of a bother but I have my tablet if I absolutely need to use a torrent. What do you all think? Anyone have any experience with this OS?

 

[The Catboy]

I tried them and didn't care much for them.
I myself personally use Joli OS
http://www.jolicloud.com/jolios
It's like Chrome OS, but actually can use Ubuntu software, so you can use GIMP, you can also log into your account on any computer using any web browser.

Edit: In fact I am using Joli OS right now to back up my old hard drives.

 

[Rydian]

Chrome isn't meant to be a Windows/production replacement. It's meant to be an OS for web interactivity.

 

[Fishaman P]

For me, I would give Chrome OS a try if I had a constant internet connection, which I don't even get at my house.

 

[LightyKD]

Chrome isn't meant to be a Windows/production replacement. It's meant to be an OS for web interactivity.

Originally, yes. Have you seen the Chromebook Pixel? Google has clearly stated that they want the OS to do much more than just be for ingesting media. They're looking for developers to port true productivity applications to the OS.

 

[Rizsparky]

I wonder if anyone has experieince with Chrome OS and the effect it has on battery life? Does Ubuntu drain more than windows?

 

[The Catboy]

Originally, yes. Have you seen the Chromebook Pixel? Google has clearly stated that they want the OS to do much more than just be for ingesting media. They're looking for developers to port true productivity applications to the OS.

$1,299.00 for Chromebook Pixel, my laptop has the same specs, but only cost me little over $300! My hard drive is larger though.
I still suggest trying out Joli OS, it does all the same things as Chome OS, but with the added features of being able to work with Ubuntu applications. Plus it comes pre-installed with flash and all that stuff.

 

[LightyKD]

$1,299.00 for Chromebook Pixel, my laptop has the same specs, but only cost me little over $300!
I still suggest trying out Joli OS, it does all the same things as Chome OS, but with the added features of being able to work with Ubuntu applications. Plus it comes pre-installed with flash and all that stuff.

The Pixel was not made for the average user. The laptop is more of a experiment. Google has a bigger plan in the making for Chrome. Jolicloud seems OK but I want to marry my phone nd tablet usage with my PC in the same vein that Apple Fans get to marry iOS to OSX

 

[The Catboy]

The Pixel was not made for the average user. The laptop is more of a experiment. Google has a bigger plan in the making for Chrome. Jolicloud seems OK but I want to marry my phone nd tablet usage with my PC in the same vein that Apple Fans get to marry iOS to OSX

Still cost way too much for something I could get cheaper in any other brand .-.
You can actually do that with Joli OS (At least with a tablet last I checked.)

 

[FAST6191]

I wonder if anyone has experieince with Chrome OS and the effect it has on battery life? Does Ubuntu drain more than windows?

I am not sure if I have ever used ChromeOS so I am not entirely sure why I am here. I have two answers to the general question though
1) OS should not make any real difference to battery life on the face of it.
2) Reality is a different beast to theoretically/should world. There have often been cases of drivers not working for S3 suspension (in general, how many machines have you met that refuse to play nice with hibernate/standby, but more prominent when it means your wired network port is fully powered at all points in time), settings seeing things bring it back out of said states, things not getting to said states thanks to "every 30 minutes run this" type arrangements and the list goes on. Ignoring what I will say next sentence for the moment one of the better things you can do here is set options and try to make sure your hard drive is not spun up all the time for no real reason- this is quite easy for some distros as SSD drives are popular and it is advised you do not constantly write to those so guides/methods to prevent that exist.
How much of this is theoretical/battery test under ideal conditions and how much of this is and how much is negated by just dropping your screen brightness to the lowest setting and not trying to run a nice little external drive that needs two USB ports to power it remains to be decided.
Similarly when things crop up that do no favours to battery life like the above they are typically treated as an actual bug. How that plays out also differs- Ubuntu may well see it as an OS fault (how quickly it is fixed is a different matter) where Microsoft might turn around and say "speak to your printer manufacturer" and be well within their rights to say it.

If you can get a distro that was tested against your laptop you should be good, it is not quite as prominent as it once was as wireless now mostly works but some of the bigger distros do test given makes and models.

All this said I treat laptop batteries as a ten minute UPS in case of things having to be saved during a power cut or enough to wander round the house with a copy of wirelessmon on and as nice little inverters that can power a laptop from a car lighter socket exist, work and are cheap enough to consider I have those as well.

 

[nukeboy95]

I tried them and didn't care much for them.

when they become our new over lord YOU WILL REGRET THE DAY YOU SAID THAT

 

[LightyKD]

when they become our new over lord YOU WILL REGRET THE DAY YOU SAID THAT

Google Forever!

 

[The Catboy]

when they become our new over lord YOU WILL REGRET THE DAY YOU SAID THAT

Pffft!
Does this look like the face of one who gives a fuck?

 

[NightsOwl]

I'm such an idiot that I'm too scared to go to anything other than Windows.

Which really doesn't make me upset or anything. Without Virus protection and other whatnot I've had a stable computer for the last 4 years.

 

[nukeboy95]

Pffft!
Does this look like the face of one who gives a fuck?

well since i cant see your face id have to say yes

 

[LightyKD]

Pffft!
Does this look like the face of one who gives a fuck?

Your face is so furry, I cant tell... *pet pet*

 

[The Catboy]

Your face is so furry, I cant tell... *pet pet*

I will have you know that I keep the fur on my face well managed.

On topic, I tried chromium os built by Hexxeh several times, each time I had problems with my wifi. Not to mention I read on their site that it doesn't support automatic updates, which is one of the major selling points of Chrome OS. I haven't tried any other builds though, so maybe there are better and more stable builds out there that support all the features of Chrome OS.

 

[LightyKD]

I will have you know that I keep the fur on my face well managed.

On topic, I tried chromium os built by Hexxeh several times, each time I had problems with my wifi. Not to mention I read on their site that it doesn't support automatic updates, which is one of the major selling points of Chrome OS. I haven't tried any other builds though, so maybe there are better and more stable builds out there that support all the features of Chrome OS.

Dell has an official build but it's a bit outdated compared to Hexxeh's. I used to use it on a older PC but had to give that PC up. The Dell build natively has Flash, Java and other plugins and I WOULD use that if it wasnt for the fact that the Dell version freezes on my current PC...which happens to be a Dell

EDIT: I take some of my words back... apparently there are a few builds of the Dell version. Once I'm done with my Google Drive upload, I will test them

 

[The Catboy]

Dell has an official build but it's a bit outdated compared to Hexxeh's. I used to use it on a older PC but had to give that PC up. The Dell build natively has Flash, Java and other plugins and I WOULD use that if it wasnt for the fact that the Dell version freezes on my current PC...which happens to be a Dell

EDIT: I take some of my words back... apparently there are a few builds of the Dell version. Once I'm done with my Google Drive upload, I will test them

I wonder if they will work on my laptop I am using an HP, but it's worth a try.

 

[LightyKD]

The last PC I used a Dell Build on was a custom rig so it's always worth trying via a USB stick