Chrome, chromebook and related apps

Don't s'pose anyone is selling a Chromebook, are they?

Wishful thinking this thread would come back to life so I can give my chromebook a new home

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/299525/

Just got a message from teh wife saying the chromebook is broken.
The screen dies when it is raised, it works when its half closed but gos black when fully opened.
Loose connection somewhere, easy fix for a hamfisted idiot?

Anyone want a free Chromebook. Pretty old but still works fine for browsing the internet and holds charge fine.

Ooh yes please. My dad had that exact model and loved it.

Until he spilt tea on it.

Now gone to cake, cheers for the beers.

Thinking of replacing my old laptop with a Chromebook. Possibly also get a NAS to take care of storage of general stuff (but also to form part of a hi fi system). I don't think I do anything very complex on the laptop and can't think what MS tools I need (seem to get by with excel/word online).

Have a nagging feeling I will suddenly find I can't do stuff though. Has anyone else recently made the switch and was there stuff you found you couldn't do?

You should be fine as long as you don't use complex software like Photoshop, etc, etc.

Make sure you get the newer models that support the Google Play App store as it gives access to far more stuff than the Chromebook app store.

It might be worth waiting a bit as a load of new models are about to appear that will support Play store and support Linux.

Google seems to of given up on tablets and is pushing Chromebook as the alternative. You get a fair bit of cloud storage with them as well so you may not need a NAS.

Thanks. Doing a bit more research it seems Windows budget laptops may now rival Chromebooks while giving more options on software etc? Still find the idea of something fairly simple quite appealing though...

Windows options will be slower and slow down over time. I've had my Chromebook for three and a half years and it hasn't slowed down at all. It never needs windows updates, it never gets a virus, it's really fast to switch on and off.. oh and I've honestly never found anything I can't do with it.

Everything has moved or is moving to the cloud now anyway, Google were ahead of this when they launched Chromebooks so it took a while for software to catch up but now it truly has.

I find Pixlr is a good alternative to Photoshop for my basic use.

Maybe I'll make the switch after all, probably won't spend much time thinking about it once done anyway. Problem is my laptop is playing up (the other day decided not to boot into my desktop - i sorted that but also other stuff seems to be not working - Start menu, taskbar functions etc) so am not wanting to wait too long. I see there are already some models that offer access to Play store apps so presumably one of those should future proof me.

I've had a couple of Chromebooks over the past five or six years, even the five year old one worked OK when I passed it on to someone on here. My current one is 3 years old and works as well as when I bought it.

The cheapo windows laptops (at the moment) aren't worth it. They're not powerful enough for a smooth experience and it's a constant battle of having to delete stuff so the drive doesn't get filled up.

Android apps running on chromebooks can be good but they're a bit hit and miss. The Microsoft Remote Desktop is good as are some of the terminal emulators and Word and Excel but some of the other apps won't launch or the display is a bit screwed up, sound doesn't work, etc. If there's anything that's really important then I'd get someone to test it first.

One thing to bear in mind is whether you have anything that needs plugging into a PC to be updated, things like Garmins, sat-navs, remote controls, etc. A lot of that stuff won't be compatible. Also, have a think whether you use any obscure software that is Windows only.

Overall, my Chromebook probably gets more use than any of my PCs and it looks and feels much more premium than the price suggests. However, I do find myself having to use a PC every so often for stuff that can't easily be done on the Chromebook so I wouldn't have it as my only machine.

I guess my budget is around £300 but could be persuaded to go up to £500 if worth it. Must admit the idea of something slim, all metal with good build quality appeals, even though that's just superficial.

Has anyone here been down the rabbit hole of installing Linux for running minecraft on a chromebook?

Specifically making it work on a kids profile not the admin one I'm having to use to install it as the kids one is all locked down by default.

It'll be pretty pointless if daughter can't login and use it via her profile.

Also should I be concerned it chose one of my favourite places as the desktop picture? #riseofthemachines

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Cross posting from the (spit) Apple thread.

I have a mid 2009 iMac that was just gathering dust.

I've installed Chrome OS flex on it. The initial install when it was in a kind of beta didn't really work but now that it's a stable release I can only say is brilliant. Has given a new lease of life to a stock 10+ year old computer.

So if you've got an old machine kicking around I'd recommend giving it a try :-)

https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/chrome-enterprise/chromeos-flex-ready-to-scale-to-pcs-and-macs

I've been keeping on eye on this. Quite tempted to install it on my Surface Go but it's not officially supported and what I can find online suggests that the wifi module may not work when it's installed.

I did a trial installation on my HP laptop. Was unable to get a video player to run. Researching, seems it is a common issue.

Anyone after a basic Chromebook: https://support.hp.com/gb-en/document/c06694543

Bought end of last year, so I could study while working away, used for about 6 weeks and not touched since.

£60 OG box etc, photos if any interest.

Went for a Chromebook after the above ^ 5 years ago. Asus c302. Now get a message saying that Google have stopped issuing software and security updates and the only option is to "upgrade" to a new chromebook...

One annoyance of the chromebook is if I want to add a photo to an email or doc the file prompt doesn't show Google photos, the aggregation of all my images. Having to download a copy to the chromebook to use seems out of step with phone/ tablet that lists the same as a folder to browse.

Is there a simple setting that I've overlooked?