[TriLUG] Feedback on your favorite Linux distro on a Chromebook

Wed Aug 3 16:20:56 EDT 2016

James - you say,
> I use crouton with Ubuntu 14.04 and LXDE. I chose this distro mostly
> because it was the latest stable, and I am more accustomed to Ubuntu.
Ubuntu 16.04 is now the latest LTS (Long Term Support) version of Ubuntu (ref: 
http://tinyurl.com/cpkhqt6); a point release is latest, 16.04.1. A few people 
have complained about this release as  some have experienced minor bugs, 
minor, so a Google search would be in order to look into using it on a Chromebook.

You might consider Xubuntu: it's a bit lighter weight version, using the XFCE 
interface. I've been using Xubuntu for several years and it's been great. I 
have Xubuntu installed on my desktop as well as on Clevo and Lenovo X130e 
laptops, and an ASUS Netbook. Side note: I prefer to re-install rather an 
upgrade between versions. I've found it's worth spending the extra time to 
re-install applications to avoid intra-version problems and go forward with a 
cleaner system.

--
Roger W. Broseus - Linux User
     Email: RogerB at bronord.com
     Web Site: www.bronord.com

On 08/03/2016 01:55 PM, James Whisnant via TriLUG wrote:
> I have been happy using Crouton on my Chromebook.  I have not used
> ElementaryOS before (on any system).  My chromebook is an Acer Chromebook
> 15 C910-C37P 16-Inch Chromebook (1.5 GHz Intel Celeron 3205U Dual-core
> processor, 4GB memory, 32GB SSD, Chrome OS).  I have been very happy with
> the large screen and the long battery life.
>
> I use crouton with Ubuntu 14.04 and LXDE. I chose this distro mostly
> because it was the latest stable, and I am more accustomed to Ubuntu. I
> mostly use terminal apps in Linux as well. It works well for me. I noticed
> the CB35-C3350 has 16 GB SSD; you may want 32GB if you are considering
> crouton.
>
> The advantages of crouton I see :
>
> 1) easy installation - it is a shell script
>
> 2) easy to configure multiple chroots and multiple desktop environments and
> modify them with a simple script
>
> 3) I can run Chrome OS and Linux distribution(s) at the same time - and
> switch between them easily.
>
> 4) Easy to backup your environment to an SD card. I recommend this! I
> crashed by Ubuntu VM. I think I ran out memory testing some of the code I
> had written. When it rebooted, the OS thought it was in a "broken" state.
> The solution is to powerwash the system on boot to get a working laptop
> again. As far as I know, there is no way to interrupt this at boot. It is
> equivalent to a factory reset. Which will delete all non-Chrome OS files.
> So all of your crouton chroots will be deleted. A powerwash might delete
> files if you have a dual-boot setup (using something other than crouton)
> and something goes "horribly wrong". This is a danger of Developer Mode.
>
> 5) You can run a chroot from an external SD card. I have found this to be
> too slow, personally.
>
> 6) You can move a saved environment from an external SD card back to SSD
> easily.
>
> James
>
>
>
> On Wed, Aug 3, 2016 at 12:36 PM, Ron Kelley via TriLUG <trilug at trilug.org>
> wrote:
>
>> Greetings all,
>>
>> Time to do the laptop shuffle at home (giving my MacBook pro to my wife)
>> and am hoping I can switch over to a Chromebook instead of buying another
>>> $2K-$3K Mac.  I love the Mac - it fits really well for my workflow -
>> especially the shortcut keys (love spotlight).  However, I often find
>> myself doing things that don’t require that much horsepower or special
>> applications my laptop provides.  My typical night involves lots of
>> terminal stuff (ssh, sftp, etc), VNC/RDP, email, general browsing, etc.
>> Not heavy on any office-type apps (leave that to the day-job laptop), and I
>> have a real desktop for any heavy-lifting work.
>>
>> Looking for feedback on your favorite Linux distro on a Chrome Book.  Why
>> did you choose it, and how well does it work on your Chrome Book.  For the
>> record, I am looking at getting the Toshiba Chromebook 2 - 2015 Edition
>> (CB35-C3350) and installing either Crouton or ElementaryOS.
>>
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>> -Ron
>> --
>> This message was sent to: James Whisnant <jwhisnant at gmail.com>
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