As the title says, I've wondered for a while now if it is really possible to do anything beyond a little document editing and web browsing using a chromebook.
Today I bit the bullet and ordered an acer r13 2in1 chromebook
to find out, and I plan to share my experiences with you when it arrives.
to find out, and I plan to share my experiences with you when it arrives.
I must admit, I have done a little digging beforehand to get some idea of relative specs and capabilities, and also what to expect...
...And its a bit of a minefield in some ways.
Basically, not all chromebooks are created equal. There is a huge variance in CPU spec, RAM, disk size and screen resolution. add to this that some chromebooks now support both android apps and linux apps out of the box, some can be coaxed into linux app support via using the unstable release channel (more on that in a future article) and some will just not support linux ever. (there is also option to dual boot into linux on most chromebooks, though how easy this is and how well this works varies just as much)
Why do I need linux apps?
Well, putting it simply the web based chrome OS apps, and those available to download from the chrome store are apparently great for what they are intended, but for any serious dev work, or graphics / photo manipulations it seems the consensus of opinion is that they are too lightweight and web reliant. The same is true of most android apps too, (though some notable exceptions are snapseed and Adobe Lightroom CC which are excellent android based apps for photo manipulation that I use frequently on my android tablet).
As somone who spends a lot of time writing code in HTML5, CSS, Javascript, PHP, Python etc, and also does a lot of graphical work, I really need tools like Sublime Text and Gimp - So the ability to either run linux apps natively or to dual boot is pretty much essential.
I also tend to use a wacom tablet and stylus quite often, and would like to be able to work in the same way direct on screen, so a 2in1 laptop/tablet form factor is also important to me.
So why take this gamble? And why is a linux zealot like myself selling out to the (do no) evil Google empire?
Well, partly out of curiosity, partly because my daily life is so entwined in Google products that I doubt it will make much difference anyway, and partly out of being a cheapskate!
Todays purchase is as I mentioned an Acer r13 2in1 chromebook (pictured above) which has just in the last few hours had a price drop to only £299. Which for a brand-new-in-the-box 13" laptop that doubles up as a tablet (with stylus support), coming with 4gigs of RAM and 64Gig solid state HDD that does full 1080p resolution and has upto 12 hours of battery life... well, thats pretty tempting! (link takes you to the ebay site for Currys/PCworld who seem to have been first to offer this price reduction)
(pictured above) which has just in the last few hours had a price drop to only £299. Which for a brand-new-in-the-box 13" laptop that doubles up as a tablet (with stylus support), coming with 4gigs of RAM and 64Gig solid state HDD that does full 1080p resolution and has upto 12 hours of battery life... well, thats pretty tempting! (link takes you to the ebay site for Currys/PCworld who seem to have been first to offer this price reduction)
NB: thats a clearance price as there is a newer model due out any day now, though thats set to retail for near the £700 price point for a spec that doesnt seem that much better. Snap up a bargain???
From the research Ive done this looks like the best option for a combined chromebook/tablet with sensible specs that "should"!! (fingers crossed!!) support both android and linux apps, and can be made to dual boot into linux as a third option. (I really hope the reports I have read are correct!)
When it arrives, I plan to publish a series of posts - or possibly even a dedicated blog/vlog of the trials, tribulations and hopefully triumphs along the journey to making it a useful dev machine suitable for todays nomadic developers!
Watch this space for updates...
