Chrome OS is a Un-Appreciated Masterpiece

First Time I used Chrome OS and so many people have this operating system wrong! It does far more than you'd expect.

Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:15 Chrome OS Desktop
03:20 Linux on Chrome OS
05:30 Downsides of Chrome OS
07:17 Crostini Virtual Environment
09:58 Final Fantasy VI Gameplay
11:13 Terminal Work and Upgrades with Crosh
13:00 Native Linux Game without Proton on ChromeOS .

[ChrisTitusTech]

Chrome OS Videos:
Couple Addendums based on comments:
- Model of Laptop used: Thinkpad Yoga C13 - Ryzen 3700C w/ 16GB
- The major downside is privacy as everything based around Chrome Browser
- The major upside is the new virtualization that Google is doing (You can sandbox certain apps like Linux desktop apps)
- TLDW; It is an extremely polished system with great battery life and tight integration with the hardware and you can expand it to include Linux apps to get a LOT more out of your Chromebook than the stock configuration.

[Ryan]

I had a Chromebook that I paid about $130 for that lasted around 5 years before the battery died and updates stopped for that model. Hands down the best value for a device I had, I did my degree on it, and since my work doesn't require computing power I could do my whole job on it to this day if I needed to. It worked perfectly *all* the time.

[Tylerc]

That's good to know. It seemed like Chrome OS became a much better operating system last year but for some reason it wasn't translating well to consumers. Google's ads made it look really awesome and manufacturers announced a lot of new devices so hopefully it catches on quickly. Google's Assistant makes it seem like a really fun experience as well.

[krtirtho]

But one problem, We don't want Linux on top of Android. We want Android top of Linux

[GtwNYkHYs]

I just picked up an entry level Chromebook for personal use and I'm honestly blown away at how much I like it.

[JesseMaurais]

4 years ago I bought a discount Acer Chromebook. I was doing serious programming in it using the Linux subsystem with Clang, Vim, Tmux and other comm and line tools. It was a beautiful experience.

[dabbridges]

Good overview. I totally agree, I'd had a preconceived view that ChromeOS was a lightweight, simple OS. When I began to use it however, I quickly realized the depth, sophistication and functionality.

[inscrutablemungus]

Here's the thing. I love the hardware of the chromebook. It's cheap, it's light and it has a humongous battery life. However, ChromeOS itself is not really suitable for most of what I do. Thankfully, as long as you have an intel based device, it's fairly trivial to replace ChromeOS with a linux distro. At that point you get the best of both worlds.

[kurtselleslagh]

Totally agreed. I’m now moving away from Windows and MacOS. I love speed and simplicity of ChromeOS for light desktop work.

[thydevdom]

ChromeOS is solid and gets the job done for those that just need utilities and aren’t running heavy programs. I have no hate towards it.

[MrHappygolfer]

A year late to this video; but I said the browser was the future in 1998. But I'm an old guy, at 65, and saw where the consumer of computing was going back then. All about content, and information.
I use Mac, Widows & Linux, as my work OS's, but ChromeOS is my daily driver, for all my infotainment, and even some dev work, via the Linux VM in Chrome. Love it! For two years migrating a network from one domain to another, my work laptop was a Chromebook: Everything runs on the web.

[montellallen]

Chrome os works great for me! I installed it on my laptop after windows started giving me issues, and I’m extremely happy with it, it’s not even meant to be on my computer but yet it still works great!

[brebenelandrei]

Until you actually try to use it long term and find all the issues that come with it. Let's not even talk about the arbitrary way Google stops sending updates, and how both Android apps and Linux support feel like/are like beta software on most Chromebooks.

[victormartins]

There’s a lot of cool functionality. I don’t think I’d use a chromebook personally. But this is some neat tech.

[ryke_masters]

I recently bought a Chromebook and went through the hassle of getting Linux on it (which is a fair bit of trouble and not guaranteed to work depending on your model; you should do the research before buying if that's your intention, which I originally did not do). Having run both ChromeOS and Linux on it, I'd say:

A) Most of the things in this video are true and fair enough: ChromeOS runs extremely well, is very convenient, very easy to pick up for the average user and use for all the tasks you'd expect, and with Crostini (which is maybe a little bit beyond the average "bought my mom a Chromebook for her birthday" user level, but overall quite easy to use and well-supported), you can use it for virtually anything you can do on a Linux machine, which is getting closer and closer to being everything (bar some fairly specialised applications) within obvious hardware limitations. The whole Chromebook concept displeases a lot of tech-savy people for obvious privacy-related reasons, but for the average user who wants to do things the hardware allows, it's absolutely great. Better than I expected before buying a Chromebook.

B) However, almost none of those good things are a function of the Chromebook concept itself: you could have all of that convenience without so much going through Chrome, and without virtually everything being locked down by Google or at least passing through them in some way. I think if I were to, for example, pick a Chromebook that is known to be relatively easy to break out of ChromeOS and work well with a given Linux distro, install that distro on it and configure it to look and behave generally like ChromeOS, and give it away to someone who wanted a Chromebook, they'd have all the functionality they need and it could be just as easy to use. The one thing you'd lose out, possibly, is how similar ChromeOS is to Android, making it a bit easier to pickup for people who are primarily smartphone and tablet users. Sure, ChromeOS is great... if you don't hate the concept of your entire device essentially phoning home to Google, and having somewhat limited control over it. And it's not really those characteristics that make ChromeOS convenient.

C) So, what actual positives remain that are really unique to Chromebooks? The price, mostly. I'm not sure if it's because of Google's market position, whether Chromebooks are loss leaders or something, but they are cheap, and given current inflated hardware prices, you can save a surprising amount of money by buying a mid-to-high-tier Chromebook instead of a competing comparably spec'd laptop. Running Linux on my fairly recent Chromebook, I run into compatibility issues that I wouldn't have on other devices, but... I kinda don't regret it, because if I had chosen to buy a comparable laptop that could run Linux better and easier, I'd have paid more.

TL;DR I don't think this is going to convince people who hate the Chromebook concept to like it. ChromeOS is good... but it could be just as good and not have the things people hate about it. However, what Chromebooks are... is cheap, for generally good quality.

[guilherme]

Well, like for the video Chris, but, no thanks, Google already have too much power.

[Backtrack]

Bought my first Chromebook today. Until this morning, I always thought Chromebooks were just a glorified Android Device. Boy was I wrong... Having access to the Linux machine makes it 1000x more useful!

[techorigin]

I installed Ubuntu and ran it alongside Chrome OS even when they didn't explicitly support it. Mind you this was on an Acer Chromebook with a Celeron processor. Suprisingly enough I was able to install Steam and I used to play truck simulator on there and other indie games. This was back in sixth grade. Seeing that chrome os interface brings some serious memories back

[Drew]

I have Google Chrome Flex installed on a old Dell OptiPlex 3020 with a 34" Dell Monitor. Awesome simplicity for anybody just needs to do productivity online and not just play computers. Totally recommended for senior citizens or anybody technology challenged.

[robertwilson]

I have been using Chrome OS for a decade now and I would NEVER go back to Microsoft. You need to approach it with an open mind and soon you will be saying the same.