I’m looking at picking up a used chromebook for my kid to use after installing a Linux OS on it. So I have two questions that are very related:

Which would be a better one to get: Lenovo S330 or Acer CB3-431. Is one going to be easier to get the OS to run on?

The other question is which distro is going to work the easiest? I have been running Linux exclusively for over a decade on my person computer (Fedora currently) and my phone (PinePhonePro with Debian (well, Mobian anyways)) so I’m very comfortable with Linux in general, but haven’t played with this kind of hardware before so I’m not sure what the limitations will be.

  • arthurpizzaEnglish
    4•10 months ago

    I have used Chromebooks as Linux laptops for a while now. Here are some patterns I’ve seen.

    • Some Intel audio chipsets don’t work. Not sure why that is but it’s happened on two different Chromebooks.
    • Chromebooks have some of the best wifi under Linux
    • Some ARM Chromebooks have locked bootloaders
    • Most that I’ve seen that are EOL only have 16GB of non upgradable storage

    Currently running a cheap Chromebook I bought from Best Buy for $30. Works great but no audio. ¯⁠\⁠_⁠ಠ⁠_⁠ಠ⁠_⁠/⁠¯