Considering switching to Linux....

[BBassic]

I've got an old Chromebook I'm thinking about wiping and popping some Linux distro on. Mostly for use as a fancy typewriter.

 

[chickens]

I've got an old Chromebook I'm thinking about wiping and popping some Linux distro on. Mostly for use as a fancy typewriter.

It will absolutely work, you need to check whether it’s an Intel or ARM processor in the Chromebook though, and ensure you’re installing the right variant for the processor.

I believe Arch, Debian, Mint and Ubuntu all offer ARM builds.

 

[BBassic]

It will absolutely work, you need to check whether it’s an Intel or ARM processor in the Chromebook though, and ensure you’re installing the right variant for the processor.

I believe Arch, Debian, Mint and Ubuntu all offer ARM builds.

Solid advice, cheers!

 

[Albion my Albion]

Mostly for use as a fancy typewriter.

What's a typewriter? Does that mean it picks a type of writing style?

 

[clapham_gull]

May have posted above. I bought a cheap older MS Surface Go (with keyboard) on Ebay. Terrible thing, wouldn't even play a YouTube video without shuddering.

But I knew that and bought it so I could install Ubuntu and have a handy very very portable machine.

Can't use it for a few streaming sites (like NowTV) due to DRM and lack of support but iplayer works fine and simple browsing is a dream compared to it's previous OS.

I don't need storage and will get round to making it dual boot, just in case I need windows.

Linux has become a bit of a niche to bring life into older machines and it works.

 

[schmunk]

I've got an old Chromebook I'm thinking about wiping and popping some Linux distro on. Mostly for use as a fancy typewriter.

Isn't ChromeOS essentially Linux already?

 

[mikeyjh]

Support for Linux Mint 20 is just about to run out.

So, last night I installed Linux Mint 22.1 Cinnamon edition. My laptop, which still has a windows 7 sticker on it, is now running like a brand new laptop. Mind you, it was already running pretty quickly on Mint 20.

I still can't get over how good Linux is on old machines!

Awesome! - I've got a few old Macs now I've moved back to windows, in particular one from about 2020 that was just a dog, absolute garbage performance, it's now running with an RPi desktop and it's magic

 

[1066familyman]

Awesome! - I've got a few old Macs now I've moved back to windows, in particular one from about 2020 that was just a dog, absolute garbage performance, it's now running with an RPi desktop and it's magic

Raspberry pi?

 

[BBassic]

Isn't ChromeOS essentially Linux already?

Yeah I imagine it's pretty similar in some ways but as I'm mostly off the Google ecosystem these days, apart from my email address, I don't need / want all the ChromeOS bits on there

 

[BBassic]

What's a typewriter? Does that mean it picks a type of writing style?

Nah I meant as in using it almost exclusively for writing

 

[1066familyman]

Nah I meant as in using it almost exclusively for writing

Linux Mint comes with Libre Office built in. Does everything I need, including easy exporting of PDF files.

 

[BBassic]

Linux Mint comes with Libre Office built in. Does everything I need, including easy exporting of PDF files.

Oh that's perfect, Libre Office is what I use instead of Office

 

[Coldeanseagull]

DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD.

News and feature lists of Linux and BSD distributions.

distrowatch.com

In case peeps haven't found the distro they like, worth checking out different flavours.
I quite like PCLinux OS, Antix, Solus and Zorin, but there's something for everyone and I tend to try different ones.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

What's a typewriter? Does that mean it picks a type of writing style?

 

[mikeyjh]

Raspberry pi?

Yeah, it's probably not the ideal setup but it was good fun

 

[Wardy's twin]

Yeah, it's probably not the ideal setup but it was good fun

One of my mates found a MVS build for an IBM 3081which ran on a PI - quite amazing.