I switched from Mac to a Lenovo Chromebook

https://blog.johnozbay.com/i-left-apples-ecosystem-for-a-lenovo-chromebook-and-you-can-too.html

by speckx • 3 months ago

134 170 3 months ago

blog.johnozbay.com

hmokiguess4• 3 months ago

Chrome OS? No, thank you. I'll stay with macOS and keep hoping for the Asahi Linux dream

bitpush• 3 months ago

Why?

hmokiguess4• 3 months ago

I try to stay away from Google if I can, I know Apple isn't perfect either but I am more aligned with them despite it.

allthetime• 3 months ago

Apple portable hardware is unparalleled. Linux is what runs the internet.

For now, my old gaming PC runs as a Linux server hosting all my dev services and home lab projects and my MacBook is where I work with them and build apps that consume them.

It would be nice to have the server setup mirrored on a laptop I could take places with me.

jjtheblunt4• 3 months ago

you can run Arch proper in UTM.app on macos...utm is available on the app store or open source, and wraps the apple silicon hypervisor.framework.

it works fantastic magic. i had dual booted Asahi for a year or so, but really for no good reason once i realized UTM existed.

Scarbutt• 3 months ago

Do you use x64 emulation with UTM? If so, how's the performance?

hmokiguess4• 3 months ago

I'm aware of it, though I would like to have a native solution with GPU acceleration and all the hardware benefits.

mkurz• 3 months ago

If you are on a M1 or M2 chip you can live the dream _now_ already and install Asahi (Asahi Fedora Remix or Asahi Alarm https://asahi-alarm.org/ - which I am a maintainer of). It works really great (daily driving it since 4 years now...) M3 support is coming soon as well...

hmokiguess4• 3 months ago

No way! I'm on M1 Pro, may be making the move finally ... how's the peripheral support these days? I use a Thunderbolt Display with the Studio Display. Any other particular things I should know?

leecommamichael• 3 months ago

Death to liquid glass!

sermah• 3 months ago

TL;DR: The author traded a full-fledged workstation with “Liquid Glass” for a web browser with a keyboard.

midnight_eclair• 3 months ago

no, thanks

KillenBoek• 3 months ago

Author admitted he did nothing worthwhile that justified a full fledged workstation and adopted a tablet with keyboard.

As a Mac user I was pleasantly surprised when I switched to a arch Linux based distribution.

baal80spam• 3 months ago

But why?

loloquwowndueo3• 3 months ago

Good Lord, what next? “I switched from Mac to Windows and you can too”?

Might make sense if the Chromebook can be degoogled and set up with a clean Linux distro. Barring that, a regular laptop with Linux may be an option.

wmichelin• 3 months ago

Framework has always been appealing to me as a Mac competitor

tverbeure2• 3 months ago

If I could choose only 1 criterium to select a laptop, it's the quality of the trackpad. So far, I haven't tried anything that comes close to a Macbook.

loloquwowndueo3• 3 months ago

Same, but they are a bit expensive. I assume if TFA put himself through the pain of a Chromebook in the first place, it’s because cost was a significant factor.

striking• 3 months ago

Yeah, it's definitely possible. https://github.com/altreact/archbk shows how you might do this end to end on an older machine and this thread https://archlinuxarm.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=17308 shows some progress in that direction on this particular device.

The real question is if you have enough patience to power through making it work.

mac-attack• 3 months ago

No need to reinvent the wheel: https://docs.chrultrabook.com/docs/installing/installing-lin...

Been running Debian on an hp Chromebook for 2y now.

stateofinquiry• 3 months ago

I did switch from MacOS to MS Windows in 2023, after being on MacOS from 2015 (and various Linux distros between about 2000 and 2015; before that, Win98 and earlier versions, so help me God).

I did not think anyone would be interested in reading about any of this, and reading the article reinforces my hypothesis.

skc• 3 months ago

He could write the same exact post but swap the word "Mac" for "Windows" and the comment section here would be markedly different.

internet2000• 3 months ago

Talk about throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

_imnothere• 3 months ago

I can't think of any valid reason for a person with sane mind to do this. Yes, macOS is somewhat closed, but it's definitely more open than ChromeOS.

ryeguy_24• 3 months ago

Ha, same. I absolutely love everything about my MacBook Pro.

ant6n• 3 months ago

...except the operating system. And the silly notch. And the weird keyboard. And the hard palm-cutting corner. And the reflective screen. and the finger-print-magnet materials. And the small amount of RAM. and the small SSD. And the weight.

Other than that, it's perfect! (On the blance,still better than any other laptop)

babypuncher2• 3 months ago

ChromeOS is the absolute last desktop operating system I would choose to use for myself. Linux, macOS, and Windows would have to be completely dead and buried before I would switch, and at that point I might just consider abandoning tech altogether and joining an Amish commune or something.

bigyabai5• 3 months ago

When was the last time you tried ChromeOS, out of curiosity? I'd always reach for Linux first, but I'm hard-pressed to put Windows or macOS in second place when both are so miserably bloated.

bigyabai5• 3 months ago

but it's definitely more open than ChromeOS.

I don't think that's entirely true. For instance, ChromeOS supports Mesa, which macOS has spent the past decade pretending doesn't exist.

0xBADA55• 3 months ago

For small businesses using Google Workspace, Chrome book is so easy to manage.

montroser• 3 months ago

What do you mean by open and closed? ChromeOS is based on ChromiumOS, which is open source. I guess macOS is based on Darwin technically, but the ratio of open source to proprietary is much higher for ChromeOS than macOS, no?

galleywest200• 3 months ago

I think they mean closed as in it is more difficult to install whatever you want on a ChromeOS machine as opposed to a MacOS machine.

jeffbee2• 3 months ago

I can't think of any sense in which this statement could be supported by facts.

makeitdouble• 3 months ago

ChromeOS will run on any standard machine and subsystems (qndroid, linux) work decently good.

What concrete points makes you put macos as more open ?

fragmede5• 3 months ago

Root on the host OS. Can't change the MAC on the wifi adapter, for instance.

ototot2• 3 months ago

You can even install linux on Chromebooks, and ChromeOS has upstreamed / opensource many of their codes.

In other perspective, ChromeOS supports running Linux apps w/ GUI without much differences. You just open your terminal, type `apt install XXX`, then `XXX` should work out-of-the box.

I don't see any reasons that ChromeOS is less open then macOS

fragmede5• 3 months ago

Any? Crostini is neat and all, but it's a VM running inside of ChromeOS, so it's restricted in what it can do.

steviedotboston• 3 months ago

I mean I could. I could also do fent. But I don't.

wildekek• 3 months ago

I don't really get what the problem with MacOS is. It never gets in my way, so why would I switch? Yes, I found Liquid Glass ugly and two days later I completely forgot about it.

cryo322• 3 months ago

This is what happened for me. Total waste of effort complaining about it.

traderj0e15• 3 months ago

It's like Linux users who scream about Arch KDE Plasma being better than Kubuntu XFCE++ and change their entire GUI every year. They're obsessing over rounded corners lining up. None of this matters that much.

It's more serious on iPhones cause it's glitchy in ways that will interfere with basic usage, also yet another "we need old phones to feel slower" update.

bluegreenyellow• 3 months ago

How many? Many are using chromebooks and not complaining. Many use Linux and not complaining - as I work at a University.

A majority need only a browser.

TiredOfLife• 3 months ago

Kubuntu is Ubuntu with KDE not Xfce

whalesalad• 3 months ago

Really hilarious to complain about inconsistency in macOS and then encourage jumping to linux where you have one GTK app, one QT app, an electron app, and some secret fourth thing all running simultaneously with zero consistency or adherence to any kind of human interface guidelines.

deafpolygon2• 3 months ago

On the other hand, I found it quite pleasant and subsequently forgot about it. It’s out of my way and I focus on the task at hand.

pjmlp5• 3 months ago

Some people actually want a great GNU/Linux laptop, they buy Apple because macOS is a UNIX with cool hardware, then they discover that UNIX !== GNU/Linux and complain about all the issues running Linux software on macOS.

They start already from the wrong place.

bak3y• 3 months ago

No, no I can't.

coredog64• 3 months ago

I actually tried this last year and the show stopper was Citrix. The version for Chromebooks is some abomination that hasn't been kept recent and so fails validation with my employer's Citrix infra.

fg137• 3 months ago

Sounds like the author could have used just about any laptop in the world and it would serve him well.

So, what's the point of the article?

xacky• 3 months ago

Might become more interesting if the Android powered laptop rumors are true.

egl2020• 3 months ago

I went the other way: from a Pixelbook to a Macbook Air. I mostly do SW development in the CLI, so the Linux subsystem on the chromebook was fine, as is macports/homebrew/etc. on the mac. I would still be using the Pixelbook if I could have replaced its battery. The low-end Air had good price-performance tradeoff, and the Neo would probably be today's choice.

bruki2• 3 months ago

I am in a similar boat. I already have Mac Mini M4 and don't do any fancy development stuff, especially not in my free time. But can't for the sake of me decide if I should go with Air M4 to match the specs, or just go full lightweight and get Neo.

bruki2• 3 months ago

Ragebait pandemic spread here too?

shibaprasadb• 3 months ago

I am not very tech-savvy, mostly into Analytics - DS. I love my Mac. The whole UX is far superior compared to Windows or a Chromebook.

curtisblaine• 3 months ago

- If you rely on / heavily use AI tools, you can easily use Claude's Web App etc so that's super cool but also things like Jan also exist for Linux and I haven't tried, but you can use that as well for a more native experience.

Sure, Claude Web App is an adequate replacement to full-fledged Claude Code, and then there is also something that I didn't bother to try but maybe you can try it after you bought a new laptop. What the hell.

NDlurker• 3 months ago

What is that terrible font? I've never seen an "h" look like that

tolerance• 3 months ago

My initial guess was that migrating to a non-MacOS machine precludes the freedom to view the original Futura typeface on one's personal website. "The Future" must be some shoddy free alternative.

Except "The Future" is a paid typeface inspired by Futura and designed by the Klim Type Foundry. [0] The odd lowercase "h" is an alternative glyph probably meant for display sizes. [1] In addition to this for some reason the author is using the Light weight font for body text instead of Regular weight...

[0]: I love Söhne – https://klim.co.nz/blog/soehne-design-information/

[1] https://klim.co.nz/fonts/the-future/#open-type/ss06/example

cryo322• 3 months ago

I love these articles. I await the inevitable post-mortem 6-9 months down the line.

Aurornis• 3 months ago

Going from complaining about Apple not having enough polish in the fine details of their UI to suggesting we all switch to Chromebooks is so completely inconsistent that there must be other motivations.

In one post they're complaining about things like Apple having the search bar in different locations in different apps, and in the next post they're seriously trying to tell us that a laptop that requires modifying the software and running shell commands copied from the internet so you can run a text editor to change settings and drivers is the solution? They dropped a note about how they haven't actually tried development on the chromebook at the end but say they assume it would be okay. For someone telling us to switch to Chromebooks, they haven't even finished doing their own homework

Linking to an SEO spam website called technical.city for performance comparisons is another clue that this choice was driven by something else first and the reasoning was backfilled. The new MediaTek part is fast, but there's more to laptop performance than a single bar chart from a site citing ancient benchmarks like PassMark.

I can't read this as anything other than an attempt to make a contrarian choice and then present it as the superior alternative.

bigyabai5• 3 months ago

It's possible that your own opinions are coloring this perspective. As a Linux user, if you gave me the choice between switching back to macOS or dailying ChromeOS instead, it's objectively (sadly) true that the ChromeOS machine would do a better job handling my daily tasks. Going back to macOS would require me to keep multiple desktop machines around for gaming, filesystem manipulation and native Linux containers. ChromeOS would be viable for all of those.

You can technically game on some Chromebooks, but come on.

I just want the Steam edition of Dwarf Fortress, really =)

If you were trying to do native Linux development on a Chromebook you'd be going through more obstacles.

Not really. Crostini has been supported for years, and it uses less resources than macOS containers while supporting normal filesystems instead of virtualizing it on APFS like Docker does.

inventor77772• 3 months ago

Have you heard of this?

According to their GitHub, this should solve the issues you mentioned with Linux development on macOS. Note: I have not used it myself as I find macOS+Brew sufficient for my tasks.

https://github.com/apple/container

pjmlp5• 3 months ago

Crostini has been WIP for years, unless you happen to buy a Google device, this is what will happen in most OEMs,

https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-library/guide...

traderj0e15• 3 months ago

"After my last blog post I received tons and tons of emails from people mentioning that they switched to X or Y because of Liquid Glass, and much like them, I switched away from the Apple ecosystem thanks to these ongoing issues as well."

Then within 2 sentences: "So this blog post is about my painful journey trying to find a nice piece of hardware that works and feels just as good as Apple's hardware as a web developer."

So yeah I really don't get the motivation

nolist_policy5• 3 months ago

A Chromebook gets you the elegant UI, touchpad gestures, slim vertically integrated system architecture and the reliable sleep mode of a MacBook without Liquid Glass.

Plus Chromebooks have the better keyboard layout IMHO.

caycep• 3 months ago

I mean, it’s prob easier to run chromeos in utm on the Mac…

monooso• 3 months ago

Given your chosen quotes, I don't understand your confusion.

The author explicitly acknowledges that Apple makes excellent hardware, and the desire to switch is driven solely by problems with the software (OS).

All this made me realize Liquid Glass and Apple's software incompetence is absolutely universally hated, yet their hardware is universally loved. So credit where it's due, they make great hardware.

dangus• 3 months ago

The author did a horrible job doing laptop research if the goal was to replace a MacBook’s build quality and overall vibe.

I have no idea why this random Mediatek chip was the qualifier for finding a system.

Just Josh Tech (YouTube) and their associated site bestlaptop.deals is my favorite resource at the moment for laptop reviews and for finding the best fit. I’m not affiliated with them in any way, I just think they are thorough and present with a critical eye avoiding a lot of hype YouTuber BS.

They aren’t the best at recommendations for Linux laptops as they don’t fully install the OS but they at least try it out on a live image.

To me the clear winner right now for people who like Linux and want something that’s a MacBook-like experience is the Framework 13 Pro. Framework appears to have resolved basically all of the shortcomings of the current revision (which still is no slouch), they’ve added a CNC aluminum build and haptic trackpad, and it’s a first-class Linux experience that’s Ubuntu certified.

Other than that, I’d be looking at options like the Lenovo Yoga Pro 7i Aura Edition 15, maybe even a Zenbook Duo 2026 if the idea of a second screen on the go is appealing and money is no object.

Someone looking for some discrete GPU performance that rivals or beats MacBook Pros equipped with Pro or Max chips can look at the Zephyrus G14/G16. Sure, they’re “gamer” laptops, but I really like them in person and they feel very premium. They’re pretty well established as the best thin and light gaming laptops on the market, very close in dimensions to MacBook Pro.

NetOpWibby• 3 months ago

I scrolled to the bottom and this passage caught my eye:

   Since you have a proper linux under the hood, you can easily install and use things like nodejs / npm etc as well.

I immediately closed the tab.

nekooooo• 3 months ago

forest for the trees engineer behaviour

tristor• 3 months ago

The idea that I could do the things I do regularly on a Chromebook is laughable in the extreme, and I'm not even that much of a crazy power user. No thanks.

DeathArrow• 3 months ago

I'll use Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD, ReactOS, Haiku, anything but not ChromeOS.

codeduck• 3 months ago

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

No.

nolist_policy5• 3 months ago

I don't know why the author plays down the versatility of Chromebooks/ChromeOS so much. You can install the Linux Dev VM with 5 clicks in the settings. You get a fully featured Debian VM with nested virtualization support and seamless Wayland, VirGL and USB passtrough.

sowbug• 3 months ago

That's where I spend all my Chromebook work time. I run VSCode, Claude Code, and Opencode in the VM. The Tailscale package is wonky, so I use the Android app instead. Except for that wrinkle, it all just works.

It's not my main machine, but for $300 (2023 dollars) it's excellent for tinkering on the couch with Netflix on TV in the background.

ramses0• 3 months ago

I'm relatively uniquely qualified to weigh in here... I've been linux-native for decades now on my home desktops (debian), and the last time I used windows for work was ~2005-ish with work Mac laptops, and "disposable" chromebooks at home for personal use + travel.

1) It started with Crouton (open source, "let's get access to the underlying linux system"), and worked pretty well. IIRC you had to switch to "dev mode" to get access to it.

2) Crostini and all the layer-cake isolation is wildly impressive! ...it's more VM-based with suuuper adjudicated interaction boundaries between `chromeos` and the underlying linux vm.

Arch overview: https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-library/guide...

Seneschal (file management/isolation): https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/platform2/+/HEA...

Sommelier (gui passthrough/punch-through): https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/platform2/+/HEA...

3) I've recently (intentionally) switched to their new "Baguette" beta VM/Container (you can talk to google AI mode about it, but general access docs and links are fairly sparse: "...a ChromeOS architectural shift (arriving around v142-146) that enables containerless Linux Virtual Machines, running directly via KVM instead of LXD. It removes the middle container layer for increased efficiency and flexibility, allowing for advanced features like direct PCI passthrough, while providing improved storage management compared to legacy Crostini."

4) I think over the last ~15 years I've gone from 4gb => 8gb => 16gb (just recently) and sticking with "premium-ish" dev-centric laptops (mostly: linux, git, web dev, inkscape, random hacking, etc). Currently the Acer Spin 714, previously Samsung XE930QCA... both "tablet adjacent" with full fliparound or "tent style" for watching a movie or doodling with styluses.

Bang-for-Buck, I was able to get the Spin714 for ~$300 @ 16gb ram (used-ish, off ebay) which is a STEAL, and similar story for the Samsung one. They're definitely very capable machines, and treating them as "dumb terminals with a VM I can pop open and scp files to a remote host or git push" is fantastic!

HOWEVER: beware! Google w/ Baguette is stupidly complicated on how to open a port on the device itself for other computers to be able to access servers on the local device. I argued with the google AI for like an hour trying to figure out the best way to allow `git pull my-chromebook.localdomain:./Git/some-repo` and eventually had to settle on a raw `ssh` reverse proxy pipe where I was pulling from `my-other-machine.localdomain:localhost:2222:./Git/some-repo` which was forwarded back (over SSH) to the chromebook itself.

It used to be that you could rationally: `python -m http`, open an "enable port forwarding" thingy in the terminal settings and be able to connect to the service w/o much ceremony. Nowadays they're effectively nanny-ifying the OS and it's getting much harder to do the same thing (removing visible UI for port forwarding, needing hidden settings deep links or `chrome://flags` stuff to be able to access a server/service RUNNING ON YOUR OWN MACHINE FROM WITHIN YOUR OWN NETWORK). Supposedly the cool kids are using tailscale or whatever, but it's literally `localhost<->localhost` and I don't want to have to set up a VPN or whatever to make that work, I just want to doodle on local web services in a VM on a machine that can get stolen and not end up losing all my personal/private files.

Also, ask google AI mode: "when is google phasing out chromebook and chromeos and presumably near-native linux support on their machines?" => """Court documents and executive statements reveal a plan to retire the existing ChromeOS software stack by 2034. This legacy system is expected to be replaced by a unified platform internally codenamed "Project Aluminium," which migrates ChromeOS fully onto the Android tech stack."""

...so ~8 more years of `chromeos`/`linux` and then it'll no longer be the year of linux on the desktop!

Yes, they can be very comfortable and very capable machines, but they're losing a bit of their central spirit and developer-friendliness over time.

slashdave• 3 months ago

Some of us actually want to get work done

tapoxi• 3 months ago

I really enjoy ChromeOS, though I'm worried a lot of its simplicity will go away as Google transitions to Android-based laptops. My wife and I use an Asus Chromebook Flip as a kitchen/living room computer that we don't need to think about. No software updates, it just surfs the web and we can flip it into tablet mode if we want to.

notme43• 3 months ago

Not even a Mac user and have been legitimately considering a move like this.

My desktop and Thinkpad run Gentoo. A NAS I have at home is the build host. I am a business software consultant, and a common thread in all of my interactions is: I need to be prepared. If I'm fiddling with "hang on my mic doesn't work" or "i need to reboot", I look silly.

An onsite visit might be in an executive board room, or a closet in the back of a warehouse with a TV from 2007 and a VGA connector.

If I need software installed quick, like Zoom or something, Flatpak gets me 95% there. Yes, I could use Ubuntu or something normal, but I like portage and long for the day I can use FreeBSD seriously on the desktop.

So enter Chromebooks, which come with portage, can use Flatpak, and the OS is basically just a web browser. Plus, I don't have to wrestle with SELinux, or any of the other nitty gritty stuff that gets in the way of real work™. It's either a PWA or an Android app, and it just works.

doener• 3 months ago

But I don't want to.

theanonymousone• 3 months ago

A Mediatek chip rivalling Apple M2? Is this claim supportable?

ototot2• 3 months ago

It's basically dimensity 9400, and I think it's fairly comparable.

weezing• 3 months ago

Why would I do that?

tthayer• 3 months ago

I have to switch between an M4 macbook pro and a Lenovo Chromebook Plus multiple times a day and I will say, while it isn't terrible, the keyboard and trackpad on the Lenovo have nothing on the Macbook. The experience with using USB devices (yubikey in particular) through the android layer is also real shitty.

porphyra• 3 months ago

no fucking way there's a Mediatek chip out there that's as good as M2?!? right!?

Actually Mediatek is pretty underrated. Isn't the upcoming Dimensity 9600 Pro on par with the M5 [0]? And they also designed the CPU part of the GB10 in the NVIDIA DGX Spark, which is roughly on par with the CPU of the AMD AI Max+ 395 and M3 Max 14 core [1] [2].

[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/1so1wyv/dimensity...

[1] https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/compare/17762799?baseli...

[2] https://browser.geekbench.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=m3+max

tantalor2• 3 months ago

Choosing an OS 101

https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/mx4dni/cho...

Do you fear technology?

Yes

Is your daddy rich?

No

ChromeOS

vile_wretch• 3 months ago

Figma and Spotify have some of the best web apps out there as well, so that's all good too!

The Spotify web app is still much more limited than the desktop app.

Did you know that Adobe ported Photoshop etc to web, with all the AI bells and whistles and the web apps perform incredibly well?

Perfect if all you need out of Photoshop is the AI portion, I guess.

As a side note, it is no surprise that Adobe's suite of creative apps [...] now work incredibly well on the web across all operating systems

They literally don't.

Quickshare (the Airdrop alternative) ACTUALLY WORKS

Saying this like Airdrop isn't one of Apple's most bulletproof "just works" features ever

10729287• 3 months ago

In my experience it’s definitely not. It works maybe 80% to 90% of the time but it’s still not enough for me to use it with confidence.

fragmede5• 3 months ago

Airdrop still doesn't work when I share directly from my phone. If I hit share, and then choose the airdrop target directly, it doesn't work. If I open airdrop and share to the same device, then that works.

For cross-platform local sharing, I use KDE-connect.

4ndrewl• 3 months ago

I got to this point before I realised this wasn't written by a human.

whywhywhywhy• 3 months ago

Apple's most bulletproof "just works" features ever

It only just works if all devices are logged in to the same Apple account. Otherwise you have to allow a 10 minute window in the phones settings.

Work Mac laptop not logged in won’t see an iPhone unless you go into settings. My home and work PCs I both own can’t even be airdropped to, I know some people think this adds value to Mac machines but in a world where the most powerful gpu isn’t on a Mac it actually makes the apple ecosystem feel like trash if you’re someone working on the top end of computing and can’t send a file from your workstation to your phone.

Schiendelman• 3 months ago

Uh no. Just have the accounts in each other's contacts.

bastard_op• 3 months ago

> it seems that Signal's team is actively working on linking additional Android devices, and very soon we can simply solve this by using Signal for Android.

Wishful thinking, this has been a problem since tablets (android or ios) were a thing and trying to use one linked to your phone.

aykutseker• 3 months ago

Grass is greener works at month two. By month nine your muscle memory is still wrong.

Jamesbeam• 3 months ago

I do not agree with what he wrote, but I had an enjoyable reading experience, which is rare these days. That is some clean blog design.

yegle• 3 months ago

To me the most amazing thing of using Chromebook is that you can run the Tailscale _Android_ app and get your ChromeOS connected to your tailnet.

hirvi745• 3 months ago

I love Liquid Glass. I think a lot of the complaints are whiny and pedantic. I do agree a bit of tender love and care could be used to clean up some GUI elements, but people act like Liquid Glass fried their logic board and rendered their machine utterly unusable.

fragmede5• 3 months ago

The problem is, on iOS it's buggy. Floating opaque rectangles blocking you from seeing what you're doing. Software keyboard not being accounted for in the layout so you can't click buttons. It looks different; sure, whatever. It's getting in the way of actually using it that raises ire.

hirvi745• 3 months ago

Interesting. I mean, I completely believe you, but I've been using macOS 26/iOS 26 since release, and have not run into any issues like you are describing. I have experienced the keyboard issue, but it was on one specific website, so I am not sure how much of that can be attributed to Liquid Glass or the device OS compared to the website itself.

I have other keyboard issues, but I cannot confidently attribute them to Liquid Glass.

Marsymars2• 3 months ago

I have this exact laptop - I just use it for casual web browsing, but it does have a significant problem that I've encountered - although it has a 3.5mm stereo port, it's unusable due to static sounds.

Possibly this bug that's been floating around for the past 6 years: https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/172339479

tantalor2• 3 months ago

It's probably simply defective, I would warranty/replace it.

Marsymars2• 3 months ago

Hm, that's possible. Not sure I use headphones enough with it to bother going through a warranty replacement, but I'll keep that in mind in case I get motivated with some free time to do so.

The static pattern seems odd to me, but I assume would make sense if the root cause was identified:

* Plug headphones into laptop: no static.

* Open youtube tab: Static.

* Mute audio: Static.

* Tab away from youtube: Static stops after ~10s.

* Tab back to youtube and start video: Static resumes.

* Adjust volume: No effect on static. (At normal listening volumes, static isn't audible over music audio.)

I'll note that there are various reports of something almost identical being triggered by a ChromeOS software update ~6 years ago across multiple brands of Chromebooks, e.g. https://old.reddit.com/r/chromeos/comments/fx9y19/samsung_ch...

clear0250• 3 months ago

So we're calling normal usb ports "old school" now?

wtallis• 3 months ago

The type-a ports that are 30 years old, have always been frustrating to orient correctly, and are significantly constrained in data rates and power delivery compared to type-c that has been common for a decade? Yes, calling that "old school" is reasonable.

deafpolygon2• 3 months ago

Apple's software incompetence is absolutely universally hated

Weird. Maybe he spent too much time on ChatGPT and got AI psychosis.

copypaper• 3 months ago

I just have a workstation at home that I SSH into from whatever device I feel like (within my tailnet). All my tools available on the CLI and vscode available via remote-ssh. You can connect from an iPad, macbook, chromebook, etc. The only thing it doesn't handle well is creative apps (video editing, blender, photoshop, etc.).

Obviously this whole setup requires an internet connection, but I'm rarely without one so it works great for me. Anyone else do something similar?

fattybob• 3 months ago

I’m expecting delivery of a used Lenovo yoga thinkpad simply to run one piece of software that I previously ran on an older intel Mac using a virtual windows drive, sadly the security on that software (dongles!!) will not and possibly will never run on new Apple silicon, so I’m gonna be lugging a win machine around for any projects that call upon that security software. I worked with the developer and tried a a patched software key for the same security, but sadly it didn’t work either. I’ll still be sticking to Mac for most of my work as I just prefer the way things predictably operate, but I am now going to have a windows toy to play with too, even if it’s actually for work !

cromka• 3 months ago

Are these ARM Chromebooks actually fully hackable to use any other Linux OS? AFAIK Google upstreams DTBs for them?

massysett• 3 months ago

“Liquid Glass and Apple's software incompetence is absolutely universally hated,”

Author is in a bubble. I know many iPhone users and none complain about Liquid Glass. When it landed on my phone, I shrugged.

BirAdam• 3 months ago

My biggest issues with ChromeOS revolve around crap keyboards, bad/clunky Linux implementations (unless you just replace ChromeOS, but why not just get a cheap or older laptop?), and not trusting Google at all.

627467• 3 months ago

I investigated this path. In terms of comparable performance per watt komapnio laptops are competitive. But not on price. Then there's the aspect of how open/closed each ecosystem is. While iOS is an prison like ecosystem, macos still remains quite open, more open than many chromebooks.

Asahi linux exist and i was surprised to see that these arm chromebooks just lack bios/uefi that allows me to install anything other than chromeos.

So, yeah, you can virtualize other OS on chromeos but so can you on macos

h4kunamata• 3 months ago

I am Linux user, moving from a terrible macOS to a dying Chromebook OS, has to be the worst take by 2026 standards.

randomeel2• 3 months ago

I am never using ChromeOS ever. The reasons are too many to list here.

randomeel2• 3 months ago

I am never using ChromeOS. The reasons are too many to list here

pjmlp5• 3 months ago

Basically someone that doesn't take advantage of macOS features, doesn't develop for Apple platforms, is happy with a thin client OS, alright I guess.

tempestnick• 3 months ago

I recently had to turn in my work Macbook and started using personal Lenovo Thinkpad E14 -- last or second to last gen.

I have to say that everything, aside from keyboard and hardware (ie CPU, storage etc) on it is bad. Screen is bad, sound si horrible, webcam makes me look like I died a couple of days ago -- all gray and blurry, battery is obviously have nothing on Apple silicon laptops, fans are noisy, touchpad is bad, all is bad. But what impressed me the most are USB-C ports. They are somehow bad too. There's no grip, there's no feedback, you just kind of put a cable somewhere in them and hope it doesn't arc -- because sometimes it sounds like electrical arcing in there. Not quite pencil in a bucket, but not far off. And the thing is new, how do you manage that on a new business laptop? I'm very impressed, in the worst way possible.

Pfhortune• 3 months ago

I'm interested in the hardware on this... does anyone know if this laptop can boot arm64 Linux natively? Perhaps with an alternate bootloader install?

I've read about plenty of other Chromebooks that can do that, but I can't find any info on booting Linux on this one.

ChromeOS would be so much more compelling if it could be degoogled... An Ungoogled-ChromiumOS would be amazing.

taffydavid• 2 months ago

I have had fun with a $40 Chromebook on which I installed Linux (I can't remember the exact flavor). It great low power portable for writing on the go when I don't want to worry about bringing a more expensive machine around, but sadly the screen cracked and it would have cost more than $40 to fix

I switched from Mac to a Lenovo Chromebook

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