Re: [GTALUG] good deal on netbook; war story: putting Fedora on it

[William Park via talk]

For me, similar start but different end.  I bought HP Chromebook 11 G3
for about $200 also.  I ran (still do) Kubuntu through Crouton/Dev mode.
Initially, I liked it.  Then, 
- the battery died.  I bought a replacement, and it too died in 3
  months.
- WiFi doesn't connect when coming out of "sleep" mode.
- I bought 64GB ultra fast Samsung microSD, to install and run
  Kubuntu from the microSD.
- Right now, I have it always plugged in, which defeats the purpose
  of Chromebook.

In the end, though, it turned out to be $400 lesson.  That's why I'm not
too keen on these little toys, whose primary purpose is to clear out
inventories of old obsolete parts or to keep production lines going
until payback is reached.
-- 
William Park 

On Thu, Nov 22, 2018 at 03:41:30PM -0500, Christopher Browne via talk wrote:
> On Wed, 21 Nov 2018 at 22:53, William Park via talk  wrote:
> > Just curious... Where/how do you use these little computers?  I mean,
> > $300 here, $200 there, $100 upgrade, $50 ram, $25 microSD, etc. they all
> > add up.
> 
> I have been carrying around a Chromebook running Linux-y bits via Crouton
> for 3.5+ years now; it's coming towards the end of its lifespan, and only
> cost me a bit past $200, with no extras adding up.
> 
> Quoting my own email from 2015-03-15 on this list...
> 
> "I'm liking my Samsung ARM-based Chromebook well enough; I'm running
> Debian "in behind" via the Crouton layer, which has been working fine.
> I'll bet that by the time I care for something more, there will be a
> newer model with more storage, memory, and CPU than I presently have."
> 
> It's 2018, and the reason I'm looking for something newer mostly has to do
> with the fact that such a cheap laptop has a fairly fragile case, so it's
> beginning to age a bit ungracefully.  That something newer has
> greater capacity is fine.
> -- 
> When confronted by a difficult problem, solve it by reducing it to the
> question, "How would the Lone Ranger handle this?"
> ---
> Talk Mailing List
> talk@gtalug.org
> https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
---
Talk Mailing List
talk@gtalug.org
https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk

Re: [GTALUG] good deal on netbook; war story: putting Fedora on it

[William Park via talk]

Can you go into more detail about this "userspace Linux sandbox"?
-- 
William Park 

On Thu, Nov 22, 2018 at 05:28:00PM -0500, Chris Tyler via talk wrote:
> The current Chromebooks will run a Linux userspace sandboxed very nicely 
> *right
> out of the box, *neither crouton nor dev mode required. I have a Samsung
> Chromebook Plus (gen 1, with the high-dpi screen -- watch out for gen 2
> where they dropped to 1080 (and also regressed from ARM to Intel)) and the
> LInux userspace (Debian) is fabulous -- full development toolchain
> (including gdb etc), X window and wayland app support, and so on. The
> environments are semi-integrated -- there's a separate directory in the
> ChromeOS "Files" application that maps to $HOME in the sandbox/container,
> but any graphical apps you install into the sandbox show up on the ChromeOS
> main menu (e.g., LibreOffice, Gimp, Eschema, and so forth). Apparently
> deeper integration is coming; releases in the pipeline include the ability
> to do things like mount your Google Drive filesystem within the sandbox.
> 
> My wife has a Pixelbook (top-end Chromebook, gorgeous build with glass
> trackpad etc - I gave her the nice machine this time ;-) and the Linux
> userspace is supposed to work really well there, but I haven't tried it yet.
> 
> -Chris
---
Talk Mailing List
talk@gtalug.org
https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk

[GTALUG] slightly ot: trustworthy source for older mad hardware?

[Karen Lewellen via talk]

well, OSX is a UNIX based system I am told, so perhaps not totally  off 
topic.
Trustworthy source for slightly older Mac hardware?  Meaning not on kigigi 
if that makes sense.
I rather seriously seek a macbook or macbook pro old enough to still have 
line in line out and headphone jacks, and an optical drive.
ideas?   For example an apple users group, or someone hiding this in a 
closet?

Cheers,
Kare


---
Talk Mailing List
talk@gtalug.org
https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk

Re: [GTALUG] good deal on netbook; war story: putting Fedora on it

[D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk]

| From: Chris Tyler via talk 

|  I have a Samsung
| Chromebook Plus (gen 1, with the high-dpi screen -- watch out for gen 2
| where they dropped to 1080 (and also regressed from ARM to Intel))

I take it that your model is the XE513C24-K01US.

I was very impressed with how it worked for you during a presentation
at FSOSS last month.  Somehow presentations bring out the worst in
computers but yours worked well.

The resolution seems to be 2400 x 1600 in 12.3".  That's a nicer
aspect ratio than most notebooks.

The disk space seems a bit low for Linux (but generous for ChromeOS):
32G.  I would guess that it is eMMC and not upgradable.

The price here seems quite high: $731.82 on amazon.ca.
walmart.com has it at US$499.  Why are they still selling it if there
is now a V2?
---
Talk Mailing List
talk@gtalug.org
https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk

Re: [GTALUG] good deal on netbook; war story: putting Fedora on it

[Chris Tyler via talk]

The current Chromebooks will run a Linux userspace sandboxed very nicely *right
out of the box, *neither crouton nor dev mode required. I have a Samsung
Chromebook Plus (gen 1, with the high-dpi screen -- watch out for gen 2
where they dropped to 1080 (and also regressed from ARM to Intel)) and the
LInux userspace (Debian) is fabulous -- full development toolchain
(including gdb etc), X window and wayland app support, and so on. The
environments are semi-integrated -- there's a separate directory in the
ChromeOS "Files" application that maps to $HOME in the sandbox/container,
but any graphical apps you install into the sandbox show up on the ChromeOS
main menu (e.g., LibreOffice, Gimp, Eschema, and so forth). Apparently
deeper integration is coming; releases in the pipeline include the ability
to do things like mount your Google Drive filesystem within the sandbox.

My wife has a Pixelbook (top-end Chromebook, gorgeous build with glass
trackpad etc - I gave her the nice machine this time ;-) and the Linux
userspace is supposed to work really well there, but I haven't tried it yet.

-Chris


On Thu, Nov 22, 2018 at 3:41 PM Christopher Browne via talk 
wrote:

> On Wed, 21 Nov 2018 at 22:53, William Park via talk 
> wrote:
> > Just curious... Where/how do you use these little computers?  I mean,
> > $300 here, $200 there, $100 upgrade, $50 ram, $25 microSD, etc. they all
> > add up.
>
> I have been carrying around a Chromebook running Linux-y bits via Crouton
> for 3.5+ years now; it's coming towards the end of its lifespan, and only
> cost me a bit past $200, with no extras adding up.
>
> Quoting my own email from 2015-03-15 on this list...
>
> "I'm liking my Samsung ARM-based Chromebook well enough; I'm running
> Debian "in behind" via the Crouton layer, which has been working fine.
> I'll bet that by the time I care for something more, there will be a
> newer model with more storage, memory, and CPU than I presently have."
>
> It's 2018, and the reason I'm looking for something newer mostly has to do
> with the fact that such a cheap laptop has a fairly fragile case, so it's
> beginning to age a bit ungracefully.  That something newer has
> greater capacity is fine.
> --
> When confronted by a difficult problem, solve it by reducing it to the
> question, "How would the Lone Ranger handle this?"
> ---
> Talk Mailing List
> talk@gtalug.org
> https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
>
---
Talk Mailing List
talk@gtalug.org
https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk

Re: [GTALUG] good deal on netbook; war story: putting Fedora on it

[D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk]

| From: Christopher Browne via talk 

| It's 2018, and the reason I'm looking for something newer mostly has to do
| with the fact that such a cheap laptop has a fairly fragile case

I find I treat my netbooks more roughly than I treat my ultrabook that
cost 5 or 7 times as much (I have two netbooks, thus the two factors).
Being able to treat it more rougly makes it more useful.  Think: jeans
vs suit.

I'm fascinated by tacit differences like this.

Another example: I find fan noise disturbing (in proportion to its
volume) but also it adds to my tension about battery life.  In the
electric car world, a similar phenomenon is called "range anxiety".
---
Talk Mailing List
talk@gtalug.org
https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk

[GTALUG] [GTALUG-Announce] GTALUG Meeting on Tuesday 11 December at 7:30pm

[hi--- via talk]

# VDO for CentOS, RHEL and beyond w/ Aaren deJong

VDO is the new storage layer from Red Hat for block level compression, 
deduplication and zero-block omission.
It's not just for RHEL and it's likely the start of something bigger for 
open-source storage. Those familiar with (open)ZFS
might find this familiar and/or interesting. 

## Location

George Vari Engineering and Computing Centre
245 Church Street, Room 203
Ryerson University





## Schedule

* 6:00 pm - Please discuss on the general mailing list (i.e. ) 
where you want to go for dinner.
* 7:30 pm - Meeting and presentation.
* 9:00 pm - After each meeting, a group of GTALUGers move to The Imperial Pub 
(54 Dundas St East) for refreshments and more socialising.

# Code of Conduct

We want a productive happy community that can welcome new ideas, improve every
process every year, and foster collaboration between individuals with differing
needs, interests and skills.

We gain strength from diversity, and actively seek participation from those who
enhance it. This code of conduct exists to ensure that diverse groups
collaborate to mutual advantage and enjoyment. We will challenge prejudice that
could jeopardise the participation of any person in the community.

The Code of Conduct governs how we behave in public or in private whenever the
Linux community will be judged by our actions. We expect it to be honoured by
everyone who represents the community officially or informally, claims
affiliation or participates directly. It applies to activities online or
offline.

We invite anybody to participate. Our community is open.

Please read more about the GTALUG Code of Conduct here:
.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the GTALUG Code of
Conduct please contact the GTALUG Board @ .
---
GTALUG Announce mailing list
annou...@gtalug.org
https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/announce
---
Talk Mailing List
talk@gtalug.org
https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk

Re: [GTALUG] good deal on netbook; war story: putting Fedora on it

[Christopher Browne via talk]

On Wed, 21 Nov 2018 at 22:53, William Park via talk  wrote:
> Just curious... Where/how do you use these little computers?  I mean,
> $300 here, $200 there, $100 upgrade, $50 ram, $25 microSD, etc. they all
> add up.

I have been carrying around a Chromebook running Linux-y bits via Crouton
for 3.5+ years now; it's coming towards the end of its lifespan, and only
cost me a bit past $200, with no extras adding up.

Quoting my own email from 2015-03-15 on this list...

"I'm liking my Samsung ARM-based Chromebook well enough; I'm running
Debian "in behind" via the Crouton layer, which has been working fine.
I'll bet that by the time I care for something more, there will be a
newer model with more storage, memory, and CPU than I presently have."

It's 2018, and the reason I'm looking for something newer mostly has to do
with the fact that such a cheap laptop has a fairly fragile case, so it's
beginning to age a bit ungracefully.  That something newer has
greater capacity is fine.
-- 
When confronted by a difficult problem, solve it by reducing it to the
question, "How would the Lone Ranger handle this?"
---
Talk Mailing List
talk@gtalug.org
https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk