Chromebook compared to Unix - any flavor

I have been reading with great interest all the hu-bub about the Chromebook; it runs a stripped-down version of Unix. They are selling like hot cakes with current selling prices above retail, and people are still buying them. From what I have read, all you seem to get is a fast booting and quick Internet browsing machine for appx $200.

SO, I have been experimenting around with different version of Unix, and I have about become a convert. I had NO IDEA how fast Unix is comapred to Windows 7, especially on lower-end machines.

My point is: Why limit what you can do with a Chromebook when you can have a lot more functionality with the Unix flavor of your choice?

 

Because the complexity of a full Linux system means less speed and more bugs.

(I've used ChromeOS briefly, and hated it for being all cloud-based; the idea of being unable to even log in without a Google account is a bit too much. That said, it would probably be wonderful for novices who find Windows too high-maintenance.)

 

You can run Google apps off-line without having to connect to the cloud. This increases the Chromebook's usefulness considerably.

 

Oh I know, I just prefer my desktop login not to be dependent on my having a known Google account.

 

Chrome OS seems to radically simplify security. The assumption is that Google does a good job keeping things tight, and as far as I know that's a sound assumption. That issue is seperate from the other important issue of Google's privacy practices.

 

The Linux core on the Google Chromebook is based on Gentoo Linux.

 

Really? Last time I tried it, it was very obviously based on Ubuntu 9.04; if what you say is true there must have been big changes. Does it use any features from hardened Gentoo?

 

I believe it uses multiple features from pax/grsecurity, but not all of them.

 

Exactly. That is kind of where I was going with this thread. What a lot of people want and deserve is the "Apple Experience": turn it on and start using it without worrying about viruses, trojans, key-loggers, adware, spyware; you get my drift.

I have been messing around with Fedora 18 LXDE Live on a low-end machine and have been impressed with it's boot time and overall performance. Being new to Unix, however, I sometimes a get a bit overwhelmed with the number of different releases and versions of Unix to choose from.

 

In my experience, installing Linux on hardware as old as 2007 does require some effort in choosing a distribution. With faster hardware one can easily go with the default choice of the current Ubuntu LTS. With Chrome it doesn't matter because it comes on new hardware.