Thinking of Moving to a Chromebox

Discussion in 'all things UNIX' started by AutoCascade, Feb 17, 2015.

  1. AutoCascade

    AutoCascade Registered Member

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    With a usb external hard drive to act as my local Google Drive.

    This chromebox user has a Google Octane score of nearly 28,000 while my AMD-8320 12gb machine barely makes 17,000. I'd get the security I crave - HungryMans comments on the security of a chromebook are extremely impressive.
    I have seen these sold as open box for $450 which may still be steep for what you get - I'd have to add the external drive at some point and immediately add a bluetooth or some other wireless keyboard and mouse maybe $160 for both.

    This just blows my box out of the water.

    https://plus.google.com/101486004679658584691/posts/eoFSVK55QMD
     
  2. oneeyed25

    oneeyed25 Registered Member

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    Hmm you shouldn't rely on a Google benchmark to test a Google machine. Moreover iirc it only measures Javascript performance.

    And while Chromebox may have good security defaults, I'm pretty sure you can get better with any Linux setup as long as you invest some of your time (GRSecurity, SELinux, Apparmor, etc...)
     
  3. AutoCascade

    AutoCascade Registered Member

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    From what I've read here ChromeOS is a simplified Hardened Gentoo so it has Grsec built in and if it ever did get infected (something that is near impossible based on what I've read here) its seconds to just reload the rom based OS and wipe it out. Rolling my own GRsec kernel is just beyond me at this point in time.

    I use Chrome/Chromium so the benchmark would seem pretty valid. Its a 65% increase in javascript performance over my 8 core cpu. I played around with a chromebook at BestBuy the other day and was surprised how quick it was which made me investigate the performance of the CB versus my machine. i suppose with many tabs open mine would look better but thats not something I ever do.

    https://www.wilderssecurity.com/thre...-chrome-os-security-wise.359757/#post-2338622

    "ChromeOS uses a PaX/Grsecurity hardened kernel (though not a fully featured one, some things are not enabled). ChromeOS has a very very small attack surface compared to most other Linux distributions.

    That's like 99% of it"
     
  4. x942

    x942 Guest


    ChromeOS is VERY secure. I have recommended them to many family members and friends who are non-techie and only need a web-browser. During my security testing ChromeOS past with flying colors. The other nice thing outside of software is the fact that the BIOS/Firmware is read-only. You need to dismantle the laptop and remove a screw in order to be able to write to it. That should help prevent BIOS infection. The BIOS on most chromeOS devices is also core-boot which is open-source. This is great if you eventually want to remove chromeOS and install a full linux distro on it. Running something like Debian would give you a really open computer (From BIOS down to OS).

    Few recommendations though:

    • Stick to x86 hardware. This makes it easier to move to a full linux distro later if you wish. Even if you don't now, imagine 2 years or so from now when you just want to re-purpose the hardware for something else (e.g. a server). The ARM chromebooks I have used have also been WAY slower.
    • Stay with good brands - I am sure most people here would do this but with chromebooks make sure you buy a good name brand. I would stick with HP, Acer, and Dell. I know people who have lots of problems with Samsung chromebooks. This is from what I have seen so take this as opinion and do your own research :)
     
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