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Five Chromebook hacks that give your laptop surprising new talents
PC World ^
| 2/2/18
| Ian Paul
Posted on 02/02/2018 4:09:16 AM PST by markomalley
Chromebooks may be impressively versatile, but a good Chromebook hack helps it break out of its browser-based confines and try new talents on for size. Top of the list, of course, is the ability to install a full Linux desktop operating system via the Crouton project. But there’s a lot you can tweak or add to multiply a Chromebook's powers. Some of these features require you to install Linux— a really easy task if you follow our Crouton tutorial—but many do not.
Here are five Chromebook hacks that will improve your user experience and make these laptops even more powerful.
Steam streaming
(snip)
Chrome Remote Desktop
(snip)
Voice dictation
(snip)
Night light
(snip)
Share files between Chrome OS and Linux
(Excerpt) Read more at pcworld.com ...
TOPICS: Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: chrome; chromebook
I've thought for a while to buy a Chromebook and then immediately installing a Linux OS on it. Some other useful ideas in this piece.
To: markomalley
2
posted on
02/02/2018 4:20:23 AM PST
by
fulltlt
To: fulltlt
3
posted on
02/02/2018 5:39:39 AM PST
by
texas booster
(Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
To: markomalley
There’s a virtual machine that allows running Windows within Linux. Anybody know if that VM will work within Crouton?
If so, this might be a slick way to run Windows on a Chromebook. Or is there another, simpler way I don’t know about (very likely :)?
4
posted on
02/02/2018 5:50:26 AM PST
by
upchuck
(Keep a sharp lookout. The best is yet to come.)
To: markomalley
Just get an Ahndroid tablet. A Google Chromebook is great for web surfing, reading emails and watching movies but forget about real productive work on it.
5
posted on
02/02/2018 8:30:07 AM PST
by
goldstategop
((In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever))
To: markomalley
You can sometimes do that.
People give me laptops so I have a steady supply of Linux boxen.
6
posted on
02/02/2018 8:31:25 AM PST
by
AppyPappy
(Don't mistake your dorm political discussions with the desires of the nation)
To: markomalley
To: upchuck
Theoretically what you described is possible, but it would lead to many bouts of frustration.
The frustration derives from:
1. Virtualbox needs header files matched to your kernel in order to compile part of itself during setup
2. Chromeos updates often and would make breakable changes, so you'd need to find the matching headers and re-do
The key problem is that the open source headers don't get tagged well and as a result are not easy to find. Further, sometimes impossible to find an exact match.
My workflow, if interested in the concept is:
1. ChromeOS
a. Also runs Android apps
b. crouton into a xfce linux for more power user things
c. limitation on VMs as mentioned above
2. SD Card has a full linux GalliumOS on it and then I run the Virtualbox Windows XP within there
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