More at ZDnet...

--jeremy

Lets hope for the best

Didn't someone try this a few years back, but it was deemed as not sufficient for what is expected from a laptop?

It's exactly as Torvalds says, the current devices are targets or content consumers, and are geared as such. Even with a keyboard, mouse or drawing tablet, I'd hate to try to compile programs or do intensive graphics work. While most of these tasks are still relegated to the desktop, laptops are equally capable. Unfortunately I can't see ARM getting past the Chromebook/Netbook class of laptop as it is now.

Eh, Chromebooks are sufficient for most people, to be honest. That arm is in that game to me is enough, there ARE ARM laptops. I would just like them to make it easier to replace the default (usually Android) OS with the OS of choice (Debian ARM, in my case).

It's not that hard to install the Linux distro of your choice on any ARM chromebook. Although I have to admit, many distros don't have an ARM version. Debian certainly does, and maybe Torvald's distro of choice, Fedora. For debian, ARM versions are readily available and easily installed. I put it on the first Samsung chromebook long ago, and it's not difficult.

I've read the ARM chromebooks were difficult, because they usually have a bootloader like on phones, so you have to jailbreak it first, before you can install something different. Never actually tried, but i'd love to be able to get one of those Tegra Chromebooks and put Debian on.

No, nothing like phones. Chromebooks use UEFI, same as other modern laptops. You do have to put it in developer mode, but that's easy enough, usually a few keypresses. If not in developer mode, the chromebook won't boot anything other than the ChromeOS installed. That's a security feature, not a bug. :-) But in developer mode, you can boot whatever you want. It's essential to understand how UEFI works, because it isn't your mama's grub. It will replace grub in the not-so-distant future, though, on all new hardware.

I installed Debian on my chromebook, and eventually put ChromeOS back, running Debian in a chroot. ChromeOS is really a nice OS, with more security than any standard Linux distro, boots from cold in ~10 seconds, waking from suspend is instantaneous. It does most things I need, and for the few things it won't do, I can have Debian available with one mouse click, or one keystroke combo. But if your really must have Linux alone, it's certainly available. One downside is the small SSD installed, but there are models available with replaceable SSDs, or you can use a USB drive or SSD card to increase storage.

I'm actually really familiar with UEFI, as all my systems are UEFI (I hated MBR, LOVE UEFI). I'm ok with a small ssd, my 4th laptop has only a 32 GB ssd, and it's more than sufficient for my needs (I also have a 32 GB SD card if needed, did use that as /home for a while, but just don't save enough to bother using it).

Might have to hit up ebay then and pick up one of those Tegra chromebooks to play around with. I like them because for ~$250 you get a 1080P LCD with a quad core processor. That it's an ARM processor I don't mind since 99 of what I do is web based and will work fine on ARM.

How is ChromeOS more secure?

That's a long, involved question. You really need to look it up, if you seriously want to know. I don't have the time or the knowledge to explain all of it. A lot of it has to do with only booting verified kernels. A standard chromebook running ChromeOS won't boot anything except the installed signed kernel, which has to be verified before it boots. Any changes at all, and it won't boot. That can be bypassed by enabling developer mode, which allows you to sign your own kernel. There is much more, and it's all available in Google's documentation if you want to spend the time to read it.

sgosnell,
Any link to any postings you remember here, which have the model you used? (seeing some scratch and dent Samsung ones for $99)
Of course we all have personal preferences (no mater the rational AKA 1080 screen size), but the biggest downfall I saw with those, was no replaceable/upgradeable memory or storage. I don't want to be always lugging around extra memory cards or a USB hard drive.
That doesn't even consider the differences between Arm processor branches, which makes a development machine war on which base do we want to develop on or for and how will it grow quicker then other arm bases. (doubt they standardize)

I don't have any links. The ARM model I had was the first generation Samsung. Few chromebooks have 1080p screens. Most have low-spec everything, because they're cheap. You can't get the best screens available, lots of RAM and storage, and the rest of the top-of-the-line features for less than $200, and you can buy many new chromebooks for less than $200. The latest tend to run closer to $250, though, and lately a few are being offered with higher specs in the $300 range. Google's Pixel runs ~$1000, with really top-of-the-line features, but that's the only model I know of that's in that range, most are near the bottom. If you want upgradable RAM and SSDs, you may have to look around a good bit. My current daily driver is an Acer C720, and it has replaceable SSD, not RAM, and it has an Intel Celeron CPU. Most of the Chromeboxes do have replaceable RAM and SSDs, if you can live with a small desktop version instead of a laptop. I have an Asus chromebox, and I don't plan on ever buying a standard desktop computer again. But YMMV, of course.