I sold chromebooks for a wile now, and there seems to be some misunderstandings about who buys them and so on. So if anyone is interested in the topic I would not say im the expert, but I have been there for lots of sales and questions.
Ask away...
What was the average age range of the people coming in to get one, and what was the main thing people were using them for? say "Im buying this for my good." idk
Is is for the college students that need to get it done with the tools to do so. or is a more entertainment type of device for kids?
Very few people where buying them to hack them, but I put Ubuntu on mine. But parents were the most common people. Who they ended up with was children, or older people. People who don't know how to use a computer really.
The problem with most peoples understanding of chromebooks is that they make a great second device for just screwing around on. No one should only own a chromebook, But if you just build a gaming rig its a great and cheap companion to it.
I can do all of my school work at a university on it stock. That is without having to mod it. Its just a very, very simple laptop. You can do work offlice, connect to secure wireless internet, and connect to school sites.
The problem with using it as a school device, especially for higher education is that you can not install any outside chrome apps on the device. It is however really simple to put other Linux OS's on the device. So make sure you do not need a specific set of software before you pick one up.
Do you recommend any guides on putting ubuntu on them? I know of several, but any you have seen that were particularly good / easy to understand?
No I do not have one in mind. Just know that in order to do it you will wipe all of the data off the computer, so back up if its not a new computer. The second thing I would say is to go into the process already knowing what distribution you want to install, and what user interface you want to use. I am using 13.10 and unity, I think this gives you the basic Ubuntu experience.
The last bit of advice is that you will get a stripped down version of Linux. Meaning that they only provide the essentials. you will have to get most of the software that you want to use on your own.