so a buddy of mine is poor and needs a computer for school. so i recommended him getting a chromebook, however he would want it to run ubuntu so he can run intellij and code blocks for school. so my question is how hard is it to straight install ubuntu on a chromebook? i've seen people install it through some chrome OS software and would rather it just be a straight install. i've installed ubuntu before on normal systems and have had no problems.
well this looks overly complicated... why can't it just be insert usb and install.
I google it and found this:
Hope it helps
thanks for the article, this is one that i found before making the post. problem is this one ubuntu would be running on top of chromeOS. wouldn't that kill the battery?
Kill.....nah but you might see less battery life, how much I don't know.
Also to maximise battery run time I would choose a light distro ex: Xubuntu,Lubuntu etc...
It runs sort of an ubuntu shell/filesystem on the Chrome OS linux kernel instead of the Chrome OS shell/filesystem. It's not "running on top of" the entire OS how you're thinking, only the kernel. Think changing DE's, everything is running natively on the hardware, but with a different root file system.
is there any limitations at that point software wise? or is it treating this as out of the box ubuntu?
Maybe instead of getting a Chromebook, he could get one of those super low cost Windows 8/10 machines:
m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=N82E16834232394
I bought one of these Asus EeeBooks specifically for Linux. Same price and specs as Chromebooks, but easier to install Linux on.
There are some issues with the machine (typical really), due to it having a 32-bit UEFI.
ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2254322
thanks for the tip, I passed this along to him. he seems to like this idea.
Now that I think about it a little harder, don't get an Asus computer. Ubuntu actually has a hardware certification program, and Dell and Lenovo are the two best when it comes to ensuring that their devices work on Linux. Maybe tell him to pick up an old refurbished Dell laptop. I've seen plenty of great machines for $150-300 range on ebay and Newegg. Dell seems to have the best Linux support as far as I can tell, so if I was to go through this process again, my next Linux laptop would be a Dell just because there were some things about this Asus that were a pain in the ass.