I have a little Dell 3189 2-in-1 that I originally got used just to see what the ChromeOS fuss was about and hack on.
I’d rooted it, and played with the various hosted/injected Linux options (like chromebrew and the 1st party Linux VM stuff, neither of which was great) while it was under support, but some time after it went AUE I went ahead and flashed a Mr. Chromebox UEFI payload onto it and just slammed normal Linux onto it. It basically “Just Works” though that’s thanks to considerable efforts in the Coreboot port and Kernel because there is a bunch of cheap bullshit (badly plumbed i2c input devices, that stupid bay/cherry trail style half integrated audio setup, etc.) in the hardware. I had briefly flashed it over a couple years ago and that hadn’t all been smoothed over yet back then.
Lately its an Arch system playing with various Wayland options - Hyprland is ricer bullshit, but it actually does a pretty decent job at being not wildly broken compared to the big environments in Wayland mode, tiling makes good use of the not enough pixels, and the search key in the left pinkie position makes a great WM key.
It’s not a nice computer, an N3060 with 4GB of RAM 32GB of emmc and a 1366x768 panel is distinctly in craptop territory these days, but you can also get them for like $50 now because no one wants past AUE Chromebooks, and they make nice beaters - and unlike refurb SFF boxes or SBCs similar usual sub-$100 beater options, they come with a screen and keyboard and battery.
Yup.
I have a little Dell 3189 2-in-1 that I originally got used just to see what the ChromeOS fuss was about and hack on.
I’d rooted it, and played with the various hosted/injected Linux options (like chromebrew and the 1st party Linux VM stuff, neither of which was great) while it was under support, but some time after it went AUE I went ahead and flashed a Mr. Chromebox UEFI payload onto it and just slammed normal Linux onto it. It basically “Just Works” though that’s thanks to considerable efforts in the Coreboot port and Kernel because there is a bunch of cheap bullshit (badly plumbed i2c input devices, that stupid bay/cherry trail style half integrated audio setup, etc.) in the hardware. I had briefly flashed it over a couple years ago and that hadn’t all been smoothed over yet back then.
Lately its an Arch system playing with various Wayland options - Hyprland is ricer bullshit, but it actually does a pretty decent job at being not wildly broken compared to the big environments in Wayland mode, tiling makes good use of the not enough pixels, and the search key in the left pinkie position makes a great WM key.
It’s not a nice computer, an N3060 with 4GB of RAM 32GB of emmc and a 1366x768 panel is distinctly in craptop territory these days, but you can also get them for like $50 now because no one wants past AUE Chromebooks, and they make nice beaters - and unlike refurb SFF boxes or SBCs similar usual sub-$100 beater options, they come with a screen and keyboard and battery.