[Coco] Drivewire

[Aaron Wolfe]

On Sep 26, 2014 6:20 PM, "Steve Ostrom" <smostrom7 at comcast.net> wrote:
>
> Aaron, thanks for the advice.  I have never used linux, and I'm afraid
that might be too much of a learning curve at this time unless there is
some kind of existing script that would start linux from Chrome OS, then
set up Drivewire so it's ready to use.  Since I learned computing on an old
IBM DOS machine about 100 years ago, I'm guessing I could pick up linux but
don't know if it would be worth the effort just to use Drivewire.  It might
be simpler at this point to just get my Widows laptop operational again.
>
> I appreciate the advice.  Please let me know if you have any more
feedback.
>

It is fairly easy to put linux on a chromebook.  I suspect you'll probably
find a good reason to do that besides just for DriveWire.. chromeos is neat
but there are quite a few things that it lacks, so installing linux on them
is pretty common.

Google for "crouton chromeos" to find the most common tool and guides on
using it with various models of chromebook.  Crouton uses chroot to let you
install one or several different linux flavors and configurations,  it has
handy scripts to make it pretty easy.  Another popular approach is
"chrubuntu", again Google will find howtos and videos etc.

I've got a few different models here, they are impressive hardware for the
cost.  Chromeos is nice for very limited use (generally a bit below what
even a typical smartphone can do, but with a proper screen and keyboard).
The option to go full linux makes them a decent choice for folks needing
more traditional software too, but it does take a little extra work and
learning compared to the typical windows machine at that point.  I haven't
quite been able to recommend them for any projects at my day job,  but I
keep them in mind and try to follow the platform.   It's interesting.