Chromebooks

They're perfect for dumbass normies.

>>57320119
I got one for 200 and threw linux on it

what were you thinking as far as "cheap laptops" go in that price range?

>>57320119
For normies, they're probably the easiest and most maintenance free work laptop. Also pretty good battery life.
I've never sysadmin a chromebook, but someone posted that they're a lot less stressful to maintain than OSX or Windows.
If you know what you're doing, they make nice Linux laptop. Cheap, pretty good quality, good battery life too, generally well supported with a firmware update..

>>57320182
x220

I never understood what the purpose of that beastly chromebook that google put out. It had like an i7 and 8 or 16 gigs of ram, but it ran on chrome OS so there's almost no software that will ever utilize all that for its full potential.

So was it just an overpriced, overpowered facebook machine?

>>57320219
It was ahead of its time.

>>57320119

Prior to Microsoft relaxing licensing costs in an effort to drive the "race to the bottom" against Chromebooks, they were usually the cheaper option.

They're marketing more towards normies who wouldn't know what the fuck Remix OS is, and don't care to.

ChromeOS offers basically everything a normie cares about. Facebook, Spotify, Access to their online bank accounts and paying bills, Youtube, Netflix, streaming movie sites like projectfreetv, Google Docs/Onedrive Online for typing up shit or making basic spreadsheets of things, access to gmail/yahoo mail/webmail, and so-on.
They're meant to be the "replaces everything you normally do on a windows laptop anyway" laptop, with the added advantage that they're (usually) faster in operation, faster in use, basically virus-proof, "requires no maintenance" since they don't slow-down overtime like people are prone to think Windows does, and generally have all the features normies care to have (USB ports, HDMI output, SD Card slot, some have WAN access)

I used to market these things in Best Buy when Google/Marketstar did their in-store demo program for them, and I own a CR-48. Genuinely, I love the Chromebook series. 99% of what I care to do on a laptop, my Series 5 550 does. Anything else, I do on my desktop.

>>57320219
Halo Device. Didn't need to make sense. It was a "Let's just make something badass just because" device. Which is why it had a limited production, cost a butt-load, and had luxury features (coreboot, piano hinges, LED strip in the lid, etc)

>>57320186

They're hella-easy to administrate, depending on the use-case. Schools fucking love them, because the administration side for Google Apps is the easiest thing in the universe to learn, admin wise. Means Teachers can even administrate student's accounts, without the sysadmin worrying they're gonna fuck up way too much shit. It's basically idiot proof, it's all web-based so a teacher can take their chromebook home, login, and see that little-timmy downloaded 5gbs of hardcore anal porn to his Google Drive, and lock his account remotely, and because everything is cloud-based for storage and user settings and so forth, swapping devices or end-of-year refreshes are fucking easy. Hand 'em in, 5-10 minutes of powerwash, it's fucking good to go for next year.

>>57320201
>x220
>nearly two inches thick
>meh battery life
>plastic

I made a good decision for me.

>>57320119
They're designed to boot very quickly. A lot of them, out of the box, boot in less than 10 seconds.

They're also designed to optimally do what 90% of laptop users use their laptops for: facebook, checking email, and writing up homework.

Personally I got a used one from 2015 for $95, flashed the firmware, and installed GalliumOS on it. It's light enough to carry around campus, slim enough to fit next to my books, great battery life, boots fast, has a really nice looking brushed metal casing, does all my homework and internet stuff, and I don't have to subscribe to the botnet.

You can get the Play Store and all the apps on newer Chromebooks. When they launch that on the lower end models which are coming early next year it will take off again. I still have my Acer C7 running strong for the last three years. Its a great shitposting/browsing etc device.

I got one for my computer-illiterate mother.

She used to call me for computer related issues all the time when she had a windows laptop. Now for a year she uses the thing without an issue.

>>57320325
Yeah, in all honestly the battery life is a huge let down.

>>57320119
>got a chromebook for free
>installed linux on it
Really I don't see what's wrong with it, it runs just fine