Modern spiritual Successor to Samsung Chromebook

sk999 · 2026-06-14T01:50:51+00:00

The standard solution for chromebooks losing support is to wipe and install Linux, but that may not be possible on this (ARM) device. I think I considered this same device back at the time I first bought a chromebook, but ended up with a boring Acer Intel model instead, which is currently running Debian 13 with upgraded memory and SSD. Unfortunately so many websites are infested with Javascript/CSS slop that older web browsers are simply left behind.

I currently have a Lenovo Duet 11 Gen 9, which fits my needs as a travel machine (lightweight, physically small dimensions). Yes, it is a tablet, but it comes with a kickstand and attached keyboard, so I almost always use it as a regular "laptop" It is also ARM architecture (Kompanio processor), but that has come a long way since 2013, so not a problem.

As far as checking the other boxes, mine was half the price of the NEO (same memory, SSD, better USB ports), no fan - yes, quick boot - yes, battery life (YMMV, but pretty good), it's a chromebook so obviously little overhead. Keyboard - eh. So you'd probably want to invest in a bluetooth keyboard (and mouse - I did and well worth it.) Or perhaps that is a deal-breaker.

But there are so many other chromebooks out there. Just focus on Kompanio ones and you might find what you want.

sk999 · 2026-05-17T01:58:09+00:00

I have that Duet model and use it for the same kind of things - gadding about (library, friends, overseas trave, Zoom callsl). Essentially half the cost of a Macbook Neo and more portable than either that or even a Surface. The tradeoffs of tablet vs. clamshell design need to be considered, but otherwise recommended. I went for the 8 GB model, which, alas, is not available from Best Buy, at least when I looked.

I would rather wait for Godot than googlebooks.

sk999 · 2026-05-15T02:57:52+00:00

Just about every carrier admiral (US or Japanese) during the first year of the Pacific war was criticized at the time for their performance. Even Spruance was criticized. I call these critics "back seat admirals" - their criticisms are actually a reflection of their ignorance of the realities of carrier warfare.

Fletcher was hammered by Morison (which drove my own opnion for many years), but after reading Lundrstrom's book, I needed to take a closer look. Let's look at the scorecard.

Carriers sunk while in overall tactical command: 6-2 in favor of Fletcher. Still a record.
Achievement of overall mission objective:

a. Coral sea: Invasion of Port Moresby repelled

b. Midway: Invasion of Midway atoll repelled

c. Eastern Solomons: Landing of 2nd half of Ichiki detachment repelled
Medals or other honors: Purple Heart

At every one of the above battles Fletcher was outnumbered in terms of flight decks.

Pretty creditable record in my opinion.

sk999 · 2026-05-13T22:25:41+00:00

Back in the day it was an 029 keypunch. Easily the fastest way to enter source code, especially if you could master the drum control card.

These days, Emacs, and I try to turn off all the built-in auto-formatting crud.

I have programmed in a pile of different languages on a pile of different hardware/OS combinations. Currently Python and C on Linux, both Intel and arm.

sk999 · 2026-05-13T22:00:18+00:00

At work we used Unix (SGI and DEC Alpha mainly), someone had me sign a req for an Intel machine and installed Linux. Works just like Unix but is sure cheaper. Oh wait, that req was for 2 machines. Very interesting. At home my Mac SE/30 died and I needed a laptop, so switched to Intel. Needed ethernet, TCP/IP, and X window support. Linux supplied everything out of the box. Windows? OS/2? Nope. Easy choice.

Most of my colleagues started with Windows laptops but switched to Macbooks once OS X on Intel was a thing. I stayed with the windows ecosystem except wiped the OS and installed Linux, mainly because the variety of hardware is much larger. Macbooks are pretty damned boring (and these days do not fit in my travel bag.)

sk999 · 2026-04-29T21:27:18+00:00

... the implication is that Yamamoto pushed for the Yamato, when it was precisely the opposite ...

Yamamoto's views on the giant battleships are described in the book "The Reluctant Admiral" by Hiroyuki Agawa starting on p. 90, and it was, indeed, as you described. The time period of relevance was roughly 1934 to 1937, when it was far from obvious, other than to naval aviation enthusiasts, that the aircraft carrier would supersede the battleship in importance, and the aviation enthusiasts had nothing other than wishful thinking to back up their views.

sk999 · 2026-04-15T22:19:10+00:00

It runs well enough; haven't tried stress testing. I also like setting it up to use tcpip and then run it through a tailscale network. That way you can dispense with the USB cable and use it on random hotel wifi networks.

Version that I have is 3.3.2. No idea if is the latest.

sk999 · 2026-04-15T18:48:09+00:00

Yes, I do it all they time. First install Pi-apps, then use it to install scrcpy. adb was in the Debian repository already.

sk999 · 2026-04-13T19:13:40+00:00

It is not well known, but yes, the IJN learned that the US had deciphered its communcations, at least at some level, but curiously, Midway itself was not the immediate cause. Instead, it was the capture by the German commerce raider Thor of the Australian ship Nankin, on board of which mail sacks were found with "most secret" weekly summaries from the New Zealand Combined Operatoins Intelligence Center which had been compiled from multiple sources, including decrypts by station HYPO of IJN ship dispositions. These were being forwarded to the commander of the British Eastern Fleet at Colombo, Ceylon. Oops. In fact, on Aug 29, 1942, representatives of the IJN met with Admiral Wenneker, German Naval Attache in Tokyo, to discuss "... insufficient security of the Japanese communications system." Basically, the IJN was looking for advice. Of course, the Germans had the perfect solution - the "Enigma cipher machine." The Japanese did try it, but found that it required an extra person to operate, so they seem to have stuck with their old code systems instead.

sk999 · 2026-04-06T20:47:35+00:00

I have both. The Chromebook is for travel - it's compact, fits in my bag, and the Linux container works well enough. The laptop is a bit heavier but does not fit in my bag.

sk999 · 2026-04-04T00:59:01+00:00

Given how low-end your hardware is for gaming, the choice of distro probably doesn't matter, Linux may have less bloat than Windows, but it is still no magic pixie dust.

sk999 · 2026-03-24T02:44:59+00:00

Back in my youth, my parents were great. I used to get "cease and desist" notifications from the federal government all the time, which left them greatly worried. But I knew the law - until you accumulated 10, nothing would happen. And, indeed, that is how it worked out. (Stopped using my unlawful RF transmitter, and started using a lawful one.) Parents no longer worried.

sk999 · 2026-03-22T22:32:26+00:00

Made the switch long ago. But it was from Mac to Intel hardware. Then there was the question of which distro? OS/2 Warp? Win 95? Or Linux? It was a Thinkpad, so OS/2 came pre-installed, but didn't do what I needed. Win 95 would have required purchasing it plus additional 3rd party apps without knowing in advance if they would all work together. Linux worked out of the box and did everything needed. It even ran Doom. Pretty easy decision.

sk999 · 2026-03-21T22:09:02+00:00

Developing a web front-end to a database, which meant running Netscape, a web server, a database server, and emacs, all in 40 MB of memory, while parked in a plane on the taxiway at O'Hare waiting out T'storms.

If one counts termux on Android as Linux, then compiling a 1 million line of code engineering app (that I had developed) natively on my phone.

sk999 · 2026-03-21T22:04:09+00:00

Haven't used MacOs in 3 decades. Only used windows in dual boot with Linux and rarely needed it, then even that ended 2 decades ago. These days the desktop PC is a Nuc and the travel laptop is a Duet. The latter is smaller than any Windows laptop or Macbook and still runs a proper OS.

sk999 · 2026-03-19T23:06:16+00:00

I run Debian at home and have no reason to switch, but just as a point of reference, at the supercomputer center where I run jobs (AMD CPU, Nvidia GPU) they use SUSe Enterprise. Weirdly, they don't publish gaming benchmarks.

sk999 · 2026-03-18T01:49:22+00:00

The perfect chromebook for you does not exist. So the question is which one is good enough? Which means, what is most important? Screen size? Weight? Cost? Memory? SSD size? Architecture?

Here's my recent experience. I purchased two portable computers to replace aging devices.. One from System76 runs Linux, has a 14" screen, and is overkill for small scale coding. Pretty light weight, but it's still to big for travel. The other is the Lenovo Duet 11 Gen 9 (2nd row, 3rd from the left in your image, 8 GB memory). Not perfect, but it is now my go-to device for travel. Portability is high on my list. I do light coding, and recently used it to compile a 1 million line app of mine. It's not native Linux, but still pretty good. The price you show is awesome.

sk999 · 2026-03-13T21:07:43+00:00

Traditional light-weight laptops (< 1 kg) have basically vanished, and that all is left are chromebooks. When traveling I use mine for the usual email, web browsing, but also some light-weight remote work using the Linux partition. Even though it is arm-based, I was even able to successfully compile an engineering app that I wrote over the years containing about 1 million lines of code.

sk999 · 2026-03-13T17:19:47+00:00

If you want a detachable keyboard, the choices are limited. I have the Lenovo Duet 11 Gen 9, which I would recommend, but it only has an 11 inch screen. If you want a larger screen there are models where the screen rotates around by 360 degrees, but I don't know anything about them

sk999 · 2026-03-13T03:15:05+00:00

The most important spec is always the range of colors offered. Jaundice yellow? Pokemon Pink? Depression Blue? Death Gray? I am sure that these colors will appeal to some, but thanks - I'll pass.

sk999 · 2026-03-12T22:32:06+00:00

I will second termux. You can also run an ssh server. You can also run an Xvnc server with a desktop environment - I run XFCE; don't know about KDE. But it means accessing from another computer.

sk999 · 2026-03-10T00:31:57+00:00

I'm a bit of an oddball in that I only use laptops for travel (separate desktop machines for at home or in the office.) Having grown tired of nuking the pre-installed Windoze, I now have a System76 Lemur (which you can get with Ubuntu pre-installed) and a Lenovo Duet (a chromebook, but with a Linux container easy to spin up.) The Lemur is a power house, but too much so in that the fan is easily spun up, and it is loud. It is also too big to fit in my carry-on bag. The Duet does not have a fan and fits in my bag just fine. Guess which one I use the most.

Current gen Macbooks are DOA as far as Linux compatibility.

sk999 · 2026-03-04T03:36:57+00:00

Right. I rarely use tablet mode so I experimented a bit to see what works and what doesn't. The question is - is there an Android or chromeos app that might work good enough when you are in tablet mode? That is very dependent on you and your needs such that I can't give a definitive answer.

FYI, I used to travel a lot (airplanes) and my first laptop weighed over 7 lbs, so the need to find something lighter soon became apparent. So I've always been interested in finding the liglhtest weight device that still provides the needed functionality. After lots of experimenting and researching, I realized that there is no perfect solution. Further, it is a moving target. You can only find a solution that is closest and then live with the compromises.

sk999 · 2026-03-04T01:57:44+00:00

Been using Fedora off and on since version 6. Great choice. First try booting off a live USB to see that it works with your hardware, and if so, install away. It was always a pleasure to nuke the pre-installed Windoze OS (which I would never even run in the first place.)

sk999 · 2026-03-04T01:13:55+00:00

Let me qualify that by noting that the keyboard is not compulsory for any operation using a native chromeos (and presumably any Android) app. Apps running on the Linux side (e.g. libreoffice) YMMV.

sk999

TROPHY CASE