Comments on: $300 Chromebook Faceoff: ARM vs. x86? Which Is Better?

By: ward

ward — Sun, 21 Aug 2022 15:41:22 +0000

Congrats to Tyler G. Send your shipping information to support AT incrediblepbx DOT com.

By: Stoyan Deckoff

Stoyan Deckoff — Sun, 21 Aug 2022 14:37:54 +0000

I am in love with my wife’s pixel tablet. Sadly, this model is no longer produced, and x86 Chromebooks are few and far between. So put my name in the hat and draw it for the x86 model, please 🙂

[WM: Sorry, Stoyan, but the cutoff for comments was the end of July, 2022. Winner to be announced shortly.]

By: Tyler G

Tyler G — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 22:31:47 +0000

I’ve been aware of Chromebooks ever since they were introduced, but I’ve surprisingly never used one. Before now, I haven’t read a comparison of ARM vs. x86, so thanks for yet another great article! ARM definitely has a great future, but I think I’d go for one of the x86 Chromebooks based on reading this.

By: Jose Casares

Jose Casares — Sat, 16 Jul 2022 10:29:54 +0000

I have been testing chrome books for some time. I have bought several inexpensive used chrome books and I have had great results at the beginning until I get kicked out due to “password” issues then I get kicked out of chromeOS which is funny because I’m able to use same chrome credentials on my windows PC, laptop, iPad, iPhone, android phone and tablets. All work fine except chrome book. Go figure.

By: Rick

Rick — Mon, 11 Jul 2022 13:59:06 +0000

I have been "Chromebook curious" for a while but had figured that doing exactly this wasn’t really possible.

Thank you for all the time and effort you put into these articles, Ward! You truly rock!!!

By: Joe Bleau

Joe Bleau — Thu, 07 Jul 2022 14:12:54 +0000

I picked up a $99 ARM based Lenovo ChromeOS tablet during black Friday, then added the keyboard cover at Christmas. Great for light browsing with incredible battery life.

I’m running in guest mode (no google account!) with Crouton for my CLI fix, which has been pretty handy.

But ChromeOS is really frustrating–it really wants to force me into ‘tablet’ mode, and I absolutely hate the tab management of the Chrome browser in tablet mode. I managed to get back to laptop mode the first few updates, but with the latest even attaching the keyboard doesn’t do it. The only way is to plug in a freakin’ mouse! I’ve considered building a microcontroller mouse simulator to plug into the USB-C port, but I’m afraid I’ll snap it off!

The other pain point is that to access the dev mode switch you have to pry apart the tablet and cut through adhesive. I’m not at all confident I can pull that off without breaking the screen or digitizer, so I’m unable to install my own build of ChromeOS. Annoying.

After all that, I think an x86 Chromebook would be more versatile and easier to hack on. If you’re just looking to surf, then ARM is fine.

ob VOIP ref: got a Grandstream HT-802 ATA on the way, hoping to port my dad’s landline over to Signalwire and whitelist known callers while filtering spammers. Sounds like a fun project. Any opinions on the Grandstream ATAs?

By: Dawain

Dawain — Sun, 03 Jul 2022 17:52:25 +0000

Thanks much for another great review. I was pretty much thinking about which architecture to go for the other day now having read this lovely little write-up I have made up my mind. x86 baby!. Please continue to put out good blogs. So incredible.

Cheers

By: Michael Parker

Michael Parker — Sun, 03 Jul 2022 17:44:46 +0000

With a chromebook you can run Linux as well as all the normal Chrome apps.
I work with remote linux virtual machines and need a standard Linux shell & ssh. The cheap Chromebooks are perfect for this and battery life is just brilliant.
Never thought about running Incredible PBX on one and now feel this could open up a big new world for me.

By: Arthur McTaggart

Arthur McTaggart — Mon, 27 Jun 2022 17:19:01 +0000

I've been using a Lenovo Duet (ARM32) as a "standby" computer for the past year or so. I've traveled with it and in actual fact that's where it really shines. I didn't want to take a full sized laptop & tablet due to the sheer weight of having both of them. Having an ARM processor does make it frustrating when you want to install some apps, due to missing and unavailable libraries or dependencies. That being said the battery life is quite good and is definitely a plus. So for light use and travel I'd say they're quite good. I think it makes the perfect demo "show off" machine as you said for an install of Incredible PBX.