
First real-world usage figures suggest Chromebooks are struggling - shawndumas
http://www.zdnet.com/first-real-world-usage-figures-suggest-chromebooks-are-struggling-7000014102/
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microwise
I think the many of buyers have installed linux on their chromebooks and that
may contribute to why the figure is really low.

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thekevan
Am I the only one that wishes Google would sell these with Ubuntu, or even
allow an Ubuntu option?

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gizmo686
The Chromebook is fully capable of running other operating systems. Given that
Chrome OS is free, and the fact that they are going for simplicity, it seems
like they have a very reasonable system; which is designed explicitly to allow
alternative OSes without compromising the 'normal' user.

In a normal boot, the computer loads a read only firmware. It then checks the
file system for kernel images. At this point, it finds the newest one (with a
valid cryptographic signature from google), and boots into that. If none of
the kernels are signed, then it enters a recovery mode.

However, every chromebook has a physical switch to put it in developer mode.
In this state, the cryptographic checks are no longer performed, so you are
free to load your own OS.

The only problem with this system is that if you want to load your own kernel,
you are stuck with the security of every computer before secure boot became
common. Seeing as that is still most computers, (and I do not see what benefit
google would get from reguiring users to surrender that benefit), I think this
is reasonable.

It would, however, be nice to be able to modify the keystore and load my own
verified OS. Thankfully, there are plenty of UEFI systems that support this.

