Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

I've suggested ChromeOS to family members that use facebook, email, and limited spreadsheets. Ultimately, I backtracked when they asked about printing. Telling them they have to buy a new printer that's Cloud Print compatible is a tough sell, especially if they've purchased one within the last year.

I have found that Chrome Boxes are excellent machines for demoing web products at tradeshows. Cheap, relatively hardened, fast enough, and sync bookmarks and settings.




Printing and I would say sharing files between computers are biggest gripes with Chromebook. No I dont want to share files using Google cloud always.


You can actually setup any machine as a Cloud Print server (i.e. publishing its own printers as Cloud Print capable printers) so long as it can run Chrome or Chromium. Even a Raspberry Pi will do the trick: http://www.howtogeek.com/169566/how-to-turn-a-raspberry-pi-i...


You can run a bridge, but then it's another machine to set up and maintain. How are security and Chrome updates handled? A cron job? What if that fails? Suddenly the simple Chromebook is more complex.

I wouldn't mind running that hack myself, but there's no way I'd drop it on someone who couldn't debug if something went wrong.


> but there's no way I'd drop it on someone who couldn't debug if something went wrong.

One approach I've done to make things more debuggable (not for this specific setup, but for Unix-running home servers in general) is to SSH in (I used to - with the user's permission, of course - setup forwarding of port 22 on the user's router/gateway/etc., but nowadays I usually setup a remote tunneling script that the user can kickoff somehow). I also tend to build systems that run for months - if not years - without any maintenance, so there's that, too :)

Still doesn't address the "another machine to set up and maintain" issue, but if I did my job right, it would be as inconspicuous as a wall clock.


`sudo apt-get install unattended-upgrades`


Those instructions haven't worked for almost a year, when Google stopped supporting Chromium v22.

I just updated my instructions to use Google's new open source connector: https://matthew.mceachen.us/blog/add-google-cloudprint-wifi-...


I wasn't aware (it's admittedly been a long time since I've done this; nowadays I just run a central CUPS server to drive my printers); thanks for the much better link.


> I have found that Chrome Boxes are excellent machines for demoing web products at tradeshows. Cheap, relatively hardened, fast enough, and sync bookmarks and settings.

Of course, it's basically a browser.


"Keep your old Windows laptop around in a drawer; when you want to print something, just boot it up to print."




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: