> - "Switch to dev mode". But I don't want to be prompted to factory reset each boot.
Developer mode simply puts up a splash at boot warning you that the OS is custom, you just press enter to boot. The requirement to do a drive wipe is a one-time thing when you enable it the first time (for obvious reasons, to prevent exfiltration of data stored by a secured OS).
How often does one reboot their laptop around nearby strangers? I gotta be honest that some of these criticisms seem a little strained. I mean, it's true, they beep at boot when dev mode is enabled!
I don't think it's trauma, although I've been burned with suspend/wake cycles before. Suspend works great. It is usually that wake part if it's going to go wrong.
If I close the lid, when I get back _I_ need a clean slate. I'll never remember what I was doing anyway.
Modern machines boot and launch apps so fast I'm not really saving any time sleeping an empty desktop either.
Interesting. It certainly costs several seconds to start and login to ChromeOS, while I have always enjoyed the fact that unlike other operating systems it is up and running before I even get the screen unfolded, from sleep.
> while I have always enjoyed the fact that unlike other operating systems it is up and running before I even get the screen unfolded, from sleep.
Other devices, maybe; it's at least as much firmware as OS. To this day the fastest wake from sleep I've seen was a random midrange Lenovo laptop that I got used, which is slightly maddening.
I used a Samsung Chromebook sometime 5 years ago, and it couldn’t handle suspend/sleep well. I could leave it overnight with 80% and find it with 0% in the morning. So I learned to turn it off each time I stop using it. It booted within seconds anyways, so the only issue was to enter my gigantic generated password.
For me ChromeOS’s top UX fault is the password. You either do it with pin, or with a Bluetooth device to unlock. Otherwise it’s pain to enter the password.
There were days that you need to enter developer mode to turn on pin unlock, and Bluetooth devices came later on. I remember that pain of needing to enter my very long password in each boot. Horrible UX.
I interacted with a recent (a couple of months) Chrome OS Flex device (a regular old PC laptop of a senior that I know and helped to establish a basic computer for him), and it didn’t work on the first boot. It was a huge problem for him to enter the password, especially a strong one. I set up a pin with his birthday, which never worked. It worked only if you logged off the account (but didn’t turned off the computer). But if you start fresh, then you won’t be able to use the pin. I ended up setting his Google password to his birthday with dots and some letters, e.g. Qw25.12.1935, which Google allowed and which worked for him. He enters his password letter by letter and for him it’s a worse UX than before, when he had Windows XP that just boots and has Chrome (outdated with no option to upgrade) installed. But I convinced him this new way of things is better. At least it loads momentarily, which he likes.
And on top of that, built in Bluetooth adapter doesn’t work on that very laptop to connect his Android smartphone. The Bluetooth module works, but it doesn’t with the software for some reason. Brief googling showed me it’s easier to buy usb Bluetooth module and try with it. Which I did, but haven’t checked that yet, as he lives quite far away from me. As of now he uses the laptop somehow.
It’s been awhile and I don’t remember why I had to reboot, but it did happen. I guess past me did a lot of work in cafes, office hours, and common areas.
I do remember that running a certain R program consistently caused the Chromebook to turn off, which was quite an issue for one particular office hours session!
App sandboxing on standard (non-ChromeOS) Linux distributions is painful and finicky, while it "just works" on ChromeOS.
I wish there was a non-hacky way to use Chromebooks without a Google account.
The hacky options are:
- "Switch to dev mode". But I don't want to be prompted to factory reset each boot.
- "Create a dummy Google account and use that". But I don't want file syncing and tracking to reach Google at all, not even on a dummy account.
- "Create a dummy Google account and use guest mode". But I want persistent storage.