If you're unsure whether or not a Chromebook is the right system for you, check out the specs[0]. Note that the Chromebook isn't extremely powerful, but that is not the product's goal.
Back to Ubuntu/Chrome: Rather than install Unity (which I actually don't mind on some systems), I opted for the actual crouton dev team's recommendation of XFCE[1].
XFCE is made for an underwhelming environment, and its performance is better than what Unity would probably offer.
You can in fact switch between Chrome-os/Ubuntu with 3 or 4 key presses, depending on your chromebook model. Your install likely won't come with vim, git, etc. installed as ujeezy noted, but if you're familiar with gnu/linux, you already know you what you want from your environment.
I, like many of you, have a couple of computers to lug around: Work laptop (windows), Macbook (expensive shiny development tool). Being that I really have come to enjoy the macbook's battery life, even when using lots of high-resource tools/windows, I'm not sure where this chromebook will fit in. Breaking my macbook scares me, but so does being without it.
If you have a chromebook, definitely try this out. I was expecting to have to deal with lots of issues, but the install was extremely smooth (other than the downloads coming in at 20-30kb/s).
Things to note:
* Make sure you read Crouton[1]'s readme - there are a few potential 'gotcha's in there.
* Disable XFCE or Unity's screensaver.
* As ujeezy noted, you'll need to install vim/emacs, git, gcc, etc.
* While nice, and amazing for what it is, this will probably not replace your default dev environment, unless you exclusively use programs that aren't resource intensive, and/or only exist in terminal.
If you're unsure whether or not a Chromebook is the right system for you, check out the specs[0]. Note that the Chromebook isn't extremely powerful, but that is not the product's goal.
Back to Ubuntu/Chrome: Rather than install Unity (which I actually don't mind on some systems), I opted for the actual crouton dev team's recommendation of XFCE[1].
XFCE is made for an underwhelming environment, and its performance is better than what Unity would probably offer.
You can in fact switch between Chrome-os/Ubuntu with 3 or 4 key presses, depending on your chromebook model. Your install likely won't come with vim, git, etc. installed as ujeezy noted, but if you're familiar with gnu/linux, you already know you what you want from your environment.
I, like many of you, have a couple of computers to lug around: Work laptop (windows), Macbook (expensive shiny development tool). Being that I really have come to enjoy the macbook's battery life, even when using lots of high-resource tools/windows, I'm not sure where this chromebook will fit in. Breaking my macbook scares me, but so does being without it.
If you have a chromebook, definitely try this out. I was expecting to have to deal with lots of issues, but the install was extremely smooth (other than the downloads coming in at 20-30kb/s).
Things to note:
* Make sure you read Crouton[1]'s readme - there are a few potential 'gotcha's in there.
* Disable XFCE or Unity's screensaver.
* As ujeezy noted, you'll need to install vim/emacs, git, gcc, etc.
* While nice, and amazing for what it is, this will probably not replace your default dev environment, unless you exclusively use programs that aren't resource intensive, and/or only exist in terminal.
[0] http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/samsung-chromeb...
[1] https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton