As a developer, not sure how useful it would be... I have not done the research, but if I could get some Linux distro to run on there perfectly, yea, it'd be an awesome piece of hardware.
But the price has never been about the hardware, it's about the fact that ChromeOS is a fancy web browser. They should ship the computer with some Linux distro and I would pick one up.
>if I could get some Linux distro to run on there perfectly, yea, it'd be an awesome piece of hardware.
Although I have not actually run a high-DPI display, things I have read tell me that no suite of Linux desktop software is ready for high-DPI displays the way that OS X and ChromeOS are. (The problem is tiny text and tiny UI elements. Some elements can be easily made the right size, but that right size ends up being inconsistent with other elements.)
Desktop Linux users are used to waiting for new hardware to become supported by Linux, and high-DPI displays seem to be an instance of that.
Here is my summary of his G+ posts on the Pixel: He is running a non-CromeOS Linux on it, and says that "Sure, with the true resolution exposed to the web browser, things are small. Just how I like it." And he has "actually used the Pixel as my main laptop for two short trips now." His Macbook Air has been retired.
But the price has never been about the hardware, it's about the fact that ChromeOS is a fancy web browser. They should ship the computer with some Linux distro and I would pick one up.