Windows to Chromebook Conversion

I was never a mac fan.. Do not like Apple's Bribery and coercion sales policy (Explanation. They gave computers to Schools (Bribery) Free of charge, now Daddy has to buy an APPLE (Coercion) or JR. can't do his homework at home).

I am thinking of trying to install ShackBox on the little laptop in the ham shack. Yes. Linux distro.

But with Windows 10 you got to get into BIOS and do stuff or it won't load the OS.. Major PITA.

AsheGuy,

Thanks for the info and link on Zorin OS. I'm downloading it now and will install it as a virtual machine on my MacBook Pro & check it out.

Since the IBM PCs came out way back into the 80's, I was a Microsoft fan. Then in 2005, I took a "bite" of the "Apple" and within 3 years, all of the machines in our house were Macs. Now, 13 years later, I swear Apple has been hiring Microsoft programmers with the effect of making OS X as kludgey as Windows. Heck, Windows might even be better, but Windows is only 10% of my overall computer experience now, and that's running as a VM on my Mac, so not sure I can make an accurate comparison.

So, now I'm entertaining new alternatives, and Zorin might but a good option.

Thanks,

~Rick

Tom_M wrote:
My new laptop running Windows 10 Home with a 500GB solid state drive boots up in 8 seconds. This is a cold boot, no sleep, no hibernate. It boots from sleep in one second.

The key word there may be "new". Mine performed like than when new also. Now it has really slowed down. The Chromebook flashes to life after twelve months of use.

My suspicion is that since the Windows laptop is seldom used, that the first few hours are bogged down while downloading updates.

Thanks to all for their comments.

wa8yxm wrote:
From opening box to browsing web in less time than the WIndows Machine needs to POST.

My new laptop running Windows 10 Home with a 500GB solid state drive boots up in 8 seconds. This is a cold boot, no sleep, no hibernate. It boots from sleep in one second.

I just bought a Google Pixel chrome book at Best Buy on sale $750. I really like it. Very fast and supposedly stays fast. Quality as good as Apple. It's small, light, and a joy to use with it's glass track pad. There is no fan because it runs cool. Battery life is good. I have plenty of other computers, both Apple and PC, but I thought I'd give this a shot. If you have any trouble press 3 buttons and it reboots to it's factory state. You really don't need a full OS for web browsing, and that seems like a good thing.

I converted one of my Windows 10 PCs (a desktop that sits in a second home primarily for guest usage) to a Linux system just last week. I was motivated by the fact that this particular Windows 10 system (a 10-year old Gateway that had been running Windows 10 fine) failed with the latest Windows 10 1803 distribution and ended up with a list of updates that failed. Windows online help was no help and doing a clean install ended up in the same condition.

I opted for the Zorin OS Linux distribution that has a user interface much like Windows 7. It results in a Chromebook-like system and is quite functional for those that use Google apps. The Chromium version of Chrome installs with the Zorin OS distribution, but you can just download Chrome and then it is just like the normal Chrome interface.

My wife has a Chromebook (took the place of a Windows laptop) that is the perfect solution for her since she is technology challenged. But, I like the Zorin OS solution better as I can install most of the applications that I added to Windows that have Linux versions and for those that don't there are similar Linux applications.

Zorin OS is free for the basic version that has all the functions that I needed for this particular PC. I am still happy with my desktop and laptop that run Windows 10 and did not have a problem with the 1803 update. I think the problem was that the 1803 Windows update made a change that is not compatible with the older Gateway hardware.

The Zorin OS install is pretty straight forward but you do need some computer savvy (there are good instructions online). The first hurdle is creating a Zorin OS bootable install disk on a USB thumb drive. Once that is done, the Zorin OS install was no problem. I chose to install Zorin OS in place of Windows 10 without saving anything on the disk. Zorin OS is supposedly capable of being installed as a dual boot with Windows but when I tried that first the boot choice did not happen. I really had no reason for Windows on the PC anyway.

Just thought I would pass this info along as I was surprised how easy it was and how functional the result was. I had the advantage of having plenty of experience with Windows, but haven't had a Linux system since way/way back when I tried it as a dual boot with Windows. I didn't keep it long then but now there are quite a few user friendly Linux distributions.

If you are talking about converting a Windows 10 machine to teh Google Chrome Operating system (Which is LInux based) it can (in theory) be done but you are going to need to be a windows POWER USER.

I have two chromebooks and two Windows Laptops plus a desktop

I use the Chromebooks for WWW.everything. THe desktop is a 100 dollary refurb from Target and is the "File server" for my DVR"s Electronic program guide (rube goldburg DVR system works great)

The win-laptops one is my Ham Shack box. runs software specific to windows
The other my "Storage and logging" comptuer for non ham radio stuff.

Lots and lots of hard drive.. Chrome can do SOME but not all of what it does. It also runs some Windows specific Ham Radio apps.

That is the biggie. Can the Chromebooks do EVERYTHING you need? If NO. then keep at least one Windows box and just add a CB to the pile.

I love my Chrome books
From opening box to browsing web in less time than the WIndows Machine needs to POST.