A small, efficient laptop
I am looking for a laptop which is as efficient as an android phone, small, fast, and cheap.
I would prefer a stripped down Fedora Kinoite, but tbh ChromeOS is a masterpiece of efficient and secure OS design.
Even on 4GB RAM it just works, boots in seconds, while still having encrypted storage.
The issue is of course, that it is based on Google Chrome, and even Chromium is completely full of Google (use googerteller with e.g. Fedora Chromium and you see it pings Google all the time).
ARM Laptops with Linux support
The new Snapdragon laptops are extremely impressive, and will have real Linux support in a short time.
But they are damn expensive, and I am looking for something for light tasks, with the focus on:
- being light and small (11in or so?)
- being inexpensive
- long battery life (!)
- very low standby battery use (like my GrapheneOS pixel, 1% over night)
- reasonably big battery for use
- okay specs for light tasks
- open firmware
I watched a talk on getting Coreboot working on Chromebooks (ccc website) and while elly also got Fedora working on an ARM Chromebook, that sounded like way above my skills.
The x86 ones still have awesome batterylife (on ChromeOS), but using x86 in 2024 for an efficient machine… sounds like a waste of money.
Docs for Linux on ARM Chromebooks?
Neither chrultrabook nor mrchromebox touch ARM, at all. There are some small scripts and projects that do this, like this one.
Bottlenecks
Chromebooks have often nice chassis’ and displays, but kinda bad keyboards with missing keys.
Also, too little RAM. Using Fedora with ZRAM in an aggressive mode (to compress all RAM) might be a workaround, but cause reasonable CPU overhead (it uses zstd for compression).
And then, too little storage. I find this hard to discover, are there ARM / modern x86 Chromebooks with upgradeable NVME or at least eMMC?
Using an SD card would be a workaround, which is btw. also not possible on Pixel Tablets (thanks Google).
The Problems with Chromebooks
Google uses a custom userspace, the boot (on ARM) is not really u-Boot anymore, they dont seem to test the mainline kernel and are slow with patches.
Personally I think you can clearly see how they often just do the least amount of work possible to comply with the GPL. Like, visiting their code repo is already privacy invasive.
Also a ton of firmware problems like broken audio, USB, sleep, input devices, which I couldn’t fix.
Alternative: Pixel Tablet & GrapheneOS
Comment: I mean the new Pixel tablet, not the old “Pixel tablet C”.
The good
A Google Pixel Tablet would be an alternative. It runs GrapheneOS, which (I know) has awesome battery life and efficiency.
GrapheneOS is also fully degoogled and runs all my FOSS apps, as well as having support for banking and stuff I might want.
GrapheneOS is extremely secure while also being extremely stable (in both ways). I know that I can rely on my phone when I managed to break my Laptop again.
The bad
The Tablet is the first edition, a MVP pretty much. For drawing, a standards-compliant pencil can be used, but it has quite some latency and no palm rejection (video source).
It is also very expensive, considering that it has no SD card slot, and 128GB of storage go for 300+€ on the used market.
There seem to be less people disappointed from it than I expected.
You see, I also dont really know what I want XD
- a small appliance device, just for travelling and watching stuff there?
- Should it have a keyboard? I hope a 5-pin one, no garbage bluetooth
- Pen I think yes, as it is probably awesome for sketching things (I am tired of not being able to do that, and a drawing tablet is not portable)
It may be that a Pixel tablet is actually better here. But a ton of good Linux software is simply missing on Android. Like, a PDF editor that does it’s job, Libreoffice, GIMP, Inkscape, a real Firefox (with addon support and sandboxing).
There is some progress in virtualization, I might be able to use Termux with VNC to some extent, but it would suck for batterylife and probably also UX.
I guess a modern AMD or Intel Chromebook with supported, tested firmware, would be the best option for a compact, opensource, efficient laptop.
Meanwhile a Pixel Tablet would work 100%, be possibly way more energy efficient than a normal Linux distro could ever be, also more secure, mostly never have broken software.
I would like to test this though, tuned, stripped down KDE Plasma, power profiles, … but at the level of firmware issues, this could stop being fun. But, fun is relative, right?
What do you do? Do you run ChromiumOS, or Linux on a Chromebook? Or do you use a Pixel Tablet as a Laptop replacement?
Cheers!
Result
I will get a Chromebook. It is just too tempting to hack with a corebooted device.
Framework Chromebook
The Framework Chromebook would be brilliant, poorly I guess there is no DIY edition (8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage are just too small) and I hope it could also remove the pain of the shitty keyboard on Chromebooks.
This would be a really fun way to workaround 1. The lack of coreboot support on Framework Laptops 2. All the downsides of Chromebooks.
Until then, I will get something with hopefully 8GB of RAM on Ebay.
Others
Honestly, this is pretty frustrating. A Thinkpad Yoga 11e sounds cool, upgradeable to 8GB (in theory, if the RAM you have works) and with an m.2 slot.
Using a very lightweight desktop could work? But batterylife was bad even back then, so yeah.
FydeTab + FydeOS
I found a usable ChromiumOS fork!
This may work on regular Chromebooks, opening some options. Open firmware but still an efficient but open OS?
The FydeTab Duo is now released, a Tablet using FydeOS, so more a Chromebook than a Linux Tablet.
I dont know what components of which OS they use, and expect something ChromeOS like
Getting a Chromebook to run Linux is pretty easy these days with MrChromebox’s utility https://docs.mrchromebox.tech/
As to the main purpose of your post, I use fedora on my Pinebook pro and it works great. Though with the lack of resources compared to x86 laptops, many things can be slow to start, like browsers. Id never use it to try and watch videos online, it’s a painful experience.
I also have an older Chromebook with a Celeron powering it, and it sips power. I can forget to charge it for a week, grab it, and still have a few hours of battery I can use.
Thanks, this indicates either that ChromeOS is really optimized, or that the low power Intel machines are good.
I hope it is the corebootable firmware and hardware, because Fedora Kinoite cant even hibernate, yet
They do well as light work machines. Mines done some weird stuff, and Ive subjected it to various things, but it keeps on trucking. Worst it’s ever done is reset on me, but logging in brought back everything important.
That script has an option to install coreboot in it’s TUI. But it only works on x86, arm Chromebooks aren’t supported by the utility
I will just buy a random kinda new Laptop!
If you keep an eye out on Slickdeals.net, you’ll see low-end laptops come up every once in a while - the only major caveat is that you’ve got to do a bit of pre-purchase research to make sure you can actually upgrade the components you want to.
I snagged an Asus laptop with a 1215U a few months ago for $250 or so from Best Buy; 8GB soldered, but another unpopulated SODIMM slot for upgrade, and swappable m.2. I switched the WiFi card out for an Intel one I had laying around because Linux support for the included Realtek one was complete ass, I had the component laying around anyways, didn’t feel like hacking the kernel to make it work, and I had the thing open anyways for the RAM and SSD. I’ve slapped Kinoite on it and it’s fantastic as a spare thin client.
I checked a day or two ago, and there was a comparable upgradable Dell model that would fit the bill.
My purpose is a phone+, a device I can charge with a powerbank, have with nearly no battery usage when not used.
It should be portable in a sense that I can also charge it.
And being open is important, so no random cheapo laptops with nonexistent firmware updates ;)
Btw, here is an italian guy ricing his Samsung Chromebook with KDE Neon, EndeavorOS Hyprland or Alpine labwc
I’d argue against the Pixel C. I’ve had one I bought when they were new, and am now running Graphene.
It’s a spectacular device, build-wise; I love everything about how it’s put together. However:
- The battery is non-replacable, and even without degradation, Android only got more power-hoggy with newer versions. Since you’ll only find then used, (unless you stumble across a NIB), expect frequent recharges.
- The CPU is really showing its age. It’s slow. It also tends to run slower the longer it’s running, leading to frequent reboots. I don’t know if that’s Graphene or what, but that’s my experience.
- That “boots in seconds” isn’t applicable here. It takes a minute or two to cold boot. Because of the poor battery life (it has no deep sleep; it needs to be recharged every day lest the battery runs completely out), and the performance issues forcing reboots, this is a major hassle.
- Pixel C support from Graphene is… barely. The latest version I’ve found that runs on the C is years old.
- It has that crippled keyboard you mentioned, which is often a PITA.
- There are lots of apps that will simply not run on it, because the Android version is too old.
- There’s no Linux that will run on it. Or, rather, there is, but half the hardware isn’t supported.
It really is too bad, because, build-wise, it’s a thing of beauty. It’s the best-feeling tablet I’ve ever experienced, before or after. But the hardware is quite old, there’s very little community support so so is the software, and even if you could run Linux, the keyboard would make me hesitate, as some really common keys (like back-tick and both directions of slashes) are hidden in sub-layers; and even if the “extra keys” key (“…”) worked, it’s still a PITA to use for any serious purpose.
The battery is non-replacable
What? Like, not easily, or not even when removing the display?
I also mean the new Pixel Tablets, not the Pixel C tablet.
Google made a new Tablet, with a weird “weather station” kind of branding that makes no sense, but it has support for styluses, Pogo pins for USB keyboards etc.
The CPU is a recent Tensor G4 or something, and it has software support for 6 years or longer
What? Like, not easily, or not even when removing the display?
Oh, I suspect if you’re handy enough with a soldering iron and have the right tools, you could get the screen off and get in there. I’ve never seen anyone do a takedown, but it must be possible.
My concern would be that the shell is entirely metal and could be easily bent trying to get the screen out. But, honestly I haven’t looked into it.
I also mean the new Pixel Tablets, not the Pixel C tablet
Ah, then my comment is not relevant. I have no experience with anything but the C; after the C, I decided that I wouldn’t get another tablet until I could run Linux on it with everything working, and it’s only recently that touch-device GUIs for Linux have gotten decent.
I’ve seen one or two tablets recently that run Linux that have gotten decent reviews; those are what I’m keeping my eyes on.
