{"slug": "chromeos", "name": "ChromeOS", "category": "os", "category_name": "Operating systems and desktop", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 6, "warners": 1, "score": 2.181, "rising": -0.98, "first": "2025-11-15", "latest": "2026-09-17", "why": "the ChromeOS is so lean, and basically doesn't need to add a bunch of drivers or 3rd party software at all", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 2, "compare": 0, "warn": 1}, "spark": [1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "the ChromeOS is so lean, and basically doesn't need to add a bunch of drivers or 3rd party software at all", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://chromeos.google", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["ChromeOS"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 783450608, "item_id": 48965663, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48965663", "by": "ButlerianJihad", "date": "2026-07-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "the ChromeOS is so lean, and basically doesn't need to add a bunch of drivers or 3rd party software at all", "excerpt": "My current \"daily driver\" Chromebook is 8GiB, and I've basically never felt a resource crunch while doing daily driver things. I would never have chosen a Windows system with less than 16GiB, but the ChromeOS is so lean, and basically doesn't need to add a bunch of drivers or 3rd party software at all, and so everything fits in the 8GiB of system memory without any issue.", "context": "", "use_case": "daily driver OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Even Microsoft couldn't make Windows 11 work well on 8GB of RAM"}, {"id": 768831392, "item_id": 48051962, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48051962", "by": "tapoxi", "date": "2026-05-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I really enjoy ChromeOS", "excerpt": "I really enjoy ChromeOS, though I'm worried a lot of its simplicity will go away as Google transitions to Android-based laptops. My wife and I use an Asus Chromebook Flip as a kitchen/living room computer that we don't need to think about. No software updates, it just surfs the web and we can flip it into tablet mode if we want to.", "context": "", "use_case": "kitchen/living room computer", "switched_from": "", "story": "I switched from Mac to a Lenovo Chromebook, and you can too"}, {"id": 735833840, "item_id": 45989615, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45989615", "by": "MegaThorx", "date": "2025-11-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I switched from Windows to Chrome OS, and I haven't missed Windows at all.", "excerpt": "About two months ago, I switched from Windows to Chrome OS, and I haven't missed Windows at all. The only thing that needed some adjustment was my audio setup. I have virtual channels for the system, music, chat, and games. These are then mapped to my Rodecaster Pro II. With Pipewire, this setup was not too difficult and works reliably. Gaming works perfectly fine. The only application I miss is ShareX for taking scr", "context": "", "use_case": "daily desktop OS and gaming", "switched_from": "Windows", "story": "Gaming on Linux has never been more approachable"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 795933568, "item_id": 49745848, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49745848", "by": "cvhc", "date": "2026-09-17", "stance": "warn", "quote": "ChromeOS with ArcVM is supposed to work but the performance is terrible.", "excerpt": "Cool but my Duet is the later generation with MediaTek Kompanio 838 :( I really like the form factor. I use my PC at home and corp laptop for work, and I don't need another powerhouse laptop. A lightweight 2-in-1 tablet works well for me. But I never found an OS doing well in both desktop and tablet modes. Most Windows and Linux apps are for desktop. ChromeOS with ArcVM is supposed to work but the performance is terr", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop and tablet OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Running Ubuntu on the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet"}]}], "who": [{"by": "danans", "context": "software developer", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45938410", "date": "2025-11-15"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["desktop and tablet os", "daily driver os", "secure banking access", "kitchen/living room computer", "daily desktop os and gaming", "software development daily driver"], "compared": [{"slug": "windows", "name": "Windows", "co": 2, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49704503", "title": "Running Ubuntu on the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48963108", "title": "Even Microsoft couldn't make Windows 11 work well on 8GB of RAM", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48850414", "title": "GLM 5.2 is nearly as accurate as a human book keeper", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48051025", "title": "I switched from Mac to a Lenovo Chromebook, and you can too", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45985506", "title": "Gaming on Linux has never been more approachable", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45937989", "title": "Linux on the Fujitsu Lifebook U729", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {"warn": 1}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 795933568, "item_id": 49745848, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49745848", "by": "cvhc", "date": "2026-09-17", "stance": "warn", "quote": "ChromeOS with ArcVM is supposed to work but the performance is terrible.", "excerpt": "Cool but my Duet is the later generation with MediaTek Kompanio 838 :( I really like the form factor. I use my PC at home and corp laptop for work, and I don't need another powerhouse laptop. A lightweight 2-in-1 tablet works well for me. But I never found an OS doing well in both desktop and tablet modes. Most Windows and Linux apps are for desktop. ChromeOS with ArcVM is supposed to work but the performance is terr", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop and tablet OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Running Ubuntu on the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet"}, {"id": 783450608, "item_id": 48965663, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48965663", "by": "ButlerianJihad", "date": "2026-07-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "the ChromeOS is so lean, and basically doesn't need to add a bunch of drivers or 3rd party software at all", "excerpt": "My current \"daily driver\" Chromebook is 8GiB, and I've basically never felt a resource crunch while doing daily driver things. I would never have chosen a Windows system with less than 16GiB, but the ChromeOS is so lean, and basically doesn't need to add a bunch of drivers or 3rd party software at all, and so everything fits in the 8GiB of system memory without any issue.", "context": "", "use_case": "daily driver OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Even Microsoft couldn't make Windows 11 work well on 8GB of RAM"}, {"id": 781686416, "item_id": 48855401, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48855401", "by": "fragmede", "date": "2026-07-09", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I've got a separate laptop running ChromeOS with no AI shit on it that I use to access my banking.", "excerpt": "Still, it's scary enough of a threat that I've got a separate laptop running ChromeOS with no AI shit on it that I use to access my banking.", "context": "", "use_case": "secure banking access", "switched_from": "", "story": "GLM 5.2 is nearly as accurate as a human book keeper"}, {"id": 768831392, "item_id": 48051962, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48051962", "by": "tapoxi", "date": "2026-05-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I really enjoy ChromeOS", "excerpt": "I really enjoy ChromeOS, though I'm worried a lot of its simplicity will go away as Google transitions to Android-based laptops. My wife and I use an Asus Chromebook Flip as a kitchen/living room computer that we don't need to think about. No software updates, it just surfs the web and we can flip it into tablet mode if we want to.", "context": "", "use_case": "kitchen/living room computer", "switched_from": "", "story": "I switched from Mac to a Lenovo Chromebook, and you can too"}, {"id": 735833840, "item_id": 45989615, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45989615", "by": "MegaThorx", "date": "2025-11-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I switched from Windows to Chrome OS, and I haven't missed Windows at all.", "excerpt": "About two months ago, I switched from Windows to Chrome OS, and I haven't missed Windows at all. The only thing that needed some adjustment was my audio setup. I have virtual channels for the system, music, chat, and games. These are then mapped to my Rodecaster Pro II. With Pipewire, this setup was not too difficult and works reliably. Gaming works perfectly fine. The only application I miss is ShareX for taking scr", "context": "", "use_case": "daily desktop OS and gaming", "switched_from": "Windows", "story": "Gaming on Linux has never been more approachable"}, {"id": 735014560, "item_id": 45938410, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45938410", "by": "danans", "date": "2025-11-15", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "comes with an arm64 Linux VM (Debian Bookworm) ready to go out of the box", "excerpt": "A Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 has a M2 equivalent ARM CPU/GPU (Mediatek Kompanio Ultra/Mali Immortalis G925), and comes with an arm64 Linux VM (Debian Bookworm) ready to go out of the box that supports most regular Linux apps built for ARM (including VSCode, Cursor, Claude code, etc). I use it for my software development daily driver. Battery life is amazing as you'd expect. I've even run local LLMs and have gotten 30 ", "context": "software developer", "use_case": "software development daily driver", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux on the Fujitsu Lifebook U729"}]}