Hmm, it's actually been close to a year since I've posted anything. But that doesn't mean my fondness for Chrome OS has ended! The past few months have seen an upgrade to the HP Chromebook 11, and now most recently, an ASUS Chromebox.
The Facts
The ASUS Chromebox is a fantastic little device. Specs are sharp and priced competitively when compared to other small-form PCs such as the Intel NUC, etc. You are looking at an Intel Celeron 2955U processor (Haswell), along with 2GB ram and a 16GB SSD. It has the usual bevy of ports- HDMI, DisplayPort, 4 USB 3.0 ports and an SD slot. WiFi and BT are also built in. It seems to be fairly easy to upgrade the internals too. (see:
http://liliputing.com/2014/03/upgrade-asus-chromebox-memory-storage.html). And it is really small. Saves a ton of space on the desk.
First Impressions
I've been using the Chromebox for about a week now. I'm running a dual display setup (HDMI to one monitor and DP to DVI to the other). Sound is hardwired to a pair of Jembe Speakers, and I've attached an HD Logitech webcam and some usb port extenders. My wireless Logitech keyboard/mouse work great with it. Setup was a breeze, as is usual with Chrome devices. I enabled developer mode immediately (there is a hard switch, as compared to the keypress encoded ones on your typical chromebook), and set it up running on the beta channel (more on that later).
Chrome OS runs smoothly. Start-up time is speedy, it takes me longer to type my password in. As I write, this, I have 8 tabs open across the two screens and have Google Play music running in the background. I have noticed the occasional stutter, but this seems to occur with a lot of tabs and some of the heavier websites (the Verge, occasionally Google +). I think that this may be reflection of only 2GB of RAM...the Haswell processor on here should have enough juice to pull all of it off. Extended desktop works nicely and is auto-detected (no fiddling around as in earlier versions of the OS). Standard functions such as the file manager, Google Drive, and Chrome remote desktop work smoothly as well. I've seen no issues with Pushbullet, MightyText and other extensions.
Crouton
In my mind, Chrome OS still needs a bit of backup, especially if you're a power-user like myself. There are just some things that the OS can't do yet, and so this is where Crouton comes into play. In short, Crouton is a script/tool that installs Ubuntu Linux in a 'chroot' (think of it like a virtual OS, but not), which allows you to run it alongside Chrome OS. With this, apps such as OpenOffice, GIMP, and Citrix become part of the Chrome OS experience.
Normally I run Chrome on dev channel, but I kept running into issues installing Crouton on the dev . Turns out there is a known bug, so for now, crouton only works on stable or beta. (
https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton/issues/711#issuecomment-38237951). Crouton defaults to the 'Precise' flavor of Ubuntu, but I selectively installed Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring). Note that Precise does not recognize dual monitor extended displays! I don't know why this is (something to do with the X-server), but Raring works exceptionally well with dual monitor displays.
Additionally, there seems to be no noticeable change in how Chrome OS runs with Crouton running in the background, and Ubuntu flies on this device.
Summary
I highly recommend this Chromebox (if you can find it-- sold out at most places!). If you are a Chrome junkie like myself or just want a lightweight desktop experience that is web focused, this is the device for you. At $179-$200, it is a steal.
Future plans
I definitely am going to upgrade the RAM. (Have 2-2GB PC312800S DIMMs coming from amazon in a few days, so once i pop them in, I'll provide an update.) Also, I've got another one of these guys coming from Newegg-- the plan is to turn it into a linux box that will run in the background and act as a print/dropbox/gdrive server and back up files. Hopefully i'll figure out how to get a full Ubuntu install on it--- may be able to set up a chrome remote desktop into a Virtual Box install of windows-- useful for those few moments where you might need it!
