A flashed Chromebook is an accessible option

https://mrchromebox.tech/

Aside form all the stuff you find in bash, it has some additional unique features mostly related to shell programming. A few example include

• floating point arithmetic and math functions like sin, cos, exp etc
• “compound” variables (kinda like an object in javascript)
• An extended version of getopts which supports both long and short options, and it implicitly creates some additional options for you i.e. a usage page available at --help and a longer manpage style output available at --man
• In addition to the usual shell builtins, it has a ton of optional ones you can enable at build time, which ranges from basic stuff like chown and chgrp (faster than invoking a new process) to an integrated tcp/udp server with an event loop (i.e. “mkservice” and “eloop” commands)
• Command line and history editing with vi/emacs commands
• coprocesses: you can start programs/subshells in the background but still communicate with the std input/output of them while the main script runs either by using the -p flag to read/print or by assigning file descriptors to them (so you support more than one background process this way)

TBH, I don’t even use some of these features, but it’s still a very cool shell, and probably underrated. Not to mention I like being contrarian at times.

Note; AFAIU these advanced features don’t apply to ksh’s clones like mksh or openbsd’s ksh, they are unique to the original “ksh93”.

On the downside, it’s command completion is pretty basic compared to bash. It completes paths and filenames, but you can’t extend it to complete command line arguments to commands or anything

Crash reports are one thing, but web browsing data and enumerating devices on your local network go well beyond that objective

From https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/topics/idsa-cip.html

>Other devices in your computing environment > >The categories of websites you visit, but not the URL itself, Includes universal plug and play devices and devices that broadcast > >information to your computer on a local area network: for example, smart TV model and vendor information, and video streaming devices. > >The categories of websites you visit, but not the URL itself, The information collected includes categorized web browsing history that shows how long and how often you visited specific categories of sites (i.e. social media, personal finance, or news). All site visits are classified into one of 30 categories. We do not collect URLs, web pages titles, or user-specific content without explicit permission from you.

I recently got a Chromebook from work (it’s no longer supported by manufacturer, so it was bound for ewaste). A Toshiba Chromebook 2 (model CB35-B3440).

Installing Linux was pretty uneventful after struggling a bit to get ChromeOS re-installed, which I had to do as the original image was ‘enterprise managed’ and thus had developer mode disabled. After reinstalling ChtomeOS and removing the hardware write lock (a foil sticker on the MoBo), I ran the install script from https://mrchromebox.tech/ which reflashed the firmware to Coreboot. Its pretty much a standard EFI laptop at that point.

It has 4GB memory, an Intel Celeron N2840 CPU and 16GB eMMC. I put Fedora LXQT on it. Overall, it is very underpowered in the CPU department, noticeably more so even compared to other low end laptops of similar vintage I have. But, its good enough for web browsing and e-book reading. The HD screen looks pretty good and the best part is the batterey life is way better than any other laptop I’ve had. You can actually use it for a full day on a single charge. If you understand the limitations, its a worthwhile device considering the cost of these ranges from free in m case to about $40 used on Ebay

I run Office 365 as a PWA at work, it works good enough. And I pretty much use it just for Outlook anyway (I never can get the shared calendars to work in the native Linux email clients), LibreOffice is good enough for my word docs, diagrams and spreadsheets. It helps that we use SharePoint, which doesn’t support all of the formatting features of desktop Office anyway

Wow, I had no idea they are still around

Like everything, it’s a trade off. Windows allows different versions of the same libraries, but at the cost of an ever growing WinSXS folder and slow updates

Tried installing MicroG from the F-Droid repo, and ‘My Visual Voicemail’ app at least partially works now. See my other new post for details

Just an update in case anyone is facing similar issues;

I installed MicroG on my vanilla LineageOS ROM using the F-Droid repo on their web page. I tried downloading the ‘My Visual Voicemail’ app again, and it now partially works, but at least it’s usable now. I still get a popup when I open the app that says Google Play Services is required, but I can now at least close the dialog to view, play and delete messages. Before it wouldn’t let me close the dialog. Not sure if notifications are working as I havn’t got a new voicemail yet, but it’s at least usable for my purposes

I’m hoping to stick with vanilla LineageOS.

Yes. I can hold the 1 key down, and it will give me a voice menu to listen to my messages, but I get no notification when there is a new message. I previously had an iPhone, and in that dialer there was a voicemail tab that showed my inbox and you could listen to/delete the messages from there (and I got a notification when there was a new message).

There are some Play Store apps that have this function, but I have yet to find one that works without Google Play Services installed

Went with the Pixel 5. It’s working well so far. I got a used factory unlocked model in good condition for $175

Yes

How has hardware compatibility been for you with Guix? It seems compelling g to me but my understanding is that it strictly avoids non-free blobs

Well, spaces are superior, so…

Can you actually get a commercially produced device with this chip?