Any reason to upgrade my CR-48?

I've just gotten mine today. What kind of benefits could I see if I rooted?

 

The only reason to root, IMHO, is that you have an app you NEED and it requires root access. If you dont have something like that then I would say no rooting is not necessary.

 

Why not would be my question...? Don't you want to install a full linux distro?

 

God no. For two reasons:
a) I see no reason to throw another linux distro on here since this is doing just fine.
b) It was a gift from google... the least I can do is use it the way they intend. I find it pretty rude that anyone would take this free computer and then not even give the information back to google.


Liquid, I don't know of any apps that need root on this... so I guess not =p

 

I probably wouldn't be able to resist installing my favorite distro on it, even if it was just for "hardware exploration" purposes.

I guess if you can't think of an app that needs root... don't root! Google probably doesn't want you to root it anyway, and as you said, it's fair to use it how they intend.

 

They don't seem to mind. All root would do is allow you to explore their OS differently. plus they put a "developer switch" on it that allows root very easily.

I just don't know what programs I could use that use root. I mean, on my android phone I can overclock and such but I don't think I can do that with my ChromeOS.

 

In Android 2.3 the security holes that allowed easy rooting in 2.2 were fixed. So I'd root that laptop of yours asap and install a real distro, before Google "fixes" something there too.

btw:
You didn't get that for free. You paid with your private data. For me that price would have been too high, no matter how much money I could save.

 

a) As soon as you turn the computer on it asks you "Would you like to send anonymous data to google (crash reports etc)" and you are free to uncheck that box and not send that data.
b) I'm perfectly fine with anonymous data being sent especially if it's to help improve the product I use/ make the internet more interesting for me (such as suggesting ads that are relevant to me instead of just spamming me with sports bra ads or whatever)
c) A real distro? I realize I'm in the linux section so I'm going to avoid that talk altogether.

 

Oh and I completely forgot to mention that there's no "security hole" here. Rooting is as easy as flipping a switch when you pull the battery. It's not an oversight, they put it in.

 

I'm not concerned about anonymous data helping the manufacturer to improve his products.
I'm concerned about my own very private data. The applications in Chrome OS store all your data in "the cloud", so you have to trust Google that they will not be abused (not only by Google itself).

And it will be in there as long as Google wants it to be there - not as long as you want.

 

Oh, looks like I'm not only one anti-fan of clouds
<high five>

 

Root it.
Root it because you can.
Root it to expand its functionality.
Root it because all the laptop you own is belong to you .

 

If exploration is your intended use of root then by all means. I too agree that keeping what they put on there as a return favor for the free laptop so they can get feedback. When the program is over then a different distro of linux is what should go on. As for personal information, what information do you give them that isnt already insanely easy to get online? Nothing more if I remember my application for the program.

 

Not everybody spreads his entire life on facebook.

 

Nothing super personal is on facebook for me. Other then my name, email and friends that is all youll get. What I was referring to is through other channels like online purchasing, bill collectors that have your info online etc. Unless you live under a rock or come close by not doing anything online other then view pages your info is most definitely out there.

 

You'll not even find that data about me on facebook.

I don't know about the situation in maryland, but where I come from the rules for standard form contracts are quite strict and before you buy somewhere you always have the chance to make sure that they don't contain any traps.

 

So um... I assume you don't use email? Because that's cloud...

there is always some level of trust. I TRUST that it is not in google's best interest to go through my notes on google docs... I trust that Freshdirect, which delivers my groceries, will not charge me extra or leak my credit card information.

Why? Because the reprecussions for them doing so would far outweight any possible profit.

 

Given the fact that I was able to sign on to this forum I apparently use e-mail. But I don't have everything concentrated in one account. None of the online-shops I used so far know my private or business e-mail address.

Yes. But the question is where that level is.

Um... actually scanning the data of their users is their main business concept. In principle there is nothing wrong with that, but you should be aware of that if you use their services.

I don't use credit cards. I go to the store, pick my groceries up on my own and pay cash.
...ok, ok, I'm crawling underneath my rock again.

 

They use search results to provide ads... it's the basis of adsense. They also check for keywords. They're not going through your emails and goin g"omg he did whaaaaat" it's a program that's automated.

I'll probably sound mean and I don't intend to offend you but you sound so incredibly paranoid to the point where you allow it to interfere with how you conduct business.

Not using credit cards and spreading out information amongst separate emails... you go through quite a lot of trouble over your suspicion.

 

If you're interested just read the Wikipedia article about Google. If you're really interested take the time to translate (Google will happily do that for you) and read the German Wikipedia article about Google_Inc (it's way more detailed than the English article) and maybe follow some of the cite-links in the critics section.

1. No, I don't feel offended.
2. I don't consider your opinion to be mean, I find it naive. I hope that doesn't offend you.
3. Maybe I am paranoid, but if I am a lot of other people I know are too. I'm not saying that my opinion is the opinion of the mayority where I come from, but the minority I belong to is big enough for not being considered as some single mentally distorted people.
And hey, just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean that they're not after me!

Well that's actually not that unusual in my country. Not using credit cards is a bit old-fashioned here, but it's far from being freaky. I just never had an actual need for one. Paying most things in cash gives you a very good estimate of the value of money because you physically see something slipping away from you. The positive impact on privacy is just a nice additional feature of that model.
And seperate e-mail addresses at least for business and privat use is totally normal. Many people also have an additional seperation between serious private e-mail (for contact with your friends and family) and not so serious things (online registrations like forums, shops etc.). Going from there to one or two additional adresses is not a long way.

 

I remember the good old days when email wasn't in the cloud... sure I had a webmail account for public mailing lists, but I ran my own email server for a long time. I still do, I just don't use it for anything but forwarding...

 

After you play around with ChromeOS for a bit in its native state, putting the unit into dev mode and throwing on a nightly build, or one of Hexxeh's builds, is always an option. There are also some excellent instructions for installing Ubuntu from a script, and you can always flip back and forth between Ubuntu and ChromeOS by running a simple command from the bash prompt. Personally, the biggest advantage of running in dev mode, for me, has been full shell access to the unit. I get to tinker around in the inner workings of ChromeOS - sometimes its fun with each revision to just surf around the file system and see what's changed.

The first, very complicated instruction set for installing Ubuntu on a Cr-48 was actually posted by a googler very early on. Google wants us to hack these little notebooks, and hack I shall. Still, keeping the OS that you signed up to test on board seems to be the right thing to do, in my opinion, and you seem to share that feeling. Developer mode frees you from the crosh limited shell, and enables you to really dig around in that very operating system that they provided you.

A small warning - remember the ctrl-d shortcut on startup to bypass the "Sad face computer" screen you get when you have flipped the dev mode switch. That will show up whenever OS verification is turned off.

 

Is there any way to have OS verification on but have the dev switch flipped? That's the only reason I flipped back... I hate that thing.

 

Hungry Man: Not that I know of, I know someone was investigating the ability to remove that function. Honestly, I only see that screen when I reboot to apply the latest updates - the thing just runs in sleep mode the rest of the time.

 

True... I'll consider moving to developer mode if only for the freedom of root. I'd hate to have to redo all of my greasemonkey scripts =\