6 ms·

I can't think of any valid reason for a person with sane mind to do this. Yes, macOS is somewhat closed, but it's definitely more open than ChromeOS.

ryeguy_24 4mo ago
Ha, same. I absolutely love everything about my MacBook Pro.
- ant6n 4mo ago
  ...except the operating system. And the silly notch. And the weird keyboard. And the hard palm-cutting corner. And the reflective screen. and the finger-print-magnet materials. And the small amount of RAM. and the small SSD. And the weight. Other than that, it's perfect! (On the blance,still better than any other laptop)
babypuncher 4mo ago
ChromeOS is the absolute last desktop operating system I would choose to use for myself. Linux, macOS, and Windows would have to be completely dead and buried before I would switch, and at that point I might just consider abandoning tech altogether and joining an Amish commune or something.
- bigyabai 4mo ago
  When was the last time you tried ChromeOS, out of curiosity? I'd always reach for Linux first, but I'm hard-pressed to put Windows or macOS in second place when both are so miserably bloated.
  - babypuncher 4mo ago
    It's not about bloat, it's about Google. The only tech company I despise more than Google is Facebook.
bigyabai 4mo ago
> but it's definitely more open than ChromeOS. I don't think that's entirely true. For instance, ChromeOS supports Mesa, which macOS has spent the past decade pretending doesn't exist.
0xBADA55 4mo ago
For small businesses using Google Workspace, Chrome book is so easy to manage.
montroser 4mo ago
What do you mean by open and closed? ChromeOS is based on ChromiumOS, which is open source. I guess macOS is based on Darwin technically, but the ratio of open source to proprietary is much higher for ChromeOS than macOS, no?
- galleywest200 4mo ago
  I think they mean closed as in it is more difficult to install whatever you want on a ChromeOS machine as opposed to a MacOS machine.
  - ufmace 4mo ago
    What is it that you want to install on ChromeOS that you are unable to? All of the usual Linux and open-source stuff works fine on the built-in Linux environment on it. Possibly even a little better than MacOS in some cases, since you don't need to worry about Apple app signing. There's not literally nothing you can't do, but the list is a lot shorter than most people think, especially those who haven't really tried ChromeOS in a decade and think they're all a glorified web browser on $200 hardware.
    - traderj0e 4mo ago
      You can technically run anything you want on both without resorting to hacks, it's just a question of how annoying it is.
      - nolist_policy 4mo ago
        On a Chromebook you can install the Linux Dev VM with 5 clicks in the settings and get a fully featured Debian VM.
        traderj0e 4mo ago
        I'm willing to bet it's easier to set up a Linux VM on a Chromebook than on a Mac. But the other side is that anything not explicitly requiring Linux will work natively in macOS, where you also get a nicer terminal. Like I've not needed a Linux VM in years, and the author doing web dev probably won't either.
jeffbee 4mo ago
I can't think of any sense in which this statement could be supported by facts.
makeitdouble 4mo ago
ChromeOS will run on any standard machine and subsystems (qndroid, linux) work decently good. What concrete points makes you put macos as more open ?
- fragmede 4mo ago
  Root on the host OS. Can't change the MAC on the wifi adapter, for instance.
  - jeffbee 4mo ago
    You can change the wifi mac on any chromeos machine with literally `ifconfig`.
ototot 4mo ago
You can even install linux on Chromebooks, and ChromeOS has upstreamed / opensource many of their codes. In other perspective, ChromeOS supports running Linux apps w/ GUI without much differences. You just open your terminal, type `apt install XXX`, then `XXX` should work out-of-the box. I don't see any reasons that ChromeOS is less open then macOS
- fragmede 4mo ago
  Any? Crostini is neat and all, but it's a VM running inside of ChromeOS, so it's restricted in what it can do.
  - s1gsegv 4mo ago
    The entire system firmware is open source, so it’s relatively straightforward to replace the system firmware with Coreboot and EDKII to boot normal UEFI Linux. It works excellent. mrchromebox.tech and docs.chrultrabook.com have all the nitty gritty details.
    - mickelsen 4mo ago
      x86 only tho

ryeguy_24 4mo ago

Ha, same. I absolutely love everything about my MacBook Pro.

ant6n 4mo ago
...except the operating system. And the silly notch. And the weird keyboard. And the hard palm-cutting corner. And the reflective screen. and the finger-print-magnet materials. And the small amount of RAM. and the small SSD. And the weight. Other than that, it's perfect! (On the blance,still better than any other laptop)

babypuncher 4mo ago

ChromeOS is the absolute last desktop operating system I would choose to use for myself. Linux, macOS, and Windows would have to be completely dead and buried before I would switch, and at that point I might just consider abandoning tech altogether and joining an Amish commune or something.

bigyabai 4mo ago
When was the last time you tried ChromeOS, out of curiosity? I'd always reach for Linux first, but I'm hard-pressed to put Windows or macOS in second place when both are so miserably bloated.
- babypuncher 4mo ago
  It's not about bloat, it's about Google. The only tech company I despise more than Google is Facebook.

bigyabai 4mo ago

> but it's definitely more open than ChromeOS. I don't think that's entirely true. For instance, ChromeOS supports Mesa, which macOS has spent the past decade pretending doesn't exist.

0xBADA55 4mo ago

For small businesses using Google Workspace, Chrome book is so easy to manage.

montroser 4mo ago

What do you mean by open and closed? ChromeOS is based on ChromiumOS, which is open source. I guess macOS is based on Darwin technically, but the ratio of open source to proprietary is much higher for ChromeOS than macOS, no?

galleywest200 4mo ago
I think they mean closed as in it is more difficult to install whatever you want on a ChromeOS machine as opposed to a MacOS machine.
- ufmace 4mo ago
  What is it that you want to install on ChromeOS that you are unable to? All of the usual Linux and open-source stuff works fine on the built-in Linux environment on it. Possibly even a little better than MacOS in some cases, since you don't need to worry about Apple app signing. There's not literally nothing you can't do, but the list is a lot shorter than most people think, especially those who haven't really tried ChromeOS in a decade and think they're all a glorified web browser on $200 hardware.
  - traderj0e 4mo ago
    You can technically run anything you want on both without resorting to hacks, it's just a question of how annoying it is.
    - nolist_policy 4mo ago
      On a Chromebook you can install the Linux Dev VM with 5 clicks in the settings and get a fully featured Debian VM.
      - traderj0e 4mo ago
        I'm willing to bet it's easier to set up a Linux VM on a Chromebook than on a Mac. But the other side is that anything not explicitly requiring Linux will work natively in macOS, where you also get a nicer terminal. Like I've not needed a Linux VM in years, and the author doing web dev probably won't either.

jeffbee 4mo ago

I can't think of any sense in which this statement could be supported by facts.

makeitdouble 4mo ago

ChromeOS will run on any standard machine and subsystems (qndroid, linux) work decently good. What concrete points makes you put macos as more open ?

fragmede 4mo ago
Root on the host OS. Can't change the MAC on the wifi adapter, for instance.
- jeffbee 4mo ago
  You can change the wifi mac on any chromeos machine with literally `ifconfig`.

ototot 4mo ago

You can even install linux on Chromebooks, and ChromeOS has upstreamed / opensource many of their codes. In other perspective, ChromeOS supports running Linux apps w/ GUI without much differences. You just open your terminal, type `apt install XXX`, then `XXX` should work out-of-the box. I don't see any reasons that ChromeOS is less open then macOS

fragmede 4mo ago
Any? Crostini is neat and all, but it's a VM running inside of ChromeOS, so it's restricted in what it can do.
- s1gsegv 4mo ago
  The entire system firmware is open source, so it’s relatively straightforward to replace the system firmware with Coreboot and EDKII to boot normal UEFI Linux. It works excellent. mrchromebox.tech and docs.chrultrabook.com have all the nitty gritty details.
  - mickelsen 4mo ago
    x86 only tho