I had to use a ChromeOS device today.

Perhaps I'm daft, or perhaps it was down to whomever had set up this machine, but I couldn't even find a way to edit a text file.

@neil

In my limited experience, ChromeOS is very locked-down. The drive seems to use the device as a portal to internet services and nothing more.

Our schools prefer them, and when you add the policies enforced by the school district IT department, they're practically useless for anything outside of school/schoolwork.

@GregNilsen @neil presumably, these policies include disabling the android and debian compatibility layers, which are the intended ways to install software locally

@neil

The only bonus is I can throw it on an older device and everything basically picks up where it left off, which is useful when a kid inevitably drops it or does something else irresponsible.

@leo @GregNilsen @neil chrome os is primarily designed to be online-only, google really expects you to primarily use google docs or whatever, so there’s no text editor unless you open a linux shell (which is usually blocked) or use an online text editor like vscode.dev or something. it has its conveniences but very few of those conveniences are for the end user

@vn @GregNilsen @neil i am well aware of the intentions behind the chromium os security model

@leo @GregNilsen @neil sorry, I know, it was meant to be targeted to the parent post but I don’t know how fedi works clearly