Your focus on low power systems such as this is something I appreciate in a world where a lot of the most popular content creators on TH-cam who make videos about computers mainly focus on high performance systems targeted towards the gaming community. However, even when you've made videos about systems that were top-of-the-line when they were new, you rarely set them up for gaming. Usually, I see you build your systems up to be servers, or even budget-oriented workstations. That's a breath of fresh air I welcome, and I hope you continue to produce such content in the future.
Thanks for sharing this, I had a vague idea that it might be possible to bring these older devices up to date but I'd never looked into it enough to see it done. I would certainly be sad to see you decide to leave this platform because of entitled people who themselves have probably never produced a single piece of content, and don't recognise the work that goes into crafting a good video. I've learned a lot from you over the years particularly about vintage computer hardware, and I've been entertained by those videos that are intended as such rather than being educational. Wishing you a happy and safe new year.
Huh. TH-cam glitched out after I had a longer more thought out comment. Long story short, I enjoy your content. Been watching since the "dishwasher to clean a PC" video about 12 years back or so. I'm just happy to see that you're still releasing videos, regardless of frequency. I'd be happy if you released 1 video, or 100 videos this year. Just don't you dare release exactly 17 videos. You have been warned. :p I've always loved your video style, just a guy with a camera providing a little education and a little entertainment about some subject he knows about. No over the top production. Keep it up. Or keep it down. Honestly, I don't control your life. Keep it in whatever state you see fit.
Hey man, I love your videos, It's always an awesome surprise to see a new video from you. I personally dont care how often you upload. It's the character and the charm of your videos that I like. Not to mention all the things I'v learnt from you over the years. Just keep being you uxwbill! I will patiently wait for your uploads.
I wish you would upload more often, as I really enjoy your videos, but I totally understand, and grateful for what you do upload. Far as Chrome OS goes I really like it using Neverware for the right use cases for people in my family who are not the most technically minded, need something they can't screw up, and only a simple OS for web browsing, office work with Google Docs, and other light usage, plus I don't have to remind them to update Neverware Chromium OS as it updates automatically, and it allows me to use older hardware that has at least 4GB of RAM(8GB+ is more ideal however), and a decent dual core CPU. I often buy Lenovo Thinkcentre Tiny boxes to run it, and throw in a 120GB SSD, and 8GB of RAM, and they run great. 🙂
Good to hear from you again, always have enjoyed your computer videos though of late I seem to be getting back into the car things. Glad to hear you're well, and here's to a decent 2022! Your channel is what inspired me to make my own some years ago, and I must say I really appreciate all the interesting content you've put out over the years.
My daughter uses one for when they did at home learning stuff . now she uses for youtube watching and stuff like that. Its a decent computer,but nothing like my Lenovo idea pad. Its really good to see y'all on here bill. Happy new year
I think the majority of us are just excited when your channel pops up in the feed! Always glad to see you’ve found a subject begging for a video and went ahead and gave us one!
Sorry to hear that you've been harassed about making videos, I'm glad to see a video whenever you feel like putting one out. It's more exciting to see a new video from you unexpectedly anyway
Haven't checked on this channel in a while and this was yet another cool little old-school youtube video 8-) I personally find it unfortunate that people *demand* videos from you and I am grateful that you do. I believe I found your channel over a decade ago with a video about some IBM PS/2 type of computer... Hope your started well into the new year.
Thank you for coming back and watching. I'm not sure I'd call this "old school", though. :-) I need to get back to some of my old PS/2 projects. There are things about which I'd like to make videos in future. There are actually people who have gone so far as to argue with me about why I make videos, if you can believe it!
@@uxwbill PS/2 content is always worth a watch :D Just to clarify what I meant by "old school": Just a video by someone wanting to make a video about a topic that person is willing to share with the world. No hyper ads, no clickbait BS and no crazy optimized cuts. I always miss this kind of content as it has gone into a small niche of TH-cam.
Many (if not most) x86 Chromebooks can be flashed to regular PCs, though not all have drivers available. I did also convert one old Chromebook to a PC with Coreboot back in the day. It was a pretty rare ruggedized version of Lenovo X131E meant for the education market. Great machine, really well built.
Thanks for our very informative video, I really appreciate it. I'm working on an Acer C710, and after much research and trial and error I got Ubuntu 20.04 to work. Debian 11 failed. My Acer has a jumper which I packed with aluminum foil to short it. Thanks to you my computer is working with an update-able OS. Keep up the great videos.
Sucks there’s rotten apples out there…. You and bbishop are two fine gentlemen whose content are always entertaining and informative well worth the wait for videos…
It’s good to know I’m not the only one with USB sticks laying around with unknown and very likely outdated operating systems. I most likely learned it from watching you, as I did learn all about the wonderful world of UPS units many years ago.
@@uxwbill That’s something I’m also guilty of, my wife always questions why I buy flash drives every year during the Black Friday sales. You just never know when you might need one.
Hey Bill, I enjoy your videos immensely, I do appreciate your classic computer videos as well as well, I would have I would like to see more from you when you have time I know you're busy with other things and just letting you know that you are appreciated! I found these videos very intriguing and it helps me build older computers or rebuild older computers to where they function like the old IBM machines ( I too have a history with IBM (. So keep up with the good work I love your videos very much and thank you for sharing your fun videos.
Wish I had a Chromebook so I can assist the clients more for accessing the desktop they use on a daily basis. And running Linux on a Chromebook will be cool/sweet along the way. By the way, Happy New Year.
This is excellent. The demand for sprucing up 'dead' machines during Covid lockdown and remote teaching here in Ireland included some Chromebooks which flummoxed me for a while. I am no fan of them the same as you but managed to USB Linux to force things to work. Your way is far superior and overcomes the limitation to "lite" distros, although Peppermint's Synaptics smoothness allowed relevant progs to be installed. Lubuntu was also quite good but Zorin is much more flexible and better with drivers so you have helped me to improve devices all round. I also agree with you that low power machines can be useful when adapted for various purposes (auto diagnostics is one and coursework compression another) so those of us who have a bit of experience benefit from your greater knowledge. As an aside, my career was in special education as a principal, psychologist and inspector in England and started to adapt devices when we needed to meet complex needs. The big platforms had little to offer back then and only since YTube allowed people to share have things become less arduous. At 72 and disabled it's good to still be useful. Thank you.
Some do it better than others. The older models have a lot fewer surprises. (Something like this Acer C720P, the non-touch 720 or a 740 would be a good choice for this modification.) I don't know how cheap is cheap enough, but if you bide your time you can find one for $25 or less. It doesn't matter if Google supports it any more or not. You can find a hardware compatibility list on the Gallium OS site.
Great vídeo! I am distro hopping right now on a Chromebook CB3-431. My first choice was zorin but I had problems with the track pad (sluggish) and sound (common in most distros tested). Had the best look but was the worst experience. I really wanted it to work well but it's beyond my knowledge... The best is fedora so far to have everything working out of the box.
Great humorous and helpful video. I have installed Linux Mint 21.1 and Linux Lite on my Dell Chromebook 11, which are not supported (Bay Trail) but they both work fine, luckily. At only $25 each, they make great little laptops for browsing, youtube, etc. Thanks for the show.
Longtime channel watcher here - just stumbled across this as my chrome os on a similar acer machine is starting to show its age. Been considering doing this for a while and maybe now I’ll have to give it a go. Always great to find a uxwbill video in the wild, it truly was an Unexpected Bill. 2 videos or 20 per year makes no difference to me, I just appreciate the content and the fact it makes you happy.
It's been a while, but I'm glad to see you're still around. (I'm very busy these days, but generally do still enjoy making videos when I have the time.) I'm biased because I like low/ultra low power computer systems, but I definitely think you should consider converting your Chromebook to a "regular" computer. I have a few more to convert, as well as an HP Chromebox.
Hello friend bill , last video I saw was when you guys tore down the Roach Palace back when the weather was still warm out hope to hear back from you soon thanks and may God bless you always my friend happy now year to you and your family hope you have a great and wonderful 2022
Happy New Year Bill! I hope there are some great videos this year and i hope all is well with you and your family! I just bought a house been watching for 10 years!!!
Ooh, a TG series camera now? Looks like the newer version of the one I have (I have a HDR-TG1 that I picked up on eBay because I've been fascinated with it for some reason since it was new, might just be because those little pistol grip cameras that record video that looks at least somewhat like video are pretty cool).
Yoooo, that's the C720P!!! I bought 3 of the non-touch variant for me and the family. And mine has seen a similar treatment to yours but I slapped Arch on there. A friend of mine recommended the laptop because of how dirt cheap they are for what you get. I set mine up with a really slim install, small openbox desktop, barely a bar, not even networkmanager, it uses 100mb ram at idle. about 5-600mb when I have Discord up. it will happily play twitch streams and youtube, and the speakers are surprisingly good. The best part imo is that a laptop this cheap gets 8hrs of battery. About the keyboard layout, that's included as part of libinput (and it's X driver) and present in all modern and updated Linux distros now. Speaking of modern and updated, that's not a good description of Gallium, which was last updated in December 2019, and the apt repos aren't very much up-to-date either. Despite all the stuff you might read here and there online about the Atheros card, the touchpad or similar, those issues have long been resolved upstream and you can just install whatever.
Now that the used prices have come down out the stratosphere, these can be outstanding value for the money. And of course, there are a lot of interesting things that one can do with them. Plus, it's a good way to get some low power x86 compatible silicon that isn't otherwise easily found. I've run Linux Mint on another model and my experience with the function keys wasn't the same. Could I have tinkered with it and gotten them working as such? Almost certainly. That time, though, I was using a model still under support, so I didn't plan to modify its firmware permanently. I hope GalliumOS isn't dead, but I suspect the writing is on the wall. It's still good enough, though. After a fresh install on this very system, and an update run, the included Chromium browser was at version 95. Although I'm not fond of them (after dealing with the complete helping of fail that is the Atheros L1 wired Ethernet chip), I've never had any problem with any Atheros wi-fi adapter under Linux. Only Broadcom and early Ralink stuff has ever given me fits. Intel and Atheros generally just work.
Nice to see ye again Bill. Hope ye had a Happy New Year. I've had a Toshiba laptop for the past 9 years running Windows 10 Home, still my daily driver and very usable even today for just about any modern software.
First time watcher here. Great information and explanation. Humans can be so mean and demanding. Probably one of the reasons I decided not upload my content to any platform.
Thank you for taking the time to watch! (No, that's not an automated comment. It's really me.) I've been flattered and honored that people have enjoyed what it is I do here, but it is and always has been entirely for fun. I really wouldn't want it to be anything else! (There are actually people who have argued with this and other things that are simply the truth. To which I can only say, I guess it takes all types.)
I got a c720 and upgraded the ssd to like 256 gig and ran a bunch of linux distros lasted like 3 years before I decided I had enough and got a full fledged laptop. It was really frustrating but now that I don't use it every day i'm glad for the experience that I got from this little 30 dollar laptop. Edit: Never got windows 10 on it but it was always a goal of mine.
Don't you love it when a computer effectively has an expiration date? I've seen people run Chrome OS on a regular Windows box, I bet if you wanted to continue using ChromeOS, with the UEFI firmware installed you could boot whatever distribution of ChromeOS they're using.
Happy New Years from the House of Snail! Android/Chrome... Wish our Google-fu could rustle us up a copy of the ZTE phone's clock & weather app. Much lichen it and would love to be able to export it to our Onn & RCA tablets... Apropos of nothing... was at the groceteria's bottle return center and had the occasion to reboot one of the machines. Weren't we amazed to see an 'American Megatrends' splash screen pop up... Not being a Win/Dos user, we haven't seen that in a long while. Don't suppose one could sneak a Mac firmware onto the wee beastie...
Hackintoshing a Chromebook seems like a downright kinky thing to do, but as they *can* be made to UEFI boot a modern 64-bit OS, I'll bet stranger things have happened! I'd imagine it comes down more to the hardware your Chromebook uses, more than anything else.
I love videos like this. Please keep in mind that the people asking for more content are probably doing so because they like what you're doing. I understand that it can get annoying, but it's good to have fans, even if they can be annoying.
TY William i have done this to my asus chromebook and it now has a new life. this old chromebook was an old school district cast off after google stop supporting the machine . i will see if i can install windows on mine
That was a fun video. Thanks for sharing! It gives me an idea to pick up a chromebox, plug in a larger thumb drive, and use it as a headless file server.
1st video, Thank you. If some people have problems with you and your presentation--I would say the line forms at the left to kiss--do what you do , you do it well. Thank you. p.
I really appreciate your step-by-step presentation of using MrChromebox script. The tutorial on the website lacks the subtle details you've mentioned, like white-screen-of-death after flashing. Well done!
I was happily surprised seeing a video from you on my recommended list! I haven't seen any video in a while but very thankful for every time it does. Very interesting video and informative. hope you have a wonderful day uxwbill :)
I have an Asus chromebook that is ending it's support soon. Going to have to give this a try soon. Always look forward to computer vids from you bud. Happy New Year to you and your family.
Thank you unexpected wild bill! I have an old chrome book that I can play with now old education Intel based one that will get puppy linux because it's crap but will be at least usable to some degree and if I get any better ones in the future they might get converted to usable things! I can't thank you enough for this and please keep making videos and I miss the key keeper and the old ux crew!
I got an old core 2 duo Fujitsu T4220 LifeBook which I hot rodded to heck and it's a super lil laptop...SSD...fast cpu oh it was made in 2008 but it's super fast! Running windows 10 like a beast! I'd want to get it a new battery pack but they are expensive!
@@grassulo I have a similar story: Dell Latitude E6500 that I've hotrodded the hell out of. The only original things left are the chassis, display and battery and at some point it'll get a better display if I ever feel like it. Got the motherboard out of a Precision M4400, the fancier version, a backlit keyboard, a Core 2 Quad Q9100 (if I remember correctly) and 8 gigabytes of DDR2 SODIMMs. I didn't even know 4 gig DDR2 SODIMMs existed, but the chipset on the Precision board is capable of utilizing all 8 so on the upgrades go. The Nvidia Quadro FX770 isn't all that useful (and of course it's got the typical late 2000s Nvidia mobile GPU heat issues) but it's miles ahead of the Intel graphics Media decelerator that comes onboard the basic E6500's board. I shouldnt forget to mention that of course it boots from a 275 gig Crucial solid state storage drive. The whole project was mostly a labor of love for the design of the chassis, as realistically that $250 or so I spent on the parts could have gone into buying a much better newerish laptop off Craigslist or Facebook. Regardless, I'm quite proud of it.
I like these Chromebooks because they are a very cheap way to get a laptop with a capacitive touchscreen. Despite the lack of updates, GalliumOS is still a good choice for these Chromebooks in my opinion. I have a very obscure education Chromebook, and even that was fully supported by it.
@@uxwbill Probably... the fact that encryption is even a thing on these small devices is astonishing. It seems that of all the things they could have left out... good on them for not doing that.
Not elegant, but you could probably plop one of those very slimline USB keys in it. This would obviously take up a port, but would give you some space to breathe.
That came out nice... thanks for sharing that, Bill. In my small collection of low-power computers my favorite is my Asus Eee PC T91MT mini-laptop/tablet, with 2 gigs RAM, 32 gigs SSD and Intel Atom central processor running 1,300 mHz max) It originally came with Windows 7 but I wiped it's SSD slick and tried a few different distros of Linux as the replacement OS. The distro that works the best so far in the T91MT is BionicPup32 8.0+29 Puppy Linux. The main barrier with the other distros I tried (Ubuntu Desktop.. Linux Lite... Linux Mint) was suitable drivers for the T91MT's graphics chipset, which is GMA500 , and the playback of media files would be all choppy, etc, but with the Puppy Linux the T91MT got the drivers it needs to properly run that pesky GMA500 chipset and media files run beautifully. I love the Pup. ; - )
I'm not honestly sure if, when someone says this, they are joking or not. I really have to wonder if a lot of the folks who think WinMe was so great actually ever ran it.
@@uxwbill Haha, I'm just pulling your leg, man. Actually, it stuck in my head because I recently watched a video from someone else and they used a snippet of one of your videos where you were booting up a computer that had Windows Me on it and you said, "Windows Millennium, oh no, get it away!" Now that I think about it, I think it was a recent one from vwestlife and if I remember correctly, it was a laptop with a Windows Me badge on it.
@@uxwbill And yes, I have run it before. It had great potential but it truly fell flat on its nose with all the crashes it would suffer. Definitely not one of the versions of Windows I would run full time.
Dont let a single person, no dont let a million people have you believe anything you do is for them. You do you. For you by you. Your awesome. Haters hate.
I actually did this to a Dell Chromebook about a year ago, but I ran into a problem with the fact that the onboard storage is only 16GB, and you can't add more internally at all (on my particular model at least). 16GB is enough I suppose for a Linux root if you have another volume on which to put swap and /home if you're going to, y'know, actually *use* the machine at all, but it just wasn't enough for my purposes and I ended up repurposing a 2-in-1 Pavilion for use as a throw-around Linux laptop. Even 32GB would have let me squeak by, but 16 is just too small. Another annoyance is the custom keymap Chromebooks love to have. Some distributions are nice enough to give you a sane keymap by default -- I believe the top row corresponds to F1-F10, and you have to define a modifier to use F11 and F12, and the "search" key that's where caps lock should be is "Super", but -- and I can't back this up as it's been a year so I don't really remember all that clearly, but I recall that others make you download and apply that keymap yourself. Still, for as cheap as these things are getting, repurposing them is a nice thought. Keeps them out of the landfill for another couple years, at least.
Did exactly this a year ago with my Dell Chromebox that Google kicked to the curb. I am running GalliumOS and it works great as my HTPC. Whenever I get around to buying a 64 or 128GB M.2 drive, I'll probably put LinuxLite on it, if Gallium disappears.
I repurposed a 2007 MacBook, I upgraded the ram, replaced the hard drive with an SSD and replaced the battery and Installed Windows 11 which is upgraded from Windows 7
I'll look in the spam filter and see if it's been ensnared by Yotuube's latest flash in the pan bit of slapdash engineering. Some of my comments on vwestlife's latest video vanished into the ether! (Because, yeah, someone who has been on TH-cam for well over a decade, who makes videos and has a following...yeah, totally the profile of a spammer.) It's been a problem for a while, and with other videos I've commented on. I don't know why Google can't (or won't) just make this site work.
@@uxwbill I explained how Android OS powers the IBM Thinkstations (P4 and Core 2) for the Customer Service/Ordering Kiosks at every Staples in the nation. They just saved the old Thinkstations in a warehouse for years and brought them out because they didn't want to pay the Windows License when XP Corporate fizzled out. They run rather nice actually.
I went and looked. It's not there. In fact, nothing is. ("You're all caught up!" it helpfully says.) Damned if I know. Having to identify and then work around the latest TH-cam screwups, assuming one even can, is also a leading contributor to TH-cam Fatigue(tm).
Heyy! Damn I used to watch you all the time as a teenager, remember that NAS you built out of that old Dell with Freenas? ^_^ Or that time you stuck your keyboards in the dish washer (or sink I can't quite remember). We used to chuckle quite a bit in your comment section. Happy to see you're still kicking
There are two types of TH-camrs, the ones who do it for fun like yourself and those who make a "career" out of it. If you're asking for money then fair enough the audience has a right to tell you what they want, but if you're doing it for free like you are then nobody has a right to demand anything. It's those who do that ruin it for the rest of us who are grateful for anything that gets uploaded, even if it were only 1 video per year. Keep up the good work and upload when you want to 👍
I've been doing IT work professionally for about two years now, and have played around with computers for several years before, but I have never used the Chrome OS with any regularity. We had a couple of Chromebit devices that we phased out at work, one of the Chromebit devices we replaced with a Chromebox. Doesn't seem like an awful OS, but it is way too basic to perform pretty much anything I need from a computer, and I prefer Windows in the corporate world because managing Chrome devices, while being possible, it a service that costs money. That and Google walking up and telling you that the device is outdated can happen almost at any time.
ASUS was the one manufacturer that made a 'Chromebit' - which is a neat enough concept for a more "smart" TV. Chrome OS is just designed to be a system that runs a browser as the OS, but it has become more. It's unfortunate that Google seems like they want to make it more into a computer.
@@IBM_Museum I had an Asus Chromebit, and the worst part was the hardware inside of it was really weak being barely enough to run ChromeOS, and because of he sealed nature of the stick format, it would get so hot that it would thermal throttle causing even worse performance if you tried to play video past 720p 30fps, but it was a really neat concept.
@@IBM_Museum I've tried the 'computer hooked to a TV' concept, and it just doesn't seem natural to be use using a computer while sitting at your couch. At work, I have started adding Windows machines to conference room TVs (where the Chromebits were) but they are on much larger TVs (55 inches at least, all the way up to 85 inches) and there is almost always a desk for the keyboard and mouse to go. Everybody loves them, and they allow for customization that the Chrome devices never allowed us to have.
Thank you for the video! I totally relate to doing videos and other things in general as a part of _fun_ and not work and stress. People can be so pesky! It's _good_ to enjoy ourselves, and not be so harsh to each other!
Your focus on low power systems such as this is something I appreciate in a world where a lot of the most popular content creators on TH-cam who make videos about computers mainly focus on high performance systems targeted towards the gaming community. However, even when you've made videos about systems that were top-of-the-line when they were new, you rarely set them up for gaming. Usually, I see you build your systems up to be servers, or even budget-oriented workstations. That's a breath of fresh air I welcome, and I hope you continue to produce such content in the future.
The man the myth the smoke test is back!!
Seriously I've rewatched your old computer videos to the point of memorization
after the ball dropped I thought about your New Years videos, miss your videos especially old computer tech videos 🙂
Happy New Year Bill, You were one of my earliest influences for my channel and I'm so glad you're still around man
Glad to see new computer content, but sad to realize 10 years has gone by since I subscribed. We're getting old!
So long as one keeps *having* birthdays, that's the important part.
Glad to see you’re still going strong. Always enjoy your videos.
happy new years... this was a change of pace. not my normal cup of tea, but it's you so i take time to watch and see what your up to.
Thanks for sharing this, I had a vague idea that it might be possible to bring these older devices up to date but I'd never looked into it enough to see it done. I would certainly be sad to see you decide to leave this platform because of entitled people who themselves have probably never produced a single piece of content, and don't recognise the work that goes into crafting a good video. I've learned a lot from you over the years particularly about vintage computer hardware, and I've been entertained by those videos that are intended as such rather than being educational. Wishing you a happy and safe new year.
Huh. TH-cam glitched out after I had a longer more thought out comment.
Long story short, I enjoy your content. Been watching since the "dishwasher to clean a PC" video about 12 years back or so. I'm just happy to see that you're still releasing videos, regardless of frequency. I'd be happy if you released 1 video, or 100 videos this year. Just don't you dare release exactly 17 videos. You have been warned. :p
I've always loved your video style, just a guy with a camera providing a little education and a little entertainment about some subject he knows about. No over the top production. Keep it up. Or keep it down. Honestly, I don't control your life. Keep it in whatever state you see fit.
The same thing happened to me...they may return later on today. It happens from time to time
Hey man, I love your videos, It's always an awesome surprise to see a new video from you. I personally dont care how often you upload. It's the character and the charm of your videos that I like. Not to mention all the things I'v learnt from you over the years. Just keep being you uxwbill! I will patiently wait for your uploads.
Always enjoy watching you, man. been watching for over a decade and love the shenanigans
I wish you would upload more often, as I really enjoy your videos, but I totally understand, and grateful for what you do upload. Far as Chrome OS goes I really like it using Neverware for the right use cases for people in my family who are not the most technically minded, need something they can't screw up, and only a simple OS for web browsing, office work with Google Docs, and other light usage, plus I don't have to remind them to update Neverware Chromium OS as it updates automatically, and it allows me to use older hardware that has at least 4GB of RAM(8GB+ is more ideal however), and a decent dual core CPU. I often buy Lenovo Thinkcentre Tiny boxes to run it, and throw in a 120GB SSD, and 8GB of RAM, and they run great. 🙂
"I wish you would upload more often." LIFE. LIFE GETS IN THE WAY.
Bill does owe us, with out us subs he would have no one watching. He is just being entitled, we the watchers demand at least 1 video every 10 days.
@@jilltheretrogamer9171 I really hope that is sarcasm.
@@captainnutnut6077 it’s truth , just plain truth.
@@jilltheretrogamer9171 oh God, I'm sure it's sarcasm lol
Good to hear from you again, always have enjoyed your computer videos though of late I seem to be getting back into the car things.
Glad to hear you're well, and here's to a decent 2022!
Your channel is what inspired me to make my own some years ago, and I must say I really appreciate all the interesting content you've put out over the years.
My daughter uses one for when they did at home learning stuff . now she uses for youtube watching and stuff like that. Its a decent computer,but nothing like my Lenovo idea pad. Its really good to see y'all on here bill. Happy new year
It's mighty good to see you back, Bill. Happy New Year!
I think the majority of us are just excited when your channel pops up in the feed! Always glad to see you’ve found a subject begging for a video and went ahead and gave us one!
What a great treat to wake up to this morning. Wishing you and yours the happiest and healthiest of new years!
Sorry to hear that you've been harassed about making videos, I'm glad to see a video whenever you feel like putting one out. It's more exciting to see a new video from you unexpectedly anyway
Haven't checked on this channel in a while and this was yet another cool little old-school youtube video 8-) I personally find it unfortunate that people *demand* videos from you and I am grateful that you do.
I believe I found your channel over a decade ago with a video about some IBM PS/2 type of computer... Hope your started well into the new year.
Thank you for coming back and watching. I'm not sure I'd call this "old school", though. :-) I need to get back to some of my old PS/2 projects. There are things about which I'd like to make videos in future.
There are actually people who have gone so far as to argue with me about why I make videos, if you can believe it!
@@uxwbill PS/2 content is always worth a watch :D
Just to clarify what I meant by "old school": Just a video by someone wanting to make a video about a topic that person is willing to share with the world. No hyper ads, no clickbait BS and no crazy optimized cuts. I always miss this kind of content as it has gone into a small niche of TH-cam.
A computer video always excites me. Happy new year Bill!
Thank you for you contributions to TH-cam community it is truly awesome
Many (if not most) x86 Chromebooks can be flashed to regular PCs, though not all have drivers available.
I did also convert one old Chromebook to a PC with Coreboot back in the day. It was a pretty rare ruggedized version of Lenovo X131E meant for the education market. Great machine, really well built.
No forcing of videos here, but I do get excited when you make one! Hope you have a good 2022.
Thanks for our very informative video, I really appreciate it. I'm working on an Acer C710, and after much research and trial and error I got Ubuntu 20.04 to work. Debian 11 failed. My Acer has a jumper which I packed with aluminum foil to short it. Thanks to you my computer is working with an update-able OS. Keep up the great videos.
Sucks there’s rotten apples out there…. You and bbishop are two fine gentlemen whose content are always entertaining and informative well worth the wait for videos…
Thanks, man. Your ramblings are missed so keep ramblin on.
It’s good to know I’m not the only one with USB sticks laying around with unknown and very likely outdated operating systems. I most likely learned it from watching you, as I did learn all about the wonderful world of UPS units many years ago.
Most of those flash drives were blank.
@@uxwbill That’s something I’m also guilty of, my wife always questions why I buy flash drives every year during the Black Friday sales. You just never know when you might need one.
good for you standing up for yourself bill.
Had an Asus chromebook a few years ago that I did this too. It was surprisingly capable once you put a proper Linux install on it. Good times.
Hey Bill, I enjoy your videos immensely, I do appreciate your classic computer videos as well as well, I would have I would like to see more from you when you have time I know you're busy with other things and just letting you know that you are appreciated! I found these videos very intriguing and it helps me build older computers or rebuild older computers to where they function like the old IBM machines ( I too have a history with IBM (. So keep up with the good work I love your videos very much and thank you for sharing your fun videos.
Wish I had a Chromebook so I can assist the clients more for accessing the desktop they use on a daily basis. And running Linux on a Chromebook will be cool/sweet along the way.
By the way, Happy New Year.
This is excellent. The demand for sprucing up 'dead' machines during Covid lockdown and remote teaching here in Ireland included some Chromebooks which flummoxed me for a while. I am no fan of them the same as you but managed to USB Linux to force things to work. Your way is far superior and overcomes the limitation to "lite" distros, although Peppermint's Synaptics smoothness allowed relevant progs to be installed. Lubuntu was also quite good but Zorin is much more flexible and better with drivers so you have helped me to improve devices all round.
I also agree with you that low power machines can be useful when adapted for various purposes (auto diagnostics is one and coursework compression another) so those of us who have a bit of experience benefit from your greater knowledge. As an aside, my career was in special education as a principal, psychologist and inspector in England and started to adapt devices when we needed to meet complex needs. The big platforms had little to offer back then and only since YTube allowed people to share have things become less arduous. At 72 and disabled it's good to still be useful. Thank you.
Thanks for another upload! I know you're busy, and always appreciate another Unexpected Wild Bill upload!!
I wondered if a chromebook would run a different OS, and now I know, as I couldn't find one cheap enough to test it out. Now I know.
Some do it better than others. The older models have a lot fewer surprises. (Something like this Acer C720P, the non-touch 720 or a 740 would be a good choice for this modification.)
I don't know how cheap is cheap enough, but if you bide your time you can find one for $25 or less. It doesn't matter if Google supports it any more or not.
You can find a hardware compatibility list on the Gallium OS site.
Great seeing a video from you. Happy New Year Bill.
Great vídeo! I am distro hopping right now on a Chromebook CB3-431.
My first choice was zorin but I had problems with the track pad (sluggish) and sound (common in most distros tested). Had the best look but was the worst experience. I really wanted it to work well but it's beyond my knowledge...
The best is fedora so far to have everything working out of the box.
Thank you sir! Great gift!
Glad to see you again sir hope you and your family have a wonderful new years
Happy New Year to you and your family, UXW Bill! Love your videos! Please keep them coming!
Do what keeps the channel fun for you dude, don’t listen to those demanding commenters. Happy new year 🥳👏
We love you uxwbill! Your videos are awesome and I enjoy them thoroughly ❤
I'm glad to see a video from you at least you don't put me to sleep
Great humorous and helpful video. I have installed Linux Mint 21.1 and Linux Lite on my Dell Chromebook 11, which are not supported (Bay Trail) but they both work fine, luckily. At only $25 each, they make great little laptops for browsing, youtube, etc. Thanks for the show.
Longtime channel watcher here - just stumbled across this as my chrome os on a similar acer machine is starting to show its age. Been considering doing this for a while and maybe now I’ll have to give it a go. Always great to find a uxwbill video in the wild, it truly was an Unexpected Bill. 2 videos or 20 per year makes no difference to me, I just appreciate the content and the fact it makes you happy.
It's been a while, but I'm glad to see you're still around. (I'm very busy these days, but generally do still enjoy making videos when I have the time.)
I'm biased because I like low/ultra low power computer systems, but I definitely think you should consider converting your Chromebook to a "regular" computer. I have a few more to convert, as well as an HP Chromebox.
Great to hear from you again. Thanks for the Video. Happy New Year
That's some great information. Thanks Bill and Happy New Year.
Hello friend bill , last video I saw was when you guys tore down the Roach Palace back when the weather was still warm out hope to hear back from you soon thanks and may God bless you always my friend happy now year to you and your family hope you have a great and wonderful 2022
Thank you for the video Bill! Keep doing what your doing brother 👍
Happy New Year Bill! I hope there are some great videos this year and i hope all is well with you and your family! I just bought a house been watching for 10 years!!!
Congratulations on your house and thanks for watching!
Ooh, a TG series camera now?
Looks like the newer version of the one I have (I have a HDR-TG1 that I picked up on eBay because I've been fascinated with it for some reason since it was new, might just be because those little pistol grip cameras that record video that looks at least somewhat like video are pretty cool).
Also, I think we're located in the same time zone so happy (36 minutes late) new year!
@@bakonfreek It's an HDR-TG5V. I'm in the Central Standard Time zone.
Always love to see the new videos whenever they arrive, Happy new year!
I do appreciate your videos, I watch the old ones quite a bit. Your fun to listen to. Happy new year my feiend. Have a great 2022 Bill!
Lovely way to end the year, thanks for uploading the New Years gift!
Great stuff Bill! Always love your computer videos!
Yoooo, that's the C720P!!! I bought 3 of the non-touch variant for me and the family. And mine has seen a similar treatment to yours but I slapped Arch on there. A friend of mine recommended the laptop because of how dirt cheap they are for what you get. I set mine up with a really slim install, small openbox desktop, barely a bar, not even networkmanager, it uses 100mb ram at idle. about 5-600mb when I have Discord up. it will happily play twitch streams and youtube, and the speakers are surprisingly good. The best part imo is that a laptop this cheap gets 8hrs of battery.
About the keyboard layout, that's included as part of libinput (and it's X driver) and present in all modern and updated Linux distros now. Speaking of modern and updated, that's not a good description of Gallium, which was last updated in December 2019, and the apt repos aren't very much up-to-date either.
Despite all the stuff you might read here and there online about the Atheros card, the touchpad or similar, those issues have long been resolved upstream and you can just install whatever.
Now that the used prices have come down out the stratosphere, these can be outstanding value for the money. And of course, there are a lot of interesting things that one can do with them. Plus, it's a good way to get some low power x86 compatible silicon that isn't otherwise easily found.
I've run Linux Mint on another model and my experience with the function keys wasn't the same. Could I have tinkered with it and gotten them working as such? Almost certainly. That time, though, I was using a model still under support, so I didn't plan to modify its firmware permanently.
I hope GalliumOS isn't dead, but I suspect the writing is on the wall. It's still good enough, though. After a fresh install on this very system, and an update run, the included Chromium browser was at version 95.
Although I'm not fond of them (after dealing with the complete helping of fail that is the Atheros L1 wired Ethernet chip), I've never had any problem with any Atheros wi-fi adapter under Linux. Only Broadcom and early Ralink stuff has ever given me fits. Intel and Atheros generally just work.
Thank you for this video, good overview of what you need to do, just the info I was looking for 👍🏼
Nice to see ye again Bill.
Hope ye had a Happy New Year.
I've had a Toshiba laptop for the past 9 years running Windows 10 Home, still my daily driver and very usable even today for just about any modern software.
First time watcher here. Great information and explanation. Humans can be so mean and demanding. Probably one of the reasons I decided not upload my content to any platform.
Thank you for taking the time to watch! (No, that's not an automated comment. It's really me.)
I've been flattered and honored that people have enjoyed what it is I do here, but it is and always has been entirely for fun. I really wouldn't want it to be anything else! (There are actually people who have argued with this and other things that are simply the truth. To which I can only say, I guess it takes all types.)
I got a c720 and upgraded the ssd to like 256 gig and ran a bunch of linux distros lasted like 3 years before I decided I had enough and got a full fledged laptop. It was really frustrating but now that I don't use it every day i'm glad for the experience that I got from this little 30 dollar laptop.
Edit: Never got windows 10 on it but it was always a goal of mine.
Don't you love it when a computer effectively has an expiration date? I've seen people run Chrome OS on a regular Windows box, I bet if you wanted to continue using ChromeOS, with the UEFI firmware installed you could boot whatever distribution of ChromeOS they're using.
Happy New Years from the House of Snail!
Android/Chrome...
Wish our Google-fu could rustle us up a copy of the ZTE phone's clock & weather app. Much lichen it and would love to be able to export it to our Onn & RCA tablets...
Apropos of nothing... was at the groceteria's bottle return center and had the occasion to reboot one of the machines. Weren't we amazed to see an 'American Megatrends' splash screen pop up... Not being a Win/Dos user, we haven't seen that in a long while.
Don't suppose one could sneak a Mac firmware onto the wee beastie...
Hackintoshing a Chromebook seems like a downright kinky thing to do, but as they *can* be made to UEFI boot a modern 64-bit OS, I'll bet stranger things have happened! I'd imagine it comes down more to the hardware your Chromebook uses, more than anything else.
Man I've been watching you for years now! I miss your videos bill.
I love videos like this. Please keep in mind that the people asking for more content are probably doing so because they like what you're doing. I understand that it can get annoying, but it's good to have fans, even if they can be annoying.
Thank you for making this video! Love when you do computer videos.
this guy deserves more subscribers
TY William i have done this to my asus chromebook and it now has a new life. this old chromebook was an old school district cast off after google stop supporting the machine . i will see if i can install windows on mine
I still remember when you were messing with dell towers and such
If it's a computer, I mess with it. The goalposts move, but they never go away.
That was a fun video. Thanks for sharing! It gives me an idea to pick up a chromebox, plug in a larger thumb drive, and use it as a headless file server.
I have a Chromebox (also abandoned at CrOS v76) that's on the pile of future projects. It's likely to end up monitoring a UPS somewhere.
Happy new year, ending with a computer video too which is nice.
1st video, Thank you. If some people have problems with you and your presentation--I would say the line forms at the left to kiss--do what you do , you do it well. Thank you. p.
Happy new year to you and yours.
I really appreciate your step-by-step presentation of using MrChromebox script. The tutorial on the website lacks the subtle details you've mentioned, like white-screen-of-death after flashing. Well done!
I was happily surprised seeing a video from you on my recommended list! I haven't seen any video in a while but very thankful for every time it does. Very interesting video and informative. hope you have a wonderful day uxwbill :)
my laptop 11yr old dell , runs xubuntu and it's great!
I have an Asus chromebook that is ending it's support soon.
Going to have to give this a try soon.
Always look forward to computer vids from you bud.
Happy New Year to you and your family.
Chromebooks are just a scam in most cases, at least with a normal laptop, you can update it for as long it would run your operating system of choice.
Happy New Year UXWBill
Such a good hearted person :)
Thank you unexpected wild bill! I have an old chrome book that I can play with now old education Intel based one that will get puppy linux because it's crap but will be at least usable to some degree and if I get any better ones in the future they might get converted to usable things! I can't thank you enough for this and please keep making videos and I miss the key keeper and the old ux crew!
I got an old core 2 duo Fujitsu T4220 LifeBook which I hot rodded to heck and it's a super lil laptop...SSD...fast cpu oh it was made in 2008 but it's super fast! Running windows 10 like a beast! I'd want to get it a new battery pack but they are expensive!
@@grassulo I have a similar story: Dell Latitude E6500 that I've hotrodded the hell out of. The only original things left are the chassis, display and battery and at some point it'll get a better display if I ever feel like it.
Got the motherboard out of a Precision M4400, the fancier version, a backlit keyboard, a Core 2 Quad Q9100 (if I remember correctly) and 8 gigabytes of DDR2 SODIMMs. I didn't even know 4 gig DDR2 SODIMMs existed, but the chipset on the Precision board is capable of utilizing all 8 so on the upgrades go. The Nvidia Quadro FX770 isn't all that useful (and of course it's got the typical late 2000s Nvidia mobile GPU heat issues) but it's miles ahead of the Intel graphics Media decelerator that comes onboard the basic E6500's board.
I shouldnt forget to mention that of course it boots from a 275 gig Crucial solid state storage drive.
The whole project was mostly a labor of love for the design of the chassis, as realistically that $250 or so I spent on the parts could have gone into buying a much better newerish laptop off Craigslist or Facebook. Regardless, I'm quite proud of it.
I like these Chromebooks because they are a very cheap way to get a laptop with a capacitive touchscreen. Despite the lack of updates, GalliumOS is still a good choice for these Chromebooks in my opinion. I have a very obscure education Chromebook, and even that was fully supported by it.
I still think it's interesting that these devices have TPMs. Then again, I'm not surprised.
@@cambridgeport90 I believe this has something to do with on-device user data storage being encrypted.
@@uxwbill Probably... the fact that encryption is even a thing on these small devices is astonishing. It seems that of all the things they could have left out... good on them for not doing that.
I stuck windows 10 on a chromebook. The only thing holding it back was only having 16gb of storage. The was _no_ space available.
Do you have a SD slot?
Not elegant, but you could probably plop one of those very slimline USB keys in it. This would obviously take up a port, but would give you some space to breathe.
You can install windows 7 lite
@@fiftymk_fox4914 no, they have eMMC, and windows 7 doesn't support it at all
Get ghost spectre or tiny11
Ventoy might help with that stack of USBs.
Most were never intended to be bootable, and function as storage media only.
That came out nice... thanks for sharing that, Bill.
In my small collection of low-power computers my favorite is my Asus Eee PC T91MT mini-laptop/tablet, with 2 gigs RAM, 32 gigs SSD and Intel Atom central processor running 1,300 mHz max) It originally came with Windows 7 but I wiped it's SSD slick and tried a few different distros of Linux as the replacement OS. The distro that works the best so far in the T91MT is BionicPup32 8.0+29 Puppy Linux. The main barrier with the other distros I tried (Ubuntu Desktop.. Linux Lite... Linux Mint) was suitable drivers for the T91MT's graphics chipset, which is GMA500 , and the playback of media files would be all choppy, etc, but with the Puppy Linux the T91MT got the drivers it needs to properly run that pesky GMA500 chipset and media files run beautifully. I love the Pup. ; - )
Pup was great, been a really long while now. The Triple E was so fun!
Happy new year uxwbill!
If these had 32-bit support, it would make a fine Windows Me machine. LOL
I'm not honestly sure if, when someone says this, they are joking or not. I really have to wonder if a lot of the folks who think WinMe was so great actually ever ran it.
@@uxwbill Haha, I'm just pulling your leg, man. Actually, it stuck in my head because I recently watched a video from someone else and they used a snippet of one of your videos where you were booting up a computer that had Windows Me on it and you said, "Windows Millennium, oh no, get it away!" Now that I think about it, I think it was a recent one from vwestlife and if I remember correctly, it was a laptop with a Windows Me badge on it.
@@uxwbill And yes, I have run it before. It had great potential but it truly fell flat on its nose with all the crashes it would suffer. Definitely not one of the versions of Windows I would run full time.
If u have a 64 bit computer ofc it would work on 32bit if u try to run a 16 bit app on a 64 bit pc it won't work but 32bit I think it would work
honestly the best PC that would run windows ME would be one from the 90s because it's even more unstable if you don't have drivers for everything
Dont let a single person, no dont let a million people have you believe anything you do is for them. You do you. For you by you. Your awesome. Haters hate.
Happy new year William!
I actually did this to a Dell Chromebook about a year ago, but I ran into a problem with the fact that the onboard storage is only 16GB, and you can't add more internally at all (on my particular model at least). 16GB is enough I suppose for a Linux root if you have another volume on which to put swap and /home if you're going to, y'know, actually *use* the machine at all, but it just wasn't enough for my purposes and I ended up repurposing a 2-in-1 Pavilion for use as a throw-around Linux laptop. Even 32GB would have let me squeak by, but 16 is just too small.
Another annoyance is the custom keymap Chromebooks love to have. Some distributions are nice enough to give you a sane keymap by default -- I believe the top row corresponds to F1-F10, and you have to define a modifier to use F11 and F12, and the "search" key that's where caps lock should be is "Super", but -- and I can't back this up as it's been a year so I don't really remember all that clearly, but I recall that others make you download and apply that keymap yourself.
Still, for as cheap as these things are getting, repurposing them is a nice thought. Keeps them out of the landfill for another couple years, at least.
damn gald this came into my recommened, i used to watch you all the time as a kid
Happy New Year.
Happy new year, Bill!
Did exactly this a year ago with my Dell Chromebox that Google kicked to the curb. I am running GalliumOS and it works great as my HTPC. Whenever I get around to buying a 64 or 128GB M.2 drive, I'll probably put LinuxLite on it, if Gallium disappears.
Happy new year's hope u had a good Christmas
I repurposed a 2007 MacBook, I upgraded the ram, replaced the hard drive with an SSD and replaced the battery and Installed Windows 11 which is upgraded from Windows 7
Strange...my comment about running Android OS and Knoppix Linux on these went missing. It must be a glitch. Thanks for the upload!
I'll look in the spam filter and see if it's been ensnared by Yotuube's latest flash in the pan bit of slapdash engineering. Some of my comments on vwestlife's latest video vanished into the ether! (Because, yeah, someone who has been on TH-cam for well over a decade, who makes videos and has a following...yeah, totally the profile of a spammer.)
It's been a problem for a while, and with other videos I've commented on. I don't know why Google can't (or won't) just make this site work.
@@uxwbill I explained how Android OS powers the IBM Thinkstations (P4 and Core 2) for the Customer Service/Ordering Kiosks at every Staples in the nation. They just saved the old Thinkstations in a warehouse for years and brought them out because they didn't want to pay the Windows License when XP Corporate fizzled out. They run rather nice actually.
I went and looked. It's not there. In fact, nothing is. ("You're all caught up!" it helpfully says.) Damned if I know.
Having to identify and then work around the latest TH-cam screwups, assuming one even can, is also a leading contributor to TH-cam Fatigue(tm).
Heyy! Damn I used to watch you all the time as a teenager, remember that NAS you built out of that old Dell with Freenas? ^_^ Or that time you stuck your keyboards in the dish washer (or sink I can't quite remember). We used to chuckle quite a bit in your comment section. Happy to see you're still kicking
I also vaguely recall him either taking a recliner through the car wash, or merely talking about doing so, too.
No, I've never done or said anything about that. Perhaps you mean a refrigerator? I have done that!
Happy New Year, Bill!
There are two types of TH-camrs, the ones who do it for fun like yourself and those who make a "career" out of it. If you're asking for money then fair enough the audience has a right to tell you what they want, but if you're doing it for free like you are then nobody has a right to demand anything. It's those who do that ruin it for the rest of us who are grateful for anything that gets uploaded, even if it were only 1 video per year. Keep up the good work and upload when you want to 👍
I've been doing IT work professionally for about two years now, and have played around with computers for several years before, but I have never used the Chrome OS with any regularity. We had a couple of Chromebit devices that we phased out at work, one of the Chromebit devices we replaced with a Chromebox. Doesn't seem like an awful OS, but it is way too basic to perform pretty much anything I need from a computer, and I prefer Windows in the corporate world because managing Chrome devices, while being possible, it a service that costs money. That and Google walking up and telling you that the device is outdated can happen almost at any time.
ASUS was the one manufacturer that made a 'Chromebit' - which is a neat enough concept for a more "smart" TV. Chrome OS is just designed to be a system that runs a browser as the OS, but it has become more. It's unfortunate that Google seems like they want to make it more into a computer.
@@IBM_Museum I had an Asus Chromebit, and the worst part was the hardware inside of it was really weak being barely enough to run ChromeOS, and because of he sealed nature of the stick format, it would get so hot that it would thermal throttle causing even worse performance if you tried to play video past 720p 30fps, but it was a really neat concept.
@@IBM_Museum I've tried the 'computer hooked to a TV' concept, and it just doesn't seem natural to be use using a computer while sitting at your couch. At work, I have started adding Windows machines to conference room TVs (where the Chromebits were) but they are on much larger TVs (55 inches at least, all the way up to 85 inches) and there is almost always a desk for the keyboard and mouse to go. Everybody loves them, and they allow for customization that the Chrome devices never allowed us to have.
Even though your videos are few and far between sometimes, they are still enjoyable.
I think you were correct on your video numbers for 2021, lol
Thank you for the video! I totally relate to doing videos and other things in general as a part of _fun_ and not work and stress. People can be so pesky! It's _good_ to enjoy ourselves, and not be so harsh to each other!