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turning old laptops into Chromebooks for students

Royce Williams
 

I wrote a howto here:


If you can help neighbors turn unpatchable old laptops into Chromebooks, do what you can. 

Please let me know if you learn anything not already reflected in my howto above.

-- 
Royce
JP
 

I can attest to the process... I have done this quite a few times and it works great. I also LOVE the dictanote.co extension, I had a chat with the developer last week over a website that wasn't working as expected and he resolved it over a 5min screen share!

Great work Royce!

On Sun, Apr 12, 2020 at 1:39 PM Royce Williams <royce.williams@...> wrote:
I wrote a howto here:


If you can help neighbors turn unpatchable old laptops into Chromebooks, do what you can. 

Please let me know if you learn anything not already reflected in my howto above.

-- 
Royce
Timothy B. Trueblood
 

You're a prince. Have laptops that won't take WIN10 but are fully functional. Great idea!

Thanks,

Tim

On 4/12/2020 1:38 PM, Royce Williams wrote:
I wrote a howto here:
https://www.techsolvency.com/distance-asd/chromebook/
If you can help neighbors turn unpatchable old laptops into Chromebooks, do what you can.
Please let me know if you learn anything not already reflected in my howto above.
--
Royce
Michelle Myers
 

Hi 

Deepin has a good linux version for old laptops.  Plus it has a very apple like feel.

Michelle


On Sun, Apr 12, 2020 at 1:39 PM Royce Williams <royce.williams@...> wrote:
I wrote a howto here:


If you can help neighbors turn unpatchable old laptops into Chromebooks, do what you can. 

Please let me know if you learn anything not already reflected in my howto above.

-- 
Royce
Royce Williams
 

The advantages of using a Chromebook workalike distribution like CloudReady are:

* its UI is identical to what students are already using on Chromebooks at school
* it is self-patching, without user know-how or intervention required
* it is dramatically stripped down - exactly like ChromeOS is, so its attack surface is minimized

-- 
Royce


On Wed, Apr 15, 2020 at 7:25 AM Michelle Myers <auroraequine@...> wrote:
Hi 

Deepin has a good linux version for old laptops.  Plus it has a very apple like feel.
JP
  

To addon to Royce, the CloudReady install also allows nearly frictionless onboarding. If individuals want to learn Linux and have an old laptop and the downtime, that is great, but if their primary goal is to resurrect an older laptop into immediate service, ChromeOS is the shorter path. Don't get me wrong, Linux is my OS of choice and has been since the TurboLinux days, but it is a big investment in time. 

This is coming from a guy with a k8s themed license plate ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


        
          
          

          

            
On Wed, Apr 15, 2020 at 7:32 AM Royce Williams <royce.williams@...> wrote:
The advantages of using a Chromebook workalike distribution like CloudReady are:

* its UI is identical to what students are already using on Chromebooks at school
* it is self-patching, without user know-how or intervention required
* it is dramatically stripped down - exactly like ChromeOS is, so its attack surface is minimized

-- 
Royce


On Wed, Apr 15, 2020 at 7:25 AM Michelle Myers <auroraequine@...> wrote:
Hi  

Deepin has a good linux version for old laptops.  Plus it has a very apple like feel.










          

          
        
        
        
      


      
      


      

    


  
    

      
      

        

        

        
          

            

              
              
            

          

        
        
      
      

        

          

        

      

      
    		
    
    
      
    
    
  




    
  
  
  

    
    
    

    
      


      

        

          

            
            
              
                
  
    
      
    
    
  
	
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I've significantly expanded the Chromebook build howto:

 
We already have a couple people collecting donated laptops and turning them into Chromebooks.

I've heard from ASD that they have enough Chromebooks to *temporarily* cover all students who don't have a computer at home - but those Chromebooks will eventually have to return when on-premise school services are restored.

Our efforts can be focused on supplementing those households with additional *permanent* Chromebooks, and also on getting Chromebooks to people who need them outside of the ASD sphere.
 
We're also crowdsourcing our build experiences per model (currently here - I'll update my howto if it moves):

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wwXfsTjgfe7AwEMxUDP1zhmw6tyqNm54OCaRGzTn2xs  

Installation should be easy, as long as you have 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and UEFI enabled in the BIOS. (Non-UEFI "legacy boot" is also supported - but only try that if UEFI doesn't work.)

So if you have an abandoned laptop knocking around ... consider giving it a shot!

Royce

-- 
Royce Williams
Tech Solvency



        
        
        
      


      
      


      

    


  
    

      
      

        

        

        
          

            

              
              
            

          

        
        
      
      

        

          

        

      

      
    		
    
    
      
    
    
  




    
  
  
  

    
    
    

    
      


      

        

          

            
            
              
                
  
    
      
    
    
  
	
    Jim MacDonald
	

  

              
            
          

          

            
              


            
              
            
            
          

        

      

      

      

        
Or if you don’t have time, give it to us...


        
          
          

          

            
On Apr 15, 2020, at 11:40, Royce Williams <royce.williams@...> wrote:


I've significantly expanded the Chromebook build howto:

 
We already have a couple people collecting donated laptops and turning them into Chromebooks.

I've heard from ASD that they have enough Chromebooks to *temporarily* cover all students who don't have a computer at home - but those Chromebooks will eventually have to return when on-premise school services are restored.

Our efforts can be focused on supplementing those households with additional *permanent* Chromebooks, and also on getting Chromebooks to people who need them outside of the ASD sphere.
 
We're also crowdsourcing our build experiences per model (currently here - I'll update my howto if it moves):

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wwXfsTjgfe7AwEMxUDP1zhmw6tyqNm54OCaRGzTn2xs  

Installation should be easy, as long as you have 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and UEFI enabled in the BIOS. (Non-UEFI "legacy boot" is also supported - but only try that if UEFI doesn't work.)

So if you have an abandoned laptop knocking around ... consider giving it a shot!

Royce

-- 
Royce Williams
Tech Solvency








          

          
        
        
        
      


      
      


      

    


  
    

      
      

        

        

        
          

            

              
              
            

          

        
        
      
      

        

          

        

      

      
    		
    
    
      
    
    
  









  
  
  

  
  



  

    
    
    

    
    
  



  

    
    

    
    
  


  




  
  
  
  
  
  





  



  
    

      

        

          
						
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