<p>I am considering getting a Chromebook when I graduate this year from high school. I see myself majoring in Economics with a computer science minor. Would this be a good purchase? I'm still able to type essays and do the usually offline stuff that I do on a PC on a Chromebook. </p>
<p>You might run into trouble coding on a Chromebook. There are very limited options for line programming (in terms of offline IDES, and no command line access). If you have to use a specific program (for example, my program starts with DrRacket), you’re out of luck. You could set up a dual boot with linux to have access to that stuff, but that is apparently still buggy and kind of defeats the purpose of the chromebook in the first place. As a secondary computer, a Chromebook is fine. But if you’re doing CS, I’d recommend getting a Linux/Mac/Windows computer instead. That’s my order of preference, as well - the further you get in CS, the more you appreciate unix systems like Linux/Mac and the more you hate Windows.</p>
<p>Thank you for your input. By Linux, you mean one of the Linux OS? So essentially buying a Mac (or Windows) and duel booting?</p>
<p>Yep, a Linux distribution like Ubuntu. I have a dual boot set up with Windows, but I honestly can’t remember the last time I booted into Windows.</p>
I am a fellow Linux-Windows dual-boot who hasn’t touched Windows in a while.
Dual-booting Ubuntu with your Chromebook should work fine, though processing power may be a concern for some applications. With that being said, it’s less complicated and you’ll get more power by dual-booting Linux on a Windows laptop. (You shouldn’t generally use that much power, though; the last time I used up more than a Chromebook has was when I tried to brute-force Project Euler using Python).
Don’t buy a Mac for dual-booting though. It’s far more expensive for the same hardware. (A Macbook with a little dual-core i5 costs more than my Windows with quad-core i7).
Biggest limitation to using a Chromebook for dual boot I think would be the storage space - Chromebooks have notoriously little onboard storage, since they’re primarily aimed at cloud storage. A lot of chromebooks come with free Google Drive space, but given that there’s still no native linux google drive client, this is a sub-ideal option. I’ve considered getting a chromebook as a portable option since some of them are really slick, but they’ve never quite checked the boxes for me to do it.
I am considering buying a Lenovo X1 Carbon and dual booting. My college (Penn) recommends it and I can get a student discount on top of the back to school sales later this year. I’ve pretty much dropped the idea of a Chromebook as my main laptop due to the reasons @nanotechnology pointed out but may consider it in the future.
don’t forget to check out deal sites like techbargains.com or Slickdeals.com
http://www.techbargains.com/lenovo-thinkpad-x1-carbon#newsID450042
3.5lbs is not bad for a full fledged laptop. I aways liked IBm’s industrial design.
http://www.techbargains.com/lenovo-thinkpad-x1-carbon#newsID450042
Thinkpads are solid computers - I have the Thinkpad T440p. The X1 would be a good choice, I think.