OT ish; Chromebook

[Bod]

It seems a bit longwinded to have to send data to the cloud to be able to print something. If I want to print something, I usually want it printed immediately.

[HarpingOn]

It happens as immediately as any other method of printing to a networked printer. Have you used one?

[The Natural Philosopher]

Hmm. no, but I can easily send a massive PDF file to my personal 'cloud' server up my 448Kbps DSL line and then back down to my networked printer.

However its about 200 times faster to use the 100Mbps Ethernet in the house itself.

I suspect the chrome philosophy is that your data is already IN the cloud somewhere else, where it will be formatted and sent back to you to stream to a printer.

it like the old days when you had just a dumb terminal, and the printer was in the basement, and you had to wait an hour before collecting the

2kg of fan fold.

[Bod]

[HarpingOn]

Never said that.

Probably helps that my internet connection is 12Mbps upstream, so without actually measuring it to the half second or something, for all practical purposes it's the same as printing locally

[stuart noble]

There was a period recently when I imagine every bugger decided to upload every picture they'd ever taken just to use their allowance. Google managed to show reassuring progress messages but IME only uploaded a few randomly selected files. A total shambles. I'll stick to Dropbox and a thumb drive I think.

[Bod]

[Bod]

[Alan Braggins]

While Chromebook is largely based around the assumption that the cloud is great and everyone is happily connected to their Google account the whole time, Google Docs has had offline editing support for a few years:

[Alan Braggins]

While Chrome OS is based on the Linux kernel, you can't run random Linux software on one either, any more than you can on an Android phone. You need Chromebook specific apps:

(Or web based apps that run within the browser. Which apparently includes Libre Office, if you trust a Beta cloud provider:

)

You _can_ run a full GNU/Linux distribution alongside Chrome OS, but that's not easy for the typical user, any more than putting GNU/Linux on a phone is:

You can also run Android apps on a Chromebook. At least four of them are actually promised to work already:

[Adrian]

[polygonum]

Only the latest 3D ones.

[Alan Braggins]

No. Modern printers will generally be "Cloud Ready", but older printers you will need another computer running as a print server. In some cases this might be something like a NAS box or media server you were going to run the whole time anyway.

If your reaction is "fine, I have a Pi anyway", or "good, I was looking for an excuse to buy a Pi to play with", fine. If your reaction is "what, I have to have another computer just to print, or buy a new printer", then a Chromebook isn't for you.

[JimK]

/ Snip

If your reaction is "fine, I have a Pi anyway", or "good, I was looking for an excuse to buy a Pi to play with", fine. If your reaction is "what, I have to have another computer just to print, or buy a new printer", then a Chromebook isn't for you./q

On android you can download a printer "driver" (from playstore good ones a few quid) and print from tablets etc wirelessly.

Reading upthread about tweaking chrome to run a few android apps... Could these two be combined somehow to bodge a workaround?

Jim K

[newshound]

Indeed. My latest printer (lexmark) has a USB socket on the front and, although I havn't tried it, I believe if you plug a stick in then thumbnails and a menu come up on the printer screen for selection and printing.

[Bod]

Yes, that can be handy.

[Alan Braggins]

Possibly, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Or you could install Crouton, use print-to-PDF on ChromeOS, switch to Ubuntu and print from that. But doing that regularly just to be able to print would be mad.

[newshound]

An hour? Luxury! When I started work you could submit a couple of jobs a day on cards, the code went down the line to London where (if the JCL was OK, it ran and printed) and a courier brought a van load of printout back by the next morning.