this post was submitted on 03 Dec 2023
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You can run the android version or use the Linux VM. Neither are great but are workable. Unless they've changed it recently, you can also dual boot them and run Linux off an external drive.
I'd honestly say skip the Chromebook, get an older used laptop that is known to be fully supported by Linux, install a lightweight distro, and off you go if all Grandma needs is a web browser. Older used laptops are usually far better powered than a cheap Chromebook for the same price anyways. Plus it fights e-waste.
A further option is to do adblocking at the router or through the computer's own networking system or something like a Pihole. These all come with their own pros and cons.
It's not always an option. For example, every computer in my house runs normal desktop GNU, except that I was forced to buy a Chromebook because my university's proctoring software only supported that, MacOS, or Windows.
Windows in a VM on Linux?
Lots of those fucking proctoring softwares detect when you're in a VM and refuse to run. 🙄
There are but sometimes you want shit to just work. Annoyingly, a real windows computer is the easiest sometimes.
Yeah I remember our school stuck out like a massive sore thumb and ran Linux on its computers until the very, very fucking end. The Dept. Education eventually threatened budget cuts that would kill the school. They eventually folded but to really make it hard for the dept. ed they said that all the laptops that were already running linux could and would continue to run linux. The reason why is because of some monitoring program the dept. ed wanted to put on that linux wouldn't run.