Pros/cons of the Linux (Beta) on my Chromebook 315

JackPulerrime01

Now before I begin, I would like to ask supreme patience from all of you techies out there in Acer-land.
I've been enslaved by Microsoft for decades and have, since this year, unwillingly broken free from its global clutches.
Had I noticed the missing MS OS on my brandnew Chromebook 315 before buying it, I probably would have not bought it to begin with.
However .... what a fantastic machine this is. Without question the fastest laptop I've ever worked with, yet with its low price comes fairly annoying consequences.

For me a laptop is nothing more than a wordprocessor ... a typewriter with a screen ... with which I can also play some soft music in the background whilst writing, but which also doubles as a tv when I need it. Now, that said, it first came as a shock to find MS missing, but after a full day of playing around I can't say that I miss it anymore.
ChromeOS does everything MS did, and perhaps a little more, though I do miss being able to use Adobe Acrobatreader for reading PDF's.
What I do miss are some of the standard settings I've been used to having at my disposal for the last 30 years; like a simple CAPS LOCK key (yes, I know about the ALT-SHIFT combination), but that's a silly solution. It should have been there in the first place. This is no longer a QWERTY board, in my humble opinion.
Not being able to write words like .... can't or don't or doesn't, or any other word that uses the apostrophe, without having to add a SPACE before the last letter is a major nuisance.
But this too shall, hopefully, pass in time as I get used to it.

Now ... to the point.

I've noticed there is a Linux (Beta) sleeping somewhere in the background, waiting to be installed.
I have never, ever, used Linux in my life and am rather wary when it comes to installing it.
My question comes from the natural curiosity that drives our species: what are its pros and cons?

If I install it, find it useless, and wish to change back to ChromeOS ... will the Chromebook let me, or is it adios ChromeOS?
Is Linux bloatware, like MS, or is it a super-light OS like ChromeOS?
Does Linux come with its own text editors and PDF readers, or will this require extra downloading of specific apps?

Keep in mind I have just rescued a large collection of .txt files and PDF's from my old Aspire by hooking its harddrive up to the Chromebook directly using a SATA/USB cable, so it is very important to me that I can keep using these under whatever OS I work with. In the case of ChromeOS, I'm doing alright ... so far.

Thank you for reading/responding, and apologies for the longwinded explanation.

Have a great weekend!

Tachi13

Hi @JackPulerrime01

Your post was really good to read, now coming to the real deal, Linux (Beta) will let you develop software using your chromebook. While I was writing this response for you, I erased it back to provide you this. If you're asking if you have to kiss goodbye to ChromeOS if you enable Linux(Beta), you don't. It gets you updates earlier which may have bugs, just like Windows Insider but not really. You get to use the Chrome like you would normally do, but as of your usage to write, listen to soft songs or sometimes using it as a TV, you really don't have to enable Linux(Beta) and pretend that you did not see it sleeping in the background. The files you rescued from the Hard disk should have been uploaded into Google's drive, yes, the cloud. If you stopped it somehow, you can upload it or take a back up if it is precious, like Gollum's precious, but rest assured it doesn't vanish like it does in the movie when Linux is enabled.

Click on 'Yes' if the comment answers your question
Hit 'Like' if you find the answer helpful!    

Tachi13

Hi @JackPulerrime01

Your post was really good to read, now coming to the real deal, Linux (Beta) will let you develop software using your chromebook. While I was writing this response for you, I erased it back to provide you this. If you're asking if you have to kiss goodbye to ChromeOS if you enable Linux(Beta), you don't. It gets you updates earlier which may have bugs, just like Windows Insider but not really. You get to use the Chrome like you would normally do, but as of your usage to write, listen to soft songs or sometimes using it as a TV, you really don't have to enable Linux(Beta) and pretend that you did not see it sleeping in the background. The files you rescued from the Hard disk should have been uploaded into Google's drive, yes, the cloud. If you stopped it somehow, you can upload it or take a back up if it is precious, like Gollum's precious, but rest assured it doesn't vanish like it does in the movie when Linux is enabled.

Click on 'Yes' if the comment answers your question
Hit 'Like' if you find the answer helpful!    

JackPulerrime01

Hello Tachi13, and thank you for your response which was, indeed, helpful.

I can now see that Linux is not something I will ever need, or use.
I am not a programmer, or software developer of any kind and would feel inadequate with great speed.
So I will let the sleeping Linux lie and treat it like a bear in hibernation.

cmistret

It appears that there is a slot for a micro SD card on one side of the chassis.   Is that what the slit is for?  There is no documentation that outlines what the ports do.  I find this curious.  Am I missing something or can you direct me to an external diagram of the Chromebook 315?

billsey

There are at least five different model lines in the Chromebook 315 series. Can you give us a better idea which you have? The model number should be something like CB315-xxx-xxxx and it's usually printed on the same sticker that holds the SN and SNID. Likely you would have been best off to start a new thread, since your question doesn't really have much to do with running Linux.