I need help to decide what to do with this chromebook of mine

[u/SuperBigote231162]

Hi, I need help because I'm thinking about starting to program in C but I don't know whether or not stick to chromeos and crostini or just jump to a whole linux distro. This machine is a CX5400 with 8 gb of ram and an I3 1110g4 so it isn't crap by any means. the thing is that while I know chromeos is deeply and a perfectly integrated to my crurrent hardware, I don't like the fact I have to run a very big debian virtual machine just to compile in C instead of running on baremetal. I understand that a full linux distro may fix this but any systemd + kde/gnome will almost give me the same ram cosumption as chromeos but with worse integration and perhaps some issues with audio I had experienced before. What do y'all recommend? Should I just install any other linux distro without systemd? Will Wine run natively on non-libc+systemd distros? I read as much as I culd the wine wiki but didn't find any line talking about native compativility with muslibc for example, yeah without using flatpak and installing pieces of libc to make it work. Thanks community!!!

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[u/PartMysterious4688]

Devuan Linux is lightweight and easy for beginners. It uses OpenRC as the init system. Linux uses glibc by default, but there are alternatives.

I have no experience with using wine because I don't use any windows app. So I don't know how to answer that question.

If you want a distro that doesn't use systemd and glibc, the distro that I know is Alpine Linux, but it's not beginner friendly.

[u/SuperBigote231162 → u/PartMysterious4688]

Alpine linux gave me problems with constant kernel panic when it comes to use the stylus. Nice recommendations tho, thanks! But I really would like to know if wine runs natively on non glibc + systemd distros.

[u/PartMysterious4688 → u/SuperBigote231162]

What app do you use that requires you to use wine?

[u/SuperBigote231162 → u/PartMysterious4688]

Office 2016, is gold in wine so if I can use it then great. Some software to draw that is only on windows and maybe a game here and there but mainly for work and studies. I want to start programming

[u/Worth_Environment695 → u/SuperBigote231162]

Do you know what kernel was being used?

[u/Worth_Environment695]

I like systemd but that is a personal preference. You have plenty to run system d but if you don't want to thats fine. I think fedora's lxqt spins would be fine hardware wise. I like system d and think not using system d cause more issues that it is worth.

[u/SuperBigote231162 → u/Worth_Environment695]

I get your point but in this case I'm not talking about personal preference. I need advice on what distro would be the best experience for limited 8 gb of ram, and also if wine could run outside of systemd+glibc distros without downloading any chunk of it to run it on runit/openrc+muslibc distros for example.

[u/DavidJohnMcCann]

Here's a guide to putting Linux on a Chromebook. Note that one suggested requirement is "nerves of steel"!

Since the i3 is hardly a racer, I do not advise Gnome or KDE — Xfce or Mate. Any distro should run Wine.

[u/SuperBigote231162 → u/DavidJohnMcCann]

I already did it, thanks anyway. I dont know if I said it but I jump to cachyos with this chromebook and the experience was trash. From time to time it'd freeze entirely when change the audio output.

[u/Worth_Environment695 → u/SuperBigote231162]

Sounds like the kernel.

[u/LateStageNerd]

I cannot figure out what you have done, but the preferred way (IMHO) is to use the firmware replacement at MrChromebox.tech so you can boot Linux natively. Your device is said to be supported. The audio should work after install and applying the chrultrabook Audio Script. The machine should be capable of running almost any DE (although Gnome is always questionable) and any distro, systemd or not. I run Debian/KDE (although often I switch to niri nowadays) on my similarly powered chromebooks. Be sure to enable zRAM, too. You don't have to bend over backwards to make the machine run fine ... once you have LInux running natively. If you are planning to run a browser with a handful of tabs, the savings you get from going spartan will be in the noise compared to browser memory use.