Searching around more, I found that CloudReady seemed to take some of its cues from Arnold the Bat’s custom ChromiumOS builds, so I tried two or three variants of that: regular, “Vanilla,” and “Special Build,” the last one with more obscure third-party drivers baked in. I went to find a new OS for it.įirst I tried CloudReady, which purports to “turn any computer into a Chromebook.” It got pretty close, but it couldn’t load my trackpad or Wi-Fi drivers (or maybe just the trackpad, I can’t recall). The HP Stream 11 (technically the HP 11-d001dx) could put in work, if someone would let it. It had a USB 3.0 port, an HDMI video-out port, an SD card reader, and a webcam. Its spec sheet is decent for a tiny laptop. Still, I liked how light and quiet it ran, its battery life was decent. Windows and this little guy just couldn’t work together. Still, apps loaded slowly, and the system monitor constantly showed an overloaded CPU and full booked-up memory. I removed HP’s pre-installed apps, I used only Microsoft’s built-in Edge browser, and I kept only one or two apps open at a time. I upgraded to Windows 10 during the time that it was free to do so, and it ran no better, if not worse. I wiped the Stream 11 clean and reinstalled Windows 8.1, and it was still not a pleasant computer to use. In practice, it ran like it was submerged in the kind of tree sap that preserved the mosquitoes in Jurassic Park. This is a decent device in theory: Chromebooks for people who want to (have to) work with actual Office apps. Or, as the marketing went in 2014, you can “#WorkFromHappyPlace.” That slab is the HP Stream 11, a small, light, sky-blue thing that is meant to be used as a “cloud laptop.” The pitch from HP is that by using Microsoft’s Office 365, OneDrive cloud storage, and a lightweight, fan-less laptop, you can work from anywhere. This laptop, she told my wife, “Just doesn’t work,” and was “a mistake.” I have three pets from a shelter and a weird affection for old laptops, so I took the odd little slab under my wing. If you want to skip all the prose and get right to installing GalliumOS on the Stream 11, you can do so.Ī family friend recently gave my wife and I a laptop. I can’t answer any questions, beyond what I’ve posted here, about the process of installing a Linux OS or troubleshooting it on this device.īut! I do recommend trying a more up-to-date distro, like Ubuntu Budgie or Xubuntu, because it seems they have a wider base of drivers to accomodate the Stream’s somewhat esoteric hardware. Note: I no longer have access to an HP Stream 11 laptop, as mine suffered an unfortunate fate at the hands of folding furniture. Or, how to install GalliumOS, a very lightweight Ubuntu-ish Linux OS, on the HP Stream 11 and make it useful again
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