the middle schooler: then I installed linux on my [school] chromebook

me: um are you allowed to do that?

middle schooler: I asked our tech teacher and he doesn't know what linux is so I decided yes

@jordinn
The kiddo is either an anarchist or a FOSS nerd. Either way they'll end up on mastodon.

@jordinn Uh, "tech teacher"?!?

(Also there's "enabling the underlying Linux on ChromeOS" and then there's "wiping ChromeOS and replacing it with Linux".)

@ScottMGS He might have said enabled. I am by far the least techy member of my family. He opened the terminal and set it up to play Snake. 🤷🏻‍♀️

@jordinn @amin @Teckids so muß das gehen!

@jordinn and even those not on m*st*d*n monoculture but on the wider Fediverse

@jordinn @CedarTea works for me, and +1 for classical (though I personally think violins squeak too much)

@jordinn I did a robotics independent study where I brought a flash drive every day and booted a school computer into Linux. Got the BIOS password from a friend who worked with the IT dept so I could change the boot order

@aburka @jordinn flash drives ^^ I brought my own bootfloppies to school, to use instead of the network boot image (those were thin clients)…

@aburka @jordinn

From me (and all school IT personnel) to you:

@jordinn I'm actually surprised that Linux isn't disabled by school policy. Next question: does the middle schooler have any ideas on what to install?

@jordinn This probably won't end well.

@jordinn oh, if you haven't heard of @vkc she does AMAZING Linux videos. I've been a web developer for a decade, and a tech nerd for 30 years, and every video she publishes teaches me new things. Highly recommend you look her up on peertube, or here's her YouTube channel if you prefer:

https://youtube.com/@VeronicaExplains?si=CmvUOBzvEXdRU_Bl

@mirabilos @jordinn Though if they'd specified what distro there'd be an all-out flame-war going RN.

@jordinn @stib I was assuming Crostini or whatshisname, but that kind of detail isn’t important rn

thiugh 😹 probably, yeah

@lauren @jordinn
I beg to disagree. This young person showed respect for the teacher (asking) combined with craftiness and skill. Very winning combination

@jordinn @aronow Kid's going places!! ✅

@jordinn Seriously, I'd seen articles about large numbers of Chromebooks being junked because Google stopped supporting software upgrades for them, and I'd assumed the bootloader must be locked down, because installing Linux, or at least giving the devices away to people who could, seemed like an obvious better answer than just sending to landfill.

@Island_Martha @jordinn What won't end well is putting Linux on a Chromebook you presumably don't own, leveraging the fact that there was no reason to expect the teacher to understand the question. Since a school Chromebook is almost certainly in a Managed mode configuration, installing Linux means disabling management to enter development mode (which also wipes school's settings). Most modern Chromebooks can run Linux in a container without wiping, but that doesn't sound like what was going on here.

@mirabilos

Oh, you are listening to the wrong violinists!

Try Bruch's Violin Concerto, and if it's still too squeaky, I concede.

@jordinn @CedarTea

@Edelruth @jordinn @CedarTea I think it’s a combination of the pieces and the performers, but I even find some of Bach’s awful and unbearable.

I’ll have a look at Bruch’s.

@jordinn

chromebook, a linux computer with surveilance and crippling.

@Edelruth @jordinn @CedarTea 1, 2 or 3?

@jordinn Nicely done :)

💕

@jordinn No kidding! My semi-snarky reply is probably one of the most liked and boosted posts I've ever made. Does that make me a clout-monster? 😅 (It's not what I'd like to be known for, honestly.)

@mirabilos

Ah! No. 1.

@jordinn @CedarTea

@Edelruth @jordinn @CedarTea I am sorry to have to report that, two minutes into the first movement, it already gets unbearably squeaky.

@mirabilos @jordinn @CedarTea

Alas! I have to set you(r ears) free!

@mirabilos

My daughter, it us her taste buds that are super-sensitive: she can't tolerate tomatoes nor strawberries.

@Edelruth ah, my smell is very sensitive, and others maybe…

I do like classical music a lot, especially baroque. I just dislike most violin stuff, and I find the pianoforte overrated.

I like a lot to listen to recorders, panpipes, organs (pretty much the same…) and the cembalo (harpsichord), and vocal harmonies.

@mirabilos

Which reminds me, same daughter is super sensitive to sounds I can't hear. Like, apparently neon lights in stores have a high pitched squeak, squeal, something. She has had to leave stores because of it.

Senses are very interesting.

@Edelruth I used to be super annoyed by them, but I guess some time within the last half-decade, age caught up, so I’m now spared that.