Pixelbook Go In Depth Review - Run Linux Natively!

[@andyH_England]

Glad Google has upped their support to seven years making these a good investment. I have the 4K i7 Pixelbook Go and fast with a great display. I use as a complimentary device, use about 95% of workflow on the Go and the rest on my MacBook Pro (now five-years old). With USB-C connect an external Samsung drive (cheap ATM) if you are doing anything intensive. I had the original Pixelbook and the speakers are much better. Keyboard and trackpad again an improvement. Recommended. Having 16gb RAM works well for me, usually using 14gb, so no reloads or lag if you have multiple apps and tabs open. Battery life on the 4K is 8-10h (10-12 on 1080p version). I use a system add-on to keep the system on when the display sleeps and this helps battery life and maintains always-on. Not cheap but I would still buy having used for a month.

[@outernetisdangerous]

I found this video to be much more useful than other reviews I’ve watched. Keep doing what you’re doing!

[@jedimaster036]

I have been very curious to know your thoughts since the unboxing... I work as a sysadmin, and use my pixelbook as my main everyday driver. I tend to use remote desktop alot to do my heavy lifting. The majority of my work gets done on the pixelbook but I do tend to hit some road blocks from time to time that will make me pull out the ol' Windows box. So It does have its limitations, but Chromebooks continues to evolve, which has been very exciting to watch. For gaming, Steam works decent on Debian with GPU acceleration enabled and stadia so far has been decent. Thank you Snubs for the review on this. Been debating whether to buy or stick with my current pixelbook.

[@silversentinal]

What a great review! Most people don't take the time to explain the little details that separate Chromebooks, like the keyboard layout. Pro-tip: control+alt+? Brings up a list of all the keyboard shortcuts.

[@ShannonMorse]

Awesome pro tip!! Thank you!

[@johnnythegeek]

I appreciate you too Shannon! I have this old video on getting Natively Running Windows 7 on Acer C7 Chromebook. It required me to jam a piece of aluminum foil into a jumper socket. Those were interesting times.

[@ShannonMorse]

The first time I tried getting Linux on a Chromebook it just required a bunch of fancy keystrokes at the right time, and a flashdrive. Not as fancy!

[@kenozz13]

Thank you for such a complete review , I am in the process of buying this device and many of the questions I was looking for you have answered, also I like the style you use to present the video relaxed and free flowing, the video as helped me so once again thank you, you now have a new follower 😊

[@ShannonMorse]

Hi Ken! I'm so glad it was helpful. I'm still using my Pixel book Go pretty much everyday. If you have any additional questions please feel free to contact me.

[@kenozz13]

@@ShannonMorse Thank You Shannon It’s so nice to get a video review that flows and is informative I gained so much from the coverage of the keyboard and you answered all my questions Ok so I will ask you something else if I may and I promise I wont take advantage of you kind offer of help So I need certain Apps to work ie Nest, Google Photos, FaceBook, Twitter do you know if they are available on the Pixelbook go Thanks in advance Kind Regards Ken

[@malcontent_1]

Thanks for your detailed and honest review, Shannon.

[@mitchelvalentino1569]

I have misgivings about ChromeOS and Google, but their hardware has always been very well-built for the price. Debian is always a plus, even if it’s sandboxed. The more Linux the better! I’ve had several Chromebooks gifted to me over the years, and they’ve always been incredibly performant. For any Linux purists out there with an x86 Chromebook, one can always install a true GNU/Linux distro in lieu of ChromeOS, such as GalliumOS, which is designed for Chromebooks out-of-the-box. Solid hardware with more choices than most people realize. Go Linux!

[@ShannonMorse]

Yes!! Gallium is such a good recommendation. Thanks :D

[@jodyporter3879]

You are exactly right, they make a great second machine, when i travel for work i take my Chromebook not my work laptop, so many things about these machines even though they can't power through hard tasks, they are enjoyable to use

[@RichardServello]

Stadia is phenomenal on Pixel chromebooks! I have a Pixelbook and Pixel Slate and it runs so well! I've been maining chromeOS for 2 years...and it's great.

[@cobaltblue5523]

How is it now

[@jedimindtrickonyou3692]

Yes, more tech reviews like this, please and thank you. Also, I love what you said about the notification bell icon and feeling dirty for asking people to click it. I get soooooo sick of hearing everyone say that like little KZbin drones. I always like and subscribe because I want to help channels like yours grow, but asking me to inundate myself with KZbin notifications from each channel I watch, is a bridge too far.

[@AbunaiLee]

That was an awesome review. Thank you. I'll probably get one next year.

[@terr0rbyte183]

HOLY CRAP!!!! Snubs with curly hair is CUTE AF!!!!

[@CarlParrish]

Just got my Pixelbook Go yesterday - wish KZbin had suggested your review earlier - great review. I'm loving this device. Already did some front end development with it (vscode) so any web developers out there I think this would be a good device for you. I'm subscribing and I'm really looking foward to your review of Stadia on it. (I haven't attempted that yet)

[@cobaltblue5523]

How is it now and what are the specs

[@JeremyVincent7]

Still loving my Pixel Slate. Linux apps is a big plus.

[@LatinMessiah]

Thank you for talking me out getting one.

[@jasonmusic3]

Great Video Shannon 👍

[@a.o.3523]

Great review. I like it, not a big power user here and I use linux alot. Might be an option for me.

[@laptop_here]

Thanks for review! Really helpfull! Maybe I will consider it for buying for some development with Linux. Need to do some research on this matter.

[@ShannonMorse]

Thanks glad you enjoyed it!

[@pi1392]

sad i didn't know Shannon had her own YT channel. def subbed already.

[@AdrianChoPhotography]

Hey Shannon! Great review. Love your style. One thought/tip from a fellow content creator... it looks like you’re using a ring light? It looks really weird (and somewhat distracting) with the reflection in your glasses. A more traditional circular light or even rectangular panel (ideally with a diffuser) might be better.

[@ShannonMorse]

This is an old video recorded in a very small space. Check out my newer content because I've already made some upgrades.

[@baylor3894]

I'm using the pixelbook go in 2022 it's still a great device

[@jacobnoori]

Thanks for the unbiased review You've got a new sub

[@brahsumatra]

KZbin’s algorithm brought me here, picked up a new Go on Facebook market for a great price.

[@ShannonMorse]

Nice!!

[@sihotaj1]

Hi thoroughly enjoyed this video, but just wanted to ask whether you would recommend the M3 configuration for someone who was looking to spend less, or would the i5 be worth the extra money. Thank you!

[@racinehomeinsulatorsllc7636]

We are trying to run Linux beta on our Pixelbook Go so we can run java Minecraft, but it does not show the Linux Beta option in settings as shown in your video. Help?

[@mlwz1082]

You've had yours for some time, did you have the hinge issues that a lot of people are reporting?

[@Digressive]

Really great review Shannon, very thorough!

[@enriquelopez9803]

Thank you for this excellent review.

[@vladimirdelima2519]

good review! I would recommend trying linux apps for your power user workflow. It would be interesting to see if you can actually DO you power user work, even if you have to replace some apps. Linux has GIMP to replace LIGHTROOM or KDENLIVE or OLIVE to replace ADOBE.

[@ShannonMorse]

Replacing Adobe would be a tough sell for my editor, who uses it for all of her clients.

[@vladimirdelima2519]

@@ShannonMorse Just give it a try for an honest review. There's some good video editors for Linux. She doesn't need to abandon Adobe, but to test chromebooks

[@jodyporter3879]

It is nice installing Ubuntu 18.04 on it, then it becomes a great machine, ChromeOS in the cafe and Linux in the office

[@kostyabakay]

Is it available to install here any Linux distro?

[@BriO853]

Does audio work in Ubuntu? Is anything broken? It would be unusable IMO with audio issues as is reported for Gallium OS. I wish tech industry would make hardware like this, build it for linux, and let the linux community develop the software. I can only imagine the possibilities.

[@MrTechnology83]

Nice video Is this is the fanless model, or it get hot easily? I’m about to get this model with the I5

[@ShannonMorse]

It never gets hot, and it's fan less. I use it everyday for several hours

[@MrTechnology83]

@@ShannonMorse thanks 😊

[@alexzandrau9117]

Hi maam. I have ask you one thing. Is this the really google pixelbook go to good webcam maam?

[@djflashpoint]

Always loved Chromium, this is the perfect application 🔥🐧

[@rotflol6666]

i love my HP Chromebook x360 as my daily driver, most problems in my role as an Linux sysadmin are with the keyboard layout and lack of function keys, arggghhh, good luck with your Pixelbook, sounds more limited than this Chromebook (I can install/run android apps). Also you can natively boot to Linux from USB or use crouton(!!!) to install a native distro with the same keyboard related challenges (external BT keyboard/mouse is a solution)

[@cobaltblue5523]

Idk why I love Chromebooks so much but they are cool

[@KirbyPwnz13]

If I'm looking to put in some serious coding, would this be a good option? For instance im interested in doing front end development.

[@JahidulIslam]

You can do that.

[@The738james]

Thank you for the info. I Am only a light user manly for KZbin and movies email ext.... At meantime pixel slat has a good deal now , which one should I get ? Pixel book go or pixel slate M3 model will be enough for me ? Thank you

[@AlexanderAlvarez-ux7gv]

You mentioned trying it with Stadia, will there be a video? Or could you let me know how the pixelbook does with Stadia?

[@ShannonMorse]

Yes! I posted a video recently but stadia released s bunch of updates so I'm redoing the video next week

[@coced]

Debian in Android in Chromium on Linux Kernel ? Do we need to go deeper ?

[@EdwardIglesias]

I'm conflicted about Chromebooks. I have an older model that I love for light use but it just reached its expiration date where Google will no longer support it. This is frustrating since it still works fine. For that reason I can't see spending too much on a Chromebook.

[@ShannonMorse]

In your case, I'd consider installing a Linux distro on it that still have support.

[@cobaltblue5523]

Acer spin 713 and spin 714 are better and lesser value

[@Xxx_EvilSmurf_xxX]

I use a 5th gen HP Chromebook 11 running MrBox custom bios, with GalliumOS; serving as a pihole server. It blocks adverts at the DNS Level.

[@christianalvarez8606]

Them keyboard keys sound nice

[@christianv1658]

nice review !!! thank you

[@karina420069]

Can you make a video if The google pixelbook go is compatible with the the Microsoft word apps .And if the Microsoft word apps is updated or is the old version thank you

[@AsadRauf801]

OMG what is this wallpaper??? Link? Awesome review!

[@jejunamja]

Nice job... the starting storage is definitely a bummer.

[@gru3som3rick]

Great review!

[@Eatiron]

This device is good if you don´t want the hassle of tweaking your way to stability with Linux / Android. The issue here is the price. I can get a laptop with the same specs and even with 1TB of disk space for less ($400 - $500) where I can install my preferred Linux Distro.

[@cobaltblue5523]

Oh snap how's it doing now

[@hypersweat7122]

Does photoshop work?

[@JessicaFEREM]

I wouldn't really call this Linux, it's more like a command line and x server but without any real performance behind it. if you need a Linux laptop, consider modifying coreboot to boot into a Linux distro and maybe even installing it. I'm not a massive fan of Chromebooks, but they would make decent laptops if they made it to where you could install Windows or Linux by dualbooting or even replace the os.

[@JessicaFEREM]

Crash as in reboot, basically the chromeos version of a bluescreen

[@81179venky]

Am not sure y people are emphasising on the speakers so much because most people listen via headphones...

[@SK-lt1so]

Chromebooks do what 99% of people need to do with a computer. With the Internet, you just need a glorified terminal anyways.

[@Seerpod]

I love google’s products. I got the pixelbook, it’s amazing, I like it a lot. Very similar to this one.

[@ShannonMorse]

Great to hear!

[@kostyabakay]

Is Linux available only from command line or it has separated UI? I consider this device for Android development, does anybody try it?

[@JahidulIslam]

Linux is available inside a separate VM called Crostini. You can't use traditional desktop like Gnome or KDE but use Linux app with some gpu acceleration support. However, It will not work for all the apps. Virtualbox, VMware will not games. You will not be able heavy games. Davinci Resolve will not work because of high requirements. You can use Lightworks, Kdenlive and Shotcut instead. In a word, GPU hungry software may/will not work as expected. Get a device with at least 8GB RAM (16GB better) for android development.

[@RUMANシ]

can i use this laptop for hacking

[@santilozano8556]

7:30 put the volume to the highest, ASMR

[@bigredwag]

Does it play PUBG mobile though?

[@ShannonMorse]

If pubg came to Stadia, probably lol. But otherwise the specs would not do it justice.

[@littech4637]

They're increase price. The 4k version is like 1900$ now

[@ShannonMorse]

Whoa good to know!

[@LowSpecLinuxLaptop]

I would stick with refurbished Dell and run actual gnu/Linux install steam play yer windows games with proton/wine

[@phukhue289]

Chromebooks are very limited and very insecure, it's basically a browser with some Android apps. No disk encryption and anyone who knows your email password gets access to this device. Add that to the insanely high price this unit has and you are WAAAAAY better off buying a windows laptop. Google keeps pushing high end Chromebooks but the only place for these extremely limited devices is in the very low end market, anything over 400$ and your being ripped off. After using a CB with the same specs as this one (except 64 GB storage rather than 128) for almost a year I came to realize just how limited CB's are and how much I would miss the caps lock and delete keys. It was only until I converted my CB to a full version of Ubuntu that it actually became useful again, but I still miss caps lock and delete :-(

[@thomasjohnson8477]

Can you learn code on this device? (New to all this, as you could probably tell lol) Great channel though.

[@JahidulIslam]

As long as it doesn't involve anything ios/macos only or directx or microsoft only project you are good to go. you can learn C, C++, python, data science, machine learning(basic), android development etc.

[@guostudios4865]

I'll get the cheaper one next year :)

[@OldMan_PJ]

It's overpriced by $200-$300 for the processor it has and lack of ports.

[@alain-pierrep.312]

I understand "run Linux natively" as "allow a bare metal Linux install without any hitches". Here, we have a *sandboxed* Debian. Underwhelming. Why having a notebook running a browser in fullscreen (=Chromebook) when you can have a truely customizable OS instead ? I never understood the need for Chromebooks...

[@qubex]

Likewise. I’m interested in wiping ChromeOS off the machine and installing a distro of my choice.

[@ShannonMorse]

I'll definitely look into it and see if that's something I can do for a future video. Hopefully it's not as annoying as it was in 2014: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fIXHqpiajJaLoqc

[@qubex]

Shannon Morse That would be fantastic. Because it seems like a really marvellous machine, one of those laptops you wish everybody made instead of those plasticky and gimmick-ridden things that product managers seem to think we all want. It looks like a dream machine for running Ubuntu 19.10 on.

[@andyH_England]

Alain-Pierre P. Simple, because millions of people do not need anything other than a browser and TBH most of my work can be done, probably 80%, on a Chromebook. So why not? Many people hate Windows, with good reason, W8 was a nightmare and although W10 is now out of beta and working well, we had 5-year of Windows hell. ChromeOS is simple as a stand alone. You can power wash i minutes if there is an issue with no viruses and performs great even on old or slower chips. Add in Android support and Linux and many people can use this as their only machine. I use it as a complimentary device as it has great battery life, is thin and light with instant on. The alternative is an Android tablet, few and far between as they are on the wain, but a Chromebook already has Android so it is already better. ChromeOS is a serious rival to Windows especially in Education where they are easy to monitor. Try it for a while like I did. I have not gone back since and my Pixelbook is now my main device and I would never go back to using a laptop 100%; now only when I need to.

[@patrickwilliams7078]

What I really want is a Linux book not chromebook!!!

[@TheStlcards82]

Anyone have hinge problems on this device?

[@ShannonMorse]

No, it still works great!

[@janokartal5690]

Nice laptop 😊🙂

[@griggorii]

Video pult M mute JKL I CTRL+ALT

[@d1w9t8w6]

Yay! First comment 😂

[@garth56]

Chrome OS is Linux.. But which Linux it's obvious you haven't a clue

[@ShannonMorse]

Hun I've been doing tutorials on Linux distros for the past 10 years. Watch my work on the Hak5 channel. Go be negative somewhere else.