Possible to remove Chrome OS?

[Gereorth666]

So, my sister bought a new, small laptop to use for school. Not weighing to much, doesn't cost too much and easy to carry around. She didn't notice at first it was a Chromebook. She didn't know it was a difference. At first she actualy thought (when starting up) it was Windows 8. As of the whole different interface. Few months have passed and she notices she can't install much stuff or whatever. And.. She knows it's not a Windows OS she's having!
Now she came to me, thinking I would know how to remove the Chrome OS with Windows, or even linux. Because Chrome OS limits you to what you want to do and install. So now I come here, hoping someone knows the answer. Is it possible to remove Chrome OS? I would say it sounds like a possible thing. Wipe the HDD. But I honestly have no idea how to do it there.

[fixx]

Chrome OS is basically a flavor of linux and some Chromebooks can be hacked to install linux but it's not trivial nor common. Try asking google with the exact make and model of the laptop to see if somebody has got linux working on it and posted info on how to do it step by step.

Installing Windows on it isn't going to be possible.

[MyndZero]

Installing Windows on it may be possible, you just need to look at what specs the laptop has. If it's running an ARM processor or something different, then it's not going to work because 99% of programs are designed for the standard processors and aren't compatible. If it's running the standard intel pentium stuff etc then you should be all fine. With chromebooks you can't "wipe" the chrome os, you can only bypass it to boot into something else, so you need to check the space of the HDD to make sure your windows will fit as well.

[lloose]

Just have her return it and get a regular laptop. If its a cheap Chromebook (sounds like it is from your post), it wont even have an x86 cpu capable of running windows anyways. If she doesn't like Chrome OS, she wont like linux.

[Gereorth666]

Installing Windows on it may be possible, you just need to look at what specs the laptop has. If it's running an ARM processor or something different, then it's not going to work because 99% of programs are designed for the standard processors and aren't compatible. If it's running the standard intel pentium stuff etc then you should be all fine. With chromebooks you can't "wipe" the chrome os, you can only bypass it to boot into something else, so you need to check the space of the HDD to make sure your windows will fit as well.

It's a 320gb HDD. If that would be enough?

Just have her return it and get a regular laptop. If its a cheap Chromebook (sounds like it is from your post), it wont even have an x86 cpu capable of running windows anyways. If she doesn't like Chrome OS, she wont like linux.

She doesn't like Chrome OS because you're limited to what you can do. You can't even properly install a, for example, a different browser. It's an Acer C7 with Intel 847. She wish she could return it, it was her initial thought. But at the shop they're not letting her. So.. She came to me, asking for help.

[Grinderofl]

So, digging up C7 specs.

Intel Celeron 1.1 Ghz with 2GB RAM. Even if you manage to install W8... well, good luck with performance. You can always try though, but it's probably a bad idea. Chromebooks aren't supposed to be performant, they were built for the exact niche of low cost low-powered laptop running chromeos.

E:
Oops, according to

http://www.reddit.com/r/chromeos/com...os_completely/

It's close to impossible. Other parts of internet seem to agree.

[Thes]

You should be able to run Linux in it. Windows is a no-go. I mean it actually already runs on Linux, but with ChromeOS firmware.

[glo]

http://liliputing.com/2012/11/how-to...hromebook.html

It's really easy to install Linux on the C7 models. Personally, I'd go with Ubuntu or Mint, make sure you get the 32bit version. They're very easy to use and should perform well on those specs.

Also, RAM is easily upgradable. Just pop off the bottom panel like any other notebook.