I honestly find living with the terminals in Chrome tabs and using a Chrome based text editor quite productive, leaving crouton very much in the background.<p>Unless you have a desperate need for a Linux desktop app (which can happen) then it's more a nice to have option than a day to day necessity. As such I don't recall ever having launched into a Linux desktop on my Chromebooks for any reason other than to check that I can.<p>Still, good, and if Chrome OS can get to self hosting: better.
Chromebooks can also run ChromeOS in a window on GNU/Linux* , which is rather more useful for ocassional Netflixing mixed with more productive use.<p>* probably a violation of the EULA
Absolutely backward.<p>I'd buy a Chromebook in a moment if I was convinced that dealing with getting around the bootloader and putting real Linux on the thing wouldn't be a pain in the ass.<p>I'll stick with >$200 eBay Thinkpads.