Chromebox?

Hey guys, I am looking to get a Acer Chromebox for use as my living room / family 'computer'. I generally use my office comp for roll20, but, in some cases I may end up using the Chromebox. So, quick question. Chromebox runs off of the Chrome OS, thus it runs apps. Would this be treated as a tablet / phone as far as Roll20 goes, thus have limited features and require mentor subscription level? Or would it recognize it as a 'computer' and run as normal?

So long as you're fine not using Skype (no app or support for it in ChromeOS) you should be ok. Just remember that it's not a full-on file management OS like Windows, so you're limited to whatever apps and plugins are available for it (as opposed to installing misc. programs as needed) *** Personally, I can't recommend anything running Chrome OS.

I use a Chromebook for Roll20 every now and then; it's just like using any other laptop would be (except for the Skype thing, but I use Hangouts for voice, which is obviously supported on ChromeOS). I don't think I'd want to use my Chromebook for GMing, because I tend to have several text files and PDFs open, which isn't as nice there as it is on my desktop (although I'm not sure how much of that is ChromeOS vs. the smaller screen real estate available on a laptop). But it works fine as a player (and in general it makes a really nice living room computer).

Like, maveti, I use a Chromebook for all my D&D sessions. Unlike manveti, I DO GM with my chromebook (stopped using Microsoft products YEARS ago when I couldn't afford them anymore). As long as you accept that you have to use Google Docs to handle any/all text editing, I've found that it's easy enough to use just like my old PC was (again, used Google products for a very long time)

Well, the chromebox would be used to mainly internet surf (a lot of youtube probably), My kids schoolwork (like papers, research, and such), and other odds and ends. The current one is an old windows XP from early 2000's, so it is not like it is used for much, lol. Since both my wife and I, as well as our two kids all have android devices (phones and / or tablets), I like the feature to login and have all the goodies on the devices at their fingertips (for the most part anyway). I just know that occasionally I get stuck using it fot Roll20, and wanted to make sure that I had that option still. Plus I am getting it dirt cheap, so figured why not. I have no problem with using Google Docs, Hangouts, and the like. To be honest, I think I have used skype maybe twice my entire life, so not an issue in the least. Thanks everyone!

I use a Samsung Chromebox as my primary desktop. I switched over a year ago after having a Chromebook for 6 months. Roll20 works a treat. I GM using it with Google Hangouts on Air, so that I can also record the session. It's recognised as an ordinary computer by Roll20. To be honest, it runs the Chrome browser and Roll20 better than my old i7 Windows 7 machine, in spite of being much lower specified hardware. It's driving a 1900 x 1200 monitor, too, without any difficulty. I love the fact that I can go from Chromebox to Chromebook and have the same apps and layout kept in sync between them. What's more, I recently bought a new Chromebook. Within 2 minutes of turning it on I was using it, with everything exactly as it had been on my previous Chromebook, with no effort on my part other than typing in my wifi password and logging into Google. That's the way computing should be!

manveti said: I don't think I'd want to use my Chromebook for GMing, because I tend to have several text files and PDFs open, which isn't as nice there as it is on my desktop (although I'm not sure how much of that is ChromeOS vs. the smaller screen real estate available on a laptop). I'd say that's definitely to do with screen real estate, and wouldn't be an issue if you're driving a big monitor from the Chromebox. You can have several text files and PDFs open on ChromeOS as well. There's really no difference there with the way that you'd do it on a traditional OS machine. You could even drive two monitors as long as your Chromebox model has more than one video port.

Yes you can use it. Here's my advice with the chrome box. Since they are so dirt cheap - add up to 8GB (an extra 2GB is really plenty) of RAM and add a bigger SSD m.2 SATA "drive". For about an extra $100-$150 you'll have a 4GB RAM/128GB hard drive Chromebox. NOW - you can install Ubuntu and have a true operating system. There are tutorials for adding RAM and HD and installing Ubuntu. Ubuntu is linux btw - but extremely functional and will give you Skype, Team Speak 3, GIMP, PDF reader and more. This is actually what I'm doing next month (Tax money $$$) so that I have a portable computer for taking to live games at the game store.

That was actually my thought almost exactly, Paul. I was gonna grab 2x4 RAM chips, and the SSD to put in it (I found a 150gb one). Only difference is I was gonna install Linux Mint alongside chrome.

I use a chrombook for a quick light laptop and it works for everything roll20. I use it to hop on at random locations where I have access to a wifi-hotspot.