This is an old topic, but I would like to share my experience since it might be useful to someone else one day.
I just bought a Lenovo Chromebook S330, with an ARM CPU, 4 Gb of RAM and 64 Gb of disk space.
I first tried Cortini. It was OK for simple tasks, but not enough for my regular working environment.
I then tried Crouton to get a full Linux distribution in ChromeOs development mode. It worked well (perfectly with Ubuntu, not so well with Debian), but some apps that I need on a daily basis are not ARM compatible, so I decided to try a third option: CRD (Chrome Remote Desktop).
I installed it on my main computer (Linux Mint Debian Edition), then on the Chromebook.
This third option was to good one. I now have full access to my main computer from the Chromebook. The screen resolution and reactivity are excellent (no latency problem until now).
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Just as a question (Hans asked it a time ago on Proz.com).
As far as I understand, there is no Java and so no CafeTran on a standard Chromebook, but you might hack it and install a Ubuntu derivate (Chrubuntu). Most Chromebooks only have 2 or 4 GB RAM, not more.
Is this a viable, stable option, considering that 4 GB RAM is a kind of minimum for medium/bigger projects?