What boardname is your Chromebook?
I have identical RAM and EMMC amounts on my Lars board, and I have 18.1 GiB free on Fedora 41 with Stellarium and a few extra desktop environments installed, though I still have audio issues that I haven’t ironed out yet.
I plan on experimenting with EndeavourOS and openSUSE Tumbleweed as well. I’m also considering using a Samsung FIT Plus as my permanent OS drive. Though, at a glance, it looks like the EMMC is faster than I thought it would be (/dev/disk/by-label/fedora below):
/dev/disk/by-label/Samsung\x20USB:
Timing buffered disk reads: 920 MB in 3.00 seconds = 306.30 MB/sec
kiddobox@fedora:~$ sudo hdparm -t /dev/disk/by-label/Samsung\\x20USB
/dev/disk/by-label/Samsung\x20USB:
Timing buffered disk reads: 1012 MB in 3.00 seconds = 336.90 MB/sec
kiddobox@fedora:~$ sudo hdparm -t /dev/disk/by-label/Samsung\\x20USB
/dev/disk/by-label/Samsung\x20USB:
Timing buffered disk reads: 1026 MB in 3.00 seconds = 341.51 MB/sec
kiddobox@fedora:~$ sudo hdparm -t /dev/disk/by-label/fedora
/dev/disk/by-label/fedora:
Timing buffered disk reads: 450 MB in 3.00 seconds = 149.99 MB/sec
kiddobox@fedora:~$ sudo hdparm -t /dev/disk/by-label/fedora
/dev/disk/by-label/fedora:
Timing buffered disk reads: 402 MB in 3.01 seconds = 133.61 MB/sec
kiddobox@fedora:~$ sudo hdparm -t /dev/disk/by-label/fedora
/dev/disk/by-label/fedora:
Timing buffered disk reads: 434 MB in 3.00 seconds = 144.46 MB/sec
The cheap USB upgrade still has over twice the read speed, though. I’ll test both devices from a live USB with the benchmark tool in GNOME Disks the next time I get a chance.
Good luck finding a distro and setup you like and with getting audio working!