Crouton allows installing Ubuntu or Debian in a chroot environment on any Chromebook model, without removing Chrome OS. You can read more about Crouton and installing Ubuntu on a Chromebook using it in an article I posted a while back: How To Install Ubuntu Linux On Any Chromebook Model Without Replacing Chrome OS (Crouton) Crouton used to have a target which allowed easy Cinnamon installation, but that's no longer available. Installing Cinnamon desktop on a Chromebook using Crouton is still possible, and this article guides you through this process.

The link for this article located at Linux Uprising is no longer available.