5 ms·

How about a Chromebook? Cheap, keeps itself up to date, fully cloud based. It wouldn't tick the Lightroom box but it does the internet based stuff extremely w

by nickcw 10y ago

How about a Chromebook? Cheap, keeps itself up to date, fully cloud based. It wouldn't tick the Lightroom box but it does the internet based stuff extremely well with low maintenance.

GeneticGenesis 10y ago
I do this for my family these days, virtually zero maintainance. Biggest word of warning though is that Google are totally happy to change things with no warning or how or why, which can be very confusing. For example, they stopped a direct route to import photos from an SD card or alike to google photos. No automated replacement workflow.
- spikej 10y ago
  That's the biggest concern: being able to use the interface the way you have for ages without having to RE-familiarize yourself. This seems to be a harder hurdle for non-technical older folks. The gmail app interface changing every so often on android tablet would cause parents so much confusion that I finally replaced the tablet with a linux laptop with thunderbird
jrockway 10y ago
I got my mom a Chromebook. It's the most successful computing experience so far, but I was quite surprised by a few things. She didn't realize that the password to log in to your computer was the sync'd to her Google password. So she would type some random password 5 times, until the Chromebook said "use your Google password to reset your Chromebook password", and would then log in with that. Every single time. Some website managed to convince her to switch to developer mode to install a non-web-store extension that overwrites the new tab page and search functionality with ads. Chrome is a little more aggressive about not letting you change the New Tab page these days, asking you occasionally if you still want the extension to control it (even for the new tab page I use, an extension from Google). But despite that, she got a lot out of the computer, so overall it worked quite well. And we fixed those two issues, so I don't think there are any problems now.
- jff 10y ago
  > Some website managed to convince her to switch to developer mode to install a non-web-store extension that overwrites the new tab page and search functionality with ads I'm not even mad, I'm honestly impressed both that your mom went to such lengths and that a website managed to convince a layperson to do such a thing.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- i336_ 10y ago
  Is it really harder to change the new tab page in Chrome OS anymore? Wow.
  - jlgaddis 10y ago
    I wanted a completely blank, empty new tab page, nothing on it whatsoever. I had to create my own "extension" and load it up in developer mode to get the exact functionality I wanted (an empty page).
    - i336_ 10y ago
      Ah, gotcha. That's not the absolute end of the world. I've been using https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jonikckfpolfcdcgdficelkfffkloemh https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jonikckfpolfcdcgdf... (on standard Linux) for ages myself.
- victorhooi 10y ago
  Wow, that is some seriously impressive social engineering...lol. And some determination from your mother =). I assume this wasn't a device where she had to open the case and short out some jumpers to enable Developer Mode? =)
matwood 10y ago
I literally bought my wife's parents a Chromebook yesterday. Their really old computer finally bit the dust, and when I asked them what they did on the computer it was all very simple stuff around the internet. Maps, web, email, and pictures. Lightroom to me means the user is in the more advanced category. I'm routinely amazed at what Google photos does without any input (tagging, grouping, enhancing), and if I want to tweak pics Snapseed works really well. The only time I startup LR now is if I pull the DSLR out.

by nickcw 10y ago

How about a Chromebook? Cheap, keeps itself up to date, fully cloud based. It wouldn't tick the Lightroom box but it does the internet based stuff extremely well with low maintenance.

GeneticGenesis 10y ago

I do this for my family these days, virtually zero maintainance. Biggest word of warning though is that Google are totally happy to change things with no warning or how or why, which can be very confusing. For example, they stopped a direct route to import photos from an SD card or alike to google photos. No automated replacement workflow.

spikej 10y ago
That's the biggest concern: being able to use the interface the way you have for ages without having to RE-familiarize yourself. This seems to be a harder hurdle for non-technical older folks. The gmail app interface changing every so often on android tablet would cause parents so much confusion that I finally replaced the tablet with a linux laptop with thunderbird

jrockway 10y ago

I got my mom a Chromebook. It's the most successful computing experience so far, but I was quite surprised by a few things. She didn't realize that the password to log in to your computer was the sync'd to her Google password. So she would type some random password 5 times, until the Chromebook said "use your Google password to reset your Chromebook password", and would then log in with that. Every single time. Some website managed to convince her to switch to developer mode to install a non-web-store extension that overwrites the new tab page and search functionality with ads. Chrome is a little more aggressive about not letting you change the New Tab page these days, asking you occasionally if you still want the extension to control it (even for the new tab page I use, an extension from Google). But despite that, she got a lot out of the computer, so overall it worked quite well. And we fixed those two issues, so I don't think there are any problems now.

jff 10y ago
> Some website managed to convince her to switch to developer mode to install a non-web-store extension that overwrites the new tab page and search functionality with ads I'm not even mad, I'm honestly impressed both that your mom went to such lengths and that a website managed to convince a layperson to do such a thing.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
i336_ 10y ago
Is it really harder to change the new tab page in Chrome OS anymore? Wow.
- jlgaddis 10y ago
  I wanted a completely blank, empty new tab page, nothing on it whatsoever. I had to create my own "extension" and load it up in developer mode to get the exact functionality I wanted (an empty page).
  - i336_ 10y ago
    Ah, gotcha. That's not the absolute end of the world. I've been using https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jonikckfpolfcdcgdficelkfffkloemh https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jonikckfpolfcdcgdf... (on standard Linux) for ages myself.
victorhooi 10y ago
Wow, that is some seriously impressive social engineering...lol. And some determination from your mother =). I assume this wasn't a device where she had to open the case and short out some jumpers to enable Developer Mode? =)

matwood 10y ago

I literally bought my wife's parents a Chromebook yesterday. Their really old computer finally bit the dust, and when I asked them what they did on the computer it was all very simple stuff around the internet. Maps, web, email, and pictures. Lightroom to me means the user is in the more advanced category. I'm routinely amazed at what Google photos does without any input (tagging, grouping, enhancing), and if I want to tweak pics Snapseed works really well. The only time I startup LR now is if I pull the DSLR out.