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Useless is a pretty relative term. If what I want is something I can send some emails on, watch a movie or do facebook; something light, cheap and instant on is

Useless is a pretty relative term. If what I want is something I can send some emails on, watch a movie or do facebook; something light, cheap and instant on is pretty appealing. It's like a tablet with a keyboard. And there's the management features that have made them so appealing to schools. Cheap to acquire and easy for someone without a great deal of IT experience to manage.

khedoros1 10y ago
> Useless is a pretty relative term. Definitely true. One member of my household has similar needs that you've outlined: somewhere to write, email, Netflix, web browsing, Youtube playing in the background. I do all of those things sometimes, but also expect access to a few games, Amazon streaming, for anything that can work offline to work offline, and some kind of a development environment that supports whichever set of languages I'm tinkering with at the time. It's easy for me to dismiss ChromeOS and similar systems because they don't do what I want, and easy to forget that other users honestly don't have the same requirements that I do.
- NotSammyHagar 10y ago
  I can do amazon streaming in the browser on chromeos. What devices have offline amazon streaming, I didn't know that was possible? Is it possible to do that using an android app? If so, run that app on the chromebook, problem solved.
  - khedoros1 10y ago
    > I can do amazon streaming in the browser on chromeos. ChromeOS would cover a portion of my requirements, and that's part of it. > What devices have offline amazon streaming I know my Android devices support downloading Amazon video and have for a long while. > problem solved One problem of several, as far as I'm concerned.
    - NotSammyHagar 10y ago
      So what is left is dev environment? crouton lets you run linux at the same time as chromeos.
      - khedoros1 10y ago
        Well, games. And Crouton isn't a viable solution, as long as dev mode on a Chromebook still requires you to do the ctrl+d thing at boot, or whatever. Honestly, if it's not a machine with at least a TB of storage, user serviceable, and capable of running both Windows and a standard Linux distro, then it's not something I'm interested in as a primary computing device. I'm not a big fan of cloud storage, using more of Google's services than I need to, browser-based technologies, being forced into choice of a specific OS, or jumping through hoops to use my computer. From what I've seen, a ChromeOS machine is an appliance. Crouton is a kludge with a few unpolished edges, trying to turn it back into a computer. Why would I buy that?
nunb 10y ago
especially true when your main interface to real work is a terminal or emacs. most everything else is browser based.

khedoros1 10y ago

> Useless is a pretty relative term. Definitely true. One member of my household has similar needs that you've outlined: somewhere to write, email, Netflix, web browsing, Youtube playing in the background. I do all of those things sometimes, but also expect access to a few games, Amazon streaming, for anything that can work offline to work offline, and some kind of a development environment that supports whichever set of languages I'm tinkering with at the time. It's easy for me to dismiss ChromeOS and similar systems because they don't do what I want, and easy to forget that other users honestly don't have the same requirements that I do.

NotSammyHagar 10y ago
I can do amazon streaming in the browser on chromeos. What devices have offline amazon streaming, I didn't know that was possible? Is it possible to do that using an android app? If so, run that app on the chromebook, problem solved.
- khedoros1 10y ago
  > I can do amazon streaming in the browser on chromeos. ChromeOS would cover a portion of my requirements, and that's part of it. > What devices have offline amazon streaming I know my Android devices support downloading Amazon video and have for a long while. > problem solved One problem of several, as far as I'm concerned.
  - NotSammyHagar 10y ago
    So what is left is dev environment? crouton lets you run linux at the same time as chromeos.
    - khedoros1 10y ago
      Well, games. And Crouton isn't a viable solution, as long as dev mode on a Chromebook still requires you to do the ctrl+d thing at boot, or whatever. Honestly, if it's not a machine with at least a TB of storage, user serviceable, and capable of running both Windows and a standard Linux distro, then it's not something I'm interested in as a primary computing device. I'm not a big fan of cloud storage, using more of Google's services than I need to, browser-based technologies, being forced into choice of a specific OS, or jumping through hoops to use my computer. From what I've seen, a ChromeOS machine is an appliance. Crouton is a kludge with a few unpolished edges, trying to turn it back into a computer. Why would I buy that?

nunb 10y ago

especially true when your main interface to real work is a terminal or emacs. most everything else is browser based.