8 ms·

Why the Chromebook pundits are out of touch with reality

47 points by mikeevans 13y ago

andrewchoi 13y ago
I've gone through two Chromebooks (first the Acer AC700, and now the HP Chromebook 11) and I will say that the first thing I did with both of them was install Ubuntu alongside them. I spend maybe <20% of my time in Chrome OS, and the majority of time in Ubuntu. Important to note that I'm currently a student and using LaTeX a lot, and AFAIK I can't run pdflatex on Chrome OS. However, I'm expecting my use case to change: the AC700 had an Intel Atom, and thus could run dropboxd, and there is apparently no port of dropboxd to ARM. We'll see how things change.
ripter 13y ago
> Oh, and those apps work outside of the browser, so “using a single web browser window with multiple tabs” simply isn’t accurate. Since May, for example, I’ve been playing a console-like game in its own window on my Chromebook using an Xbox 360 controller. Just a browser, indeed… The Chrome browser has supported the XBox controller for a while now. It also supports fullscreen. (Firefox might support them, but I'm not sure.)
pmiller2 13y ago
I agree completely with the article. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the netbook-class Chromebooks are probably the best machines in their class. You don't have to deal with the operating system very much, because all the important things (like updates and security) are taken care of for you. And, if you want to do a little light office-type work, you have the Google office apps. Now, the Chromebook Pixel, OTOH, might just be mistargeted. I don't think it makes sense to spend $1300+ on a laptop that's only going to be accessed through a browser. (The article was right in the sense that the browser isn't the OS -- it's more like the window manager.) Most people whose needs mandate a $1300-$1500 laptop should be running Windows or OSX, simply because the app ecosystem is a lot richer.
csmuk 13y ago
I disagree and find this is just another gushing fanboy defending fandom. Chromebooks are fine for the 80% case like normal PCs but that last 20% is impossible unlike normal PCs. There are certain things that you just cannot do. It is disingenuous to market them as PC alternatives or general purpose computers. They are merely different and not better I'm not sure they are ethically acceptable either as they are solely to promote and lock people into google's ecosystem. This is a dangerous line to tread. Vendor lock in has been made socially acceptable now through years of marketing in a typical us vs them fashion. If you're not taking a side, you are an outcast. And no I don't think installing Ubuntu on them is a good solution either. I genuinely have nothing positive to say about them. And yes I have owned one.
- warfangle 13y ago
  > There are certain things that you just cannot do. Until you snag crouton and then all of a sudden you've got a plenty-fast linux laptop on top of a really nice SSD.
  - hnriot 13y ago
    you must be using the phrase "plenty fast" in a way i'm not familiar! They are as slow as mollases. if you just want to do web browsing fine, but as soon as you put linux on it and do anything else it's like watching snails.
  - csmuk 13y ago
    Crouton is a defeatist crutch, not a solution for every day use. If you're using Crouton, you are denying yourself the flexibility of a proper computer artificially. It's like buying a Prius and sticking a big exhaust and a spoiler on it. Just buy a different car.
    - jolan 13y ago
      Well, there's chrubuntu if you don't like Crouton.
      - 13y ago
jfasi 13y ago
These pundits are victims to a basic error in technology: they assume they themselves are typical users, and that their experiences and preferences can be projected onto the rest of the market. They rightfully observe that for them as consumers (which is shorthand for their financial preferences, product profile, experience, and demanded intensity of experience) the Chromebook doesn't seem like a particularly viable option. Once you take yourself out of your own head, and consider people for whom price is important, who don't demand products outside what the browser provides, who don't have a tremendous amount of experience, and who don't demand a particularly intense experience from their computer, the Chromebook looks a lot more attractive. The tl;dr of it is: don't assume the entire market is like you.
bowlofpetunias 13y ago
My wife got to test-drive Chromebooks for work. She's not exactly a power user, but found the limited functionality and restrictive environment incredibly frustrating. Her conclusion was that computers should do exactly what the user wants to, either because they are incredibly well designed withing specific constraints (iPad), or because they simply do as they're told (PC's, Macs). The Chromebook is neither, it basically does what Google thinks people should do, without any of the depth and sophistication of Apple's opinionated user experience. They may hit the sweet spot for some, but it seems to me to be a very small niche. The end result was that my wife was ready to throw the thing out the window, and handed it over to me with the words "see how long you last before you want to smash it".
- acgourley 13y ago
  Just to add a competing anecdote - my mother absolutely loves hers. She spends 6+ hours a day on it. She runs an etsy shop, keeps up with email, keeps up with social networks. She hasn't had to worry about anti-virus software, printer drivers, OS updates or backups. It's a huge win for her, and for me.
  - csmuk 13y ago
    Conversely and factually rather than merely anecdotal, my Brother laser printer, Canon dye sub and big HP laser printers don't work if you plug them into a chromebook. Nor will it print to my print server. Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and OSX work instantly. As it's a sealed featureless box, how would one proceed here?
    - acgourley 13y ago
      Definitely annoying. I'd tell her to buy another printer before buying another computer though.
      - csmuk 13y ago
        I wouldn't. I'd expect it to work. This is 2013, not the pre-GDI printer fragmentation nightmare of the 80's.
hoverkraft 13y ago
Really appreciate this perspective. Reminds me of this quote from Steve Jobs: "I'm trying to think of a good analogy. When we were an agrarian nation, all cars were trucks. But as people moved more towards urban centers, people started to get into cars. I think PCs are going to be like trucks. Less people will need them. And this transformation is going to make some people uneasy... because the PC has taken us a long way. They were amazing. But it changes. Vested interests are going to change. And, I think we've embarked on that change. Is it the iPad? Who knows? Will it be next year or five years? ... We like to talk about the post-PC era, but when it really starts to happen, it's uncomfortable."
- csmuk 13y ago
  It's uncomfortable because it's wrong and there is big resistance. I am part of that resistance. The transition from the fragmented computer market in the 80's brought relief via standardisation into the clone PC and the rise of the Internet. Now it's fragmenting again into separate walled gardens. The post-PC era that everyone keeps rabbiting on about is a battle between the big players. We'll all lose and be back to separate non-connected ecosystems, just like the 80's when you had a BBC micro and everyone else had C64's so you couldn't play last ninja... Its already happened in the mobile space which consists of three ecosystems and some "promoted as ridiculous and unfashionable" old fashioned telephones.
  - lowkeykiwi 13y ago
    Won't the continuing rise of online products mean those walls are easily circumvented? The difference in hardware will simply be use-case and user dependent but online applications will be able to run in the browser on any of them. Power users could still use PCs, most people will be fine in the browser.
  - jlgreco 13y ago
    @lowkeykiwi (your comment is dead) Witness the rise of "web services" that will only work when used with proprietary browsers run on a trusted OS on trusted hardware. Netflix on the Chromebook is a harbinger of things to come.
fit2rule 13y ago
My favourite current hacked up laptop is a Motorola Lapdock paired with a small collection of PC-on-a-stick thingies, an rPi, a couple Beagleboards .. all very plug and play. With an Ubuntu-on-a-stick, I'm even able to build work projects and use it as a production machine. It'd be nice if the fanboix stopped arguing the trivialities of the software - which after all, by now - with all the variations out there - is proving to be not so hard as the one thing that matters in this race: sensible hardware. An upgradable laptop is what I want. I'll keep the screen, the keys, etc. Just, unplug one CPU, stick in another as needed for various things .. I hope that happens soon.
philthesong 13y ago
I bought a Chromebook, installed ubuntu and played with it. The machine heats up fast and lags too much. The Chromebook couldn't even handle a default office app in ubuntu. These so-called pundits are getting huge sum of money from ASUS, Samsung, google, etc...
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- jlgreco 13y ago
  > The machine heats up fast Chromebook Pixel? My Pixel is the hottest machine I have ever used...
shmerl 13y ago
I'd say if you want a webby OS for the sake of webbiness, then try Firefox OS. Otherwise regular Linux distro will be much better for desktop use.
- scythe 13y ago
  Can one not put Firefox OS on a Chromebook? Actually, that might be one of the better aftermarket modifications...
  - shmerl 13y ago
    Regular Firefox OS is using Android graphics stack, so one will have to build it for regular Linux graphics stack such as X.org. Not sure if that's configurable out of the box.
6ren 13y ago
I don't think there are any laptops comparable to the Acer C720 performance (Haswell) at a comparable price. It benchmarks at about half a 2013 Macbook Air (also Haswell). That said, I'd whack ubuntu on it, and love it as a netbook. But I do doubt chromebooks will be big hit, they're neither fish nor foul, since tablets stole netbooks' market.
- samspenc 13y ago
  Yeah, there was another article about how developers are buying Chromebooks just to put Ubuntu on it: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/355875-four-of-top-six-laptops-on-amazon-are-chromebooks/ http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/355875-four-of-top-six-lapto... For my next laptop, I am more and more inclined to get a Chromebook and put Ubuntu on it using chrouton...
porpoisemonkey 13y ago
I haven't seen anyone mention what I suspect is the target audience for Chromebooks - aging Americans. This is expected to be one of the fastest growing demographics in the United States thanks to the Post-World War II Baby Boom of the late 1940-1960's. "The older population--persons 65 years or older--numbered 39.6 million in 2009 (the latest year for which data is available). They represented 12.9% of the U.S. population, about one in every eight Americans. By 2030, there will be about 72.1 million older persons, more than twice their number in 2000. People 65+ represented 12.4% of the population in the year 2000 but are expected to grow to be 19% of the population by 2030." http://www.aoa.gov/Aging_Statistics/ http://www.aoa.gov/Aging_Statistics/
- munificent 13y ago
  > I haven't seen anyone mention what I suspect is the target audience for Chromebooks - aging Americans. Not just aging Americans, but kids of aging Americans buying computers for their parents. That's why "no viruses" and "no configuration" are such big deals: Chromebooks are a solution to the dreaded "home for the holidays, spending eight hours fixing Dad's horribly infested PC" problem.
camus2 13y ago
They are not out of touch , they get paid to promote chromebooks, After getting paid to promote netbooks. The problem is people listening the narrative.
brianbreslin 13y ago
I bought a samsung chrome book at Walmart last week. I paid $250+ Florida sales tax. I bought it as an emergency backup device, as my MacBook Air was giving me problems. That being said, the device is still just ok. I was expecting it to do two thinsg really well: surf the web, and use google drive/gmail. Unfortunately the CPU in this device is a bit weak, so it struggled loading sites like Facebook, and using spreadsheets on google docs was not fun (suuuuper slow). I just wanted those two things to work well, and they didn't. I didn't need any games, or great video rendering, just for chrome to work perfectly. I am going to return it, and buy an external keyboard for my iPad mini. Using spreadsheets on the iPad is tough, but surfing the web and sending emails is more responsive.
kyberias 13y ago
This is a very biased and weird article. I think it speaks for itself that it is very common to put Chromebook in developer mode and use crouton to enable full Linux experience. I had to do it since there's so little to achieve using Chrome browser only. Sad but true.
vondur 13y ago
I only know of a few people that have purchased a Chromebook, but it seems the only use it for a bit and then not use it. They tend to go back to their laptop or tablet.
adamb_ 13y ago
I've recommended Chromebook separately to 2 individuals over the age of 40, and they both own & love it. Neither of these people are tech savy, and just wanted something to "work." The big sell for both of them was: 1) low cost for modern hardware (most windows laptops in the same price range were old or had bottom-barrel components.) 2) no more worrying about viruses & (more importantly) no anti-virus software. 3) if they would've stayed with windows they would've had to learn windows 8, so the advantage of staying in "familiar territory" was lost (one was upgrading from XP.)
chestnut-tree 13y ago
Simplicity does not mean the absence of features. ChromeOS is simple because it does not have the capability to include features we take for granted in desktop software. For example, in Google Docs you cannot merge two or more table cells. This is hardly an advanced feature, it's something Wordperfect 5.0 could do 20 years ago. How is this progress? Some things are certainly not simpler on a Chromebook. For example, printing requires signing in via Google's cloud print service even if it's just to print to your desktop printer (which also means Google can record when and how often you print.) More seriously, ChromeOS gives Google an unprecedented opportunity to track and record your online behaviour (since you must sign-in to ChromeOS with a Google account to use the operating system). This raises important questions about privacy, but Google gets away with little scrutiny of what they record and track.
- jsloat 13y ago
  You can definitely merge in Google Spreadsheets, is this a ChromeOS-specific limitation you're referencing? There are, of course, plenty of other limitations of the Drive suite.
  - chestnut-tree 13y ago
    It's a limitation of Google Documents. You can try it yourself. Create a Google Document, insert a table (Insert > Table) and, er, that's it. If you want to merge table cells, you're out of luck. There's no function that will allow you.
david2777 13y ago
I got a Chromebook as a supplementary computer. I'm a 3D Art student so I never expected it to replace my rig, but I thought it would be nice to take notes in GenEd classes and browse the internet between classes or on the couch at home. It works perfect for that. What surprised me was some of my non-techie friends saw my Chromebook and decided to get one. They stream their music and the only thing they used their Windows laptops for was the internet and typing up essays and stuff up. It took them a while to get used to not being able to install anything but between their smartphone and their Chromebook they can pretty much do anything they need.
cromwellian 13y ago
Every platform has an escape hatch. For the iPad, when there's something you can't do, beyond it's limits, you would go use a real computer. For Macs, you use to run to the refuge of Bootcamp, or Parallels, to get to run something you can't run on OSX. For Chromebooks, you run to Crouton. There's no device that does everything without compromise, but for some people, 90% of the time, all they need is a browser with a full-sized keyboard and largish screen.
- DanBC 13y ago
  > all they need is a browser How did we get so far from The Unix Way of "one tool does one job and does it well", to "just cram it into the browser"?
  - cromwellian 13y ago
    The Unix Way(tm) is great for developers, but ties you to enormous local client state. "Just cram it into the browser" has lots of advantages for many use cases: 1) actual computer local state irrelevent. If HD fails or computer falls into a river, it's no big deal. 2) Sharing your computer is a lot easier. Hand a ChromeBook to someone and they are instantly productive with it, as there is no need to "set up" their environment and all their apps. 3) Arguably more secure. Big decrease in surface area for private attackers to penetrate with viruses or malware. Arguably, increase in surface area for government surveillance. Depends on whether you find Eastern European hackers getting your financial info more damaging to you than the NSA/GCHQ. Ask yourself this: Does Captain Picard carry around an entire copy of the Enterprise computer on him, or does his com-badge just talk to the ship computer? Cloud computing is the latest iteration in the pivot between mainframe and client, and for some usage models, it is far more convenient to cloud host all of your state, and make your client very thin and cheap.

47 points by mikeevans 13y ago

I've gone through two Chromebooks (first the Acer AC700, and now the HP Chromebook 11) and I will say that the first thing I did with both of them was install Ubuntu alongside them. I spend maybe <20% of my time in Chrome OS, and the majority of time in Ubuntu. Important to note that I'm currently a student and using LaTeX a lot, and AFAIK I can't run pdflatex on Chrome OS. However, I'm expecting my use case to change: the AC700 had an Intel Atom, and thus could run dropboxd, and there is apparently no port of dropboxd to ARM. We'll see how things change.

ripter 13y ago

> Oh, and those apps work outside of the browser, so “using a single web browser window with multiple tabs” simply isn’t accurate. Since May, for example, I’ve been playing a console-like game in its own window on my Chromebook using an Xbox 360 controller. Just a browser, indeed… The Chrome browser has supported the XBox controller for a while now. It also supports fullscreen. (Firefox might support them, but I'm not sure.)

pmiller2 13y ago

I agree completely with the article. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the netbook-class Chromebooks are probably the best machines in their class. You don't have to deal with the operating system very much, because all the important things (like updates and security) are taken care of for you. And, if you want to do a little light office-type work, you have the Google office apps. Now, the Chromebook Pixel, OTOH, might just be mistargeted. I don't think it makes sense to spend $1300+ on a laptop that's only going to be accessed through a browser. (The article was right in the sense that the browser isn't the OS -- it's more like the window manager.) Most people whose needs mandate a $1300-$1500 laptop should be running Windows or OSX, simply because the app ecosystem is a lot richer.

csmuk 13y ago

I disagree and find this is just another gushing fanboy defending fandom. Chromebooks are fine for the 80% case like normal PCs but that last 20% is impossible unlike normal PCs. There are certain things that you just cannot do. It is disingenuous to market them as PC alternatives or general purpose computers. They are merely different and not better I'm not sure they are ethically acceptable either as they are solely to promote and lock people into google's ecosystem. This is a dangerous line to tread. Vendor lock in has been made socially acceptable now through years of marketing in a typical us vs them fashion. If you're not taking a side, you are an outcast. And no I don't think installing Ubuntu on them is a good solution either. I genuinely have nothing positive to say about them. And yes I have owned one.

warfangle 13y ago
> There are certain things that you just cannot do. Until you snag crouton and then all of a sudden you've got a plenty-fast linux laptop on top of a really nice SSD.
- hnriot 13y ago
  you must be using the phrase "plenty fast" in a way i'm not familiar! They are as slow as mollases. if you just want to do web browsing fine, but as soon as you put linux on it and do anything else it's like watching snails.
- csmuk 13y ago
  Crouton is a defeatist crutch, not a solution for every day use. If you're using Crouton, you are denying yourself the flexibility of a proper computer artificially. It's like buying a Prius and sticking a big exhaust and a spoiler on it. Just buy a different car.
  - jolan 13y ago
    Well, there's chrubuntu if you don't like Crouton.
    - 13y ago

jfasi 13y ago

These pundits are victims to a basic error in technology: they assume they themselves are typical users, and that their experiences and preferences can be projected onto the rest of the market. They rightfully observe that for them as consumers (which is shorthand for their financial preferences, product profile, experience, and demanded intensity of experience) the Chromebook doesn't seem like a particularly viable option. Once you take yourself out of your own head, and consider people for whom price is important, who don't demand products outside what the browser provides, who don't have a tremendous amount of experience, and who don't demand a particularly intense experience from their computer, the Chromebook looks a lot more attractive. The tl;dr of it is: don't assume the entire market is like you.

bowlofpetunias 13y ago

My wife got to test-drive Chromebooks for work. She's not exactly a power user, but found the limited functionality and restrictive environment incredibly frustrating. Her conclusion was that computers should do exactly what the user wants to, either because they are incredibly well designed withing specific constraints (iPad), or because they simply do as they're told (PC's, Macs). The Chromebook is neither, it basically does what Google thinks people should do, without any of the depth and sophistication of Apple's opinionated user experience. They may hit the sweet spot for some, but it seems to me to be a very small niche. The end result was that my wife was ready to throw the thing out the window, and handed it over to me with the words "see how long you last before you want to smash it".

acgourley 13y ago
Just to add a competing anecdote - my mother absolutely loves hers. She spends 6+ hours a day on it. She runs an etsy shop, keeps up with email, keeps up with social networks. She hasn't had to worry about anti-virus software, printer drivers, OS updates or backups. It's a huge win for her, and for me.
- csmuk 13y ago
  Conversely and factually rather than merely anecdotal, my Brother laser printer, Canon dye sub and big HP laser printers don't work if you plug them into a chromebook. Nor will it print to my print server. Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and OSX work instantly. As it's a sealed featureless box, how would one proceed here?
  - acgourley 13y ago
    Definitely annoying. I'd tell her to buy another printer before buying another computer though.
    - csmuk 13y ago
      I wouldn't. I'd expect it to work. This is 2013, not the pre-GDI printer fragmentation nightmare of the 80's.

hoverkraft 13y ago

Really appreciate this perspective. Reminds me of this quote from Steve Jobs: "I'm trying to think of a good analogy. When we were an agrarian nation, all cars were trucks. But as people moved more towards urban centers, people started to get into cars. I think PCs are going to be like trucks. Less people will need them. And this transformation is going to make some people uneasy... because the PC has taken us a long way. They were amazing. But it changes. Vested interests are going to change. And, I think we've embarked on that change. Is it the iPad? Who knows? Will it be next year or five years? ... We like to talk about the post-PC era, but when it really starts to happen, it's uncomfortable."

csmuk 13y ago
It's uncomfortable because it's wrong and there is big resistance. I am part of that resistance. The transition from the fragmented computer market in the 80's brought relief via standardisation into the clone PC and the rise of the Internet. Now it's fragmenting again into separate walled gardens. The post-PC era that everyone keeps rabbiting on about is a battle between the big players. We'll all lose and be back to separate non-connected ecosystems, just like the 80's when you had a BBC micro and everyone else had C64's so you couldn't play last ninja... Its already happened in the mobile space which consists of three ecosystems and some "promoted as ridiculous and unfashionable" old fashioned telephones.
- lowkeykiwi 13y ago
  Won't the continuing rise of online products mean those walls are easily circumvented? The difference in hardware will simply be use-case and user dependent but online applications will be able to run in the browser on any of them. Power users could still use PCs, most people will be fine in the browser.
- jlgreco 13y ago
  @lowkeykiwi (your comment is dead) Witness the rise of "web services" that will only work when used with proprietary browsers run on a trusted OS on trusted hardware. Netflix on the Chromebook is a harbinger of things to come.

fit2rule 13y ago

My favourite current hacked up laptop is a Motorola Lapdock paired with a small collection of PC-on-a-stick thingies, an rPi, a couple Beagleboards .. all very plug and play. With an Ubuntu-on-a-stick, I'm even able to build work projects and use it as a production machine. It'd be nice if the fanboix stopped arguing the trivialities of the software - which after all, by now - with all the variations out there - is proving to be not so hard as the one thing that matters in this race: sensible hardware. An upgradable laptop is what I want. I'll keep the screen, the keys, etc. Just, unplug one CPU, stick in another as needed for various things .. I hope that happens soon.

philthesong 13y ago

I bought a Chromebook, installed ubuntu and played with it. The machine heats up fast and lags too much. The Chromebook couldn't even handle a default office app in ubuntu. These so-called pundits are getting huge sum of money from ASUS, Samsung, google, etc...

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
jlgreco 13y ago
> The machine heats up fast Chromebook Pixel? My Pixel is the hottest machine I have ever used...

shmerl 13y ago

I'd say if you want a webby OS for the sake of webbiness, then try Firefox OS. Otherwise regular Linux distro will be much better for desktop use.

scythe 13y ago
Can one not put Firefox OS on a Chromebook? Actually, that might be one of the better aftermarket modifications...
- shmerl 13y ago
  Regular Firefox OS is using Android graphics stack, so one will have to build it for regular Linux graphics stack such as X.org. Not sure if that's configurable out of the box.

6ren 13y ago

I don't think there are any laptops comparable to the Acer C720 performance (Haswell) at a comparable price. It benchmarks at about half a 2013 Macbook Air (also Haswell). That said, I'd whack ubuntu on it, and love it as a netbook. But I do doubt chromebooks will be big hit, they're neither fish nor foul, since tablets stole netbooks' market.

samspenc 13y ago
Yeah, there was another article about how developers are buying Chromebooks just to put Ubuntu on it: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/355875-four-of-top-six-laptops-on-amazon-are-chromebooks/ http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/355875-four-of-top-six-lapto... For my next laptop, I am more and more inclined to get a Chromebook and put Ubuntu on it using chrouton...

porpoisemonkey 13y ago

I haven't seen anyone mention what I suspect is the target audience for Chromebooks - aging Americans. This is expected to be one of the fastest growing demographics in the United States thanks to the Post-World War II Baby Boom of the late 1940-1960's. "The older population--persons 65 years or older--numbered 39.6 million in 2009 (the latest year for which data is available). They represented 12.9% of the U.S. population, about one in every eight Americans. By 2030, there will be about 72.1 million older persons, more than twice their number in 2000. People 65+ represented 12.4% of the population in the year 2000 but are expected to grow to be 19% of the population by 2030." http://www.aoa.gov/Aging_Statistics/ http://www.aoa.gov/Aging_Statistics/

munificent 13y ago
> I haven't seen anyone mention what I suspect is the target audience for Chromebooks - aging Americans. Not just aging Americans, but kids of aging Americans buying computers for their parents. That's why "no viruses" and "no configuration" are such big deals: Chromebooks are a solution to the dreaded "home for the holidays, spending eight hours fixing Dad's horribly infested PC" problem.

camus2 13y ago

They are not out of touch , they get paid to promote chromebooks, After getting paid to promote netbooks. The problem is people listening the narrative.

brianbreslin 13y ago

I bought a samsung chrome book at Walmart last week. I paid $250+ Florida sales tax. I bought it as an emergency backup device, as my MacBook Air was giving me problems. That being said, the device is still just ok. I was expecting it to do two thinsg really well: surf the web, and use google drive/gmail. Unfortunately the CPU in this device is a bit weak, so it struggled loading sites like Facebook, and using spreadsheets on google docs was not fun (suuuuper slow). I just wanted those two things to work well, and they didn't. I didn't need any games, or great video rendering, just for chrome to work perfectly. I am going to return it, and buy an external keyboard for my iPad mini. Using spreadsheets on the iPad is tough, but surfing the web and sending emails is more responsive.

kyberias 13y ago

This is a very biased and weird article. I think it speaks for itself that it is very common to put Chromebook in developer mode and use crouton to enable full Linux experience. I had to do it since there's so little to achieve using Chrome browser only. Sad but true.

vondur 13y ago

I only know of a few people that have purchased a Chromebook, but it seems the only use it for a bit and then not use it. They tend to go back to their laptop or tablet.

adamb_ 13y ago

I've recommended Chromebook separately to 2 individuals over the age of 40, and they both own & love it. Neither of these people are tech savy, and just wanted something to "work." The big sell for both of them was: 1) low cost for modern hardware (most windows laptops in the same price range were old or had bottom-barrel components.) 2) no more worrying about viruses & (more importantly) no anti-virus software. 3) if they would've stayed with windows they would've had to learn windows 8, so the advantage of staying in "familiar territory" was lost (one was upgrading from XP.)

chestnut-tree 13y ago

Simplicity does not mean the absence of features. ChromeOS is simple because it does not have the capability to include features we take for granted in desktop software. For example, in Google Docs you cannot merge two or more table cells. This is hardly an advanced feature, it's something Wordperfect 5.0 could do 20 years ago. How is this progress? Some things are certainly not simpler on a Chromebook. For example, printing requires signing in via Google's cloud print service even if it's just to print to your desktop printer (which also means Google can record when and how often you print.) More seriously, ChromeOS gives Google an unprecedented opportunity to track and record your online behaviour (since you must sign-in to ChromeOS with a Google account to use the operating system). This raises important questions about privacy, but Google gets away with little scrutiny of what they record and track.

jsloat 13y ago
You can definitely merge in Google Spreadsheets, is this a ChromeOS-specific limitation you're referencing? There are, of course, plenty of other limitations of the Drive suite.
- chestnut-tree 13y ago
  It's a limitation of Google Documents. You can try it yourself. Create a Google Document, insert a table (Insert > Table) and, er, that's it. If you want to merge table cells, you're out of luck. There's no function that will allow you.

david2777 13y ago

I got a Chromebook as a supplementary computer. I'm a 3D Art student so I never expected it to replace my rig, but I thought it would be nice to take notes in GenEd classes and browse the internet between classes or on the couch at home. It works perfect for that. What surprised me was some of my non-techie friends saw my Chromebook and decided to get one. They stream their music and the only thing they used their Windows laptops for was the internet and typing up essays and stuff up. It took them a while to get used to not being able to install anything but between their smartphone and their Chromebook they can pretty much do anything they need.

cromwellian 13y ago

Every platform has an escape hatch. For the iPad, when there's something you can't do, beyond it's limits, you would go use a real computer. For Macs, you use to run to the refuge of Bootcamp, or Parallels, to get to run something you can't run on OSX. For Chromebooks, you run to Crouton. There's no device that does everything without compromise, but for some people, 90% of the time, all they need is a browser with a full-sized keyboard and largish screen.

DanBC 13y ago
> all they need is a browser How did we get so far from The Unix Way of "one tool does one job and does it well", to "just cram it into the browser"?
- cromwellian 13y ago
  The Unix Way(tm) is great for developers, but ties you to enormous local client state. "Just cram it into the browser" has lots of advantages for many use cases: 1) actual computer local state irrelevent. If HD fails or computer falls into a river, it's no big deal. 2) Sharing your computer is a lot easier. Hand a ChromeBook to someone and they are instantly productive with it, as there is no need to "set up" their environment and all their apps. 3) Arguably more secure. Big decrease in surface area for private attackers to penetrate with viruses or malware. Arguably, increase in surface area for government surveillance. Depends on whether you find Eastern European hackers getting your financial info more damaging to you than the NSA/GCHQ. Ask yourself this: Does Captain Picard carry around an entire copy of the Enterprise computer on him, or does his com-badge just talk to the ship computer? Cloud computing is the latest iteration in the pivot between mainframe and client, and for some usage models, it is far more convenient to cloud host all of your state, and make your client very thin and cheap.