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I Bought 2 Chrome books. 1 for my daughter. Only purpose she can use is Gmail (email and keep in touch with Aunt's and other relatives overseas). Occasionally

by kumarm 13y ago

I Bought 2 Chrome books. 1 for my daughter. Only purpose she can use is Gmail (email and keep in touch with Aunt's and other relatives overseas). Occasionally she uses youtube and her school website. 1 for My Dad to read new papers online. Both of them love it and its the only computer they use. I am sure none of them show up in any stats. Edit: I must add Why I bought Chromebooks for both of them. Their uses cases: 1. Only activity is online. No use with offline computer. 2. Not Tech savvy enough to deal with AntiVirus. 3. Limited Use and hence need cheaper option. Chromebook fits perfectly in both scenario's.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
derefr 13y ago
In the first situation, why a Chromebook instead of, say, a tablet? Or an iPod Touch, even? Children don't tend to get the same sort of benefit from full "hard" keyboards that adults do, and there are devices cheaper than Chromebooks that can be similarly locked down.
- kumarm 13y ago
  Hard to find a stable tablet with big enough screen for 299$. Also tablet is a distraction since kids would want to play games as soon as they have one in their hands. Also starting in 2nd Grade (At least in my area) kids are taught typing on computer (Home Rose?).
- Crito 13y ago
  > "Children don't tend to get the same sort of benefit from full "hard" keyboards that adults do" How do you expect them to learn to, if you don't give them devices with keyboards? Sure, they could wait until that typing class in middle-school, but wouldn't it be better to have them pick it up themselves, much earlier?
pkulak 13y ago
I've been slowly replacing every machine that I'm responsible for supporting (family members who ask me which computer to buy, and to please set it up) with a ChromeOS computer. Usually it's just a case of buying the new laptop and logging them in. Last week I found a used Chromebox for my dad to replace his WinXP desktop. It went well, but I did get bitten. I didn't know he even had a printer, and since you can't plug a printer directly into ChromeOS, we had to buy a new, networked one (which does work amazingly well, btw). I also had to _write_ two Chrome Packaged Apps (fun learning experience, haha) to replace the WinXP camera import wizard he was using and his photo slideshow screensaver. Despite all that, I'm still happy with the decision. It's a super simple machine that's fast as hell, updates without him even knowing, and is incredibly secure. And the dev APIs are getting reasonably complete pretty quickly, such that I was able to write a little app to import photos off a camera in just a couple days.
- sown 13y ago
  > I also had to _write_ two Chrome Packaged Apps (fun learning experience, haha) to replace the WinXP camera import wizard he was using and his photo slideshow screensaver. Seems like a good startup idea.
  - pkulak 13y ago
    Google is already reporting over 30 users of my little photo importer, which is more success than I've ever had the first week of an Android or iOS app, haha. Maybe there's some real demand building up for these things.
    - sown 13y ago
      I don't know much about pricing but if you have people wanting to use it perhaps there's a pricing model that you can use to get people to pay for it, too. Good luck!
- agumonkey 13y ago
  If I knew how to make ChromeOs talk to my wifi printer (Lexmark s605, which does not seem to support CloudPrint) I'd free my mom from the "burden" that is her Acer AspireOne (too cramped, too slow) right now.

by kumarm 13y ago

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

derefr 13y ago

In the first situation, why a Chromebook instead of, say, a tablet? Or an iPod Touch, even? Children don't tend to get the same sort of benefit from full "hard" keyboards that adults do, and there are devices cheaper than Chromebooks that can be similarly locked down.

kumarm 13y ago
Hard to find a stable tablet with big enough screen for 299$. Also tablet is a distraction since kids would want to play games as soon as they have one in their hands. Also starting in 2nd Grade (At least in my area) kids are taught typing on computer (Home Rose?).
Crito 13y ago
> "Children don't tend to get the same sort of benefit from full "hard" keyboards that adults do" How do you expect them to learn to, if you don't give them devices with keyboards? Sure, they could wait until that typing class in middle-school, but wouldn't it be better to have them pick it up themselves, much earlier?

pkulak 13y ago

I've been slowly replacing every machine that I'm responsible for supporting (family members who ask me which computer to buy, and to please set it up) with a ChromeOS computer. Usually it's just a case of buying the new laptop and logging them in. Last week I found a used Chromebox for my dad to replace his WinXP desktop. It went well, but I did get bitten. I didn't know he even had a printer, and since you can't plug a printer directly into ChromeOS, we had to buy a new, networked one (which does work amazingly well, btw). I also had to _write_ two Chrome Packaged Apps (fun learning experience, haha) to replace the WinXP camera import wizard he was using and his photo slideshow screensaver. Despite all that, I'm still happy with the decision. It's a super simple machine that's fast as hell, updates without him even knowing, and is incredibly secure. And the dev APIs are getting reasonably complete pretty quickly, such that I was able to write a little app to import photos off a camera in just a couple days.

sown 13y ago
> I also had to _write_ two Chrome Packaged Apps (fun learning experience, haha) to replace the WinXP camera import wizard he was using and his photo slideshow screensaver. Seems like a good startup idea.
- pkulak 13y ago
  Google is already reporting over 30 users of my little photo importer, which is more success than I've ever had the first week of an Android or iOS app, haha. Maybe there's some real demand building up for these things.
  - sown 13y ago
    I don't know much about pricing but if you have people wanting to use it perhaps there's a pricing model that you can use to get people to pay for it, too. Good luck!
agumonkey 13y ago
If I knew how to make ChromeOs talk to my wifi printer (Lexmark s605, which does not seem to support CloudPrint) I'd free my mom from the "burden" that is her Acer AspireOne (too cramped, too slow) right now.