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I don't know a single person in real life that has a chromebook. Who is buying these?

by EC1 12y ago

jvandonsel 12y ago
I got some low-end chromebooks for my teenage daughters. It's the perfect device for them. Cheap to replace if they get lost/stolen/dropped, and I don't need to worry about viruses.
dvirsky 12y ago
A lot of people apparently: http://www.zdnet.com/article/top-3-holiday-computers-on-amazon-were-chromebooks/ http://www.zdnet.com/article/top-3-holiday-computers-on-amaz... If I were to buy a second computer for travelling and lightweight stuff at home, and not developing, I guess a Chromebook would be a nice choice. But not at the price of a Macbook Air, though.
- jethro_tell 12y ago
  I'll buy it and run linux on it. I've long ago put all my data on my own storage boxes and all my systems have 64GB SSDs.
handelaar 12y ago
People I know who aren't interested in computing per se. They are buying them for children (to avoid malware and viruses and the general cruft of maintaining an OS), and for themselves (because, again, viruses and cruft). Meanwhile, this OP may well be about a very expensive Chromebook but the other killer advantage of them is they're very lightweight, have very long battery life, and are VERY cheap. If you're sick of Windows and the fact that it just gets slower and slower over time (and everybody is), and you're not the sort of person who has 30 tabs open (which is more or less everybody but us), and you actually need to have a device you can type on, then they're great. I recommend them to most 'civilians' I know after making sure they don't actually need one of the few things it can't handle.
simplyluke 12y ago
People are - just not for anywhere near the cost of a pixel. Schools and parents of kids especially. They're super cheap and everything schools need to do is online.
mintplant 12y ago
Lots of schools order them in bulk for students to use in class.
bentcorner 12y ago
Schools are a large market for lower-end chromebooks.
beerbajay 12y ago
I got one when Lenovo refused to replace my thinkpad despite obviously defective hinge engineering. If I'm going to have to buy a new laptop every two years, it may as well be a cheap one. I installed crouton and have been using it as a development machine.
mark-r 12y ago
Our local elementary school just announced a program to buy all students a chromebook, starting with 1/3 of them next year. They're perfect for the kids because they can't mess them up too much (other than dropping them). I presume they're not getting the Pixel models though. I don't know who buys those.

I don't know a single person in real life that has a chromebook. Who is buying these?

by EC1 12y ago

I don't know a single person in real life that has a chromebook. Who is buying these?

I got some low-end chromebooks for my teenage daughters. It's the perfect device for them. Cheap to replace if they get lost/stolen/dropped, and I don't need to worry about viruses.

dvirsky 12y ago

A lot of people apparently: http://www.zdnet.com/article/top-3-holiday-computers-on-amazon-were-chromebooks/ http://www.zdnet.com/article/top-3-holiday-computers-on-amaz... If I were to buy a second computer for travelling and lightweight stuff at home, and not developing, I guess a Chromebook would be a nice choice. But not at the price of a Macbook Air, though.

jethro_tell 12y ago
I'll buy it and run linux on it. I've long ago put all my data on my own storage boxes and all my systems have 64GB SSDs.

handelaar 12y ago

People I know who aren't interested in computing per se. They are buying them for children (to avoid malware and viruses and the general cruft of maintaining an OS), and for themselves (because, again, viruses and cruft). Meanwhile, this OP may well be about a very expensive Chromebook but the other killer advantage of them is they're very lightweight, have very long battery life, and are VERY cheap. If you're sick of Windows and the fact that it just gets slower and slower over time (and everybody is), and you're not the sort of person who has 30 tabs open (which is more or less everybody but us), and you actually need to have a device you can type on, then they're great. I recommend them to most 'civilians' I know after making sure they don't actually need one of the few things it can't handle.

simplyluke 12y ago

People are - just not for anywhere near the cost of a pixel. Schools and parents of kids especially. They're super cheap and everything schools need to do is online.

mintplant 12y ago

Lots of schools order them in bulk for students to use in class.

bentcorner 12y ago

Schools are a large market for lower-end chromebooks.

beerbajay 12y ago

I got one when Lenovo refused to replace my thinkpad despite obviously defective hinge engineering. If I'm going to have to buy a new laptop every two years, it may as well be a cheap one. I installed crouton and have been using it as a development machine.

mark-r 12y ago

Our local elementary school just announced a program to buy all students a chromebook, starting with 1/3 of them next year. They're perfect for the kids because they can't mess them up too much (other than dropping them). I presume they're not getting the Pixel models though. I don't know who buys those.