Chromebook Review

I finally adopted a Chromebook and am recording here my experience and advice for others.
Before I start I should state that I got an Acer C7 Chromebook.

INTRO

First, why a Chromebook. Well, why not? I'm just overly curious about new technologies, but I also feel certain that cloud computing is the way of the future. Chromebook is the only OS that I'm aware of that is completely dedicated to that purpose. 

For those who don't know what this means, I'll try to be brief. Basically what a Chromebook offers you is the Chrome browser and only the Chrome browser. Everything you do on a Chromebook is through a browser. Therefore, all apps are technically on the web. Your email, word processing, blogging, videos, music, etc. - all of it is done on the web. But that's pretty much what everyone does these days anyhow. So, what's the problem? 
Some might object. Wait a minute, what if I don't have a network connection? Then I can't do anything. On the one hand, you're probably prevented from doing a lot on your Windows, Mac or Linux computer if you don't have an internet connection anyhow. But do you really think Google wasn't thinking about that possibility? Gmail, Docs, and some other apps can be used offline and will then sync with Google servers once you're back online. Note that you do have to either enable offline in those apps or download an offline version of the app. 

Another beauty of the Chromebook and cloud computing is that the OS is very light. The computer boots up within a minute and awakens from sleep within a second. Think about any tablet - pretty much instant on!

Because all your data is stored in the cloud, should your computer be damaged or stolen, nothing is lost! Log into a new Chromebook and everything is back! Nothing could be simpler. 

There is no virus protection for the Chromebook, but you probably won't ever need any. And should at some point a virus be developed for Chromebooks, all you would have to do is reset the Chromebook, restart it, log in, and your environment is completely restored (it's all on the web!) and the malware would be gone. 

Everything sounds perfect, right? Well, not so quick.

The main issue people have to wrap their around is that you will have to completely forget about getting your commonly-used apps installed on a Chromebook. All "apps" available for Chromebook are only available through the Chrome Web Store. Or as web services provided by other companies.

In other words, don't think about how do I install iTunes, Microsoft Office, Quicken, Photoshop, etc. on a Chromebook. You don't. You can't. Well, not really.....

Need Microsoft Office? Google docs offers a lot that MS Office offers. But now that MS has adopted Office 365, which is office through the web, you could pay for Office 365 and use it online. Intuit offers Quicken online. There have been rumors that Adobe is going to put Photoshop online, but there are also plenty of other photo-editing apps available. As for iTunes, well you're screwed there. 
One caveat for Skype enthusiasts - at present you're screwed too. There is not app for Skype at present. There used to be a website where you could use Skype, but MS has apparently prevented them from doing that anymore. However, word is that MS is going to include a Skype client in it's Outlook.com mail app. Currently, it's available in England, so we can hope it will be available in the US soon. (Ironically enough, Google talk is reportedly available through Outlook.com?!)


PRACTICALITY

Setting up the Chromebook was very easy. I should note, however, that I host pretty much all personal stuff (emails, docs, pictures) with Google and have been using Chrome as my browser of choice for quite some time. So I had already adopted Google's cloud scheme of computing. Going completely to the cloud was not very difficult.

In order to gain some understanding of what a Chromebook might be like, you could challenge yourself to just use Chrome on your computer. Unfortunately, I know from experience that people will resort to using what they're used to. Nonetheless, you might find that you can in fact probably get most of the normal work you do done just using a browser.

An inconvenience of the browser approach though would be that there may be no simple way to get to some web apps. Chromebook uses a traditional bar along the bottom of the screen where commonly used web apps can be configured for quick access. There is also something like a Programs Menu to access other web apps that you have installed.

Whereas by default each new app launches as a new tab, switching between web apps may take some getting used to. The traditional Alt+Tab will switch you from separately opened browsers. But to switch from tab to tab you can use a number of different keyboard options. 

One of the first things I checked out were videos. Every site I generally use (Amazon, Xfinity, NBC, IFC, YouTube, Netflix) worked without any flaws.


PRINTING

I gave printing it's own section since it concerns a lot of people (and understandably so). The concern arises due to the fact that you can't connect a printer directly to a Chromebook. Well, you can physically connect one using a USB port, but it won't that way.

In order to print from a Chromebook, you have to enable a printer connected to another computer, on which computer you have installed the Chrome browser and enabled printing through your account. Sounds complicated? It kind of it.... The beauty of it though is that you can print to any of these Chrome-enabled printers from anywhere.

Also you can enable other Google users to print to your printer through your Google account. I have never tried this out and don't know if it works, but I'd have to believe it does work as the feature does exist.


NEGATIVE MOMENTS

The biggest negative, which I generally won't have a problem with is that my Acer Chromebook battery is reported to work only about 3 hours. Since I will be traveling with this in the future, that could be an issue. But fortunately, I'm not a big laptop user outside the office or home. That is, I generally always keep them plugged in.

Like a lot of computers, if anything doesn't seem to be working right, alas this happens even on a Chromebook, then the easiest solution is just to reboot. For some odd reason at one point I was unable to delete files from the Download folder. But after rebooting I was able. Odd....

Another issue is that my Chromebook only came with 2 GB of RAM. I may max that out to 4 GB later, but for now it's fine. The only issue is that when you have several browser tabs or windows open, basically the information in the older tabs/windows is dropped and then reloaded when you return to that tab/window. So there is a slight delay as the information is refreshed. This may be a little annoying for some people, but it hasn't bothered me... yet.


BONUS MOMENTS

One thing I didn't know when I purchased my Chromebook was that with a Chromebook you get an additional 100 GB of free space with Google on your Google drive. Caveat! That's only good though for two years. Should be for life!

Also, you get something like 7 or 14 hours of free GoGo access. I never really pay attention to what airlines offer in terms of Internet access, but apparently many offer GoGo's service. If you're a frequent traveller could be a bonus for you.

Chromebook

I finally adopted a Chromebook and am recording here my experience and advice for others.

Before I start I should state that I got an Acer C7 Chromebook.

INTRO

First, why a Chromebook. Well, why not? I'm just overly curious about new technologies, but I also feel certain that cloud computing is the way of the future. Chromebook is the only OS that I'm aware of that is completely dedicated to that purpose.

For those who don't know what this means, I'll try to be brief. Basically what a Chromebook offers you is the Chrome browser and only the Chrome browser. Everything you do on a Chromebook is through a browser. Therefore, all apps are technically on the web. Your email, word processing, blogging, videos, music, etc. - all of it is done on the web. But that's pretty much what everyone does these days anyhow. So, what's the problem?

Some might object. Wait a minute, what if I don't have a network connection? Then I can't do anything. On the one hand, you're probably prevented from doing a lot on your Windows, Mac or Linux computer if you don't have an internet connection anyhow. But do you really think Google wasn't thinking about that possibility? Gmail, Docs, and some other apps can be used offline and will then sync with Google servers once you're back online. Note that you do have to either enable offline in those apps or download an offline version of the app.

Another beauty of the Chromebook and cloud computing is that the OS is very light. The computer boots up within a minute and awakens from sleep within a second. Think about any tablet - pretty much instant on!

Because all your data is stored in the cloud, should your computer be damaged or stolen, nothing is lost! Log into a new Chromebook and everything is back! Nothing could be simpler.

There is no virus protection for the Chromebook, but you probably won't ever need any. And should at some point a virus be developed for Chromebooks, all you would have to do is reset the Chromebook, restart it, log in, and your environment is completely restored (it's all on the web!) and the malware would be gone.

Everything sounds perfect, right? Well, not so quick.

The main issue people have to wrap their around is that you will have to completely forget about getting your commonly-used apps installed on a Chromebook. All "apps" available for Chromebook are only available through the Chrome Web Store. Or as web services provided by other companies.

In other words, don't think about how do I install iTunes, Microsoft Office, Quicken, Photoshop, etc. on a Chromebook. You don't. You can't. Well, not really.....

Need Microsoft Office? Google docs offers a lot that MS Office offers. But now that MS has adopted Office 365, which is office through the web, you could pay for Office 365 and use it online. Intuit offers Quicken online. There have been rumors that Adobe is going to put Photoshop online, but there are also plenty of other photo-editing apps available. As for iTunes, well you're screwed there.

One caveat for Skype enthusiasts - at present you're screwed too. There is not app for Skype at present. There used to be a website where you could use Skype, but MS has apparently prevented them from doing that anymore. However, word is that MS is going to include a Skype client in it's Outlook.com mail app. Currently, it's available in England, so we can hope it will be available in the US soon. (Ironically enough, Google talk is reportedly available through Outlook.com?!)

PRACTICALITY

Setting up the Chromebook was very easy. I should note, however, that I host pretty much all personal stuff (emails, docs, pictures) with Google and have been using Chrome as my browser of choice for quite some time. So I had already adopted Google's cloud scheme of computing. Going completely to the cloud was not very difficult.

In order to gain some understanding of what a Chromebook might be like, you could challenge yourself to just use Chrome on your computer. Unfortunately, I know from experience that people will resort to using what they're used to. Nonetheless, you might find that you can in fact probably get most of the normal work you do done just using a browser.

An inconvenience of the browser approach though would be that there may be no simple way to get to some web apps. Chromebook uses a traditional bar along the bottom of the screen where commonly used web apps can be configured for quick access. There is also something like a Programs Menu to access other web apps that you have installed.

Whereas by default each new app launches as a new tab, switching between web apps may take some getting used to. The traditional Alt+Tab will switch you from separately opened browsers. But to switch from tab to tab you can use a number of different keyboard options.

One of the first things I checked out were videos. Every site I generally use (Amazon, Xfinity, NBC, IFC, YouTube, Netflix) worked without any flaws.

PRINTING

I gave printing it's own section since it concerns a lot of people (and understandably so). The concern arises due to the fact that you can't connect a printer directly to a Chromebook. Well, you can physically connect one using a USB port, but it won't that way.

In order to print from a Chromebook, you have to enable a printer connected to another computer, on which computer you have installed the Chrome browser and enabled printing through your account. Sounds complicated? It kind of it.... The beauty of it though is that you can print to any of these Chrome-enabled printers from anywhere.

Also you can enable other Google users to print to your printer through your Google account. I have never tried this out and don't know if it works, but I'd have to believe it does work as the feature does exist.

NEGATIVE MOMENTS

The biggest negative, which I generally won't have a problem with is that my Acer Chromebook battery is reported to work only about 3 hours. Since I will be traveling with this in the future, that could be an issue. But fortunately, I'm not a big laptop user outside the office or home. That is, I generally always keep them plugged in.

Like a lot of computers, if anything doesn't seem to be working right, alas this happens even on a Chromebook, then the easiest solution is just to reboot. For some odd reason at one point I was unable to delete files from the Download folder. But after rebooting I was able. Odd....

Another issue is that my Chromebook only came with 2 GB of RAM. I may max that out to 4 GB later, but for now it's fine. The only issue is that when you have several browser tabs or windows open, basically the information in the older tabs/windows is dropped and then reloaded when you return to that tab/window. So there is a slight delay as the information is refreshed. This may be a little annoying for some people, but it hasn't bothered me... yet.

BONUS MOMENTS

One thing I didn't know when I purchased my Chromebook was that with a Chromebook you get an additional 100 GB of free space with Google on your Google drive. Caveat! That's only good though for two years. Should be for life!

Also, you get something like 7 or 14 hours of free GoGo access. I never really pay attention to what airlines offer in terms of Internet access, but apparently many offer GoGo's service. If you're a frequent traveller could be a bonus for you.