Chromebook

ajh101

ajh101

Messages
947
Location
Northamptonshire
The hard drive in my 8yo laptop is starting to fail. Until it does finally give up the ghost I am investigating what might succeed it.

As most of my electronic life takes place online I am looking at a Chromebook as a cost effective option, coupled with an external hard drive.

The few applications I do use I could live without. What do people think of these?
I am an Android user too, if that affects your opinion! [WHITE SMILING FACE]

Andrew
 
Chromebooks are great if;
1) You are mostly using cloud based applications (google sheet, etc) and storage,
2) Don't use heavy processing tools like photoshop that works better on local machines with a good processor, and
3) Don't have any applications that you need to run that requires Windows as an operating system.

I just bought a new laptop myself and was considering a chromebook.
I live here in Silicon Valley and see a fair share of them on Caltrain and in San Francisco/Palo Alto at coffee shops, etc

I ended up buying a 'traditional' windows laptop (touchscreen, etc though) as at the end of the day I got some applications I need to run locally on my machine and they require Windows or OSX as OS.
 
Bought one a couple of years ago and use it everyday.. ideal for sitting in front of the tv resting on my lap, something i just can't do comfortably with a tablet.

I have a mac that is constantly on which runs windows using virtualbox and the times i need to use windows software i just use crome RDP or chrome remote on the chromebook to access it.

i use a windows pc at work and find it annoying having to wait for it to boot up and install updates as the chromebook takes seconds to be up and running.

I use a nexus 5 phone and it integrates well with the chromebook.. take a photo and a few seconds later can view it on it.

For the price you can pick them up you can't go wrong :)
 
ajh101 said:
You can run Windows software on a Chromebook?
Click to expand...

No. You can however use a remote desktop client and access another computer running that operating system through your chromebook. I've used some in the past and found them to be good for short 5-10 minute tasks but for anything more extensive it just doesn't cut it for me from a performance perspective.

Just as in shaving - YMMV though :)
 
ajh101 said:
Ok thanks. Anything else I should bear in mind, good or bad?!
Click to expand...

The great thing about chromebooks is that they are very lightweight, boots up super quick and usually have really good battery life. They also play nicely with other Android devices.

To me, and this is where everyone is different, a chromebook is in addition to my laptop - just like my tablet. I can't see myself using just a chromebook and not have access to the processing power and Windows OS that I have on my laptop. Maybe in a couple of years but not right now for me.

YMMV :)
 
My chromebook does 97% of what I need. I doubt I'd buy another Win laptop - EVER!
I have a Win7 media centre PC that I run basically so that the kids have compatible software for school.
Lightweight, battery lasts for hours, always up to date. There is nothing not to like - and if your an android user, even better!
 
rowlers said:
My chromebook does 97% of what I need. I doubt I'd buy another Win laptop - EVER!
I have a Win7 media centre PC that I run basically so that the kids have compatible software for school.
Lightweight, battery lasts for hours, always up to date. There is nothing not to like - and if your an android user, even better!
Click to expand...
But what do you do for the other 3?! [emoji16]
 
I did exactly what you are considering a few months ago

Bought a chrome book which does everything I need it to do. External hard drive to store all my music, photos and docs that I want to keep, I've also backed them up on the cloud as well so all are accessible via my android tablet - Google Nexus and android smartphone

Still got the steam driven desktop pc upstairs if I ever need to use it.

It seems that it's all a personal preference as to whether you entrust Google or Apple to take over the world better - or at least your part of it! No issues with the Chromebook at all though.
 
ajh101 said:
rowlers said:
My chromebook does 97% of what I need. I doubt I'd buy another Win laptop - EVER!
I have a Win7 media centre PC that I run basically so that the kids have compatible software for school.
Lightweight, battery lasts for hours, always up to date. There is nothing not to like - and if your an android user, even better!
Click to expand...
But what do you do for the other 3?! [emoji16]
Click to expand...
I use the win7 PC ;)
 
I agree with most everything said so far. I'm a Windows guy, and I was an MSDOS guy before that, so my orientation stems from that direction. The last version of Windows I liked at all was XP, and I was far from in love with it.

So --- fast forward to my $200us Acer Chromebook. I have a Sony VAIO laptop that runs Vista, and it plays well with my current printer, but the hard drive was starting to act slightly wonky, and I needed to do some online meetings - was looking for a backup machine, and I saw the Acer at MalWart for two hundred - thought I'd stumbled on a super sale price - snapped it up, only to find that's the everyday price...most everywhere!

It seemed too good to be true; a good computer for that cheap seemed unlikely. Well, that was almost two years ago and my Chromebook is my everyday darlin'. As someone posted earlier, I still use my VAIO for it's CD/DVD drive, and printing capabilities, but the other 97% is the Chromebook.

Fast startup - fast surfing - faster everything. Very Windows-like with a shallow learning curve. I find that Chrome is a much leaner, sleeker OS than Windows. The streamlining cuts down on some of the customization options (fewer font and icon choices - that sort of thing), but I find that it is a very good fit for my needs.
~
 
My Chromebook sits in the kitchen and is used most of the time, for answering questions, recipes, shared calendar, email, music. I think that 97% is correct. I don't use the Chromebook for work or any thing creative. If you only have ONE computer, then maybe the Chromebook is not appropriate. But it's a great second computer (and will likely really be the primary computer).
 
I've got both a Chromebook and a Chromebox. I originally had the Chromebook for when I wanted to surf the net while sitting in my chair. It did virtually everything I wanted to do on the 'net and I found I was using my PC less and less until it finally died. Because I then wasn't using my I found my workstation was getting stacked up with junk & clutter I disposed of the PC and got the Chromebox. I connected it up to a TV with built in DVD for when I want to watch films.

I have a laptop for backup but to be honest I really cannot remember the last time I switched it on. If I were to use it it would have to go through all the Windowsâ„¢ / security updates it would take the best part of half an hour before I could use it.......

20150213_120157.JPG
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom