I say umm no...
I own a chromebook.. I am still trying to figure out why. I *never* use it.
I have a Chromebook. I am writing this on it now. Of course, it is running Ubuntu 12.04 and not Chrome.
I was initially impressed with the chromebook. It starts in a few seconds. If you use google’s services, it is integrated with them. Those are it’s strengths.
The weaknesses are legion. Without an internet connection it is a brick. There is very little it can do without that internet connection. Google Docs is a toy and not even 1/3 as capable as Libre Office, let alone Word.
The program selection in the store is more limited that the Ubuntu store and the lack of usable programs for anything other than google services make this an extreme drawback.
The chromebook I have replaced a netbook from 2011, and this chromebook (while faster) is no where near as capable as a three year old netbook running a limited intel atom processor.
Then there is my growing concern with google’s monitoring. With a chromebook, everything you do is under google’s all seeing eye. I find it hard to imagine companies issuing these to workers to use with sensitive information.
The Chromebook might be fine for a student at university but not for productivity. These are a niche product and likely no threat to MS. Not in their present form. Perhaps if they turn this into a real linux build that can be used offline as well.
I never used the Chrome browser until yesterday, I had to watch refresher tax prep stuff. The provider warned it wouldn’t work in explorer 11, and I couldn’t get it to work on Firefox either (which I usually use). I didn’t want to uninstall the explorer, so I tried Chrome and it worked fine. Thank goodness!
Chromebooks suck. Doesn’t matter which manufacturer.
Yes. They will do email and web browsing. Also some other, extremely, light app work ala YouTube or presentations.
All of it is tracked. None of it works beyond the basics. Management tools are a joke.
You’d be better off with ANY of the tablets available than a Chromebook.
My Niece got an HP Chromebook for Christmas. Was pretty much crushed when I told her Minecraft, and most of her other apps/games, wouldn’t play on it unless we did some serious hacking on it in Dev-mode.
We’ve also deployed the Samsung Chromebooks here at work. Logging 30-40 students in all at the same time creates a huge bottleneck on my wireless and the students/staff are seriously underimpressed with the apps available.
I have 150 of these things that were purchased against my recommendation that I now have to manage...
A different tack than most postings here: Years ago The Motley Fool site was kind of cool, funny and marginally useful. They have in recent years turned into a waste of electrons. They have article after article that bash Microsoft (or other well known companies) with sensation headlines to try to grab hits on their site. This particular article is a good example.
Just the latest of many pendulum swings over the past few decades between distributed computing (power to the people) vs. centralized computing (power to the IT nazis). A chromebook is little more than a modern web-based equivalent of the dumb terminal that required a central mainframe to provide any and all value.
Actually, Microsoft is Microsoft’s biggest threat to Microsoft.
I’m not getting the Chromebook hate here. I guess I simply don’t have a need for desktop applications in this format.
When I sat down and really considered my non-work usage, it was obvious that 97% of my time was doing email, browsing, posting, and playing Bejeweled.
Personally, if my wifi is down, everything is down at my house because it means that something huge has happened. This is why I keep my landline. This hardly ever happens.
I try to limit my non-work screen time so I don’t need new ways to do work at home or new Internet hobbies.
I don’t even own a smartphone because I don’t need more screen time in my life.
My Chromebooks (yes, I have two in addition to a desktop) start up instantly, never get infected with anything, have long battery times, are crazy portable (well, the little one is), and update constantly in the background.
I know Google is Evil but the NSA seemingly has access to everything online anyway which is why I do lunch.