Google Chromebook, anyone try it?

[Don Shepherd]

I recently made the switch from my 12-year-old Windows XP machine to a Toshiba Chromebook 2, a beautiful little laptop. The students in the school in which I teach are each issued a Chromebook to use in school for all of their classes. I don't use it in math class, but I was intrigued on how it worked and I bought one.

What attracted me the most was its very fast boot time and the fact that it can never get a virus. Over the years, my XP machine seems to have gotten slower and slower, and during the past year I have had several problems with Windows wanting to install the same 3 updates every night, periodically freezing the screen requiring a turn off/turn on sequence, taking forever to "save my settings" on shutdown, and taking in excess of 3 minutes to boot. I got a "tune-up" which improved the performance very much, but still I am intrigued by the Chromebook.

It has equivalent free products corresponding to MS Excel, Word, and Powerpoint. The scripting language is based on Javascript, which is very different from the VBA for applications that I am used to, but I'll learn it.

Anyone else here make this switch? There are still a couple of things I have to do on my PC, like creating a file from scanned documents, for example, but I have been able to pretty much get totally away from Windows. Fortunately, my Brother wireless printer I've had for awhile was "cloud ready" and connecting it to work with the Chromebook was a snap.

[CR Haeger]

I bought a chromebook then a chromebase over the last couple of years and could not be happier with them. Google drive (office suite and storage) is lightweight versus MS Office but is still capable for most tasks and is easy to use. Some useful add ins to allow for Latex in docs or spreadsheets. There is even a remote desktop app that allows for display, control of your Windows machine remotly - I use to access the HP Prime emulator sometimes. Enjoy.

[walter b]

Any experience with data privacy?

d:-?

[Don Shepherd]

(12-04-2015 07:57 AM)walter b Wrote:  Any experience with data privacy?

d:-?

Hi Walter.

Well, all of your files are normally stored on the Google cloud. That doesn't bother me, but I know some people are not fond of that. On my Chromebook, there is 16 GB of space where you can store things temporarily, but the operating system uses this space as it needs to, so you shouldn't store anything there on a permanent basis. Some people have done that and have been "disappointed" when their files vanished. My machine has 2 USB ports and an SD card port; people who don't trust the cloud could put stuff there I suppose.

[eried]

Is there is any difference between that chromebook and an android tablet with keyboard?

I feel a little crippled with these kind of simplistic devices, is like after a while I need my real PC to do some "real" work. (I bought too an ultra cheap $70 USD Windows tablet to have around in case of portability reqs, runs well and has similar specs to what you described 16 gb SSD, 1 gb ram)

[d b]

(12-04-2015 04:19 PM)eried Wrote:  Is there is any difference between that chromebook and an android tablet with keyboard?

I feel a little crippled with these kind of simplistic devices, is like after a while I need my real PC to do some "real" work. (I bought too an ultra cheap $70 USD Windows tablet to have around in case of portability reqs, runs well and has similar specs to what you described 16 gb SSD, 1 gb ram)

eried; No an answer to your question but on the same subject:
http://www.informationweek.com/mobile/mo...id/1322936

[John Smitherman]

I bought an 11" Samsung Chromebook in 2013 and have been very pleased with it. It's light, boots fast, has great battery life and does most of what I need. It's between a tablet and laptop in terms of functionality. I keep a Windows laptop around for the rest.

If I were to replace it I would get the 13" Toshiba Chromebook 2 with it's beautiful 1080 display. :-)


John

[Accutron]

Google sees everything you say and do, and will silently pass it along to the government should they receive a FISA request or National Security Letter. Google receives approximately 20,000 FISA requests and NSLs per year. Google's cloud servers have already been compromised multiple times by both the NSA and the Chinese government.

The fairly substantial Intel hardware used in the Toshiba Chromebook 2 is going to waste if it's not coupled to a full-blown OS. With the exact same specs plus a full size SSD, you could be running Mathematica, along with a billion other things you can't do in the Chrome OS walled garden.

Regarding startup times, the Chromebooks I've played with started up in about five seconds, but Windows 7 on a modern computer with a SSD starts up in about 15 seconds anyway so it's really a non-issue.

[Don Shepherd]

(12-04-2015 04:19 PM)eried Wrote:  Is there is any difference between that chromebook and an android tablet with keyboard?

Well, I have a Kindle Fire 7 tablet and a Nexus 7 tablet, so the screen on the Chromebook is a lot bigger. I had a Bluetooth portable keyboard for them but I think I loaned it to my daughter and never got it back (typically). Typing on those tablets, even with the keyboard, was never a pleasant experience, but typing on the Chromebook is pleasant, not quite as good as a big PC keyboard, but much much better than the tablets.

The tablets never had a readily accessible file system like a PC does. Yes, I know you could get apps that give you access to the file system, but it's just not the same. The Chromebook does have a file system accessible from two apps that come with the computer, one called Files and one called Google Drive. You can use either app to see what files you've got and double-click on them to open them, like spreadsheets or documents. I'd say that's a principal difference between the Chromebook and tablets.

I use the tablets only for entertainment. I'll use the Chromebook for more "serious" stuff (given that I am retired, there is not a lot of serious stuff in my life).

[Don Shepherd]

(12-04-2015 06:32 PM)John Smitherman Wrote:  If I were to replace it I would get the 13" Toshiba Chromebook 2 with it's beautiful 1080 display. :-)


John

That's what I bought, John. The screen went bad after 3 weeks and I returned it for a replacement, which Amazon promptly sent. The new one is doing fine. It is one beautiful machine. I selected "surprise me" for the wallpaper so I get a beautiful new picture every day. Amazing.

[d b]

(12-04-2015 06:38 PM)Accutron Wrote:  Google sees everything you say and do, and will silently pass it along to the government should they receive a FISA request or National Security Letter. Google receives approximately 20,000 FISA requests and NSLs per year. Google's cloud servers have already been compromised multiple times by both the NSA and the Chinese government.

This might explain why Google is popular anyway.
http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?id=3370

[Don Shepherd]

(12-04-2015 06:38 PM)Accutron Wrote:  Regarding startup times, the Chromebooks I've played with started up in about five seconds, but Windows 7 on a modern computer with a SSD starts up in about 15 seconds anyway so it's really a non-issue.

It is an issue. My Chromebook boots in 6 seconds. My wife's 3-year-old Windows 7 system boots in 60 seconds. My XT machine boots in 80 seconds (it used to be about 180 seconds until I got a "tuneup" of the registry and startup processes and removed Avast anti-virus).

Not everyone has the latest Windows operating system, and nobody I know of has a PC with an SSD.

[Dwight Sturrock]

My Linux laptops all take 20 to 30 seconds to boot. The assumption is privacy, security and stability are better with these OS. In my experience that appears to be true.

[Accutron]

I'm certainly not advocating the latest operating system or hardware. Windows 8/8.1/10 are radioactive lepers and should be avoided accordingly. Windows 7 is six years old. SSDs have been an affordable mainstream technology for several years, and are the universally recommended option for boot drives. Most off-the-shelf PC manufacturers have offered SSD-based configurations for at least 2-3 years.

[walter b]

Nice comic and so true!

d:-/

[walter b]

Why radioactive? Is leper not enough?

d:-?

[Jim Horn]

With 250 GB drives down to the US$60 on sale, the massive speedup for a computer in general makes them really hard to resist. I'm figuring on adding one to our old desktop at home, while keeping the existing hard drive for large files where speed isn't important (videos, photos, music, etc.).

The almost immediate turn-on-to-desktop of my Surface Pro 3 is really gratifying. And the privacy settings are under serious control.

The biggest limitation of older PCs is their ISA disk interface which precludes easy upgrade to current SSDs. Yes, interfaces are available at very low price, but laptops don't have the room to squeeze them in. So my solid and reliable ten year old Dell laptop is running XUbuntu 12.04 and still chugging. I'd consider Chromium OS for it as it's usually used where there's internet access, but the Banias family CPU can't run more recent operating systems due to the lack of more recent CPU instructions.

By the way, Linux has been loaded on most Chromebook models by many users so there's always that way to use all the hardware...

Gad, how far we've come from saving every possible step of 49 bytes of program memory!

[Jim Horn]

(12-04-2015 11:57 PM)walter b Wrote:  Why radioactive? Is leper not enough?

d:-?

Is that what's meant by a "healthy glow"?

[Thomas Radtke]

I cannot allow a single company controlling what software I use, even if it were based in the EU.

[walter b]

That's the old European understanding of liberty. God, are we old-fashioned!

d:-)