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To Chromebook or Not To Chromebook that is the Question

ocnbrze

DON'T PANIC!!!!!!!!!
  • May 13, 2010
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    just curious if y'all own or played around with a chromebook. i'm thinking of getting one. i plan on switching windows 8 to a linux os on my toshiba laptop. and then use the chromebook as my net book.

    as of right now it is a thought. wondering what y'all think of the chrome os it runs. also which one do you like better. the samsung or the acer chromebook?
     
    I have the Samsung (the ARM based) and love it! :)
    Really depends on your needs. I rarely if ever do anything outside of Chrome on my Win7 laptop so it is great for me. Battery life is fantastic, it's plenty fast for basic browsing and Hulu streams just fine. STILL NO Netflix though. :mad:
    The screen is matte and honestly not all that great. What I love most about it is I can pick it up and turn it on from dead to AF in less than 20sec! So it certainly helps with standby battery life.
    Haven't used or seen the Acer but it just looks really ugly to be and much heavier since it has a fan, and I believe the screen is even worse. Hopefully you have a Best Buy or other store around you can play with one.
    Lastly, I don't think it's worth the cost for a Series 5. I certainly wouldn't pay that much for Chrome OS.
     
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    Good move losing Win8. Just remember that you'll need to go into UEFI and enable 'Legacy Boot' before you can install Linux on the laptop. ANy thoughts on which Linux yet? Have a look at a few, and try the various desktops (Gnome, KDE, Cinnamon/Mate, LXDE, XFCE, Enlightenment E17 and Unity. You'd be surprised how different they can be and how tweakable they all are. FWIW my current desktops are Enlightenment, XFCE a,d LXDE on various desktop boxes and LXDE on the HP Probook. I'd suggest one fo the lightweight desktops for the Laptop (LXDE/XFCE or Enlightenment, or even for a very lightweight choice, Openbox) These will gove noticeably longer battery life, and be more responsive than the 'Full Fat' options Gnome/KDE.
     
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    To me I don't see the point of something that is basically a brick if you have no Internet connection. A tablet at least has functionality w/o an internet connection.

    Can't type on tablet screens comfortably, at least myself.
    I even think it's a far better one that the keyboard on my Prime (and a whole lot lighter).
    Yeah, you can't do anything without a connection, but again, different strokes. I do very little without one, so I'm always dependent myself, and like OCN said, if no wifi is available, just tether. :)
     
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    All we do on our home PCs is use the web and Google services so for a lightweight PC that does all that, it's great for us. :)
    Sure you can get a super cheap Windows laptop, but then, it's Windows and likely underpowered to run it.

    Yup you can always get a super cheap Windows laptop......and then put Linux on it. :) That's what I did. Basically has the advantages of a Chromebook, but it doesn't have to be connected to the internet and depend on Google to be useful.

    One disadvantage Chomebooks for my uses, is that there doesn't seem to be any way of using Skype with them. As well as the fact it that it has to be on-line to be useful and most of Google's cloud services are not available here anyway.

    Don't bother bringing a Chromebook to China. :rolleyes:
     
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    ok guess what i bought?

    ...............a macbook pro
    just kidding:D:D:D

    i bought the samsung chromebook.......and so far i'm loving it. i need to play around with it some more though. but here is what i think so far:

    it is very fast and smooth. i love the fact that it synced with my chrome bookmarks that i used on my laptop. it is much faster then my transformer infinity. they keyboard is pretty good. i have not tested battery life on it yet. the wifi seems kind of slow to connect initially after bootup. the design is very nice and it is soooooo lite and very portable. screen is nice and it does not allow any glare like my toshiba laptop does.

    now it seems like this purchase was timed just right. my laptop is having charge port issues. the chord needs to be in the right angle or it will not charge. does anyone know how to fix that? is it easy to do? or is it worth it to take it in and get it fixed...like best buy or some place else?
     
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    Erm... of course it sync'd. Chrome browser does. If you're going to somehow make a "full" os out of a browser, you're not going to drop any features.

    My android, ubuntu and windows machines fully sync.

    I'll be honest, I know its your decision and prerogative, but for me that would be a complete waste of money. Fills a hole in my life that doesn't exist.

    But to each his own.
     
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    Erm... of course it sync'd. Chrome browser does. If you're going to somehow make a "full" os out of a browser, you're not going to drop any features.

    My android, ubuntu and windows machines fully sync.

    I'll be honest, I know its your decision and prerogative, but for me that would be a complete waste of money. Fills a hole in my life that doesn't exist.

    But to each his own.

    yep to each their own. i appreciate your opinion though. its a niche so far that is fulling what i wanted out of the chromebook. i just need to learn how to do what i want it to do and i will be fine.

    i pretty much new what i was getting myself into when i made my decision. and so far i'm not regretting it. i can see myself using this more then my laptop as i was already using my tablet more then my pc. and this is way faster then my tablet. and i like the keyboard better on the chromebook then my tablet.

    now i'm not abandoning my pc or tablet. i do need to fix my laptop though.
     
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    Nice ocn, sounds like you're enjoying it! That's what really matters. I was going to say that there is likely a way to install Chrome OS (or at least chromium OS) onto the other laptop for testing, but no need to test it now! :D

    I bought a netbook a few years back, and up until recently, I was using it all the time (the keyboard is going out on it now :( ).
     
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    Nice ocn, sounds like you're enjoying it! That's what really matters. I was going to say that there is likely a way to install Chrome OS (or at least chromium OS) onto the other laptop for testing, but no need to test it now! :D

    I bought a netbook a few years back, and up until recently, I was using it all the time (the keyboard is going out on it now :( ).

    yeah definitely loving it so far.....the only thing that sucks at the moment is that slingbox does not support chrome os yet. it works on android, but not on the chromebook. it would have been cool to have slingbox as i'm might be doing some traveling in a bit. oh well i still have my tablet for that.

    man the guys at the airport will think i'm a walking best buy with all the gadgets i might take with me......lol i wonder what the xray machine will see when my luggage goes thru. i hope they do not think that it is a bomb or anything:(:eek::D
     
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    man the guys at the airport will think i'm a walking best buy with all the gadgets i might take with me......lol i wonder what the xray machine will see when my luggage goes thru. i hope they do not think that it is a bomb or anything:(:eek::D

    You're in the US? TSA?

    TSA can't believe MacBook Air is a real laptop, causes owner to miss flight

    TSA security goon..."Your Chromebook is not a laptop as it doesn't have a hard drive and/or DVD player, so therefore it must be a bomb!"
     
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    yep to each their own. i appreciate your opinion though. its a niche so far that is fulling what i wanted out of the chromebook. i just need to learn how to do what i want it to do and i will be fine.

    Agreed, but once you know all about it, I'm sure it will be more versatile than it seems to me.

    i pretty much new what i was getting myself into when i made my decision.

    ...and this is the important thing. As long as you know what you want and what you're getting fulfills your needs, its all good.

    I feel the same about chrome books as I do tablets. I just cannot justify the cost (for me). I have my s3 when I'm on the bus and my laptop on my sofa at home. I dont have a gap where I could need a tablet, chromebook or even a desktop.

    In fact, a bigger laptop would be nice!
     
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    ocnbrze, which brand did you buy, the Samsung or Acer? Doesn't the Acer model come with a hard drive? I'm just curious!

    Looks like it's the Samsung as per his post.
    Believe both only have ~16Bg of on board storage with a full SD card slot for expansion.
    Ocn, did you still get the free 2 years of 100Gb of Drive storage? I'm wondering if that was only offered for a certain amount of time or if it's permanent for all Chromebook purchases.

    To Mike, I remember bringing my Nook Color through security and they kept telling me it was a laptop and I had to take it out of my bag to be checked separately. I kept saying, no it's a tablet. They looked at me like I was from Mars. :rolleyes:
     
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    ocnbrze, which brand did you buy, the Samsung or Acer? Doesn't the Acer model come with a hard drive? I'm just curious!

    Looks like it's the Samsung as per his post.
    Believe both only have ~16Bg of on board storage with a full SD card slot for expansion.
    Ocn, did you still get the free 2 years of 100Gb of Drive storage? I'm wondering if that was only offered for a certain amount of time or if it's permanent for all Chromebook purchases.

    actually the acer does have a 320g standard hard drive not a ssd. it is also $50 cheaper. i went with the samsung for one, best buy had it in stock. two, i like the ssd better.......boots up faster, last longer, and makes it thinner and lighter as well. three, i plan on using it more as a netbook so storage is not that important. four, i have a few 1 tb portable drives that i can use if need be. plus like dreadnasty here mentioned, i can use google drive(i did get the free extra storage) for extra storage as well.
     
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    yeah the best part is that it is super quiet because it does not have a fan like my laptop does which is getting louder by the day. it does run very cool temp wise as well.

    the only thing so far is netflix is not support on this chromebook.......weird. however, the acer chromebook supposedly works with netflix......weird. oh well not really that important for me. i still have my tablet for that i guess.
     
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