Author Topic: Chromebook pros and cons (Read 1959 times)

Stella · « **on:** February 05, 2014, 02:41:09 PM »

My laptop went to its eternal reward in January, so I went out one night after work to buy a new one. Long story short, the store I wound up at was out of stock of the model I wanted, and I really needed one that night, so I let the tech geek sell me an Acer Chromebook.

It does everything that Google Chrome can do, but no more.

He wasn't fully honest about its limitations, so I'll give a review for anyone who might be interested.

Pros:

It's cheap. Mine was a return, only cost $199.
It's simple and fast. I had it up and running within 20 minutes.
It's light and portable, and good for people who prefer a keyboard to a touch pad.
It doesn't run Word (also one of the Cons), so it doesn't need any anti-virus software.

Cons:

You can't print directly from it. But you can associate it with other printers in the "cloud" (don't ask me to explain that. I think it has something to do with geocentrism.) and send print jobs from the Chromebook to another printer.

No CD/DVD drive.

No Microsoft Word. You can sort of copy and paste, but it's very laborious, opening two screens side by side. I've also been unable to post any links or pictures here at Cath Info.

For docuмents, you use Google Docs, which I find more difficult than Word.

My boss is considering having us do some work from home, which would necessitate having Word, so I wound up ordering a laptop today, which I don't regret.

Bottom line, it's a fun, fast device for just "getting online."

Matto · « **Reply #1 on:** February 05, 2014, 02:47:07 PM »

My parents bought me an HP chromebook for Christmas to replace the old computer I broke. It is good for the internet and since all I use the computer for is the internet I don't mind. There are a lot of apps you can get from google's website and most of them are free. But it does not run regular windows or Mac programs.

I like it but if I needed to use the computer for more than internet browsing I would need to get another computer.

soulguard · « **Reply #2 on:** February 06, 2014, 06:33:46 AM »

Quote from: Stella

It doesn't run Word (also one of the Cons), so it doesn't need any anti-virus software.

Why do you think it is virus proof just because it dont run word?
Viruses can be .exe files and others, it still runs them. Even a mac gets viruses.

Pelly · « **Reply #3 on:** February 08, 2014, 04:26:31 AM »

Also, it's made by Google, a company complicit in Gov't snooping. Chrome OS does certainly have the same data solicitation from other Google services, as it operates as a thin client. Plus, it utilizes mostly service substitutes, that means the system depends largely on cloud computing, which is a great trap.
If you want to use Word and the like, I think you can say goodbye to forced Docs integration as the system is built on top of the Linux kernel and uses Portage, the packaging system of Gentoo Linux. I think you can install LibreOffice or Calligra on Chrome OS, but if you really want to use M$ products, then you can use a compatibility layer. I recommend the latest Wine, especially the development versions. But be careful! I heard that Portage is source-based, so you need to download a lot of compilers, dependencies and so on. Or you can go and install a distro-agnostic package manager and install the offical RPMs or whatever packages they offer.
Also, check out the computer resources thread.
Also, does it have USB drives?