Chromebooks

February 17, 2017

Back in 2010 Google announced their concept of a laptop based on a browser operating system. With cloud computing starting to become a reality at the time I thought that a simple browser based laptop made a lot of sense and tried very hard to be a beta user/tester for the Chromebook. I was convinced that my essay for being in the beta program was unique and was eagerly awaiting acceptance into the program and delivery of a test unit. For some reason Google did not agree with me and acceptance and a test unit never arrived so I had to wait and continue to read about how the Chromebook concept was progressing. Being a big user Google’s cloud (Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, etc…) getting a Chromebook was making a lot of sense.

At the end of 2013 Amazon was selling the Acer C720 for $169.

At this price point I decided it was time to get a Chromebook and purchased one. I have never been sorry about getting one; the fast boot up, small size, and lightness of the unit made it a winner. Another huge benefit was how well it integrated with my Google account. The only downside for me was the 2GB ram size which would cause the unit to run slowly if you had too many Chrome browser tabs open. You should really reboot a Chromebook every couple of days, but I am too lazy for that.

At the end of 2016 I was in Best Buy looking for a laptop for Julie and ran across a close out on the Acer Chromebook 15 in white, model: CB5-571-C4G4. It was love at first sight, the 15.6 inch display was stunning and the machine was very fast and had 4GB of ram. At 4.8 pounds it is about twice the weight of my C720 and of course it is much bulkier than the 11 inch C720. Despite that I snatched up the last unit our Best Buy store had and have really loved this machine.

https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/model/NX.MUNAA.016

http://amzn.to/2kGSARi

First let me list the reasons why I like Chromebooks and do the vast amount of my work (well as much work as a retired guy does) everyday on one.

I hate to wait and with a Chromebook you are never more than 7 seconds from a login and getting going.
Simplicity, updates are delivered in the background and you only have to reboot the machine (about 20 seconds) to be running the new update.
Integration with the Google infrastructure.
Browsing is in Chrome which is my browser of choice.
Price
Travelling with a Chromebook is nice, especially the small C720. I can get images off the SD cards from my cameras and upload them to the cloud and stay in touch via email/Facebook/etc. Also, I do not worry too much about losing the unit as the cost is low and my data is in the cloud.
You can run a dual monitor setup, with one monitor is the laptop screen, as there is a HDMI port.
The sound quality on the Chromebook 15 is pretty decent
8 hour battery life, in actual use.
Chrome apps and Chrome extensions. Too bad Google is getting rid of Chrome apps. We will see how well running Android apps on a Chromebook works out.
With the Chrome app editor Caret and Chrome’s developer tools I can do all of my website development work on a Chromebook while traveling.
They just plain work without having to think about it
SD/USB/Bluetooth interfaces
It has a keyboard, as a touch typer I really like having a keyboard. (as opposed to an iPad or cell phone)

As with anything there are tradeoffs and here are some things I miss.

Turbo Tax, this is the one thing I will not use online and the app is Windows based
A 2GB ram unit can run slowly if you have too many browser tabs running
16GB of SSD storage is a bit minimal, but you can bring an external drive or thumbdrive to hook up to the USB ports. I have had good luck with the storage devices I have used so far.
Github does not integrate well with a Chromebook, no Chrome app or extension, this is the only reason I do revert back to Linux for website development at home.
Video editing is one thing that is not really available, there are some nice photo editing chrome apps.
Printing really sucks. Yes Chrome can set up printers so I can print through my Linux box or HP’s Connected service. My Android phone can print directly to my HP laser printer and it would be nice to have printer driver support on a Chromebook.
No touch screen. I find myself at times touching the screen.

Here are the app/extensions/browser based software I use on my Chromebook on a regular basis.

Google docs, slides, sheets, calendar, hangouts, maps, drive
Gmail
Facebook of course
Chrome developer tools for Javascript/HTML development
Caret editor for Javascript/HTML development (Chrome app)
Amazon Drive for photo/video/document storage (I finally paid $59 a year for unlimited storage)
Awesome Screenshot
VLC player (Chrome app)
Polarr photo editor (Chrome app, also can be browser based)
Pixlr Touch Up photo editor (Chrome app)
Kindle reader (Browser based, cannot read magazines)
VNC viewer to access my Linux box from upstairs
Ride with GPS for planning bike rides

Overall, if you can live with working in Google docs and other browser tools (Office 365?) a Chromebook would be a very good choice. This is especially true for people that are not tech savvy and/or simply want a machine that works without spending the money on an Apple laptop.

I think that Chromebooks will continue to increase in popularity for a couple of reasons. People want their documents/music/photos/etc cloud based and to have ability to access and modify that information on any device. Chromebooks are becoming very popular in schools because of their cost and reliability, so our younger generation will become accustom to working on browser based devices.

Happy computing!

keywords: Chromebook, Acer, Google

description: My experiences over three years with Acer Chromebooks