Chromebooks

[BigGoofyGuy]

I am using a Samsung Chromebook. I have been using it for over a year. It works quite well. I use it for blogging, Facebook and other online activities. I have a Windows computer for printing stuff but I don't much that much.

[working on it]

My Toshiba PC just bit the dust, again. Second time for it, but I like the 6GB ram. My wife gave it to me, years ago, after buying two others (I'm not allowed to make any large purchases, now that I'm retired). If the repair bill exceeds $250, I'm faced with the choice of a PC with 6GB (my Toshiba, repaired, on its' third life), a new 4GB PC (that's all $250 will buy), or a Chromebook (with 4GB ram, and cloud memory, and only 16 or 32 GB storage onboard). I like Windows only for two features (MS Paint, and Snip), which I use everyday, and haven't found an Android substitute for my tablet, yet. And, the ease of drag and drop, copy and paste, and the windows filing system are things I probably can't live without. Does the Chromebook OS offer such ease of use? I know I can't do those procedures on my Android tablet, so I assume the same is true for Chrome OS. Or, if it does, then the added Android apps coming (soon?), Would make Chromebooks a viable choice for me, an old dog who can't/doesn't want to learn new tricks. I don't need Microsoft Office, or Cortana, or the constant anti-virus fighting I have to update with Windows 10, so if Chromebooks offer a good alternative for $250-300, then maybe I could use one. I'm sure that the old Toshiba was great when new, but on its' third life, I won't count on its' longevity. And, since I mostly surf the web, edit photos, and make drawings/sketches with Paint, do I really need 6GB ram. What would you guys do, in my place...old PC, new PC, or try a Chromebook?

I guess it'll have to wait...no new PC or Chromebook for me, yet. The Toshiba was sent off to Louisville, Ky for repair; they e-mailed me to check back with them, before they started repairs. I was quoted $547 for repairs (more than was paid for it, new), and it had already had $200 in repairs a coupla years back, so I said no. I was ready for a new PC, and took the wife to the store to do so, after they informed me that I could pick up the returned Toshiba. When they brought it out to me, I turned it on (the battery was still charged), and now the screen miraculously worked, and it booted up in one minute, not 15 like usual. The Tech on hand, and I were both amazed, since the ticket showed no repairs had been done. So, my wife, who was standing there, gave me that "look", and said it wasn't much of a problem, after all. No new PC for me. I'm using it now, with the screen working fine, but the keyboard/data entry freezes up every 15 minutes, and the bluetooth mouse dongle has to be moved to another USB port every 20 minutes, and the network adapter has to be reset every 25 minutes (I haven't tried the erratic disc drive yet, but I can live without it)...the same problems I sent in to be fixed are still present (except for the screen-I guess UPS dropped it in shipment, and fixed it-). This unexpected turn of events gives me more time to consider PC vs Chromebooks, and perhaps for Google to get the Playstore onto newer Chromebooks, before I finally just give up on this marginally-working PC, that just won't die. I have to prove to the "boss" that I really need a new one, since I don't work anymore. Isn't that considered Senior Abuse? I'll try it her way for awhile longer, then ....

[Camp4Life]

Chromebooks are nice for the price if all you want to do is a bit of surfing and e-mailing. For home solutions, I like the mini-pc's like the Zotac ZBoxes or the Intel NUC's. My ZBox is hooked up to my living room PC and only uses 40w when running at full CPU. I have a custom Linux OS based on Ubuntu that I put together that only uses 160MB of RAM. I use it mainly for running KODI, but it also has Chrome and Libre Office installed in case I need it. With the SSD drive I put in it, it boots up in around 5 seconds. I have another one in my office mounted to the back of a monitor which saves lots of space. Perfect for surfing, e-mail, and basic document work. Anything more than that and I use my MSI Laptop (i7-6700HQ, 16GB Ram, 250 GB M.2 Sata + 480GB SSD, GeForce 970M) for games, programming and database work. It's setup to dual-boot Windows 10 and Ubuntu Gnome 17.04. I also have a Sony VAIO netbook running Lubuntu as a home file/backup server.

[sakrebleu1]

Agree with some of the users who posted before me. Chromebooks are great for surfing the internet, listening to music, but that's about it. I have switched to Linux Mint on my laptop and I think I'm going to buy another one in a few months, which I will use for gaming, so I'll have to install Windows 10 on it.

[daveesl77]

I have never used a Chromebook, so I don't have any first hand experience on that platform. Even though retired, I still do a lot of video editing, as I used to do travel videos and sell a fair amount of stock footage. I've been using Linux for a couple of decades, but didn't really get into it heavy until Vista came along and I decided to leave M$ for good. I've been pretty much exclusive to the Ubuntu/Debian world since about 2008.

I have 3 laptops, all old Toshibas. One very old HP netbook that I run my video security system. The Toshiba systems run Linux Lite, as it is kind of a balance between lightweight and ease of use. Not the absolute easiest to use, but not difficult either. The netbook runs debian with Zoneminder and can handle 6 low res security cams.

I have 4 desktops. Two are used for video rendering. Main computer runs Mate 16.04. It is a liquid cooled, 8 core 8350 AMD, OC'd to 4.5 ghz. It has 32 GB memory and 12 TB of hard drives. Backup render computer is a liquid cooled, 6 core AMD, OC'd to 4 ghz with Mate. 16GB Memory, 2 TB of storage. Works as a render farm with the big one, when needed. Third is a tri-core AMD, running Mint Mate. I prefer Ubuntu Mate over the latest version of Mint, but haven't bothered to change the OS. Last desktop is a piece of crap HP using the almost useless AMD E-300. However, I found a Debian distro that runs pretty well on it, called Point Linux.

For video work, I use daVinci Resolve, Fusion, Blender and Lightworks. For photography I use Darktable and Gimp.

For those looking to leave the dark side of M$, there are multiple Linux distributions that make the transition fairly painless. This includes Zorin. By adding a docker to any desktop, such as Cairo-Dock, you can make most linux accesses very easy.

I remove Chrome Browser from all desktops. It is insecure and almost impossible to keep from storing your info. Chromium (open source version of Chrome) is fairly easily modified to lock it down. I use Firefox primarily due to how I can make it secure. I don't like the idea of everything being stored in the cloud. If I don't have internet access, then I'm screwed.

Just MPO

dave