Migrating almost exclusively to Chromebook

[BettinBilly]

About 12 years ago I started to migrate to a Chromebook. Over the years, I've seen the platform continue to grow and today, there is little I can't do on a Chromebook that I can do on a Windows PC.

It's at the point where I have all but dropped everything but the Chromebook for all Web (thin client) use. Banking, shopping, surfing, news, movies, music, forums and for online betting and Handicapping. Documents like Word and Excel are a snap on Chromebook. Even printers now are mostly plug and play with a Chromebook. It's just too easy and economical.

My iPad has become an expensive eReader or a music streamer via Airplay. My Windows 10 Laptop is for use on a special project for a part time gig that requires Windows, and if was not for that, I would not have a Windows machine. Chromebook starts up in seconds, and updates take less than a minute regardless of the size. And a decent Chromebook is so much less expensive than a comparable Windows machine, it's almost laughable.

Anyone else do Chromebook exclusively, or am I alone here?

[geroge.burns99]

Originally Posted by BettinBilly

About 12 years ago I started to migrate to a Chromebook. Over the years, I've seen the platform continue to grow and today, there is little I can't do on a Chromebook that I can do on a Windows PC.

It's at the point where I have all but dropped everything but the Chromebook for all Web (thin client) use. Banking, shopping, surfing, news, movies, music, forums and for online betting and Handicapping. Documents like Word and Excel are a snap on Chromebook. Even printers now are mostly plug and play with a Chromebook. It's just too easy and economical.

My iPad has become an expensive eReader or a music streamer via Airplay. My Windows 10 Laptop is for use on a special project for a part time gig that requires Windows, and if was not for that, I would not have a Windows machine. Chromebook starts up in seconds, and updates take less than a minute regardless of the size. And a decent Chromebook is so much less expensive than a comparable Windows machine, it's almost laughable.

Anyone else do Chromebook exclusively, or am I alone here?

I have extensive Excel sheets that take 2 mins to open on a up to date PC...

I can imagine about 30 mins on a Chromebook

I'll pass

[letswastemoney]

For a video gamer like me who streams games online, Chromebook would be terrible. I need a laptop that runs OBS, which can be resource intensive.

Also, sometimes I make handicapping videos and need good video editing software on my laptop. I don't think I can just do that from the cloud somewhere.

I use a MacBook Air for most things, but I also have a Dell Latitude with Windows 10 specifically just for video games.

[BettinBilly]

Originally Posted by geroge.burns99

I have extensive Excel sheets that take 2 mins to open on a up to date PC...

I can imagine about 30 mins on a Chromebook

I'll pass

Pass? I'm not trying to convert anyone. I was just curious if anyone did Chromebook exclusively as I do. I own no Google, Apple or Microsoft stock, so it does not matter to me what platform users choose. although in hindsight, I wish I had bought in at the Google IPO like I did with Amazon. And I wish I'd bought more Amazon. Hindsight, right?

I run Excel all the time on Chromebook. Opens immediately. In nanoseconds. I don't know about EXTENSIVE spreadsheets. How extensive? Like 4 gig? Most Chromebooks have 8 gig of RAM or higher these days of internal memory. You can get higher if you need it, with 64 gig of storage with much more available if you need it, including the available SD card port for even more memory when required.

The only drawback I can see is that most Chromebooks have a support timeline of about 4 years. After that, Google drops updates. But 4 years is a very long time for most computer users that understand the microprocessor universe moves forward all the time. What was state-of-the-art 4 years ago is ancient history now. Plus I paid $249 for my last Chromebook. And it was very robust. That's $62 a year. More than reasonable.

[BettinBilly]

Originally Posted by letswastemoney

For a video gamer like me who streams games online, Chromebook would be terrible. I need a laptop that runs OBS, which can be resource intensive.

Also, sometimes I make handicapping videos and need good video editing software on my laptop. I don't think I can just do that from the cloud somewhere.

I use a MacBook Air for most things, but I also have a Dell Latitude with Windows 10 specifically just for video games.

I get that. Although you can make decent videos on a Chromebook, and get a few apps to manage and edit them, I'm sure Windows, and certainly Mac have that specialty cornered.

I personally have never done gaming. I was just never into that. But if you need a Windows or Mac machine for that, so be it.

I used to have to convert Windows .7z zipped files on a Windows machine, but they have gained the ability to be unzipped via the web, so that passed as well.

[jay68802]

Like the Chromebook for one reason. Sheets. Can get info from PP's and copy into sheets and it works.

[NorCalGreg]

Heya Billy:

Just curious how you're running Windows apps on Chromebook? Did you install Crossover or WINE, etc? Everything I do is run off exe files, and so couldn't use CB without making some modifications. Ended up just returning it to Amazon for a Windows laptop.

Thanks

-NCG

[jay68802]

You can set up a Linux environment to run the programs.

[BettinBilly]

Originally Posted by NorCalGreg

Heya Billy:

Just curious how you're running Windows apps on Chromebook? Did you install Crossover or WINE, etc? Everything I do is run off exe files, and so couldn't use CB without making some modifications. Ended up just returning it to Amazon for a Windows laptop.

Thanks

-NCG

Greg,

I probably wasn't clear i my typing. Sorry about that. I run ANDROID apps on the Chromebook. Not Windows. Like iOS, there is an droid app for just about anything these days, and since the Chromebook update of about 2018, most Droid apps work on the Chromebook now.

I have never run any Windows apps that I know of even on a Windows machine. I do have a fairly decent laptop running Windows 10, but I use that for a part time weekend gig that I do about 5 or 6 times a year that requires Windows to run Microsoft based programs.

[BettinBilly]

Originally Posted by jay68802

You can set up a Linux environment to run the programs.

I tried running both Linux Redhat and Penguin many years ago on a 486 computer I decomissioned from Windows. Never got the Kernels to load up correctly and run. Not sure what I was doing wrong. I would have liked to play with Linux back then. I may try playing with Linux again this year.

[jay68802]

Mine has a program to set up Linux installed.

[Dave Schwartz]

Originally Posted by letswastemoney

For a video gamer like me who streams games online, Chromebook would be terrible. I need a laptop that runs OBS, which can be resource intensive.

Also, sometimes I make handicapping videos and need good video editing software on my laptop. I don't think I can just do that from the cloud somewhere.

I use a MacBook Air for most things, but I also have a Dell Latitude with Windows 10 specifically just for video games.

Where would someone find some of these videos?

[BettinBilly]

Originally Posted by jay68802

Mine has a program to set up Linux installed.

OK, now THIS took me by surprise. And I'm surprised I had not known about this. I just got a new "travel" 12 inch Chromebook today, so it's a very current build. It has Linux Beta PRE-INSTALLED and ready to go. Amazing. I know that Chromebooks run on Linux, but it's back-ended and non-user-accessible. Well, not you CAN access it.

A ZD article touting this change;

https://www.zdnet.com/article/all-ch...going-forward/

[tupper]

Originally Posted by geroge.burns99

I have extensive Excel sheets that take 2 mins to open on a up to date PC... I can imagine about 30 mins on a Chromebook

You've got a wild imagination.

It would probably take about the same time to load the file, but the spreadsheet sounds a bit unwieldy -- it might be good to consider converting it into a database.

Originally Posted by letswastemoney

Also, sometimes I make handicapping videos and need good video editing software on my laptop.

I have a chromebook that runs Linux and I have no problem editing videos on it. I even do compositing on it.

Furthermore, you can run Linux apps within Chrome OS (which is based on Linux).

Originally Posted by BettinBilly

The only drawback I can see is that most Chromebooks have a support timeline of about 4 years. After that, Google drops updates.

Just install straight Linux on the Chromebook, and it will be supported indefinitely. I have been running my Chromebook with Linux since 2014, and it is very snappy and powerful -- even with a current updated distro.

Originally Posted by BettinBilly

Although you can make decent videos on a Chromebook, and get a few apps to manage and edit them, I'm sure Windows, and certainly Mac have that specialty cornered.

Not really. As to which OS on which an app runs, it's entirely up to the developers of the video editing app. If the app is open source, you might be able to compile it for other OS's/architectures.

You can't can't run Adobe Premeire nor Sony Vegas on Linux, nor can you run Final Cut on Linux (nor will it run on Windows).

However, Resolve runs quite well on Linux and a lot of filmmaking pros prefer Resolve over the other programs mentioned. In addition, there are numerous other excellent editing programs for Linux, such as the venerable Lightworks, Blender and Kdenlive.

Originally Posted by BettinBilly

OK, now THIS took me by surprise. And I'm surprised I had not known about this. I just got a new "travel" 12 inch Chromebook today, so it's a very current build. It has Linux Beta PRE-INSTALLED and ready to go. Amazing. I know that Chromebooks run on Linux, but it's back-ended and non-user-accessible. Well, not you CAN access it.

A ZD article touting this change;https://www.zdnet.com/article/all-ch...going-forward/

Not sure on the accuracy of that ZDnet article.

Regardless, you should be able to run Linux apps on your Chrome OS, or, like me, you could just install a Linux distro (I am running MX Linux).

Another option is to merely boot a Linux live OS that loads into RAM.

[tupper]

Chris Titus just posted a video about his 30-day trial of ChromeOS, which he evidently loaded onto a laptop:

YouTube (Short URL)

He also has a related page on his website that gives instructions on how to easily setup the Linux environment install apps from the repository.