Should You Buy A Chromebook?

Every time a person comes to the point they consider buying a new laptop, there are a number of things they should consider. Sadly, most people don't put as much thought into their purchase as they think they do. Oh, they read some reviews, they bargain hunt, and they talk to their friends, but in the end, most people buy a new laptop based on cost and performance.

Of course Mac users are a bit different. They don't consider anything but a Mac so they actually have far less to take into account.

So why do I say people don't put as much thought into buying a new laptop as they think they do? Because most people don't think that much about the requirements they have for a new laptop vs the choices available.

Arguably they don't have to think too hard about it. No manufacturer is going to sell a laptop these days without the basics of built-in WiFi, webcam, and a web browser to get on the web. Those basics can be assumed to exist in all but the most esoteric alternatives.

So what are the hot buttons for most people? Screen clarity/visibility, battery life, performance, feel of the keyboard, and brand loyalty - many people will buy Mac/Dell/HP/Asus/Acer simply because they bought them before - seem to be some of the most common attributes people consider. And all these are really good ones and typically are hardware and brand related.

So how many people think about their software requirements? Probably quite a few, but how they think of them may be a bit lazy and not really defining the need. For example, people tend to think "I need Microsoft Word/PowerPoint/Office" when what they really mean is "I need word processing/presentation/office suite application(s)". That really is far different than needing a specific product. It is a mindset that causes people to miss out on really good options.

Consider two laptops that are fairly equivalent with Brand A costing $300 and Brand B costing $350 but comes with basic Microsoft Office. Some would consider the $50 for the software to be worth it. I do not consider it worth it when there are less costly (i.e. free) alternatives that are as good or better and save me money (go check out LibreOffice or Google Docs before thinking you have to have MS Office).

Also, unless you're buying a Mac, people automatically assume they must buy a laptop running Windows, and that leads to a decision between Windows 7 (if you can get it) or Windows 8.

You know what they say about when you assume.

There are two other options besides Windows and MacOS that most people don't even consider: Chromebook and Linux. 

There are a number of companies that sell Linux laptops, including brand names like Dell. A Linux laptop is typically a little less costly as equivalent hardware running Windows, but not much. They also are a lot less costly than equivalent performance hardware from Apple.

But for most people a Linux laptop is just as much overkill as the Windows laptop is for their computing requirements. Linux laptops are performance heavyweights usually and you don't find all that many low-end laptops configured running Linux for sale.

So what do normal people really do with their laptops?

Statistics collected from various online and research organizations show that average people spend most of the personal computing time doing just a few things: social networking (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.), web browsing (a lot of that is men viewing port sadly enough), email, online shopping, watching cats/goats/babies in videos, and occasionally writing a document.

So for these people, any and all Windows, Linux, and Mac laptops are overkill. They simply don't need all the features (also called bloat) that come with Windows laptops and the huge wads of crappy "free" software manufacturers install on them, or the Macs with all the fancy multimedia creation/edit/whatever capabilities. And for most people, even Linux could be overkill, though with its ability to be customized up and down, left and right, inside and out, it doesn't have to be.

And that brings us to the subject of this (unfortunately) long post: the Chromebook option.

But should you buy a Chromebook? That all depends on what you intend to do with it. A Chromebook is not a laptop replacement for some people, but can be for a lot of people. If you are of the normal kind of folk and you are only looking for web browsing, email, online videos, social networks, etc., then a Chromebook may definitely be for you,

Allow me to introduce you to some of the premium advantages of a Chromebook over anything else (except maybe the Linux laptops).

Number 1, at least for me, is a 7-second boot time. That's right. From complete power off, battery out, cold as the grave, not-on state, to login prompt is 7 seconds. Every time. And it doesn't get slower with age.

Number 2, security. Seriously, people need to think about security. Do you really want the government running spyware in your operating system? I'm talking to you Microsoft and your Windows OS fully loaded with their secret agents. And do you really want to slow down your machine by loading additional bloat in the form of anti-virus/anti-spyware/anti-malware software that is REQUIRED on Microsoft Windows computers just to keep them from being commandeered by the bad guys?

Number 3, ease of use. Really, if you know how to open your laptop, type in your password, and use a web browser, you are 90% there. You don't really have to do anything else to it. It's just there, working and running from the moment you turn it on.

Number 4, low cost. Did you know that Microsoft Windows requires a minimum of 16 GB of disk storage just for the operating system? Did you know that most Windows laptops have about 20 GB of the hard disk full once you have everything loaded and up and running? This means you need bigger hard drives, more power, and faster CPU to handle the additional loading. Chromebooks get by with less hardware and that means less cost.

Number 4, solid state baby. When you look at a Chromebook and it says it has a 16 GB disk, your first reaction might be "that's tiny". By Windows laptop standards it is. You couldn't even use the machine for anything other than booting it up and looking at it if it were running Windows. But that 16 GB is 16 GB of solid state disk that is completely bare-butt empty until you put something on it. And with the Chromebook tied to the cloud as it is, most of your files and data are not stored locally anyway, they are on the net and the device keeps some of it synced for offline access - and you can control that.

Number 5, portability. Faster, prettier, and way more useful than a netbook of comparable size, Chromebooks are lightweight alternatives that do more, do it faster, and do it with less frustration and headache than Windows netbooks and small laptops.

Number 6, applications. I bet you didn't expect this one as a Chromebook advantage did you? It actually is. Think about it. Everyone who has a mobile phone (Android or iPhone) is used to finding and downloading apps from an app store. If there's something you need, you go to the app store, search for it, find alternatives, and then click to install. Bam! Done. In similar fashion, that's how a Chromebook is. Chrome has apps and extensions and all of these are in the Chrome store, just a few clicks away from being yours. So instead of googling for some obscure application names, clicking through half a dozen download selection screens, and then installing - all the while hoping it doesn't break something already installed on your machine - it's simple and easy and safe.

So there you have it. Should you buy a Chromebook? That all depends on you. I like mine. I wrote this post on my Acer Chromebook while sitting at Chick-fil-A. I have an older HP workhorse laptop running Linux Mint that is my heavyweight. But the thought of carrying that 8 pound beast everywhere is not on my to-do list.

Personally, I find that I do everything on my Chromebook now. That includes writing my novel - yes, I am still writing on it after 3 years, but it's near finished now. The only thing I do on my big laptop now is programming, video editing, and gaming. For everything else, there's Chromebook.

Should you buy a Chromebook or should you spend 3 times the money on a bloated old Windows goat? Your choice.


Copyright 2013, Kevin Farley (a.k.a. sixdrift, a.k.a. neuronstatic)