I give up. I'm leaving.

[UnseenParticipant]

Yes, I’m leaving Windows which gets more bloated with each passing upgrade and version. And, I’m certainly not moving over to the expensive Apple world, where everything is tightly controlled and planned obsolescence is their business model.

You see, my Windows laptop died a month out of warranty, not that exercising the warranty would have been a viable solution. I needed a new machine yesterday, if possible.

It was then that I made the decision to kiss Windows good-bye.

You may be thinking, “Well, that leaves LINUX, which is for nerds, and Chromebooks, which are cheap, highly-limited, underperforming junk.”

Not so fast, Chromebooks have evolved into machines well-suited to people whose needs are mundane and who don’t require extreme hardware and huge memories. Because they are common school computers, they have an established user base and Google has developed fully functional apps for word processing, spreadsheets, graphics, photo editing, and so on, which are actually useful. Maybe not for the professional web designer, video producer, accountant, or photographer, but plenty useful for the average person.

If you’re seriously into gaming, Chromebooks~even powerful variants designed for gaming~will generally be more expensive than an equivalent high-end Windows gaming machine. But basic Chromebook Plus machines run many popular games quite satisfactorily.

And ChromeOS, in case you didn’t know, is lean and mean because (drum roll) it’s based on LINUX, which opens up an entire world of first-class apps as well as the possibility of fairly seamless emulation.

Chromebooks do one thing in particular that eliminates a major Windows annoyance: updates are done in the background, no waiting for 10-30 minutes for an update to install. Also, updates are guaranteed for 10 years from the year of manufacture.

Another advantage, since you operate inside your Google account and largely work in the cloud, when you change machines, buy a new one or work as a guest on someone else’s Chromebook, once you log into your account, your whole working environment, including apps and data, are right there instantly. So, when I unboxed and plugged in my new machine, setup was over in about 10 minutes and I was in the environment I’d been using on my smaller Chromebook right down to my desktop wallpaper.

Even more important, when my Windows machine died, so did a lot of data and settings. Not so with Chromebooks, with almost everything up in the cloud, it’s never lost.

Two years ago, Google introduced a new standard which amounted to an upgrade. Chromebook Plus devices must meet or exceed certain hardware requirements. This includes a processor (Intel Core i3 12th Gen or above, or AMD Ryzen 3 7000 series or above), 8GB+ of RAM, 128GB+ of storage, a 1080p+ video display and a webcam with temporal noise reduction, and a Full HD 1080p+ IPS display or better.

And this is the one I just bought. In order to keep the cost down, I gave up some of the features found in more expensive models: backlit keyboard, touchscreen, and convertibility (no 360-degree swiveling display allowing it to sit like a tent or convert into a tablet).

[PopeBeanieModerator]

Looks like a good choice. I have an old chromebook that’s too slow for big software, but it’s still useful for small stuff. I might get another and run both Chrome OS and Linux (Crostini), so I’d get it with 12gb or 16gb ram.

I don’t know if I’ll ever get a Win 11 pc, but may keep a Win 10 pc or two going, secured behind a good firewall. I got a Macbook (with e.g. Garage Band) so I could learn from it, as most of my friends are on Macs and need help sometimes. It’s old too, but works well enough.

One of them gave me an old iPhone, which works fine on wifi, and is useful. He’s hard of hearing, so I set him up with a good speaker and a tablet that transcribes voice to the screen.

I have a green screen, enough quality audio equipment, and not too old mobile phones to make decent youtube videos from different angles. I’ve been running a weekly AV meeting with four other veterans in San Francisco area for almost five years now, also testing out different AV hardware. It’s all adequate and relatively inexpensive except for the $200 two-channel Motu M2 mic interface, and a two channel 31-band graphic equalizer.

I also have a couple of midi keyboards and keypad, an electric guitar and ukulele, and few other percussion/music instruments I haven’t gotten into, yet. I just want to get good enough on them to record really short and simple bumper music in between youtube segments, on a multitrack recorder. I’m sure all I’ll need for audio editing is Garage Band on the Macbook or Audacity on Windows. Then there’s several pedals, and a multi-output power supply. Blah blah… haven’t started really working on it yet, but “coming soon”.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

About 7 years ago I replaced a MAC with a Windows pc for a client. The Windows pc died last month. While waiting for the new pc to be setup, I discovered the MAC was still in storage in a back room.  I powered it on and it worked first time.  Good enough to log into email online and print. I checked the s/n and it is almost 17 years old. The screen is perfectly good for viewing youtube videos.

My brother uses a “basic” Chromebook and replaces it every 4 years. Just login to get all your Google Docs and continue as normal….no glitches, no swearing, no bloatware……

[UnseenParticipant]

Chromebooks aren’t for everyone. I recognize that. This video lays out the scenarios in which a Chromebook won’t work for you, though you may still want a Chromebook as a second machine.

On the other hand…

• This reply was modified 4 months, 1 week ago by  Unseen.

[UnseenParticipant]

I’m grieving over some of the stuff I no longer have access to because they were on the now-dead PC. I’m fairly sure I can get a technician to go into the machine and retrieve it for me, but that will cost me, obviously.  Had it been a Chromebook, as soon as I logged into another Chromebook, it’d be like nothing happened.

I’m having trouble finding it even using Youtube’s History function, but I watched a video yesterday where a guy unboxed equivalent machines. The same hardware exactly, one running Windows 11 and the other Chrome OS and he got his Chromebook up and running in about seven minutes whereas the Windows machine took about a half hour, much of it as he declined one trial software package after another. His  Chromebook (because it was not his first) already knew how to login to his wifi network.

When I switch on my Chromebooks, I’ve got the password screen up in about 10 seconds and I’m in my desktop in well under 30. How refreshing!

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

@unseen – You should be able to recover everything from your laptop. DM me the make (HP, Lenovo, Dell) and the s/n. If it has an SSD or an M2, all you need is a cable and a screwdriver…..and you can connect it to the Chromebook. Most of the time the hard disk is fully recoverable. Even if it is dead, I can still recover data from it.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

I build several Windows laptops and PC’s each month. I use USB boot disks with all the latest updates and software on them and all the bloatware from Windows removed. Average time to get ready for clients is 12 minutes each and I do 5 at a time.  So usually takes about 30 minutes to unbox, build and re-box, all 5, ready to use.

[PopeBeanieModerator]

Unseen wrote:

This video lays out the scenarios in which a Chromebook won’t work for you, though you may still want a Chromebook as a second machine.

Did you mean to start that vid halfway in? If not, I can fix it. Either way I’ll delete this post of mine, and your response to it if that’s ok.

[UnseenParticipant]

PopeBeanie wrote:

Unseen wrote:

This video lays out the scenarios in which a Chromebook won’t work for you, though you may still want a Chromebook as a second machine.

Did you mean to start that vid halfway in? If not, I can fix it. Either way I’ll delete this post of mine, and your response to it if that’s ok.

[UnseenParticipant]

I finally found the video showing how much smoother it is to set up a Chromebook vs a Windows machine.

[Author]

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