Watched the episode where Padre and Brian compared a Chromebook to a Cloudbook

[G+_Tom Bellucco]

Watched the episode where Padre and Brian compared a Chromebook to a Cloudbook. That was awful. A cheap, cheap Cloudbook vs. a Chromebook Flip that is over $300. That is not a good price point of a Chromebook. Failed to mention that with the Cloudbook you get Windows 10 and all of the junk that comes with it, like crossing your fingers each time it does an update that takes 20 mins while a Chromebook updates and reboots in 10 seconds. 2 GB is not going to cut it for Windows 10 and if you're going to say that you can deduct the price of Office 365 for a year off of the price, then seriously I can't listen any longer. When you look at the type of people that each of those devices is designed for, you should run far, far away from Windows. Boot times, performance, maintenance issues... the Chromebook has to be the far and away winner every time. One that outperforms any Windows Cloudbook by a mile can be had for under $200 every day.

[G+_Ben Reese]

An SSD goes a long ways to making Windows work with 2GB RAM. Chromebooks are cool, but sometimes you just need Windows.

 

I don't have a lot of experience with Chromebooks though. Can they access network file shares? Play any video format available? Copy photos off your SD card and onto another drive?

 

It's real nice to have something practically immune to viruses and good at browsing the web, but some people need a laptop that's not quite so dumbed down.

[G+_Tom Bellucco]

That's the thing, they each have a purpose. They can be good for what is needed. But believe me it's not dumbed down and it's unfortunate that it is called that. Or thought of that way.

[G+_Ben Reese]

So my question is, how does it answer those problems? If I've got a TB of family photos and videos on my home server, can the Chromecast view those? Share selected photos to FB? How about run GIMP so I can edit them?

 

If you take a laptop and make it only run one application - a browser - I'd consider it dumbed down. If you remove the opportunity for users to install their own software, I'd consider it dumbed down...

 

But that's OK. Doesn't mean it's not useful or even just as some people. Just not as useful to everyone. ?

 

I think Brian and Padre did a great job at explaining those use cases, btw. You're not going to run Visual Studio or program Arduinos on the Chromebook, for example.

[G+_Joe Spears]

I love my wife's Toshiba Chromebook 2. It's fast, light, and easy to use. I can run VLC for playback, use my network shares, run MS Office in the cloud, or remote into my desktop to get more power. For $300 (black friday price) it's a bargain. I'd be interested in a review of Neverware's Cloud Ready product for converting an old PC into a Chromebook. Seems like it would be more trouble than it's worth.