Chromebooks

[R J Kinloch]

Does anyone have any thoughts on these. It appears that, after you've sold your soul to Google, you are free of any sort of intractable software problems, Microsoft doesn't sink their hooks into you and your wallet's safe from Bill Gates. It seems to be mainly upside and practically no downside to me.

[andytug]

Couple of potential downside (other than selling your soul to Google to spam you targeted ads based on your surfing) is iirc they rely heavily on "the cloud" and need constant Internet connection to work properly?
Microsoft are trying to make Windows 10 similar in order to "monetize" your surfing habits.

[cdtaylor_nats]

I've got one for surfing the web. I like the instant boot, you get 100Gb of Google drive. Eventually it will run Android apps. No anti-virus.

[crablab]

Android apps are supposedly coming later this year...
Plus, you don't *need* to be connected to the internet for it to work. You can create and edit documents offline and if you have and Android phone etc. it all syncs very nicely.
If you're expecting all the power user features of the office suite you'll be disappointed but Google Docs etc. does a really good job and is constantly being upgraded.

[R J Kinloch]

Is this a Chromebook or a method of converting a Windows PC to Android. If not, why not? Serious question.

Remix OS for PC - Redefining PC. Reimagining mobile. The world's first true Android PC experience.

[le Pingouin]

It's not ChromeOS or Android as such, but is a separate operating system that is capable of running Android apps on PC - it's not simply Android running on PC.

[crablab]

It's more a democratised ChromeOS as Google haven't open sourced the code for ChromeOS so the only way to get it is to buy a Chromebook; this gives you a similar experience on a laptop you already own.