
Why I left my new MacBook for a $250 Chromebook - hajak
https://medium.com/thinking-about-startups/why-i-left-my-new-macbook-for-a-250-chromebook-45e463b637e0#.p5k3u0j55
======
daenney
> As every password was saved in Chrome, I was up and running in less than
> five minutes.

Passwords sync just fine between Macs or PCs if you use Apple or Microsoft's
complementary services (or something like 1Password). iCloud Keychain for
example makes this just as seamless.

> A new Mac or PC costs you at least and hour of downloading apps and getting
> things up and running. And then you forgot something

Most of the time though all they did was use the web version or give up. But
apparently that's better than "an hour of downloading apps and getting things
up and running". There's also plenty of ways to automate that, or just restore
it from a backup.

Granted, not as fast as just using the web versions of everything but then
again, I can do that on my Mac or PC just fine too, without any additional
setup time.

> Of course, most things don’t work very well without an Internet connection,
> but then again, what does?

A whole lot of things.

> Lending a computer to someone is not a pain or fear. You logout, they login
> (or run as Guest), do whatever they needed, then logout, you login, and
> everything is back as you left it. And boot times are minimal.

This works with any OS that has a Guest mode. Both Windows and OS X do this,
and just about any Linux distribution can be set up in the same way. Without
(re)booting, requiring an internet connection or a Google account.

~~~
hajak
True! I still think Linux is superior for people who want to configure their
devices more, but I think a vast amount of people live their lives either
online or in one of the services which on a Chromebook works well offline.
That - and games & media - which I think tablets/phones/consoles are better
at. I think Chromebooks seem to have reached a maturity point for "most
people".

~~~
daenney
I have no doubt they have. I've used Chromebooks and they're great devices
nowadays. Having Android apps available is great too.

But the title of this article is why the author left behind the Mac and the
reasons for that are extremely shallow. Most of the time they don't even go
into what makes it better than a Mac, that was mentioned maybe twice and
honestly not for great reasons. A one time setup cost isn't exactly a great
reason either.

The rest is just "look at this shiny that has more than enough oumpf for most
users". Which is totally fine, new and shiny is awesome to write about and
having a great experience with it that makes your realise you can change some
aspect of how you work, improve your productivity and not pay Apple's hardware
prices is great. But then just write that.

~~~
hajak
Hahaha :) yeah - good sweet short post.

------
btgeekboy
Did I miss something, or is my reading comprehension failing me? It seems like
the author's reason for switching platforms, and ultimately a lot of hardware
(remote speakers, phone), because they sometimes can't find their files? And
that it sometimes feels faster.

~~~
hajak
No, it is that I can't feel that my MBP/Macbook adds enough value to cost 5x
plus that the Chromebook actually beats performance of my new Mac quite often.

------
nickjj
Wait until you discover GalliumOS[0].

Now you can have a finely tuned native Linux OS that's designed for
Chromebooks. You can always dual boot it with ChromeOS to solve the problem of
guests using it.

I actually just ordered a Chromebook yesterday. Can't wait until it arrives
this week and set it up with Gallium.

[0] [https://galliumos.org/](https://galliumos.org/)

~~~
dTal
GalliumOS irritates me because to read their marketing copy, ARM Chromebooks
don't exist, and I own an ARM Chromebook and would dearly like a normal Linux
OS finetuned for it. I get that it's not their fault and ARM is a different
beast, but it wouldn't kill them to add the word "Intel" to their front page,
to spare others the disappointment I experienced.

~~~
reynhout
You're right, that could be more clear. We plan to add ARM support, but we
aren't there yet. Sorry for the disappointment.

There are 101 (really) Chromebook models, past and present. 33 are ARM, but
GalliumOS supports almost all of the remaining 68.

[https://wiki.galliumos.org/Hardware_Compatibility](https://wiki.galliumos.org/Hardware_Compatibility)

~~~
dTal
Such a polite reply to such a grumbly comment. Thanks for the work you do,
even if I can't take advantage of it yet.

The main issue with desktop Linux on ARM Chromebooks (that I encountered) is
HW acceleration. GLES support is sketchy to nonexistent among the current crop
of window managers. I am hopeful that some of the work the Pyra team is doing
to bring a standard accelerated desktop to a mobile device can be reused on
the Chromebook - I've already had some success with GLshim, which was
developed for the Pandora.

------
legulere
I don't know but all that sounds horrible:

> I found that under “About” I could get a newer version, and for some reason
> I had to help it

> it [Spotify] sometimes asks for Flash (?!) but with a reload it works.

> It [Skype] doesn’t support video yet

> Keynote [...] No solution found yet.

> I have to find a replacement for Hindenburg

> it would make it impossible to be a developer using one

> on the ASUS I ended up using this direct link to get it to work. You are
> supposed to see a little checkbox “Available for Android” [...]

> most things don’t work very well without an Internet connection,

> When I’m on an airplane, I would watch a video or listen to music on a
> tablet or phone anyhow

> I am selling off my AirPlay speakers and buying Chrome Casts at home to
> plugin to “dumb” speakers.

> to learn to love Google Slides or find an alternative.

------
thom
Lately I've found that more and more of my work can be done running emacs in
screen over a mosh connection to a server, so the idea of a cheap Chromebook
with excellent battery life is increasingly tempting. The Pixel looks lovely
to me, but I don't need a touchscreen and the price is very high - are there
any lower end options that people think are particularly nice machines? Most
of the cheap options just seem to have crappy build quality when I've played
with them in stores.

~~~
cwisecarver
I haven't tried it but the new HP Chromebook 13 G1 looks absolutely fantastic.
It doesn't have USBC on both sides like the Pixel but it comes in a huge
variety of configurations that range from $499USD to > $1000. HiDPI screen too
and no touchscreen. I'm going to evaluate when the new MacBook Pros come out
and see if the price is worth the differences.

------
zwarag
Reading the title I thought: Because you're a hipster. And his rationalizing
reasoning have proven that.

~~~
hajak
If you mean "hipster" as in "jumping on a new thing too early and bragging
about it" I agree. I totally admit that Chromebooks are not mainstream or
usable for all kinds of professions, but I was surprised on the maturity it
has gotten to.

------
haddr
The read is overly optimistic, sometimes feels like an advert. But I agree
that having some things in the cloud is certainly an advantage.

~~~
hajak
Sorry, my expectations were just so low. But I agree - I will complement the
coming days with things I dislike.

------
anonbanker
With a broadwell (or higher)-based Chromebook running GalliumOS, you have just
about the best laptop money can buy.

------
elgabogringo
Reading this and the comments I can't help but think that:

A) Microsoft's windows business will go away quicker than we think.. Which is
why I never hear them talking about it anymore. Nadella seems to be embracing
the cloud as their new platform.

B) Intel is in a lot of trouble if ARM chromebooks catch on.

------
ioddly
I've been using Chromebooks as my only portable device for about three years
now. Throw crouton on an Intel chromebook and you've got a cheap development
machine that can do lots of things locally without involving the cloud.

------
emdd
The slideshow issue is significant though. Where are the great FOSS
presentation tools like Prezi or that have the polish of Keynote? The most
recent PPT is decent.

Trying to do presentations on a Nix machine is a nightmare.

~~~
ymse
[https://github.com/yjwen/org-reveal](https://github.com/yjwen/org-reveal)

------
aexaey
For me, killer feature of Chromebook is keyboard layout - standardized
throughout lineup, and with all non-essential keys thrown out. Lower row with
bare minimum: ctrl, alt, space, alt and ctrl - just plain excellent - clean
layout, left ctrl/alt keys are of proper size, making them super-easy to hit
with a pinky.

In contrast, on Windows/Mac side of things - desktop keyboard is already bad
enough with bottom row cluttered with win(command) repeated twice, plus
menu/right-click key (why does this thing even exist?); On laptop, it gets
even worse by adding add "fn" and often pgup/pgdn and other clutter to the
mix. Then there's question of order in which they all come - is it fn, then
ctrl, or other way around? was that alt beside spacebar, or is that win?
etc...

~~~
djrogers
You can't conflate the 'windows/mac' side of things for non-standardized
keyboard layouts - that's ridiculous. Macs have very standardized layouts, to
the extent that the Apple external keyboards are modeled on the laptop ones.

~~~
aexaey
Why can't I? For the purpose of this argument, Windows and Mac keyboards
aren't all that different. See for yourself - modern mac keyboards have two
layouts:

\- Full / 105-key layout, which is a copy of Windows 105-key layout with
renamed and re-shuffled lower row, featuring: control, option(alt),
command(win), space, command, option, control; [1]

\- Compact (laptop / magic), where lower row has: fn, control, option(alt),
command(win), space, command option; [2]

Other (Windows) layouts of the bottom row:

\- Full/Desktop 105-key: Ctrl, Win, Alt, Space, Alt, Win, Menu, Ctrl;

\- Lenovo laptop: Fn, Ctrl, Win, Alt, Space, Alt, Win[4]. Ctlr; [3]

\- Dell laptop: Ctrl, Fn, Win, Alt, Space, Alt, Ctrl. [5]

...etc.

Now, _this_ is ridiculous.

So my point is: sure, there are (ad-hoc) standards, but way too many of them,
and all of them try to pack too many keys around core QWERTY field, especially
lower row. Chromebook is the first one on record to prune this and offer a
clean, usable layout.

[1] [http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MB110LL/B/apple-
keyboard-w...](http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MB110LL/B/apple-keyboard-
with-numeric-keypad-english-usa)

[2] [http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MLA22LL/A/magic-
keyboard-u...](http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MLA22LL/A/magic-keyboard-us-
english)

[3] [http://www.lenovo.com/images/gallery/main/lenovo-
convertible...](http://www.lenovo.com/images/gallery/main/lenovo-convertible-
tablet-thinkPad-helix-keyboard-view-9.jpg)

[4] On some models, PrintScreen takes place of second Win key

[5]
[http://kbimg.dell.com/library/KB/DELL_ORGANIZATIONAL_GROUPS/...](http://kbimg.dell.com/library/KB/DELL_ORGANIZATIONAL_GROUPS/DELL_GLOBAL/Content%20Team/5450_5250_kybd.JPG)

