Making Sense of the Chromebook Hate

Say it with me. people: "The Chromebook is NOT a notebook."

It really isn't, and it has never claimed it is. It is a Chromebook. It is sleek, functional, and efficient. It boots up in less than 10 seconds, not because of super-special-awesome coding, but because it is lightweight as hell. It has a simple interface not because of elegance and intuitive design, but because it is a simple thing. It is Chrome. And it is shaped like a book. Chromebook.

I see all these people attempting to compare it to full-fledged laptops, ones running Windows and Mac OS and Ubuntu. It isn't trying to compete with these super-charged notebooks. It is trying to be the everyman's computer. Think about it like this: How easy is it for your grandmother to download a piece of malware and lose everything on her computer? Owning a computer is a dangerous thing in some cases, and it seems that there is no shortage of regular people, people not versed in that fancy computer lingo that we tech geeks seem to speak so easily, who end up having to pay an arm and a leg because they opened the wrong email.

That doesn't happen on a Chromebook. And, even assuming it DOES happen, there is a feature built in that will annihilate any problem ever: The Powerwash. Sure, you lose all your locally-saved data, but the whole point of a Chromebook is to NOT save data locally.

I ask you this: If a user intends to use a computer to check their email, read the news, and maybe sometimes video chat with their children/grandchildren/friends, what is the point in buying a computer that will play all the latest video games, render video in 60 seconds, and various other things that big, powerful desktops/laptops do? Why not save a lot of money and get a computer that only does what the user needs it to do? That's where the Chromebook comes in.

Now, all that said, I am a fairly tech-oriented user. On my home computer, I write code, compile it, play graphics-intensive video games, run two screens so that I can watch a YouTube video explaining how to do whatever it is I am doing on the other screen, use a drawing tablet to crate graphics, render video for my vlog (or, rather, I will be doing that!), and in general just do a lot of different things. My desktop is really good at those things. It has a powerful processor, it has lots of RAM, and its video card makes HAL look like ENIAC. But I do all that at home. I work from home. I don't need to play Kerbal Space Program at Starbucks. I don't need to render video at school. I don't need to draw things on the bus. All that stuff can be done at home. What I need when I am on the go is a computer to check my email, read articles, watch YouTube videos, and maybe do a quick video conference with a client. My $250 Chromebook does all those things. Sure, my phone and tablet also do most of them, but they do not have a physical keyboard. Or a mouse. And believe it or not, there are things that are easier to do with a physical keyboard and a mouse. Like, you know, actually seeing the stuff on your screen while typing. ("BLUETOOTH KEYBOARDS DUH" No. Just, no.)

I knew all of this before buying a Chromebook. I knew that I wouldn't have a portable powerhouse. I understood that. What I didn't understand was why everyone seemed to think that they should compare it to the computing heavy hitters. I still  don't understand that. If it were just a few reviews on Amazon, I wouldn't give it a second thought. But people whose job is supposed to be knowing stuff about technology seem to think that if it doesn't do everything their laptop does, then it isn't worth it. That is just not true.

Are there times when I wish I had a Windows laptop? Sure. Sometimes I want to write a little code at Starbucks and see if it fits into a project I am working on. Sometimes I do want to do a little video editing at school. But that's why Chrome Remote Desktop exists. Is it perfect? No. But it gets the job done.