I bought a Samsung ARM Chromebook to play around with and see what Chrome OS is like. It definitely has a single-purpose, very limited use case - to deliver web content. But, it does this extremely well.
The good parts: Automatic syncing with Google services, such that you can wipe everything and restore, and it will automatically reinstall all of your applications and settings; encrypted storage and signed binaries so it is difficult if not impossible to load malware; and a very polished UI that gets you into a browser and gets out of the way to let you surf the web.
However, it does start breaking down when you want to start doing more CPU-intensive tasks like gaming, there is a big gap right now between where HTML5 gaming is and what native gaming (even through Flash) delivers. For a system that runs all apps through the browser, that is going to continue being difficult. Also, the almost-continuously-online requirement can be tough in some cases, but really I already have wifi everywhere I want to use it...
I can see it being a great option for 95% of day-to-day computer users, though. Mine was $250, and it definitely outperforms low-end laptops - great battery life, good speed, lightweight, etc.
Not to mention it can run a full version of armhf Ubuntu so I can still run tuxracer when necessary.
TFA may be an advertorial, but I see Chromebooks as the evolution of the original netbook idea - a cheap PC that goes everywhere and is good enough for most online activities.
The good parts: Automatic syncing with Google services, such that you can wipe everything and restore, and it will automatically reinstall all of your applications and settings; encrypted storage and signed binaries so it is difficult if not impossible to load malware; and a very polished UI that gets you into a browser and gets out of the way to let you surf the web.
However, it does start breaking down when you want to start doing more CPU-intensive tasks like gaming, there is a big gap right now between where HTML5 gaming is and what native gaming (even through Flash) delivers. For a system that runs all apps through the browser, that is going to continue being difficult. Also, the almost-continuously-online requirement can be tough in some cases, but really I already have wifi everywhere I want to use it...
I can see it being a great option for 95% of day-to-day computer users, though. Mine was $250, and it definitely outperforms low-end laptops - great battery life, good speed, lightweight, etc.
Not to mention it can run a full version of armhf Ubuntu so I can still run tuxracer when necessary.
TFA may be an advertorial, but I see Chromebooks as the evolution of the original netbook idea - a cheap PC that goes everywhere and is good enough for most online activities.