One of the things that always makes me smile is when someone tells me that a review of something is worth more when penned by a consumer who actually stumped up their own cash for a product. The actual purchaser, it’s argued will have something invested in the product unlike the journalist who sees hundreds of X and never has to pay for them.
Of course, they overlook or handily ignore the fact that the purchaser has actually invested in the product so there’s a need to either justify the purchase or they have some buyers remorse and therefore a need to bash it until it dies.
And, well, I’ve bought one so it’s time to take a step back and add some professional distance from the Chromebook.
First and most importantly I know beyond doubt that the Chromebook is most suited to those who already have given over their souls to the Google Devil. I use gmail to manage my domain email and documents to write - I’m also signed into all sorts of other Google bits and bobs (the sort of thing they make an enormous fuss about and then kill just as you start to use). The deeper Google has its roots embedded in you the easier the switch to Chromebook is.
If you still have a range of providers supplying their various services to you then the switch to a Google Chrome controlled world will probably be harder to accept. Not impossible, and like for like replacements are generally available, but at the very least there’s an uncomfortable learning curve.
I miss smart mailboxes in Mac OS X Mail for instance, but I’m not so wedded to them that its a showstopper. Similarly, getting used to working in tabs takes a little getting used to, but similar would be true of moving from Windows to Mac to Linux (no sniggering at the back).
If you use your ISP and Outlook to manage your mail then moving to a web interface is going to seem like a big step. If you use Word then moving to Documents is going to seem like a huge step, I could go on. There’s no denying that to use a Chromebook you have to make some compromises, but thus far I have to say that as both a reviewer of tech nonsense and a purchaser none has been or felt insurmountable.
One annoyance has been that of sharing attachments. I email a text document, for example and I expect, nay demand, that it be sent as such. However, in the first instance it sends your ‘attachment’ as a link and if you haven’t already shared the document in Drive the recipient has to request access. Something they may not want to do. If I add an attachment that is the behaviour I expect. Bad Google, naughty Google.
