Chromebook thoughts
Apparently Chromebook supporters are adamant that their OS isn't second rate by any means. This, I'm getting from a tweet from a person in the tech industry I follow who blogs for The Windows Supersite.
I thought I would toss my own 2 cents in. Mainly, because my opinion on the one hand isn't as bleak as his, and on the other is probably far more bleak.
I'll start with the less bleak aspect. I think Chromebooks can deliver 90%+ of the required computer usage by 95%+ of the population. By which I mean this; The average person doesn't need a full and proper productivity machine the bulk of the time. For the vast majority of what most people use their computers for most of the time, a Chromebook is just fine. And Chromebooks provide a better experience for Google's productivity web apps. Even if those apps are worse than second rate, not industry standard and still don't account for all productivity use cases... in a lot of cases they are still either more than good enough, or at the least passably good.
For instance, as a school student, unless my teacher/professor expect a report to be handed in digitally in a specific format or leveraging specific features Google Docs is fine for school. It is fine for resumes. It is fine for personal documents. The same goes for their spreadsheet app. And those 2 types of productivity apps probably make up over 99% of what users need productivity apps for.
Outside of productivity, there is web browsing and games. And on that front, it hits the mark pretty well.
Next up isn't the second point I wanted to make, but rather the counter balance to that last point. Quality photo-editing packages, audio editing packages, professional grade document authoring tools and development tools. These are areas where Chromebook falls flat on its face. I couldn't use a Chromebook for work, and as a developer, I couldn't use it as a personal machine either. Most of the other members of my family on the other hand (despite being largely tech oriented individuals) could probably use one of these as their daily driver as well. They would just need a Windows PC as an occasional computer for the areas where Chrome OS falls short.
This transitions nicely into my second argument though. Because when you examine what is missing you can see a lot of jobs where kids won't be exposed to the proper tools at a young age because they simply don't exist on the platforms they are excited about. Both Mac OS and Windows provided a massively flexible and powerful environment where any one could explore. Mobile apps are much smaller and more limited. Partly due to the culture around apps and what price points make them successful, but also the form factor itself.
And so we end up at the part that is a scathing indictment of sorts. It is bad enough that Android and iOS (and Windows RT) represent operating systems on devices which each founding company would gladly claim provide a device which can (to differing degrees) be used as a productivity device, but do not include development tools (not even native ones). You haven't heard the end of this complaint. And perhaps I should shut up about it, since this behavior (given that these OS are eroding the PC market) is eroding the talent pool of future developers making me more valuable on a daily basis.
But, seriously, this simply results in taking the tools away from the users to develop for your platform. Many in the younger generation already see no need to own a laptop or desktop. And without one, the tools are growing more and more scarce.
Chromebooks exacerbates this by providing a proper laptop which also doesn't contain or run these tools. And given the price point, the few people who decide they need more than a tablet are very likely to pick one of these up instead. Especially a generation that grew up on Android tablets and iPads. No one will look twice at the has been Microsoft. And few will waste 10x the cost of a Chromebook on a Mac Book.
I thought I would toss my own 2 cents in. Mainly, because my opinion on the one hand isn't as bleak as his, and on the other is probably far more bleak.
I'll start with the less bleak aspect. I think Chromebooks can deliver 90%+ of the required computer usage by 95%+ of the population. By which I mean this; The average person doesn't need a full and proper productivity machine the bulk of the time. For the vast majority of what most people use their computers for most of the time, a Chromebook is just fine. And Chromebooks provide a better experience for Google's productivity web apps. Even if those apps are worse than second rate, not industry standard and still don't account for all productivity use cases... in a lot of cases they are still either more than good enough, or at the least passably good.
For instance, as a school student, unless my teacher/professor expect a report to be handed in digitally in a specific format or leveraging specific features Google Docs is fine for school. It is fine for resumes. It is fine for personal documents. The same goes for their spreadsheet app. And those 2 types of productivity apps probably make up over 99% of what users need productivity apps for.
Outside of productivity, there is web browsing and games. And on that front, it hits the mark pretty well.
Next up isn't the second point I wanted to make, but rather the counter balance to that last point. Quality photo-editing packages, audio editing packages, professional grade document authoring tools and development tools. These are areas where Chromebook falls flat on its face. I couldn't use a Chromebook for work, and as a developer, I couldn't use it as a personal machine either. Most of the other members of my family on the other hand (despite being largely tech oriented individuals) could probably use one of these as their daily driver as well. They would just need a Windows PC as an occasional computer for the areas where Chrome OS falls short.
This transitions nicely into my second argument though. Because when you examine what is missing you can see a lot of jobs where kids won't be exposed to the proper tools at a young age because they simply don't exist on the platforms they are excited about. Both Mac OS and Windows provided a massively flexible and powerful environment where any one could explore. Mobile apps are much smaller and more limited. Partly due to the culture around apps and what price points make them successful, but also the form factor itself.
And so we end up at the part that is a scathing indictment of sorts. It is bad enough that Android and iOS (and Windows RT) represent operating systems on devices which each founding company would gladly claim provide a device which can (to differing degrees) be used as a productivity device, but do not include development tools (not even native ones). You haven't heard the end of this complaint. And perhaps I should shut up about it, since this behavior (given that these OS are eroding the PC market) is eroding the talent pool of future developers making me more valuable on a daily basis.
But, seriously, this simply results in taking the tools away from the users to develop for your platform. Many in the younger generation already see no need to own a laptop or desktop. And without one, the tools are growing more and more scarce.
Chromebooks exacerbates this by providing a proper laptop which also doesn't contain or run these tools. And given the price point, the few people who decide they need more than a tablet are very likely to pick one of these up instead. Especially a generation that grew up on Android tablets and iPads. No one will look twice at the has been Microsoft. And few will waste 10x the cost of a Chromebook on a Mac Book.
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