Are Chromebooks Worth It?

Morphio25 on 04/01/2023 - 19:40

Hi all,

I took the advice of a fellow OzB member and will be studying this year (while continuing to work full time). I'll be doing a Diploma in IT specialising in Advanced Networking and Cloud Engineering.

I currently only have a desktop PC but need something portable to work on so I can do study on the train to/from work and in various other places.

I thought a Chromebook might be a good solution as I don't need anything flash. All I can really see myself needing is basic word processing, ability to surf Internet and watch videos and perhaps terminal capabilities.

I was randomly in HN last week and the sales rep there said they aren't worth buying and I should just buy a Windows laptop for a similar price.

Thoughts?

Computing Chromebook

Comments

  • JIMB0 on 04/01/2023 - 19:49

    Just get a bluetooth keyboard and mouse for your android phone.

  • Jimothy Wongingtons on 04/01/2023 - 19:53

    said they aren't worth buying and I should just buy a Windows laptop for a similar price.

    Well I mean, it’s called up selling, for one.

    Depends what Chromebook I guess, if you’re only looking at the sub $300 duet, member feedback suggests it’s only decent for BARE basics…

  • scrimshaw on 04/01/2023 - 20:00
    +7

    Chromebook will be fine if all you need to do are the basics and you can live with web-apps. The upside is that they're lighter / thinner than Windows laptops as they're usually fanless (passively cooled) and their battery life much longer since they run on ARM SOC's (usually Snapdragon or MediaTek)

    Have you considered a refurbished Lenovo Thinkpad or Dell Latitude? Lots of deals recently for sub $500 ~ $300 laptops with fairly decent specifications.

    The Thinkpad T480s for example, with Coffee Lake (8th gen) Core i5 is around $400~499 on eBay Thinkpad X1 Yoga 3rd Gen also in that price range.

    • tekisei on 04/01/2023 - 22:40
      +1

      If you are going refurb, you should look for an i5 8250 or newer/better, as 8th gen is where you start to get 4 cores at an i5 grade, and 8th gen and newer is also where you get official Windows 11 compatibility.

      Build quality and repairability on the used/refurb Thinkpads and Latitudes would be much better than a Chromebook.

  • Smeethaneets on 04/01/2023 - 20:12
    +2

    A Chromebook served me well for years in highschool with a battery that lasted beyond all day whilst working on light tasks. I recommend it. Possibly just wait for your lecturers to give recommendations as IT diplomas can regularly have strange requirements (Windows machine). Also consider if your workflow can completed via Google and/or cloud services as it's pushed heavily on these machines.

  • SBOB on 04/01/2023 - 20:20
    +2

    specialising in Advanced Networking and Cloud Engineering.

    Depends on course material/software requirements

    For example, pretty sure you can't install Wireshark on a Chromebook, which I would expect (hope) is at least touched on in an advanced networking course….

  • plmko on 04/01/2023 - 20:21

    If your content is all working in a Chrome browser then the Chromebook is one of best things out there.

  • AndyC1 on 04/01/2023 - 20:26
    +3

    Simples NO, not for engineering work. You will need a more powerful laptop to simulate a network via virtual machines. You will need at least IMHO a CPU with 4 real cores and hyper threading and 16GB along with at least a 500GB SSD. It does not matter if the CPU is red or blue and even less as to the GPU (preferably built in as it is cheaper!!!).

    Chromebooks are for web browsing and cloud usage, not for engineers, unless you have the money to burn per month on AWS containers……

    K9s and Minikube need some grunt to run. If you do not know what K9s or Minikube are then use google!

    • That Guy on 05/01/2023 - 10:18

      Came looking for this comment!

    • Morphio25 on 08/01/2023 - 21:18

      I'm going down this route. There are a couple of different Asus (Zenbook/Vivobook) and Lenovo models I'm looking at. Most have a Ryzen 7 chip and I'll definitely get something with a minimum 16GB RAM and a 512GB SSD.

  • Morphio25 on 04/01/2023 - 20:42
    +1

    You will need a more powerful laptop to simulate a network via virtual machines.

    Hadn't thought of that and that is definitely something to consider.

  • scotty on 04/01/2023 - 20:59
    +2

    You already have a desktop that you can run your VMs and network lab. Chromebook has excellent terminal capabilities (SSH, RDP or Chrome Remote Desktop) that I often use to manage our servers. It can run Linux inside a container, which can then run docker and your other development needs.

  • p1 ama on 04/01/2023 - 21:04
    +2

    Good question, but my general view on Chromebooks has always been that they're basically a tablet with a keyboard. If you do things outside of your web browser, better to just buy a regular laptop.

    FWIW, I know that you can mitigate a Chromebook's shortcomings through remote desktop or containers, but if you're going through that effort, you might as well install a proper Linux distro with all the functionality you need, right?

  • Presence on 04/01/2023 - 22:05
    +1

    The institution you are studying at will probably have requirements for your computer, given it's an IT course?

  • Muzeeb on 04/01/2023 - 23:38

    Second hand Lenovo duet 5 ~$400 would work a treat for your use case.

  • tmcn85 on 04/01/2023 - 23:40
    -2

    You don't own Chrombook - Chromebook/Google own you.

  • Sinnerator on 05/01/2023 - 08:07

    Yes… buy a chromebook, and install your fav flavour of linux on it.
    No… most chromebooks are overpriced, you can find the odd gen11 i5 winx deal for ~$550.

    • bargaino on 10/01/2023 - 15:22

      When was the last time you tried to native install Linux on a Chromebook?!

  • CascadeHush on 05/01/2023 - 12:41

    I have a Chromebook that I mostly use to watch YouTube. I wanted a proper browser so I could use extensions so a tablet isn't suitable.

    I opened it up this morning to watch YouTube. Even though it indicates it was connected to my WiFi, it would not stream YouTube. This happens a couple of times a week. For a device that is essentially a dedicated web browser machine, this is pretty terrible.

    So I rebooted, which is confusingly labelled 'log out' in the shutdown menu. I guess this is supposed to be noob friendly but it's confusing and I don't know any computer user that doesn't know what a reboot/restart is.

    When it reboots I notice a very quick notification that there has been an update. The message says 'check out what's new' or something close to that. I have seen it enough times to know that is google's way of saying the OS has updated. Again, this is trying to be consumer friendly for noobs I guess.

    I restarted chrome and Fastmail (the android app, I always have these open side by side. They take an excessively long time to load. Fastmail then insists I log in, something it never does on my iPhone but almost always does on my Chromebook. I try to load up my password manager, it takes so long to load that the OS decides it's crashed so I start it again. I log into my email and start a YouTube video. About 15 minutes have passed since I first opened the Chromebook today and I'm yet to do what I wanted it for.

    I watch YouTube for about an hour whilst doing work on my PC.

    During this time I leave the room for about 10 minutes and when I come back it has locked. There is no setting for this, it's fixed and you can't turn off this feature. I load up an app called 'wakey' that forces the Chromebook to stay away for a few hours at a time. I continue watching my video.

    Then I go to start a new video, and I hear the dreaded crunch sound. This happens a couple of times a week and indicates that the sound has died and I have to reboot again.

    Rebooting doesn't take to long, and chrome loads pretty fast this time, at least it remembers which video I was about to watch. Fastmail takes a very long time to load up, but at least it doesn't ask me to login again.
    …
    Sometimes it runs fine, sometimes it doesn't. If it was Windows or Linux I could probably do something about it. I guess it's time for a reinstall, but these issues have been present the whole time. Meanwhile, performance gets worse with each OS update.

    So previously, I would have recommended a Chromebook because you tend to get a nicer machine for the price. The screen and speakers are excellent in mine, way better that I was expecting for such a cheap machine. The keyboard and trackpad are also really good. When it works, it does what I need it to do well, but then we have the issues I ran through above. That is not a typical day. That is just all the bad things that sometimes happen just happen to happen all in the same morning.

    I'll also mention that android app compatibility very hit an miss. Fortunately the key apps I need to work do, but a lot of 'nice to have' stuff doesn't.

    But at least I have my proper 'big boy' browser.

    • ihfree on 05/01/2023 - 18:53

      Which Chromebook?

    • Morphio25 on 05/01/2023 - 20:02

      Bloody hell sounds like you got a lemon!

      • CascadeHush on 08/01/2023 - 19:17

        At least half these issues are ChromeOS/Android problems.

        • A-mak on 10/01/2023 - 12:48

          I use ChromeOS-Flex and FlydeOS and do not have these problems, but I have them installed on a dell laptop :).

          I believe you can install FlydeOS on a chromebook ;).

          • CascadeHush on 24/01/2023 - 03:53

            @A-mak: I’ll keep that in mind but do they run Android apps?

            • A-mak on 24/01/2023 - 19:55
              +1

              @CascadeHush: FlydeOS can run Chromebook google play apps, Flex cannot. There are other android based OS's that I am yet to try. PrimeOS and BlissOS being the top options. PheonixOS is apparently 'great' but riddled with ad-ware. These can all run Android mobile apps.

              • CascadeHush on 25/01/2023 - 12:27

                @A-mak: Do these other OSs run in a VM? I tried in vain to get Flex to run in a VM only to find out it wouldn’t run android apps anyway.

                Edit: they provide a downloadable VM

  • Campbellske on 05/01/2023 - 22:59

    No get a real laptop. Especially for an IT course and are so cheap these days especially second hand

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