Do any of the many clever people here have a view on the Chromebook? I
understand it uses a different operating system? e.g. not Microsoft?

In plain English please :-)


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

The Medway Handyman wrote:

Do any of the many clever people here have a view on the Chromebook? I
understand it uses a different operating system? e.g. not Microsoft?

It isn't Microsoft, it's Linux (but the idea is the user shouldn't care
what it is, it just keeps itself updated and they simply use it) so if
you run any software that's specifically Windows only, it won't run that
obviously.

They have relatively small amounts of storage (flash memory instead of a
spinning disc) as you're intended to either read stuff that's online
with them, or store your own stuff online, so you need to have Wifi or
3G coverage for them to be very useful.

Not played with them very much, an IT manager for a large NHS trust got
one as his retirement present, when I spoke to him later he's over the
moon with it.

On 04/10/2014 10:01, The Medway Handyman wrote:
Do any of the many clever people here have a view on the Chromebook? I
understand it uses a different operating system? e.g. not Microsoft?

In plain English please :-)


There are plusses and minuses. Bought one for my wife a few years ago
because they were very cheap, now laptop prices have come down in
comparison. It is relatively fiddly if you want to share files with PC
users. You don't have to buy software to do the basic stuff but you are
locked into Google's ecosystem. The cloud environment is good, no need
to worry about backups etc as long as it is always used in a wifi
environment. More fiddly if you are using it "offline". Microsoft has
caught up in providing comparable cloud services. Wife continues to use
it in preference to her newer Win 8 laptop even though the battery is
knackered so that she needs mains most of the time.

I quickly decided these were not for me (but I work in a Windows
environment). Daughter thought about getting one to use on the train on
her commute, but decided against; now uses Ipad and Kindle.

So they are viable for "simple" user who just wants basic WP, email,
browsing, shopping, and can be used in a community who share data
provided "pc" users don't mind working with Google Docs files. Probably
fairly secure compared to Windows.

The Medway Handyman wrote:

Do any of the many clever people here have a view on the Chromebook? I
understand it uses a different operating system? e.g. not Microsoft?

Linux operating system for mobile devices, including some laptops
(mainly the lightweight smaller cheaper ones)
Far more stable and secure than a Windows OS.

I've recently bought a 9" Tablet with Android OS at £38 inc. delivery.
Expecting it be be rubbish, my expectations were some blown away, as it
is an excellent device. I've got 150+ page manuals which open faster on
the tablet than the laptop sat here.

--
Alan
To reply by mail, change '+' to 'plus'

On Sat, 04 Oct 2014 10:27:41 +0000, A.Lee wrote:

I've recently bought a 9" Tablet with Android OS at £38 inc. delivery.

I've been toying with the idea of a cheap tablet. What one did you go for?

On 04/10/2014 11:27, A.Lee wrote:
The Medway Handyman wrote:

Do any of the many clever people here have a view on the Chromebook? I
understand it uses a different operating system? e.g. not Microsoft?

Linux operating system for mobile devices, including some laptops
(mainly the lightweight smaller cheaper ones)
Far more stable and secure than a Windows OS.

I've recently bought a 9" Tablet with Android OS at £38 inc. delivery.
Expecting it be be rubbish, my expectations were some blown away, as it
is an excellent device. I've got 150+ page manuals which open faster on
the tablet than the laptop sat here.


Plenty of horror stories out there about Google's online storage. Google
Drive, Google Sync, Google this that and the other bloody thing. Great
when it's working but they keep "improving" things, and nothing they do
is particularly intuitive to my mind. MS is the devil I know.

I've got a £50 Android tablet which is a bloated mess of apps you can't
get rid of but does work well for the very basic stuff.

In message , Adrian
writes
On Sat, 04 Oct 2014 10:27:41 +0000, A.Lee wrote:

I've recently bought a 9" Tablet with Android OS at £38 inc. delivery.

I've been toying with the idea of a cheap tablet. What one did you go for?

I'll jump in here as by accident I seem to have ended up with a bunch of
cheap tablets. All of these seem excellent, and each cost between £26
and £45.
Makes/models are generally unimportant and I suspect most are just
badge-engineered from major makers (one I saw was offering, I seem to
remember, deliveries of up to 30,000 per day).
All the cheap Chinese ones I have suffer from poor internal
loudspeakers, but the audio is fine on headphones. Internal mics vary
from awful to average.
Because I was trying to do several different things, I gradually ended
up having to move to a greater range of facilities. The rule seems to
be, if it doesn't mention it, it probably doesn't have it.
My 9" tablet has low resolution, which I didn't pick up on in the
advert, but has 10-point touch. I have no idea whether this is better
than the 5-point touch of the other tablets. To my surprise, I found it
didn't have bluetooth.
I was trying to get something to interrogate the car's diagnostics. Many
of the cheapest tablets don't have bluetooth.

Of the tablets I have, the favourites are an Ainol AX3 (bought
secondhand but unused and missing the back because it had been nearly
installed in a car dash). It's a quad-core phablet, so it has Bluetooth,
GPS, etc, and 2 sim slots. Great for sms with the big keyboard.
The mistake was the MediaTek MTK-8312 phablet. I bought one new and it
arrived with a dodgy micro-usb charging socket. While not knowing the
response from the seller, I saw and bought the Ainol. The seller
replaced the MTK, so I kept the 2. MTK is 2-core, and feels a little
slower, but it, too, does everything I want.
Both these have very average battery life.
Oh and the Ainol came with a load of apps in Chinese. I was thinking of
taking it to my local takeaway and asking what they are. I only
recognise the Chinese version of Opera.

The thing I use every day is the obsolete Blackberry Playbook. Excellent
audio and video for recording and playback, GPS ok, wifi has some
quirks, but great battery life, 64G memory. I mainly use it for the
alarm clock and listening to radio from around the world, but have made
videos of musicians with it. Probably a bit late for the sell-off of
these now, though. The real leather case was 25p in a bin in PCWorld.

Today, I would buy a phablet and check the screen resolution, bluetooth
etc., and try to check audio quality. All except the 9" are 7", which is
a bit small for some websites and a bit big as a phone.
--
Bill

On 04/10/2014 10:10, Andy Burns wrote:
The Medway Handyman wrote:

Do any of the many clever people here have a view on the Chromebook? I
understand it uses a different operating system? e.g. not Microsoft?

It isn't Microsoft, it's Linux (but the idea is the user shouldn't care
what it is, it just keeps itself updated and they simply use it) so if
you run any software that's specifically Windows only, it won't run that
obviously.

Thanks.

If I used a memory stick with a WORD doc for example, would I be able to
read/edit it?

They have relatively small amounts of storage (flash memory instead of a
spinning disc) as you're intended to either read stuff that's online
with them, or store your own stuff online, so you need to have Wifi or
3G coverage for them to be very useful.

I assume I could use a USB stick to store stuff?

Not played with them very much, an IT manager for a large NHS trust got
one as his retirement present, when I spoke to him later he's over the
moon with it.




--
Dave - The Medway Handyman www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

The Medway Handyman wrote:

If I used a memory stick with a WORD doc for example, would I be able to
read/edit it?

Yes, using Google Docs, if you've used any fancy features of Word, the
doc might not be 100% faithful to the original and need some minor tweaking.

I assume I could use a USB stick to store stuff?

Yes.

On Sat, 04 Oct 2014 13:57:44 +0100, The Medway Handyman wrote:

If I used a memory stick with a WORD doc for example, would I be able to
read/edit it?

Yes, of course - but you'd have to be online to use Google Docs to do so.
THAT's the big problem with Chromebooks, not whether they're MS or not.

On 04/10/14 13:57, The Medway Handyman wrote:
On 04/10/2014 10:10, Andy Burns wrote:
The Medway Handyman wrote:

Do any of the many clever people here have a view on the Chromebook? I
understand it uses a different operating system? e.g. not Microsoft?

It isn't Microsoft, it's Linux (but the idea is the user shouldn't care
what it is, it just keeps itself updated and they simply use it) so if
you run any software that's specifically Windows only, it won't run that
obviously.

Thanks.

If I used a memory stick with a WORD doc for example, would I be able to
read/edit it?

read yes.

Edit? maybe. probably need to install libre office.


They have relatively small amounts of storage (flash memory instead of a
spinning disc) as you're intended to either read stuff that's online
with them, or store your own stuff online, so you need to have Wifi or
3G coverage for them to be very useful.

I assume I could use a USB stick to store stuff?

Or a networked storage device I'd gay. Not sure if it has Ethernet
available, but it must have wifi.




Not played with them very much, an IT manager for a large NHS trust got
one as his retirement present, when I spoke to him later he's over the
moon with it.






--
Everything you read in newspapers is absolutely true, except for the
rare story of which you happen to have first-hand knowledge. €“ Erwin Knoll

On Sat, 04 Oct 2014 12:59:03 +0100, Bill wrote:

Today, I would buy a phablet and check the screen resolution, bluetooth
etc., and try to check audio quality. All except the 9" are 7", which is
a bit small for some websites and a bit big as a phone.

Ta. I presume "phablet" is phone/tab cross? We've got no need for a phone
in it.

On 04/10/2014 14:09, Adrian wrote:
On Sat, 04 Oct 2014 12:59:03 +0100, Bill wrote:

Today, I would buy a phablet and check the screen resolution, bluetooth
etc., and try to check audio quality. All except the 9" are 7", which is
a bit small for some websites and a bit big as a phone.

Ta. I presume "phablet" is phone/tab cross? We've got no need for a phone
in it.

Adrian, I don't know if it *must* be a Chromebook you're after, but the
Tesco 2 Hudl 2 8.3" tablet is due out next week and it's got a good
write up in this link, £129 and Tesco vouchers thrown in.

Mebbe worth a butchers:

http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile...umours-1266787

On Sat, 04 Oct 2014 14:29:54 +0100, Bod wrote:

Adrian, I don't know if it *must* be a Chromebook you're after

I'm hijacking a different thread here. Definitely not a chromebook for me.

but the Tesco 2 Hudl 2 8.3" tablet is due out next week and it's got
a good write up in this link, £129 and Tesco vouchers thrown in.

Yeh, I'd heard that was on the way - and was what re-prompted my
wondering.

On 04/10/2014 14:08, The Natural Philosopher wrote:


Or a networked storage device I'd gay.

Don't bloody start that again :-)



--
Dave - The Medway Handyman www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

On 04/10/14 10:10, Andy Burns wrote:
The Medway Handyman wrote:

Do any of the many clever people here have a view on the Chromebook? I
understand it uses a different operating system? e.g. not Microsoft?

It isn't Microsoft, it's Linux (but the idea is the user shouldn't care
what it is, it just keeps itself updated and they simply use it) so if
you run any software that's specifically Windows only, it won't run that
obviously.

They have relatively small amounts of storage (flash memory instead of a
spinning disc) as you're intended to either read stuff that's online
with them, or store your own stuff online, so you need to have Wifi or
3G coverage for them to be very useful.

Not played with them very much, an IT manager for a large NHS trust got
one as his retirement present, when I spoke to him later he's over the
moon with it.



Becoming popular with schools, for which it is a *very* good fit.

It does "enough" (web, office-stuff, email and now some android apps
too) but it looks after itself more of less as well as an android phone.

So the software support issue is greatly reduced.

On Saturday, 4 October 2014 10:01:33 UTC+1, The Medway Handyman wrote:
Do any of the many clever people here have a view on the Chromebook? I
understand it uses a different operating system? e.g. not Microsoft?

My wife and daughter have one each. They do what its says on the tin. The only significant problem I've had is printing. You can't print directly from them unless you have a Google Cloud Print ready printer. Assuming you don't, you'd need another computer to act as a print server.

Adrian wrote:

On Sat, 04 Oct 2014 10:27:41 +0000, A.Lee wrote:

I've recently bought a 9" Tablet with Android OS at £38 inc. delivery.

I've been toying with the idea of a cheap tablet. What one did you go for?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111416752985

I was surprised at how good it is. I rooted it, and got rid of all the
ads, added a few apps - office, ad-remover etc, dolphin browser, and it
runs great. The camera is not up to much, but probably on a par with a
cheap phone.
--
Alan
To reply by mail, change '+' to 'plus'

On 04/10/2014 14:08, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
8

Or a networked storage device I'd gay.

A homebase worker?

On 04/10/2014 17:23, matthelliwell wrote:
On Saturday, 4 October 2014 10:01:33 UTC+1, The Medway Handyman wrote:
Do any of the many clever people here have a view on the Chromebook? I
understand it uses a different operating system? e.g. not Microsoft?

My wife and daughter have one each. They do what its says on the tin. The only significant problem I've had is printing. You can't print directly from them unless you have a Google Cloud Print ready printer. Assuming you don't, you'd need another computer to act as a print server.


My Epson all in one printer does google cloud print, and has a scanner,
and it came with ink.

Cost £27 at ASDA. Hardly a bank breaker to get a google cloudprint printer.

I wouldn't be without my chromebook. Long battery life, far fewer
malware issues.

I use ssh to my Unix and Linux servers from it, and do python based web
development on it. As well as the usual browsing and document work. All
of the google docs stuff works offline by the way. It's all I need.
Cheap, light, reliable.

Bill wrote:
I'll jump in here as by accident I seem to have ended up with a bunch of
cheap tablets. All of these seem excellent, and each cost between £26
and £45.
Makes/models are generally unimportant and I suspect most are just
badge-engineered from major makers (one I saw was offering, I seem to
remember, deliveries of up to 30,000 per day).

Yes and no. The manufacturers can churn out the volume because they're
already churning out the volume for Chinese customers, who aren't stuffed
with cash and hence these home-grown tablets are attractive. What they
aren't is the same as Samsung, Google, etc inside - those have quite
different hardware. Though you could argue it's a bit like a Windows PC:
the experience is very similar.

Theo

On 04/10/2014 13:57, The Medway Handyman wrote:
On 04/10/2014 10:10, Andy Burns wrote:
The Medway Handyman wrote:

Do any of the many clever people here have a view on the Chromebook? I
understand it uses a different operating system? e.g. not Microsoft?

It isn't Microsoft, it's Linux (but the idea is the user shouldn't care
what it is, it just keeps itself updated and they simply use it) so if
you run any software that's specifically Windows only, it won't run that
obviously.

Thanks.

If I used a memory stick with a WORD doc for example, would I be able to
read/edit it?

Yes but in my experience if you want to iterate between WORD and Google
Docs you would be better off with a Windows laptop and Office (or
perhaps one of the open office versions, or even a genuine linux laptop
with Kingsoft or Apache). Chrome might be a linux derivative but it is
not a true linux environment.


They have relatively small amounts of storage (flash memory instead of a
spinning disc) as you're intended to either read stuff that's online
with them, or store your own stuff online, so you need to have Wifi or
3G coverage for them to be very useful.

I assume I could use a USB stick to store stuff?

Not played with them very much, an IT manager for a large NHS trust got
one as his retirement present, when I spoke to him later he's over the
moon with it.

On 04/10/14 17:23, matthelliwell wrote:
On Saturday, 4 October 2014 10:01:33 UTC+1, The Medway Handyman
wrote:
Do any of the many clever people here have a view on the
Chromebook? I understand it uses a different operating system?
e.g. not Microsoft?

My wife and daughter have one each. They do what its says on the tin.
The only significant problem I've had is printing. You can't print
directly from them unless you have a Google Cloud Print ready
printer. Assuming you don't, you'd need another computer to act as a
print server.


Yes - I do not get why Android and ChromeOS do not have a native
printing API...

Tim Watts wrote:

I do not get why Android and ChromeOS do not have a native
printing API...

I think it Android does since KitKat, can't say I've ever used a printer
from mine ...

On 04/10/2014 14:55, Adrian wrote:
On Sat, 04 Oct 2014 14:29:54 +0100, Bod wrote:

Adrian, I don't know if it *must* be a Chromebook you're after

I'm hijacking a different thread here. Definitely not a chromebook for me.

but the Tesco 2 Hudl 2 8.3" tablet is due out next week and it's got
a good write up in this link, £129 and Tesco vouchers thrown in.

Yeh, I'd heard that was on the way - and was what re-prompted my
wondering.

I *love* tablets and bought bluetooth keyboards for my first two, but
have ended up not using them; I use the tablets for browsing / email
checking / photo viewing / reading manuals only, with various small
laptops for anything where I need to *enter* significant text based like
WP and spreadsheet. (Tablets are *wonderful* for holding things like car
or camera manuals).

One of my laptops is a toshiba with touch screen and Win 8.1 with a
removable keyboard, so in principle either an "ipad" or a "laptop". In
practice, it stays as a laptop while I use a Nexus 7 for all my "tablet"
requirements.

Just my experience. Wife runs an old iPad and a Kindle Fire in parallel
with her chromebook, but generally follows the same pattern: if she
needs to type anything more than a sentence she uses the chromebook,
otherwise one of the tablets.

We also have relatively small smartphones. I wonder from time to time
whether the new big iPhone or the android equivalents would eliminate
one device, but I am inclined to think you need a pocketable phone and a
minimum of 7 inch screen for most "tablet" applications, i.e. two
separate devices. It is handy to be able to check email on a small
phone, but easier to reply using a tablet or laptop unless it is just
yes or no.

On 04/10/2014 17:23, matthelliwell wrote:
On Saturday, 4 October 2014 10:01:33 UTC+1, The Medway Handyman wrote:
Do any of the many clever people here have a view on the Chromebook? I
understand it uses a different operating system? e.g. not Microsoft?

My wife and daughter have one each. They do what its says on the tin. The only significant problem I've had is printing. You can't print directly from them unless you have a Google Cloud Print ready printer. Assuming you don't, you'd need another computer to act as a print server.

Yes good point. Wife can print in principle to the home network, more
often than not something does not work so now she just emails me the
document and says "please print this".

Asus transformer pad anadoid 4.4 getting one soon best of both worlds use King office good compromise.

On 04/10/2014 21:21, newshound wrote:
On 04/10/2014 14:55, Adrian wrote:
On Sat, 04 Oct 2014 14:29:54 +0100, Bod wrote:

Adrian, I don't know if it *must* be a Chromebook you're after

I'm hijacking a different thread here. Definitely not a chromebook for
me.

but the Tesco 2 Hudl 2 8.3" tablet is due out next week and it's got
a good write up in this link, £129 and Tesco vouchers thrown in.

Yeh, I'd heard that was on the way - and was what re-prompted my
wondering.

I *love* tablets and bought bluetooth keyboards for my first two, but
have ended up not using them; I use the tablets for browsing / email
checking / photo viewing / reading manuals only, with various small
laptops for anything where I need to *enter* significant text based like
WP and spreadsheet. (Tablets are *wonderful* for holding things like car
or camera manuals).

One of my laptops is a toshiba with touch screen and Win 8.1 with a
removable keyboard, so in principle either an "ipad" or a "laptop". In
practice, it stays as a laptop while I use a Nexus 7 for all my "tablet"
requirements.

Just my experience. Wife runs an old iPad and a Kindle Fire in parallel
with her chromebook, but generally follows the same pattern: if she
needs to type anything more than a sentence she uses the chromebook,
otherwise one of the tablets.

We also have relatively small smartphones. I wonder from time to time
whether the new big iPhone or the android equivalents would eliminate
one device, but I am inclined to think you need a pocketable phone and a
minimum of 7 inch screen for most "tablet" applications, i.e. two
separate devices. It is handy to be able to check email on a small
phone, but easier to reply using a tablet or laptop unless it is just
yes or no.

Having got a Galaxy G2, Surface Pro, Nexus 7, iPad (original), Nokia
1520 - and have access to a new big Surface Pro, 72 iPad, laptops of
many varieties, I have a soft spot for the Nexus. It is our current
easiest way of using iPlayer on the television.

An external keyboard (I have the Microsoft Wedge) makes typing really
good on tablets. But it is a pain to carry round.

--
Rod

On 04/10/2014 21:33, curious wrote:
Asus transformer pad anadoid 4.4 getting one soon best of both worlds use King office good compromise.

I'm inclined to agree. I think that designs are converging, and android
manufacturers are starting to realise the folly of adding bloat.
Kingsoft is one of the better ones for compatability with Word (and
business is still dominated by Word).

In message ,
newshound writes
We also have relatively small smartphones. I wonder from time to time
whether the new big iPhone or the android equivalents would eliminate
one device, but I am inclined to think you need a pocketable phone and
a minimum of 7 inch screen for most "tablet" applications, i.e. two
separate devices. It is handy to be able to check email on a small
phone, but easier to reply using a tablet or laptop unless it is just
yes or no.

My son has just exchanged the new larger iPhone for the new smaller one.
He must have had a reason.
--
Bill

In message ,
newshound writes
On 04/10/2014 21:33, curious wrote:
Asus transformer pad anadoid 4.4 getting one soon best of both worlds
use King office good compromise.

I'm inclined to agree. I think that designs are converging, and android
manufacturers are starting to realise the folly of adding bloat.
Kingsoft is one of the better ones for compatability with Word (and
business is still dominated by Word).

Have the tablets + keyboards sorted out the problem of all the weight
being in the tablet and thus not being well balanced when using the
keyboard in anything but absolutely ideal conditions (eg on your knee)?
--
Bill

In message , A.Lee
writes
Adrian wrote:

On Sat, 04 Oct 2014 10:27:41 +0000, A.Lee wrote:

I've recently bought a 9" Tablet with Android OS at £38 inc. delivery.

I've been toying with the idea of a cheap tablet. What one did you go for?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111416752985

I was surprised at how good it is. I rooted it, and got rid of all the
ads, added a few apps - office, ad-remover etc, dolphin browser, and it
runs great. The camera is not up to much, but probably on a par with a
cheap phone.

That sounds very similar to my 9" tablet. It's good, but my complaints
a

Lack of bluetooth
Very low resolution (although I quite like that with age-related
eyesight)
Small memory and relatively small space for programs. I still haven't
really got my head round why some tablets divide up the memory in such a
way as to leave little space for programs compared with the space left
for data.

Adrian - the point about not needing the phone feature is fine, but my
experience is that the more I use the tablets, the more I want all the
features. Mine have diverted away from what I expected as I have found
that they have different uses from the equally needed laptops. Maybe I'm
odd because I don't have a smartphone.

I am also not convinced that some of the cheap tablets are that much
worse than the more expensive branded ones. Certainly my 2 phablets have
been very handy for quickly showing websites to SWMBO, rather than
getting a laptop with the right viewing angle and then navigating
screens.
--
Bill

On 04/10/14 22:08, polygonum wrote:
On 04/10/2014 21:21, newshound wrote:

An external keyboard (I have the Microsoft Wedge) makes typing really
good on tablets. But it is a pain to carry round.


I'm not sold on pads yet.

For me, "typing" on a touchscreen is such an utterly painful experience
I avoid it as much as possible. A phone is bearable as it will only me a
short message or a google/youtube/neflix search and a phone is small
enough that the utility of having it in my pocket all the time makes it
worth while.

For anything else it has to be a 14-15" laptop and if I'm working for
long,that needs to be jacked into a proper monitor and real keyboard.

I do question Star Trek (Next Generation aka Picard) - those guys are
always tapping away as a glass screened pad, or a ginormous glass
touchscreen console on a desk or wall.

Never hear Worf swearing "FFS, stupid keyboard does not work with my fat
fingers" and despite that you never see anyone giving the glass a polish
with a cloth, for some reason they are always shiny and not at all
smeared with fingerprints/sweat/deal alien blood.

On 05/10/2014 08:49, Tim Watts wrote:
On 04/10/14 22:08, polygonum wrote:
On 04/10/2014 21:21, newshound wrote:

An external keyboard (I have the Microsoft Wedge) makes typing really
good on tablets. But it is a pain to carry round.


I'm not sold on pads yet.

For me, "typing" on a touchscreen is such an utterly painful experience
I avoid it as much as possible. A phone is bearable as it will only me a
short message or a google/youtube/neflix search and a phone is small
enough that the utility of having it in my pocket all the time makes it
worth while.

For anything else it has to be a 14-15" laptop and if I'm working for
long,that needs to be jacked into a proper monitor and real keyboard.

I do question Star Trek (Next Generation aka Picard) - those guys are
always tapping away as a glass screened pad, or a ginormous glass
touchscreen console on a desk or wall.

Never hear Worf swearing "FFS, stupid keyboard does not work with my fat
fingers" and despite that you never see anyone giving the glass a polish
with a cloth, for some reason they are always shiny and not at all
smeared with fingerprints/sweat/deal alien blood.

I think you do see them covered with tribbles, though. :-)

My laptop is much heavier and awkward to get usable on the road. Has far
shorter battery life. Is noisier. And also usually has a dirty screen.
Out and about, I use a Surface Pro for work, my Nexus 7 for home.

--
Rod

On 05/10/14 08:55, polygonum wrote:

I think you do see them covered with tribbles, though. :-)
The tribbles polish them

Yes, I'm very leery of things that operate storing my data online in a
cloud or whatever. However I do have a vested interest in preserving the
look of interfaces which of course Google can change at a whim without
asking if most of it is online.
Brian

--
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is active
"Andy Burns" wrote in message
...
The Medway Handyman wrote:

Do any of the many clever people here have a view on the Chromebook? I
understand it uses a different operating system? e.g. not Microsoft?

It isn't Microsoft, it's Linux (but the idea is the user shouldn't care
what it is, it just keeps itself updated and they simply use it) so if you
run any software that's specifically Windows only, it won't run that
obviously.

They have relatively small amounts of storage (flash memory instead of a
spinning disc) as you're intended to either read stuff that's online with
them, or store your own stuff online, so you need to have Wifi or 3G
coverage for them to be very useful.

Not played with them very much, an IT manager for a large NHS trust got
one as his retirement present, when I spoke to him later he's over the
moon with it.

On Sun, 05 Oct 2014 00:56:32 +0100, Bill wrote:

Adrian - the point about not needing the phone feature is fine, but my
experience is that the more I use the tablets, the more I want all the
features.

We don't have a mobile phone signal at home. We've both got Android
phones, and have almost forgotten they exist. On the rare occasions we
remember to take them with us, they're either flat or out of credit...

On 04/10/2014 19:32, HarpingOn wrote:
On 04/10/2014 17:23, matthelliwell wrote:
On Saturday, 4 October 2014 10:01:33 UTC+1, The Medway Handyman wrote:
Do any of the many clever people here have a view on the Chromebook? I
understand it uses a different operating system? e.g. not Microsoft?

My wife and daughter have one each. They do what its says on the tin.
The only significant problem I've had is printing. You can't print
directly from them unless you have a Google Cloud Print ready printer.
Assuming you don't, you'd need another computer to act as a print server.


My Epson all in one printer does google cloud print, and has a scanner,
and it came with ink.

Cost £27 at ASDA. Hardly a bank breaker to get a google cloudprint printer.

I wouldn't be without my chromebook. Long battery life, far fewer
malware issues.

I use ssh to my Unix and Linux servers from it, and do python based web
development on it. As well as the usual browsing and document work. All
of the google docs stuff works offline by the way. It's all I need.
Cheap, light, reliable.


Can you print from a Chromebook from any printer?

On 04/10/2014 21:14, Andy Burns wrote:
Tim Watts wrote:

I do not get why Android and ChromeOS do not have a native
printing API...

I think it Android does since KitKat, can't say I've ever used a printer
from mine ...


I can print from my Samsung Galaxy Note phone to a Canon printer.

In message , Adrian
writes
We don't have a mobile phone signal at home. We've both got Android
phones, and have almost forgotten they exist. On the rare occasions we
remember to take them with us, they're either flat or out of credit...

Ah, that makes absolute sense.

It's also the reason I like the tablets that take a couple of sims. If I
use the tablet as a tablet, it usually isn't flat, and the clamshell
mobile phone is often out of credit and low on battery.

I also might save up and buy the charts necessary to use it on the boat,
and perhaps I could set the coastguard's phone number up for quick dial.

:-)
--
Bill