JClishe

I made an impulse purchase of a Toshiba Chromebook 2 the other day. Was at MicroCenter, saw it, bought it. I didn't do any advance planning around what my use case for actually using it would be. I have a habit of doing that with gadget purchases.

So now that I've set it up and used it around the house for a couple days, I'm trying to figure out what I'm actually gonna do with the thing. My main work machine is a Surface Pro 4 and I have Surface docks both at work and at home connected to dual 27" displays. So as a productivity / travel device, the Chromebook is bigger and heavier than my Surface, and it does less.

My personal device that I use mainly for photo editing (Lightroom / Photoshop) and other general stuff is a 15" MBP.

The Toshiba hardware is great and the device itself is a pleasure to use, I'm just trying to sort out how it fits into my workflow. Or maybe it doesn't fit and I only use it occasionally around the house. Thats fine too and it's my own fault for buying something before I knew if I could use it. But I am curious....those of you that have one, what do you use it for and what other devices do you own?

LAXlocal

I would also like to ask :

What can you NOT do with a Chromebook ?

Or what workarounds do you need to do that a Windows computer does without a problem ?

mia

I have three:

I keep a 13.3" Samsung at our vacation home. It is ready to use immediately on arrival, even if it has been powered off for months. After a half hour I reboot it to update the OS - takes less than a minute. It's our only computer there, I use it for everything, including remote access to my office PC.

I keep an 11.1" HP by my living room chair for Flyertalk, Hangouts, Email and streaming video. We do have a Windows PC here, but I don't remember the last time I used it.

I use an Asus Flip as my travel PC, because it weighs less than 2 pounds, will open on any tray table, folds back to mimic a tablet if I want to read during takeoff or landing, and the all metal construction seems durable.

kennycrudup

They're great "Zero-Tech-Support" devices for the non-technically-inclined in the family. The number of support calls went to essentially zero after handing a couple of those out. I also have one and haven't needed a Windows machine in years.

cblaisd

WordPerfect
My Windows pop3 client (Pegasus Mail for Windows) on which I have stored 20 years' woth of emails.

boerne

We own 3. 2 samsungs and an Acer. Charging units can unexpectedly be crossed over to the other brand. Total price for all 3 was $450. My wife has 2 and i have 1 and a windows unit (Dell 2 in 1 with doubled memory and 256 SSD i upgraded myself). That machine is for managing an Access database which a Chromebook can't do. I also use, remotely, some healthcare software that the chromebook can't do. However I have written a couple of book chapters, and numerous 30-40 page reports on them and they work well. Updates are so easy its amazing vs the Mac Air i had and my current windows unit. Boot up time is under 10 seconds (18 seconds for the Dell). So we use our chromebooks more than the windows unit and haven't looked back. It didn't hurt that I got a terrabyte of google drive with one, plus the gogo inflight passes that came with them. When you back out the value of the gogo passes on all 3 machines, they cost us $30 a piece. I havent valued the terrabyte of cloud storage yet. VPN works well, as tested in Vietnam and Cambodia last month.

VickiSoCal

Seriously considering one for the kid. The school uses google classroom, docs etc for everything. Can't think of a down side. Is there one?

pitz

Yeah, you have to inherently trust Google. I personally don't. The less I can have to do with the company, the better.

chx1975

Try to have some Crouton with Wine

VickiSoCal

I don't see what choice I have when it come to the kids' school work. Their schools have standardized on Google.

MAN Pax

It's our around the house laptop - Email, FT, Facebook, Youtube, school homework for the kids.

Great boot-up times and long battery life. Cheaper and more flexible than a tablet.

Typing this with the Chromebook on my knee watching the TV.

SRQ Guy

I use my Chromebook Pixel LS (they got me with 'ludicrous speed' ) for almost everything at home and on the road. I have yet to find anything that I need or want to do but can't do with it. I use a tablet to read, or to use the web in bed, but otherwise it's all Chromebook.

I do use a Windows desktop at work primarily for QuickBooks, but when I'm not in the office I remote into it with my Chromebook using Chrome Remote Desktop.

s0ssos

Unless things have dramatically changed in this last half year, you cannot use it without an Internet connection. I bought it to jot some notes. No note-taking program works offline. Especially if you want functionality like Evernote or Microsoft Notes

mia

Evernote for Chrome OS is listed as working offline. I have no experience with it.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/s...eature=offline

JClishe

It's been a couple weeks since I started this thread, so I have some real world use of it under my belt now. Still struggling to find a good use case for it. I prefer my Surface Pro 4 around the house because I like the tablet form factor better, and if something comes up that requires typing I can just flip the keyboard down. And I haven't traveled with it because, again, it doesn't offer me anything over my SP4.

That said, I've found that it's not bad for carrying around the office. I can leave my SP4 docked at my desk, and when I have meetings I can carry the Chromebook in and out of conference rooms and use it for OneNote.