Chromebook thoughts and virtual meetings

I’ve been a fan of Chromebook’s since the first time I saw one seven or eight years ago. I bought my first Chromebook in 2013 and loved it so much that it became my daily driver, replacing the MacBook Pro that I had been using. Since that very favorable experience I’ve had a number of Chromebooks and frequently recommend them to my friends. Aside from a 14 inch Hewlett-Packard Chromebook that I used four years ago my go to recommendation has been the 15.6 inch Acer Chromebook. I like the screen size, the feel of the keyboard and the HDMI output for connecting a digital projector or LCD display.

Recently I gave away an Acer 15.6 to a friend who needed to connect to Zoom meetings. Last weekend our Secular Franciscan Fraternity gathered on Zoom and our spiritual director was using a Chromebook. I’ve helped a number of friends, many of whom are senior citizens make the switch to Chromebook. Recently I recommended a Dell Chromebook and ordered it for a friend to help her get on Zoom. Though it’s got a smaller 11.6 inch display I really liked the feel of the keyboard and the overall construction of the unit. The Dell Chromebook seems more solid than the others and I really like the power cord and adapter. I like too that it came with ability to run Linux applications.

Whether you’re a student, a teacher or a retiree looking for a reasonable alternative to a standard PC or Mac then you ought to consider a Chromebook. I’ve found them to be rock solid, reliable and resilient not to mention that they run on Linux.

Another Happy Chromebook User

Recently my friend John came to me with a problem. His Windows 8 notebook computer which is only about three years old was getting tired and not running well. He wanted to know what my suggestion was. I said, “Get a Chromebook!” He wanted to know what that was and I did a bit of explaining but nothing really succeeds until a user experiences ChromeOS on a Chromebook. John picked up his new Acer 15.6 inch Chromebook at the local Wal-Mart. It’s a modest unit with only 2 gigabytes of RAM but any Chromebook veteran realizes that more than enough memory. Once the Chromebook was out of the box it only took about five minutes of minimal instruction to get John up and running. He soon realized that this inexpensive laptop was way faster than the Windows laptop it replaced. John wanted to know about antivirus and was happy to know that he didn’t need any. It always pleases me when I can help steer a friend in the right direction. What pleases me most is that Chromebooks are just another example of the power of Linux.