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I just bought a new laptop!

jamesbulls

By jamesbulls
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jamesbulls Apprentice

jamesbulls

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Huzzah for me, I just bought myself a new laptop! A few years ago when my desktop computer died, I really wanted to get a laptop but couldn’t afford the ridiculously over-priced Windows and Apple models for sale, so I looked into a Chromebook. I was really surprised to learn that a Chromebook does everything I need. I don’t play games and don’t do image or video editing, so all the browser-based tools offered by Google can carry my day. The first Chromebook I bought was the HP 14 Chromebook, but in hindsight I sorta wished I’d paid extra and got the HP 14 G4 because the G4 model will be getting support to use Android apps, whereas the plain 14 model won’t. Or maybe it doesn’t matter, because I’ve pretty much run the life out of this laptop. Don’t get me wrong - it still runs as fast as the day I got it - but it’s starting to look a little rough around the edges from all the wear and tear and dangit, I really want a new Chromebook that will support all the cool Android apps. So after shopping around for a few months - I’m a compulsive researcher when it comes to large purchases - I settled on Acer’s Chromebook 14 w/ 4gb RAM and 14" HD/IPS screen. I’m very excited. I couldn’t normally get this model for less than ~$550 CAD, but because I live right on the border with Michigan, I only paid $314 CAD and got it shipped to my PO box in the US. Sweeet. I love new computers.

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jamesbulls Apprentice

jamesbulls

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Well, it’s definitely the best value for the price range. Objectively speaking, Google’s Cadillac-Chromebook, the second release of the Pixel, is far and away the best Chromebook on the market. But you know, I don’t have the nearly ~$1.5k CAD for that kind of luxury purchase 😛 Still, the Acer 14 is a terrific Chromebook. Brushed aluminum shell, HD/IPS screen, latest wi-fi, USB 3.0… I’m only disappointed that I have to wait for it to arrive between the 5th and the 10th of this month. Well, I’ve spent months researching and making sure I’m making the right purchase, so what’s a few more days? le sigh

And did I mention that it can do Android apps? Oh, yeah - it’s gonna be sweet.

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jamesbulls Apprentice

jamesbulls

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I’m a late adopter. I really wanted to get it when it first came out, but I always wait to read the reviews and watch the hands-on unboxing videos. This strategy doesn’t get me what I want right away, but it does save me from buyer’s regret. I’m so happy to get a new laptop <3

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jamesbulls Apprentice

jamesbulls

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Work just became a LOT more fun! Soon I’ll be able to play Dofus Touch on my Chromebook.

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You can Google it on the Play store if you’re really interested, but Dofus is a French MMORPG that’s been running for, like… 12 years. It’s no World of Warcraft, but I happen to think that it’s still a lot of fun and I look forward being able to play it on my new Chromebook (especially since I no longer keep a PC/Mac/Linux computer and can’t play the desktop version anymore.)

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cyaxrex Proficient

cyaxrex

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To be honest, when I buy computer stuff I always go for the used and abused stuff on eBay. Last year I got a dell e6420 with 8gb ram, and an icore 5 processor for just $150. I’ve since upgraded the hard drive to an ssd and added another 8GB of ram and you would never know that it was 2nd hand.

The last thing I bought new was a Samsung windows tablet for $150 in the UK last Christmas which isn’t worth the plastic it’s made out of. Slow, buggy, good for only web browsing really. However, I really wanted a tablet I could use on the move for word processing and using a remote desktop hook up to even do video work on the go. In this case, I just bought a 1st generation MS Surface for $100 which although it uses Windows RT is fantastic now that I have it and have tweaked the hell out of it. In fact, I’m using it now as I sit having my morning coffee at my favourite local café.

Also, when I was tweaking my new tablet, I discovered via the system log that it had only ever been turned on for 1 month in 2014. In this case, I’m pretty sure that I will get a good few years out of it, providing that I don’t get too carried away with my compulsion to hack the hell out of everything.

Of course, buying new tech is great in terms of you being able to buy with confidence due to warranty issues. My only problem is that if you look at the specs of a lot of mid range computers on the market, they are exactly the same as the specs of computers sold 3-4 years go. Also, I personally don’t like this move toward cloud based storage and apps. I much prefer having native storage and programs but that’s only because I spend a lot of time offline and don’t like the idea of Google or Microsoft being responsible for personal things like mad sic-fi stories or similarly sensitive things.

All that said, I love getting my hands on any kind of new device. In this case, happy unboxing (and maybe even hacking) when you do get your new Chromebook!

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jamesbulls Apprentice

jamesbulls

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Were I more tech literate, I’d be right there with you. I’m not opposed to buying second-hand - in the past, I would only purchase re-furbished laptops or desktops, wipe the Windows OS, and install the latest Ubuntu distro. I’m allergic to Windows - I swore I’d never return, and so I never did.

If Chromebooks were any cheaper, I’d buy them second-hand, too, but they’re already budget machines. I can turn on the dev mode and install Crouton for a side-by-side Chrome OS/Ubuntu Linux laptop, but I’ve found that for the kind of computing needs I have, there’s nothing I can’t do outside of Chrome OS. And now with Android running on Chromebooks, I may never need any other computer again. Chrome OS isn’t going to work for everybody - I mean, some folks absolutely need certain programs to do their jobs - but Chrome is perfect for me.

I know there are a lot of people who don’t like cloud computing, but I think it’s delightful. One of the things I love about keeping almost everything on the cloud is that my HP 14 Chromebook runs as fast and smooth today as it did when I bought it nearly two years ago. Were this a laptop running Windows, I know it’d be getting slower and slower. Ubuntu Linux is a lot faster, but even it isn’t immune to the bloat that creeps in over time. But Chrome OS has proven itself to me to be something that stays as fresh as the day I bought it, and it just works.

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cyaxrex Proficient

cyaxrex

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I too hate windows. In fact, that is why I purposefully bought the original surface which is immune to malware etc. Also, my main work laptop runs a heavily modded version of Ubuntu and works really well when I’m using it via the remote desktop on my Surface.

That said, I don’t really like the direction Ubuntu is taking. I did get my hands on a friend’s Ubuntu tablet when I was looking for the right model to get and it was awful. Moreover, they seem to be focusing more on their tablet and phone OS’s than the main desktop distro, which from a new install, takes me a lot longer to configure and get working right than it used to in the days pre-unity.

In fact, as I think about it, if a Chromebook can facilitate a fast remote desktop hook up, it might be something I would think about in the future. The only problem is that I have a pretty decent Android tablet and even after investing in a keyboard and the right apps, I couldn’t ever make it really productive.

In fact, my dream device would maybe be a Surface-like tablet with trusty old Ubuntu 10.04 running on it. The only problem is that Microsoft has locked down all its newer products to make them impossible to even so much as load other OS’s. That said, I am already keeping a hungry eye on the XDA forums for news of new bootloader exploits. - God, I hate being a geek.

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jamesbulls Apprentice

jamesbulls

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LOTS of geeks who own Chromebooks use it as a remote terminal. Chromebooks are really good at remote-desktop, so geeks who are into this sort of thing will keep a tower plugged in somewhere, but use remote desktop to do everything - coding, image editing, Windows/Mac software, etc. - via remote desktop.

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