Chromebook experience

I am just guessing... you use Microsoft.. maybe because you chose to, very likely because your company chose to and definitely because you need to use Microsoft only software. All the more reason to check out a ChromeBook. Let me tell you why.

The start

In 2018 I visited the beautiful West coast of the USA and on the last day of the holiday I went to Wallmart for this great deal.. a Google Pixelbook, i5 (7th gen) and 8Gb RAM, 128Gb storage for $750 instead of $1000. Now apart from a crash right into the parked and totally overlooked Mercedes of the neighbour of our Airbnb address (yes, don't ask ;-) it was a smooth ride. Bought it, went home and.. left it packed for about a year. So in 2019 I started to use the Pixelbook but I was not really interested.. it was web only, I was just looking at Chrome and some extensions.. a bit of Youtube, Netflix but that was about it. So I went back to Ubuntu and Windows.

In 2021 however I picked it up again. The reason was another holiday.. I did not want to bring the 4kg+ 17 inch power laptop but travel light with the amazingly small and lightweight Pixelbook. But it was a risk.. could I connect to work because I had to in the last two weeks, could I develop software on it, could it run Android Studio for my studies?

The test

First of all, the Pixelbook is a so called Chromebook which uses Chrome OS which is a dumbed down version of Linux.. well, sort of... The entire OS is built around Chrome so it would be a nice idea to have a Google email account.. oh no! you get trapped in the Google environment.. privacy!.. big company!.. but yeah.. you use Microsoft / Apple.. point made ;-)

Chrome OS is lightweight which gives it a lot of advantages. It will start up really fast (and not like Windows, showing the desktop and starting 100+ background tasks in the coming 3 minutes) and will run on basic hardware. The reason for my 8Gb RAM and i5 choice will follow later but Chrome OS will run perfectly fine on very basic systems. That's why you will see Chromebooks from EUR200 and up.. and they are perfect for almost all daily tasks.

Now I bought this i5, 8Gb pixelbook for development and to run linux containers because in 2018 the choice of apps was a bit limited so I expected to need the RAM and storage for Linux virtualisation. And yes, you do need at least an i3 or Ryzen 3 for development work or linux virtualisation. But still, you will find these for about EUR400 or more.

So there I was, on my 2021 holiday (as complicated as covid19 could make it), with my Pixelbook and I started a course on Udemy about Flutter. I installed the linux container (really easy experience), I installed Python and Android Studio.. and it worked. Python development on a Chromebook is great. You install VSCode and all the plugins you need and simply start the editor and write and debug your code like you always did. The only difference with Ubuntu or Windows is that it will take some time (about 10-20 seconds) for booting the linux VM. Once this is loaded it is probably stored in RAM and the next time you open up VScode it will be there instantly.

You will also have the excellent linux shell so you can use your usual git, git flow, apt, pip, poetry etc commands from the commandline. This is just like working with Ubuntu or your linux distro of choice.

Next up I started to write code using Android Studio. Now this is heavy software.. it is a great IDE for android development but also for Flutter which is a great platform for Android / iOS / Web and even native software. Installing Android Studio is easy, there is a great manual on their website. Installing Flutter was also easy because of the Linux commandline. Anyway, no trouble installing the IDE!

The big moment came when I started the build process for my first Flutter application. It took some time but it started and I could see a phone emulator with my Flutter application.

It was very easy to connect my phone to the Chromebook so I could also debug and test on my mobile.

The only annoying problem I ran into was debugging a Flutter web application on the Chromebook. This required the installation of Chromium which seems very funny because Chrome was already installed.. it is a Chromebook after all. Running Android Studio, the linux container and Chrome and Chromium tested the limits of the 8Gb RAM. So yeah, if you are into that.. it is fine, it will work but I would recommend waiting for the first 16Gb Chromebooks.

Work, work, work

Every holiday has come to and end.. which it did.. but I was still abroad and had to pick up my work again. Easy! I could connect to the VPN using the Horizon Client app and do all the stuff I had to. Now I don't know about you but I hate Microsoft Office.. it is bloated software where you use 2% of the possibilities hidden in hundreds of options and dropdown menu's and even the online version is overly complicated. So I have been using Google Documents for a while. What a relieve.. simple, intuitive and all the functionality I need. In my opinion this is all you need for your daily report, spreadsheet or presentation. But ok, if you need to use Office or dislike Google Docs then you can always use Office365 online.. your choice!

But what about my pictures and video editing?

Yep, that is going to be a little more complicated IF you want stuff like Photoshop. It is perfectly possible to use GIMP (Linux photoshop like software) and KDEnLive (video editing) but I can imagine that you would not like to use this. I have no advise for these situations. I am fine with all the beautiful and powerful apps you can find for Android (and thus install on a Chromebook!) and I have no need for Photoshop or big video editing software. If it is the main thing for you it might be best to stick to Windows or Mac.. however.. do note that everything is moving towards..

Web, web, web

Everything is moving towards the web.. Do you really think Microsoft Office will be local software in a couple of years? I don't think so.. most of it will be moved to their web alternatives which makes more money for them and which is easier to maintain. A nice example is Stadia. I own a large desktop pc where I installed Steam and Epic for games (that in the end I buy but do not play because I can't find the time or rather try to develop a game myself ;-). On my holiday I decided to give Stadia a try.. you can use your totally underpowered Chromebook (no GPU to be found) and play heavy games because they are streamed to your PC / laptop / Chromebook. It was just fine! For $9.99 a month I can play all possible games on Stadia. It might seem like a lot of money but think of all the GPU's you might have bought to upgrade your PC.. that will sum up to $9.99 a month easily.

Point being.. everything will move to web so this will mean that 'underpowered' hardware can run really demanding software like photo or video editing software.

In the end

I might sound like a Google fanboy.. I might even be one because I do really, really like the Pixel 4a phone, the Pixelbook, the Go language and the Flutter language but the more important thing is that I think that people are missing very interesting choices because they think that sticking to Microsoft is the only option. So they buy expensive hardware, expensive licenses for sometimes shitty software etc. ChromeOS and Chromebooks are excellent alternatives for 95% of all computer users. It saves you money (cheaper hardware), stress (simple and small updates, far better security) and time (boot time, easier software).. what more do you want.

So yeah, a holiday well spent. I will travel with my Pixelbook again, watching movies in the plane, creating documents and presentations using Google Documents, develop software with VScode and Android Studio etc. If you are really into some Microsoft / Mac only software like Photoshop, video editing software and are not satisfied with their online options then it might not be the best choice. In all other cases you could definitely give it a try.

What's in it for me?

Well, maybe a ban from Microsoft owned LinkedIn ;-) but apart from that nothing. The only reason for writing this is to make people aware of the alternatives because people so easily choose for Microsoft and Mac OS and their software. There are cheaper and better alternatives.. but in the end, it is your choice and whatever you choose.. enjoy!