Considering Buying A Chromebook?

What a lot of people don't know about a Chromebook is it appears to be the first mainstream device heavily marketed to consumers as a "thin client" to the "Cloud".  Face it.  Most people are used to using their PC's as a "fat client", that is, a computer storing programs run directly by the user from the computer itself.  In fact, your tablets and smartphones are still considered a "fat client" because you have to download apps on your devices to use them directly.  However, the one thing that all these devices have in common, whether they be PC's, tablets, smartphones or even Chromebooks, is that they all can run as a "thin client" off the Internet via your Internet browser.  It's Google's Chromebook that just takes this computing philosophy one step further than everyone else.

What is a "Cloud"?  Well, in computing terms, it's nothing more than a server that is not on your device which runs programs that can be connected directly to your device via the Internet.  There's more detailed explanations of the technicalities of "Cloud computing" which I will leave to Wikipedia.  But that's basically, what you need to know as an end user of the "Cloud".  What do people use the "Cloud" for these days?  Most people use it to store their personal files and to run programs like games or to consume content such as viewing Youtube videos.

I'm an Industrial Engineer by trade and one of the things I've had to do for work is do time studies.  Time studies capture the time spent at various activities of a worker's shift.  Well, if I had to apply time studies to how consumers use computers, this is what I would find:

 

Activity	Smartphone	PC	Tablet
Entertainment	24%	24%	50%
Communication	47%	36%	26%
Production	18%	30%	15%
Research	9%	11%	9%
	98%	101%	100%

 

I took research conducted by Gartner and GfK’s “Multimedia Mentor” study and compiled the results above.  Notice which device is dominant for a particular category.  For Entertainment, it's the Tablet (50%) which is dominant compared to a PC or Smartphone.  For Communication, it's not surprisingly the Smartphone (47%) which is dominant compared to a PC or Tablet.  For Production, it makes sense that the PC (30%) would beat out the Smartphone or Tablet for usage with the advantage of a larger screen size and processing power.  As for Research, you will notice the percentage is almost the same across each type of device.

How does this relate to a Chromebook?  Well, it depends on what you primarily use a computer for.  If you are mostly using the computer for Entertainment, Communication (Social Networking), Research and light Production work, the Chromebook seems like a good fit for your needs.

Here are the Hardware Manufacturers who either sell or will be selling Chromebooks:

Mfgr	Retailers	Model	Price	Weight (lbs)	Screen Size (in)	Res	Battery	Proc (GHz)	RAM (GB)	Stor(GB)
Acer	site lists online and offline retailers	C720-2103	249.99	2.76	11	1366 x 768	8.5	1.4	2	16
Asus	To be released Q1 2014		249.99
Dell	To be released Jan 2014	Chromebook 11		2.9	11.6	1366 x 768	10	1.4	2-4	16 or more
HP	site lists online and offline retailers	11-1101	279	2.26	11.6	1366 x 768	6	1.7	2-4	16
Lenovo	site lists online and offline retailers	ThinkPad X131e	429	3.9	11.6	1366 x 768	7.5			16
Samsung	site lists online and offline retailers	XE303C12-H01US	329.99	2.43	11.6	1366 x 768	6.3	1.7	2	16
Toshiba	To be released Feb 2014		280	3.3	13	1366 x 768	9		2	16

The whole idea of using a Chromebook is to run most of your daily computing tasks off the Chrome broswer, which enables you access to Google's ecosystem of apps using their web store.  It looks very similar to Google Play from a Smartphone or Tablet.



Once you've chosen apps to install, they display on your Chrome browser like this.



I've been doing quite a bit of research on Chromebooks lately and have found for the average user, it can viably serve as a PC replacement.  Why?  Because, if most of your tasks are conducted using the Internet anyway, why do you need a beefier PC?  I would say if you are heavily into Gaming, Video Editing, Graphic Design or Computer Programming, then a low end PC like the Chromebook is not suitable for the type of tasks you do.  It's not that it's impossible to do them.  It's just that the screen size and processing may present some problems if you want to get your work done quickly.  For those kinds of tasks my Linux Mint or Ubuntu PC does just fine.

One of the concerns people have with this new mode of computing is that if they have no reliable Internet access, what are they do?  Well, Google, provides users with the ability to work offline with Gmail, Calendar and other apps.  Heck, I can even read my Kindle Content without Internet access.  As long as I downloaded my content for offline use, I can easily access it on Chrome.  The same principle holds true with Google apps.  For example, there's an app called "Gmail Offline" that you can install from the Chrome Web Store to download your Gmail when you are offline.  It allows you to sync your Gmail once you have Internet access again.

You also have the ability to access apps from other Cloud providers.  For example, I created this tutorial using LibreOffice Calc from the website www.rollapp.com.

Finally, for more advanced users, yes, the 16GB storage is a limitation but you do have the ability to use Crouton to install a light Linux distribution (i.e. Ubuntu derivative) on the Chromebook.  Crouton allows you toggle back and forth between the Chrome OS and your installed Linux distro.  The advantage of doing this is using the Linux distro for the heavier processing say using Open Shot Editor for Video Editing or LibreOffice for offline document processing.  I cover this in my blog.

So, if you are considering buying a Chromebook, consider what you are using your computing devices primarily for and it will enable you to determine whether it is a suitable PC replacement or an additional portable device supplement to your collection of computing devices for personal use.

 

Use WINE to Play Windows Games on Linux

When it comes to games, most people are playing games on-line via their tablet or smartphone rather than buying a CD or DVD of the latest electronic game.  Yes, I know there are still board games and sports but those type of games are not going to be covered on this site.  However, for those of you who would like to preserve the legacy of your past favorite games on other non-Linux operating systems, there is a potential solution for you using the WINE Emulator program.  This program will enable you to play a Windows game on your Linux PC.  For this post, I will be using a Hoyle Board game as an example.



Before you can install the Windows game, you need to install the WINE Emulator program.  The WINE Emulator program enables you to run Windows applications on a non-Windows PC.  This program creates a virtual Windows directory on your Linux PC using the Windows File system.  This means that if you download (*.EXE) files, you can use the WINE program to emulate Windows by installing and running Windows programs in your new Windows directory.

Although WINE is available in the Software Manager for Linux Mint and the Software Center for Ubuntu, I recommend following the instructions directly from the WINE website to download the package appropriate for your Linux distribution and to install the WINE program correctly.  The reason why I recommend this is I went through the Software Manager on Linux Mint to install PlayonLinux, which automatically installed both PlayonLinux and WINE but I was unable to get it working without additional steps.  Incidentally, PlayonLinux is the front-end UI for WINE.  I detailed this experience on my Blog post.  To make a long story short, I ended up removing PlayonLinux and WINE, then re-installing WINE from Software Manager and executing additional steps to get it working properly.  "Why did this happen?"  You are probably asking.  Well, it's because the version of WINE I had downloaded from Software Manager was obsolete and there were areas specific to my Laptop hardware that needed to be addressed.  So to save you from enduring my situation, just go straight to the source, the WINE website and follow THEIR instructions.

Once you get WINE working properly, installing a Windows game is a piece of cake.  Make sure you configure WINE for the Windows version your game is designed to run on, locate the Window game Executable file (*.EXE), right click on it and select 'WINE Configuration loader'.   The game will execute the installation process as if you were using a Windows PC.  Here's my Blog post with a Youtube tutorial on the process.

Amazon Cloud Reader Works on Linux besides Kindle

For those of you who may be using your Linux desktop PC's for  most of your common PC tasks, here's another task you can add to your arsenal.  In between working on a spreadsheet, document editing or design work, perhaps you want to read a manual or an ebook that you purchased from Amazon Kindle for an entertainment break.  Well, now you don't have to reach for your Kindle Fire device all the time, you can access your Kindle content from your Linux PC as well.  All you need is an Amazon Kindle account and logging into the read.amazon.com link.

See video tutorial on what it looks like to use Amazon Cloud Reader to read your Kindle content on your Linux PC.


 

 

 

New Category Featuring Articles on Using Linux in Business

Dear Readers,

This site was primarily created to bring more public awareness to using Linux on the desktop as a viable alternative to Windows, MAC and other desktop operating systems.  Most of the articles up to this point have been geared toward personal and home use.  As Linux gains more acceptance in corporate enterprises the world over in the server, mobile and desktop arenas, I feel the time is ripe to introduce a new section on this site which features articles from the perspective of a business owner, whether large or small.  My own background encompasses working in Fortune 500 companies and small to mid-sized businesses in both technical and business roles.  Therefore, the articles here will serve as guides to aid business owners when making technology decisions about whether to add Linux products to their enterprise.

 

Sincerely,

Editor

 

 

Welcome to a whole new way of computing the Linux way!