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I've tried and failed to turn my old Sony gen1 i7,radeon gpu'd, ssd'd laptop into a chromebook and it doesn't like running W10, no driver support for switching graphics etc so its always on full fan speed and the battery management software is missing so that means it plug in only.
So, I'm inclined to abandon it in favor of something that just works so I can actually get my 10 & 11 yo's using tech at home to encourage some extra curricular work. (lets call our local education authorities ages 10 & 11 equivalent to ages 9 & 10 UK education level.)
So, laptop, chromebook, chromebox (gaming monitors in their rooms already)
They both have google classwork workloads and I'd like to get my kids into a minecraft style coding course to learn.
Youngest is also showing a really keen passion for music and rhythm so I'm hoping we might be able to learn to layer some music using an artiphon orba (also as a fiddle device) so presumably having access to android apps would be really useful.
I know theres talk of chromebooks being cheap and slow, but is there a sweetspot before you may as well be in windows laptop money... or are chromebooks their own market segment now and beyond being just a "cheap laptop"
I used to be tech savvy.. not so much anymore. Suggestions please 🙂
Chromebooks are not "slow".
They are optimised to run chrome as fast as they can but you will be limited by your internet speed to an extent.
Have you tried running Linux on your laptop?
Easy to set up a usb stick to give it a try and and then fully install if it works for you.
I've been using a Chromebook for a year and I love it. As mentioned above, it's not slow. It fires up in seconds. It's obviously mainly browser based and not intended for processor heavy applications like gaming or video editing, although I have actually done a little of the latter on it and it wasn't terrible. You can also run android apps on it, although I haven't really bothered. I mostly use it for web browsing, email, Spotify, YouTube and Zoom. I also do some simple forms/letters/spreadsheets using the various Google docs applications. It's brilliant at all of that.
I should add that my middle daughter is in yr 2 of her business degree and is perfectly happy with her Chromebook and Google docs
She no longer trusts one drive after it irretrievably lost 3 days of essay work for her that was supposed to be (and reporting that it was) automatically saving her work.
Thanks for this.
I see there are now even i5 based Evo optimised Chromebooks with discrete graphics etc with thunderbolt out for editing work.
Obviously overkill for my kids, but positive that they've not just limited the Chromebooks to simpler laptops.
I will try a Linux install to see but having never had anything to do with Linux beyond a penguin sticker on my massive self built tower at uni..
Anyway, sounds like a go on a Chromebook might be the best plan.
Any minimum specs to look for?
Any processors to avoid?
Does touchscreen/tablet convertible bring anything to the table once the kids get more proficient with coding and editing as they go through school?
I honestly don't think your kids are going to need much power for school work.... Almost any chromebook will do.
And re Linux, just put Ubuntu onto a usb stick to start..... It's really easy.