I have been using a chromebook off and on for a few years now. Part of a “cloud” initiative for work.

I didn’t use it exclusively, of course.  There’s still a few things I need to do on a regular computer.

One of the things I’ve tried to do, is get my workflow “cloud oriented”.

Ok, quick aside: this will be useful to most people, especially millennials  (you spell cloud this way: c   l   o  u   d). I think it’s about 15 years ago, I started seeing “internet” related diagrams, using a cloud graphic to designate “the internet” somewhere along the line, an executive who hadn’t had his knuckles broken probably thought it was clever to call the internet, “the cloud”. seems to have stuck, because in the corporate world that’s all you effing hear.

there  are cloud books, cloud apps,  could initiatives (HELLO!), cloud recipes, cloud targets, cloud backups, cloud infrastructure, private clouds, on premises clouds, clouds as a service,  cloud projects, cloud-op ((dolphin laugh, Julie, Darcie,  I can explain it later)  in-joke to my Canadian military friends)).

The reason (for me anyway) to be as “cloud oriented” as possible, was I had a number of internet connected devices: phone, tablet, work computer, home computer, etc.)

Knowing that I could get at my internet content was very empowering. All I needed was an  internet connected device (millenials: AND the internet).

To help me with this I already had a Gmail account with Google Drive, but subscribed to Dropbox,  Roboform, Outlook and Onenote (free so far), WordPress, twitter, facebook, instragram.

With the exception of some photo/video  processing I do on my Macbook Pro (a now ancient model that will remain that way), I can do almost everything on a chromebook.

So, this is a few years ago, my boss wanted me to get a chromebook for evaluation purposes.  If our department (a tech oriented networking department) could make it work, then surely a good part of the rest of the company could also.

After some research, I found a Samsung 11″ chromebook,  The lists of the things I couldn’t do was much smaller than the list of things I could do. Some very specific networking software, and obviously gaming excluded of course. For a very reasonable price.

For a chromebook, the only real thing wrong was  that keyboard. If I had to guess, I’d say it was designed by a millenial (huh? the millenial said with the finger  their finger stuck up to  third knuckle in their  their nose)

(Darcie, you  know you are excluded from this)

I don’t want to get into GUI or hardware design, but the “Enter”  key needs to be wide from side to side not tall from up and down)

One of my bosses ( I have 5) complained about the same thing.

At the beginning of June (milennials: Google “months”)

I started using the Samsung chromebook almost exclusively, making changes to my workflow as needed.

Full disclosure, I mean my home workflow.

I found I could do almost everything. There were a few issues.

I needed a bigger screen, and a much better keyboard.

I already knew about the ASUS touchscreen chromebook, I wanted a 14″ screen if I could get it.

I found the HP touchscreen 14.

Why do you need a touchscreen?

For the Android apps. (iphone users: that’s  the phone you really want, but Steve says you can’t have)

I was impressed enough with the specs and the reviews to buy one.  Kind of a jaw dropper to use your favourite android apps on a “laptop”  type device.

It’s almost easier to tap the icon for your favourite service rather than going to the web page. For something like The Weather Network and Onenote it’s much better. There’s probably dozen’s of other examples,

[Later]

I let the battery get down to 6%. After (all told) 9 hours of using it, and 72 hours of standby (closing the lid). the 72 hours were over 4 days, and using it about 2 to 3 hours each day.

As I type this, I’ve been using it for a little over 2 hours, and the battery says I have another 11 hours to go. For me the battery life is a little better than advertised.

I’ve already recommended it to three people already. I would’t even hesitate to buy it again.