Chromebook

[rpcrowe]

I just love my Chromebook. The lightweight and simplicity of these devices and the proliferation of WiFi areas makes the Chromebook a neat traveling companion...

You can download files from a separate card reader and transfer the files to a external hard drive (if you have two USB ports on your Chromebook or if you can use a USB hub):

1. Open File Manager ALT-Shift-M
2. Set File Manager window to half screen using ALT-]
3. Open second File Manager window using CTRL-N
4. Select appropriate devices in each window, then drag files from one to another

It appears that you can even view RAW files as images on your Chromebook:

http://www.omgchrome.com/with-raw-su...phy-companion/

I have not done this yet but will certainly try the process soon...

[SamRothstein]

I do not own a laptop, only a tablet, but if I were to look at a laptop type device, I think the chromebook would be the way to go based on use (web surfing) and price. Being able to use a Chromebook to back up files to an online host or portable drive while on the go is a huge plus IMO.

[Manfred M]

As someone who has the Adobe Creative Cloud suite installed on my laptop, I suspect I will not be a good candidate for a Chromebook. Places I travel to often do not have WiFi (or cell phone coverage) so I doubt I will be going that route.

My wife, on the other hand, will be looking to get a keyboard to use with her iPad for our next trip.

We all have different needs when we are on the road.

[Damers]

I heard that some day, Photoshop should be available on Chrome OS. It is meant to run on a server, so that only the "video" of the app is streamed to you (because of the low performance of a Chromebook). However, that was supposed to happen a long time ago and I don't think we'll this "online" version soon.

[inkista]

I think it could get interesting when Google delivers its promised ChromeOS merge with Android. Right now, the problem with the ChromeOS is a lack of apps. And the problem with Android is a lack of security updates. Hopefully, the merge will be done properly and will fix those two issues.

It seems very very clear to me that mobile platforms and desktop platforms are merging. When Apple's iPad Pro benchmarks above the MacBook Pros, and all the laptop makers are falling over themselves to deliver 2-in-1 devices to serve both as tablet and notebook, it's getting clearer that the market's moving that way. The main problem is getting a single unified OS that can serve both a commercial desktop user's expectations along with keyboard/mouse input, and a mobile user with touch UI expectations.

Right now, Windows 10 is actually in a pretty good spot--the only problem being that nearly nobody has adapted Windows as their mobile platform. Apple is in a good spot, but can't figure out how to integrate OSX with iOS, despite their having the same codebase roots. Google is probably kicking butt the most on cloud usability, though.

It'll be interesting to see what happens.

Addendum:
BTW, Ars Technica's got some interesting speculations on what the ChromeOS/Android merge might look like: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/...rom-chrome-os/