For most people Chrome Book's have everything you need since most Apps are available as a Web App, that's super simple since it hides the complexity of managing a Desktop OS, has instant startup, is automatically synced + backed-up, secure by default which is essentially impervious to viruses and lets you get access to all your work from any PC by just signing in to your gmail account.
Because of this I've replaced my parents virus-ridden Windows laptop with a Chrome Book, it's the only Desktop OS I feel safe leaving them with knowing that all their work/photos are backed up, and they're not going to be able to accidentally install any viruses.
Whilst they still spend most of their time on their iPads (which really hits the sweet spot for content consumption) they use Chrome Book for their few remaining productivity tasks.
It's easy to forget how daunting full-featured Desktop OS's are for non-technical people, hiding its complexity and centering all UX around Web Apps ends up increasing people's confidence since there's very little they need to understand in order to do what they need to do, which is generally just clicking the App they want to run - with all the remedial tasks are managed for them behind the scenes.
If I wasn't a developer I would likely just take a Chrome OS when traveling and as each year progresses Chrome OS becomes more appealing with there being less and less you need a Desktop OS for. IMO it's already the best option for running a company, e.g. most companies would save a lot of IT Admin costs if they switched to Google Docs + Chrome Books.
> save a lot of IT Admin costs if they switched to Google Docs + Chrome Books
There's practically zero administration involved.
I'm sure there are companies who could benefit from this; but they need to accept that they rely on a single provider and its uptime for all their software and data storage requirements.
This is a huge trade off, and must be considered carefully.
Google Docs work pretty well offline, and I suspect Google's uptime beats the pants off your average locally administered "shared disk" type office network.
Turns out it doesn't. That may be due luck, but we used both for more than 5 years and our local stuff never went down while Google's did.
Difference is probably still in favor of Google because of costs as long as you use local backup copies to avoid being embarassed in important meetings.
Because of this I've replaced my parents virus-ridden Windows laptop with a Chrome Book, it's the only Desktop OS I feel safe leaving them with knowing that all their work/photos are backed up, and they're not going to be able to accidentally install any viruses.
Whilst they still spend most of their time on their iPads (which really hits the sweet spot for content consumption) they use Chrome Book for their few remaining productivity tasks.
It's easy to forget how daunting full-featured Desktop OS's are for non-technical people, hiding its complexity and centering all UX around Web Apps ends up increasing people's confidence since there's very little they need to understand in order to do what they need to do, which is generally just clicking the App they want to run - with all the remedial tasks are managed for them behind the scenes.
If I wasn't a developer I would likely just take a Chrome OS when traveling and as each year progresses Chrome OS becomes more appealing with there being less and less you need a Desktop OS for. IMO it's already the best option for running a company, e.g. most companies would save a lot of IT Admin costs if they switched to Google Docs + Chrome Books.