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Six reasons why Chromebooks are a bad idea

Friday, May 13, 2011 · 4:28 pm · 31 Comments

“When it took the wraps off its stripped down, nothing-but-the-browser Chromebooks this week Google was attempting its own iPad moment,” Tom Simonite writes for MIT Technology Review. “Unsurprisingly, a lot of people are skeptical. Here’s a run down of reasons the tech press came up with that Chromebooks are a bad idea.”

• It won’t work with 200+ million iPads, iPhones, or iPod touches
• They’re too expensive at a minimum cost of $429 or $349
• People aren’t ready to trust the cloud
• Kaspersky says it’ll be a goldmine for hackers
• Google can’t do hardware and support well
• Google gets too much control of your computer and your data

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Comment Feed

31 Comments

Mac Daddy

Friday, May 13, 2011 - 4:33 pm · Reply

One reason why Chromebooks are a good idea: More blood on iPad’s touchscreen!
orandy

Friday, May 13, 2011 - 4:34 pm · Reply

Google sucks
- jim
  
  Friday, May 13, 2011 - 7:05 pm · Reply
  
  They started the Nexus phone without Phone support. And that it would cost more to return the damn phone.
  
  Is google known for customer service… YES. It’s known for the worst customer service ever!
  - JV
    
    Friday, May 13, 2011 - 8:05 pm · Reply
    
    You may be right, but Android isn’t the product and Google’s users aren’t it’s customers. The ad agencies and spammers are Google’s customers (the users and their info are the product/service) and they might receive excellent service.
OpJ

Friday, May 13, 2011 - 4:38 pm · Reply

I don’t want my stuff on some frigging cloud. What I want is the stuff on my different Macs seamlessly integrated and made accessible to me over the ‘net. I don’t want to spend a week uploading 3TB of music to some amorphous cloud, I don’t want my personal files on some cloud, I don’t want any of that crap. What I would like, after twenty years, is to be able to sit on the train, open my Macbook, access a file on my iMac, without having to remember which machine it is on, remember which directory it is in, having previously chosen to share that directory, with ip tunneling or whatever, and all the other bullshit that Apple is good at clearing away.

In other words, a dropbox where the dropbox isn’t a limited collection of files I’ve uploaded to a cloud server, but rather an abstraction layer through which I can quickly and easily reach files stored on my various machines.
- kingmel
  
  Friday, May 13, 2011 - 4:58 pm · Reply
  
  Good post, OpJ. Well said. Most people who talk about the cloud are thinking “thin client” stuff from 25 years ago. Hopefully, Apple will apply its magic and make iCloud something compelling, not just another storage locker.
- Brau
  
  Friday, May 13, 2011 - 9:16 pm · Reply
  
  I agree. The cloud needs to operate as a network connection tool rather than offsite storage. Personally I’ll never trust any company, gov’t or country with my personal data. I’ve seen how a company I worked for used recorded phone calls – only in their own interest and somehow recordings would magically disappear if the customer was proven right. Power and money corrupt, period.
- GM
  
  Friday, May 13, 2011 - 10:51 pm · Reply
  
  Amen OpJ. And Braun, well said. Just remember that Apple is the biggest,richest and most powerful of all the companies you can name. A bug allowed the tracking data to be stored on your iPhone? Pleeeeeeeez. Apple doesn’t make mistakes like that. We all know that. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Be aware. They’re not our buddy.
- AAPLou
  
  Saturday, May 14, 2011 - 2:20 am · Reply
  
  @OpJ In very few words you explain EXACTLY how it should be
- BigBlue
  
  Friday, May 20, 2011 - 4:50 am · Reply
  
  If you know what the cloud is then this product is not aimed at you !! It’s for people that want Internet, email and write the odd letter.
orandy

Friday, May 13, 2011 - 4:38 pm · Reply

I see Microshaft being the target here. If these things do take off, Microshaft will take the hit. Ipads and Chromebooks and OS X spell the end for Windows in the next 5-years, especially if Ballmer remains CEO. I’m so glad they bought Skype. I hope the buy Yahoo next for 20 billion, LMAO!
- Cubert
  
  Friday, May 13, 2011 - 6:35 pm · Reply
  
  Ummmm…..they did buy Yahoo.
  - Bob
    
    Friday, May 13, 2011 - 9:30 pm · Reply
    
    No they didn’t. They entered into a search engine agreement.
Jubei

Friday, May 13, 2011 - 5:16 pm · Reply

Sooooo many clueless people are still going to fall for this POS.
- Synth
  
  Friday, May 13, 2011 - 11:25 pm · Reply
  
  At $$429 or $349, I honestly don’t think anyone will buy this crap. That’s way too close to the cost of an iPad or a netbook or cheap laptop.
  
  I thot the prices were going to be $300, at most.
  
  And I don’t think it would have a chance unless it were less than $200. And then it would still be a very, very small chance of succeeding.
frobots

Friday, May 13, 2011 - 5:24 pm · Reply

These are no real reasons, just FUD.
- althegeo
  
  Friday, May 13, 2011 - 6:37 pm · Reply
  
  You must be one of those clueless people that Jubei is talking about.
- Failbook
  
  Friday, May 13, 2011 - 9:42 pm · Reply
  
  No real reasons? How about the fact that all Chromebooks run is a web browser, but somehow the cheapest one costs THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS?
  
  How does that even make sense? What’s the point?
  
  For $350, a person can get a computer that’s not only capable of running a web browser, but has system specs far exceeding those NEEDED to run a web browser and can also do loads more stuff. Like run actual programs. And store files locally.
  
  Google is asking us to buy their WebTV:Laptop Edition for $350(at least) instead of a real computer. A real computer that won’t stop functioning if you aren’t connected to the internet. I ask why that sounds like an enticing deal. I ask why Google is going to succeed when everybody else whos’s ever tried to sell an internet appliance has failed miserably at it. Even an iPod Touch is more capable than a Chromebook, let alone bargain-basement PCs people can get for practically nothing. Let alone second-hand Macs.
MacIIfx

Friday, May 13, 2011 - 5:33 pm · Reply

“a goldmine for hackers”
Hey, at least *somebody* will like ‘em….
TheMacAdvocate

Friday, May 13, 2011 - 5:34 pm · Reply

The Chromebook is showing Google investors 2 very troubling signs. First: the product was announced 2 years ago and 2 years ago it *may* have had a chance in the netbook market. So much for the nimble start up. Second, the product is just an effort to control more eyeballs than they already do. They’re becoming lazy AND greedy.
Ubermac

Friday, May 13, 2011 - 6:22 pm · Reply

This isn’t just about trusting the Cloud. It’s about trusting all your personal data to a company that has ZERO ETHICS.

Sure there must be millions of completely ignorant fools out there ready to jump.
AlfieJr

Friday, May 13, 2011 - 6:36 pm · Reply

but it’s open!

you should see all the Google-aide drinkers attack these skeptics.

MS wanted to be Big Brother. but Google IS Big Brother.
- DudeMac
  
  Friday, May 13, 2011 - 10:27 pm · Reply
  
  Microsoft WAS & IS big brother, but only slightly less relevant these days! M$ will never change their ways, they’ll always attack with their 3xE methods!
Cubert

Friday, May 13, 2011 - 6:37 pm · Reply

“They’re too expensive at a minimum cost of $429 or $349″

Are they f-ing serious?!?! $429!?!?!
vsp

Friday, May 13, 2011 - 7:12 pm · Reply

The Mac, iPads can do everything that the Chromebooks are able to, and more without the danger of one’s privacy being breached by Google and the its CIA spook master. I think Google is the outsourced arm of the CIA.
LordRobin

Friday, May 13, 2011 - 7:41 pm · Reply

While I’m firmly of the opinion that Chromebooks will go over like a lead balloon, I’m not sure I trust media analysts to tell me that. Aren’t they the same folks who, concerning the iPad, told us no one would want an oversized iPod touch? They do get sh*t wrong from time to time.

——RM
- LordRobin
  
  Friday, May 13, 2011 - 7:42 pm · Reply
  
  Never mind. Should have read the article. They address this in the first paragraph.
  
  ——RM
Nekogami13

Friday, May 13, 2011 - 7:59 pm · Reply

http://mobile.pcmag.com/device2/slideshow/story/264425/7-great-laptops-that-are-cheaper-than-a-chromebook

That is all.
- qka
  
  Friday, May 13, 2011 - 11:03 pm · Reply
  
  Dead link.
trondude

Saturday, May 14, 2011 - 1:41 am · Reply

Give it a week, they will still have trouble giving them away for $10.
BAC

Sunday, May 15, 2011 - 12:18 am · Reply

The main idea behind the chrome book is solid. The thing people do the most on their computers is surf the web, so bring the web to the forefront and make everything else secondary. If they combined Chrome OS and Android they may be on to something but till then… yawn!