Chromebooks: Desktops you trust
I’ve been a Chromebook believer for over a decade now. A week ago, I was reminded of one of the basic reasons I use them: when a Chromebook fails, you can buy a new one and get back to work in minutes.
I was in Myrtle Beach, SC, on a half-vacation – that is, I was only working six hours a day – when my old Chromebook failed. I hoped he wasn’t dead. I thought maybe it was just relaxation or maybe stunned. So I tried everything: removing a USB drive, hard reset, hitting it, and shouting, “’ELLO POLLY !!!!! Testing! Testing! Testing! Testing! Here’s your nine o’clock alarm call! “
Nothing.
He was dead parrot; I mean Chromebook. He had kicked the bucket well.
Now, if this was a Windows laptop or even one of my favorites Dell XPS 13 running Ubuntu Linux 20.04, I would be in real trouble. That’s because not only would I have to buy a new one, but I would have to reinstall my apps and restore all my documents.
That’s no fun.
Not only was it a great job, but I was away from my office, where I kept my backups. To avoid damage from ransomware attacks, I keep my main backup on a QNAP TS-453BT3 network-connected storage device (NAS). At my home office, it is available on a Virtual Area Network (VLAN) that is not accessible from the Internet.
Many people who work from home now do not have a local backup.
If their Windows, Linux desktop or Mac stops working, they are too lucky. Yes, Mac makes it easy to create local backups with Time Machine. But do you have an external drive or a NAS? Unfortunately, all too often, domestic workers have only their main engines with no backup drive.
The result? You are sometimes – even days – from going back to work. This is, in a word, evil.
But, if you have a Chromebook, it’s another story.
As it turns out, I had another Chromebook with me: The Acer Chromebook 515 CB515. This was a review unit – spoiler alert, it’s a good machine – that I hadn’t even unboxed yet. So I took it out, plugged it in, connected it to my condom’s Wi – Fi, and was back to work in five minutes.
Plus, I just didn’t get back to work. I was literally back on the same line in my document. I had not lost a single word.
That’s one of the big reasons I recommend Chromebooks for small businesses, especially for those with a lot of remote workers.
No need to worry about backups if you standardize Chromebooks. If you do not save work locally, which few people do, everything that works for people will be automatically saved to their Google Drive.
If you have more than a handful of staff, you can subscribe to a Google Workspace accountand for as little as $ 6 a month, their work is preserved even if a truck takes over their Chromebook.
Yes, there are many others Desk as a Service (DaaS) offers. However, most of them are more complicated to set up. If something happens using a Windows machine Windows 365 cloud PCfor example, you may still need to install and set up their users Windows Desktop Client on his new computer.
It’s not a big deal, but it will take some time.
With Chromebook, there is no remote installation or setup. You run it, connect to the Internet, log into your account, and get back in business – with ease, hassle.
Now you can say with Chromebook, you can only work when you are connected to the Internet.
That has not been the case for years.
Google Docs works locally. You can also install Linux on your Chromebook. I always do.
Furthermore, this view does not lose the basic truth of computing in 2022. Almost none of us has any work on any operating system that does not require the Internet.
If you do not have the net, you do not have much work to do, period.
So for many small businesses, or any business with a team working from home, a Chromebook makes a lot of sense.
Now, if you will excuse me, I am about to go on a business trip, and I have to pack Go Pixelbook.
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Chromebooks: Desktops you trust
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