If own a computer, and use the internet, there’s a good chance you already know what Google Chrome is. With its bright, principally tri-coloured red, yellow and green icon, it has over the years slowly become the most popular internet browser on the market. What you might not know though, is that beyond Chrome as just an internet browser, Google created a whole operating system (like Windows) which can be used as a cut down eco-system on third party produced laptops, known as Chromebooks. Let’s delve in…

Chrome OS and The Cloud

As an operating system, Chrome OS as it’s known dates back to 2009, when Google first announced what sounded like a strange and unnecessary idea – a system built on its principal interface: a web browser. The thinking behind it was to develop a lightweight alternative where, rather than storing data and programmes on the computer itself, users would store everything in the cloud (for a little more background, I wrote another post on what exactly ‘the cloud’ and cloud storage is). As Google further developed the likes of their free office suite alternative, slowly but surely, Chrome OS began to make a little more sense.

The Birth Of The Chromebook

Enter Chromebooks in 2011. Initially, it seemed like a ridiculous idea. A laptop that can predominantly only run a web browser? Who wants that? At first, like Chrome OS, it seemed there might not be a market for such a concept. But over time, as web-based software slowly became more powerful and capable, their popularity grew and grew. People were beginning to see them as a real alternative to a Windows or Mac device, in certain circumstances. Having said that, let’s not pretend they’re going to take over the computing world any time soon.
Chrome OS on Chromebooks has some basic similarities with other desktop systems. Just like a Windows, or Mac, there’s a desktop area that you can customise (to an extent), but unlike the desktop in other systems, you can’t place any files here. It’s merely a space where you can arrange open windows. Early iterations of the OS didn’t even a file manager application, though this was later rectified by the introduction of Files – this lets you view the contents of a ZIP folder, or access items in Google Drive.

Chromebooks – Who Are They For?

Since their introduction, Chromebooks have done quite well in the education market, due to their relatively low cost, and the ease with which they can be implemented and managed in a school environment with large amounts of pupils. Over time though, their appeal has broadened to the wider public. They offer at their core an easy to use operating system, revolving heavily around the Chrome browser and associated apps. If you’re someone who just wants to have easy access to email, do some web browsing, and maybe type up the odd letter or other kind of document, then it could be for you.

It’s important to bear in mind though two factors – firstly, if you don’t already have one, you’ll need to create yourself a Google account in order to properly make use of much of the Chrome OS – everything from Gmail to the ‘G-Suite’ office apps. This doesn’t mean though that if you are, say, use Outlook webmail, rather than Gmail, that you’re out of luck. Far from it. Just remember that whichever apps you’re used to using need to have an online variant.

Secondly, Chromebooks are designed to rely heavily on the Internet, which means that many apps simply won’t work if you’re out of Wi-Fi range. Having said that, there are more than 200 offline Chrome apps that can work without Internet connectivity, including Gmail, and Google Drive. You can also view PDFs, view or edit Office files, play music and movies, and both view and lightly edit photos whilst not being connected to the internet.

So, all said and done, if your daily computer usage is mainly online, fairly lightweight, and doesn’t rely on software not available as web apps, a Chromebook could be for you. With many models coming in at around the $NZD 300-400 mark with decent enough build quality and performance (for what they are), personal cloud computing is here to stay.