This post is completely anecdotal but it seems to me the whole purpose for companies to get a foot-hold in schools was to entice users into their ecosystems as they grow up to become potential repeat paying customers.
I’m the “IT Guy” in my circle of friends and family. I’ve owned devices running chromeOS, iOS, android, windows, MacOS. This christmas I’m receiving a lot of pings to review specs for macbooks (usually the person goes “My son/daughter wants a macbook for christmas - I found this one on FB Marketplace. should I get it?”)
Not once does anyone say they’re looking at a chromebook.
My hot take - schools are shovelling plastic bottom-tier chromebooks into students hands, and parents + students alike are equating ChromeOS as a budget brand to be avoided. I know Google recently launched their Chromebook Plus branding to showcase premium devices, but I’m not convinced the average consumer knows anything about them.
Personally I think windows/mac/chromeOS are great each in their own way but it seems the average consumer doesn’t share my view.
Well, I’m an average consumer that also has devices running a variety of OS’es (Linux, Windoze, Mac OS, Android, ChromeOS) and have no problem recommending a Chromebook if it meets a user’s needs.
CB’s by and large are budget devices and, though they’re perfectly capable for most casual use cases, are overlooked because, as per the illogic and vagaries of consumerism, buyers aren’t strictly motivated by pragmatism and price alone.
I expect there is an abundance of M1’s, 2’s and 3’s out there that never come close to taxing their processing power just as most pickup trucks and SUV’s never see a dirt road or haul anything more than groceries and a couple of soccer balls.
Usually gifts and apple mean a direct connection due to status flashiness coolness etc. Also most people buy $1000 or above windows just because of gaming.
You could also be in a well-todo economic/social circle.
Just look for most sold laptops in Amazon. Then may be it presents a different picture.
In my circle I recommend for normal users (non privacy zealots) to go for Chromebook. That way I UNBECOME the IT support. All because it just works.
ChromeOS is still sold well in enterprise markets in addition to education. I have seen them used in banking etc.
Yes Chromebooks have a huge perception issue. People being mainly exposed to low-end Chromebooks has certainly hurt the brand.
I’m also curious how kids-turned-adults will perceive Chromebooks now that we are starting to get a generation who might have grown up using them in school. I suspect they will still be “those cheap computers that can’t play Windows games”.
I love low-end chromebooks. I know ChromeOS is more than that, but for me, low-end is where its at. Bc of the games I play and the work I do, I will almost always need a Windows laptop with a dGPU, and bc of that my daily driver will always be over $1K.
When I go on vacation, I like to be offline and not take my main laptop for many reasons. 1) get away from work, 2) fear of losing my data if something happens to my laptop, 3) monetary loss of losing/breaking/stolen $1K laptop.
That is where Chromebooks come in to play for me. A $100 Chromebook solves all those issues for me. 1) While I can technically work from it, its inconvenient and only used for emergencies, 2) all my important data is in the cloud and locked to my google account and I can deactivate the device from my phone whenever, 3) I wont lose too much sleep losing/breaking/stolen a $100 Chromebook.
Plus I love to tinker and a pushing a $100 Chromebook to its limits is fun I hope Google doesn’t abandon the sub-$200 Chromebook in order to fix their consumer perception. I personally have no reason to buy a $400 Chromebook.
I was an early ChromeOS adopter but I think Google shot themselves in the foot by not taking corporate users seriously. ChromeOS ticks off a lot of boxes: secure, easy to deploy/manage, lower cost, “terminal” oriented worklflow. But the problem is that they completely fell down on things like corporate VPN support, timely support for bug fixes, premium builds, etc… So yeah, I’d say that by ignoring everyone else but the school market they’ve bumbled it.
I see / hear quite a bit of “Chrome devices aren’t proper computers” because you can’t install apps on them and therefore they’re rubbish and only suitable for children.
however, I think this misses a huge point.
Back in the XP days, you needed installed applications for everything. Email, Documents, Photoshop, some nasty HP software to make your scanner work, Sage, RealPlayer to listen to stuff, etc etc. Internet / web based versions were either slow, crap or non-existent.
Now that’s just not the case. I’d take a guess that for the majority of users most of the time, they do already use web versions of these applications, or could do, or those applications are moving towards more online versions (MS Office included).
So what many people are going to need / want is a safe + secure machine that connects to all their web-based applications and they’re not going to need to install stuff. So that puts ChromeOS in a strong position.
A few years ago, if you were used to Outlook and Excel etc, wanted to keep using them and didn’t have “power user” needs, then you needed an installed version of Office on your PC. Now you could reasonably use the online version without suffering loss of the functionality you use. So you could use a ChromeOS device for that.
Anecdotal:
Parents had Windows device, ran it for years. Bought a Mac, also ran it for years. Both systems required substantial amounts of support to keep clean and healthy. Replaced with Chromebox and iPad - they’re quite happy, can do all the things they need and support calls have dropped to almost zero…
I like Chromebooks but I won’t spend more than 300 usd on one, and why? Because Chromebooks on that price range are way better than a laptop on that pricerange, but after that the software limitations make them worst as pricey they get.
So, I actually have a uniquely close perspective to this. My aunt has been an elementary school teacher in a nearby city for ~20 years, and she is basically a Luddite. Not her fault, she’s almost at retirement age and wasn’t inclined to begin with.
While I do agree that they are just mostly shoving cheap 4gb under-powered chromebooks into schools, there’s one huge reason they’re not going anywhere: the process to enroll and manage chromebooks through google’s services is far and away more convenient than windows/mac. Actually, my aunt is the TECH PERSON at her school… she literally comes to me to ask what she should help allocate funds to (in regards to general advice like what you mentioned in OP). So the ease of the google ecosystem basically guarantees that it’s not going anywhere. It’s just too convenient for mass-management.
But anyway yeah it’s really sad - I work at a massive tech company and most of my coworkers have no idea about CBs… AND WE MANUFACTURE THEM.
I’ve been on the Chromebook train almost since they originally launched, and I’m very pleased with where they’ve taken CB/CoS, so I shout their praises from the rooftops to anyone who’ll listen.
I actually forced my mom to get a CB after she fell prey to a ransomware attack, so I think it’s really good to push as a nice, simple device to older folks.
I’m rambling now. Boy do I love chromebooks. Warts and all
I interact with students (college) just out of college. I usually ask them what they think of Google Work Space and Chromebooks. I have not had anyone say they disliked it or had bad experiences. I think the challenge is that when they walk into a work environment, they are expected to pivot and use Microsoft and PCs.
I do think that Google has changed something recently, , I have not found the connection yet, but universities are starting to transition to Microsoft and leave Google Workspace and email behind. Which is tough, cause Google and ChromeOS are actually good options and easy to use.
I think Chromebooks and even the Chromebook Plus Models are terrific. But yes, I agree they need to continue marketing them more. I feel like they are slowly creeping into consciousness slowly as BestBuy has done a lot of marketing on Chromebook Plus Models.
Chromebooks really are the way to go. Affordable, extremely secure, easy to maintain, and great for the average consumer.
If it helps, my 17-year-old has been absolutely thrilled with a Chromebook plus that I got them compared to their very crippled school Chromebook. They also have a windows machine that they don’t use much anymore except for those pesky programs that aren’t on Chrome OS
I’m an IT manager for a school and Chromebooks are a godsend. You can easily put low powered devices in the hand of students and they work perfectly for 5+ years.
10 years of being a happy Chrome OS admin.
Eventually, these kids will become managers in companies and use Chrome devices. It’s only old people keeping windows going.
I don’t think cost really factors in, in the sense that when you are a school or business etc. you would contract with any laptop OEM you will always get favorable pricing for buying in bulk. Me being a laptop for $499 for myself doesn’t mean if a business or school bought those in bulk they’d be paying $499 for each one of those.
The real utility of Chromebooks for schools is how easy they are to centrally manage and deploy. Meaning you’ve got say 10,000 machines and you want to set the homepage to your school’s website, and oh yeah we use TurnItIn.com to detect plagiarism, we can add that as a bookmark. And we use Blackboard for a CMS, we can preset that right on the bookmarks bar. And the same goes with the plethora of education-focused Play Store apps (and probably GNU/Linux apps too!) - you can set it up so as soon as the student logs in all the apps just make their way down.
Combine that easy deployment factor with the resistance to malware, incredibly fast boot times, and a stable and secure environment overall, it just makes much more sense for schools to use ChromeOS over Windows.
Are there scenarios where specific applications that are locked-into Windows are needed? Sure. In highschool I took a class specifically on Adobe Photoshop - so that’s why you keep some Windows or Mac machines around.
But for probably 98+% of stuff schools and students do ChromeOS is the obvious better option - they’re not looking to ingrain a specific platform on students, they’re looking for a platform that gets out of its own way and lets people focus on the task at hand. That’s definitely not Windows. That’s ChromeOS.
Saw that Google now has 87% of the K12 market in the US. The space had been dominated by both Apple and Microsoft before Google entered the market.
That seems to me it is working really well.
It is rather genius on Google. They basically get the government to pay for teaching kids the Google ecosystem 6+ hours a day.
BTW, my kids all have two laptops. Both Chromebooks. Their personal one and then there school issued machine. They all use Gmail, Google Docs, Google Search, Chrome. etc. I can’t tell you if that is because they were given their first Google account in kindergarten or they would have anyway.
It is interesting that my kids happen to go to school where my wife went many years ago. Where she was first exposed to computer, Apple 2E. But the school now has zero Apple. Nothing.
I think it depends on the age of the child. I have a 5 and 7 year old. I got them a Chromebook so they can learn to use a computer. I wouldn’t bother getting them a windows laptop/Mac until they are much older. However, I have seen some posts on Facebook of people asking for laptop recommendations for either themselves or their kids and I’ve seen quite a few Chromebook recommendations.
Yes even more so now. I was in high school from 2014 to 2018 (UK high school) when I was here Chromebooks were only just entering education markets. They were a massive help in education for a lot of subjects, especially science and Welsh baccalaureate where we use it the most. Rather than booking an entire IT room, the Chromebooks were a better option. They were instrumental in getting computers around a building that was built in the 1910s. Back then we only had web apps. Nowadays Android apps and Linux support helps bridge even more gaps. I currently use a Chromebook in my applied cyber security bachelors degree, the ability to use Linux has been a major help for me to get used to Linux commands and use Linux tools and software for assignments. Not to mention that note taking on a Chromebook is a lot better due to USI support. In my forensics module I use a USI pen to help fill out search warrants and annotations for my compliance and risk management module when trying to get reports up to an ISO standard.
IMO, the goal of ChromeOS isn’t to sell Chromebooks.
It’s to sell Google workspace. It’s to get people used to the Google work flow.
If you leave hs and never touch a cb again, that’s fine with Google, because the enterprise, you’ll be perfectly comfortable with using docs and sheets and slides and drive.
I switched my family to chromebooks (partner still has an employer’s win machine though).
If it is up to me I stick with chromebooks for their ease of maintenance, I do not want to be the PC-janitor for the family. I know only one other person who switched.
In the end: Cloud-software is big, but MS and MAC and Linux enthusiasts have succeeded in keeping the association with “having a computer” linked to “being able to do things in a nice way” alive. Hardware based thinking still dominates. Even if most users are using netflix, amazon etc. etc. and many are acqauinted with Canva and other web-based services, they still think from the box they hold.
For schools I think MS and MAC will freeze out chromebooks through intune/access for staff at least. For pupils Chromebooks will remain big. I have more doubts about corporate uptake.
I’m not a school student nor a parent but let me give my thoughts on the situation.
I’m employed by Cognizant and on a Google project currently. As you’d expect CBs are mandated by Google for employees and TVCs but Cognizant uses Microsoft systems for email and Teams.
We’re not exactly given the cheap CBs, We’re given proper laptops (AMD Ryzen 5 12 threads, 8GB ram) which are also priced like proper laptops.
We use all of google services on our CBs and internal webapps as well (how do you think we make tableau level dashboards and code on CBs) but my only argument for all of this is…all these webapps work on Windows and Macs as well So buying a CB because webapps work on it logic goes out the window.
Truth be told I’ll not buy a Chromebook for myself because of my experience with the corporate device. I have a high-end chromebook and all Google stuff works perfectly, but as soon as you want to do something even remotely out of Google or Chrome you’ll have to find work arounds. Example, all tax return software runs mostly on Windows (I live in Philippines and am a citizen of India so file both returns)
The typical user (my colleagues included) are scared of running Linux on CBs and Bash commands. I showed them that we can install VLC on our CBs through linux and they lost their minds.
Summing up my view is that if you have a powerful device (even mildly powerful like mine) it is bottlenecked by ChromeOS, yet my device is not particularly cheaper then windows counterparts.
I hope Google doesn’t abandon the sub-$200 Chromebook in order to fix their consumer perception. I personally have no reason to buy a $400 Chromebook.