CR-48 Chrome Notebook: Software Review

This post initially appeared as a note on my Facebook account at 2:15 pm on Thursday, December 16th, 2010.  I am re-posting it here both for completeness and to make it available to a potentially wider readership.

I’m going to start my reviews of the CR-48 Chrome OS powered notebook that Google sent me with a review of the OS.  I will follow this review with a Hardware Review sometime this weekend.  For this review I am going to ignore any limitations caused by the actual CR-48 notebook and only focus on the actual Chrome OS and it’s viability on notebooks and netbooks as a whole.

Startup: In my gut reactions I mentioned that this system was instant on; which isn’t exactly the case.  When resuming from sleep the system is instant on, but if I actually shut the machine down it does take about 10 seconds to boot back to the log on screen.  Completely shutting the notebook down actually requires me to hold the power button for a few seconds, where as putting it to sleep simply requires closing the lid.  I haven’t noticed a significant battery drain difference between shutting down and sleeping, but I haven’t done any significant testing either.

User Experience: The learning curve for using Chrome OS is almost non-existent.  The system boots directly into a Chrome browser window that you can’t close.  My mom could literally pick this notebook up and have no problem using it, which might not be a bad idea since she also couldn’t break it at all.  You can pin tabs and bookmark things just like you would in Chrome.  I have Chrome OS set to always reload all open tabs whenever it starts so that my most used sites(GMail, Facebook, ESPN, etc.) are open and ready for me.

Apps and Extensions: Support for apps and extensions in Chrome is currently lacking.  Most of the apps that are available are simply glorified bookmarks to a website.  Hopefully the launch of Chrome OS will get developers to finally create some true Chrome apps that utilize offline storage and are more than just a link to their website.  Extension support is a little better but the App Market is cluttered with a bunch of poorly coded, useless extensions, and themes for that matter.  There are some useful extensions but overall support needs to increase.

Multimedia: I think the biggest flaw of Chrome OS is the lack of multimedia support.  Listening to music requires me to stream a radio station or Pandora, search for songs on YouTube, or use something like Grooveshark.  All of these are great options but break down when I want to simply listen to the Ettison Clio CD I picked up at a show where they opened back in 2004.  None of them are even ideal solutions for getting my Flogging Molly fix.  The same is true for video.  Sure YouTube and Hulu have days worth of video but the lack of a Silverlight Plugin means Netflix doesn’t even work and makes streaming even less viable.  There is a lot that I would miss out on if this was my only computer.

Overall I think the platform is entirely viable, yes it has it’s weakness’ but so does the iPad and every other system out there.  I’ll save my predictions about what a Chrome OS notebook’s niche is for a later post but I definitely think it has one.  I’m going to continue using this as my primary computer so maybe some of these opinions will change as my web use adapts and I find new solutions to plug the perceived holes I see right now.  That’s going to be it for now; I need to go spend some more time playing with Grooveshark, for research naturally.

If you have any questions, want more detail, or want to know about something I haven't mentioned feel free to leave a comment and I will do my best to answer it.

CR-48 Chrome Notebook: Gut Reactions

This post initially appeared as a note on my Facebook account at 2:26 am on Wednesday, December 15th, 2010.  I am re-posting it here both for completeness and to make it available to a potentially wider readership.

I came home from work tonight to find a box containing a Google Chrome OS powered CR-48 Notebook sitting on my bed.  I wasn't aware that Christmas had been moved to December 15th this year.  I was lucky enough to Beta test Gmail, Voice, and Wave for Google and it appears I got lucky again and will be testing Chrome OS for them too.  In all seriousness getting to test this thing for Google is an honor and a privilege that I'm not going to take lightly.  I have an old Ubuntu Linux Desktop that is getting shut off for the duration of my testing.  This thing is now my primary computer.  I'll still have to use a desktop at work but the rest of the time it's going to be this and my Droid Eris keeping me connected to the world.

It's already 2 am and I have an exam tomorrow before work so I'm not going to get to play with near as many things as I would like to tonight but I wanted to at least post some initial reactions.

The Notebook: You can Google the specs if you are really interested but it's a little bigger than a sheet of paper, feels sturdy, and actually reminds me of Erin's old black MacBook.

Setup: Setup was a breeze.  I choose my network did a quick update and logged in with my Google account and had the whole thing up and running in just a few minutes.  I was able to open a new tab and post to Facebook about it the minute I had finished logging in.

The Trackpad: The trackpad is interesting.  I have never owned a laptop so I'm not particularly adept with the things to begin with but so far this one has given me trouble.  The whole trackpad is one is button and which makes right clicking or clicking and dragging interesting.  I'm sure I will get used to it and I am not about to say I dislike it after only 15 minutes or so but it's definitely something that is going to be different.

Startup: Google wasn't joking about this thing being instant on.  I password protected mine and the minute I open it it prompts me for my password and as soon as I hit enter I am back working.  I'm not sure what that will do to battery life yet but it will certainly be useful when I just want to check my email or look something up real quick.

That's going to be it for my gut reactions tonight but there will be a whole slew of these notes during the next few weeks as I put this thing through it's paces.

You truly belong here with us among the clouds...

Sure when Lando Calrissian said it in Empire Strikes Back he was hitting on Princess Leia, but that doesn't make it any less realistic as the message Google was sending me when they decided to give me this Chrome OS powered CR-48.

I have been using cloud based solutions for a while now.  My Ubuntu Linux powered desktop has been on it's last legs for about 2 years and constantly reformatting just to make it work pushed me in the direction of using tools that I didn't have to constantly reinstall.  The arrival of this CR-48 has given me the boost I needed to shut down that old desktop and join Google entirely in the cloud.  I'm going to update my Google Docs storage to 20 GB's and aside from using a PC at work and potentially downloading old documents to a flash drive to free up space on my Docs account I am going to be using this CR-48 to live entirely in the cloud.

I originally intended to use this notebook as my primary, but not only, computer.  After reading comments and reviews of the CR-48 and Chrome OS around the internet I have decided to revisit that decision.  Many people seem to hold the opinion that a Chrome OS powered notebook like the CR-48 doesn't have a place in the current tech market.  I intended to show that a cloud based system is capable of everything necessary to survive on todays web.

I'm not a tech reviewer, developer, or marketer.  I'm just an average guy trying to stay on the bleeding edge of technology, so for the next few months I'll be a Cloud City Commoner.