If they're not the best laptop for everybody outside of college, then they're not the best laptop for college students IMO. I wouldn't want my kids learning on something that next to nobody uses.
- How are graphics arts students supposed to learn how to use Photoshop, Illustrator and other programs that professionals actually use in the real world?
- How are CS students supposed to learn how to use the plethora of tools that don't run in ChromeOS?
- How are business students supposed to learn how to use the full Office suite, which most of the rest of the world is using on Windows or even OS X?
The "ton" of apps is kind of a moot point since Windows and Mac both also have a ton of apps.
I don't get your other point - you want to avoid issues with Word by using the "Microsoft suite on an App" (which presumably includes Word)?
> THE ONE ISSUE is Printing.
There is way more than just that one issue I think, if we're going to be completely objective here.
With things like Google Docs, Chromebooks are pretty powerful. I often travel with one rather than a laptop these days. But many college students are likely to run into situations where they need apps that aren't available for a Chromebook and, especially so long as Chromebooks aren't the norm, that's likely to be a problem.
The only thing I couldn't use my Chromebook for was for design-related activities -- running Illustrator or Photoshop to make posters or t-shirts and the like. I ended up setting up Guacamole [2] on my home network, so I could remote to my desktop windows box to use Illustrator on-the-go.
[1] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/secure-shell/pnhec... [2] http://guac-dev.org/
It's as idiotic as saying that future surgeons should only learn medicine theory on Chrome books. Do you not get that Graphic Design or Industrial Design departments should teach whatever is needed so that students get a job in these domains at the end of college ? Do you not get that students often have to build projects in professional conditions using professional tools ? Do you not get that you don't replace most professional tools in these domains by cheap web based knock offs ? So you clearly don't get why selling ChromeOS books to these students is wasting their money.
Says who ? Did you major in Graphic Design ? no you didn't.
I am confused are you saying I am wrong and students in Design don't need more then a Chromebook? Or they Don't Need Photoshop or in design? Or did you not read what I said when some students need more for example Design students?
Once again there are some instances for people in design for example who need more. So the MAJORITY would need more MOST don't.
Are people really PAYING to learn photoshop? Waste of money.
>How are CS students supposed to learn how to use the plethora of tools that don't run in ChromeOS?
The same way they learn to use the tools that don't run on Windows or OS X. In my experience if you go to a good college Windows is discouraged for CS in favor of Unix and professors are knowledgeable of Unix and it's limitations when it comes to running Microsoft only software. In fact for every class that I took that required some windows tool (very few) we were encouraged to use the windows machines in the computer lab. I never used anything on my laptop but Linux the whole time I was getting my degree.
I don't use chrome OS so I don't know how unixy it is though
>How are business students supposed to learn how to use the full Office suite
If you need to take a college course to learn word processing you're probably not going to be very good at running a business.
Word processors and photoshop do not require college classes to learn. They should just be a part of local community colleges that allow people to earn certificates for using office software.
You realize students in architecture or graphic design don't care about your petty OS war right? and you're statement is completely false. I went to a good college and I learned both server administration on Unix and Windows.
> Are people really PAYING to learn photoshop? Waste of money.
People are paying for an education that will get them a job, if the industry mandates the use of Photoshop for a specific professional task it's in the interest of a student to learn it. And obviously you don't know Photoshop, like at all or you wouldn't say the things you're say.
> Word processors and photoshop do not require college classes to learn. They should just be a part of local community colleges that allow people to earn certificates for using office software.
You realize there is a world between learning a word processor and Photoshop for a pro usage ? no you don't. Otherwise you wouldn't say such ignorant thing.
The problem is that you are a programmer and you think every discipline works like computer science where everything is in the cloud ... it doesn't.
What "Pro" Word Processor work are you talking about? Word Processors for Type Setting is horrible and the vast majority of people OVER use Word, Excel etc...
On what percentage of computers running ChromeOS can you install these softwares ? ZERO .
People use Excel when they really should use a programming Language like R or Python or other tools.
They're not paying to learn Photoshop. They're paying to learn to become professionals in a given field, and Photoshop/Illustrator/$PROGRAM are the tools-of-the-trade in that field. To pretend otherwise would be foolish.
I've had really good luck with Brother and Ricoh printers. From regular computers, network printing works very well (from Windows, Mac, and Linux), and their Android apps are also quite good (though they don't support the native Android printing subsystem, so I have to "share" files to them).
Anyway, my wife is OK with physically connecting to the printer and I almost never need a hard copy.
I was recently trying to print from Windows inside virtualbox on my Mac to a wireless Canon printer. After installing bonjour, Windows found and install the drivers for the Canon but when I "printed" to it only a blank page would come out. Sigh, so close.
That would explain why the machine with iTunes works. Windows isn't my daily driver anymore but I'll definitely try that! Yeah Canon printers always seem to work after installing the monolithic Canon drivers, but tbh it just feels wrong.
Printers using that INSANELY over complicated Web Services for Devices (WSD) seem to have a huge footprint on Windows PCs, are resource intensive, require extra running services on the PC, seem to have a hard time with multiple instances of the printer on the same network, etc.
Maybe a printer that can fold and launch paper airplanes....
I think Apple, MS or someone else must come up with a good printer and kill rest of the printer industry.
Ink is expensive because again: Most people don't print much, and most people have printers that that have some very specific ink cartridge and will blindly buy the manufacturer brand ink because it's easier that way.
If you print much, pay for a reasonable laser printer, and your experience and cost per page are both much better.
They did: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaserWriter
Everything since then has been garbage.
I try get my family members to use USB printer over wireless when possible as well. Wireless printing is more prone to failure, as chan happen when a wireless device changes IP, SSID or password.
Oh your ISP has an outage and you want to print? Well sorry the printer 3 feet from you is a brick until you can send your document to google again.
Who the fuck ever thought that was an acceptable design?
Well, Google. :P
My complaint is that they force people to use it because they support no other printing system.
[1] https://developer.chrome.com/apps/printerProvider
[2] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hp-print-for-chrom...
[3] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/wifi-printer-drive...
I understand this situation might (will?) change, since I'm a single young childless guy.
That's the most 1995 thing I've read all year.
What with all the smartphone apps which will provide you with PDFs of the casually snapped pics of whatever paper pieces you feel like shooting.
(In the unlikely case the gummint doesn't already have all the info you may need, and you can't just ask for a copy. Which is mostly the case nowadays.)
Lol true :) the main reason is when I have a big stack of paper that I want to trash but I'm not sure if any of it will be relevant down the road. It's a pain to go through each page and snap a picture, with a sheet feed scanner I just set it on there and push a button. The most relevant example I can think of is hospital bills - we had a baby last year and my wife was also in the hospital for an unrelated surgery for a few days, and all of the bills come on paper mail. It's nice to trash the paper and still have the record.
USB flash drives work well. Charging cables work well. HDMI sometimes works well. WiFi (nowadays) sometimes works well. Chromecast sometimes works well.
Printing is (at best) in the "sometimes works well" basket.
Buy a decent print server and a decent wifi AP (or a decent device that does both).
When I had a real job, HP were the print server to beat for us (a ~30 campus state-wide educational department). Now (in a home-office setup) I use an Airport Express with a Canon inkjet.
Maybe your experience is with Windows based network printing without a corporate network? I'm sure that probably sucks donkey balls, but honestly that's just another issue with the tools you choose. Choose a shitty print server or a shitty OS and you can expect to get shit.
Google Cloud Print : https://www.google.com/cloudprint/
How are they better than Windows or Mac laptops which don't have issues you've mentioned (printing/lack of MS Office)? They may be 'good enough' for a lot of students but they are certainly not the best.
THE ONE ISSUE is Printing. I have to help my daughter setting up cloud printing all the time