The Average Jo Blog

So Friday morning I was watching Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and drinking coffee when I heard a ring from the door bell.  It was the UPS man and he left a pretty big unmarked box at my doorstep.  I figured it was for my brothers but when I inspected the box I found that it was address to me from a weird address in Kentucky.  I hadn’t ordered anything so I thought this was pretty random.  I opened up the box and found another large box with blueprint images on it and no real company branding.

I started to think “could this be the Google CR48 laptop that was announced 3 days ago?” I quickly opened the box and to my surprise it was a Google Chrome OS CR48! I guess I lucked out and I was one of the first people to get a laptop from the pilot program. 

As of writing this I’ve had the chance to use the laptop for five days, so here are my initial thoughts on the hardware and OS. 

Hardware:

• One gripe about the hardware is that the trackpad is so hard to use. It is really sensitive and at times its hard to click and scroll. 

Chrome OS:

So setup is pretty fast, and you have to use your Gmail login info. I was kinda expecting a lot more when I started using the system.  I think a lot of us are used to a full OS, when you boot up its like your computer is stuck in the Chrome browser and you can’t minimize it. There are no real ground breaking features to talk about, ITS A BROWSER! You can surf the internet just like any other laptop running a chrome browser.  So I jumped into the Google Web Store to check out the apps and extensions. The apps are nothing but bookmarks to other services that are around the internet. So I really haven’t check many out yet.  I did happen to install a lot of extensions, and doing this really helped to make the Chrome OS feel more than a browser window.

• Gmail= Shows you an unread message count and opens up a new Gmail tab when clicked.
• Google Calender= Lets you see your google calender and add new events.
• Google Voice= Allows you to make google voice calls right from the extension. (Side Note. I would really like to see the google call phone and gtalk integrated into google voice.)
• Google Docs= really just a shortcut to the google docs webpage.
• DropBox= Lets you view and open any file in your dropbox folder, then lets you download the file to your Google OS download folder. 
• Pandora= A really cool extension that lets you listen to Pandora thru a little widget instead of going to the Pandora website, it also somehow skips all the ads.  I highly recommend this extension for anyone who uses Pandora.  
• Google Calculator= a normal calculator, but also has a function that allows you to input questions like “what is 5 gallons in pints?” 

With some simple extensions the Chrome OS is set to accomplish 90% of your daily computing needs.  I know a lot of people say “I need more stuff than just a browser for my day to day use.” But ask yourself this, what do you actually do on your computer that isn’t done in a browser?  Practically everything we do is on the web, except for heavy photo and video editing. So over all the Google OS works for me most of the time, but I have found that at times I still I miss a full OS and I have to bust out my MacBook.  But So far I’m liking the Chrome OS and it seems to be accomplishing a lot of my internet needs.  

Question:  

1. What do you think about the Chrome OS?
2. Would an OS like this be something that you would use on a daily basis?