Nice bit of kit to simplify the internet experience for my dad who's over 70
He'd been getting a bit confused/irritated by all the crap you get with a Windows machine (Constant Windows updates when you need to use the machine, misplaced photos due to confusing explorer shortcuts, constant bleating from the AV telling him how it saved him from yet another malicious cookie or a fishing attack).
It was time to take a hard look at what his needs were and the best platform to help him. I did consider giving him my old MacBook but although nice and simple, even Macs need some care/maintenance.
First of all, the needs... namely:-
- Internet browsing (email, internet banking etc)
- A few games (Mainly stuff he likes from his phone... Sudoku, Angry birds, Tetris)
- Facebook (to keep in touch with old friends)
- Old pictures (to remember the folks that are no longer with us)
Hmmm... maybe a Chromebook might suffice?
Here's a nice one with decent specs... Off to CCL we go......
He showed a little bit of trepidation as he opened it, but... with this Chromebook, you literally just turn it on, connect ot the WiFi and log in with your google ID and everything "just works (tm)". No messing around with AV subscriptions, shoving disks/USB stick in etc. It syncs his contacts and pictures from his Android phone. It even has a touch screen for Angry Birds ;-)
After a couple of weeks, he's liking it a lot. Very shallow learning curve coming from Windows 10 and Android phone. Touch screen is flawless, battery life is great, it updates itself with no drama when he's not using it. If it gets stolen it's super easy to get started again on a new device.
It doesn't quite fit the bill for me though... I do a lot of software development and despite it having an experimental Linux sandbox that can run stuff like VSCode, GoLang compiler etc, its not quite flexible enough for me to run all the stuff I need locally with all the nice productivity boosts I get on the Mac... but it might soon, and for now its great for casual computing and pretty cheap.
