I Got a Chromebook and I Have Been SCROOGLED!

I admit it.  I should have known better.  If I don't like Google Chrome as a browser... could I like it as an OS?

But I wanted to try a Chromebook.  After all, they generate all kinds of opinions.  Are they friendly devices?  Are they safe?  More than that, are they any useful?

Microsoft has been going to great lengths to persuade people that Chromebooks are little beyond bricks if you are not online or want hard drives with lots of space.  Scroogled, that is the word they used to refer to those users like me who purchased one of these devices.

Let's see:  I am not a cloud guy.  I barely use gmail.  I dislike Chrome.  I guess I'm not the best candidate for one of these machines.  I should get a Surface instead...

But here is the difference:  I am not afraid of learning!  I do not think that what most people do necessarily is what's best.  Malware is very popular...

Thus,  I did get the Chromebook.  It was hard to find one here, but I got it and it was extremely cheap!  (it's a Samsung, series 5 XE500C21-H01US Black Intel Atom N570(1.66GHz) 12.1" WXGA 2GB Memory 16GB SSD)

Certainly, those are not the most powerful specs out there...

Turning it on was quite a feat.  It needed a connection to perform its initial bootup and configuration. Is this a brick without wi-fi?   Then, it had to grab some upgrades and that took quite a while.  This was so Windows-like that I felt my heart fainting.  :P

And finally, ChromeOS greeted me.

Interestingly, I realized that I can actually get some of my work done offline using this little device. ChromeOS is fast, intuitive, and it has a pretty friendly personality.  It reminds me of the times in which computing was fun!

This chromebook, as it is, is a perfectly useful machine, at least for most my needs...

But what about other of my computing requirements?  Is Microsoft right about the limitations of Chromebooks?

Actually. I found this machine more flexible and useful than I expected...thanks to Linux, of course.

Using Crouton, I installed Ubuntu with LXDE (KDE was too heavy) on my new device.

This is what I got:

A beautiful, light, and customized Desktop Environment

All the great productivity tools that Linux has

And why not?  A little eye candy as well!

All this working with a minimal footprint on my resources!  Did I mention that, if I want to alternate between ChromeOS and Ubuntu, I just have to enter a keystroke combination?

But alas!  Nothing comes without a price!  To do that, I had to turn my device into developer mode, and that made the bootup longer.  Instead of the immediate one after pressing start, now it takes 15-20 seconds.  :P

Is a Surface as flexible as this?  We know the answer...

As a matter of fact, I'm typing this entry on my Chromebook...

Apparently, I have been Scroogled...and I DO NOT REGRET IT!