Still irked about that Microsoft “Scroogled” commercial I rebutted the other day, so I put together this list of things that I have done on my Google Chromebook; you know, the device that Microsoft claims “is not a real laptop” and “is a brick” without WiFi:
- Written over 200,000 words of fiction in 2013 (in Google Docs).
- Wrote all of the code to support my Google Writing Scripts.
- Wrote and posted several hundred blog posts and managed my WordPress blog.
- Managed my to-lists (with Wunderlist and Trello)
- Created and presented a slide deck on using Evernote for writers while at the Launch Pad Astronomy workshop.
- Live-edited a document with an editor in Google Docs.
- Made sure all of my bills were paid.
- Streamed NetFlix videos
- Edited photos taken with my Canon PowerShot digital camera.
- Captured lecture notes (in Evernote) while attending astronomy lectures.
- Built a complex set of spreadsheets for managing my personal analytics data.
- Wrote some code in Mathematica via Chrome Remote Desktop.
- Wrote hundreds of email messages.
- Kept up with Twitter and scheduled tweets with Buffer.
- Kept up with RSS feeds via Feedly.
- Kept my Inbox close to zero thanks to Boomerang for Gmail.
- Read a book via the Kindle Cloud App.
- Attended several Google Hangouts with Video.
- Watched YouTube videos.
- Worked on a story and nonfiction article for the entire duration of a three-hour flight, without any WiFi connection.
And here are a few things that I haven’t needed to do, thanks to my Google Chromebook:
- Install software.
- Reinstall the operating system.
- Call technical support.
- Worry about viruses.
- Uninstall something useful because it was interfering with other things on my computer.
- Clear out space on the disk, because I’d run out.
- Move document files back and forth between computers.
- Share documents between computers via Dropbox.
- Add memory to the computer because it was running too slowly.
- Wait for my computer to start up. Because even when it is powered completely down, it takes less than 10 seconds to boot.
Tell me again how the Google Chromebook isn’t a real laptop, and how I’ve been “scroogled”?