Chromebook. It's a bit rubbish.

I tried numerous supposed office compatible word programs years ago and they cost me in the compatibility problems all the time and particular when I had copy-edited some book manuscripts for a press and all the formatting was wrong. Wonder why they didn't ask me to do any more after that mess, even though I fixed it all on a computer with office afterwards??

Yup. I even started a thread on here asking for what program is compatible with office & eventually I got the answer which is - the only program truly compatible with office is office.

I work on projects with other grad students all the time & contributing to microsoft powerpoints was a disaster for me using google docs or whatever their powerpoint program is called. Finally I just broke down & bought the student discount office 365 & rid myself of the compatibility headaches.

Just who the heck-hay uses a chromebook except a troll who lives in his mum's basement?

fact checker wrote:

Who the F'vck uses photoshop except graphic artist yuppies? Honestly. Also, if you are that worried about running photoshop why ON EARTH would you run out and buy a chromebook? That's like buying a smart car in preparation for an off-road rally race in the alps. Jesus you must be a total moron. Please, show us some of your 'edited videos.'

S. ballmer. wrote:

Photoshop, edit videos, play real games, do any sort of conplicated spreadsheets, use normal programs...

No, you are thinking of the MS Surface.

Liamases wrote:

Is a Chromebook (or MacBook) just essentially a tablet with a keyboard?

Arboles wrote:

Google Play is light years better than iTunes, syncs better, and MS Office can be accessed online.

I don't like google play on my andriod, but maybe it's better on a laptop.

The main thing I like with iTunes is that I can subscribe to all the music podcasts I listen to & they update on their own. With some other player I'd have to go to each podcast site, click download & then load it to the the player. Too much work & time.

itune junkie wrote:

...rid myself of the compatibility headaches.

Compatibility errors are intentional. Every software maker "accidentally" creates such errors. Open-source software tries to keep up with compatibility, but every new release of office just creates new incompatibilities.

track chick wrote:

What I miss:

copying CDs for friends

keeping all my photos on it. before you say data stick, I can't physically get a data stick in while I'm connected to the internet.

being able to transfer photos from my mobile phone to the laptop (which I can't do with the chromebook as it doesn't support the bluetooth transfer)

playing CDs

being able to do computer type stuff,

like I said, I was aware of all this before I bought it, so it's not an issue (but you asked).

It's still freezing so I don't know what the problem is.

It could be your internet wifi connection. Go to

and run a test to find your download speed. My chromebook (using Comcast) is 28Mbps. If your download speed is 1mbps or so, it could be a problem with distance, the modem, your service provider, or the Chromebook. If you have another laptop or a friend with a laptop, they can test at the same time. If both laptops are slow it's either the modem or the service provider.

It sounds like it could be a problem with your Chromebook, though. I've never had that problem with mine, but I think this is a problem with some Chromebooks.

I don't understand why you can't physically insert the SD card (the data stick as you refer to it) while connected to the internet. I can easily do it with my C710 Chromebook. I can also insert a USB thumb drive while online. Being online should make no difference.

Bee Kause wrote:

Just who the heck-hay uses a chromebook except a troll who lives in his mum's basement?

fact checker wrote:

Who the F'vck uses photoshop except graphic artist yuppies? Honestly. Also, if you are that worried about running photoshop why ON EARTH would you run out and buy a chromebook? That's like buying a smart car in preparation for an off-road rally race in the alps. Jesus you must be a total moron. Please, show us some of your 'edited videos.'

He is the 1%. No, not that 1%.

Just get an iPad or best available Android tablet.

I've been using Samsung ChromeBook for about three months and it is just fine. Not a single problem.

itune junkie wrote:

fghhgdsddf wrote: What per se do you miss that you can't do on a chromebook? Bc you can just about everything.

Oh & I forgot Microsoft Office. So Office & iTunes are must haves for me.

I've tried the free ones such as libre office, apache open office, google docs & they are in no way compatible with Word, which is what 99% of college students & professors use at my university.

Not too many people know about Microsoft OneDrive, but it's a free online interface to store and do basic editing of Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents. All you need to do is sign up for a free account, then you can create and edit documents for the vast majority of everyday needs. I've been using it for a year and never needed anything more:

track chick wrote:

What I miss:

copying CDs for friends

playing CDs

I think I've found the problem. You are currently in the year 2001, and Chromebooks do not exist in your time. Give it like ten years and you should be fine.

I probably am stuck in 2001 to be honest with you.

To fisky, thanks for your advice. Strangely, when I switched it on today everything looks different in the browser. I don't know if it had been trying to update or something and kept kicking itself offline, but either way, it works well now and hadn't done for about a week. How typical it's the day after I post this thread! Anyway, I don't care, just glad it's working now.

PS the download speed was 4 which seems to be slow but it's working well now.

Re sticks and things, one of the slots is blocked off because I bought the cheaper version, and with the other two the slots are so close together when I put my internet dongle in you can't get another thing in the one next to it becase the gap between them is about 5mm. I've actually hacked off the side of a data stick to try to do this. My data stick is a usb stick.

Didn't know about sd cards. I'll investigate that - it might be a perfect solution.

Only one usb port seems to work.

My son has a Chromebook, which I use sometimes when I am traveling and I love it. However, I can't use it to do real work. It is by no means a laptop replacement; a Chromebook is like comparing moped to a motorcycle or a point & shoot camera to a DSLR. A Chromebook is good for what it made for which is one step above a iPad.

Ho Hum wrote:

itune junkie wrote:

Oh & I forgot Microsoft Office. So Office & iTunes are must haves for me.

I've tried the free ones such as libre office, apache open office, google docs & they are in no way compatible with Word, which is what 99% of college students & professors use at my university.

"In no way compatible" is 100% wrong. I use exclusively Google Docs now and have zero compatibility issues. That's reading and writing docx/xlsx files. If I'm sending a file to someone, I just spit out a .docx file from Google. The one thing Google can't compete with Word on is writing equations.

...and no one in their right mind would use word for writing equations when TeX is available for free anyway (especially with LyX if you need WYSIWYG). So what you're really saying is that word is useless (which it is).

track chick wrote:

Re sticks and things, one of the slots is blocked off because I bought the cheaper version, and with the other two the slots are so close together when I put my internet dongle in you can't get another thing in the one next to it becase the gap between them is about 5mm. I've actually hacked off the side of a data stick to try to do this. My data stick is a usb stick.

What model is this? They all have wifi, why are you using a dongle? The Samsung has two USB ports, plus the card reader.

track chick wrote:

PS the download speed was 4 which seems to be slow but it's working well now.

Didn't know about sd cards. I'll investigate that - it might be a perfect solution.

Only one usb port seems to work.

4mbps is slow, but if it works that's all that matters.

SD cards are cheap. A 16GB Class 10 (newest class) SD card only costs $13 on ebay.

Sometimes the USB problem can be the connectors on the device you're hooking up. You might try another USB device on the slot that you think doesn't work to test it. Borrow a USB mouse from a friend, for example. I have a USB mouse that will work on one USB port and not the other, but my other mouse works on all three USB ports. (My C710 has 3 USB ports.)

google is evil, facebook is evil. they're both joke half-assed advertising companies that get way too much attention and make bad products. use bing for a search engine and get a macbook, or even an HP. don't patronize these companies

I like it