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As I'll be looking to replace my laptop at some point in the next few months, I'm beginning to look at alternatives now. Partly prompted by this thread, I have had a quick look at some of the latest Chromebooks on Amazon and it reveals prices virtually the same as entry level Windows laptops. I thought they'd be cheaper. Battery life seems to be quoted as marginally longer on the Chromebooks and apparently they boot in seconds. To be honest, neither of those is much of a selling point for me. I don't care if it takes 10 seconds or 60 to boot up.
Why would I buy a device that requires *mostly* online access to function fully (you truly can't edit spreadsheets offline?!) compared to something I can run full commercial apps with on or offline? Let's say I need to work offline for a day or two due to flaky or no Internet access and have a need to use graphics apps, office tools etc. How would a Chromebook manage this in reality?
If I want to edit a private document, the last place I'd do it is on a Google owned and run online app. I can already edit privately in Windows and easily encrypt my document, backing up to the cloud.
Even after reading the article and this thread, I'm baffled as to what benefit I'd get with a Chromebook that I can't get from even an entry level Windows lappy. Have I missed the point somewhere along the way?
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