Story

Tablets vs Chromebooks: an unexpected year

Preview

Keyboards & other thoughts. (Score: 2, Interesting)

by kerrany@pipedot.org on 2014-10-24 14:40 (#2TP2)

Programmer here: I wouldn't call laptop keyboards "great". Ever. Anybody ever found one that isn't terrible for programming?

Other thought: maybe people are getting Chromebooks for the hardware and installing other stuff on them.

Also, apparently Chromebooks are pretty full-featured. That last feature the article mentions almost makes me want one... and the price is killer.

The keyboard is still a sticking point for me, though. I don't think I'd be able to get much done without a separate keyboard and mouse... which sort of defeats the portability of the whole "laptop" form factor thing. Anyone seen anything that's not too painful to use? And maybe a mouse that's not a touchpad?

Re: Keyboards & other thoughts. (Score: 2, Informative)

by zafiro17@pipedot.org on 2014-10-24 15:04 (#2TP5)

I'm a non-programmer, but I hear you on the keyboard issue and you're right - laptop keyboards are a recipe for RSI problems. My HP Chromebook 14 has chiclet keys - easily the worst keyboard style ever. It's better than my HP laptop at work though, which is a very similar build but with slippery, flat, smooth keys. It's like, does anyone at HP actually use these machines to see if they're nice to use?

If you want to plug in peripherals and don't care about portability, there are Chromebox desktops too - I think Acer make them and I recall Bryan saying he had bought one. They look cool to me.

I bought my Chromebook to run Bodhilinux on, since my netbook gave up the ghost (sniff, sniff, loved that machine). But ChromeOS is working basically well enough that I've never gotten around to it. Maybe I should give it a try this weekend - doesn't seem that hard, and the hardware itself is pretty darned good.

Moderation

Time Reason Points Voter
2014-10-24 15:21 Informative +1 kerrany@pipedot.org

Junk Status

Not marked as junk