Google Chrome OS user reviews

Pros It's simple, kinda, but it also resembles a slight ripoff of Windows 7 taskbar had a baby with the iOS home screen with an Android launcher.

Cons Grossly underpowered, a traditional laptop could use the internet faster.

Summary One of my instructors brought some of these in for us to work on writing assignments, so that we could access our Google Docs accounts created for us to give her assignments. Once we were assigned one, we proceeded to log into our accounts to learn how to use the devices. It wasn't hard to use, but at the same time, half of my classmates couldn't even figure out how to change the time, customize the chromebook, and various things such as that that should be...well, simple, as the Chromebook is advertized as. Yes, it's pretty, until you put some sort of Bob Marley theme on top of Chrome. It's also not totally usable for the average user. If a high school/college student didn't want to try and figure out a new OS, what makes Google think an elderly woman would? Eventually, most of us gave up and brought out our own laptops. We noticed that the internet connection suddenly became significantly faster once we did that. Also, being forced to stick with Google services isn't the greatest thing. Yes, Chrome is a great browser, but what if I want Firefox? What if I want to add Office Web Apps instead of Google Docs? Note: We were actually given the 'higher-end' Samsung Chromebooks, not the cheaper Acer ones, either. I don't think I'd ever switch to something like that; it's not a terrible user experience, but it's not a terribly good experience, either. It's got a good way to go. Until then, I'd much prefer a Full OS such as Windows 8 or OSX Mountain Lion.

Pros 1. Drop dead simple
2. Google and go
3. Sync all settings
4. Remote Desktop to Windows based machines
5. Modern UI (most people are used to using)

Cons 1. Remote desktop app requires local installation of files on Windows
2. Remote desktop app doesn't sync across browsers.
3. No VMware View VDI App in the Google Chrome webstore.

Summary Great second laptop for students, college students, educators or people that don't like to have to worry about IT and "fixing" their laptop.

Pros 1. Idiot-proof
2. Secure
3. Maintenance-free

Cons 1. Oh so limited
2. Gaming isn't quite there
3. Support

Summary Love the OS part of our chromebook, typing this review on one now. Perfect if you don't want to do IT when you get home. A little too limited in some respects, even with gmail and gdocs, attachments aren't handled quite right and games aren't great, regardless of hardware. Of course it's a rough choice as a primary PC, too many places require IE still (like my job). The 100gb of cloud storage they're including now is a big step towards that, however. It's mostly music and photo storage keeping my wintel pc around, and I suspect that's true for most people.