Google Chromebooks

A few tips for Chromebook-beginners, from an ex-beginner :P

1. Plug in your Chromebook device with the supplied power-adapter!
   
   You cannot power on the device right after unboxing, Google have really made sure you have to plug in the device before the on-board battery is linked to the Chromebook motherboard.
   
   
2. Make a Google account!
   
   The Chromebook-devices are online account driven. Every detail (logins, wifi-passwords, IoT devices, documents, links, etc.) gets "siloed" into the Google online account cloud storage.
   
   Allthough you yourself control the encryption passphrase and / or more security (2FA / HW Enc.). And Google does not take ownership of the content you upload into their services, like Apple does with iCloud (yes, look it up).
   
   
3. Share it with friends and family!
   
   Because the Chromebook-devices are online account driven, they are also easy to swap out (online account contains everything needed to set up just like your previous device) and share between friends and family (easy account-swap directly from control-panel or login-screen.
   
   
4. Enable Play Store to use Android-apps!
   
   Chromebook-devices are (basically) running Android made for tablets (that sport a track-pad and keyboard). So you only have to sign in to Play Store and every app you use on your smart-phone will be available for your Chromebook, although some apps are not optimized for big screens so actual use may vary.

You really can use both the Android-app version of a service, or use the same service in the Chrome web-browser. Quality of use may vary a bit depending on if the app is optimized for big screens in 16:9-mode (widescreen).

A couple of personal notes:

• These devices are not fully Stadia-compatible at the time of writing.
• I could NOT install the Stadia-app ("not compatible with your device at this time").
• Nor could I launch a game through the web-portal in Chrome.
• And the chromebook did not recognize the Stadia-controller on a USB connection.

Google Chrome / Chromium browser

I have been a promoter for Google-branded software for some time now. Basically, because they do it right!

And I am especially fond of Google's Chrome / Chromium browser(s). They have adequate security (sandboxing, etc.), superb' GUI-handling / -principles (tabs, integrated tools, etc.). It is the all-in-one multi-purpose web-tool for both users and developers in my opinion, and a lot of others.

But, I tend to hear a lot of complaining about "chrome getting slower over time", "chrome tends to crash rather abruptly", "it's beta-software, don't use it, use explorer", and the like.

I only have one thing to say about the matter:
STOP INSTALLING PLUGINS AND EXTENSIONS WITHOUT CAUTION!

Extending and plugging a software-package can be a good thing, indeed, when it's necessary to, but it really is a double-edged sword technology... too many extensions slows loading / writing and even exiting of a program / OS. OS-specific resource-handling suffers as well, which in turn is misinterpreted as performance-issues of the program itself.

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This particular advice also concerns operating systems (you know; OS X, Windows and Linux), the more crap (especially third-party bloatware and/or fake-service(s)) that hog up precious resources, the more sluggish and decrepit your system will appear to be.

Mac OS X and Windows also suffer from bloatware, malware and occasionally; viruses. Of which all can be prevented and removed, easily. If you prepare!

Updating core system components is vital! If a system is properly updated, it makes it that much more hard for a potential cracker to break in / steal / hi-jack / sabotage.

Be vigilant, clean your shit (browser-cache(s), OS-specific temp-files, etc) and secure your system(s) to the best of your ability (or the abilities of a more competent friend / family-member / co-worker).