{"id":854,"date":"2024-10-06T14:53:39","date_gmt":"2024-10-06T20:53:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fallingstuff.net\/journal\/?p=854"},"modified":"2025-10-22T04:16:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T10:16:20","slug":"a-browser-based-laptop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fallingworks.com\/blog\/2024\/10\/06\/a-browser-based-laptop\/","title":{"rendered":"A Browser Based Laptop!?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Back in 2011 Google announced<\/a> this interesting compute device, a Chromebook, basically a laptop that ran Chrome and Chrome alone. Out of the gate, I thought this was the most pointless idea I had heard of and, at the time, I thought I was justified in that thought. I mean, this was a device with a low power Atom processor who’s purpose was to go on web pages … Com’on, that is what I have a browser on my computer for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward a few years and something interesting happened, Android apps on Chrome OS<\/a>. Now, I am still not drinking the Kool-Aid here, but that device that was could just look at web pages can now use mobile apps, now that might be useful. Turns out a laptop that is just a browser can actually be useful. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Asus C300M <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I had one of these little Asus C300M<\/a> appear in a batch of “broken” machines that I purchased to repair and sell. At the time I did not even consider taking pictures of the damage – the battery was removed and the screen cracked. Of course … the previous owner left their account on it *ugh*<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I am not going to be ditching my laptop anytime soon, this is an opportunity that I could not pass up and see if I was right way back when these hit the market. The machine was simple to fix, as everything is on a single main board, with memory and storage soldered to the board as expected. A couple of (pricey) replacement parts and quick reset to factory settings later and I have a Chromebook (Pre-Android).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being essentially a laptop Chrome browser, the first place to start the test drive is definitely web pages. The desktop itself has a task bar at the bottom with the rest of the apps opening up in a menu more Android style. The cool part that I appreciated is that Chrome extensions are supported, meaning that if you have something like an ad blocker or password manager, they are likely to be available on the Chrome book (even one as old as this). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Showing off the apps<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lots of apps to choose from<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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then there is always Google<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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and yes, YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ok, so the web thing works, that is a good start but what about email? There is a Gmail icon, how does that work? Not quite the way I had hoped, but not terribly bad either. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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the icon opens Gmail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So the machine does web, not completely useless and the user experience is more or less seamless. Click on and icon and it does something and simply, just opens. This left me with really only a question of files – what of downloads, PDF’s, Google drive, pictures! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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downloads saved to the local device<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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PDF viewed in Chrome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Google drive? No problem. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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how about those pictures<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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you can plug in USB drives too<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is far from a comprehensive review of a Chromebook, this particular type (the Pre-Android version) is getting older and is not receiving updates anymore. Getting a chance to actually try out this device changed my mind about it being completely pointless… I mean it is still a browser based laptop and I do not plan of giving up my laptop any time soon, but as a device for just casual web surfing or having reference materials on while working on some project – without the fear of damaging an expensive machine should something happen to it – not a bad idea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in 2011 Google announced this interesting compute device, a Chromebook, basically a laptop that ran Chrome and Chrome alone. Out of the gate, I thought this was the most pointless idea I had heard of and, at the time, I thought I was justified in that thought. I mean, this was a device with … Continue reading A Browser Based Laptop!?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bluesky_dont_syndicate":"","_bluesky_syndication_accounts":"","_bluesky_syndication_text":"","footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hardware"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallingworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallingworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallingworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallingworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallingworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=854"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fallingworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2594,"href":"https:\/\/fallingworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854\/revisions\/2594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallingworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallingworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallingworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}