School Recommending Chromebook - Help!
Discussion
One of my children starts secondary school in September and as the school uses Google Classrooms they have recommended that parents provide a Chromebook.
Chromebooks are a new area for me but looking at equivalent price/specs you seem to get more for your £ with a windows laptop.
So the question is are there any disadvantages to accessing classrooms through windows or is it just easier to get a chromebook.
My concern is that the teaching staff will be more familiar with chromebooks and that there will be other apps that classrooms talks to (calendar, email) that will be a faff to sort out in Windows.
Any help or guidance appreciated!
Chromebooks are a new area for me but looking at equivalent price/specs you seem to get more for your £ with a windows laptop.
So the question is are there any disadvantages to accessing classrooms through windows or is it just easier to get a chromebook.
My concern is that the teaching staff will be more familiar with chromebooks and that there will be other apps that classrooms talks to (calendar, email) that will be a faff to sort out in Windows.
Any help or guidance appreciated!
Bill said:
Chromebooks are (or were) much cheaper than a proper laptop?Disadvantages of a Chromebook
So, it all sounds good so far, right? Well, it does, but technology pros will always tell you that there is no such thing as a perfect device. What follows are some of the reasons people think twice before purchasing Chromebooks.
1. Office
If you love Microsoft Office products, a Chromebook is probably not for you. Google encourages you to use its own free online suite of Office-like services. Many of these services are comparable to components of Microsoft Office, but they do lack features that you may have come to rely on.
Although you can use the Android version of Office apps, or Office Online, these services lack the full functionality of their desktop equivalents.
2. Storage
Chromebooks typically only have 32GB of local storage. Limiting storage helps keep the price down because component costs are cheaper. However, Google actually wants you to store your data in the cloud, and that is why it often includes 100GB of online storage for free with new Chromebooks.
3. No Optical Drive
A CD/DVD drive is quickly becoming a thing of the past with new laptops, but if you really need one, and use it regularly, you should know that you won't find one on a Chromebook.
Krupp88 said:
At the price point I am looking at (c.£300) the processors and RAM are evenly matched however the Windows laptops tend to come with 128GB SSD’s rather than the 64GB eMCC on the Chromebooks.
AIUI the point of Chromebooks is they don't need the storage because it's online. Likewise processing and RAM is less important. Basically you can get a functional device for less, but if you want to use it as a laptop then prices will be similar.Bill said:
AIUI the point of Chromebooks is they don't need the storage because it's online. Likewise processing and RAM is less important. Basically you can get a functional device for less, but if you want to use it as a laptop then prices will be similar.
I am massively out of touch on these things, I have a Probook thing provided for work and other than that it’s all Apple and Xbox’s in the household.Thanks for all of the replies.
As per one of the recent Chromebook threads 
- they are great at what they do. For a convenient device that just works, they are pretty much perfect for school kids.
If the school has recommended them, then presumably their IT department is set up to support them and the staff will be familiar with how they work (and, importantly, what to do when they don't work). Plenty of upsides and very few downsides to getting the recommended hardware in this case I'd have said.
- they are great at what they do. For a convenient device that just works, they are pretty much perfect for school kids.If the school has recommended them, then presumably their IT department is set up to support them and the staff will be familiar with how they work (and, importantly, what to do when they don't work). Plenty of upsides and very few downsides to getting the recommended hardware in this case I'd have said.
deckster said:
As per one of the recent Chromebook threads - they are great at what they do. For a convenient device that just works, they are pretty much perfect for school kids.
If the school has recommended them, then presumably their IT department is set up to support them and the staff will be familiar with how they work (and, importantly, what to do when they don't work). Plenty of upsides and very few downsides to getting the recommended hardware in this case I'd have said.
I think that’s the conclusion I am arriving at, Chromebook will do what it needs to (with the caveat that storage will need to be in the cloud), the school are familiar with them and whilst a windows laptop at would be upgradable in the future at the prices I am looking at I doubt they could be used for gaming ect it would just be that we could have the full functionality of Office. - they are great at what they do. For a convenient device that just works, they are pretty much perfect for school kids.If the school has recommended them, then presumably their IT department is set up to support them and the staff will be familiar with how they work (and, importantly, what to do when they don't work). Plenty of upsides and very few downsides to getting the recommended hardware in this case I'd have said.
Krupp88 said:
deckster said:
As per one of the recent Chromebook threads - they are great at what they do. For a convenient device that just works, they are pretty much perfect for school kids.
If the school has recommended them, then presumably their IT department is set up to support them and the staff will be familiar with how they work (and, importantly, what to do when they don't work). Plenty of upsides and very few downsides to getting the recommended hardware in this case I'd have said.
I think that’s the conclusion I am arriving at, Chromebook will do what it needs to (with the caveat that storage will need to be in the cloud), the school are familiar with them and whilst a windows laptop at would be upgradable in the future at the prices I am looking at I doubt they could be used for gaming ect it would just be that we could have the full functionality of Office. - they are great at what they do. For a convenient device that just works, they are pretty much perfect for school kids.If the school has recommended them, then presumably their IT department is set up to support them and the staff will be familiar with how they work (and, importantly, what to do when they don't work). Plenty of upsides and very few downsides to getting the recommended hardware in this case I'd have said.
bigandclever said:
My mate is going through this with one of his kid's schools.. they're going a step further and saying 'this is the model you have to buy, from us, otherwise we won't support it. All appropriate software for the year is already installed'. Naturally with the way tech tends to move they're already outdated in terms of spec you can get for the same money, so he's moaning.
That's not unreasonable, to be fair. Presumably they're not saying that you can't use something else, but if you do decide to procure your own equipment and you have problems then they won't be responsible for making it work.I've just bought my kids a Chromebook each for the same reason. Picked a full-size, full-HD Asus model from Currys for £230:
https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/la...
Very happy with them. The screens aren't as bright/clear as my £1300 HP laptop, natch, but otherwise they seem well-suited to the job of providing access to Google Classroom, plus YouTube and the web. They won't slow down like a Windows laptop eventually will, won't get riddled with viruses and malware, and I won't be cross about the cost of replacement if the kids drop them or stand on them. 9 hour battery life too.
Chromebooks are (or were) much cheaper than a proper laptop?Chromebooks can be, because they're essentially a tablet with a keyboard. Chromebook's OS, like Android, is open source and as such fundamentally insecure (even though they'll tell you it's not), not least because large swathes of the apps on Google Play assign themselves access to your data and devices.. Can you tell me what you mean by fundamentally insecure? My Android phone isn't fundamentally insecure, so what makes a Chromebook so bad? Are you suggesting that open source software is fundamentally insecure generally? The thousands of developers and enthusiasts of Linux-based systems might argue otherwise 
https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/la...
Very happy with them. The screens aren't as bright/clear as my £1300 HP laptop, natch, but otherwise they seem well-suited to the job of providing access to Google Classroom, plus YouTube and the web. They won't slow down like a Windows laptop eventually will, won't get riddled with viruses and malware, and I won't be cross about the cost of replacement if the kids drop them or stand on them. 9 hour battery life too.
Ronstein said:
Bill said:
Chromebooks are (or were) much cheaper than a proper laptop?Ronstein said:
Disadvantages of a Chromebook
So, it all sounds good so far, right? Well, it does, but technology pros will always tell you that there is no such thing as a perfect device. What follows are some of the reasons people think twice before purchasing Chromebooks.
1. Office
If you love Microsoft Office products, a Chromebook is probably not for you. Google encourages you to use its own free online suite of Office-like services. Many of these services are comparable to components of Microsoft Office, but they do lack features that you may have come to rely on.
Although you can use the Android version of Office apps, or Office Online, these services lack the full functionality of their desktop equivalents.
2. Storage
Chromebooks typically only have 32GB of local storage. Limiting storage helps keep the price down because component costs are cheaper. However, Google actually wants you to store your data in the cloud, and that is why it often includes 100GB of online storage for free with new Chromebooks.
3. No Optical Drive
A CD/DVD drive is quickly becoming a thing of the past with new laptops, but if you really need one, and use it regularly, you should know that you won't find one on a Chromebook.
You're completely missing the requirements that the OP's school has put on this device. They don't need large built-in storage, or a CD/DVD drive, or Microsoft Office. Everything's in the cloud for schoolwork, and kids these days stream everything. They don't need to store movies, or watch DVDs or whatever you might use your Windows laptop for So, it all sounds good so far, right? Well, it does, but technology pros will always tell you that there is no such thing as a perfect device. What follows are some of the reasons people think twice before purchasing Chromebooks.
1. Office
If you love Microsoft Office products, a Chromebook is probably not for you. Google encourages you to use its own free online suite of Office-like services. Many of these services are comparable to components of Microsoft Office, but they do lack features that you may have come to rely on.
Although you can use the Android version of Office apps, or Office Online, these services lack the full functionality of their desktop equivalents.
2. Storage
Chromebooks typically only have 32GB of local storage. Limiting storage helps keep the price down because component costs are cheaper. However, Google actually wants you to store your data in the cloud, and that is why it often includes 100GB of online storage for free with new Chromebooks.
3. No Optical Drive
A CD/DVD drive is quickly becoming a thing of the past with new laptops, but if you really need one, and use it regularly, you should know that you won't find one on a Chromebook.
bigandclever said:
My mate is going through this with one of his kid's schools.. they're going a step further and saying 'this is the model you have to buy, from us, otherwise we won't support it. All appropriate software for the year is already installed'. Naturally with the way tech tends to move they're already outdated in terms of spec you can get for the same money, so he's moaning.
Our kids' school tried to get us to sign up to buy an iPad for each of them through some scheme, at a cost of £470 each or something. Absolute nonsense. Just means there's a solution for any parents who've got more money than interest.If the school recommends a Chromebook then roll with it.
Chrome OS is fully capable of fulfilling 99% of people's computing needs these days. The only limitations are the hardware spec for certain usage cases, as with any other desktop OS.
One question to ask is if the school will be providing a student account only, or if they'll be managing the device via a device management licence.
I'd imagine it's a student account only, but if device management is mentioned post back here.
Chrome OS is fully capable of fulfilling 99% of people's computing needs these days. The only limitations are the hardware spec for certain usage cases, as with any other desktop OS.
One question to ask is if the school will be providing a student account only, or if they'll be managing the device via a device management licence.
I'd imagine it's a student account only, but if device management is mentioned post back here.
Ronstein said:
Chromebooks can be...... /snip
Pretty much everything in this post is incorrect, and ill informed.No offence intended, but it reads like a biased copy and paste of stuff from circa 7 years ago. Even 7 years ago those comments were becoming outdated in relation to Chrome OS.
Corso Marche said:
Ronstein said:
Chromebooks can be...... /snip
Pretty much everything in this post is incorrect, and ill informed.No offence intended, but it reads like a biased copy and paste of stuff from circa 7 years ago. Even 7 years ago those comments were becoming outdated in relation to Chrome OS.
bigandclever said:
Amusingly (or not) it’s been lifted wholesale from here .. https://turbofuture.com/computers/Are-Chromebooks-...
LOL 
It's not amusing, but instead hilarious!
I had a look and it's a piece which was first published in Sep 2014 and has been slightly updated every couple of years since then.
It needs to die now, and a correct and up-to-date piece be written and published.
threadlock said:
You're completely missing the requirements that the OP's school has put on this device. They don't need large built-in storage, or a CD/DVD drive, or Microsoft Office. Everything's in the cloud for schoolwork, and kids these days stream everything. They don't need to store movies, or watch DVDs or whatever you might use your Windows laptop for
Quite. I realised the other day that we don't actually have a CD/DVD player in the house anymore in any of our computers.Gassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff