Chromebooks are better than Windows Machines... Why Ask Why?

 Why ask why? A term that my good friend, Shawn Bowley (RIP) would say when some technological incident would happen and once fixed we would question what happened, something you would always do in production to attempt to rectify so the incident doesn't happen again. As the investigation of what went wrong turns up with even more questions than before the incident happened is where the term "why ask why" fits nicely.

So what does that have to do with Chromebooks being better than Windows machines? 

Well, it has everything to do with the fact that I was a bleeding edge supporter of the chromebook, buying a very early Asus model with touchscreen, followed by an early samsung model before getting the Pixel (2015 edition). Back then all the haters were saying how it was garbage because nothing worked if you were offline. Followed shortly after with, "you can use office on it, there is no word!" .  Little did these people know you could work in offline mode and yes, you can use google docs and word works fine there (through either import/export or view).  

Of course as with all technology, it improves. Wifi hotspots are everywhere so being offline is pretty much a thing of the past unless you are truly off the grid. But now there is starlink so even that is becoming a thing of the past, but I digress.  Android apps being a part of the chromebook would probably be the biggest game changer in my opinion. Once this happened, it opened the imagination of the crossover apps that could be designed to run in a full screen mode (for example). As the sales numbers began to grow exponentially for chromebook, Microsoft truly took notice and worked on a Microsoft Office 365 subscription model which would suffice the Chromebook market.

What I find quite interesting throughout all this time is how the Pro-Windows, Chromebook naysayers were beginning to test the waters and were more impressed, especially with the new rumours that Chromebooks could one day have a Windows/Chromium dual operating system. This had windows users head spinning. Add a world-wide pandemic where the global education system becomes dependant on the internet. Zoom shares go through the roof and chromebooks fly off the shelves.  Entire school systems and States in the US start supplying students that do not already own a computer, with a chromebook (as a loan--but many places have had a heck of a time getting them returned--seriously, why are you wanting a device that probably cost about $150 or less to make, that has been in use for over a year, to be returned?)  But again I digress...

Today, if you view many tech websites, Android Central, for example and this article by Ara Wagoner, it becomes quite evident that these initial Windows users that were the nay-sayers of Chromebooks, that moved over to the Chromebook , are now truly experiencing what those of us that saw this light very early on. 

Why ask Why?