Update: 20200322
It’s been a while and things have changed. I still use my Chromebook, but far less often. My workstations and many other computers in my home have moved around. The new workstations is more powerful and I use it as a workstations (doing photo/video projects). The older workstation was a pretty good PC and now I use it as a file server. What used to be my file server is a now disconnected laptop and so it goes.
One thing that’s different is that I use my file server for day-to-day browsing and email. That’s because it uses my large wall-mounted TV as a monitor. So, cool cool. I can sit in my couch all day and do computery stuff or watch TV and sometimes both (because Internet TV’s possible nowadays).
Truth be told – if I really wanted to be frugal, I wouldn’t use the wall mounted TV at all. I’d just run Xfinity on my Chromebook and all would be well. But, I do like that large TV sometimes.
I’ve been using what I consider a workstation as my main computer. I’ve been doing this for years. Somehow, two monitors, a comfortable chair, and a peppy enough Intel processor with gobs of memory and a mid-range GPU is all I need. (Well, I do video editing and photography related stuff, so there’s a reason for the horsepower.) But most of the time, I’m just idling along, reading mail, Twittering and Facebook-ing. None of this needs a workstation.
Enter the Chromebook
I’ve had a Chromebook before (one of the original Google-made ones that they did their testing with). My daughter and granddaughter both have Chromebooks, now. I’ve been advocating their use for a while, myself. I bit the bullet and found an open-box Chromebook designed for school kids. It had just the configuration I needed to hook into my keyboard, mouse and monitor. Now, I’ll spend my days and nights with this low power consumption device. A small step for my green footprint? Maybe.
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