When I knew I’d be shaking the dust of a little school district on the edge of San Antonio off, I decided to invest in a Chromebook I could rely on.
The joke was on me, and I ended up buying a Microsoft Surfacebook (first generation). I’d seen one at a demo and fallen in love with it. Yes, I love the silvery look of the thing. But that purchase came later. Surprisingly, the Microsoft Surfacebook beat my Acer C740 Chromebook into the recycle bin.
My Work Machine
At work, I rely on an old Lenovo Thinkpad (i7 processor), so it has held up well. It’s also a boat anchor. The Lenovo stays at work, doing its best as a wannabe Chromebook, but runs my favorite apps (e.g. Hemingway Editor, Shotcut, Handbrake, OBS).
Eventually, I’ll have to load GNU/Linux on it to keep it productive or ask for a new piece of equipment. In these times, I’m hoping that requisition will be a long way down the road.
The Acer C740 Chromebook with its 4 gigs of RAM, 16 gigs of storage, built-in HDMI port made it easier to carry around. I remembering it journeying with me to several places, among them Washington state when I facilitated a weekend ISTE Certification F2F session on a Saturday and Sunday. What fun to be able to do everything from a Chromebook, not having to worry about security issues, etc.
All good things must come to an end and get tossed into America’s landfills (or get recycled).
Nostalgia: Remembering the Acer C740
The Chromebook was my go-to for a reliable bit of on-the-go technology I could use in lieu of my school district machine or current work machine. Who wouldn’t want to use something light and airy in lieu of a brick of a laptop (ok, it was a Macbook Air, but go with it) or behemoth machine (e.g. Lenovo Thinkpad)?
Enter the Acer C740 Chromebook, one of the best devices I’ve owned in my life. That Chromebook has seen me through many a conference, countless blog entries, and projects. When you spend as much time as I have writing on different devices, you realize that each device tickles your brain in a different way. For some people, it’s paper and pencil. You need this pen or pencil, that piece of paper or notebook. I found it a better, more enduring purchase than an iPad 3rd generation. Given the difference in price, that’s saying a lot.
This weekend, when I loaded Crouton-based GNU/Linux (XFCE) on my old Acer C740 Chromebook, I realized it just wasn’t going to do (lines flowing all over the screen). The Chromebook side has been end of life for awhile now, a fact that became clear to me last week while I was presenting at TCEA’s Campus Technology Specialist Academy (#TCEActs).
Kudos to Google and Acer for creating such a great operating system and device. I’ve already decided what my next, low-cost machine will be. I hope it lives up to the hype.
Join me in a moment of virtual silence for a dear friend who has passed.
Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure
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Miguel,Your post inspired me to write my own tribute to Chromebooks. http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2021/11/17/in-praise-of-chromebooks.htmlThanks! Keep posting.Doug
Miguel,Your post inspired me to write my own tribute to Chromebooks. http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2021/11/17/in-praise-of-chromebooks.htmlThanks! Keep posting.Doug