Maybe the title is hyperbolic.
I love Chrome OS. I am thrilled that there is a team out there making opinionated choices about a computer user interface that isn’t just a slavish copy of Mac or Windows. I’ve been using little workhorse Chromebooks like the one I’m using to type this post for more than ten years and I will continue to use them until Google puts Chrome OS in the graveyard.
I don’t always agree with Google’s opinions about how I should use this machine, though, and I lament some of the compromises they’ve made to enforce those choices. Here are a few lamentations off the top of my head.
- The desktop is useless. I get that many people don’t like cluttered desktops, but let’s take a moment to think through the analog before we throw it out. The purpose of the desktop (in my opinion) is to keep the things I use frequently ready-to-hand. On the Chromebook, the desktop is just a blank expanse of nothing. I can’t put apps there, files, links to apps or files in the browser–nothing. What a colossal waste of geography.
2. The Tote makes no sense. What is it? What goes there? Where am I toting whatever goes in there from, and where are we going? Why does it appear sometimes, but not always?
3. Some “apps” open on a new tab in the browser; others open in their own window. I’m not talking about Android apps installed from Google Play. I mean shortcuts installed as apps. Blame me. I did something wrong to make this happen; but, uh, shouldn’t it be hard to make that kind of mistake? Aren’t these things used by millions of kids for their schoolwork?
4. Google loves installing stuff on this machine without asking me. With each of the bi-weekly required and self-initiated updates, it seems, the teams at Mountain View have got some new ideas for me to try. Sometimes these ideas mean they need to install new apps, like Gemini or Google TV, and
5. Many of the useful keys people want on a computer have been replaced with useless buttons. I’ll trade the Fullscreen and Refresh buttons for the “Home” and “End” keys. Google knows this is a problem because they had to build the whole app in the screenshot down there to explain the arcane grimoire of shortcuts needed to replace the keys they decided I don’t need.
That’s enough for now. I don’t hate the player; I hate the game. I want to make my own decisions about how my computers should work, and that’s not the game for a cheap Chromebook. That’s what Linux is for, no?
Still, absolutely nothing on the desktop? Really?
C.B. Crenshaw 