The Web Experience — A Week With CloudReady
On August 22, 2020 I made a bold tweet about an experiment I wanted to conduct. A personal little endeavour to use and better understand the web-focused workflow that Chrome OS devices (Chromebooks) suit best. While I did have a couple of Chromebooks laying around the house, I didn’t have any current models with high-specs, so I opted to install something on my primary laptop called CloudReady, a Chromium OS-based operating system that is fairly similar in most regards. I was going to use this as my primary operating system for at least a week, getting all of my normal tasks done, including video production! The laptop I installed CloudReady on was a Dell Inspiron 13 7391, a device boasting a 13" 4K IPS display with 16GB of DDR4 memory, and a beefy Intel Core i7–10510U. This machine isn’t the most powerful, but it sure is no slouch, and in the world of Chromebooks it’s an absolute beast. So, with my excessive tendencies properly sated, I was off to the races with this challenge.
I will freely point out that my initial expectations were that I would likely be missing some things, though my appreciation for Chrome OS as a whole did instill a positive bias into my expectations which really drove me to continue despite this. Something I was ready for from the start was the unavoidable use of webapps. For those of you wondering what that means, it essentially means websites can provide their services or interfaces in a web page rather than a dedicated app that you would traditionally download and install. This is a very common practice, and popular services like Slack, Discord, Spotify, etc. all offer these in-browser interfaces for their services. What might be worth considering, though, is that occasionally there will be some features of an app that aren’t present in the web version, such as keyboard shortcuts for Discord when you’re doing other things. Because Discord isn’t tied into the system at all, it has no way of detecting what keys you press when you navigate away from the webapp, and this is for security purposes mostly. A minor annoyance, but something worth considering. Otherwise, I had no trouble finding and using the services I typically do. Things like Telegram were available not only as a webapp, but even as a dedicated Chrome extension/app, which was very nice to see.
For a couple of days I poked and prodded at the OS to see what kind of trouble I could get up to. Discovering the terminal, which had the potential to open up all kinds of under-the-hood components, as well as things like enabling “Linux”. See, while CloudReady (technically a distribution of Chromium OS) runs on the Linux kernel, just installing Linux apps on it is not quite feasible. You first must enable the function, which spawns a virtual machine, containerized, rather than running with access to your host operating system. This means two things. The first is that it’s rather secure, and that you can get up to all sorts of fiddling within the VM without worrying too much about your machine. The second, is that things don’t always work as expected. While you can install apps in the VM, and they are accessible from the host, and even show up in your app menu, they may not perform as well as they would if they were running natively on your hardware. Software like games or video editors will suffer some performance hits, making them unviable. Despite this, there are plenty of apps that are very handy to have available, even in a virtualized state, and I highly recommend anyone using CloudReady or Chrome OS to invest some time in exploring these functions.
So, with all my typical needs satisfied with web apps, or other general browser functionality, what’s next? Well, I also make videos, among other things. This means I need productivity tools such as a screen recorder, a video editor, and image editing software for thumbnails or video assets. This presents a slight hitch, as the tools I’m typically used to are not available for Chrome OS, nor are they webapps. With a little bit of digging, I discovered multiple different web-based offerings that solved all of these problems for me. First, recording my screen. OBS is usually what I use, and I’m confident it’s probably the standard for capture and streaming software on Windows, macOS, and Linux… So no matter what I choose, I’ll be making some kind of sacrifice. Thankfully, my basic requirements were met by an extension aptly named “Video Screen Recorder”. A simple tool that uses Chrome’s built-in screen/tab sharing functionality and feeds it into a simple video file rather than streaming it out to a web service somewhere. That’s right, offline functionality! Once I found a way to create video files, I needed a way to edit them. This is where I turned to an online service called WeVideo, a simple but effective video editor supporting multiple audio and video tracks, as well as 4K export with the paid subscription. While I’m used to editing my videos free-of-charge, I happily tossed in the $15 or so to make the most of this experiment. Last but not least, image editing software! Well, there was thankfully no shortage of options here, and I’ll happily mention two different services, both of which are more than capable of doing the trick. Pixlr, a service that offers both a simple and complex version of their online image editing tools, and then Photopea, a more complex editor that supports a surprisingly wide range of export and editor formats including PSD.
I went into this with an overarching sense optimism and enthusiasm, and while I have faced some challenges, I’ve found ways to accomplish the tasks I typically need to do in ways that I typically wouldn’t do them. So, from the start this has been a learning experience, but not just for me to learn how to do things… But I wanted to know how others do things as well, so I embarked on a curiosity-fueled escapade of discourse in various communities to find out. In a swarm of differing opinions and methods, I found two very key things. I found both that many people seem to have preconceptions about what Chrome OS is capable about that blinds them from experiencing or seeing the reality, and that those who do use CloudReady or Chrome OS seem to be quite satisfied with the experience as it solves a need they have. And that is precisely the point, isn’t it? That your computer does what you need it to do, and not everything else. I found a sentiment of peace with CloudReady that I had not expected to find. I found an operating system focused on getting things done, rather than being yet another thing that needs to be managed and micromanaged at every little turn. It’s simple, lean, focused. Which is exactly what most people need, even if it’s not fully realized yet. I personally find that, despite my fascination with technology, I want to use a computer to facilitate the tasks I want to carry out, rather than being a time sink of maintenance and stress. It’s here that I’d like to highlight my 10 hour battery life with CloudReady, my ability to totally ignore maintenance and updates because they’ve already been handled, my ease of access to anything from system controls to information on the web… It’s been a joy. Want the weather? Just ask the assistant for it. No need to open an app just for that. No opening Edge to search Bing for it, instead of just getting it like a normal human being would want to. Yeah, that’s the future. And it’s here. It’s now.
This experiment has gone exceedingly well, especially in contrast to some of the doubts that were casted by some folks, the typical “just a Chromebook” crowd that seems to be rather uninformed and misguided. I’ll grant that yes, I don’t have access to things like Premiere or Photoshop. But, I don’t need that, and neither does 99% of the population. In fact, the web facilitates almost everything that I need, and this was highlighted very clearly by my time with CloudReady. It has not only instilled a greater appreciation for the web experience, but it has convinced me to transition to it as well! The headache-free experience I’ve had with CloudReady has shown me that using something like this as my daily driver is not only perfectly reasonable, it’s exactly what I want! This leads me to some rather exciting news, and it’s that I’ve ordered a Google Pixelbook Go! My laptop is going to be a Chromebook, and not just any Chromebook, but one with a finely painted magnesium chassis that weighs insanely little and feels far better than just about any other laptop out there in its price range, even competing with laptops $700 above it! Chromebooks are known for being ideal devices for cheap and quick purchases for kids or adults with not much to do. And, while that’s certainly a fair assumption based on that very real part of the market, it does not capture the full picture. There are plenty of people out there who are well-suited by Chrome OS, who don’t want to make sacrifices in device quality or power. Who want the simplicity without the cheap plastic. This is why devices like the Pixelbook are so loved. This is why Samsung’s Galaxy Chromebook is an incredibly high-quality and gorgeous machine, despite being “just a Chromebook”. People. Want. Quality. Chromebooks can absolutely deliver that. They can deliver to those who don’t need much, and to those who expect the best. This is what I love so much, the flexibility and accessibility. I’d argue that on the low end, a $200 Chromebook has far more reason to exist than a $200 Windows laptop. On the high end, there’s absolutely no reason why someone who wants a purposeful but straightforward computer also expects to sacrifice quality, and this is why premium Chromebooks have a valid market, too.
So, the conclusion? I’ve learned a lot about the future of computing, which has been shifting for over 10 years now, and Chromebooks have the ability to enrich the lives of users without clinging to the crusty habits of the past. The future is now. It’s been a fun ride, and that ride isn’t over. CloudReady and services like WeVideo have shown me that I can and do love the web-based workflow, and I want it to continue to thrive. I’m excited for the delivery of my Pixelbook Go, and the future of my computing journey.
Thanks for reading. I hope I provided an interesting and challenging perspective of value. I encourage everyone to keep learning, trying new things, and being willing to shift their own perspectives, too. You never know when something will surprise you.
