text: A Facebook Conversation on Chromebooks
  I recently posted that I got a Chromebook C720P for Christmas, and that I was excited, and a Facebook Friend sent me some questions, here’s how the discussion went…
  Hi Doc… last week I was looking at the Samsung Chromebook (Acer and Samsung) and I’m still hesitating a little on it. Now you show up talking all excited about it. Tell more about it. I understand you’ve got the Acer. Do you like it better than the Samsung? Is that the one around $250? I’m asking this cause I saw one on line (think it was Samsung) for around $800+. Give me your best thoughts.
  This one, the Acer C720P, has a touchscreen. Before this, to get a Chromebook with a touchscreen was $1400.00 – this one is high end, fast, and has a touchscreen, but it is only $299.00 on Amazon. It is REALLY nice if you “live” in the Google-sphere. I also have a Google Nexus 10 tablet and a Google Chromecast on my TV, so I am pretty into Google tech. I am working toward seeing if I can do all my computing for a week just off the Chromebook. Quite a challenge for me as much computer related work as I do. It is very fast, and comes up nearly instantly!
  Thank you, appreciate the info. Just one more question if you don’t mind… lately I’ve seen some laptops with touchscreen. Honestly, I don’t like it. To me it doesn’t make any sense… but I could be wrong. Educate me on this.
  I know what you mean. “They,” the designers of such things, are pushing us to a touchscreen world, because the prevailing theory is that the future of computing is tablet-like devices. According to these folks we are now in a “post-PC” era (Google that phrase for more discussion.) I believe that Cloud PC technology like the Chromebook can be a viable platform… but, I also wanted to have the option to move toward the “touch-screen” future that they are predicting… hedge my bet, so to speak. Also, if the Chrome OS experience is not as viable as I think it will be, I can install Ubuntu Linux on it, and have a nice touch-screen Linux laptop. That’s the plan, anyway!
  Oh, forgot to mention that the 720 (without the “P”) is 50 bucks less and does not have a touchscreen.
  Thanks for the insight. Also reminds me some… close to 30 years… and my first cellphone (from the company I was working for,) was one of those huge ones that you could use in the car or carry all those pounds. And the whole thing was basically just the battery. In those days people started talking about what we have today. That really sounded like it was a Dick Tracy thing. It really made no sense at all.
  A few years back, I would say some 15 years, I heard people talking about “in the future” computers with no Hard Drive. Everything would workout from a big computer installed somewhere. Again… no sense at all. And look where we are now!
  The bottom line is, things are always changing, and we have to be open to change… that’s how we stay current with the directions that things are moving toward. So, join me for the adventure ahead in computing!