Google Chrome OS experience on the Acer C7 Chromebook

I am writing this post for those who, like me, lick at the cheap and easy Acer C7. I’ll say right away that this post is more focused on users who work at a computer and do not use it as a multi-media device. I spend at least 10 hours with my chromebook (depending on the length of the working day) and therefore the convenience of working at the computer is critical for me. When I found out about a reasonably cheap model from Acer, I decided to try it out. For those who are too lazy to read further - I was pleased. The rest - read on.

Small retreat

This post is exactly the impressions of use, the thought of how to use this machine. Post about the delivery, where I ordered, how I made out the order, etc. (in photos) will be later. Now I want to express my thoughts in a somewhat dry form.

What was before ...

Before talking about the acquisition, it is necessary to mention the tasks I perform:

• work with e-mail (five boxes on average);
• work with documents of all imaginable formats (.doc, .rtf, .txt, .docx, .odt ,.xsl, etc.);
• business process modeling, drafting and project management;
• work with the regulatory framework, the search for regulatory documents;
• negotiations on the means of various messengers (icq, jabber, gtalk, skype, irc, etc.);
• working with site attendance analysis tools (Yandex.metric, google.analytics, etc.);
• graphics editing;
• work with company sites, site engines;
• software testing.

I also work “for myself” with php, css, html, tcl, python, erlang. Now I began to study Io (offtopic: chic language, I don’t understand why it is so badly spread), I’m waiting for official support for the GUI in Rebol3 (it’s been cut out of the build, but there are no unofficial ones compiled under * nix).
It turns out quite an extensive list of tasks that need to be grouped in one convenient workplace. Initially I tried to stuff all this on Windows 7, it became not convenient to use, if something needed to be assembled from sources - Hell started. Therefore, I switched to Linux as a working system (I used to pick it up for myself). I tried Arch, Gentoo, Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, CentOS. As a result, I stopped at OpenSuse as a more stable and less ancient distribution version (IMHO!).
Over time, it became necessary to transfer large files to people geographically located several thousand kilometers away. Began to use git, dropbox, box, etc.
Due to the fact that often our compatriots crookedly typeset documents (you should see some reports - this is terrible), and you had to correctly display it - you started using Microsoft Skydrive and their cloud office. And Evernote to which I was very used while studying at the university.
The bottom line: a large number of programs, many cloud services, a lot of software, a large number of constantly transferred files.
I’ll explain right away that I work on my own machine, because I need access to working documents 24 hours a day.

Acer C7 & Google Chrome OS

When the laptop came to me, the first thing I did was scold myself that I did not immediately order an adapter from an American plug into a domestic one for 1 bucks. I was lucky that the Packarge Bell on multimedia laptops was similarly charged (now they were bought by Acer). Therefore, the problem can be considered as temporarily solved (completely solved it when I bought this adapter in the nearest home appliance store).
The OS booted quickly, asked for the username and password from Google Mail, as well as the WiFi network key and language. The first switch-on took a couple of minutes, after which I immediately got to the desktop, on which there were no shortcuts or the usual start button. Only the panel at the bottom of the screen (transparent) with the buttons - Google Chrome, Gmail, YouTube, Google and the application menu (of which Google Office are installed, the file manager and a couple of applications).
The rest had to be put from the app store ...

Clouds

The first thing you had to get used to and understand was that most cloud applications on the system. The first thing that solved - office applications. Google Office and Microsift SkyDrive completely solved this issue.

Evernote - as a web client, no need to explain.
Messager - IM +. Previously sat on IMO, but IM + liked more.
For email, Gmail Offline (Gulovskie’s mailboxes are not Google’s — forwarding is done to them).
For simple calculations (on the knee) - Numerics Calculator (programmable, cloud).

For SSH, Secure Shell.
Sometimes I need to quickly write something that will not fall into a book or calendar. A mark that will be required for a couple of hours. I liked for this purpose Writer - a simple text editor such as a notepad, which is attached to a Google Account and saves everything written to files.

Editing graphics? I had enough written in flash - Pixlr Editor. This is not Photoshop or even Gimp. But for the purposes - to cut the background, paste it on the site - it will fit perfectly.
View graphics from the car, video and audio, in principle, too.

Modeling? The draw.io service I liked the most.
Then went the hobby that I do in the rare hours of rest ^ _ ^.
Choosing an IDE is still in progress. Main candidates:

• Cloud9 is a powerful IDE, supports one closed project and three open projects, can synchronize with GitHub and DropBox. It supports the syntax of multiple languages, has a terminal emulator (with the ability to call the main scripting languages).
• Koding - a fresh product, while in the stage of open betta on invite. I registered, a month later an invite came (if anyone needs it - write in a personal, there are 2 free ones). While in semi-working condition. I’m attracted by the possibility of immediately installing frameworks like Ruby on Rails and a faster terminal emulator (from which I need most of all - tclsh). Impressions of working in it are more pleasant, more responsive in work, more convenient in the interface (IDE hybrid and social networks).
• FriendCode - IDE for teamwork, that says it all. I don’t know how convenient it is, I didn’t have time to try it out. Later I’ll say what I chose and why, then I’ll add a description of this environment.

Compiling code? It is carried out mainly at home on the "working" (intended for development), a separate laptop with OpenSuse. Accordingly, the project files are downloaded through the interface of the same IDE.
Well and as a last resort - there is an excellent service which is able to compile 40 programming languages.
Music? It is also very interesting.

First of all, there is a great Grooveshark service that allows you to listen to music in the cloud and create your playlists. In this case, the missing can always be downloaded from the local machine and the music will always be available.

The second is the whimsical Achshar Player, which is even worse than tkabber. Written in HTML5 + JS offline music player with playlists, libraries and other things. At the same time - when opening a folder - it immediately copies the contents of this folder to the hard (i.e., opened the folder from the hard, all the contents were copied to the media library, tired - removed from the player and from the media library at once).

Extensions

Since Google Chrome OS is primarily an OS browser, it is especially important for usability - “add-ons” to the browser. So I have a simple clock (so I don’t even need to translate my gaze to the stump), a save button in Google Drive and a Gmail plugin that allows you to read and write without going to the service page. The rest has not yet been used.

Native client

The most delicious and interesting. Google provided a technology that allows you to make "offline" applications that are executed in a browser window. These are the ones I set up by Google Docs, GFort, Gmail Offline and a remake of the great StarControl 2 - The Ur-Quan Masters. Everything works "with a bang," without an internet connection.

So far, there are very few applications written in this way, but I think everything is ahead. Technology, as far as I know, is not yet a year.

Teamwork

Here comes the most interesting. First, Google donated 100 GB on its Google Drive to everyone who bought a Chromebook. Total we have - 420 GB of space (if you count the hard drive of the machine itself). Plus all cloud services. As a result, we have the space - 320 on a local machine and more than 130 GB in the clouds. We need to somehow tie it all up. Copying to Google Drive is done simply through the built-in File File Manager. But what to do when you need to throw something with a Box or DropBox, say on GitHub? There is an excellent service for this - openera, which can link all the above-mentioned clouds into a single interface through a google account and help prescribe the rules of the "send" files (for example, use Box for pictures). Need to transfer colleagues file? I share it in a google disk or throw it on GitHub (depending on the kind of file).

Impressions of the OS

Just gorgeous. Loads fast, works smartly, never hangs. It is updated more or less regularly, but not constantly like Windows. The first OS in which I simply work , but I do not play in OS setup before work. At first, it “broke” from the lack of a terminal, but now I understand that I don’t really need it for the tasks to be performed.

Ergonomics Acer C7

Photos - then, in another article. Now I’ve got an exceptional impression - I didn’t have a more convenient machine (I worked for HP, Acer, Fujitsu SImens, Dell, Sony, Asus). I hardly touch the stationary Packarge Bell with Win7 and the HP Pavilion dm3 worker with OpenSuse. 60% is the merit of the OS, but 40 is ergonomics. A convenient keyboard, a large touchpad-aware gestures, nothing superfluous.

What's left overboard

In fact, very much. For example, Google Chrome OS is a full-fledged Linux. Yes, initially there is no make, gcc, mc, etc. But there is almost the entire GNU environment, including tar and a full-fledged bash. However, for this you need to go into developer mode (which my friend did on the third day of use), after which the crosh terminal (called in the browser tab) can be driven into the "shell" command, which is very inclusive of a full-fledged bash in the browser tab. And that means we can improve the system to infinity. It turns out - we have a system that is equally suitable for both the user and the geek: from a housewife to an economic analyst and a programmer. I found the perfect Unix. What you want. Thanks to everyone who read this pile of thoughts!