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Robert Pogson reports:
Recent news about the popularity of Chromebooks with schools may seem puzzling.
Schools in Hillsborough, New Jersey decided to make an experiment out of its own program. Beginning in 2012, 200 students were given iPads and 200 students were given Chromebooks. After receiving feedback from both students and teachers, the schools sold off their iPads and bought 4,600 Chromebooks.
After all, a keyboard is a great input device and writing is one of the three "Rs" but why not just [buy] a notebook PC? The answer is that the high cost of maintaining the legacy PC is too great. Keeping content on the server makes the job easier and with Chromebooks, schools don't even need to own the server.
...then there's the malware, the slowing down, the re-re-rebooting with that other OS.
That makes the ChromeBook a winner in education and probably a lot of organizations large and small, even consumers. Of course, they could get those benefits with GNU/Linux but it would take more technical knowledge. Again Chromebooks win.
See iPad vs. Chromebook For Students
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday August 14 2014, @01:07AM
Thin client setups are great. When they are used for a specified purpose and all participant has a choice in the matter. Like switching employer or doing private stuff on another computer because you know the implications. Kids don't get these implications.
The major issue here is that Chromebooks is in essence tied to a nationwide mainframe. That's a whole another ballgame than an in-house mainframe where you actually may meet and dine with the systems administrator.
Before students are let on to these data-collection-laptoys. They should be given a sufficient introduction into that they can't trust others with their private data ever. And that these devices store everything in a way that's available to most people around them and future employers and fucked up governments. And that too many people just can't handle actions or thoughts of others they don't personally approve of. Should they want to be private, they must be told to only use secure devices that are in their total control.