@Cylon Centurion
- Windows takes a minute + to boot compared with Chromebooks which do it in 6 seconds now after the latest update.
- Windows takes about 8s+ to sleep and 8s+ to resume.
Chromebooks do this instantly.
- Windows 7 is insecure 100,000 viruses and counting. Worm attacks and spam trojans are frequent in Windows - about 80% of the worlds spam was found to come from infected Windows PCs whose owners were blissfully unaware.
Unlike Windows Chromebooks themselves are pretty well immune from viruses because they don't allow installation of applications. Like Windows, they are vulnerable to privacy circumvention by malware posing as browser extensions which the user CHOOSES to install. If the user chooses not to install extensions or only to install extensions from reputable sources, then this vulnerability disappears.
- Chromebooks are zero maintenance devices. All updates to the device happen automatically, and all updates to apps happen in the cloud server. Unlike Windows, or other fat client OSes, hardware updates are not required in Chromebooks because dealing with application bloat is dealt with by the cloud application provider upgrading his server farm rather than by the end user. The only thing that runs on a Chromebook is a browser, which does not change a great deal in size (confirmed if you go on past history of browser download size). This is only possible without breaking applications on a thin client OS like Chrome OS, where no third party applications or drivers are allowed to be installed on the device.
On Windows on the other hand although a few security updates can be done automatically, you will need to manually: download and update service packs, applications, drivers and driver updates, find missing dlls, install OS options from the install DVD that weren't installed initially, troubleshoot device drivers, defrag the hard drive, and occasionally reinstall the OS from DVD when it becomes corrupted or unstable (note: Chromebooks check for a corrupted OS automatically every time you boot up, and automatically installs a clean OS image from Google HQ if this is detected) etc. etc. and you have to learn how to do this or pay someone else to do it for you. Basically Chromebooks are zero maintenance devices as far as the end user is concerned, while Windows PCs are very maintenance intensive devices and the maintenance burden for the Windows desktop falls on the end user.
You are probably a computer hobbyist, so you probably don't realise this, but the form of license subscription that most schools and businesses pay for OS software to be kept continuously updated require a (fairly expensive) subscription to be paid to Microsoft, and anti-virus software also require subscriptions for non-personal use.
- Why should you pay more for less indeed.
With Chromebooks, you do get more for less - more time to use your computer for work, learning or leisure, for less time spent on configuring, maintaining and updating your PC, and learning how to do this.
If you want to talk about pure monetary value, then you still get much more for much less with Chromebooks. If you are a cash strapped computer hobbyist who finds it difficult to cough up the initial extra $100 or so for a Chromebook over a Windows 7 netbook, then a Windows 7 netbook may be the right choice for you. As a hobbyist, you will put up with the painfull slowness that comes from trying to cram a fat OS like Windows 7 onto underspecified hardware for the purpose, and put up with the low build quality of the hardware. You may also be willing to put up with the cramped keyboard and low screen resolution, and do the configuration, maintenance and upgrades yourself for free and learn how to do this in your own time. On the other hand, if you are a school or business, you have to pay somebody to do all that. Computer hardware is very cheap, but unfortunately IT labour costs are not, and for the $100 you saved by opting for a Windows 7 netbook, you will have to pay at least ten times that amount per year ($1000) for provisioning, and maintaining a Windows PC. From a practical point of view, the robustness of Chromebooks in terms of being tamperproof is also a huge plus in a typical school. In schools using Windows desktops - particularly without tight centrally managed server based lockdown, typically 20% of the desktops are inoperable at any time, and most of the remainder have been tampered with and are dysfunctional to some degree.
Chromebooks are a huge plus for schools moneywise, timewise and in terms of productivity. Course management software like Moodle or Blackboard are web based and can be outsourced to cloud located servers. If Windows applications are required for certain courses, then that can be provided on Chromebooks via Citrix Receiver running virtualized on a server for easier management and lockdown. You can also outsource virtual Windows desktops - eg.
http://www.nextdesktop.com/cloud-desktop-how-it-works.html.
