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Google says Apple and Microsoft make awful laptops and software

A new ad for the Chromebook suggests Redmond and Cupertino are a touch incompetent. Are they?
Written by Chris Matyszczyk, Contributing Writer

Video: Top 5 things to consider before buying a Chromebook

If machines and people have one thing in common, it's that neither is perfect.

You buy a phone and you know that you might one day have trouble charging it.

You buy a laptop and live in the hope that its keyboard doesn't falter or that it doesn't get invaded by viruses.

Read also: How to run Windows apps on your Chromebook

Google, though, would like you know that its laptops and Chrome OS software are rather perfect.

Oh, and that Apple's and Microsoft's are heaps of perilous dung, cast upon the unsuspecting populace by cynical, evil corporations.

No, Google doesn't quite put it like that it in its new Chromebook ad. But Lordy, it makes you think that life with any other laptop is a sea of despair buffeted by winds of torture.

Or, perhaps, has been.

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Still happening to you? (Google/YouTube Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/ZDNet

Google/YouTube Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/ZDNet


The ad seems somewhat to be a reminder of times gone by, as colorful beach balls and deathly blue screens peppered laptop screens like children sticking their tongues out.

Yet Google seems to think either that this is still happening or that the memory of those times has scarred people so much that they'll never be the same again.

The point seems to be that the Chromebook offers you virus protection.

Read also: Best Chromebooks for 2020 - CNET

This seems odd, given that, for example, Windows 10 comes with virus protection already built-in.

Apple, too, insists that its ability to swiftly update keeps you Mac secure.


I'd always thought that the main benefit of Chromebooks is that they're fairly simple machines, ones well suited to schools. Yet here Google presents a fancy Pixelbook, which is a rather pricey $1,500.

Of course, this is back-to-school time. Microsoft's Surface Go is about to emerge, as are new Macs. And perhaps laptop buyers are getting richer by the day.

Yet the need to snort at Apple and Microsoft seems odd, given that there's no real direct comparison here, despite a whole litany of alleged Chromebook benefits streaming at the end of the ad.

Read also: Chromebooks: A cheat sheet - TechRepublic

Macs are bad. Windows is a disgrace. Buy a Chromebook.

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Previous and related coverage:

Chrome OS goes detachable with the launch of HP's Chromebook x2

HP's latest can be used as a tablet or laptop.

How to add Linux to your Chromebook

With a sufficiently advanced Chromebook, you can now install and run Linux natively on it.

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