Chromebook as a replacement for a macboook (not for school)

[Guest salan]

My mother in law (she is 88) uses a macbook. she surfs the internet, sends a few emails and write a few letters. Apart form that she uses is to store all her photos from her camera.

The macbook is failing (it's coming up six years old and the HD is failing). Now recently, at a U3A meeting, one of her 'friends' (don't you just love people like this) said 'oh you want to use chrome browser, it's much better. Here I will put it on for you'

'Oh it doesn't seem to of worked, I had better just delete it'!

Que macbook not working correct since.

After waiting literally hours to get a response from the keyboard, I have got in and reset file permissions and corrected dick errors.

 

It looks like the Hd is not well and I am wondering if it is time to move on. She uses openoffice very well.

So What do people think about getting her a Chromebook?

Any potential problems?

she has her own laser printer at home. Can the Chromebook print to that?

Internet is via BT and is solid (famous last words!).

Thoughts please?

I am reluctant at her age to try to teach her how to use a 'normal' laptop. She needs something that will 'just do it' hense the suggestion all those years ago to get a macbook.

Alan

[teejay]

Why not just replace the hard drive, I know it's 6 years old but still perfectly serviceable, maybe stick an SSD in?

[Norphy]

Correct me if I'm wrong but OpenOffice won't work on a Chromebook, the only office style package she'll be able to use will be the ones included in Google Apps. Plus the majority of them don't have a lot of local storage so using them as a photo repository isn't practical unless she wants the extra complication of uploading them up to Picasa.

 

I agree with TeeJay, just put a new hard drive in. I have a Macbook about the same age, still works perfectly. A Chromebook may be cheap but a new hard drive will be cheaper and her old Macbook is still going have more functionality than a Chromebook has. And there is a lot to be said for 'better the devil you know'.

Edited March 11, 2013 by Norphy

[AngryTechnician]

she has her own laser printer at home. Can the Chromebook print to that?

Not directly. You have to use Google Cloud Print, which effectively means sharing it from another computer. If the Chromebook is to be her only computer, your are out of luck.

[Guest salan]

Replacing the hard disk is the first thought I had.

But I wanted to explore other possibilities that MAY of been a simpler option for her.

My thought with chromebook was that the stuff is stored (pictures/docs etc) in the cloud.

I do NOT want to start trying to get her to understand something like dropbox etc. For now that would perhaps be a step to far (not sure if she is starting with alzheimer's, which is another reason to just change the hard disk,)

not printing from home seems like a major fault to me in the sense that effectively you can't just have a chromebook and no other pc if you want to print say pictures or letters at home.

The first thing I need to do is to get her to NOT let her 'helpful friends' fiddle on it!

Alan