Going Chrome OS - Abandoning Windows 8 and the PC

[ColoHox]

My wife and I each picked up an HP 14" chromebook for $270, and instantly wondered why we didnt get them sooner. A Mac was never an option as we have a strict apple-free household. My chromebook is faster and more versatile than the MacBooks I've played with that are easilly 4-5x more expensive. Really, I would prefer to fall into a pit of used syringes than purchase/use any apple products, and I know that sounds extreme.

I can remote connect to my widows 7 machine (because boo windows 8) for any .exe that I need, but that is a rarity.

My NAS, router, phones, media streaming, home security and automation, all run a version of android or chrome and the networking of these tools was a breeze. I am a huge fan of the chrome OS and all the new hardware.

 

[ubnserved]

But don't trust anyone but yourself for your data.[/QUOTE]

That is what I was going to say. Your pictures and data are only important to you so don't trust anyone to keep them safe.
I have gone a step further.... I keep one laptop for taxes that I can hook to Internet if needed, has vista I think. I also keep one server that stores and streams all our movies, music, pictures and of course runs Light ORama for the Christmas lights. Everything else is done on my Note 3 and before that a Motorola Photon with a dock for a bigger screen. Pretty much anything I can think of to do I can get accomplished on my phone.

 

[masonsjax]

I worked at Google for 10 years and got to play with some of the early chromebooks. At that point they were buggy and had major hardware problems. Once all of that was fixed, it was a good experience all around, but it wasn't designed for power users. We couldn't use them for real development work, they were designed to cover the majority of tasks the majority of users would be doing. They may have addressed some of the deal breakers for me by now, I haven't looked for a while, but I'm happy with my Linux stuff anyway. I might pick up a chromebook for SWMBO someday though, it would suit her needs perfectly.

 

[fredmercer]

Google . great if you like being tracked and all your personal info being stored and used for the Google machine to make billions . but some people love making Google richer by subjecting themselves to a no privacy internet experience .

 

[masonsjax]

It's been a long time since any kind of privacy like you're talking about existed. This is standard practice for every player in the game now. No sense singling out one Corp over any other.

 

[Schlenkerla]

Oops, forgot to quote somebody.

I have a chromebook as my internet browsing from the couch device. Love it for that. It isn't a PC replacement though.

As far as the whole windows 8/8.1 thing, I think people are massively overblowing it. People always bitch about every single major windows OS change then are fine with it when they realize that pretty much everything is the same. Vista was such a **** storm because it was an absolutely necessary 21st century upgrade to Windows to get it into the Virus era. Windows 8 was a necessary upgrade to get it into the mobile era. People weren't ready for a drastic change. Remember everyone crying about iOS7? Same basic idea, people aren't welcoming to drastic changes. Generally they prefer small changes over time which is why I think some OSs are more successful than others at not pissing off it's users. Like Android.

I of course often disagree with most people about OSs though. Most people love XP and talk about how amazing it is. But I will take Vista, 7 or 8 over it 10 times out of 10. XP is so slow and if you get a nasty virus you basically have to reinstall the OS. I've only had to reinstall the OS on my vista or newer computers like 2 times in the near decade I've owned them. Both of those times were hardware failure related as well I should specify. I've redone my parents XP computer 2 times in th elast 5 years for software related issues.

Well, that's what I like about chromebook, there is no need for anti-virus software. That's because you only install from the c-store.

 

[Schlenkerla]

It's been a long time since any kind of privacy like you're talking about existed. This is standard practice for every player in the game now. No sense singling out one Corp over any other.

There are encryption tools for uploading files to the cloud. I think boxcryper is one.

https://www.boxcryptor.com

Need to look for encryption extensions

 

[masonsjax]

I've got no problem with Google. I saw how the sausage was made and am convinced there's nothing to worry about. I was just feeding the paranoid troll that came here to spew hatred.

 

[Schlenkerla]

I've got no problem with Google. I saw how the sausage was made and am convinced there's nothing to worry about. I was just feeding the paranoid troll that came here to spew hatred.

Yeah, I know, you were easier to quote and shorter.

 

[unionrdr]

My extension for flash player in google chrome doesn't always want to work or load properly. Is there an extension unique to chrome?

 

[civilbrando]

I really want to make the switch. HATE windows 8. Will BeerSmith work on Chrome though?

 

[unionrdr]

Beersmith works outside the browser,except for the cloud thing in the bottom window. Works on Google chrome so far.

 

[Schlenkerla]

Running Chrome OS. I'm starting to use Malt IO. Like its simplcity.

You can get this through the chrome app store and its free. More or less a link to the website.

http://www.malt.io/

 

[civilbrando]

Thanks! Looks like I'll be making the switch. I really don't use my PC anymore for anything besides browsing and BeerSmith so no need to deal with the hassle of windows 8. Will be checking out malt.io.

Cheers

 

[Schlenkerla]

But don't trust anyone but yourself for your data.

That is what I was going to say. Your pictures and data are only important to you so don't trust anyone to keep them safe.
I have gone a step further.... I keep one laptop for taxes that I can hook to Internet if needed, has vista I think. I also keep one server that stores and streams all our movies, music, pictures and of course runs Light ORama for the Christmas lights. Everything else is done on my Note 3 and before that a Motorola Photon with a dock for a bigger screen. Pretty much anything I can think of to do I can get accomplished on my phone.

The whole paranoid security thing with cloud storage has me thinking about doing my own cloud....

.... I'm not paranoid, but its something to geek out on DIY.

I saw on life hacker instructions how to make your own dropbox with a solid state gig drive and a Raspberry Pi. It has me looking into domains and web hosting. WTF - I thought I would never do that...

Here are three articles that I found interesting... starting with security, doing your own cloud, then your own dropbox;

http://lifehacker.com/the-best-cloud-storage-services-that-protect-your-priva-729639300/all

http://lifehacker.com/5993596/how-t...storage-service-in-five-minutes-with-owncloud

http://lifehacker.com/5955727/roll-your-own-dropbox-clone-with-a-raspberry-pi/all

 

[Schlenkerla]

Guess you mofo's don't geek out this schlitz......

Was hoping I'd I find sombody who was doing some Rasberry PI geekin'


http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CXACPN0/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[ColoHox]

Guess you mofo's don't geek out this schlitz......

Was hoping I'd I find sombody who was doing some Rasberry PI geekin'


http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CXACPN0/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

There are tons of us, actually. We're just not chatting about it in a chrome thread.

 

[Nova5]

Industrial software.

 

[Schlenkerla]

There are tons of us, actually. We're just not chatting about it in a chrome thread.

Ah yeah..... that's a valid point...

 

[unionrdr]

Well, here we go again. Clicked on an e-mail from a "clerk to courts"...that should've been my 1st clue. It's "clerk of courts". Turned out to be the same dang unpublished flash player update that pops in on a couple sites I frequent telling me I need to update. Even their own site gives this fake one! It's loaded with a regenerating trojan. My new antivirus took out some 13 of them all over the hard drive. But the little flashplayerupdate window keeps popping in. You can't cancel it or "X" out. It just pops right back in & darkens the rest of the screen. Then it brings up the little window to choose an internet connection which is also fake, as my connection is on & running. I use google chrome But one instance of the trojan came through IE5? I've searched the memory addresses in the update window & the computer can find them no matter how or where I search. Even if it's flashing in the lower tool bar of the browser! I'm now in safe mode with networking till I find it. I could use some ideas on finding this hacker crap & giving it das boot!

 

[ColoHox]

Well, here we go again. Clicked on an e-mail from a "clerk to courts"...that should've been my 1st clue. It's "clerk of courts". Turned out to be the same dang unpublished flash player update that pops in on a couple sites I frequent telling me I need to update. Even their own site gives this fake one! It's loaded with a regenerating trojan. My new antivirus took out some 13 of them all over the hard drive. But the little flashplayerupdate window keeps popping in. You can't cancel it or "X" out. It just pops right back in & darkens the rest of the screen. Then it brings up the little window to choose an internet connection which is also fake, as my connection is on & running. I use google chrome But one instance of the trojan came through IE5? I've searched the memory addresses in the update window & the computer can find them no matter how or where I search. Even if it's flashing in the lower tool bar of the browser! I'm now in safe mode with networking till I find it. I could use some ideas on finding this hacker crap & giving it das boot!

Sounds like you are due for a reformat and fresh OS install. Back up your files and wipe that puppy.

 

[balrog]

Well, here we go again. Clicked on an e-mail from a "clerk to courts"...that should've been my 1st clue. It's "clerk of courts". Turned out to be the same dang unpublished flash player update that pops in on a couple sites I frequent telling me I need to update. Even their own site gives this fake one! It's loaded with a regenerating trojan. My new antivirus took out some 13 of them all over the hard drive. But the little flashplayerupdate window keeps popping in. You can't cancel it or "X" out. It just pops right back in & darkens the rest of the screen. Then it brings up the little window to choose an internet connection which is also fake, as my connection is on & running. I use google chrome But one instance of the trojan came through IE5? I've searched the memory addresses in the update window & the computer can find them no matter how or where I search. Even if it's flashing in the lower tool bar of the browser! I'm now in safe mode with networking till I find it. I could use some ideas on finding this hacker crap & giving it das boot!

Had my best luck downloading latest MALWAYRE BYTES on another safe computer to pen drive; boot infected PC to safe mode no nothing; install malwarebytes; run; boot to regular mode and run again.

 

[unionrdr]

The problem is, after taking out some 13 trojans, it still brings up the fake flash player update window & the window to choose an internet connection, even though my connection is on & running fully. Can't find them anywhere, not even unhiding folders. They keep changing the memory location in the fake flash player update window as well. I don't have a couple terrabyte drive to load my stuff into nor am I in the near future. And that damn "ping" thing going off like morse code.... I made a stupid mistake, thinking I had an e-mail about my dead cousin's estate. Turned out to be the fake flash player update. Dammit, I feel so dang stupid right now.

 

[pointcity-homebrew]

A friend of mine had this same issue, I used Malwarebytes and booted into safe mode as described above. The key is to boot in Safe Mode without Network Enabled.

 

[unionrdr]

I have OMG antivirus now. It works pretty good, but won't work in safe modes? I decided to call Computer Crisis again & have him wipe the system when I can afford it. That'll depend on how much it costs to do. He has large disc drives & whatnot to save my personal files before wiping it. This guy's hidden himself too well. I've searched the whole computer since Saturday. He'll have to download all the windows updates, etc. But I think this'll be the only way to rid myself of this hacker crap. Reminds me of Jurassic Park, " Please! *********, I hate this hacker crap"!

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Too bad you're in Ohio... For enough homebrew, I'd help you get this figured out if you were here in CA...

 

[unionrdr]

Thanks for the thought. Just like my Probe, the one genius with these cars is a few states away. One lil friggin' mistake. Geez. Haven't some people got anything better to do? I was watching the files whizz by on the virus scanner yesterday, And saw a couple like windows\system32 blah blah fat f*** thinks he...& file delete, & such. Sheez, what...somebody hates me for writing a book on home brewing? Or my sci-fi books? Or they couldn't handle the truth of one of my replies? Or that I got picked for that brew & a: thing? Or my dead cousin's estate? Money does change everything they say, but dang! I can't imagine what I did to deserve this??? I should've bottled my beer by Sunday, & I'm busy fighting with this crap while I figure out how to fix it? Need a few hundred for computer guy to do it. Dammitdammitdammitdammitdammit!

 

[Homercidal]

If you are interested, I could maybe figure up a time to remote in and have a look. I think Malwarebytes does a great job for what it's meant for, but sometimes there are remnants left behind, especially in browser settings that can cause continuing problems. They aren't usually very hard to clean up if you know where to look.

 

[unionrdr]

I appreciate the help, but I called Computer Crisis & he can wipe the hard drive & reinstall everything for $125-$175. Gonna take it to him & git-r-done. So I maybe not be on for a week or so, unless I can get on my wife's new laptop. I just hope this Belkin router didn't have a disc, as I can't find it? Not to mention, hoping I can just leave it & the modem running minus my connection? We'll see. So be careful of the flash player update site, as it's corrupted. And watch those E-mails for legal or official-seeming ones, like any "clerk to courts" bs. It's "Clerk OF courts" btw. And usually hard copy in the mail. I wish I'd have thought of that sooner. Live & learn. Never get to comfortable with your system these days. Take care y'all & see you when I can.

 

[Homercidal]

Dang! I should start charging people to do that kind of thing! I usually only charge about $40 for non "friends 'n family". I guess if I had to make a living at it, I'd have to charge about that much.

Your router will be fine without your computer. You can easily log back into later to make config. changes, but you should have the IP address, Login Name, and Password wrote down if it isn't already.