Neverware Cloudready baffles me

[Giganthrax]

For those who don't know, Neverware Cloudready is a free (for home users, commercial is paid) version of Chrome OS.

 

I recently learned of the existence of this OS and, since I had a spare SSD lying around, decided to try it out on my old laptop which I mostly just use for work anyway. Here's what I learned. 

 

PROS:

The OS looks and feels super slick and professional to use. You can really tell it was made with profits in mind.

The booting speed is second-to-none. It shuts down and boots up in seconds.

It seems impossible to break. Even if grandma somehow manages to get into the settings, there's barely anything she can mess up.

It's Linux-based so I suppose viruses aren't a problem. 

The learning-curve is non-existent. If you know how to use File Explorer and Google Chrome, you know how to use Cloudready.

 

CONS:

It doesn't have any programs. It can't run windows or linux apps natively, and unlike Chrome OS, it can't run Android apps off the Google Play Store either. So unless an app is available in the Chrome Web Store, you can forget about using it without enabling beta Linux features (which don't work on my old laptop so I couldn't test them) and coming up with a whole lot of workarounds. It genuinely feels like a huge step back in functionality even when compared to something like Linux Mint or even Slax Linux. 

It doesn't actually run Google Chrome or any other program faster than Windows 10, as far as I could tell. 

 

CONCLUSION:

So at this point I'm kinda scratching my head and wondering who the actual target audience for this OS is. The best user I could think of for it is my 70-year old dad who spends most of his time on his laptop in Google Chrome (mostly just watches youtube, writes and prints emails, listens to radio, and reads news), but even that isn't optimal since Cloudready doesn't allow me to organize his files into big easy-to-navigate folders right on the desktop (the OS doesn't let you do anything with the desktop except change the wallpaper), so while he'd be able to learn how to use the File Explorer, it seems like an unnecessary extra step over just putting the folders in the middle of the desktop like I do on his Windows 10 computer. 

 

Another good use would be installing Cloudready on the "public" computer at a hostel I used to work at, so guests could browse the internet without being able to install viruses or otherwise damage anything. Finally, I suppose this OS would be useful for companies that get ALL of their work done in the Google Suite. 

 

So what am I missing here? Are there any wide-use cases where getting Cloudready is the superior option to just installing Windows 10 or Linux? Being lightweight doesn't seem to be it, since Google Chrome is just as demanding as it always was, and the nearly total lack of programs seems to make its uses extremely narrow, to say the least. Extreme simplicity and ease of use seems to be the only real strength it brings to the table. 

 

TLDR: Cloudready is basically just a Chrome browser that can't run any linux, windows, or android programs without heavy workarounds, and offers no alternatives for them. Who is it really for and why should you use it over windows or linux?

[Ashleyyyy]

if you can do everything you need to in a web browser it's decent. 

[Alexeygridnev1993]

The idea that "you can do everything in a browser" is deeply flawed. Sure, you can do 95% of things in a browser - but when you need to get a real job done, you need proper software. So even Google gave up on that and allowed to run Android and desktop Linux apps on ChromeOS.

[mys31fosu]

I never got the grip of that as well, like, I don't know why you'd need another version of Chrome OS when laptops and mini PCs are dirt cheap. And the usability is super stripped off as well, including the need to self patch to even get Android apps working.

[Giganthrax]

7 hours ago, Alexeygridnev1993 said:

The idea that "you can do everything in a browser" is deeply flawed. Sure, you can do 95% of things in a browser - but when you need to get a real job done, you need proper software. So even Google gave up on that and allowed to run Android and desktop Linux apps on ChromeOS.

Thing is, it's not even just getting real work done that's the problem. 

 

I use VLC Media Player to listen to mp3 from my harddrive while I work, but the Chrome Web Store VLC app is bugged and doesn't have any of the functionality of windows, linux, or even android VLC app. 

 

As far as I can tell, there's no Word or LibreOffice alternative for Cloudready, which is a serious problem when editing larger text files because Google Docs is soft-limited to around 3000 words, and becomes unbearably slow once you get past that limit. 

 

Then there's the inexplicable inability to install Chrome Remote Desktop as a separate app (this is an in-built option on Chrome, but it doesn't work on Cloudready). You have to run it as a browser tab, which makes it slower and less convenient to work with. 

 

These are just some of the ways the OS totally lacks what I would consider to be basic functionality that make life unnecessarily difficult for anyone who isn't in the sextremely narrow "only needs a browser" user group.