Five Chromebook concerns for businesses

Make no mistake about it. I like my Samsung Series 5 Chromebook a lot. I think it will become a major challenge to Windows on light-duty business desktops… eventually.

You see right now, as I’m well into week two with my Chromebook, I’m finding holes that need to be filled before I can see many businesses rolling work out on Chromebooks. Mind you, even as it is, I can see people using them for work. I am right now. But, until these problems are fixed Chromebooks aren’t going to be major business desktop players.

1. Where’s the VPN?

Chrome OS, and thus Chromebooks, actually have Virtual Private Network capability built-in, but it’s still a beta feature and it’s a pain-in-the-rump to find and activate. To turn on the VPN functionality-and other “experimental” features you need to run:

about:flags

from the address bar (aka URL bar). Then Enable VPN support from the list of Experiments.

After that, you can add a Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol/Internet Protocol Security (L2TP/IPSec) private network from the Chromebook’s network control. Currently Chrome OS supports L2TP/IPSec with either a pre-shared key or a user certificate. While L2TP/IPSec works with many VPN services, such as those from Cisco and Windows Server, it doesn’t work with all of them. For example, you can’t use L2TP/IPSec with my own favorite VPN server, OpenVPN.

It may be experimental, but I did get it to work with my Windows Server 2008 R2 VPN server without any additional trouble. The real question to me though is why the heck wasn’t this built-in and perfected before the first Chromebook shipped? To me, the market for Chromebooks has always been business and, to a lesser extent, education and both often require VPN use.

2. Some Wi-Fi Security still not supported.

While Chromebooks support most common Wi-Fi security methods, it doesn’t support all of them. The most glaring of these is that it can’t handle Wi-Fi Protected Access II (WPA2) Enterprise with Extensible Authentication Protocol-Transport Layer Security (EAP-TLS) or Cisco’s Lightweight Extensible Authentication Protocol (LEAP). Like VPN support you can activate experimental support for WPA EAP-TLS and LEAP from the obscure about:flags command page.

To me, this is another “what the heck” failure. All the important Wi-Fi security mechanisms should have been in there from the start. This isn’t rocket science. The Samsung Series 5’s Qualcomm Atheros AR5BHB116 802.11n Wi-Fi card with its Atheros AR9382 chip is already certified for WPA2 EAP-TLS so there’s no technical reason the Chromebook can’t work with this network security protocol out of the box.

3. The Malfunctioning File Manager

To get to the Chromebook file system you use the keyboard command “Control M” or place a memory card in the reader. Fair enough. When you pick a file to work on though, strange things start to happen. You see Chrome OS isn’t sure what to do with different kinds of common file types.

For example, Chrome OS knows that it uses Google Docs to open Microsoft Word .DOC or OpenXML or LibreOffice’s Open Document Format files (ODF), and it can do so… if you upload the file to Google Docs. If you just try to double-click on it or otherwise open it from the file manager all you’ll get is an unknown file type error message? Huh!?

With other files, such as PNG graphic files, you’re given what you would expect when you try to open a file: a choice between viewing it or sending it to the Picasa Web site. You’re also given a preview of the image in the left sidebar of the file manager.

In the case of Adobe Acrobat PDF files, which Chrome OS can read natively, you’re not given a choice of what to do with the file or a preview. But, if you double-click on a PDF it will open.

This is just dumb. First, Google’s Chrome team needs to assign the common file types to the appropriate actions. Next, they need to provide a common interface for how the file manager deals with these files.

4. Easier System Access

You would think that everything of any importance on the Chromebook could be accessed via the Chrome Web browser. You would be wrong.

As you may know Chrome OS is based on Linux and the Chrome Web browser is its graphical user interface. Most of its system controls are accessed via the Wrench tool and the setting control. But, not only do you need to know about the about:flags to get to experimental services, you also need to know how to get to Chrome OS’ restricted command-line shell–the undocumented crosh shell–to do such basics as setting up a secure shell (SSH) secure network connection.

To get to the shell you need to simultaneously press control-alt-T. This command sequence is not listed in the Chrome OS keyboard overlay, which you can find by pressing control-alt-?.

From crosh the most important commands you can access is ssh, which can serve in place of a VPN in some circumstances, and modem. This last lets you access, if it’s installed, your 3G modem.

If you want you can set the Samsung Chromebook into developer mode. I recommend only Linux experts give this a try. Once there though you gain access to the far more powerful Bash shell.

5. Better Documentation

For 95% of what you want to do with a Chromebook, it’s as easy as using the Chrome Web browser. For most of its users it is, after all, 95% of it is the Chrome 12 Web browser. But, if you want to go one step further to do something as simple as setting up a VPN you’re pretty much on your own.

For instance, if you wanted to set up a VPN, as I desscribed above, what you’re more likely to find as you search for a way to do it is this “inspiring” message from the Chromebook FAQs:

Come on! Some documentation is easy to find and use. For example, despite what you may have heard it’s really not hard to set up printing from a Chromebook. Far too much of the Chrome OS is scattered as bits and pieces all over the Web.

That’s fine for someone like me. I make my living from finding the hidden nooks and crannies of hardware and software. It sucks though for anyone who just to use their Chromebook for work instead of using it as a hobby.

It may seem minor, but I think this documentation problem is the biggest one of all. I mean, who reads the manual right? Google has shown itself to be more than capable of revising their software at an incredible rate. It wouldn’t surprise me to see all the other problems fixed by the end of July. But, if the documentation is still in its current lousy state, how many users are going to know that can now easily set up a VPN, connect to a Wi-Fi network using WAP2 EAP-TLS? Not enough of them, that’s how many!

So get on the stick Google. You’ve got the potential for something great in the Chromebook. Don’t fritter it away with half-baked functionality and documentation.

google chromebook samsung acer cloud computing review faults

Read More:

David Pogue RIPS The Chromebook Apart In His Review

You can say all kinds of nice things about Google’s Chromebook laptop concept. You can say it’s ahead of its time. Or that it’s thinking way, way outside the box. Or that, as failures go, at least this one swung for the fences.

Last year, Google made limited quantities of the CR-48, a gorgeous, sleek, prototype black laptop that it sent to journalists and bloggers, seeking feedback. Its hope was that, eventually, real laptop companies would manufacture Chromebooks. Tomorrow, the first one goes on sale: the Samsung Series 5 ($500 with cellular, $430 Wi-Fi only).

So what is the Chromebook concept? Assumption 1: These days, you can get online almost anywhere. Assumption 2: Google’s free online software can do almost everything regular software can do — e-mail (Gmail), Web browsing (Chrome), chat (Google Talk), photos (Picasa), word processing, spreadsheets, slide shows (Google Docs).

Conclusion: A laptop doesn’t need a hard drive. Doesn’t need programs on it. Doesn’t need Windows or Mac OS X. Doesn’t need a desktop, files or folders. Everything you need is online, so all the laptop needs is a Web browser.

It’s a sexy idea. No hard drive? That means no moving parts and long battery life (8.5 hours on a charge). That also means lighter weight (3.3 pounds). The Samsung has only a 16-gigabyte SSD drive (basically a big memory chip, like on the iPad or iPhone).

No Windows? That means no viruses or spyware. No serial numbers or copy protection. No payments to Microsoft for upgrades every couple of years. No two-minute start-up process; a Chromebook starts up in under 10 seconds.

No files stored on the laptop? That means you don’t care if your Chromebook is lost or stolen. (Well, not as much.) You don’t have to worry about backups. You can log into any other Chromebook, and find your whole software world waiting for you.

The Samsung itself is beautiful, with a sparse, uncluttered MacBookish feel. The rounded edges of the black plastic body (and the white or silver top panel) make it a joy to hold — and to behold.

The typing feel is fantastic. The simplicity and purity of this laptop is refreshing and unthreatening; it’s like an iPad with a keyboard (and no touch screen).

Samsung/Google may, in fact, have gone a little too far in the pursuit of spartan elegance. Instead of a row of function keys at the top, you get dedicated keys for brightness, speaker volume and Web browsing (Back, Forward, Refresh, Full Screen, Next Window). There’s no Forward Delete key, Fn key, menu key, Print Screen key or Windows key (duh).

In fact, there’s not even a Caps Lock key. It’s great that Google wants to weed out keys it doesn’t think people use very much, but come on — Caps Lock? What’s next, the bracket keys? The semicolon? Q, Z and X?

(Deep on a Settings page, there’s a way to reassign the magnifying-glass key — the Search key for Web browsing — so that it performs the Caps Lock function. But even if that were an ideal solution, which it’s not, you’d be lucky to find it: Samsung doesn’t provide a single page of printed operating instructions.)

The laptop has two USB jacks, a Web cam, a video output jack, a memory card slot and a headphone/microphone jack — but no Bluetooth, Ethernet jack, FireWire port or DVD drive.

It’s really weird to use a computer where everything happens in your browser; if you attach a hard drive or flash drive, you even see its contents in a browser window. You can never quit or minimize the browser; there’s no desktop behind it, no matter what your instincts say.

But let’s give this shifted paradigm a chance. How well does Google’s newfangled concept hold up in the real world?

Unfortunately, not very well.

The first assumption is that you’re online everywhere you go. That’s rather critical, because when it’s not online, a Chromebook can’t do much of anything. You can’t peruse your e-mail, read documents or books or listen to music. With very few exceptions, when the Chromebook isn’t online, it’s a 3.3-pound paperweight. (Google says that an upgrade this summer will at least permit you to read your e-mail, calendar and Google Docs when you’re offline, and that over time, more apps will be written to be offline-usable.)

Maybe in Silicon Valley, where Google’s engineers live, you can live your entire life online. But in the real world, you can use this laptop only where you can find, and afford, Wi-Fi hot spots. Or a Verizon cell signal, if you’ve bought the $500 Samsung model.

Verizon offers two years of free service with that model, but you’re capped at 100 megabytes of data a month — a laughably small quota for a laptop that can’t even scratch its nose without an Internet connection. You can upgrade: for example, 1 gigabyte of data for $20 a month, or 5 gigabytes for $50. At least no two-year contract is required.

I tried valiantly to use the Samsung as my main machine, but by the end of a week, I was about ready to toss it like a Frisbee.

I took four flights with it. At each departure gate, I had to pay $7 for Wi-Fi. Three of the flights had no Wi-Fi on board, so the Chromebook sat uselessly in my bag. On the fourth, Wi-Fi cost $13. That’s right: $13 every time you fly, just to look at your own photos and documents. Then $17 for the hotel’s crummy Wi-Fi. Heaven help you on a cruise ship, where Wi-Fi can cost several dollars a minute.

What about the second assumption — that Google’s free online software can do everything you’d ever want?

Google’s software does the job for the basics (you can’t use a Chromebook without a Google account). But what if you want to run real, brand-name software? Photoshop? Quicken? Skype? World of Warcraft? FileMaker or Access? How will you sync or back up your iPad, iPhone or iPod if you can’t run iTunes? What about the specialized apps that your company might require?

The Chrome marketplace offers 1,000 Chrome programs. Most are free. But most are also lightweight, phone-type programs: weather, sports tickers and so on. They live online, so all you’re actually installing is a bookmark.

There’s another, more disturbing problem: doesn’t it make you feel a little antsy that your photo collection isn’t on a computer that you can put your hands on? That when the Internet goes down, you can’t get to any of your files?

Furthermore, Google says that its Chrome operating system is supersecure. But these days, every week brings another story of a hacker attack on a major corporation, and more of our private data stolen: Sony, Citibank and so on. In March, someone hacked a marketing company and gained access to the mailing lists of Best Buy, Wal-Mart, TiVo, CapitalOne, Marriott, the College Board, Hilton, Ritz-Carlton, US Bank, Chase Bank, Kroger, Barclays and many others.

Is “the cloud” really where you want to keep the only copies of your most private, most important files?

Truth is, considering how stripped-down the Samsung is, you have to wonder why it’s as big, heavy and expensive as it is. You can find plenty of full-blown Windows laptops with the same price, weight and size.

Maybe the Chromebook concept would fly if it cost $180 instead of $500. Maybe it makes more sense if you rent it (students and corporations can lease Chromebooks for $20 to $30 a month). Maybe it will fly once this country gets free coast-to-coast 4G cellular Internet, which should be just after hell freezes over.

For now, though, you should praise Google for its noble experiment. You should thrill to the possibilities of the online future. You should exult that somebody’s trying to shake up the operating system wars.

But unless you’re an early-adopter masochist with money to burn, you probably shouldn’t buy a Chromebook.

google chromebook samsung series 5 acer chrome os review david pogue

Source: