I don't think Chromebooks are good computers for kids to learn on. They may learn how to use a browser and a relatively-closed ecosystem of dumbed down apps, but they won't learn working with a real OS, much less tinkering or experimenting with it. What's wrong with normal laptops running a Linux distro? You can always reinstall if the kid messes with the OS too much.
What is the reason given for Chromebooks being used so much in US schools? Is it just Google having a good sales team?
> I don't think Chromebooks are good computers for kids to learn on.
I think its fine for kids to learn on. Its arguably not ideal for learning computing, but that's not most of what kids learn using a computer.
> What is the reason given for Chromebooks being used so much in US schools?
Price per unit and the fact that its bundled with software and services for centralized administration. There's nothing comparable in traditional Linux. Windows could have competed but dropped the low-end netbook as a category right around when Google started making inroads with Chromebook, and even with Windows-on-ARM neither Microsoft nor anyone using Windows seems to have really targeted the same market.
> Is it just Google having a good sales team?
I don't know how good their sales team is, I think they are the only firm that acts like they want market at all.
> What is the reason given for Chromebooks being used so much in US schools?
Chromebooks are much cheaper than Windows laptops.
Similarly priced chromebooks are also much more responsive than their Windows counterparts (mainly due to the OS being so optimized to run on crappy hardware). And you're right -- Linux might be a viable alternative here. But it's not like the corporate world runs on Linux.
You can always reinstall if the kid messes with the OS too much. --> then all your sysadmins will be reinstalling os all the time? so they figured why not give the users an OS that cannot be messed with...
unless maybe the sysadmins are also linux tutors or something? their job is teaching kids how to use linux. not to make sure their computers can work for the math class.
That can be easily automated, and has been in a variety of ways. Just plug a USB or an Ethernet port, press 1-2 keys and done. The sysadmins won't have to go through a normal install wizard.
But with a LAN port, wouldn't you agree that reinstallation could take 1-2 human minutes of work, even if the whole process takes an hour? Take the laptop, plug it in, press a key, wait however much, then take it out and give it back to the student. The student could even do it themselves.
And even without a LAN port I assume there are various ways to automate it so it isn't really an issue. If you keep /home or if most files are synced, students could break their OSes every day if they want to. One of those students will actually learn from it, at least.
They’re a pretty good mix of incredibly cheap, reasonably rugged, fast enough to run classroom and edit docs, well-understood/documented how to use, consistent across the student population, and have incredible battery life.
Our high school issues every entering student a Chromebook and they keep it when they leave. I am pretty happy to see my tax money spent that way.
What is the reason given for Chromebooks being used so much in US schools? Is it just Google having a good sales team?