Using Chrome OS as my Primary Computer for 5 years

Aug 24, 2023

Using Chrome OS as my Primary Computer for 5 years

Using Chrome OS as my Primary Computer for 5 years

00:00 Why Did I Consider Chrome OS?
00:30 Chrome OS vs Windows vs MacOS—Which is Best For You?
03:21 Why I Gave Up on Windows and Mac?
04:33 Main Reason: Google Workspace
06:03 Things I Love About Chrome OS
08:59 Things I Missed on Chrome OS
11:35 The Chrome Enterprise
14:34 Transfer In

Having worked with thousands of businesses using Google Workspace tools, we are often asked if ChromeOS is suitable for a work computer, so here’s what I have to say… a few years ago, I decided to return my Macbook Pro for a Chromebook as a primary computer and never looked back.

It’s now easier to do everything on the web and work on the go, without worries that something happens to my device. Do you think it’s also time to ditch your old computer?

Get a FREE Google account audit and professional training: https://www.itGenius.com/transfer-in/…
Join our FREE community for business owners: https://www.itgenius.com/gsc/?utm_sou…
Claim a FREE consultation: https://www.itgenius.com/consult/?utm…

*************************************************************************

We work with ambitious entrepreneurs and business leaders to ensure effective technology strategy is a central driver of their success and a key enabler of business growth. With our help, our customers use innovative technology as an unfair strategic advantage to outsmart their competition and lead their industries.

itGenius is the #1 Small Business Google Cloud partner in Australia and services 1000’s of businesses worldwide. While we retain many significant clientele including Canva, Hubspot, Fairfax and Anytime Fitness as well as multiple Australian Government departments, we specialise in and most enjoy servicing our primarily micro and SME customer base of enterprising and enthusiastic entrepreneur-led companies, who typically employ teams of less than 50 but have big goals for growth and impact.

We specialise in helping businesses un-chain the shackles of overcomplicated or outdated technology strategy and deliver results that simplify \u0026 reduce complexity, dramatically minimise spend, create operational flow and sometimes… even spark joy! We are leaders in implementation and support of G Suite, Dialpad, Asana and many other leading cloud-based business tools, having successfully completed 1000+ implementation projects and have proudly received 100’s of 5-star reviews from happy customers (Google us!).

We can help you:
- Boost your team’s productivity and operational efficiency while slashing your IT spend,
- Work from anywhere, anytime, on any device with killer communication and collaboration tools, and
- Resurrect your business technology from being ‘that scary black box’ to your friend once again

Join our FREE community for business owners: https://www.itGenius.com/gsc

Content

0.24 -> Unknown: Hi, my name is Peter Moriarty. And five years ago, I

2.46 -> gave up my beloved Mac and switch to Chrome OS. I'm going

5.22 -> to share a little bit about my journey. And some of the reasons

7.62 -> I've stuck around with Chrome. Now, if you're a business owner,

9.99 -> it's a good idea to consider Chrome OS for your business. And

13.95 -> if you're a consumer, then Chrome OS is also gaining

16.29 -> popularity in the consumer world as well. Chrome devices are

19.38 -> amazingly deeply integrated into the Google ecosystem. They work

22.98 -> fast, they've got low cost there, they've got amazing

25.53 -> battery life. And chrome in general is on the rise. So

29.55 -> today, we're going to talk about Chrome OS, Windows and Mac, I've

33.99 -> got a few different segments here to kind of take you guys

36.06 -> through the different stages and the different options of these,

39.3 -> I'm going to be sharing with you my experience, having worked

41.91 -> with Chrome for a number of years as my primary operating

44.43 -> system, and also take you guys through like, you know what some

47.16 -> other options are, you've got windows, you've got Mac

49.29 -> machines. And so for me, my priority here is to basically

52.44 -> take you guys through what options are available, and help

55.35 -> you make an informed decision about which operating system is

58.56 -> right for you. Now, our mission is to help small and medium

61.65 -> sized business owners play a big game. And what we mean by that

64.56 -> is, we want to make sure that you have a technology led

66.99 -> business we want the strategy in your business, to be all about

69.9 -> tech are all about tech. But let's say the right technology

72.48 -> strategy to help you grow a successful business. And we've

74.64 -> helped literally 1000s of small businesses in Australia and all

78.42 -> over the world. And we've got hundreds of five star reviews on

81.3 -> our Google page, you can go and check that out if you Google it

83.55 -> genius. And you'll learn all about us from there. Now we've

86.97 -> grown and scaled our team, we've got quite a substantial team

89.76 -> here in the Philippines, not here in the Philippines, I'm in

91.89 -> Australia, but the team have primarily in the Philippines.

94.02 -> And we've been able to grow a completely remote company. And

97.53 -> we also share the secrets of how we have grown and scaled our own

102 -> organization to our customers. And so if you become a customer

104.94 -> of ours, then you actually get access to videos and trainings

107.88 -> on how we've grown our business using technology strategy.

110.67 -> Pretty cool, huh? Now, one thing that we rely on is called the

114.15 -> growth roadmap. And this is what we use for all of our businesses

118.47 -> as we guide them through growth and guide them through

120.9 -> technology strategy, our growth roadmap, and you'll see

123.51 -> playlists on our YouTube channel. Depending on what stage

126.06 -> of business you are asked, I will direct you to what

128.85 -> technology you should be focusing on implementing in your

130.98 -> business. If you're a growth stage business, and you've got

133.38 -> five or 10, or 15 employees, you probably want to be thinking

136.29 -> about like a CRM system to manage your sales team. If

138.99 -> you're a startup business, you want to make sure that you have

140.67 -> your task management handled properly. So you can delegate

143.61 -> more things and get more done with your team. If you're a

146.28 -> scale business, and you're in the stage of having more than 20

149.13 -> employees, well, then you're probably gonna be focusing on

151.35 -> things like KPIs. And so at that stage, you probably want to be

154.68 -> thinking about things like building a company dashboard for

157.68 -> all of your KPIs. Now, these are all things that we can either

160.26 -> help with ourselves as a consulting business, or we can

163.35 -> refer you on to a partner as well. But let's get into the

166.8 -> topic. So I've spent five years using Chrome OS as my primary

170.64 -> machine. And I want to take you guys through why I've done this,

175.11 -> why this is important. And for me, you know why Chrome OS has

178.74 -> become such an important part of my business. Now, I didn't start

182.58 -> out this way. I started out as a Mac guy. And as a Mac guy, I was

187.05 -> basically, you know, out there, you know, you can see this is

189.54 -> literally one of my first Mac's I think this is from about 12

192.21 -> years ago, I was out there repairing people's computers,

194.67 -> and I knew that Mac's were more stable computers. So I always

198.15 -> kind of defaulted to using or always defaulted to using max.

201.48 -> And then over time, I eventually switched over to Google Chrome.

206.25 -> And so if you're a business owner, and you're you know,

208.29 -> you're curious about well, you know, why might I choose? Why am

211.38 -> I choose using Google Chrome over say something like, why

215.04 -> don't I use Google Chrome over say something like Windows?

218.67 -> Well, you may choose Chrome for a number of reasons. But

223.05 -> primarily Chrome is to reduce it headaches. And this is something

226.89 -> that I intrinsically know, as an IT person. But for someone else,

231.33 -> who's you know, a business owner, who most of our audience

234.09 -> are.

235.98 -> Chrome is just kind of seen as sometimes like a little bit of a

238.62 -> weird side thing, right? So if, if right now, you're a business

244.47 -> owner, and you're rolling out Windows machines, or you're

246.03 -> rolling out Mac machines to your business, consider Chrome,

248.55 -> because it's going to dramatically reduce your costs.

250.86 -> And also, they're just much more secure devices. I'm going to

253.65 -> take you through, you know, some of the reasons why I've decided

256.95 -> to switch to Chrome OS for myself as a business owner. And

259.95 -> now why our team also use Chrome devices as well. Now, I actually

264.24 -> gave up on Mac and I gave up on Windows machines completely. And

268.41 -> I'm going to share a little bit about my story and why that is.

271.62 -> So

273.57 -> now, the number one reason you'd consider Chrome is that it's

276.12 -> deeply integrated with Google workspace. And what that means

279.39 -> is if you're a business owner, and you're already using Google

281.28 -> Drive, and Google Docs and and everything else that's available

284.13 -> there for you in the Google ecosystem, Chrome is going to

287.4 -> basically slip really nicely into all of those applications.

291.69 -> And that's because there's deep integration with things like

294.69 -> Google Drive. From there, you've got things like from there,

299.67 -> you've got

300 -> Things like your Google documents. And basically

302.58 -> everything talks together in one system, which makes it nice and

306.96 -> nice and easy to have everything talking together in the same

309.51 -> place. Now, if you are using a Chromebook, you literally just

314.1 -> sign in with your account, you just sign in with your Google

317.49 -> account. And from the Google account, you're basically going

320.55 -> to be from the Google account, you're basically going to be

324.27 -> logging in with your, all of your bookmarks, all of your

328.65 -> other stuff synchronized down to your local machine. And so from

332.7 -> there, that means that with one login, you get access to your

335.04 -> Chromebook, and it's completely secured a lock down to your

337.23 -> Google account. So the other thing I like about using a

340.26 -> Google login for my Chromebook is that I can basically have a

343.68 -> pretty decent work life balance. So I can have one profile set up

346.95 -> for my personal stuff, and one profile setup for my business

349.89 -> stuff. And basically, at the end of the day, I log out of my

352.26 -> business profile, I log into my personal profile, and it's well

355.02 -> do you know online shopping and, and other bits and pieces that I

357.87 -> do on my machine that I don't want to have mixed up with my,

360.78 -> with my work profile. So some of the things that I love about

364.83 -> Chrome OS, and some of the things that really makes Chrome

367.35 -> OS special is number one, fast boot times chrome launches

371.91 -> pretty much instantly. And that's because it's such a

374.43 -> lightweight operating system, it doesn't have all of the junk

377.58 -> that you need to load up into memory, when you actually switch

380.79 -> the machine on. One of the other things that's great about it is

383.49 -> it automatically updates. And so basically, you're automatically

386.7 -> having updates applied in the background. And what chrome does

390.21 -> is something really clever, where it has two copies of your

392.64 -> operating system, it updates one while the computer still

395.79 -> running. And then to install the update, it's not really

398.76 -> installing the update, you just reboot the computer. And it

401.22 -> boots to the second operating system, which has already been

403.92 -> updated and verified. And so there's no waiting around for

407.55 -> updates to install. I know that every time a Mac computer that I

410.34 -> own gets updated, it takes about half an hour to an hour for a

413.58 -> new operating system to be installed. And then you've got

415.95 -> Windows machines, which can take hours or even days to do their

418.62 -> updates. Whereas Google basically are constantly

421.59 -> updating chrome every four to six weeks, there's a major

424.47 -> release. And so there's just always have lots and lots of

426.81 -> mini releases that don't get in the way of your productivity.

430.38 -> Next up, they have amazingly small form factors for Chrome

433.74 -> boxes, and Chromebooks. So you know, pretty much standard

436.29 -> laptop sizes. Now, a chrome box is something that runs just like

439.68 -> a desktop version of Chrome OS. And we've got other videos on

442.86 -> Chrome boxes. And these, as you can see, can be clipped onto the

446.22 -> back of the monitor, or just sit on a desk, and, and really not

449.4 -> take up much space at all. And I really, really love these

452.04 -> because chrome boxes are just the best device to have on a

456.24 -> desktop. They're powerful, they're fast, and they have all

458.76 -> the other advantages of Chrome. And you can bring your own

461.22 -> keyboard and mouse and use them as you do a full computer. Next

465.42 -> up, one of my favorite advantages of Chrome is that

467.67 -> most of the laptop style form devices are touchscreen. And

472.32 -> that's pretty much all of them on the range at the moment,

474.51 -> because that's one of the best features of Chrome. So whether

476.82 -> you're using apps in the Chrome Web Store, or you're using an

480.42 -> app from the Google Play Store, like running Android apps on a

483.57 -> Chrome OS device, or you can actually use your fingers and

486.51 -> with that, you will never go back to a non touchscreen

489.03 -> device. Now I think it's pretty weird that Apple haven't put

491.82 -> touchscreens on their Mac laptops just yet, I think

494.19 -> they're well behind. Because now having used a pixel book for

497.16 -> over five years, I would just never go back to a non

500.7 -> touchscreen device. And lastly, you can see here, this is the

505.98 -> picture of the desktop of Chrome OS, if you haven't seen it

507.99 -> before, this is what it looks like. Basically, they just work.

511.89 -> Remember, the old days when Mac's used to just work? Well,

515.07 -> Mac's got too much market share. And I think too much

517.74 -> complication in the way that they develop the apps. And every

520.35 -> now and again, I get a crash on my Mac. Now it's still 10 times

522.72 -> more stable than a Windows machine is to me, at least. But

525.93 -> Chrome is another level of stability, because it's

528.42 -> literally running a Linux installation. And over that

531.24 -> Linux installation is chromium, the version of Chrome that then

535.53 -> gets delivered and packaged as Chrome OS by Google. So a couple

540.6 -> of things that I miss on Chrome OS, some of the things that are

544.08 -> not quite there and are a little bit different. Number one is

547.11 -> heavy media editing. And now from time to time, I do a little

550.71 -> bit of video editing. Most of the time these days, I actually

553.56 -> send that off to my team to do instead of me doing myself, but

556.71 -> I used to enjoy editing things like family videos, and I would

559.74 -> use either iMovie or Final Cut Pro for that. Multimedia work.

563.76 -> Like you know heavy photo editing and Photoshop or

566.22 -> Lightroom just doesn't exist on the Chromebook right now. There

569.55 -> are some rudimentary video editing software platforms and

573.12 -> applications that are available, although they're not really

576.39 -> mature just yet, and I haven't personally found anything that I

579.12 -> liked. So heavy media editing is out right now on Chrome OS.

584.01 -> Apart from that, there's online tools and applications like

586.83 -> Canva and there's another one called way video, which will

589.65 -> actually allow you to do online video editing. However, those

594.96 -> are not fantastic in my experience for fully fledged

598.8 -> video production.

600 -> So you're looking to work with a different device. Next up is

603.75 -> gaming. While there are gaming options that are coming to

606.57 -> Chromebooks, not yet available in Australia, but Google stadia

610.05 -> is a gaming streaming service, which is available. And that

613.32 -> actually allows you to stream games from the internet down to

616.26 -> your Chrome device or to your mobile phone. That's a great

618.99 -> start. But they haven't really mature just yet, the full suite

622.5 -> of let's say hardcore or more mature games are more likely to

626.4 -> need to run on Windows, and you'll need something like a

629.13 -> Steam account. Now, that's not to say that they're not on their

631.65 -> way, steam has actually announced that they are building

633.66 -> a Linux store, which is very likely to come across onto

636.72 -> Chrome devices. And there is actually windows support for

641.07 -> Chrome devices just been launched by parallels for

644.43 -> corporate customers only right now. And so what's this space

647.22 -> with gaming on Chrome devices, because it is fast maturing.

651.03 -> Now, the last one that I missed is storage. Even though my

653.97 -> Chromebook on the pixel book has a pretty decent 256 gigabytes of

658.02 -> storage. That's about the biggest storage I've seen on a

660.81 -> Chromebook. And that's because the idea is that you're going to

663.06 -> do most of your work online in the Google world. And therefore,

666.96 -> Google and the other manufacturers don't really think

669 -> you need that much storage on the device. And that's fairly

672.12 -> true. But I do find myself from time to time, if I'm out and

675.99 -> about and recording a lot of footage, and I'm saving backups

678.99 -> of that video footage to my Chromebook. Before I get back to

682.59 -> an internet connection where I can plug in and have them all

684.96 -> upload, I do find that from time to time, I have to start

687.87 -> juggling files, because my hard drive is finishing is kind of

691.11 -> filling up. Now, it's not a massive issue. But it does

694.26 -> happen from time to time. So if you're curious about Chrome

697.41 -> enterprise, then drop us a message and our team will be

699.99 -> able to help with that. Chrome enterprise is great for business

703.32 -> owners and business users who are utilizing Chromebooks and

707.88 -> Chrome devices in their in their organizations. And it gives you

711.09 -> an additional set of policies that you can apply to Chrome

714.96 -> devices when they're under a Google workspace account. And so

718.17 -> if you want to, for example, change the background picture of

720.87 -> everyone's computer, if you want to lock down computers, so they

723.39 -> can only be accessed by users within your company. So lock it

727.08 -> down to your Google workspace domain. There's those policies

730.59 -> as well as literally hundreds of other policies that you can

733.53 -> configure for the devices. And what chrome enterprise does is

736.41 -> it kind of replaces what we used to do in the old days of IT

740.1 -> Service Management with a Windows Server and something

742.74 -> called Active Directory. And Active Directory was a way of

746.01 -> pushing down policies like printers and settings and

748.95 -> changing whether or not someone could, you know, change their

751.32 -> time for themselves on the local desktop. And you would have a

755.34 -> local infrastructure server that would sit in an office and

757.92 -> actually manage all of those local computers. Well, now in

760.65 -> the cloud age, we don't need to have those local servers sitting

763.38 -> there anymore in the office. And chrome enterprise allows you to

766.89 -> effectively license each one of the business assets that you

770.31 -> own. That's running Chrome OS, whether it's a Chromebook, or a

773.28 -> chrome box, or another Chrome device, as there's a few others

776.55 -> as well, and then apply policies to each one of those devices. So

780.36 -> if you've got more than one or two Chrome devices, it's really

783.84 -> a good idea to consider chrome enterprise, because it gives you

787.08 -> a multitude more options. Chrome enterprise will also let you do

790.26 -> things like connect a Chrome device to a Windows network. And

794.37 -> so you can actually connect Chromebooks to an Active

796.95 -> Directory network. If you're a large organization, and you have

800.07 -> an Active Directory set up at the moment, you're still going

802.26 -> to use that as your primary authentication, within Chrome

805.11 -> devices can actually log in with Windows credentials, which is

808.32 -> pretty cool. And so Google's made some amazing developments

810.78 -> here. And if you're interested in that, then have a chat to the

813.84 -> team. If you're a business owner, and you've not yet been

816.93 -> taken through our growth roadmap, then you may be

818.94 -> interested in a free consultation with our team. If

821.67 -> you qualify, our team will take you through the growth roadmap

824.28 -> and see where the gaps are if there's any way where you might

826.86 -> need help on your business journey with your technology

829.68 -> strategy. Now, if you are an existing Google workspace user

833.55 -> for your business, we have an amazing transfer in offer, where

836.43 -> you basically get access to a google classroom with

839.19 -> professional training for you and your team to use Google

842.01 -> Classroom to the best of its ability. We envisage this to be

845.31 -> part of your HR onboarding process. So when you hire a new

848.49 -> employee, you put them in a classroom, and they go and

850.86 -> receive a certificate once they've completed the class, and

854.19 -> the quizzes. So you know, they know how to use Google

857.31 -> workspace. And so in here, each lesson has module by module, an

861 -> easy way for everyone to get through the different stages of

864.18 -> learning all about workspace, and that makes you sure that

868.17 -> your team have all of the skills and all of the competency

871.29 -> required to be productive in your business. Now, to get

874.35 -> access to the transferring offer, not only do you get

876.24 -> access to the classroom, get free limited access to our

878.91 -> support team, you get a free check of your DNS records just

881.79 -> to make sure that you've set up all of the records correctly in

884.31 -> your workspace account. Sometimes people miss the SPF or

887.49 -> DKM or demark Records and emails can end up in spam and that kind

891.09 -> of thing. So we just do a little check there. And then finally,

893.49 -> if there's ever an issue there, then you actually have emergency

897.69 -> access from our team. We have backup access to your account.

900.42 -> If you're interested in that offer headlong it genius.com

903.39 -> forward slash transfer and get access to that. Thanks for being

906.27 -> here guys. And we will catch in the next one if you have

908.22 -> questions drop below and we will see you soon. Cheers.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTeKt45kCcg