I’m writing this post inside Google Docs, using a new-to-me Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 Chromebook. I’ve had it for just 48 hours, and in that short amount of time I’ve enabled a Debian 10 Linux VM for Linux development and support, as well as some other features unique to Chromebooks. I may cover that in some later post. Based on my very limited experience so far, I’m quite pleased.

To start with I purchased this Chromebook from Costco because it was on sale for $400. I also purchased it because this Chromebook is using an Intel core i3 tenth generation x86 processor. I’ve been exposed to less expensive Chromebooks, nearly all of them running on some ARM processor variant, and each one was less than an ideal experience. The only ones that were any good to me all had Intel processors in them, usually an older Pentium class processor that is this decade’s equivalent of the Celeron processor from days of yore. If I’ve learned anything working with ARM-based systems it’s that ARM for general computing can’t hold a candle to Intel/AMD at any level. It appears, based on hearsay, that the only ARM-based processor that can keep up with Intel, let alone challenge it, is Apple’s M1 processor. I have yet to experience any Apple computers with that chip nor do I wish to pay Apple’s premium for a computer that is under further control of Apple Central. Yes, I say that as an Apple product consumer.

Other Lenovo features I found entrancing were the 8GB of memory and the 128GB SSD built into the machine. One other feature is the high quality build of this Chromebook. It is at least as good as a Macbook Air, at considerably less cost.

I decided to write this rambling post because of a comment by John Scalzi (yes, that John Scalzi) who wrote on whatever a while back that he used a Chromebook to do all his writing. I figured that anyone who writes as much as he does, and seems to make a good bit of money as he has from it, probably has the experience with writing tools to make an informed recommendation. I went out and installed the WordPress Google Docs plugin, and so here I am. I’m also trying this method of posting because WordPress is hell-bent on removing the classic web-based post editor at the end of 2021, and because all my other attempts to write with various apps under iPadOS on iPads have come to naught. Those iPad failures are in part due to the poor keyboards that have to be bought to use with said iPads. A Chromebook has both keyboard and mouse pad built in. There is nothing that can beat an integrated notebook, neither Apple with its iPads nor Microsoft with its Surfaces.

So here I am trying my hand at using tools I’m already familiar with for different purposes, being repurposed to write on my blog. I won’t make any wild predictions of success, because when I have I’ve had to go back and say that didn’t quite work out the way I wanted it to.

But anyway… here we go again.