So…I bought a Chromebook.
I’ve wanted one for some time actually, because they are small and lightweight, the batteries last forever, and unlike the laptop I do all of my development on, I won’t install any extra stuff, so I can use it to focus just on writing.
Because this is basically a glorified typewriter (albeit one that I can sit in my lap, which is where it is right now as I’m writing this), I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on it. Office Depot was offering a Lenovo 100e Chromebook with an 11.6″ display (I didn’t want a huge machine, so I was willing to forego a keyboard with a ten-key, which I usually find essential), 4 GB of memory and 16 GB eMMC storage at half off the regular price of $200. $100 is not bad—but wait, it gets better! I also had about $65 work of Office Depot rewards, so the entire thing only cost me $35.
Not bad at all.
Anyway, I’m not usually a hardware person, and while I can get a lot done on my phone, I really do need a full-size keyboard to do serious writing. I only just received it today (thank you, UPS for a Christmas Eve delivery) and so far I’ve been pretty happy with it. I use an Android phone, which is the technology it is most similar to, so it feels familiar. There are still quite a few things to figure out, but the learning curve is pretty low (or at least it seems so).
This is one purchase I have no regrets about.
https://techblog.kjodle.net/2019/12/24/chromebook/