After months of training myself to rely entirely on web apps for my daily computing, the main event has finally arrived. With the help of one of my wife’s co-workers, who has the distinct advantage of not being a Canadian resident, I now have a Samsung Series 5 Chromebook in my hot little hands.

It is awesome.

I’ve read a lot of very mixed reviews of this device over the last few months, mostly from tech sites that seem to have forgotten that different doesn’t mean bad. There’s been the expected histrionics over the lack of on-board storage, the loud but erroneous squawking about the limitations of web apps, and the constant refrain of, “Why would I pay $350 bucks for this, when I get a low level laptop running Windows for the same price and then do everything from a Chrome browser anyway?”

Rubbish. All of it. Read the rest of this entry →