Recently my Dell Inspiron 1750 had a hard drive failure. It was a great computer! I must of had it for close to 7 or 8 years. Linux kept it alive, and running smoothly with age. The case began to crack, and fall apart, and I had several other small issues with it. Over the years I kept it alive with memory upgrades, and buying the occasional used part on ebay. Every three years or so I'd give it a quick refurbish, upgrading any parts that looked worn out. Finally, about a week ago the hard drive failed, and I felt it was time to put the well used computer to rest! RIP.

I've been looking for new computers but just haven't been able to find what I want. I've been reading some articles about the latest processor technology, and what different companies are going to be releasing in the future. Currently, I'm just not seeing anything in my price range!

After using the Chromebook that I bought for vacations for the last week, I decided to see if I could get through the summer using nothing but my Chromebook for everything that I do. For the most part it will become my crypto trading station, graphics editor, design studio, word processor, and coding platform. I really use my computer a lot for both work and play. I figure if I make due with what I have now and wait till the end of summer to buy a new laptop, I'll have more money for what I want, and wont be stuck with something I'm not entirely happy with. Currently, what I have to work with is a Samsung Chromebook 500C.

I thought it would be fun to journal my experience living completely off a Chromebook for the summer, or for that matter to see if it's even possible. At this point in time, it seems with the exception of video editing and python coding I should be just fine.

I'll be using a low end Samsung Chromebook 500c. I bought it on sale at one of the big box stores for I think a little under or just over $100 USD. I purchased it as a small, lightweight computer I could throw in my backpack while travelling. My intention was never to use it as my main computer for any serious length of time. Now, partly out of necessity, I think it will be interesting to see if I can make due with it as my main, go to laptop!

Sometimes Compromise Is Good

I've been wanting to brush up my HTML5 and CSS, so I think I'll be putting my python coding on hold for the summer, and use the Chromebook as my design station and brush up on my web design :) bitcoindood.com needs a lot of work anyway so this will get me focused on the much needed update to the site.

I do a lot of graphics work, and I'm slowly starting to get the Chromebook to design basic graphics. Today I discovered Vectr and it seems to be working out great so far. That was my biggest hurdle, and I'm hoping I can make due with a couple simple graphics programs to replace my love of Gimp. The header graphic of this post was designed in Vectr, and for the most part I found it easy to use, and sufficient for creating basic graphics.

I'm sure I'll have to make a few other compromises too. I wanted to start posting video to DTube and I think video editing will be the next hurdle I'll have to overcome. I'd hate to wait till the end of summer to start posting videos. Not to mention my iTek Action Cam footage. I'll be researching the video issue next!

Obstacles Overcame

So I had a few obstacles to overcome. The first one was hard drive space. A 32 GB SD card fixed that, and for everything else I've got all my old graphics backed up on a 1 TB external drive. I do need to reformat the external drive, currently the Chromebook can't write to the drive, but it does read the content and I'm able to copy it my to my main drive. From what I've read, the read / write issue is from the file system I used on the external drives last format to work with my Kubuntu laptop. A simple reformat should fix this. I just need someplace to store close to a terabyte of data while I reformat my drive.

I needed a graphics program to replace Gimp, currently Vectr looks like the most promising solution. I've also come to enjoy Snapseed for basic image editing.

As far as coding I do HTML and CSS in a basic text editor. I also found CodePad IDE if I absolutely must work on some Python or PHP coding.

I Think I Can Do This

I'm sure compromises will be made. I also think it will be a lot of fun to see what the true capabilities and limitations of a low end Chromebook will be. I'll be posting about any software I'm using. What's working for me and what's not. Along with compromises made, and everything I love and hate about using a Chromebook full time!