thegreenandgrey

You make some good points. For me, my Chromebook, if still working in a couple of years, will be handed down to my kids to watch YouTube and surf the net. I rarely sell computers once I've used them. While Apple does offer iCloud as a backup, I dislike storing anything locally. This is where Google really shines. If something happens to this Chromebook that's fatal, I take a ball peen hammer to the SSD and screen, chuck it in the trash, buy a new one, and in less than 5 minutes, I am back up and running with almost nothing to configure. This is hard to beat. Since I do most of my work on remote servers, I really don't need more than this, but I understand why others do and can appreciate it. I guess I'm just tired of quite a few people I work around looking at me and my choices with disdain because they're not Apple. I have nothing against Apple HW or SW. It's not my need or want, but I understand why others feel differently.

You can't just put Chrome OS on any laptop. It's cheaper by far, and there's not dealing with cruft building up, updates mangling your install, patch Tuesday nonsense, slowing down over time, drive-by downloads, you name it. I admit that I do most of my work on remote machines, so I don't have to have a machine with heaps of horsepower to crunch code, compile, etc. I also don't use an IDE. I write code in a terminal window. I'm not a pure programmer, more dev/ops. I do work with a fair amount of code, but it's all Linux (Bash, Python) or PowerShell based, meaning the majority of my work is done in terminal windows. This approach doesn't work for everyone. My work-issued laptop runs Fedora 35 and it's a lower-end machine (i5 processor, 8GB RAM, run-of-the-mill Dell workstation laptop). I can use Remmina for RDP stuff, and the rest I can do with a terminal window.

Another happy Chromebook user here. Apple has become too expensive when one can easily spec a PC laptop to be far better for less and have money left over for accessories. I can write code on my Chromebook (Linux), I have an SSH terminal for remote servers, and a great, always-on and updated machine. Total cost: $650 (Pixelbook Go). I've never understood why so many programmers and sysadmins feel the need to go straight to the Mac without considering any other option. I have an issued laptop from work running Fedora 35 and I in no way feel like I'm missing out. I'm not impugning Mac users, but it sometimes feels as if some of them have a holier-than-thou attitude towards anything not Apple.

My employer switched from Ubiquiti to Aruba. Much, much better. Far easier to manage. The Ubiquiti APs had very little range and below-threshold subscriber loads would cause them to become unstable and require a reboot. No good when 500 employees and guests are attempting to get work done. We issue primarily laptops with only certain people getting docks for Ethernet. Quite a few people have purchased the Anker USB-C dongle docks from Amazon and use their IP phone's secondary Ethernet port for a connection if they want a solid Ethernet connection.

At home I'm happy with Google WiFi mesh all around my house.