Help a family member Switch to Chromebook this Christmas

The holidays are a time for family, food, and obligatory tech support from the techiest member of the family. Pretty much every time I visit my family I have to “fix” the TV, speed up the wifi, and explain why the printer isn’t working.

This year, my father-in-law told me he was thinking about replacing his aging Macbook with a Chromebook. My in-laws are life-long Apple users, so his request came as a bit of a surprise. It’s been a while since my dad purchased a new Macbook and I think he had a bit of sticker shock when he realized a new Mac would be $1,000 or more. As a retiree, that’s a pretty big purchase.

While my family knows I help schools deploy and manage Chromebooks, I try to keep my tech opinions to myself unless I’m asked, but I’m more than happy to convert another family member to the Chromebook family!

Does grandpa need a Chromebook?

You might find yourself in a similar situation this holiday season, so I thought I would share some key questions to ask before you hand grandma or grandpa a new Chromebook!  If the following questions have been considered and your family member is happy with the path forward, a Chromebook could definitely be an option.

1. Where do you create documents, presentations, and spreadsheets? 

While you can use MS Office on a Chromebook, I don’t think it is ideal. Trying to use iWork on the web is even worse. Luckily, my father-in-law was already using Google Drive, which makes the transition to a Chromebook manageable.

For most older family members, switching to a new OS AND a new office editing suite is a lot to ask. I probably wouldn’t recommend a Chromebook if an elderly family member wasn’t already familiar with Google Drive.

2. Where do you store and edit your photos? 

Like most grandparents, my inlaws take a LOT of photos. They spent DECADES converting their photos from slides and film to digital. The last thing I want to do is make them reorganize their photo library again.

My parents both have iPhones, but they sync photos to both iPhoto and Google Photos. I suggested that if my dad switches to a Chromebook it would be best if they used Google Photos as their primary storage location. Using iPhoto on a Chromebook isn’t a great experience. 

3. What do you plug into your computer?

I asked my dad “what kind of stuff do you plug in to your laptop?” Luckily their printer and scanner are wireless and he mostly uses cloud storage; no major problems there. That left his external CD drive which he occasionally uses to watch movies and transfer files. We tried connecting it to my Chromebooks, but it wasn’t compatible, as I suspected.  The inability to use an external disk drive wasn’t a deal breaker for him, but I’m glad we were able to figure this out in advance, before he purchased a new Chromebook. 

Common peripherals like mice, keyboards, and monitors will work just fine. Printers should work, but some brands seem to work better than others. External hard drives should work fine. Support for optical (CD/DVD) drives is limited and tricky, but it is possible in some cases.

4. What applications do you use? 

We opened up the finder menu on my Dad’s Macbook and looked through the applications he had installed. Most of them he hasn’t touched in years. The ones that he did use, like Canva, Zoom, and Lastpass, have web-based equivalents.

I didn’t really want my dad to learn a bunch of new applications, so I was happy to learn that this shouldn’t be an issue. I’ll help him install PWAs and extensions for these applications on his new Chromebook. 

Another win for Chromebook Plus

My Dad is accustomed to high-quality Apple hardware, so I was happy to introduce him to the Chromebook Plus line of devices. They feature lots of Macbook-like features including backlit keyboards, glass track pads, and HD screens. We found several options that had just the features he was looking for at a fraction of the cost of a new Macbook. 

Also consider that with built-in antivirus and automatic updates, Chromebooks require much less “fiddling” than a Mac or Windows device, too. This means you will have fewer tech support calls to answer from family members! After working through these questions, I was much more confident in recommending a Chromebook for my father in law. That’s big savings for him, and less tech support for me! Hope this helps you out as well.