Leveraging the Versatility of Chrome OS

If you take a quick glance at the general feeling towards Chrome OS, it sums up to "inexpensive, browser based operating system that looks cool, but can't do much." That's been the public's perception for the last few years, and while the outlook is positive, its not particularly reassuring. With Microsoft "reinventing" Windows at every turn, I think it's important to point out how versatile Chrome OS can be for both the average and the power user.

Chrome OS has been improving by leaps and bounds. We're up to version 41 on the stable channel and 43 on the bleeding-edge developer channel. We've got offline, fully functional web-apps (including the google office suite), a well rounded file manager, a number of system tools, several re-purposed Android apps and of course, the power of the Chrome Browser. For the casual user of a Chromebook, this is probably more than enough to exist and work on-the-go. But is it enough to be your daily driver?

I consider myself a "sort-of" power user. I scope the internet looking for all of the hardware and software tweaks I can install, but don't quite have the greatest understanding of the nitty-gritty code behind them. It makes for a somewhat dangerous undertaking (for my hardware, at least); so please be cognizant of that and your own computer skills. Modifying your hardware and installing custom software can cause loss of data and your computer itself.

Over the next few posts, I'll go over how I took my two Chromeboxes from a simple Chrome OS system to a team which runs Chrome OS, Ubuntu Linux, and Windows-- all without needing to fall back on a separate Windows computer. These Chromeboxes are my daily driver; and I don't think I'll ever need a different setup again.