Capricornucopia

Excellent comment, and I'm a fan of most of what Google does, as well.

But I cannot support Chromebooks with my consumer dollars. (Nor do I like their self-driving car project.) My fiance and I are both in IT security.

The way we see it is- if your PC data is stored "in the cloud" instead of on discs YOU own and control, you're vulnerable in many ways.

Network connectivity goes down for a period of time? Can't do your word processing! Ectetera, etcetera.

I use all kinds of Google web services (including Gmail and Google Docs). I sometimes develop websites for clients that are hosted on third party web servers. I integrate Dropbox with every device I own, and I love it.

But my local discs sync with Dropbox as much and as often as they can. And I would never put something I don't want people to see (pirated media, "sexy" photos of myself, etc.) into my Dropbox folder.

I use "cloud services" but I always back up my content to discs I OWN and CONTROL, and my private stuff never sees the Internet. If something is on a web server you don't own, always assume other people (even if only employees of the company that owns the web server) can see it.

And if network connectivity fails, even if only briefly, it shouldn't be able to stop you from accessing your everyday PC data and engaging in activities that shouldn't have to have Internet access to work.

Noooo... I'd never buy a Chromebook. And I normally love Google and I'm definitely a Linux geek.

I have a rare brain condition, an arachnoid cyst, which is a type of non-cancerous brain tumour I was born with. It's between the parietal and occipital lobes in my left hemisphere, larger than a chicken egg. My neurophysiology is quite peculiar, and I have traits of hyperlexia and Non-Verbal Learning Disorder. The neuroscience team who are working with me have a lot of testing to do, but I'm certain my cognitive strengths, as well as my cognitive weaknesses, are partially to due with my cyst. It's considered to be congential brain damage.

Interestingly, my fiance (a rather brilliant computer scientist) has acquired brain damage from a car accident, and from the time he fell down a flight of stars and broke his neck and bruised the rear of his brain.

Of course, Microsoft is taking a cue from Apple- closed f&*king everything. Well, the hardware and software I choose for myself is open.

This makes me happy.

Did you know at least one other corporation had a trademark for the name iPhone before Apple announced their choice of product name in 2007?

Considering what patent trolls Apple is, and considering Brazil is a sizable market for smartphones and computer equipment, this is a tiny bit of karma, as far as I'm concerned.

BTW, Xerox has yet to see money for inventing the OS GUI and the modern mouse.