A Great Chromebook Alternative

Related to my other posts about liking then having problems with the Chromebook, I wanted to post about my new favorite Ultrabook.

Walmart sells the Acer Aspire S3 for $395.

This hits all the things I said about the Chromebook that I love.  Light.  Instant on. Great keyboard.

It seems a hair more solid than the Samsung Chromebook.

It comes, of course, with Windows 8.  That’s been a bit of a paradigm shift – something for another post.

All in all, if you are looking for an inexpensive yet fairly powerful and comfortable notebook, this is what I would recommend.

Instant On and Where Microsoft Windows Missed The Boat

Well, where they missed at least one boat.

Every morning I grab some on-line device.  My Samsung Galaxy Note II; my HP DV4 Windows 7 Machine, or my wife’s Chromebook. This morning, all three were right in reach, including my Windows computer as I left it on the couch the night before.  (Usually it’s in my office, because it needed charging).  What did I grab?  I went right for the Chromebook.

The Chromebook is like my phone.  It’s instant on – it’s ready to go.  Windows?  Well, Windows 7 is sure better than the past when it comes to booting and resuming, but, it’s just not the same.  I love grabbing a device and being ready to go with what’s on my brain right at that moment; not “kill the excitement” waiting for the Windows World to come to life.

At some point I want to write a manifesto about how Microsoft really got it wrong with Windows 8.  However, here is one main point – Microsoft should have focused more on making Windows 7 better, like making it instant on, as opposed to radically changing it.