My New Cr-48 Google Chrome Netbook!

Cast your minds..........It's December 3rd, and you're feigning boredom in an attempt to continue procrastinating studying for finals.  The second you become direction-less, where do you turn?  Facebook, of course.  You log on for the bazillionth time that day to skim the 3-4 posts that have come up in your feed since you last checked.  "Pumpin' some sweet iron @Gold's", "Repost if you love ponies!", "Blah, blah, blah....".

But then something catches your eye, a familiar icon.

And then you remember your punk junior high cousin (who seems to be in some kind of competition to add every FB group ever created) had liked the Google Chrome page  last week.  Being a big Chrome browser fan, you figured this was one group you'd really like to join to stay abreast new Chrome updates.

Next to the icon, you see an invitation + link to take a quiz regarding your internet usage behavior, and as a grand prize for taking the quiz you could get...........a FREE Google Chrome Laptop sticker!  Hurray!  Wait....what?  What's a laptop sticker?  Is that like what apple cult members have all over their macbooks?  Oh well.....it's free right?  So you take the seemingly innocent quiz and enter your address info to get your sticker.

A week later, you see a post from TechCrunch in your Reader feed and see that Google's doing a new Chrome OS presentation and they're live-streaming!  You quickly push your homework aside and log on to catch the event.  It's mostly over, but you pick up from the beginning anyway and spend the next hour fantasizing about this new OS.  Then a line drops you back from the clouds, "Some of you may have seen a Facebook quiz we put up a few days ago on our Chrome FB page.  Those who took the quiz before December 3rd have automatically been added to the pilot program.  We're shipping netbooks immediately, so people should start receiving them in the next few days."  HOLD THE PHONE.....WHAT?!?  Seriously??  You break into a cold sweat thinking that you might actually be getting a netbook.  You race to your browsing history and start scrolling back to the day of December 3rd, praying you find the right FB link.  

And yes!  There it is!  At 5:46 PM on December 3rd, you took the quiz!  Will that count?  Do they have a 5 PM deadline cutoff?  Only time will tell........

Each day drags painfully on.  The mounting pressure of finals and final projects is feeling more and more like giving a sumo wrestler a ride on your shoulders.  One day passes, then two.  Still no netbook.  Day three arrives and classes again cause physical pain to rip through your soul.  On the drive home from campus in the late afternoon, depression and relief set in as you realize it's still/just one more week until Christmas break.  You start to pull into the driveway for your apartment complex when you see the Fedex guy just pulling out.

Wait!  Could it be??  You totally forgot that a netbook might be coming!  You quickly park and race up the stairs three at a time and as you turn the corner on your floor, what do you behold??

"There she is......Ms. America!!"  You breathlessly approach the door, and gently pinch your arm to make sure you're not dreaming.  Can this really be happening?  Yes, yes it can.

You rush inside and tear open the packaging and yes, there it is.  A new Chrome netbook, in all it's chromed glory (er, black matte glory....).  You pull it out.  Snap the battery in.  Open up the lid.  The power light automatically comes on and then the screen shows:

About 7 seconds later, it shows this

                                          

You enter your google username and password.  You snap a quick picture and then boom!  You're in a browser and a few seconds later, your bookmarks, extensions and browsing preferences are all loaded, identical to the browser you closed 30 minutes earlier in class.  Amazing.

So instead of you, replace that with me and you have my story in getting the Cr-48, Google's test-run netbook running the Chrome Operating System.  As part of this pilot program, I was sent this netbook and charger free and asked to use it as a primary computer.  I was also encouraged to report bugs or other thoughts about my experience.  This blog is a part of my attempt to share with the world my experience with the Cr-48 and my thoughts about Google's foray into operating systems.  I'm not a computer engineer by any means and I know practically nothing about Linux (what the Chrome OS is based on), but I do have a little programming experience and consider myself a fairly cutting-edge technology user.  I'm also a big Google fan.  So I hope you enjoy learning about my experience using the Cr-48.

-quinnj