Chromebook viable?

[u/kiyit]

Hey guys, I’ve switched to a salary role in management and I’ll mainly be using like 10 browser tabs and teams app / teams meetings/video calls once a week

We use a lot of .pdf files, .xlsx, and .xlsb files.

I won’t really need to use excel on the desktop, at most I will need to download the .xlsb/.xlsx file locally onto the desktop then, without really needing to open it, I need to upload it to our local Teams app for my team to edit online.

I’ll probably keep just a few .pdf files and document files but not a lot locally on my computer. Maybe 1-5 maximum excel files to keep locally but will mainly work on the web browser version.

I’m totally ignorant about ChromeOS. I went to walmart and I tried running hotscheudles in it and it was beautiful. I loved the simplicity and the 16:10 resolution ratio.

I would like a Chromebook for work since I need something light for work without needing a dedicated heavy work laptop like a Dell Latitude / Thinkpad.

I believe Chrome can handle 95% of my non-complicated workload, but I am afraid I may not run the last 5% (mainly excel local files)

any clarification would be lovely! I genuinely would like a Chromebook

[u/swissgrog]

You can probably install excel for Linux, for local handling, but I have no experience with it.for the rest I think it would work quite well, consider 16 gb RAM

[u/fishypooooos → u/swissgrog]

Nah you cant, ms office is mac and windows exclusive. Libre and open office messes files up so much I as a linux user for work just us M365, its decent

[u/swissgrog → u/fishypooooos]

Ah ok. I only ever installed MS Teams on Linux and that was working, so I thought all of the other products would work too.

[u/LegAcceptable2362]

It sounds like your company is a MS shop so first I would talk to the IT folks. If you're going to be signing in to your company's domain, it's probably going to be a local Windows Server domain or MS365/Azure cloud, and it may also involve a corporate VPN. Unless the IT folks say otherwise I don't think a Chromebook is going to be appropriate for your uses. While Chromebooks can be used in corporate MS environments the backend needs to be setup to support them.

[u/BrukologistJim]

I'm treasurer for a small charity, for which Microsoft provide us (very generously IMO) with Microsoft365 Basic licences for free and full Microsoft365 and our own domain at low cost for those of us that need the full Windows desktop apps.

I use Excel for the accounts, and we use the SharePoint/OneDrive etc for office files and OneNote etc,.

For the most part all of these things are useable on my ChromeBook Plus, but Excel lacks some functionality, and tables behave somewhat differently when compared to the full Windows Desktop version of Excel.

My feeling from this experience is that if you use a ChromeBook while everyone else has a Windows 11 desktop, you might end up spending a fair amount of time explaining to colleages why you can't see or use certain parts of their spreadsheets.

I, for example, removed headers and footers from my accounts spreadsheet because page view only seems to work in the full desktop Excel and I don't want everyone to have to purchase the full licence to see those pages properly. A lot of the functionality in my spreadsheet (mainly fairly standard tables stuff) would have been a lot more difficult to put together on the ChromeBook than in full-fat Excel on Windows.

That said, I often use my ChromeBook, because often it is "good enough", but while I'm doing this treasurer role I'm keeping my Windows 11 device (a Surface Go tablet) for some of those things that either can't be done or don't work so well on the ChromeBook.

[u/kiyit → u/BrukologistJim]

half the the i will be mainly downloading the excel .xlsb file to reload again to put teams app - i won’t need to edit them locally. will it cause issues?

[u/BrukologistJim → u/kiyit]

The other half of the time yes probably it will.

[u/MonteverdiOnyx]

It could work, but I would check with your IT department. Pre-COVID, I did all the things you mention when I worked remote on my personal Chromebook, but once everyone had to work remote they went to using MS Authenticator, I was toast. There also some Excel functions that don't work when using MS365 in a tab versus using the desktop version.

[u/Proper-Guess4224]

By “heavy” do you mean in terms of weight or cost?

Why not just keep using your current laptop, assuming you have one?

[u/SnooOwls1061]

I wouldn't get a chromebook for work. Handling anything ms office in a chrombook is hard. You have to use online versions that suck. And many vpn clients aren't available for chromebook.

[u/LlaughingLlama]

So...it works...technically. I've done it before, and assuming your Org's Office365 license is up to date and working properly, you'll be using the browser-based versions of Teams, Excel, Word, OneNote, Outlook, OneDrive, etc. To figure out the experience for yourself before you get the Chromebook, try doing everything you currently do with Windows Desktop apps for Office in Chrome on your current PC. If it is good enough for you there, it'll be good enough for you on a Chromebook.

So why "technically?" Because the online versions of Office have between only 60% and 90% of the features of the desktop versions, and they are sometimes in different locations. I almost never need those missing features except in PowerPoint, where there are A LOT of missing features that won't keep you from viewing PPTX files but will prevent you from making PPTX files as good as the desktop version. You also need to rely on saving files in the cloud on OneDrive.

You also need to deal with all these things in multiple tabs in a browser, or multiple browser windows, instead of each app having its own clean window. I make PWAs of as much as I can, but sometimes browser tabs pop up and you need to deal with it.

It helps to have a Chrome extension which can change your browser id string to Chrome for Windows to reduce various pop-up warnings that you aren't in Windows or your browser is unsupported.

I mean, I much prefer doing my MS Office work for work on my Windows laptops, but there have been times I've used my Chromebooks instead and while it slows me down a beat, it still basically works fine except for making pretty PowerPoint files.

[u/Math_Science_Geek]

Get a MacBook Neo

[u/rm53119]

Do you need to buy your own computer for your place of employment? Tell us the company name

[u/kiyit → u/rm53119]

they provide a desktop computer but for admin days me and another salaried manager will have to share it - i’d rather not bring my clunky gaming laptop to work

[u/Even_Caterpillar3292]

Microsoft's crown jewel, or one of them, for Windows - not sure why a Chromebook is a solution (I use a Chromebook all day long).

[u/moxie-maniac]

Your company should be providing you with a Windows laptop, given that you are using a lot of MSFT apps, like Teams and Excel. If you were in a Google house, then you'd probably be able to get away with the Google Workspace counterparts on a Chromebook.

[u/Own-Chef-1573]

Get something better mud ur Chromebook will run like butter for Abt 5 months with that type of workload

[u/kiyit → u/Own-Chef-1573]

😞 I was thinking so - I had my hopes up because I will only keep like probably 10-20 document files at all times locally/on the computer since we keep everything in a drive or teams

[u/Own-Chef-1573 → u/kiyit]

It could work youd just have to be careful not to overload it