We bought Chromebooks for our kids(students in highschool/college), from Costco, for value and help if needed. Never needed any help, because they are workhorses, and fast. Some are even touchscreen! We have different brands, Asus and I don't know what. My kids enjoy the larger screens, 16" or so.

I have an Asus and it is a workhorse!! It is on almost constantly as I access various streaming services on it, do a lot of web surfing and use it for all my business purposes as well. It is a touchscreen, has a built-in web camera (and facial recognition to unlock). Going on 3 years old and never a glitch!

Well, I'm not sure what "traditional" software programs one would need. But if someone needs to ask what brand is good, my thought is that that someone probably isn't a really experienced computer user. And Chromebooks have come a LONG way since first introduced.

Chromebooks use cloud-sourced technology. So, instead of Word, one might use Googledocs...or Microsoft Word (using Android technology). You might not be able to use Photoshop, but there are Android apps that will do stuff. The thing is, the Chromebook is so EASY, and less likely to get viruses....and best of all, these things start up so quickly. And they are pretty cheap.

It's used for zoom and browsing.

As for what is a traditional software program, use a different word for the same effect - there are an untold number of programs that come in Windows or Mac OS versions only. That don't have Android or ChromeOS versions available.

Just looking quickly at my PC - Quicken, TurboTax, Overdrive, 5 music and audio processing programs I use almost daily, the control software for my in-house music system (like Sonos), and more.

Chromebooks were designed for light "PC" use, especially just basic internet browsing. They have limited storage and are not always convenient to use when away from Wifi,

Chromebooks have their place as a less expensive substitute to accomplish some PC tasks. But as a substitute, they're far from being like for like.

Socks, I'd consider video calls and browsing the kind of light use that a Chromebook would be suitable for. If the user is an oldster or someone with limited laptop experience, one with a touchscreen might be easier to use.

I've been using Zoom a lot recently (it seems to be the Cabbage Patch Doll fad of the pandemic) and I find it to be an inferior platform when compared to the many other alternatives.

Skype, Google Hangouts, WhatsApp and others are all free and easier to use (and less insecure) than Zoom.

For zoom and browsing she may only need a tablet.

True! You can also use a smartphone. As a member of a household with several tablets (both Ipad and Android), I find a tablet experience inferior to using something more "PC-like". I've used macs, Win PCs, Chromebooks, and the two major types of tablets and given a choice, tablets and phones are my last choice.

Back to the question - stick to any major brand name and you should be fine. There are maybe 6 to consider. I have a personal bias to avoid HP, I think its products are behind the competition and of lower quality. It's why their stuff seems to be offered at below market prices at places like Walmart. Walmart is otherwise a fine place to buy PCs (if you're careful to avoid the reconditioned ones). Costco in my experience tends to sell over-equipped models at good prices - you can get what you need for less elsewhere.

Thank you, everyone. She's looking at Costco and Best Buy. Costco seems to have higher prices but possibly more for the money. Appreciate all the input. She had bought a refurbished machine from local computer people but altho' most refurbished are fine, this one was not, so she's just going for new.

I do things with my computer other than on the internet. I have embroidery software for editing designs for my embroidery machine, a Silhouette cutter for crafts which requires software and a card making program. I also do taxes with an installed program. These are some of the things which wouldn't work on a Chrome book.

I bought this last November, to upgrade from windows 7

Mine is similar to Oklamoni's except that it is a bit older, has a 17.3 screen and a DVD-RW drive. I still use DVD and CD discs, and so I really wanted it to have this drive.

Laptops increasingly do not include built in optical (DVD/CD) drives. I think it's an issue of space, they take up a lot of room inside.

Fortunately, external ones with USB connectors are cheap and easily found. $25 or less. Not convenient for use on, say, a plane flight but very usable at home or office.

My newer laptops don't include optical drives or Ethernet ports. I don't have a use for optical drives but I do use the USB-C/Ethernet adapter when I occasionally need a hardwire connection.

We're an apple household. I still remember a buddy who was the chief tech officer for a major corporation who had little hair left after dealing with all the windows problem told me that his household was completely apple and he couldn't be happier about it. Me too.

We are an Apple-less household - it is all about what you are used to. I hated Mac computers from the first time I used one, and in the 1990s I did database programming for DOS - something I could not have done on a Mac. It was also only recently that one could install AutoCAD on a Mac, and that is the program I use most. If I were doing mainly video editing, I might want a Mac, but I can do that on a PC now.

I have an external Blu-Ray player/writer for my home computer so that I can write to Blu-Ray discs, but it cost a lot more than $25. I also had to buy software for it.

Too much Apple flavored Kool-Aid, Annie. The biggest differences these days are the user interface and whether the devices have flexibility for user-configurable interfaces and functionality or not. With Apple products, it's the "not". Hardware is more common than not.

With tablets (which in almost all respects are identical to their counterpart smartphone cousins but with larger screens and most without cell phone connections) the differences I've described are clear. The only reason we keep an iPad active is for people (a diminishing number, if that matters) who insist on using Apple's proprietary FaceTime. When my wife wants me to help her with some non-ordinary step or setting, I often end my effort frustrated and wanting to stick a fork in an eyeball. With our Android phones and tablet devices, changes to settings and special steps are a cinch.

Yes, I know, some of it is familiarity. The other big difference these days between Apple products and their non-Apple counterparts is that Apple is still getting away charging premium prices for what are really not premium products.

This type of thread is always an opportunity for Lars and Elmer to co-bash Apple products. Really gets old and boring.

Well, bashing or not, I have Apple and other products and speak from personal experience. Love my Apple phone and iPad. Hate my Apple laptop (second one I have had to give Apple one more chance). And quickly discovered that, even though I love the iPad, it certainly has limitations. Therefore, I also purchased an Android tablet; so now I use both on a daily basis. I would never buy a MAC desktop and will probably never buy another Apple laptop. My desktop is a HP PC with Outlook and many Microsoft apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.). Also, I have a HP laptop which gets lots of use.

What's tiresome and more than boring, michael, is the persistent crowing of Apple product owners in insinuating that their "enlightened" product choices make others look foolish.

Let the market speak - with PCs, Apple's market share is in the single digits (less than 10%) and is less than half of each of the 3 leading brands. And isn't growing. Smartphones - less than half, also not growing.

Apple at times since its founding has had special products but it doesn't anymore. Its products don't earn the premium prices they try to charge. The world and the markets have moved on, but for those who haven't read the writing on the wall.

Elmer, once again, tiring and boring preaching. Drink your flavor of kool-aid, we'll drink ours.

Look at Acer Aspire. Over the years, I have had both HP and Acer.

IMO, Acer is more user friendly and I like the keyboard design.

My Acer Aspire E 15 has a DVD player but I do not think the new Aspire designs have one.

Hope this helps.

My Acer purchased 2 years ago was in the $350 range.

I love my chromebooks. I have 2, one is a flip so is similar to a tablet and laptop in one. They have improved them and their abilities dramatically currently. And get updates regularly, and easily. I have been able to do everything I need to do on them. I also love my Android tablets. I use them daily so does my husband.

The prices for chromebooks are excellent.

I have never owned an apple product and I don't see having one in the future. Especially if I have to pay for it!

There are fan boys for Android, apple, windows, etc, it's not likely to change. Just enjoy what you like.

I have a MacBook and an Acer Laptop. Both are good for what they're for.

Son picked me up an HP 2 years ago for about $750 from Costco. It does everything we need.

When my Toshiba laptop (which I liked very well) was dropped and damaged, and had to be replaced, my brother who was the head of the IT department at a local hospital recommended HP. (Toshiba was no longer available at that point)

I have to say that I don't like my HP as well as the Toshiba, but it is a lower end model and I suppose I got what I paid for. It works fine, just some features like the touchpad not as smoothly as I was used to.

I believe that Toshiba sold their laptop division to Sharp, and now they are being sold under a different brand name.

Something to be aware of is depending on what you are using your laptop for if it comes with Edge installed you may need to use an additional browser like Firefox. Last month I kept getting popups from Bank of America that I needed to review my information especially my SSN. I was having problems confirming it was correct. The woman at the bank suggested I try another browser since she could see what I was doing and nothing was updating. I tried another browser and was able to update. Treasury Department files are also not compatible with Edge. There are probably other sites where similar things may happen.

I have been a Mac user since 1984. Easy, intuitive and I love it. My iPhone and iPad sync with my MacBook Air, so all my photos and emails, games, etc. are on all devices without having to do anything. I love AirDrop too. Macs, at least for me, are just more intuitive and easier to use. My sister and brother-in-law had HP and would often call me to come fix the computer to make it work again. It was way too hard and frustrating for me to get anywhere to help. It's all in what you get used to, I guess. Anyway, I'm happy with my Macs and other Apple products. I usually get at least 9 years out of a device. Love them.

We sent our kids away to college with the PC type of their own choice, the PC being a HS graduation gift. My oldest daughter chose to get a Macbook and has been an iPhone/Macbook user ever since. She's the only devoted Mac user in the family, another kid alternates and the others don't use Apple products. The oldest is now a 30-something professional.

She has never gone more than 3 years with a Mac without having a catastrophic problem and a number of times it's been almost annually. Fried motherboards (several times), crashed and non-functional hard drives (several times), a delaminated display (once), complete battery failures (several times), and other things I don't remember. She always gets the maximum available extended warranty (and laughs about needing it) but buys a new unit before the warranty expires or soon after any major problem. She's moved several times in her adult life and one of the essential bits of info when moving to a new area is to find where the Apple Stores are.

She considers herself to have been serially unlucky with Macs but prefers them all the same. She can well afford to replace these things as frequently as she has to.

She gets longer useful lives from her iPhones but I think replaces them at about 3 years.

Do I consider this to be indicative of something? Not necessarily. Technology products from any manufacturer have exceptional individuals and lemons and everything in-between. It's funny she's had consistently bad luck with hardware quality. Apple's products aren't anything special when it comes to manufacturing or component quality.

Elmer, it's interesting to hear of your daughter's experiences with her Macs. I can honestly say that I have never had a failure with any Apple product I've owned since 1984. The closest I ever came was a hard drive intermittent problem on an old Macbook. While Apple Computer themselves wouldn't fix it (too old), they did recommend a third party company that was able to give me a higher capacity hard drive and ported all my information over for a very reasonable cost. Other than that, no issues. I worked for an Apple retail store from 1984-1998 and loved every minute of it. It sure has been an fun experience to see all the changes to the technology.

My friend got a Lenovo, ordered it from Costco.

maifluer: I do not like Edge at all and have tried it nearly everytime they said it has been "improved." Hah! It has never been improved. I use Firefox; occasionally I will use Chrome on which I have installed DuckDuckGo.

Someone thought it acceptable to delete a comment I had made that originally appeared above ravencajuns comment above. Here's the essence of what I said. Someone must have wrongly felt my disagreement was personal, it of course wasn't. Ironically, I was on the receiving end of insults but I always consider the source and the context, neither were of importance. I don't believe in censorship of any kind. Those insulting comments by another person remain.

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Insults don't change facts. Apple hasn't won, they've lost their games. All of them.

Here in Silicon Valley, the blooms are off the roses. Apple stopped being a cool company to work for some time ago.

They do have a cool new HQ building though. I was in the old one a number of times for meetings, I haven't been in the new one and likely won't ever have a chance.

Apple's hardware sales have hit plateaus and some products have started to decline. No more rabbits are expected to come out of hats. Concern is being expressed about whether the company will continue to grow at all or if retrenching is in the future. None of this is new news, it goes back several years.

I agree with both maifleur and Walnut Creek.

I don't know why there are incompatibilities between websites and browsers but they're there to stumble upon. I haven't found any one browser (as among the Big 3 of Chrome, Edge, and Firefox) to be consistently trouble-free, they all seem to have limitations. The solution, as these two have suggested, is to have several to choose from. If one seems to not be working on a particular site or for a particular task, try another.

With our Ipad, problems are similarly encountered with Safari. The solution is that we also have the Firefox browser app installed.

I was not bashing Apple - I just don't like it - that is not the same thing as bashing. It's fine for people who are used to it, but I don't like how proprietary it is. The other thing I do not like about it is that they moved to Ireland to avoid paying U.S. taxes. That might be a bit of bashing, but I think it is deserved.

Critiques help things get better - censorship of criticism does the opposite.

Lars, I did not know that Apple had moved to Ireland to keep from paying U.S. taxes. Now that angers me. Too many big companies are pulling that trick and it is deplorable that they do so.

All technology companies of any importance, and other companies in many diverse industries, have 'operations" in Ireland to take advantage of the IDA's programs for inward investment and job creation that have been in existence for 40 years or more. The IDA has long put special efforts toward attracting technology companies to direct more youngsters to pursue higher education and enjoy upward mobility for all of the population. As a contrast there with the local, historically agrarian population. An added bonus - Ireland is in the EU, goods and services can move easily to the continent and EU employees are entitled to come and work with no immigration formalities.

Other countries have done this too, at various times at various places around the world. It's mostly something to be seen with smaller countries. Many, many others in Europe grant or have granted special incentives for inbound investment in various degrees and have for decades and decades. In the US, states have various economic development agencies that grant tax, training, and other incentives for new investment in their states. Why are there two foreign auto plants in Alabama? Another in South Carolina? Another in Tennessee. All the result of beauty contests, which state will offer the most $$$ to gain job creation.

Each and every major company does this. Why do you think warehouses were historically and remain in Nevada for California customers (no corporate taxes there). Why does Florida have no individual income tax (to attract retirees leaving states that DO have individual income tax)

Etc.