Living with Chromebook: Embracing Google (Premium)

Most Chromebook users will probably embrace Google products and services, and there are advantages to doing so. But for those of us coming from more Microsoft-centric environments, this transition can be a bit trickier. To date, I’ve done what I can to replicate the productivity apps I use most often in Chrome OS. But workflow is as big an issue.

For example, I use, rely on, and recommend OneDrive, Microsoft’s cloud storage service. On both Windows and Mac, OneDrive integrates directly into the file system, making it easy to use with whatever applications you prefer. And thanks to its Files On Demand functionality, you can choose which folders to sync for offline usage. My entire daily workflow is based on these capabilities.

Moving to a Chromebook requires a new mindset: OneDrive doesn’t integrate with the Chrome OS file system in the same way that it does on Windows and Mac, so I have to change how I work. There are some reasonable workarounds, like Microsoft’s Office extension for Chrome, which lets you access Office Online web apps and your recent documents right from the browser. And you can, of course, use Android-based apps like OneDrive and Word.

But if workflow duplication is the bigger issue than the apps you use, and I suspect it will be for many, you’re going to have an easier go of it in Chrome OS if you go with Google solutions, rather than Microsoft’s. This means using Google Drive instead of OneDrive, for example. Or Google Docs instead of Word.

To get started down this path, I decided to introduce Google onto on a Windows PC first: I installed the Google Drive Backup and Sync client on the Surface Pro 7 I’m currently reviewing, and have been using it side-by-side with OneDrive. This client works a lot like OneDrive in that it maintains offline copies of the folders (and their contents) that you specify. And having them both on a PC makes it easy to drag-and-drop documents and other files between the two services. I used this client to replicate part of my OneDrive-based folder organizational structure and then copy (not move) the relevant files over to Drive.

I also experimented with writing in Google Docs on Windows, which works well and is in many ways a better web-based word processor than is Word Online.

Moving over to Chrome OS, one can work the same way: Google Drive and Docs are both available on the web, of course, so accessing them from Chrome works identically to how it works in Windows. But I was more interested to see how the Chrome OS shell integration with Google Drive worked, and, if it worked as OneDrive does on Windows/Mac, whether I could work in this environment similarly.

And it does, mostly. The Files app in Chrome OS offers a view into Google Drive directly from its navigation bar, just like File Explorer in Windows does with OneDrive. And I was able to navigate into my partially replicated working folder set there in a similar fashion too.

The document for the ar...

Gain unlimited access to Premium articles.

With technology shaping our everyday lives, how could we not dig deeper?

Thurrott Premium delivers an honest and thorough perspective about the technologies we use and rely on everyday. Discover deeper content as a Premium member.

Tagged with

Share post

Please check our Community Guidelines before commenting

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Thurrott © 2024 Thurrott LLC