Google bases itself in Ireland and is allowed to make billions in revenue in UK, or anywhere else in Europe and pay zero tax in those countries.  Starbucks and Amazon are at it too.  People need to wise up and boycott these parasitic companies now.  Starbucks are changing their ways after a major backlash in the UK.... there are plenty of other coffee shops after all.

There is no reason, for most people, to need "Windows".

I've been using solely Chrome and its Chrome Market for months now for 100% of everything I do outside of work. I have yet to find a reason to need Windows at home or for my kids school or my brothers school (college).

Google has services that cover most anything, plus the Chrome App Store or Market or whatever its called has apps that run solely in Chrome that cover pretty much anyone's needs.

Are there cases where it won't work for an individual use? of course. But that is not the mass market anymore. Most people just do online/few docs and that's about it. I'd bet that is easily over 80% of the non-workplace userbase.

However, please don't list stupid things you think or know won't work. Its pointless. Instead open Chrome and search its market to see what you can or can't do and determine if that will work for you.

If it does, the benefits are:

• lower upfront costs for a more powerful computer
• very little to zero chance of viruses and other malware
• extreme integration with Android/Google (for Google services users of course)
• very quick shut down/start up times
• no data loss possibility as its all backed up in the free google cloud (use google docs format and google plus for pics/vids and you have infinite free storage)
• probably more I'm just not thinking of

Point is, if you want a light and great laptop... you should see if Chrome only is a good fit for you.

Thanks for this very thoughtful response, superchunk.  These are almost the same advantages that other "post-PC" devices like iPads enjoy over Windows (I've lived basically my entire life without Windows), though I think Chromebooks are cheaper than most iPads.  It's the cloud dependence that I have trouble grasping.  I'd say there is no possibility of permanent data loss, but there is a possibility of data deprivation.  I lost Internet for almost a week pretty recently...while that is extremely frustrating with any type of computer, am I wrong to think that it would be debilitating for a Chromebook?  Is it practical for use while travelling?  (That should be a very significant use case for laptops, especially light ones.)

I'm failing to see the reason why the world needs a touch-enabled Chromebook when you can just slap a keyboard on an Android tablet and get the exact same experience...

This sounds like a job for the Department of Redundancy Department.

Personally, I'd go for either a 7" tablet and/or a laptop that has the screens that can turn and fold flat giving you the tablet or laptop experience.

Chromebooks also have local storage and the most  important apps have offline and that is also being expanded more and more.

Your documents (google docs) lives both on and off line. Same with pics and videos. There generally is no loss either way really.

I'm I the only one that doesn't give a rats a$$ about Google products.  I am amazed at how they've managed to get a loyal following as they aren't great at pretty much anything.  Chromebooks are nothing more than a useless netbook that doens't run crap for programs.

That's kind of my point. A touchscreen Chromebook is the worst of both worlds. It makes far more sense to build a cheap transformer that works as a tablet and then couples to a laptop keyboard. That would actually be functional and it'd be in the Android ecosystem so you'd get a lot more app support for it.