Network File Browser front end for ChromeOS and Chromebooks

(Here, I am accessing my ArchLinux Pogo Plug ARM server via SFTP on my Chromebook)

One of the thing that the  Chromebook (ChromeOS) lacks is the ability to access local network share.
This isn't a glaring omission nor oversight on behalf of Google. As we know, they designed Chrome OS to be an Internet device that uses Google services. Chromebooks are designed and sold to access the public Internet.

However, if you are a home user who wants to access his local files on his local NAS or network file server, you are out of luck.  Maybe you are a school IT administrator who is also looking into deploying Chromebooks but want his school staff and students to access the local network file server.

Well, you can. Sort of. It requires building a front-end to your network shares using some popular open-source projects and this blog post will chronicle two of them:
Pydio (formerly AjaXplorer) and OwnCloud.

Both are PHP front ends that allow you to access file servers using just a web browser. Both have their plus and minuses. In short, you will need a LAMP stack box to act as the gateway to your file services. In other words, you'll need a Linux/OSX/Unix based web server to act as a middleman gateway. Think of them as mini, low-end consumer, small business asset management systems that works in the browser.

Read On.

This blog article will about these two projects with the idea of using them for Chromebooks. Sure, you can use them with any computer, browser but the point is to have a solution for Chromebook users to access their network file servers.

Six months with the Samsung Chromebook

It has been close to six months since I got my Samsung Exynos (ARM) powered Chromebook.
I've been using quite a bit lately and have some time to reflect on using it.

The same criticism I had in the beginning still hold true. The device is still very limited in what you can do with it. However, it's strengths are the reason I still use it.

Chromebook making inroads into K-12 Education and growing

I came across this WSJ article on the market share grab of Chromebooks.
You can read the entire article here: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304856504579338941198812358

(image: WSJ)

I can totally see this happening. I've interviewed quite a number of schools and I have friends that are in the IT business for schools. Schools are strapped for cash and Chromebooks are highly appealing. They don't have to worry about maintaining servers, infrastructure, security, storage. I am also not surprised at the iPad penetration. Every private school I interviewed for my kids, the iPad was in the curriculum. However, the difference is the Chromebooks are way cheaper to purchase and to maintain from an infrastructure point of view.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the next few years. There are those who dismiss Chromebooks but at $200, they're practically disposable and bullet proof for little kids. My five year constantly drops and abuses his Chromebook and we don't even worry about it to much. Most of the school curriculum are web based and unfortunately, many of them still use Adobe Flash so he turns to his Chromebook quite a bit over his iOS device.

In the meantime, Microsoft appoints a new CEO with a strong cloud infrastructure background. There is hope Satya Nadella has some sort of education strategy in place. Today's children are future customers for any of the tech giants.

Here is case study of how a Kentucky private school deployed chromebooks for their middleschoolers. Link: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/private-schools-chromebook-program-explains-why-googles-laptops-have-captured-nearly-20-of-the-educational-market/

The most telling quote is this:

"While cost savings can be made on the cost of the hardware alone, the majority of the cost savings originate from savings made from infrastructure and device management.

I think that is what really matters. The infrastructure cost and ease-of-management.