> Chromebooks are one of the most heavy handed uses of DRM in the wild without even native apps with an App Store like iOS or Windows RT has.
Chromebooks are supposed to be for running web apps. IMO it's something of a failure that there are any native apps on the Chromebook (besides Chrome, of course). Although now that you mention it, the only one I can think of is the file browser. I don't use the others.
> A Google sign in is needed even to login and the only native apps are Google's own.
Not true. I use my Chromebook in guest mode all the time. No sign-in necessary.
You're misunderstanding why ChromeOS is so locked down, and why you must "jump through hoops" to install arbitrary software. It's about security and trust. If you boot up a Chromebook and it doesn't display the scary "Developer Mode Enabled" screen, you can trust that it is running a Google-signed version of ChromeOS that has not been compromised by a spyware, adware, or other malicious actors. This is one of the key selling points of Chromebooks; you can buy one for your computer-illiterate family member and you don't have to worry about their system being compromised.
I don't know much about any of the other stuff you mentioned.
Chromebooks are supposed to be for running web apps. IMO it's something of a failure that there are any native apps on the Chromebook (besides Chrome, of course). Although now that you mention it, the only one I can think of is the file browser. I don't use the others.
> A Google sign in is needed even to login and the only native apps are Google's own.
Not true. I use my Chromebook in guest mode all the time. No sign-in necessary.
You're misunderstanding why ChromeOS is so locked down, and why you must "jump through hoops" to install arbitrary software. It's about security and trust. If you boot up a Chromebook and it doesn't display the scary "Developer Mode Enabled" screen, you can trust that it is running a Google-signed version of ChromeOS that has not been compromised by a spyware, adware, or other malicious actors. This is one of the key selling points of Chromebooks; you can buy one for your computer-illiterate family member and you don't have to worry about their system being compromised.
I don't know much about any of the other stuff you mentioned.