Google’s Chromebook computers are making their debut in stores this week to mixed reviews. With instant-on startup, all-day battery life and lightweight web apps, they seem to be what many of us want in a computer.

Or maybe they’re what we wanted two years ago, before the iPad and Android tablets, and the promises of a tablet-friendly Windows.

“Netbooks are pretty much over,” Lenovo’s president, Rory Read, tells Dow Jones Newswires.

But aren’t the Chromebooks supposed to be better than those awkward old netbooks? USA Today does a good job running through the pros and cons, concluding that, for now, at least, “many consumers will want to stick with more earthbound notebooks.”

In any event, the real test may not be whether they end up in homes, but whether they end up in businesses, as ZDNet observes.

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