Does anyone own one of these and if so, how is the operation/performance?

My kid has one, he loves it.

Great for a supremely cheap, but still fairly rugged laptop. Just remember it runs ChromeOS, don't expect it to have Windows so you can install any software in existence. They are unbeatable for a "browse the web, stream music, use Facebook, and email" type of laptop, though.

Can you install windows on it? i'm in the market for a new laptop muhself.

...That might've been a dumb question.

I have the Chromebook Pixel. I use it all the time. I've never heard of anybody putting Windows on one, but people have managed to dual boot Linux. If I need to use a windows app, all I do is remote into my desktop. Works nicely.

So how would one use Microsoft Office, for example, on one, or is that not possible?

Keep in mind they are built to run off the cloud and only have like 16GB of hard drive space. Like Roland said - internet, cloud computing, and streaming is what they are designed for. Its NOT an economy-sized Windows laptop.

Seahawk Sailor wrote:So how would one use Microsoft Office, for example, on one, or is that not possible?

There is no version of Office released for ChromeOS. That being said, you can use Microsoft's online version of Office called Office 365, but apparently it has some limitations when accessing it from a Chromebook. Google Docs works really well, but that's not as feature-filled as Office; but it has most, if not all, of the stuff 90% of the world uses in Word/Excel, I'd say.

Go to http://drive.google.com (sign up for it if you haven't, it's free for 15GB of storage and it's free online storage/backup as well as having Google Docs built into it) and check it out.