The forgotten Chromebook that started it all

October 4, 2026 Victoria Barrios

Google didn't even call the first Chromebook a "Chromebook." The Cr-48 had no interesting design and no bright logos - it wasn't even designed to be a product you could buy. Instead, it was a portal to a big new idea about computers.

In this week's episode of Version History, The Verge's Nilay Patel and MKBHD's Marques Brownlee join David Pierce to help explain the history of ChromeOS and Chromebooks, and discuss whether Google's approach to computer hardware was the right one.


This has been an exciting season of Version History, as we've been exploring the most iconic school tech. Last week's episode explored Nicholas Negroponte …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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