When comparing Tails vs ChromeOS, the Slant community recommends Tails for most people. In the question“What is the best laptop OS?” Tails is ranked 34th while ChromeOS is ranked 52nd.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Privacy focused
Pro Has TOR built-in
Use the Internet anonymously and circumvent censorship; all connections to the Internet are forced to go through the Tor network.
Pro Easy to use with an USB key
Pro “Just a web browser”
On the other hand it’s pretty difficult to mess up “just a web browser”. You might get a few less phone calls from your elderly relatives about how they broke their fancy new email and internet machine.
Pro Android apps
Android apps add basic offline functionality.
Pro Booting & updating
Chrome OS boots from power off in about 7 seconds. So you don't need to leave it on and consuming power when it's not in use. You NEVER download and update any apps, although the OS does update itself. Web apps live on servers, so they're always up to date and virus free.
Pro Full laptop form-factor
Unlike tablets, the home of most hyper user friendly operating systems, Chromebooks come on an array of devices that don’t require you to buy any flimsy keyboard attachments.
Pro Pushes oneself to use (and learn how to use) cloud based solutions
With this ChromeOS also eliminates the time needed to configure the local environment.
Cons
Con Not for daily use
Tails is a privacy focused Linux distro. The updates that you will receive are only for improving privacy and not for improving user experience.
Con You can't install it to a hard drive
Con Saved states are not present for security
For security reasons, saved states are not supported in Tails. Files can be stored in a separate, persistent volume which must be accessed with a root password. Personal settings (e.g. -- keyboard layout, window settings, etc.) are not saved persistently across reboots. This can be a hindrance for anyone not using English as their language, or not using a QWERTY keyboard layout.
Con Only GNOME desktop environment
Con Slow internet
Tails uses the TOR network and as a result the internet on your computer will be very slow.
Con “Just a web browser”
There aren’t really any applications you can get on ChromeOS. If you can do it via Chrome you can do it on a Chromebook, but not much else.
Con No icons on desktop
Chrome OS does not allow to place icons or shortcuts on the desktop, only the background picture can be changed.
Con You might need a cloud printer
If you don’t live in the paperless world yet and you haven’t bought a new printer in the last three years you may need money up for a new cloud enabled printer.
