Going through a lot of reviews, professional and customer alike, it seems that a lot of Chromebook users chose to get one because they have a perfectly good full-featured laptop/desktop PC at home, and they needed something that they could just toss in a bag and easily bring everywhere [or something to that effect].
I'm a CS student looking at getting a Chromebook by the end of the year and so far, everything I've had to do with any real frequency could be accomplished with Chrome apps [note taking and writing papers] and/or Linux [Eclipse]. I asked one of my professors about programs/computer requirements for future courses in my degree [my degree program is lockstep with a very specific set of courses to take] and he, probably just thinking of things that I couldn't do with Linux, mentioned that I would need to do some Visual Basic work a year or so out. Up until now, I had managed to successfully wash my hands of Windows. I thought, hey, I have Windows 8.1 [I set up my current laptop with a Win8.1/Ubuntu 13.10 dual-boot] and I could just use Chrome Remote Desktop for that.
But the fact that I don't hear much about those aforementioned people who got their Chromebook as a supplement using it, and I don't hear anything about it around here or in general has set off some flags for me, despite its rave reviews on the webstore and among the professional reviewers. I'm aware that you can't use it to remote into a computer running Linux [but I can't think of any reason why I'd need to do that if I've gotten all of my stuff properly set up]. My question is: does Chrome Remote Desktop actually work? Does it actually have some sort of annoying caveat that I wouldn't know about through the reviews I've found, or would it actually work given what it seems I'll need it for?
EDIT: Hey, thanks for all the feedback; it really is nice to hear for once that something just works like it's intended; it's even more reason for me to get a Chromebook and leave my 17" Dell Inspiron safely at home. Because it's currently the best computer I have and I'm not sure when I'll be able to upgrade.