I thought I would share our experience thus far with using a Chromebook and HTML Access:
- The function keys concern turned out to be a non-issue. There are two ways to address it:
- When you press and hold the Search key, the top row of keys act as standard function keys.
- You can go into Settings, click Keyboard settings, and check the "Treat top-row keys as function keys" option.
- We did, however, discover other keyboard issues.
- Alt-Tab does not work for the Windows task switcher. We haven't found a workaround for this. This one is pretty annoying.
- Alt-1 does not work in Lotus Notes, but other Alt-<letter> menu shortcuts work fine. We haven't found a workaround for this, either.
- Ctrl-Alt-Del does not work in Windows.
- Overall performance is not too bad, but definitely not PCoIP. Audio out, however, is pretty bad. We're testing the $249 Samsung 11.6" Chromebook.
- The trackpad on the Chromebook is also pretty good after adjusting the settings.
Bottom line (so far): The keyboard issues are enough to prevent the use of Chromebooks as a viable "mobile" thin client, even if HTML Access performance improves.