I'm sure Ubuntu based laptops could be popular as well, if they where available from more vendors and in more configurations.

I have seen a Chromebook and it was quite fast for the low power processing used. I just don't trust Google's data collection policies.

Google started as a transparent and "do no harm" company but after they went public (stocks) they became no better and maybe even worse than Microsoft and Apple as far as personal profiles storage and dissemination.