Chromebook without internet - will it work?

Chromebook is a laptop from Google designed for web browsing. This laptop runs it own OS - Chrome OS. It doesn't support Windows based applications. Obviously you cannot install Microsoft Office applications.

Is Chromebook useless without internet? 

Yes it is useless if you don't have internet connection in your home. The whole point in Chromebook to the user doesn't need to spend time on upgrading/installing packages. Google is very clear that the data store stored by the user should be accessible from any device. They have chosen a common storage is cloud (Google Drive, Evernote).

Have you used Google Drive? Have you noticed one thing, that your files are accessible from any device. But only thing you need is internet connectivity and a device that supports internet (Android phone, iPhone, BlackBerry etc).

Why Chromebook is useless without internet?

They have very little physical storage and they don't support many offline apps. You cannot expect Google Chrome to run big software like Photoshop, Microsoft Office and games etc. Traditional OS like Windows and Mac allow users to install binaries which can used offline. Using Chromebook you miss offline software. 

How is Chromebook with Internet?

Fantastic. This is the best device for user's like me who spend most of the time in internet. I use Netflix to watch videos, Evernote to take note, Google Doc to prepare doc. Internet provides you unlimited stuffs, you can't store all the software in your computer. Chromebook are cheaper and they boot very faster. Since you are not installing any software you don't need to worry about adware, malware etc. 

Chromebook is kind of a future device. Slowly all the apps are now hosted in cloud. You can use Microsoft Word from Cloud, Photoshop is launching their cloud version. Almost all enterprise software are planning to move their software to cloud. 

If you have internet connection and low end hardware you can do incredible things. Why waste money by building your own workstation which you use very rarely.