
A new generation of Chromebooks, designed to work with millions of apps - shankarvellal
https://blog.google/products/chromebooks/new-generation-chromebooks-designed-work-millions-apps/
======
ChuckMcM
So is the Tablet version of Android dead again? Is "ChromeBook" an operating
system, a system architecture, or what? It uses the App store from my Android
phone, does that mean my phone apps will work on this thing?

As a technologist and someone who spends way more time picking apart computer
architectures than is healthy, I think it is great that Google is enabling a
2-in-1 ARM architecture which Microsoft pioneered with Windows Surface. I
think Google's approach of making it more phone+ rather than laptop- is likely
to be better at setting performance expectations.

That said, whomever is responsible for brand communication at Google should be
let go. I have never seen branding so confused by such a large company. Pixel
is a high end chromebook, uh no its a phone now, Nexus is a phone, no its a
tablet, no its a speaker system? Android is an OS? Phone OS? Just Linux? Free?
Not free? Open? Not open? Chrome is a browser? An OS? A type of device? A TV
peripheral? A way to talk to TVs?

It stuns me how so astonishingly bad this is. Someone should tell them "Hey
this is like Star Trek OK?, a lot of nerds follow you and you really have to
get what is canon and what isn't canon straight otherwise you'll lose the
entire audience."

~~~
primigenus
You seem to be confusing branding and product naming.

Pixel is a brand name for high-end reference-type devices designed and built
by Google, such as the Chromebook Pixel, Pixel C, and Pixel phone.

Nexus is (was?) a brand name for low-cost reference-type devices designed and
built in collaboration with hardware manufacturers, such as the Nexus 5, Nexus
7 and (odd) Nexus Q.

Android is a mobile operating system used on platforms such as phones,
tablets, cars, and as of a few weeks ago, IoT devices.

Chrome is an overarching brand name for various web-centric things Google is
doing: Chromium is the browser. Chrome OS is a version of Linux strictly
limited to providing a web browser paradigm-based user experience for
computers. Chromebooks are a class of low-cost laptops that use Chrome OS.
Chrome_cast_ is a brand name for streaming content to unconnected devices such
as TVs and speakers by way of microcomputing devices such as the Chromecast
Ultra or Chromecast Audio (which all run a stripped down Chromium under the
hood).

All things considered, for a company as large as Google, I don't think it's
really all that hard to comprehend. I think it's pretty consistent, and they
try to fit as much as they can into the above set of brands when they can. For
instance, Android Things used to be called Brillo. It feels a lot simpler than
how eg. Microsoft used to do naming up until a few years ago. Calling for
"whomever is responsible" to be "let go" certainly feels hyperbolic.

~~~
rayiner
These distinctions--in particular Pixel versus Nexus--are utterly meaningless
to customers. Pixel is laptops; Nexus is phones. That's what makes sense--not
naming the thing based on the contractual relationship with some third party
the customer has never heard of.

------
laughfactory
There are a lot of people complaining about the 32 GB of space who're
forgetting that most smartphones still come with around that much storage. My
Pixel only has 32 GB, and it cost (unlocked) way more than $500. And I think
that's Google's thinking. These things are essentially more capable
smartphones. If you're someone who is fine with 32 GB on your phone then you
should be fine with 32 GB on your Chromebook.

But I also understand the complaints about the size of the storage. I think
the complaints come from people who are looking at it as a computer, not a
tablet/phone with a great screen, keyboard, and pen. For a computer its
storage space is very tiny. And for those who actually buy the 128 GB
smartphone models so they can download games and movies, it seems tiny.

But most users don't match that profile. Which is why there are 32 GB phones
still being sold, and why Chromebooks are still only available with 32 GB.
When the typical Chromebook user wants more space, Google will oblige. But
that's just not in the cards right now.

Personally, I'd like a bit more space, but I still think that for what you're
getting it's a good price point: particularly if the pen works well.

~~~
Johnny555
If it's a "more capable smartphone", it stands to reason that it should have
more memory than a smartphone?

In any case, if it has an SD or MicroSD slot, that would alleviate the storage
concern for most people. The USB port could also be useful for more storage,
but most people won't want to use up one of the limited USB ports for a memory
stick.

~~~
bostand
Some chromebooks come with a big hd or ssd. But nobody seem to buy them

~~~
pjmlp
I wonder if anyone buys chromebooks at all in Europe, given that I only see
them as single unit being victim of whatever promotion of the week, until
eventually someone takes that thing out of the store.

~~~
bostand
"victim"?? Chromebooks are the perfect laptops for people who don't understand
computers.

No viruses, no antiviruses, no forced reboots...

~~~
chestnut-tree
And what about privacy? An entire OS that records everything you do online, it
even records printing to your desktop printer.

Microsoft rightly gets skewered for tracking user behaviour in Windows 10. A
few years ago, Canonical was heavily criticised for sending anonymous data
from Ubuntu to Amazon. Meanwhile, Google captures more user data than possibly
any other tech company - we're talking gargantuan levels of data - and yet on
matters of privacy, the tech community gives Google a free pass. Why such
double standards?

~~~
pjmlp
Because Google is a SV darling, so whatever they do is cool.

------
fencepost
Depending on what you're actually able to run of the Android apps, there's a
lot that you could do with one of these even just for local development just
with the Android subsystem.

Shell? Yep, several options (BusyBox, Termux, others?). I was going to suggest
Terminal IDE but it's apparently incompatible with anything modern, but I
suspect there are other options out there.

Language-aware editors? Yep, things like AIDE, Termux (for vim or emacs),
DroidEdit, etc.

Servers? Yep, the only one I ever played with (years back) was Servers
Ultimate Pro[1], but I'm sure there are a variety of other tools.

[1]
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.icecoldapp...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.icecoldapps.serversultimatepro)
No Apache, but nginx and lightttpd. MySQL but no Postgres. Not for production
use certainly, but for local development?

~~~
abeyer
Chromebooks are actually great dev environments already --better than most of
what I've seen on android.

If you're in developer mode (a one time key combo at boot, or a hardware
switch under a cover on older machines), you can just ctrl-alt-T and 'shell'
and you're in bash w/ the ability to sudo. If you want a more complete
userland, crouton[1] will bootstrap an ubuntu setup in a chroot and you can
apt-get away, plus it will give you X11 and some integration between that and
the native chromeos stuff.

I've used a couple chromebooks as my primary laptop doing dev work for ~5
years now. The only time I ever carry a bigger machine is if I have specific
tasks that need really big chunks of memory and/or disk.

[1]
[https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton](https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton)

~~~
millstone
One problem with Crouton is that you're reliant on Google for the kernel and
drivers. When Google decides to stop tracking upstream, you're on your own.

For example, I found that I couldn't run XBMC on an older ChromeOS device
without building my own kernel and forward porting Google's changes, which I
failed to do. If I decide to buy a Linux laptop, I'd get a non-ChromeOS
device.

~~~
abeyer
Yup, that's true. I wouldn't go that route for media or HTPC type use.

It hasn't been a problem for me, for development use, as kernel dependencies
aren't common in your typical stable of editor/compiler/interpreter/IDE/etc...
The only real limitations I've hit for development are when you want to run
local tests that require a container or VM system, where you do start worrying
about kernel and drivers. But that wouldn't be terribly practical anyway,
since the hardware (other than the pixel) is just too low-end to handle that
kind of use well, in general.

Most (all?) chromebooks also support unlocking the bootloader which would
allow you to install a stock linux distro running directly on the hardware,
but you're right...at that point you lose all the benefits of chromeos, and
might as well look at low-end pc laptops instead.

------
dogma1138
Full specs for anyone who's interested:
[http://www.samsung.com/us/computing/chromebooks/12-14/xe513c...](http://www.samsung.com/us/computing/chromebooks/12-14/xe513c24-k01us-
xe513c24-k01us/)

Still only 32GB eMMC, this is not excusable anymore; there is no 4G modem in
this, only wifi, a portable device without storage is pointless can barely fit
2 1080 movies on it....

~~~
glibgil
The 32GB iPad Pro 9.7, Smart Keyboard and Pencil are $599, $149, and $99 for a
total of $847. The Samsung Chromebook Plus is $449 and has a keyboard and
stylus

~~~
dogma1138
I can get a 256GB version of the iPad pro, I don't care about the price atm, I
want an option.

~~~
stinkytaco
There's a long way between your price sensitivity and "not excusable". There's
a place in the market for this, without question, especially since it sports
removable storage.

~~~
dogma1138
No sorry a 500$ with 32GB of storage is not excusable.

Removable storage is pointless since they would likely not to support a
filesystem which can be easily mounted on any computer (windows/linux/osx) and
support files of 4GB or greater in size.

More importantly media apps like Amazon Instant Video, Netflix and Spotify
which allow you to cache/download media for offline use do not allow you to
use removable storage for that purpose and my downloaded spotify songs alone
would fill A 32GB device.

I can download a few seasons of my TV shows from Amazon Video, Netflix and my
entire music library from Spotify into my iPhone but I can't download even a
full season of a 8-10 episode per season show onto a device with 32GB.

32GB eMMC is also very slow because of how the storage channel works, so sorry
there is no excuse with having so little storage.

Also SD cards are slow, die fairly quickly, can easily get lost, and buying
256GB of storage in microSDXC Class 10 cards from a reliable source (as in
definitely not fake) costs about as much as the difference between an
iPad/iPhone with a 32GB and 256GB here in the UK.

~~~
teach
Chromebooks are _designed_ for everything to be in the cloud, always. If
you're DOWNLOADING anything to the device, you're using it wrong.

When you buy a Chromebook, you're signing up for a cheap, lightweight cloud
access device. That's why they (used to?) come bundled with 1TB of Google
Drive storage.

~~~
monk_e_boy
you're being down voted but you are correct, schools buy these by the
hundreds. everything is stored in the cloud. these devices are aimed at a
different market. chrome book and Google classroom and Google docs is what
they are for. apps make them nicer, there are tons of educational apps (think
dyslexia, autism, etc) that we need iPads for. Now we can ditch the iPads.

~~~
fattire
dogma's point about the Play Store apps is right though. ChromeOS was designed
to keep everything in the cloud, but Android apps are different-- while
currently running on storage-constrained tablets and phones, the Play Store on
a laptop will feel a lot more like the App store on a Mac-- games especially
will have tons of giant assets that will ideally be stored locally. But if you
only have 32GB for a 500GB game... there's a problem.

When a device has a keyboard and 12" screen, it'll feel like a laptop and
you'll expect a laptop-like installation experience, not a phone-like
experience. That means not waiting a half hour for your game media to download
every time you want to play a level...

~~~
dogma1138
Even a phone/tablet like experience. The "AAA" mobile titles and the older PC
ports take a lot of space, Xcom takes like 4GB, Shadow Run takes 2-3 GB, GTA
takes like 2-3 GB also... Even on my Motorola Droid the first "AAA" 3D mobile
games would download 1-2GB of assets. A movie from Netflix / Google Play can
be 4-6 GB also since it's 2-3GB per hour.

If you have a Marshmallow device today with an SD card you can lock the SD
card to that device, format it in EXT4 and encrypt it and then never really
remove it and apps can be installed on it (usually), if you still running an
older version of Android you have to root the device and pray that the app
doesn't do root detection format the SDcard in EXT4 and mount it in /DATA (?)
and even then you might have issues since the SD card reader on many devices
can be quite slow.

If Samsung wants to sell 500$ devices with 32GB it's their choice, but why not
offer models with more storage? Why all the chinese phones can come with 64GB
as a base for 300-400$ but Apple and Samsung still offer 32GB for flagship
devices that cost twice as much?

And more importantly why are people OK with it? seriously "X is more than
enough" when in fact it isn't is not an excuse, the fact that you can get by
with 32GB doesn't mean you should, your use cases fit your storage capability
not the otherway around.

When I bought the 128GB 6s I thought I would never fill it, within a couple of
weeks I only had 30 GB left on the device.

------
davidw
$450 is a bit more than I'd like to pay for something that's a tablet+. I
wonder how these compare with the Asus Flip, which is $260? That feels a bit
better for a device I'm just going to use to watch some movies on and maybe a
bit more.

~~~
ihm
I have an Asus Flip, which I love, and use for serious work (I use Ubuntu via
crouton). I would be willing to pay a little more for an Intel chip to
alleviate the headaches of broken software having ARM has occasionally caused.

The light weight of the Flip was a big factor for me as well, since my main
machine was hurting my back, so hopefully these new Chromebooks are around as
light.

~~~
blacksmith_tb
The new Flip was just announced, it has an Intel CPU (but it's also twice as
expensive, sadly):

[https://www.asus.com/Notebooks/ASUS-Chromebook-
Flip-C302CA/](https://www.asus.com/Notebooks/ASUS-Chromebook-Flip-C302CA/)

~~~
shams93
Has a core m7 and 8 gigs of ram, that's fast enough to run Bitwig in crouton

~~~
bostand
Also 12.5" instead of 10", which I found very cramped.

Also, smaller bezels :)

------
whyagaindavid
Just to give a litte headsup to
[https://www.neverware.com/cloudready](https://www.neverware.com/cloudready)
This is recompiled chromiumOS for those of you who want to try
(chromeOS)chromiumOS in their standard laptop. I am not a customer nor belong
to the company - but just installed it on for my mum on a old Dell latitude.
Performs fantastic; no need for any virus/backup.

------
intellegacy
I bought a new chromebook a few months ago. One of the nicer ones, not the
super cheap one.

I'm just as disappointed as I was when I first used a chromebook 4 years ago.
It's slow, already crashed once - requiring a full re-install, the touchpad
barely registers my finger, and it loses battery in a few days. Seriously if I
leave it alone for a few days it drops from 100% battery to like 5%.

For $449 I'd rather buy a 5 year old macbook air than use another chromebook.
I'm selling mine.

~~~
apetresc
A few _days_?! That's a killer feature for me... most laptops can barely get
through half a day.

~~~
docileninja
I think he meant that it looses its charge without him using it.

~~~
wcarron
Well, my 2013 MBP does that, to the point that if I leave it for 6hrs it's out
of battery such that I cannot even turn it on. Real shitty. Don't know if I'm
just bad at this stuff or if most computers do that.

~~~
brazzledazzle
Your battery might be shot or it might not be really sleeping. Either way you
can try changing it to hibernate instead of sleep using a command line utility
(pmset I think). Not nearly as convenient but if your battery is dying that
quickly convenience is probably secondary.

~~~
wcarron
Probably not really sleeping. Holds it's charge when I do more. Most of the
time I just close it and leave.

~~~
brazzledazzle
You've probably already looked but console might actually tell you exactly
what the culprit is. This has happened to me in the past a couple of times.
Once with an app running in the background that I can't remember the name of
that wouldn't even let the screensaver start, much less sleep. The other time
was because of a kernel extension shitting the bed on a regular basis. If
you're curious what non-Apple kexts you have installed you can see them like
so:

kextstat | grep -v com.apple

They're at /Library/Extensions/ and you can disable them like this:

kextunload /Library/Extensions/Some3rdPartyModule.kext

Even if it's not a kext it's good to keep tabs on kernel extensions you have
installed. I hope that helps and apologies if you're already aware of all
that.

------
jimmcslim
"A new generation of Chromebooks"... that are likely to not have any
meaningful retail distribution in Australia, if past experience is to be any
guide.

Any Chromebooks that have been available locally have been generally much
lower spec versions than what have been available in the US. I don't know why
Google Australia isn't doing more to increase their visibility locally?

~~~
dogma1138
Google barely sells them directly, they don't market them that much even in
the US with the exception of a few devices.

As for the specs well honestly the "high end" Chromebooks are a joke, are you
really going to buy a 1000-2000$ Core i5 Chromebook?

The CPU and RAM on these things doesn't matter that much for their use cases,
even with the general purpose android repackaged apps it still wouldn't
matter, what does matter is the storage and even the Core i5 models come with
32-64GB storage usually which is a joke.

~~~
hajile
I would have bought the chromebook pixel if it had an upgradeable SSD. You can
use regular linux on them and the machine itself was great hardware in every
other way (a friend had one). A macbook with 4-8x the storage was the same
price, so it became an obvious choice. Once again, Google just didn't know
their market...

~~~
dogma1138
You have to install linux through Crouton which has it's limitations.

------
millstone
The specs in the Best Buy link seem...implausible?

1\. Is there really such a thing as an ARM-based Chromebook with Intel HD
graphics?

2\. It says it has HDMI output, but doesn't appear to have an HDMI port?

3\. It says its USB ports are compatible with USB 2.0 devices, but all I see
are type C ports. Also USB 3.0 does not "maximize the latest high speed
devices."

Are the Best Buy specs just crap?

[http://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung-plus-12-3-touch-
screen-c...](http://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung-plus-12-3-touch-screen-
chromebook-4gb-memory-32gb-emmc-flash-memory-platinum-
silver/5620405.p?skuId=5620405)

~~~
DiabloD3
What should be linked is
[http://www.samsung.com/us/computing/chromebooks/12-14/xe513c...](http://www.samsung.com/us/computing/chromebooks/12-14/xe513c24-k01us-
xe513c24-k01us/) which is the only actually relevant URL that matters.

1) No. This seems to be one of Samsung's own ARM SoCs.

2) It doesn't seem to have an HDMI port, but seems to support HDMI-over-Type-C
(which is its own can of bullshit)

3) Type C refers to the port, as in, akin to Type A, B, and Mini and MicroUSB
variants thereof. Type C does not depend on the implementation of any specific
USB version, but is USB 3.x compatible.

As in, USB 2.0 over USB 3.0 ports (including 3.0 variants of Type A, B, and
MicroUSB AB, as well as Type C) is valid.

Type C does maximize the latest highest speed devices because it does not
refer to a version of USB. As in, the brand new USB 3.1 can use (but is not
limited to) Type C. There are very few 3.1 devices.

Skylake-generation chipsets, for example, do not support USB 3.1 yet. This is
slated for post-Kaby Lake (as Kaby Lake seems to also be using Z270 and
friends, not a new Z370).

4) Yes, Best Buy is just crap, they often list incorrect and hilarious specs.
No one seems to care enough to get them to correct it, and this is probably
why they are not a popular internet vendor.

------
dcgudeman
How are they doing this? Is there an Android runtime embedded in Chrome OS
now?

~~~
JosephRedfern
You've been able to run some Android apps inside chrome for a couple of years
now: [https://chrome.googleblog.com/2014/09/first-set-of-
android-a...](https://chrome.googleblog.com/2014/09/first-set-of-android-apps-
coming-to.html). Perhaps this is based on that?

~~~
mtgx
No, the previous method was very different, and it required developers to
modify their apps for Chromebooks, if they were to work at all.

This article explains it:

[http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/05/the-play-store-
comes-...](http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/05/the-play-store-comes-to-
chrome-os-but-not-the-way-we-were-expecting/)

~~~
JosephRedfern
Ah, right! Thanks for the link.

------
Roritharr
What are they referring to when speaking of "built-in" virus protection?

~~~
AdmiralAsshat
If it's not a chrome app, it won't run on a chromebook. The browser sandbox is
incredibly tight.

~~~
mikelward
There's also Android apps, which would presumably be scanned -- and removed if
deemed malicious -- by Play Store Verify Apps.

[https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/2812853?hl=en](https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/2812853?hl=en)

------
kartickv
When will I be able to build Android apps on this? I'm planning on building
one, and it would be great if I could use this laptop to do so.

That would immediately make it more powerful than the 13-inch iPad, in that I
can get my real work done. I'm a developer, so for me real work means
programming.

------
franciscop
From when I used Samsung Galaxy S[N]; I cannot even imagine the amount of non-
removable crapware this laptop will have.

If you want to fiddle with Android on a laptop, try RemixOS; I used it for a
while in a virtual machine when my phone broke and it's awesome.

~~~
flukus
What about the google crapware, does it remove that too?

~~~
sowbug
You mean Chrome, a calculator, a camera app, and a file explorer? Those are
pretty much the only apps preinstalled on a Chromebook.

~~~
flukus
I was thinking more of the android ones, gmail, google+, google maps, play
music, play movies, play books, play newsstand, play games, google drive,
youtube, hangouts, calendar, google docs.

All installed and unremoveable on my phone even though mail and maps are the
only ones I use.

~~~
wstrange
From my experience with an Acer R11 chromebook, there are no pre-installed
android apps. You have to explicitly install them from the play store.

Given that a chromebook has pretty good integration with GSuite apps via the
web, I am guessing most folks will not need the android versions.

------
mrbill
Am I the only person who doesn't want a "convertible" with a touchscreen? If I
want a tablet, I have a tablet. For laptop work, I have a laptop.

I had the 2015 Chromebook Pixel and loved it, but never used the touchscreen
(and ended up selling it).

~~~
YZF
I got a convertible Yoga ThinkPad and I'm quite happy with it. If you're just
reading stuff (e.g. I do this on the bus but same applies for flights etc)
folding it over into a fat tablet works great. I also tent it up when I use an
external keyboard which is another bonus... I don't touch the screen at all
when I use in its laptop form or in "tent" mode but I do when I use it as a
tablet...

~~~
nunb
I use a T100HA for exactly these reasons, but it's got a detachable screen.
Older models had extra batteries and HDDs in the keyboard section, which is a
great addition imho.

~~~
analog31
I'm quite happy with a similar Asus model. I have a rather odd combination of
needs: Touch screen, occasional keyboard use, and ability to run
Jupyter/Python. So far this can only be done with a Windows tablet. Websites
describing the installation of Linux on Bay Trail tablets all end in despair.

I'd be interested in a Chrome tablet if it would install Linux with touch
screen support and let me run Jupyter/Python on it.

------
sudo-i
The biggest thing is are the Android apps actually usable...

I bought a Pixel C and it was a horrible experience using mostly all apps...
most major apps only support landscape, there is no auto focus on text boxes,
horrible graphics in full screen, etc... I returned it 1 hour after using it.

You can install Remix OS and their way of dealing with this is scaling down
apps to mimic a phone interface. I'm not sure how Chrome OS will solve this
problem.

There's virtually no Android apps made for these interfaces/sizes.

~~~
dragonwriter
> There's virtually no Android apps made for these interfaces/sizes

Eh, I use an 12" Android tablet; whil e most apps might not be specialized for
the size, I've never run into any that I want to use that don't work well on
it. This is basically a 12" tablet with a swing out keyboard rather than a
detachable keyboard case, so I don't see it being much of a real problem.

------
nunb
Here's a small user-experience report for a similar Atom-powered machine from
Asus. I bought it because I am trialling a life built around a dumb-phone, a
large tablet/laptop, and AWS based primary computing power for sci-kit, ML
etc.

I have the Asus T100HA and intend to run Linux on it, replacing my previous
Macbook. As a custom keyboard user, I don't mind the tabletable form-factor.
Yet I understand why Apple has stayed away from this FF as there are too many
unresolved issues (minor ones, for the most part).

The core hardware is not bad at all, for the CPU, RAM & screen. Opera works
great, Chrome too. The keyboard has some flex, is a bit small (but
serviceable), and the tablet's magnetic attachment to the keyboard is a bit
jiggly (expected). Windows is still the biggest failing of this category -
endless updates that brick your machine for hours at a time, powershell is an
embarrassment etc.

The SD-card in theory lets you repurpose the computer from ereader to
music/media machine to work/github etc. I particularly like detaching the
keyboard when flight attendants say laptops must be put away, it's a party
trick that makes for a great advertisement of this niche.

Even in 2017, the options for media are very limited on airplanes, and I've
been travelling a lot, so I REALLY appreciate this feature.

I popped off the shell once, and the core computer is pleasingly compact and
well laid out. Heat is not an issue with the Atom chips (it was with the Macs
I've used post Intel).

I do hope Chrome/Android/Linux become serviceable on this platform. Windows is
certainly trying, but their baggage holds them back.

~~~
dajohnson89
>trialling a life built around a dumb-phone, a large tablet/laptop, and AWS
based primary computing power for sci-kit, ML etc.

I'm curious as to why this choice?

------
dajohnson89
I'm holding out for the new pixel rumored to be coming out late 2017.

[http://www.androidpolice.com/2016/09/26/exclusive-google-
is-...](http://www.androidpolice.com/2016/09/26/exclusive-google-is-planning-
a-pixel-3-laptop-running-the-andromeda-os-for-release-in-q3-2017/)

------
galfarragem
Resuming: I would buy one.

The price is not that bad (comparing with Mac world) assuming that it's well
built (looks metal?), has an high screen resolution and access to android
ecosystem. I would just need a way to run VScode or Sublime.

~~~
drspacemonkey
>I would just need a way to run VScode or sublime

I'm assuming Crouton is still an option on this device, so that would give you
an Ubuntu environment. Not as elegant as a native app, but it works.

~~~
ahabman
> assuming Crouton is still an option

Any confirmation available?

~~~
tacomonstrous
Well, it's basically a Googler's hobby project, so you can't expect any
'official' confirmation, but there's no reason it shouldn't run on any x86
Chromebook.

~~~
jessaustin
I hope you're right, but we're pretty light on details about what was changed
for this new product. If enough changed, there could be a delay before crouton
catches up...

------
nickjj
You can install GalliumOS on an existing Chromebook[1] today and run Linux
natively (which it does surprisingly well).

[1]: [https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/transform-a-toshiba-
chromeboo...](https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/transform-a-toshiba-chromebook-
cb35-into-a-linux-development-environment-with-galliumos)

For $100 less than the Samsung model listed in the Google blog post you get a
128GB SSD and a 13" IPS 1080p panel. Sure you lose the touch screen, but for a
development laptop, I'd much rather have the HD space and 1080p resolution on
a great display.

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blinkingled
Hopefully the rise of Chromebook/Android hybrids will give Google and App
developers more reason to make Android apps big screen friendly.

Interesting to see where this goes esp with the price point.

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msh
I hate the way Google handles updates.

My chromebook (lenovo n20p) was on the list to get android apps during 2016
but still nothing.

Other os vendors like Microsoft and apple can roll out updates to all their
users at the same time, why can't Google.

It's not as bad as with Android phones but I get the feeling that Google just
don't give a shit about their end users.

~~~
pja
Google seems to be quite fond of partnering with a hardware manufacturer when
they roll out new ideas on the software side. I guess it’s one of the
sweeteners they offer when trying to entice companies to sign up to a new
product roadmap: “if you’ll make something like this then we’ll give you 3/6
month exclusivity on features X/Y/Z”

I imagine the Chromebooks that were slated to get Android App support will get
it in a few months when whatever deal Google has with Samsung expires.

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PanosJee
The most interesting thing will happen when an Android phone with a screen &
keyboard is Android with a Chrome desktop. Marketing shouldn't be burning the
midnight oil to figure out the branding of Android/Chrome cross overs.

~~~
stinkytaco
I would actually really like to see a "crossover" phone. Windows is trying
this strategy, but of course then I'd have to carry a windows phone. I can
imagine how nice it would be if I could just take my phone out and dock it and
do some work or make a presentation.

~~~
petecox
I miss my Firefox OS phone (Flame). Chrome OS seems to have solved the apps
problem here.

If Google were to release Chromium OS community builds for Nexus phones, I'd
have a gander. (My Nexus 4 needs a new battery and I don't have the spare
change to run out and purchase a Pixel!)

HTML5 for the phone and Android/Crouton compatibility via Wayland would make
for a nice challenger to Ubuntu Convergence/MS Continuum.

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mapcars
>Top apps for productivity like Slack™ help you get more done

Slack available everywhere, it doesn't make more sense than saying "our
chromebook has keyboard and screen".

>you can enjoy popular games like Plants vs. Zombies Heroes

No comments.

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goombastic
Strangely, we dont get to see as many of the cheaper chromebook laptops in a
country like India where taxes are such a huge part of a laptop price. A
macbook or a thinkpad are out of reach for most people here.

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qwertyuiop924
So ChromeOS can now run android apps.

It's a step away from the purity of design of the original vision, without the
usefulness of actually just coming out and admitting the things run Linux
(and, say, letting us run linux apps on them without jumping through hoops).
And it doesn't solve the performance problems (Chrome is amazingly
heavyweight. My modest school-issued machine will sometimes crash if I've got
a moderate number of tabs open, due to what I think is OOM). But it will give
us a handful of useful apps. And at the end of the day, it lets me play Quake
(and maybe Doom) on a chromebook, as well as anything I can convince RetroArch
to work with. So I'm happy.

~~~
pekk
Android isn't Linux in any sense that is meaningful to users because you are
locked into a Google-ized JVM that only sees the world through Google APIs.
Google wants to run Android apps (rather than Linux apps) because they control
that platform as their own walled garden. For example, a huge number of
Android apps depend on Google Play Services and other Google-specific
dependencies. It appears that Google never insisted on everything running in
the browser, just that everything runs in their walled garden, and Android is
also a part of that.

~~~
qwertyuiop924
>Android isn't Linux in any sense that is meaningful to users

...Which was rather my point: rather than revealing linux meaningfully, we
just get Android.

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smrtinsert
Not interested. Waiting for galaxy tab s3 with proper s pen. Still dont get
the use case for a cloud only device. Many of us do way more on tablets than
take notes for college.

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jaxondu
How about one with Snapdragon 835 which is compatible with Windows 10? Maybe
soon multiboot to ChromeOS, Windows and Ubuntu will be real.

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dx034
I like the irony that my Chromebook works fine with all pages, but frequently
crashes when I use Gmail while having other tabs opened.

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emehrkay
"ƃunsɯɐs" (Samsung upside down) is the first thing I noticed when looking
though the pictures. It doesn't change how the device performs, but someone
seen that and signed off on it (at least put it on the side rotated 90 deg or
on an angle in the corner). You see something like that and wonder what else
was okayed that shouldn't had been

~~~
nkozyra
I'm not seeing that, maybe your computer is upside down.

~~~
emehrkay
The article said "check it out at bestbuy" and the picture was this
[http://pisces.bbystatic.com//image2/BestBuy_US/images/produc...](http://pisces.bbystatic.com//image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/5620/5620405_sa.jpg;maxHeight=500;maxWidth=500)

Edit: I guess a lot of these convertible laptops do the upside down text
thing. I honestly didn't notice before

[https://cdn0.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/lvGTn7xm3L_JOBhgUCMl3IYNM9A...](https://cdn0.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/lvGTn7xm3L_JOBhgUCMl3IYNM9A=/0x0:2040x1360/920x613/filters:focal\(586x607:912x933\)/cdn0.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/52592539/jkastrenakes_161222_1339_A_0061.0.0.jpeg)

[https://static.bhphoto.com/images/multiple_images/images500x...](https://static.bhphoto.com/images/multiple_images/images500x500/1474385430000_IMG_688049.jpg)

~~~
wallacoloo
It's only upside down when you're using it in a mode such that all screen
content needs to be flipped vertically. If you use it as a laptop, the text
appears right side up to the user. If you use it as a tablet, the text could
be in any of 4 rotations relative to the user.

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pjmlp
For $ 449.99 I can get a decent Windows 10 laptop, no thanks.

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dbcooper
Can you get root access on these? Use a HOSTS file etc?

~~~
drvdevd
Hopefully like some other chromebooks have been, they will be relatively
hackable (e.g.: they will make it easy to install your own OS on too if you
want).

edit: _relatively_ easy -- I'm typing this on a Toshiba Chromebook on which I
flashed a new BIOS to turn it into a regular PC laptop. Had to do the washer
removal trick, etc. I think this was a good trade off on Google's part,
between security and freedom, actually.

~~~
wallacoloo
I have one of the earlier samsung Chromebooks with the exynos processor. I
flashed Linux to it no sweat (I did not have to open it up or anything), but
the graphics drivers were terrible and I was forever stuck on some 3.x kernel
because not all the hardware drivers had been mainlined (or something). I
couldn't even watch 480p non-fullscreen YouTube videos at 10 fps - that's how
unusable the Linux drivers were. I was able to get Stepmania to run on it just
for kicks, and it got < 2 fps. Literally worse than a 1st-gen Raspberry Pi.

So... don't rely on it unless you know the drivers are in order or don't need
any realtime graphics.

------
loudtieblahblah
as someone who's tried out Android apps in ChromeOS...meh.

Most of them crash, and are non responsive on the touchscreen.

~~~
joshred
Which chromebook do you have? I have an Acer R11, and I don't have any
complaints.

~~~
loudtieblahblah
Acer R13. Enabled beta channel, downloaded apps, they all don't work worth a
crap.

------
ehosca
will they be able to run Skype without hackery?

------
tghw
Tangential: This is the first time I've seen the .google TLD in use.
Looks...weird.

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notliketherest
Wow - Google actually knows about Slack. That's surprising, most Googler's I
know still use Hangouts to communicate at work and have never heard of Slack
lol.

~~~
brohoolio
Slack has replaced hangouts as the primary chat for my friends and I. Hipchat
replaced hangouts at work as the primary chat.

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briankwest
Will it explode?

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throw2016
The whole Google approach is herding people into a ecosystem where Google
controls everything including your data which is mined aggresively to build
profiles which in turn makes total surveillance by state actors a cinch.

That they continue to use Linux to enable this dystopian control is the
biggest irony. There are all sorts of security and encryption technologies in
use which perpetuate an illusion of security but these technologies are used
to further their access and control not yours.

It's so sad that the android, google and arm ecosystem make x86, Intel and
Microsoft look open and positively lovable. If they had followed the Google
lock down approach we won't be able to install or use Linux on x86.

------
swiley
Chromeos is so strange. It's not at all light weight but manages to be one of
the most useless OSes out there. At least with android you get a certain form
factor but I really don't see the point in chromeos at all.

~~~
jaimex2
Its great for non-technical people and people supporting family. I haven't had
to support a single Mac or Windows problem since getting my parents a
Chromebook :D

~~~
Dotnaught
It's a given that those with Chromebooks will not have Mac or Windows
problems.

But beyond that, I'd agree that giving children or parents a Chromebook will
cut down on tech support requests.

~~~
drvdevd
I also think as a parent, it might be relatively easy to monitor a (younger)
child's use of the device through Chrome itself.

~~~
NotSammyHagar
look at supervised account on chromeos. It's the best supervision I have seen
- my teenager hasn't managed to escape it (yet?).

~~~
jessaustin
Would you know if she did?

