
$149 Chromebooks - ojn
http://chrome.blogspot.com/2015/03/more-chromebooks-for-everyone.html
======
jdietrich
This is a colossal, market-moving play from Google.

Look at the brand names. TRUE, XOLO, Nexian. Recognise them? Consumers in
Thailand, India and Indonesia do - they are local smartphone brands. Look at
the promo video. Notice how many Asian faces there are?

This isn't about cheap Chromebooks, it's about a major strategic effort to
court the global middle class. As with the Android One initiative, Google are
seeking to establish an affordable but capable gateway to their services for
middle-income consumers. They're working with local companies to leverage
local marketing and distribution resources. In these markets, the Chromebook
isn't being pitched as a cheap substitute for a 'real' laptop, but as an
upgrade from a smartphone or tablet.

If their strategy for Chrome OS works half as well as their Android strategy,
then the industry is going to be unrecognisably transformed over the next few
years. A whole generation of consumers could come to see the Chrome OS pseudo-
thin-client model as the norm, with full-fat operating systems being a niche
curio.

~~~
TheTaO
> This is a colossal, market-moving play from Google.

Is it that or is it just an effort to stay relevant? If you can get a
laptop/tablet that can do the same thing that this Chromebook does and has a
full OS for a few bucks more, would you do it? There are tons of tablets from
HP/Dell that cost 100-200$ and run full windows OS and have comparable specs
to the Chromebooks. As far as I know they are selling quite well. I am
wondering if this is Google responding to that pressure.

~~~
ntakasaki
It's sad to see folks celebrating computing devices that are more extremely
locked down than even the iDevices. A Windows PC/laptop is much more open than
a Chromebook.

Can Mozilla even make a Firefox browser for ChromeOS? Only Google can make
system and native apps, unlike the iDevices where you can access most of the
native functionality even if you have to go through Apple's approval and
you're not forced to upload all your information into Google's cloud with
paltry local storage like 64GB on even a 1500 dollar machine where the
information is mined by Google and is accessible to various parties like the
Government. They now even track which retail stores people visit using their
Android phones or iPhones. [http://digiday.com/platforms/google-
tracking/](http://digiday.com/platforms/google-tracking/)

Looks like user and developer freedom are a big concern only when Apple or
Microsoft infringe it(even though Win32 is much more open than ChromeOS, after
all Google exploited it with the Chrome browser and bundling it with Flash and
Java updates), but Google gets a free pass to lock everything down and still
call itself open.

~~~
nightpool
Actually, I upvoted this, but on reflection I think this is wrong. Here's why:

\- Most Chromebooks are freely bootloader unlocked, allowing any operating
system to be loaded on them.

\- ChromeOS follows the same open source model as Chrome—Most core features
open, with things like Flash/Wildvine/API keys held secret.

\- There are no native apps on ChromeOS—the correct question is not "Can
Mozilla write a browser for ChromeOS", its "Can Mozilla write an app for
ChromeOS" and "Can Mozilla write a browser for Chromebooks". Both of these
statements are absolutely true.

So I fail to see how Chromebooks are "more extremely locked down" than
iDevices.

~~~
noteloop
> There are no native apps on ChromeOS

This is not correct, you can run native apps for Chrome OS via Native Client
(NaCL) or App Runtime for Chrome (ARC).

VLC, a poster child for native apps, will be released for Chrome OS in a few
months using ARC.

Anandtech has already tested a beta version:
[http://www.anandtech.com/show/9082/the-chromebook-
pixel-2015...](http://www.anandtech.com/show/9082/the-chromebook-
pixel-2015-review/5)

~~~
fpgeek
Hmm... If you can port VLC to Chrome OS with ARC, I wonder what happens if you
try to shove Firefox for Android into it. Are there fundamental roadblocks
that would prevent it from working, or would you just end up with a slow and
buggy waltzing bear?

~~~
amaranth
I suspect their sandbox doesn't allow code generation since they statically
verify you aren't using instructions they can't protect against and that would
break it. That means that while you could probably get a Firefox running, it'd
be with a Javascript interpreter, not a JIT.

~~~
boulos
While I don't work on any of the related pieces, it should be noted that NaCL
has dynamic "check this code" support precisely so you can JIT-compile code
and execute it safely.

------
dpcan
Where is the $149 Windows-Based laptop with SSD, 2-4GB RAM, and moderate
graphics, that can run your usual Office to Minecraft software? The
Chromebook-killer from Microsoft should be here, but all I hear about are the
Surfaces.

Honestly, the only reason my kids don't have Chromebooks is because they don't
easily run Minecraft or downloadable games. Sure they can do their school work
on them, but they also like to play, and we've already tried messing with
Linux on some older desktops.

~~~
raesene9
[http://www.amazon.com/HP-Stream-Laptop-Personal-
Horizon/dp/B...](http://www.amazon.com/HP-Stream-Laptop-Personal-
Horizon/dp/B00NSHLUBU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427824278&sr=8-1&keywords=hp+stream+11)
HP Stream 11 is likely the closest to what you're looking for $199 so slightly
more expensive, but a year of Office365 included...

~~~
rsync
Is it possible to install Linux on the HP Stream ?

~~~
Sanddancer
Almost certainly so. It's got a real bios, so you should be able to change how
it boots.

~~~
voltagex_
If it's anything like the other devices in that series it will be 32 bit UEFI,
which not many distros have out of the box. You can certainly build 32 bit
GRUB. [http://askubuntu.com/questions/392719/32-bit-uefi-boot-
suppo...](http://askubuntu.com/questions/392719/32-bit-uefi-boot-support)

------
alexsop2
I think the bigger news here is the Chromebit. A $100 device that turns any
monitor into a computer? Fascinating.

~~~
jhardcastle
More details on Cnet - [http://www.cnet.com/uk/products/asus-
chromebit/](http://www.cnet.com/uk/products/asus-chromebit/)

Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi 802.11AC, USB 2.0 for accessories, 2GB of RAM and 16GB SSD

~~~
lewisl9029
Wow. AC wireless in a $100 device. Now I'm interested.

What does it do for power? Through the USB port like most other similar
devices I'm assuming?

~~~
adventured
It apparently has a full-size USB and microUSB port for power purposes.

------
dankohn1
Over the last month, I've moved many of our 25 customer service team from
crappy, ~$200 Dell laptops to Asus Chromeboxes ($160 with 2 GB of RAM). The
feedback has been universally positive, because the Chromeboxes are so much
more responsive than Chrome on a low-end Windows machine.

A few caveats:

\+ We've found Chrome more responsive with 4 GB of RAM, especially when you
keep open many tabs, such as large spreadsheets in Google Docs. We didn't see
any improvement moving to 8 GB.

\+ We have struggled with editing PDFs. Dochub has the rotate and delete page
functions we need, but can't save in place to Google Drive (it only edits).
NoteablePDF is supposed to add rotate and delete soon.

\+ We had to buy a new scanner that can save directly to Google Drive.
[http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EKW6JZ4](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EKW6JZ4)
worked well, after the Epson required being tethered to a PC.

\+ We found Google Cloud Print to be unreliable, so we bought a hardware print
server that works great: [http://www.amazon.com/Lantronix-
XPS1002CP-01-S-xPrintServer-...](http://www.amazon.com/Lantronix-
XPS1002CP-01-S-xPrintServer-Cloud-Print/dp/B00HSMK58A)

We're not the market for $149 Chromebooks, but I'm glad to see Google
investing to expand the market for ChromeOS.

------
not-much-io
I own a Acer c720p Chromebook and I have to say it is a wonderful machine. I
now only use my main PC for programming, and I even do that sometimes by SSH
from my chromebook.

Main point: * Great battery life * Lightning fast * Small/Thin

For me it is a perfect cheap laptop to use as a goto for all my less resource
intensive activities. (reading, youtube, chat etc.) I might get a bigger 15
inch one so I am happy to see Chromebooks developing. I am having a hard time
figuring out who would use a chromebit though..

~~~
spb
I use an Acer C720P as well, for everything _including_ programming, via
Cloud9 ([https://c9.io/](https://c9.io/)). Cloud9 has been almost exclusively
the platform for all my development since 2013. Having my entire workspace
state synchronized across machines, saved whenever I'm not using it to be
resumed precisely as it was, sandboxed from causing or falling victim to
issues with my desktop, is invaluable.

I switch off between my desktop and my Chromebook whenever I go out, or even
just when I want to lie down instead of hunching over at my desk. I experience
no disruptions from doing so.

The only _real_ complaint that I have is that ChromeOS's use of alt+arrows to
emulate Page Up/Down keys interferes with a few important default C9 key
combinations (alt+shift+down to copy a line getting converted to
shift+pagedn).

------
nemexy
The most important thing of these Chromebooks, at least for me, is the quality
of the touchpad and keyboard, as if I ever get one they will be used mainly
for typing stuff/chatting. There is a reason why I still us an almost decade-
old Lenovo Thinkpad R61 as a reserve machine and something that I can use
outside/on the go. Granted it is a big heavy but for me, it's worth it.

So, is there a chromebook, that can offer me a good quality of
keyboard/touchpad?

Sadly I don't think there is one with a trackpoint, which would pretty much
make these the perfect notebook for my use-case.

~~~
Crito
The touchpad on the Chromebook Pixel (the annoyingly expensive one) is high
end. Large glass multitouch touchpad. I doubt you'd be satisfied with the
keyboard though.

So I think the answer is probably "No." The most expensive one available
doesn't have a good keyboard by 60-series era Thinkpad standards, so I would
be surprised if any do.

~~~
pgeorgi
The most expensive Chromebook doesn't cater to Thinkpad users. The Lenovo
Chromebook might.

~~~
Crito
I seriously doubt it. I have never seen a non-Thinkpad branded Lenovo laptop
that would satisfy somebody who liked the R60's keyboard.

~~~
pgeorgi
Looking at
[http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/11e-series/11e...](http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/11e-series/11e-chrome/),
the keyboard looks "too chiclet" to be what Thinkpad users expect, despite the
name. Right? (I'm not a fan of those laptops, so can't tell)

------
na85
I'd definitely consider using a Chromebook if the offline functionality works.
My understanding from people I know working at Google is that the offline Docs
and Gmail experience is pretty sub-par at the moment.

I guess if you pop out their SSD for a larger one it'd make a decent BSD
netbook. Bitrig[0] is slowly but surely getting better.

[0] [https://www.bitrig.org/](https://www.bitrig.org/)

~~~
nfoz
I bought a Chromebook Pixel 2015. The first thing it asks, when you turn it
on, is for an Internet connection. You cannot go past the first-boot panel
until you give it internet access, then agree to Google's ToS which says
you'll let them auto-install updates at anytime, and then let it try to
download updates from Google. Then you must log in to a Google account.

I didn't bother with ChromeOS enough to see how well offline apps work. The
laptop does not have any screws, and I'm told the SSD is soldered on even if I
knew how to take the laptop apart without breaking it.

That being said, there are magical keystrokes you can use to bypass even the
intro "first boot" panels to switch the laptop into "developer mode" which you
can use to wipe ChromeOS and install a real Linux. Much of the hardware isn't
supported by mainline kernels, but Google has a lot of that sourcecode online,
so I'm trying to compile my own module to get the touchpad to work in Debian.

That's all experirence with a different product than what we're talking about
here, but my anecdotal observations are that ChromeOS fundamentally expects
internet access, and it might not be possible to upgrade the hardware and get
a comfortable setup with a real Linux or BSD.

~~~
emidln
I don't know about modern chromebooks, but I have an Acer C7 that I spent $199
on and then added another $240 for it to have a 128GB SSD, 16GB RAM, a working
bluetooth module, and an upgraded battery. $440 total and it's been a solid
dev machine running first chrubuntu and now crouton. I've mentioned before
that the only issue I've had with it is lack of CPU horsepower for clojure-
based work to get into the REPL, which as I understand, is slightly fixed on
later iterations (or other models). All of my hardware (AFAICT) works under
Linux, and I use Google Hangouts, Skype, Steam (for TFC), and vim/tmux on it
routinely.

~~~
bluedino
$440? You could get a Lenovo T440 for a few bucks more in the Lenovo outlet

~~~
akhilcacharya
It could end up being better in terms of battery life and portability if OP
had bought a C720.

~~~
emidln
My battery lasts about 9 hours on a charge with normal usage
(testing/developing in vim with Python (using python-mode+jedi) and Clojure
(using vim-fireplace and nrepl-middleware) against Postgres, Mongo,
Elasticsearch, Redis, and Storm. The original battery was somewhere in the 4-5
hour range.

------
discardorama
Can one wipe out a Chromebook and install Linux?

~~~
green7ea
Yes you can but it's not a straightforward process. I did it for my chromebox
which follows the same procedure as doing it for a chromebook. Basically you
have to open the machine and remove a screw to enable write access to the
bios. After that you have to replace the coreboot bios that came with the
computer with a newer coreboot version and install SeaBios (old bios emulation
on top of coreboot) as a payload. You could also have a linux kernel as a
payload but this was more complex and I didn't need faster boot times.

Once all this is done, the laptop behaves much like any other laptop except
you have an open source bios. You can then install linux on it from a USB key
like you would on any other device. I imagine the quality of the drivers
depends on which chromebook you use. I hear the chromebook pixel has excellent
support and that's no surprise as that's what Linus uses (or used to, I'm not
sure if he changed).

~~~
jolan
These are ARM Chromebooks though so there is no conventional bios to flash.

They have u-boot with support for booting external media turned off so all you
need to do is turn that on and make bootable media.

[http://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv7/samsung/samsung-
chro...](http://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv7/samsung/samsung-chromebook-2)

~~~
pgeorgi
Recent ARM Chromebooks also come with coreboot.

------
andrepd
The Chromebit is probably the most exciting thing in that post for me. I
wonder if it'll be this time that a company gets the plug-n-play PC right. I
remember the big promises Ubuntu Phone, for example, made in this department.

------
guelo
16GB storage is pathetic. I think of these as terminals connected to the giant
Google mainframe in the sky. The System Administrator will be monitoring your
activities.

------
Splendor
Wow. The OLPC XO-1 launched for $188 in 2006. Now we have relatively
mainstream retail laptops selling for less than that.

~~~
BinaryIdiot
I completely forgot about that computer and the organization behind it.
Looking at their site I guess they eventually moved on to a tablet in addition
to a version of the computer; I wonder if they can even make them cheaper than
these big companies anymore.

------
wehadfun
I've had sub $200 chromebooks before. And upgraded to the Toshiba with intel
processor and nice screen.

On the sub $200 model video ran like crap, couldn't cast tabs to chromecast,
and more than half dozen or so tabs killed it. Other than that is was great.

~~~
0x5f3759df-i
I bought my Acer C720 for $160 and it has been the best preforming chromebook
until a couple months ago.

You can still get good performance in a cheap chromebook if you do a little
research.

------
Animats
Can you run those things as a pure Linux system, without any tie to Google? I
have an application where I run a Python program that needs WiFi and a USB
port, but nothing else. I'm using old EEEpc 2G Surfs now, but they're getting
old.

~~~
andmalc
You can in most cases but you wouldn't need to. Most people install Linux
using a project called Crouton which creates a chroot running parallel to
ChromeOs. The Crouton chroot can see a USB device and of course has network
access.

------
eridal
the said ..

> More Chromebooks, for _everyone_

but ..

> The Google Store isn't available here yet.

> We're working to bring it to more countries as soon as possible.

:(

~~~
exprL
I don't think these Chromebooks are sold in Google Store in any country.

(Google Store selection varies by country, anyway. Where I live, they don't
sell any Chromebooks; I might have considered the new Pixel if it weren't for
the hassle.)

~~~
fragmede
FWIW,
[https://store.google.com/category/chromebooks](https://store.google.com/category/chromebooks)
lists bunch of chromebooks for sale in the US, including the new Pixel.

~~~
72deluxe
The list of chromebooks here in the UK is just one: the new Pixel.

Despite all of the pictures showing Acers etc. you can only actually buy one
from Google. It's silly.

------
hawski
There will be chrome-almost-tablets. I am waiting for Chrometabs and
Chromephones (I know there is Android, but well). I am not joking really.

I expect that, Chromephones would undermine Android, but Chrometabs could be
good idea.

Chromebit is great idea! I am in process of searching what to buy for my
father. His computer is broken down Athlon machine with Linux (I maintain it).
I don't have time to properly maintain it (I don't have time and energy even
to do it for my own computers). I am from Poland, so these prices have for me
4x multiplier attached to them. I now consider buying used workstation and try
to maintain system myself. Or buy some Chromegadget and call it a day. My
father can't put more than 100 USD on this and even 100 USD is stretching a
bit. I will probably add few tens of dollars to this sum and maybe buy
something like Chromebit or used Chromebook.

I want to buy Chromebook for myself also. I am thinking about used Pixel or
Toshiba Chromebook 2. Or I will wait a bit longer for new greatness. My
requirements: max 500 USD, 12-14", at least 1920p. I am not sure what I value
more: performance (Pixel) or quietness and lightness (Toshiba).

~~~
anigbrowl
The flip model has a touch screen, though it's probably not multipoint.

------
tracker1
I bought an Asus chromebook for my grandmother a few months ago for $159 (via
Amazon), though a few days later it jumped to $199. It was a pretty great
deal.

I love ChromeOS... it's grandma/mom safe, and works very well. The only
limitations I've really struggled with in my own use, is VPN to work, and the
lack of an IMAP mail client. Other than that, it's worked great for everyone
I've given one to.

------
superobserver
I really enjoy my Samsung Chromebook 2. The only thing I wish it had more of
is computing power, RAM and screen space. Too bad there aren't very many 15"
8GB RAM Chromebooks on the market which makes the Chromebook Pixel 2 all the
more painful to lust after, despite it not being 15".

TL;DR. Crouton + Chromebook FTnearW! (Would still like to keep the secure
boot, though.)

~~~
jhulla
I do well with the Toshiba Chromebook 2.

Intel Celeron N2840 Gorgeous IPS 1920x1080 screen.

It is a lovely machine.

~~~
superobserver
I've been thinking about that myself - the IPS screen is certainly more
appealing.

------
mintplant
So there are two models available at $149:

Haier -
[http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00V3DYVLM](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00V3DYVLM)

Hisense -
[http://www.walmart.com/ip/44389793#about](http://www.walmart.com/ip/44389793#about)

Which looks better?

~~~
yellowapple
I personally like the Haier's appearance more than the Hisense's. I dig the
whole carbon-fiber aesthetic.

------
aikah
This thread is being totally astroturfed by Googlers, or people actually like
the specs of that thing? I don't get it. People, you can buy machines that
have a proper os AND a browser ... but you're ready to spend money on a
glorified browser?

~~~
jpatokal
So where's this proper machine of yours that sells for $150?

~~~
aikah
Go to amazon,plenty of products for a reasonable price.

------
drussell
Cell phones could only be afforded by the wealthy in the 80s. Now the cell
phone market in developing countries is burgeoning. Soon, there will be a
substantial laptop market in most developing countries as well as prices
continue to decline.

------
Chefkoochooloo
I think this product will do well especially for students, start-up
businesses, or even for leisure use. Google's goal is to be able to address
the affordability and at the same time not sacrificing quality. It definitely
isn't the best machine out there but it is sufficient for daily use of middle-
income consumers and students. On their video ad, it's obvious that they are
also focusing on an international market where it's not focused on first-world
countries only. I think it's a great step for Google to create something very
affordable that has a good quality for their product to reach all facets of
the world.

~~~
aikah
> Google's goal is to be able to address the affordability and at the same
> time not sacrificing quality.

Google's goal is to sell its cloud services, not the hardware here. The specs
are crappy and that laptop is basically useless if you are doing anything else
than internet. Sure it cost 150$, but that's an expensive surfing machine. And
Google is off course selling internet services...

> I think this product will do well especially for students, start-up
> businesses, or even for leisure use.

You know, the exact same arguments were used to sell
netbooks(students,leisure), which were an horrible failure,and you're still
falling for that? at least most netbooks ran on windows... You don't even get
that with Chrome OS.

People are not idiots, especially those who have a tight budget, they'll be
even more vocal about crappy cheap products because it represents a larger
share of their income. That thing with these specs... I bet most people are
ready to invest $100 more to have at least a proper notebook. You can get a 11
inches Acer laptop for 50 dollars more. With a browser AND windows,with a
proper Hard drive.Why would people want to pay JUST for a fucking browser?
they wouldn't unless they have so much spare money they don't care.

~~~
Mikeb85
> Why would people want to pay JUST for a fucking browser?

Because there's a lot you can do with a browser these days. You can even run
offline apps and native code (Emscripten, NaCl, PNaCl).

Also, if you turn on developer mode, you can access all the Gentoo bits that
hide underneath the Chrome bits.

Consider common use cases - word processing, social media, organising photos,
communication - all can be done with a stock Chromebook. Once developers
realise the full potential, you'll see bigger, better games that run on Chrome
(check out Bastion and From Dust on the Chrome web store - pretty impressive
already).

~~~
aikah
> Because there's a lot you can do with a browser these days. You can even run
> offline apps and native code (Emscripten, NaCl, PNaCl).

Sure it's true for hipsters, but we are not talking about them right now.

------
hahamrfunnyguy
Wow that's ugly, all the bad memories of the netbook era just came flooding
back....

~~~
72deluxe
But even worse, these devices have practically NO local storage. At least
netbooks came with 120GB hard disks!

------
sjtechie
That Chromebook Flip is an awesome answer to the overpriced surface tablets.
I'm amazed at the variety of chromebooks out there. Chromebooks might still be
the biggest sellers again this christmas season.

------
UUMMUU
The ChromeBit looks pretty cool though. Entire computer in a flash drive.

~~~
wehadfun
You can buy the chromebox which is somewhat similar but not as compacy as a
chromebit

[http://www.amazon.com/Asus-CHROMEBOX-M004U-ASUS-
Desktop/dp/B...](http://www.amazon.com/Asus-CHROMEBOX-M004U-ASUS-
Desktop/dp/B00IT1WJZQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1427826639&sr=1-1&keywords=chromebox)

~~~
72deluxe
Still has a dependency on an external mainframe though; better to buy an Intel
NUC perhaps?

------
ostyn
Just not the greatest for programmers... But cool for everyone else!

~~~
spb
I disagree. If you're not doing hardware-level hacking, a cloud IDE like
Cloud9 ([https://c9.io](https://c9.io)) beats any fragile client-side
workspace I've ever used.

~~~
ostyn
It doesn't just have to be hardware level hacking. c9 is great but, anywhere
that you want a decent amount of control over web server(apache, tomcat)
configs, graphics acceleration for games, or storage of large local files,
you're going to need something more. I'd take Ubuntu any day. Given the
choice, what are some reasons to actually choose Chrome OS over Ubuntu?

------
bmurphy1976
If they support it like my Nexus 7 (2012), thanks, but no thanks. Cheap !=
Good. I think we've still got a few more years to go before the price/quality
ratio is right.

------
anotherevan
And when they are sold in Australia, they will cost over $350.

------
driverdan
I picked up a refurb C720 a while back for $119. I've been very impressed with
it at that price point. It's currently my backup laptop.

------
S4M
Wow, does someone know if I can wipe the hard drive, install linux on it (Arch
or Debian) and use it for light development (Python with Emacs)?

~~~
green7ea
You should be able to. See my previous post with more details as to how I
installed linux (arch) on my chromebox. It might be as straightforward for
this version since it has an ARM processor instead of the x86 processor found
in my setup. For instance, normal archlinux doesn't support non x86/x86-64
architectures.

------
AdmiralAsshat
The Chromebit is actually the part that caught my eye. If the USB 2.0 hub can
connect to high-capacity external hard-drives rather than just thumb-drives, I
might be looking at my new Kodi/XBMC machine. The RPi is getting a little long
in the tooth.

I'm also curious if the Chromebit will include Chromecast-like functionality
as far as screencasting goes.

------
hyperpallium
The Haier 11.6"'s SoC seems pretty cool _for a phone_. Then again, phones are
ridiculously overpowered these days. It supports 4K.
[http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockchip_RK3288](http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockchip_RK3288)

------
mtrio
>And a lot of people love them—Chromebooks were the best selling laptops on
Amazon last holiday season, and teachers and students made them the #1 device
in schools last year.

What does this even mean? Does it mean on Amazon all Chromebooks combined sold
more than any other laptop categories, Windows or MacBook?

------
bg0
It's a shame they didn't put USB 3.0 slots on these chromebooks. Pretty
useless with 2.0 for any external hard drive activity.

~~~
devindotcom
True, but chromebooks aren't really designed to deal with lots of local
storage. What do you think that AC wireless is for - they want you to stream
all day long!

------
peteretep

        > TRUE, XOLO, Nexian. Recognise them? Consumers in
        > Thailand ... do
    

I've never seen any of them.

------
jfoster
I wonder if there's the possibility of using a phone as the input device for
the Chromebit.

------
ricardobeat
It's netbooks all over again.

~~~
damian2000
Many netbooks were under spec'd machines (typically 500mb to 1gb ram) running
Windows on a small 10 inch screen and a low power single core CPU. They failed
in my opinion due to running Windows which killed performance. Runing Linux on
those machines generally improved the experience.

------
aetch
"ARM wrestler" haha

------
songco
It's a shame that all Google services blocked by China gov.

------
miduil
Nice to see that, still can't afford my food tomorrow.

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midnitewarrior
Wow it's kind of like, the network is the computer...

~~~
derekp7
Really makes me which that Google would have bought Sun instead of Oracle.

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popper189
Wow! That's cheap for a "Notebook".

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kakisoop
I was hearing about $100 laptops from the time, I joined college. Finally, I
see it happen.

Every developing nation should award highest civilian honour to Sundar Pichai
for making this happen. Thanks Google for making this happen.

~~~
nowey
also thank the component manufacturers for finally selling their chips super
cheap!

~~~
vincentkriek
Yeah, I think this is more because of Rockchip than because of Google.
Rockchip manages to make a potent processor for very little, which is what is
powering these. Google's volumes help as well but I would give more props to
Rockchip

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bunkydoo
I'm interested to see more about the build quality and durability of these
machines. Typically chromebooks have delivered an above average experience for
the price.

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zer0rest
Can I install gentoo on this?

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curiously
could you run Pycharms on this?

or install ubuntu instead of chromeOS?

~~~
tonyblundell
Yes -
[https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton](https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton)

Personally I develop on a Chromebook by SSH-ing into a Digital Ocean server
direct from Chrome OS. I don't use it full-time as a dev box though.

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itsbits
it would be nice if apple does same...but then Mac is great for its UX which
will be affected here.

