
Google Pixelbook Is Google’s New Chromebook - neverminder
http://www.droid-life.com/2017/09/19/google-pixelbook-chromebook-price-release-date/
======
hypersoar
From my experience with a 2013 Pixel I got from I/O, these machines come with
a huge caveat: you can't get them repaired. _At all_. I cracked the glass over
the screen on mine and called Google about getting it fixed, expecting them to
tell me that it'd cost $X00 for an out-of-warranty repair. But they wouldn't
take it at all. They suggested contacting 3rd-party repair shops, but some
research into that nixed the idea pretty quick.

So if something goes wrong with machine 1 day after your warranty runs out,
you're probably SoL. Apparently replacing the battery isn't too difficult,
but, other than that, you don't have a lot of options. That's okay for a $300
laptop. But I don't think it's acceptable for a $1,200 one.

~~~
t420mom
+1. I'll never buy Google hardware again. 6 weeks ago, my Pixel C tablet
bricked itself playing Minecraft: Pocket Edition (my guess is that the heat
corrupted some of the flash memory). Google agreed to replace it under
warranty, but they didn't manage to address the package correctly (they forgot
to include some details, like the street, city, zipcode, and state (according
to FedEx)).

What followed was 4 weeks of calls to Google support. Each time they promised
they would reach out to the "shipping partner" and get it sorted. I was also
receiving emails threatening to charge me the full cost of the replacement
device because I hadn't sent in the broken tablet yet.

Eventually the package got delivered... back to the Google warehouse. Google
wasn't aware of this until I called them up - their system assumed it had been
delivered to my house. Another promise to fix the situation - and this time
they managed to actually get a package to my house. Only it was a Pixel C
Keyboard, not a tablet.

Another call, another promise. It's been over a week now and the latest
package has not yet been shipped, it's stuck in the order confirmed state.

So, 6 weeks later, still no replacement. Luckily the tablet is mostly for
entertainment, I personally plan to never rely on Google for anything
important like making a living.

~~~
Markoff
ah common, don't be so harsh on their hardware, it's not like Nexus 5X or
Nexus 6P were not really good design...

~~~
blacksmith_tb
True, I am using a 6P as I write, but wouldn't some (even most) of the credit
for that belong to LG and Huawei respectively?

~~~
Markoff
not sure about LG, but in 6P Huawei just produced it according google design
and requirements, they never had problems 6P was plagued with, which can't be
said about LG with their own phones bootlooping

------
nickjj
I think I'll stick with my Toshiba Chromebook CB35.

\- It runs native Linux

\- Works awesome for every day web development

\- 1080p IPS display

\- $350 bucks total

If anyone wants to see how to set that up (it requires installing GalliumOS
which is a native Linux OS for Chromebooks) and read a full review it's over
at [https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/transform-a-toshiba-
chromeboo...](https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/transform-a-toshiba-chromebook-
cb35-into-a-linux-development-environment-with-galliumos).

~~~
chx
_Very_ important observation: this article links to a M.2 2242 SSD with
64-512GB capacity and there seems to be ample stock on Amazon.com. This is
important because the second SSD on the ThinkPad T470 and consequently the
ThinkPad Anniversary 25 can only be a 2242 one and they are a major PITA to
find. While some 2242 drives were broken for a few months it has been fixed a
week ago [https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-T400-T500-and-
newer-T/...](https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-T400-T500-and-
newer-T/T470-unable-to-detect-M-2-SSD-2242-after-updates-inlcuding-
BIOS/m-p/3801672#M118817) on the T470 so I fully expect the TA25 to come with
the fix. Because what is missing from the Lenovo forum thread is that
Transcend 512GB is the only one actually available at such a capacity and
physical size.

And, I am guessing, everyone will be getting the only laptop with modern specs
and a usable keyboard, right :) ?

~~~
nickjj
Surprisingly enough, the keyboard on the Toshiba is really good. I think I
even type faster on it than my desktop keyboard.

Trackpad is a different story (I guess it's average but I suck with trackpads
in general because I rarely use it). I feel like it takes me 10 seconds to
select text with a trackpad when I could do it in like 1 second with a mouse.
Watching me use a trackpad is easily comparable to an ape trying to use hand
tools.

~~~
chx
Try convincing a Tesla owner to give it up for a Yugo before trying to
convince a classic ThinkPad zealot -- someone with a six year old ThinkPad
T420s, who kept it because of the superior keyboard -- to give it up for some
random keyboard and no TrackPoint.

------
shasheene
I've been using the Samsung Chromebook Plus (ARM chip) laptop/tablet hybrid
the past 4 months and it's one of the best devices I've ever owned. Very cheap
and has high build quality (great screen and aluminium body). The 4 years
prior I used the first ARM Samsung Series 3 Chromebook (much lower build
quality, but it was great before it died).

I currently use tablet mode for 2-3 hour session for portrait reading
(Wikipedia Android app, long-form articles) and from time-to-time light note-
taking (Squid Android app) and PDFs. Haven't used crouton or done dev work on
this Chromebook yet.

Here's a quick review of modern touch-screen Chromebooks used as tablets.
While the hardware is exceptional, the software is terrible in tablet-mode.
Here are the painful issues that I can currently remember:

1\. Easy to accidentally close the entire browser by brushing the X button (I
was thinking the browser was crashing the first 4-5 times it happened, very
frustrating as can't CTRL-SHIFT-T in tablet mode)

2\. Easy to accidentally close a single tab for the same reason. On an Android
devices there's a little undo popup to reopen tabs, but that kind of obvious
touchscreen user-interface polish isn't there on ChromeOS yet

3\. Two finger touchpad scroll doesn't work on Android apps for scrolling --
painful as heck when Wikipedia links open in the Android app in laptop mode

Side note: I wish there was a good app to non-destructively markup PDF files
with the stylus. I think it was at WWDC this year, Apple showed great work in
this area, but sad not to have found software that appears as good for
Chromebooks/Android yet.

I know Google engineers will come across this post, so hopefully these pain
points can be fixed eventually. Chromebook hardware is so good (and cheap),
but there's a few painful areas still.

~~~
jordanthoms
I don't usually plug on here but Kami ( web.kamihq.com ) lets you markup PDF
documents on chromebooks, everything is kept as PDF annotations so they can be
modified later.

Stylus drawing on the Chromebook Plus works, though there's still some
improvements I want to make to that - I have one as well and it's a great
device, definitely my favorite out of the dozens of chromebooks we have at the
office!

(I'm a founder @ Kami)

~~~
sumitgt
I want to use Kami, but I am worried by the fact that it asks for permission
to your entire Google Drive.

Why doesn't Kami use the
"[https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.file](https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.file)
permission" scope that gives only access to files created or opened with the
app?

~~~
77ko
This. I wish Google Drive had a way to give apps permission to access only one
folder. i.e I want Kami to be able to only access the "pdfs" folder in my
drive.

Right now it seems apps can either access everything or they are restricted to
their own private app folder which is hidden somewhere in drive.

~~~
jordanthoms
Yeah, the permissions system in Google Drive is quite limited - the only to
get things to work reliably is to request permissions for everything which is
obviously not ideal.

------
patwolf
As someone who has attempted to use the original Chromebook Pixel as a
development machine, I'm glad to see they've added more storage options. The
original Pixel had 32GB of storage, and this one offers 512GB.

For those unfamiliar with ChromeOS, it allows you to run Linux application
using Crouton/chroot, so it really has a lot of potential as a Linux dev
machine. However, I ultimately ran out of storage space, and it wasn't worth
the time to figure out an inelegant scheme for mounting external storage.

~~~
leggomylibro
This is actually a good reason to go with a 3rd-party manufacturer. Almost all
non-Google Chromebooks include microSD card slots, so you can get another
128GB of persistently-mounted executable flash for large builds and similar.

Google does not want you to use microSD cards. Google wants you to use Google
Drive.

~~~
EddieRingle
My Chromebook Pixel LS has an SD card slot. It wouldn't be a surprise if this
one also has one.

~~~
anjbe
Unfortunately, it’s on an internal USB 2 bus, which makes SD access extreme
slow. All the external USB ports are at least 3.0, so I use a slim 64GB flash
drive.

~~~
leggomylibro
Huh, that's king of a weird decision, but I guess it is probably going to be
near the USB connectors on the board, anyways. I guess that probably means
it's falling back to a normal SPI interface instead of the faster quad-SPI MMC
interface? Maybe they don't want to spend one of their chip's QSPI peripherals
on storage expansion.

------
j7ake
Cool dev machine but for 1200 dollars I want to be able to run Microsoft
office when people send me documents without asking them to reformat and also
edit and modify images with standard software when necessary.

In a collaborative world it is not worth the pain to pay 1200 and not be able
to work with people who do not code.

Chrome books are acceptable at the 200 dollar price point (I have one that
dual boots archlinux) but they are not replaceable as a main work station
unless you never interact with people who use popular software.

~~~
Mister_Snuggles
Can't new Chromebooks run Android applications?

Microsoft has Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for Android so it seems like the
only think you might be missing out on is Access.

I can't speak to the quality of the Android applications, but the iOS versions
are surprisingly well done.

~~~
j7ake
You're right that there are android apps for some of the software I mentioned,
but my experience always feels like they are some compromise of the real thing
(formatting issues, some problems with commenting involving multiple
people...) and image editing software doesn't compare with adobe. My point is
this type of compromise is acceptable at a lower price range but not when
you're paying 1200 or more.

------
neverminder
I hope this will be as cutting edge as 2015 Pixel LS (I own one, running
vanilla Ubuntu): 16 GB RAM, awesome screen (2560x1700) especially good for
coders because of 3:2 ratio, first laptop with USB Type-C charging, first
laptop with 2 USB Type-C sockets and last but not least - design and build
quality that I would argue is even better than that of Apple laptops.

~~~
donquichotte
Wow, the 2015 Pixel LS still go for >1000$ on ebay!

Nice to hear that it's possible to run Linux - I have a budget Acer C720p
Chromebook and it's a real nuisance to set it up with Linux. Bodhi Linux is
great, but once the internal battery runs out, the device is bricked and has
to be reflashed with ChromeOS.

~~~
toast0
Did you install a new bios? If you're only ever going to run Linux, it's
probably better not to run the stock bios in legacy mode. Standard bios
booting roms are here [https://johnlewis.ie/custom-chromebook-firmware/rom-
download...](https://johnlewis.ie/custom-chromebook-firmware/rom-download/) or
if you want to futz with UEFI,
[https://mrchromebox.tech](https://mrchromebox.tech)

~~~
donquichotte
This is great news, I didn't know there were BIOS updates available for the
C720P! I'm not going to use UEFI if it's avoidable.

~~~
colemickens
> I'm not going to use UEFI if it's avoidable.

... why? normalizing hardware quirks, better HW support from Linux, direct
Linux kernel boot support, a sane, documented way for OSes to interact with
the boot manager... there are a lot of good reasons to use UEFI and I've yet
to hear a compelling reason not to.

------
FussyZeus
Serious question for HNers: Does anyone actually buy these for ChromeOS? Every
time I hear these discussed it seems to center around what you can do with
them that involves a new OS, either Windows or Linux. So is it really the
product in demand or just the demand for hardware not bound down with a
bundled OS License?

~~~
sowbug
Yes. My wife and I have three kids. We have at least four Chromebooks sitting
around the house for anyone to pick up and use. We used to have a couple OS X
machines, but other than occasional video editing that we now do in the
Instagram app, they were never used for anything a Chromebook couldn't do. My
kids' schools all use Chromebooks, too, so it's easy for them to resume work
when they get home.

I am an engineering manager at Google. I carry around an Asus C302CA for
meetings, and I'll occasionally use it to SSH into a corp machine. I do have a
Linux workstation at work for coding.

I also use the nearest Chromebook to SSH into a personal VPS where I keep
stuff I want online other than the usual cloud content. And I have a couple
Raspberry Pis at home for misc hacking.

The main value of ChromeOS to me is that the machines never break, and other
than making sure my family enables U2F on all their accounts, there aren't any
best practices, fine-tuning, or maintenance for the fleet of machines that I
maintain as a dad.

Favorite models including years past: Acer C720 (fast and cheap but screen
wasn't great); Toshiba Chromebook 2 (IPS, full HD, love the keyboard); Google
Pixel 2 (remains the perfect laptop of any kind, but it was hard to find in
quantity); Asus C302CA (currently the best; great screen + touch, OK battery,
hinged design is very nice for impromptu shared viewing sessions and
presentations).

~~~
redial
> I am an engineering manager at Google.

Well then, not biased at all.

------
danjoc
Terrible design; $99 pen with no place to stow it.

Apple style price jacking for storage; $1199-128GB, $1399-256GB, $1749-512.

I don't see this hardware line going anywhere either. I won't be surprised if
the pen requires charging like Crapple. Samsung has better offering with
Plus/Pro at less than half the price.

Why did Google let the guy who rekt Moto run Pixel and Nexus into the ground?
This is terrible.

~~~
isr
In the absence of specs, we're all guessing here.

That said, I would (err) guess that the more expensive versions also have more
RAM and bigger CPU's.

We'll see when the actual models are trotted out ...

~~~
danjoc
The specs are widely available. This is chromebook Eve. It is very overpriced.

~~~
isr
Unless I missed something, we have different price points for 3 different
models, but apart from storage capacity, no mention of other spec diffs
between these models.

So we don't know if these models also have increasing ram, or more powerful
cpu's, in addition to the extra on-board storage.

Until we get the full specs of all the models.

Which is why ascribing the price increases solely to the increased storage
size is, well, silly.

If you have these "widely available" specs showing what exactly is different
across the 3 models, then spill the beans. Otherwise ...

------
0xFFC
>Chromebook Pixel units in that it folds into a tablet

Folds? That is far inferior that the iPad Pro and Surface (two most serious
competitor, particularly Surface). Surface has the opportunity to dominate the
market.

God, if this was detachable, I would ditch surface for this in heartbeat.
Running linux command line app. Running Chrome apps natively. Running android
apps (in foreseeable future). It is like dream, if it was _detachable_.

------
Uehreka
I think they mean “Google Pixelbook is Google’s new Chromebook Pixel”. If
Google has discontinued the cheap Chromebooks it would be really bad for all
the school systems that rely on them as cheap laptops for students.

~~~
sspiff
Google seems to be moving away from cheaper hardware, and moving it's products
towards the "high end reference implementation" realm. The same thing happened
with Android and the change from Nexus towards Pixel.

That doesn't have to be bad news for schools. Schools generally acquire their
chromebooks from vendors like Dell and HP and Acer. These vendors will no
doubt continue to build cheap systems with Chrome OS for the education market
if there is demand.

------
bubblethink
Is there any real technical reason to have soldered RAM and storage ? A well
built $1200 linux laptop would still be OK if it weren't artificially gimped.
M.2 ssds are already quite thin. So the form factor argument doesn't hold. The
storage markup on these devices is huge considering that a 1 TB nvme pcie m.2
ssd goes for under $350 (even less during sales).

~~~
mmagin
Cost, durability, probably easier to fit into an even thinner form factor.

I don't like it either, but I'm pretty sure they're not just doing it to be a
jerk.

------
GrinningFool
I've been using an Asus Chromebook. I don't have the specs, but it's ~ a year
old and was at the higher end of sub $500 pack at the time.

I've pretty much given up on using it. I liked to use it for ssh over to my
real computer (over wifi) to get work done; but this was always noticeably
laggy. Trying to use basic tools on it (zoom, slack) is painfully slow - and
if you run two bandwidth-hungry things at once, forget it. I have to jump
through hoops to get a decent shell for ssh that Just Works - which sorta
means it doesn't Just Work after all. Running anything heavier than the shell
is slow.

I don't know the specs on the one, but I think I'm done with ARM on anything
but phones. At least when them, I don't have any expectation of good
performance from applications/sites to begin with.

~~~
EddieRingle
My Chromebook Pixel LS included a Core i7 that was more than enough for
regular Chrome OS usage, plus running Arch Linux via Crouton.

------
jimmytidey
Would it run an actual Linux OS?

~~~
sethrin
Crouton[0] is one option for that, but I would recommend GalliumOS[1] to
anyone interested in a Chromebook. My current laptop is an Acer C720,
purchased for $110 and running GalliumOS. It's not shiny or new, but it gets
the job done, and it's practically cheap enough to be disposable. There are
admittedly times when I wish I could justify the cost of a Pixel or an XPS 13,
but I can't really get past the idea of being able to buy a half-dozen other
machines for the same price.

[0]
[https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton](https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton)
[1] [http://galliumos.org/](http://galliumos.org/)

~~~
acangiano
> but I would recommend GalliumOS[1] to anyone interested in a Chromebook

Just make sure the spacebar is never pressed at boot. That's all it takes to
screw up your nice dual boot setup.

~~~
isr
If you:

* resize the (unused) root-c partition (use the chrx script to do it for you, if you like)

* mount it somewhere under /mnt/stateful_partition

* use that for your chroots, etc

Then you can safely use chromeos in dev mode, and not worry about the "deadly
spacebar at bootup" problem.

Pressing the spacebar takes you out of dev mode, which will involve rewriting
the contents of the rootfs partition currently in use. It will NOT repartition
the entire drive, so your separate partition will be safe. Just revert back to
dev mode, and you'll see its still there.

Or ... put everything on a mini usb stick :)

~~~
acangiano
Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

------
Theodores
I don't see how this can possibly be an improvement on the first Chromebook
Pixel from a design aesthetic point of view but I am hoping to be proven
wrong.

------
linsomniac
I've just recently gotten OpenVPN and SSH working on my Chromebook and it is
fairly decent, though with some limitations that make me wonder who is really
paying $1,100 and up for a Chromebook...

I got one of those crazy HP 13 chromebooks, a Pixel-level device that at the
time a few months ago was really the only available option more recent than
the Pixel. I ended up finding it on Woot for $520, instead of nearly a grand.

It has the high res display, charges over USB-C so I can use the same charger
for my laptop, chromebook, phone, and Fiance's laptop. The device is nice.

The OpenVPN was not TOO bad to set up, but you seem to only be able to have
one VPN active at a time. So I can connect to either the office OR the data
center OR my personal network, where my laptop can connect to all of them.

The SSH works great, but doesn't have an SSH agent so copying from one remote
machine to another doesn't really work. It looks like there is some agent
option but I haven't gotten that working. One nice feature of the SSH program
is that it can map the remote system as a local Chromebook drive, so I can
drag and drop downloaded files when I need to.

For programming I'm looking at Cloud9, which I've played with in the past but
never seriously. Probably will just end up SSHing to a box and running vim, I
do very little development.

For running Ansible sysadmin tasks, I'm either going to have to go into my
desktop and set up an SSH agent to handle the connections to all the other
hosts, or use Rundeck once I've committed and pushed the Ansible changes.

So, 90% of what I _NEED_ a laptop for at home (something broke at work,
working on personal servers/network), the Chromebook will do, though not quite
as nicely as a laptop. Also, I'm using Enpass for passwords, and on the
Chromebook I'm using the Android app, which kind of sucks compared to the
Linux app version.

The comparison is that around the same time I got a Lenovo T470s running
Linux. Also has high res display, also is tiny. It has something weird going
on with the mouse buttons where after a suspend they sometimes "stick".

The Chromebook is less expensive, though not really disposable. The $250
chromebook I tried really kind of sucked.

~~~
ramses0
I have the same one. It's been great w/ crouton (although crouton chromium is
noticeably slower than chrome from the "native" os). It's a great, slim beast
for $500, I paid the higher price to get it earlier as my primary "home"
laptop, and I love it. It's bridging me quite nicely until apple either zigs
or zags on their laptop line.

------
akhilcacharya
If the SSD specs are accurate, this could be fantastic. The biggest problem
with the last Chromebook was the storage capacity for Linux from what I can
gather.

------
AdmiralAsshat
Not as fond of the build quality on this new Pixel.

The original Chromebook Pixel and Pixel LS is probably my favorite design of
any laptop--the aluminum body was gorgeous, and the rectangular "slab" look
that did not taper off was distinctly unique and _not_ Macbook-derivative.

The new one looks like it has a glass back (?) similar to the Pixel phone.

~~~
fhood
I mean, it was definitely a _tad_ macbook derivative.

~~~
Theodores
Not at all, the original Pixel Chromebook is a design classic, the updated one
is notionally better but it is more like a mid-life update that you get with a
car, despite the extra features the design is not so pure. Think of it as like
the VW camper van going from split-screen to normal windscreen, better but not
if you are into design classics.

The keyboard is designed without legacy cruft, it is still QWERTY but very
much redesigned and not to emulate an Apple - there are none of those weird
keys with weird symbols on them in the place of where things like the CTRL key
should be. There are also no silly Windows keys.

The screen is 3:2 with a touch screen. Apple do not do that. Sure they do
'retina' and that gets the resolution up to Pixel levels of awesomeness.

The speakers are below the keyboard rather than some tinny things hidden under
lots of holes drilled in aluminium. I don't believe you can get better sound
on a laptop or tablet than what the original Pixel does.

The colour-bar on the lid is not fruit shaped. It does things too, like an
Easter Egg rather than 'obligatory branding'.

The tactile look and feel aspects are definitely an improvement on what Apple
offers. The keyboard is much nicer for actual typing. I think the same goes
for the trackpad but I use an external mouse in Apple world whereas with the
Pixel there is no need to plug stuff like external pointing devices in. This
is subjective to a certain extent, some people prefer cheap wine.

Then the final form factor. There is no roundy-roundy-ness. It is not overly
branded with fruit-style images. It is square, not round. Even the colour sets
the Pixel apart from Apple products.

The Pixel is a start from a blank piece of paper design, it is not a copy of a
rival product, it is an example of what can be done and that is not the same
idea as 'derivative'.

------
camus2
To people tempted by the Pixelbook, why not by a Macbook for that price?
instead of getting a machine which OS basically amounts to a browser forcing
you into google cloud services? You're basically paying a premium to get data-
mined... And MacOS runs Chrome so I don't see the big deal here.

~~~
bubblethink
You're paying a premium for good linux and coreboot support. A macbook isn't
that unique, and quite a sink of money since it can't run any other OS too
well. It certainly can't run linux, and windows isn't too good either. A good
linux laptop that ships with coreboot is rare. You can also run windows on
these things generally.

~~~
criddell
What do you mean a Macbook can't run Linux? macOS _is_ a Unix.

As for Windows it works great in either a VM or dual boot. I know people that
have bought a Mac because they can (legally) run more software than any other
computer.

~~~
isr
Well, by the same token ChromeOS is a linux distro.

And in dev mode, you get access to a bash shell, full root access, and a spare
vt (so you can run xorg, etc). So you can install anything you like.

Rendering your original complaint moot.

~~~
criddell
What token are you talking about? If I build an user land application on top
of ChromeOS, can I directly call functions exposed by the Linux kernel in the
standard way? If so, then ChromeOS may indeed be a Linux distro.

macOS is a Unix because it's certified as such by The Open Group. It's built
on top of the XNU kernel and is POSIX compliant.

> Rendering your original complaint moot

I had a complaint?

~~~
isr
> If I build an user land application on top of ChromeOS, can I directly call
> functions exposed by the Linux kernel in the standard way? If so, then
> ChromeOS may indeed be a Linux distro.

Of course you can. There's no "may" about it. You seem rather unsure of what
ChromeOS actually is.

Its just a linux distro. In fact, its much closer to more mainstream linux
distro's than more exotic linux variants like android.

It has the linux kernel (duh!), but also glibc, gnu coreutils, bash - the
whole shebang. In fact, the only thing (purposely) left out in standard mode
is a terminal allowing you to run bash.

In dev-mode, that is given, so you then have terminal access to run bash, and
automatic root access.

Nearly all linux pkgs will compile, install and run, "as is". In fact, there's
even chromeos-specific package managers which cater to chromeos just as apt
caters to debian, rpm to redhat, etc.

And google themselves give you a bash script which restores portage and
installs various precompiled ebuilds.

Yes, ChromeOS is effectively a Gentoo Linux build.

Last I checked, gentoo allows you to "directly call functions exposed by the
Linux kernel in the standard way" (but I've only been running gentoo since
2002, so what do I know?)

> certified as such by The Open Group

That may have been relevant in the 80's, but for over a generation, linux
and/or the gnu suite has been the de-facto standard for what "unix" really is.
Which is why most of the official "I've paid the open group their fee so that
they can stamp me as official" unix distro's/os's have, in fact, a linux
binary emulation layer.

Gnu-linux is basically the lingua-franca of the unix world. The only reason
they never got this certification which some think is so important is ...
because noone wanted to bother paying the subscription fee back in the 90's.

Thats it.

>> Rendering your original complaint moot > I had a complaint?

Hmm, looking back at this sub-thread, I guess thats more applicable directly
to 'camus2'.

You were wading in on that side of the fence, which is why I hung my reply off
of your comment. It pretty much applies to both of you.

Basically, he was saying "why bother with a chromebook, mac is 'proper' unix,
and so can run lots of unixy stuff, in addition to chrome. Chromebooks can't".

Well, ChromeOS is also a proper unix, and can run lots (and lots, and lots) of
unixy stuff, in addition to chrome - with the caveat that you have to put it
into dev mode first.

------
sixothree
Stupid question maybe, but can you edit documents offline?

------
scottlegrand2
No TensorFlow transistors? Seems like a squandered opportunity to further
#MLAllTheThings and to build the first real consumer alternative to
#Nvidiopoly.

------
miguelrochefort
Who pays $1,199 for a Chromebook?

~~~
coldtea
Those that value what the Chromebook offers over what a regular laptop with
Linux does.

For many also $1099 is spare change -- at least when considering what computer
they can buy.

~~~
champagnepapi
Hopefully $1099 will be spare change for me soon! However, why can't someone
get a cheaper laptop similar specs, perhaps worse design, just install linux
on it?

~~~
tacomonstrous
In my experience, 'just install Linux on it' is only enjoyable till the first
piece of hardware that fails to work as you expected it to (usually Bluetooth
or the touchpad). Crouton on Chrome OS quite literally 'just works' and is at
least as easy to install as Linux on a PC.

Also, why would I want worse specs? I'd rather get the best hardware I can,
and if it looks good, even better.

~~~
cat199
Definately mixed milage here I agree..

That said on the low end I bought an Acer CloudBook (Win-10 competitor to
chromebook) about 2y back and literally everything works, including suspend,
wifi, and all the rest.

When a linux install goes right, it's pretty great.

------
baybal2
>Pixelbook

Google will have tough luck registering this trademark in China

~~~
pimlottc
Could you elaborate on why this name would be hard to trademark in China?

~~~
baybal2
There was a somewhat well known Chinese brand around 2007-2009 that was making
rather decent laptops.

The core of the company's collective went to found the BYD's consumer
electronics unit and were the ones who made BYD's Vaio P clones. Their makes
were rather stylish for a Chinese CE company

~~~
cat199
Hmm yes. China is well known for it's fierce regulatory regieme with respect
to intellectual property.

Perhaps they can just rebrand them as Mac and sell them at one of the fake
apple stores instead if this becomes a problem..

------
jdalgetty
looks neat

------
csours
Pixel yourself

When you're getting old

...

Pixelbook

Pixels of your mama

Taken by your papa a long time ago

...

A pixel of you

in your birthday suit.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7encWb7lNQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7encWb7lNQ)

