
Low-end laptops:The rise of the Chromebook - tanglesome
http://www.zdnet.com/low-end-laptopsthe-rise-of-the-chromebook-7000022991/
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shmed
I have a hard time understanding why Chromebooks are getting so much praise
over the internet, but at the same time Windows RT is considered as the worst
piece of technology ever invented. Aren't they mostly the same thing? Both
Windows RT and ChromeOS machines are similarly priced, both can be used to
browse the internet and access web apps. Windows RT machine usually ship with
Office 2013 for free (or the light version of it). They all have touch screens
( I dont think all Chromebooks machine have it). And last time I checked,
android apps didnt work natively on Chromebooks, meaning that Windows RT
machine have access to more applications than Chromebooks. This will probably
be a very unpopular opinion, but I really don't understand why one is so
popular vs the other (is it only explicable by the fact that most people hate
Microsoft, but love Google?)

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hayksaakian
Windows RT comes off as "Windows that you're familiar with" with the RT part
as a huge asterisk that means "except you can't just install what you'd expect
to be able to."

Chrome OS comes off as "Chrome, the browser on your computer"

The former is underwhelming whereas the latter meets expectations.

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richardpetersen
The reason I purchased mine today is that I will never purchase a Windows 8
machine because I hate them and I can't afford a Mac. So the only other OS and
that is supported and is cheap is ChromeOS. Its all well and good saying
Linux, However you have to buy a Windows 8 laptop before you can even put
Linux on it.

~~~
jseliger
_I can 't afford a Mac_

Consider buying used, either from Craigslist or a dealer; three-year-old Macs
are still very nice and cost about half to a third of new ones (I know,
because I sell my firm's old Macs on Craigslist).

If you're proficient with hardware, it's also possible to dramatically improve
performance by installing a cheap SSD.

~~~
richardpetersen
I did - I got a PowerPC G4 or G5. The problem was I couldn't upgrade it past
os 10.5 and the latest version of chrome at the time wouldn't run on anything
less than 10.6 or something like that so nothing would work properly.

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rjd
I know of one person who has brought one and ended up describing it as
useless, selling it on, and buying a macbook air.

I've not seen or heard of anyone else with one. Shipping volumes do not equal
consumer purchases, so till I actually see people with them I'll take this as
some sort of advertorial.

~~~
kbaker
I bought a Samsung ARM Chromebook to play around with and see what Chrome OS
is like. It definitely has a single-purpose, very limited use case - to
deliver web content. But, it does this extremely well.

The good parts: Automatic syncing with Google services, such that you can wipe
everything and restore, and it will automatically reinstall all of your
applications and settings; encrypted storage and signed binaries so it is
difficult if not impossible to load malware; and a very polished UI that gets
you into a browser and gets out of the way to let you surf the web.

However, it does start breaking down when you want to start doing more CPU-
intensive tasks like gaming, there is a big gap right now between where HTML5
gaming is and what native gaming (even through Flash) delivers. For a system
that runs all apps through the browser, that is going to continue being
difficult. Also, the almost-continuously-online requirement can be tough in
some cases, but really I already have wifi everywhere I want to use it...

I can see it being a great option for 95% of day-to-day computer users,
though. Mine was $250, and it definitely outperforms low-end laptops - great
battery life, good speed, lightweight, etc.

Not to mention it can run a full version of armhf Ubuntu so I can still run
tuxracer when necessary.

TFA may be an advertorial, but I see Chromebooks as the evolution of the
original netbook idea - a cheap PC that goes everywhere and is good enough for
most online activities.

~~~
jyf1987
also bought this, the only problem is there're so less REALLY offline chrome
apps in the store

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keithpeter
Some discussion on the Debian forums (Chromebooks are popular as cheap laptops
that can run Linux) about actually using the ChromeOS, quite a few people dual
boot [1]

My local Tesco is shifting the cheaper Chromebooks quite quickly.

[1]
[http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=107358](http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=107358)

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altero
Yet another "PC is dying" article. Booooooring!!!

The reality is that market is saturated, and there was practically zero
innovation for the past 5 years (except ultrabooks and SSDs). But as a working
tool PCs are not going anywhere.

I want laptop with 4:3 high resolution PVA screen and replaceable battery.

~~~
kllrnohj
The reality is that most people don't want a "full" PC. The PC certainly isn't
going anywhere - desktops and laptops are here to stay for the foreseeable
future. However, it's not a growing market. And that's perfectly OK.

~~~
ajcarpy2005
Even if the laptop & desktop PC markets are not growing as fast as in past
years...it still is a very large market. There is far less incentive for most
people to buy newer or higher-end hardware for the PC than smartphones.

Mobile devices (tablets, smartphones...and even chromebooks or lightweight
notebooks) are competing against the sales of higher-end laptops or desktops.

I think there may be a resurgence of laptop sales (and desktop sales) after a
few more years of intense innovation.

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kephra
I wonder what of those cheep Chromebooks are suite to free them from Google
spyware? How good or bad is a normal Debian running? Is the hardware supported
by 100% free drivers? Can I boot my own Kernel? Is there any site comparing
this?

Chromebook with Google spyware is a big step backward from eeepc.

~~~
davidgerard
You can Ubuntu them pretty easily, either side-by-side or replacing ChromeOS.
Bang, you have a netbook just like a few years ago.

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kephra
Googled about it, but crouton only installs Ubuntu in a chroot of same kernel.
Thats similar shit as Motorola with 2nd-boot.

The question is to free the Chromebook from Google spyware completely,
including kernel, device drivers, and OpenGL acceleration.

Is any of those Chromebooks able to boot into backup cycle? Means boot with
DCHP, TFTP and NFS root?

~~~
belandrew
You can definitely wipe out the entire ChromeOS partition and replace it with
some other Linux if that's what you want. Some people do that but it's
definitely less common than dual booting or a chroot.

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32bitkid
For my use case, I love my chromebook. I started with the samsung arm
chromebook and have since moved to the Asus 720, and it has become my go-to
around-town/coffeshop/travel laptop.

A) it's light -- other devices are lighter but it's light enough. B) decent
battery life -- again other device might win here but it lasts a work day so I
can leave the charger behind. C) it's cheap -- almost disposable, if I leave
it behind, it gets stolen, or destroyed I'm not going to lose my mind. D) it
still functional for content creation -- paired with nitrous.io it's fantastic
but even without it I can get by at least until I get back to a real
workstation.

But then again my use case may be pretty narrow but it works really well for
me, that hits the sweet spot between an iPad and a MacBook Air at a fraction
of price of either.

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DustinCalim
Rise of the Chromebook indeed. I think we will be seeing A LOT of these being
used by software engineers. For $250, you get a very capable Haswell-equipped
notebook with 8 hours of battery life and can easily accept a Ubuntu
installation (ChromeOS is built on the Ubuntu core, so technically you can
dual-boot and never even uninstall ChromeOS.)

In fact, I've done just this with the new Acer C720 machine. While I use a
Macbook Air as my main machine, the Acer with Ubuntu fills the "beater" role
very nicely and is really more than is needed.

This is a godsend for developing nations.

Also makes you wonder when you hear people talking about "bootstrapping" and
you see them using new Macbook Airs...

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hrktb
> Also makes you wonder when you hear people talking about "bootstrapping" and
> you see them using new Macbook Airs...

It's a matter of how much you value general purpose capabilities. When you'll
desperately need Photoshop for some unpredicted task, will you pay 5$ a month
for Adobe cloud and just do it, or hassle to find a way around you ubuntu ?
Won't you miss a specification sent by a client because LibreOffice parsed the
docx formatting of a paragraph as striked through instead of highlighted? If
you have four or five "crisis" like that while struggling to make a product,
is the extra 900$ for a Macbook Air unjustified ?

~~~
AbsoluteDestiny
I think you're missing a significant 0 on that Creative Cloud price.

~~~
hrktb
You're right, it's 50$ for full monthly membership, 20$/month for single app
and it goes down only for ultra specific cases (i.e. 10$ for photoshop only
for existing CS3 license owners [1]).

I messed it with the Revel subscription witch is lower (but still 6$, 1$
higher than I remembered)

[1][http://www.adobe.com/products/creativecloud/buying-
guide.htm...](http://www.adobe.com/products/creativecloud/buying-guide.html)

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nodata
The Chromebook Pixel costs $1,449.00

~~~
ceejayoz
That you can buy designer jeans for $500 doesn't make all jeans hoity-toity.

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RexRollman
The one thing I really like about the ChromeOS is the way it updates. It
basically has two root partitions and it updates the one it is currently not
booted from. I am unaware of any other OS that uses such as scheme.

~~~
stcredzero
With advanced file-system technology, it should be possible to load a "shadow
image" of the new version of the OS and "commit" it atomically. Smalltalk can
be thought of as a very basic sort of OS, and some versions of that had the
ability to load as a "shadow" a new version of the class library, then commit
it atomically. (Including updates of the part doing the updating.)

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neals
I've never seen one and the reviews I find on Youtube mostly cover hardware.

So these Chromebooks, you can basically only use browser-apps? Is this what
these laptops do? Or can I install native apps in some way?

~~~
richardpetersen
Think of a netbook running just the chrome browser and that's it.

However with chrome you can install addons, extentions and apps.

I love it

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wkdown
I just wish it were a viable development platform without having to install a
*nix distro. Let me set up and run a MEAN stack out of the box, Google!

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jyf1987
i am using my arm chromebook, it has the power for my daily developing and it
even has a terminal. its batterlife is also good. with the help of crouton,
its perfect to me.

well, it still has problem when using the input method on the terminal, but
its ok to you guys who dont need that

