
Why Google's Chrome notebook will succeed - duck
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40745343/ns/technology_and_science-innovation/
======
NumberFiveAlive
I think price is the real key. If it's around the $200 mark, I'll probably
even pick one up for surfing while sitting on the couch or toilet. My
grandparents need/want a laptop, and literally all they'll ever use it for is
to google stuff. They'll _possibly_ want to upload pictures from their digital
camera they never use, but if that's made simple via USB and some cloud based
service (existing or otherwise), then this device would be perfect for them.
<$300 and I'd get them a chrome laptop. >$300 and I'd get them a cheap windows
laptop. My wife is using a $349 toshiba full sized laptop right now, and it
does everything she needs. But if I could save them $100 or so on one of
these, that would definitely be the way I'd go.

~~~
kenjackson
But you could likely get a cheap Windows netbook for nearly the same price, as
OEM Windows 7 Starter will cost ~$40 OEM. So rather than $200 you pay pay
$240, but you also get the ability to run Office, iTunes, FireFox, hook up
printers, scanners, cameras. etc...

Is this worth an extra $40? It feels like it is, even if I rarely use any of
these features. But there's probably also some value in being able to say,
"This device is only for the cloud, period". But I feel like I'd rather get a
tablet device (the Nook Color is already a mere $249).

~~~
rbanffy
> But you could likely get a cheap Windows netbook for nearly the same price

And be their support guy forever?

~~~
kenjackson
And Chrome OS fixes that problem? You clearly haven't received your cr-48...
:-)

~~~
rbanffy
It's hard to believe a stateless box can be hard to manage. There isn't much
to go wrong in it. At least, not when compared to a barebones Windows netbook.

~~~
kenjackson
Support and managing state are two different things.

For friends and family, the support I provide is almost never about state or
ramifications of state. The most common set of questions are actually around
printing (why does it print the webpage name at the bottom of the page? I
don't want that. Or the computer says it's out of ink, but I just put new ink
in it). Chrome just complicates this.

The next biggest set of issues is hooking up the laptop to TVs. Nobody did
this a year ago, and this holiday season I've already gotten like three calls
on how to do this.

Windows and MacOS have gotten sufficiently mature that a lot of the old issues
just don't come up any more (or we've past that stage where there were a lot
of adult complete computer neophytes... even my parents are decade old
computer users now).

~~~
rbanffy
Why would ChromeOS complicate tasks like page setup? It seems printing is
somewhat different (not sure - I haven't used a Cr-48 yet) but it can't
possibly be so complicated my mother (an archetypal 75 year-old lady) would
have problems. About a month ago, I set her up with a USB printer (I took away
my networked printer), Ubuntu detected it immediately when plugged. No driver
download, no nothing. It all just worked.

Anyway, if page setup and connecting external screens are your worst problems,
consider yourself very lucky. Most of us have to deal with the occasional
malware infection (luckily, I don't). The horror stories are often amusing.

~~~
kenjackson
Fortunatley, I've only had one malware infection amongst friends and family,
and it was on the Amiga -- where I'd inadvertantly infected my neighborhood
with an infected disk. Felt like a jerk.

I ran w/o any virus protection until about 2005 on a PC and never got any
malware. Lucky? Maybe, but I see so little malware amongst "my users" that I
wonder where the ruckus comes from. In any case, I do now have everyone on MS
Security Essentials.

ChromeOS doesn't complicate page setup, but it printing. With printing you
need to have a "server" computer hooked up to the printer. Now there are
issues around the other computer being turned on, and diagnosing issues at the
host computer rather than at the machine their doing the print job from.
Basically take every problem you have today, but then add another computer in
the middle.

~~~
rbanffy
In my extended social circle there are two groups with observably higher
computer problem frequency: the teens and the seniors. The teens are heavy
gamers, prefer Windows and frequent all the worst places of the net. The
seniors exchange an astonishing volume of PowerPoint presentations and click
on every link they get by e-mail. Both groups have their computers rebuilt
ever 6 months or so. Not only because of malware, but performance issues that
appear to make the machines unbearably slow (maybe due to installing two or
three smiley-making extensions to their IM clients)

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adolph
It is amazing that the article treats Google TV failing as a foregone
conclusion:

 _Alas, Google TV fell apart because it didn't have great app support, and
more importantly, that content owners didn't want their content shared through
the browser._

(I am not a Google TV user.)

~~~
evgen
When Google is telling the OEMs who had planned CES 2011 Google TV rollouts to
pull back and delay announcements so that they can "refine" the software then
you know things are bad. 2011 is gone for Google TV, and by 2012 they will be
facing better, strong competition from people who actually know what they are
doing in the consumer space. Apple will keep getting better, Netflix and
Amazon will get aggressive about going directly to the TV manufacturers, Roku
and Boxee will continue to improve and expand their distribution pipeline,
etc. Google sent a wake-up call to the content creators and distributors (who
returned to favor to Google) that will also drive most of them to partner with
one or two non-Google internet-enabled TV distribution platforms.

Google whiffed in making a play for the TV space and their competitors are not
going to give them an opportunity for a second chance.

~~~
bsk
So Google successfully forced content producers, distributors and TV
manufactures to adopt smart TVs, capable of showing google ads and ad sense.

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kmfrk
I personally wish I had this when I had to find a notebook for my mom and
grandmother who had never used a computer before.

While it may not interest a broad demographic, it definitely serves a purpose.

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51Cards
This is not really on topic but I find it initially cute that this article is
on msn.com

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jamesaguilar
Why it won't:

\- A computer does not cost as much as a car, so it's not as expensive to buy
more than you need.

\- It can't be cheaper enough than ordinary PCs to accept the restricted
functionality it offers, because ordinary PCs are already available at the
bottom of the pricing barrel.

\- Most people need wireless connectivity not more than once or twice a year.

\- The cloud is overrated.

~~~
shortlived
> \- Most people need wireless connectivity not more than once or twice a
> year.

Where do you get this idea? Why in the world would I ever want to "wire" my
house for the internet by running cat5 cables everywhere when I can buy a box
that will do all the work for me?

~~~
jamesaguilar
The wireless I'm talking about is the 3G wireless. That's the wireless
discussed in the article too. It obviously cannot be wifi that they are
discussing because that is not a differentiating factor between this laptop
and non-Chrome OS laptops.

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roadnottaken
_Good points:_

# [These days] the only people who know how to take advantage of all [the
functionality of their computers] are the people writing malicious code.

# If it's $199 or less, it'll be a big hit; likewise, if it's over $299, it
just won't make sense.

 _Bad points:_

# Even if it doesn't compete on price with iPads and Android tabs, it's going
to compete for the same audience... if you have a tablet, you won't want this
also.

# [People] are going to wise up, and realize that they've been paying for too
much computer.

[we (Americans) have been paying for too much car for years]

~~~
MrJagil
Please explain why you think they are good points instead of just listing them
again. Your post does not entice discussion.

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richardw
The developing world will eat this up. Sure there are connectivity issues, but
those can be overcome. Many countries that never had phones now have
cellphones.

I've always seen the main roadblock to computer adoption as the babysitting
nightmare that is the Windows PC. 100 computers in a village or remote school
are 100 headaches for somebody. Now a good percentage of those issues are
irrelevant. Sure there will be other problems, but this is a huge improvement.

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takrupp
I just got the CR-48 today (really surprised, no clue it was on the way).
Happy surprised with the hardware thus far, and as commented above, it was the
easiest setup I've experienced in an OS by far.

Need to figure out a way to get dropbox to somehow work and would like to get
a command prompt to be able to SSH into the server.

~~~
evilduck
I also got mine today (about a week from submitting my application). Hardware
is great, imo. The trackpad take some getting used to coming from a Macbook,
although it's no worse than any other netbook I've played with.

As for their OS, it's Chrome-the-browser with a login page and a few more
hidden about:config style pages, no frills. I think my wife will love it when
she gets home. All of her computing use cases are internet based, and we were
discussing buying her an iPad, but she'll probably try to steal this for her
couch computing usage. SD slot and file management seem a little iffy right
now (downloading a PDF from google docs worked, uploading a picture from my
digital camera didn't).

As for the command prompt, you can hit ctrl-alt-T to get to the console, but
it's very limited. SSH is password only, not key based, which is practically a
deal breaker for me.

The Verizon wireless setup was painless, and when connected it shows you how
much data you have left in the context menu which is really nice (although you
do have to create an account with Verizon and provide a CC number, even for
the free service. I figure it's stored for immediate plan upgrade options
since they don't have overage fees).

As someone else mentioned, I think a Google hosted VPN service would be really
nice for this. More of the "no worries OS" since 100mb is very little wireless
data and I'm not all that tempted to be daring and hop on public wifi and
access any personal data.

~~~
evilduck
I also just learned about the ctrl-alt-? combo, which is immensely useful in
discovering other key combos.

------
metageek
If they want it to succeed, they need to add a VPN client, and run the VPN
servers themselves. In the era of Firesheep, nobody should be trusting public
wifi networks.

------
macco
To say a online dependent computer is more secure, this sound very interesting
to me. Can you say Gawker or Gmai.

~~~
adambyrtek
The point is that the machine itself is more secure, not the whole ecosystem
around it. Nobody claims that Chrome OS will somehow decrease (or increase)
the probability on server-side attacks.

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poundy
The only interesting thing with the article is that it comes from msnbc, a
company owned in part by microsoft!

------
pedanticfreak
ChromeOS is zero maintenance. As a technical person with a few gadgets, that's
one less thing to worry about. For non-technical people I can only imagine it
as revolutionary.

Android, by comparison, is the Microsoft Windows of mobile operating systems.
It requires customization, maintenance, and care. If I recommended an Android
device to someone I am certain I would be paid regular visits as the
designated mechanic. And I'm certain I'd have a checklist of stuff I'd have to
do before even handing it over. I've used one. I see how people here are
constantly fiddling on their significant other's behalf.

I think people here discount ChromeOS because they can work around Android's
quirks and are happy hackers. They can't see how software maintenance is more
like incomprehensible house chores than playing with Legos.

~~~
bergie
> ChromeOS is zero maintenance. As a technical person with a few gadgets,
> that's one less thing to worry about. For non-technical people I can only
> imagine it as revolutionary.

For many this has been a key selling point with the iPad. But this one also
has keyboard and Google Docs...

~~~
spinchange
It's even more of a selling point with this vs. the iPad because the _first_
thing you have to when you set up a new iPad is plug it into a computer
running iTunes.

This requires nothing but an internet connection. Just turn it on and go. (in
seconds)

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klbarry
I have the Cr-48, and think it's great. The biggest use I see for it is in
enterprise, since it would be so easy to set up a network of these (since the
web is much more cross compatible than other things). Working in the cloud
makes a big organization much more nimble which is worth a great deal to them.

~~~
mattmanser
I see a lot more barriers to this entering the enterprise market than it
entering personal markets.

For example your company would have to run entirely on web apps already or
kiss all of your existing infrastructure goodbye (shared drives, word
documents, excel documents, externally received word/excel, Lotus Notes,
Exchange, etc.)

Also if your company depends on using any other sort of software it's a no go,
anything installed like AutoCad, Photoshop, Development tools, etc. I think
many industries have one key piece of software that they can't exist without
that must be installed.

And how does working in the cloud make an organisation more nimble? If
anything it makes them more exposed to risk and of unintended downtimes when
their internet connection plays up.

For example one of the companies I'm contracting with uses manymoon. Aside
from being a bit poo, every now and then it stops working. Sometimes it's
their servers, sometimes it's our wifi, sometimes the internet connection.
It's not a key piece of software, but it makes you think of the kind of risk
you're exposing yourself to. What if tomorrow google apps was shutdown due to
a court order or bankruptcy? I know google won't go bankrupt, but there's no
saying your other providers won't. Or a patent war which shuts down a key part
of the system?

Obviously there are massive benefits like not having to run your own
infrastructure, but it's still a risk.

~~~
spinchange
>shared drives, word documents, excel documents, externally received
word/excel, Lotus Notes, Exchange, etc.

All can be virtualized. You'd be surprised how many large companies are
(legally) running Office and productivity applications on say, a Citrix
server, and already treating full blown (expensive) windows clients like "dumb
terminals"

The difference can be imperceptible, even to someone whose tech savvy. (Local
desktop icons, no noticeable decline in performance, etc)

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drivebyacct2
If they add an NX client and/or a shell, I will sell my MBP. I really, really,
really like this device and concept.

~~~
tdoggette
It's a linux box underneath; I'm sure we're at most weeks away from a
"terminal" app that you can have open in a tab that works like you'd expect.

~~~
drivebyacct2
That's the problem. With Chrome OS's verified boot, that's unlikely to happen
on retail devices. It's trivial to get a real shell on the Cr-48.

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d0m
I think Apple's ultra-secret-new cloud laptop will succeed.

