It's a lousy product. There's no way you can create high-end applications for it since you can't actually write native code for it. All it does is run Web Apps inside a browser based OS. It's only good for basic tasks like e-mail, browsing, social interaction or creating basic documents. You can't do anything requiring graphical power (photo or video editing, illustration or even games). It would be useless for web developers since you don't have a way to check your website on multiple browsers for compatibility. You can't code or develop software on it since you're never going to see a Web App compiler (well, they could off-load the compiling to a third party but what programmer is going to trust their code to someone else to compile?).
And when you try and rape people $1,300 for a high-end version it's downright stupid. High-end hardware that lacks the software to do any high-end work.
Bottom line: great for simple tasks, useless for real work.
Online apps have gotten much, much better, website development applications for instance are actually very intuitive and great for colabriation work, plus you can host all of your compilers on your server. Audiotool.com is also one of the coolest music creation apps I have ever used, standalone or web. The Pixel albeit expensive is also one the most beautiful laptops on the market today. It's a niche market defiantly but for those who buy Porsche designed Blackberry's and B&O audio equipment it kind of makes sense. Just because you do not see the potential doesn't mean that there aren't those who do. I don't own one myself but I do have the ARM Chromebook and it is very useful, so much so that I now do all of my Office work on it now. Well to be honest my company gave me the Chromebook and a Chromebox for the office, we host a Office 365 site and have moved to a all online work flow. Our internal networks are still Unix which can be easily accessed with a XTerminal using ChromeOS. Anyway, point is these things are a lot more use full then you think.
If your just a little competent with Linux it's fairly easy to install standalone applications, just copy over the binaries and libraries. I have Eclipse, Netbeans, OpenOffice, VLC and a LAMP server installed. If ChromeOS doesn't float your boat then Arch or Ubuntu can be installed as well.
The first paragraph is false: when three years run out, you can keep and access all the data for free, you just can't add to it.
Ok, so the online storage becomes unusable for writing to until you pay the subscription for the amount you are using and you'd downgrade the plan to whatever you used. That's fair but it's still another cost that should be factored in.
The price comments are specious, since for those of us who can use 1TB of cloud storage (or have ten friends, or ten employees who can each use 100GB) the machine is just a freebie you get with the storage (you also get free LTE and 12 free GoGo flights -- the latter is worth around $250, the former, at amazon Kindle pricing for a similar service, around $200), so this is a phenomenally good deal.
By Gogo flight you mean passes to use in-flight wifi. If you absolutely need wifi for the couple of hours on a flight, I'm sure you can find a reasonable enough service. The LTE is 100MB per month usage. You couldn't even download Ubuntu with that.
If your just a little competent with Linux it's fairly easy to install standalone applications, just copy over the binaries and libraries. I have Eclipse, Netbeans, OpenOffice, VLC and a LAMP server installed. If ChromeOS doesn't float your boat then Arch or Ubuntu can be installed as well.
If you plan to do that though, why wouldn't you get a 13" Retina Macbook Pro? If you really want Chrome OS, you can install that on it. It's just weird to justify the usefulness of a machine by saying that it is useful if you replace the bundled OS with Linux. Why not buy a computer that has a useful OS on it in the first place that also has a better design, a longer battery life, significantly more storage, USB 3 and Thunderbolt?
Also when people talk about installing Linux being fairly easy, are you running it from an SD card, which really isn't an ideal storage device for an OS or using the stateful partition, which is extremely small and requires a non-trivial process to setup, while also leaving Chrome OS with very little usable offline storage?
The Chromebook Pixel is also another example where Google just follows Apple's lead, even the marketing page:
Google uses the term 'leading laptops' to show 118PPI but do they mean laptops that sell in the highest volume at any price point or ones that sell at the price point of the Chromebook Pixel?
Hardware design: backlit chiclet keyboard, large glass single button trackpad, magnetic latch, 2 USB ports and Mini-DP, trackpad gestures:
Also when people talk about installing Linux being fairly easy, are you running it from an SD card, which really isn't an ideal storage device for an OS or using the stateful partition, which is extremely small and requires a non-trivial process to setup, while also leaving Chrome OS with very little usable offline storage?
No, running it off an SD card would be slow. Partitioning and formatting any disk using Linux tools and installing from a USB stick is incredibly easy these days. The Linux OS itself also requires little space relative to Windows and OSX.
But I think Relic is talking about installing Linux apps on Chrome OS.
Ok, so the online storage becomes unusable for writing to until you pay the subscription for the amount you are using and you'd downgrade the plan to whatever you used. That's fair but it's still another cost that should be factored in.
By Gogo flight you mean passes to use in-flight wifi. If you absolutely need wifi for the couple of hours on a flight, I'm sure you can find a reasonable enough service. The LTE is 100MB per month usage. You couldn't even download Ubuntu with that.
If you plan to do that though, why wouldn't you get a 13" Retina Macbook Pro? If you really want Chrome OS, you can install that on it. It's just weird to justify the usefulness of a machine by saying that it is useful if you replace the bundled OS with Linux. Why not buy a computer that has a useful OS on it in the first place that also has a better design, a longer battery life, significantly more storage, USB 3 and Thunderbolt?
Also when people talk about installing Linux being fairly easy, are you running it from an SD card, which really isn't an ideal storage device for an OS or using the stateful partition, which is extremely small and requires a non-trivial process to setup, while also leaving Chrome OS with very little usable offline storage?
The Chromebook Pixel is also another example where Google just follows Apple's lead, even the marketing page:
Google uses the term 'leading laptops' to show 118PPI but do they mean laptops that sell in the highest volume at any price point or ones that sell at the price point of the Chromebook Pixel?
Hardware design: backlit chiclet keyboard, large glass single button trackpad, magnetic latch, 2 USB ports and Mini-DP, trackpad gestures:
Even the very move to Retina displays just follows along on Apple's lead time and time again.
1. GoGo in flight is the ONLY currently available WiFi provider (unless you fly private, in which case costs are irrelevant). For a transcontinental flight, the cost is $20.
2. LTE: why would you want to download Ubuntu, or whatever, over LTE? Do you live in your car? You use your home network for big files, and read your mail in cafes, or whatever, using LTE.
3. Linux: crouton runs ubunto off the same kernel as Chromios, no SD, no USB (though if you want a dual boot, you can either install a partition on the SSD or run it off the USB if you prefer). It takes thirty seconds to set up, and Google has absolutely no objections to doing this -- you just have to run in developer mode.
4. MacBook Pro: You just don't listen, do you? The Chromebook's cost (if you use the freebies) is NEGATIVE $700 or so. I don't think you can find a macbook pro (even non-retina) for a price this low.
5. Google follows Apple: Who cares? We are talking about the merits of the machine.
Online apps have gotten much, much better, website development applications for instance are actually very intuitive and great for colabriation work, plus you can host all of your compilers on your server. Audiotool.com is also one of the coolest music creation apps I have ever used, standalone or web. The Pixel albeit expensive is also one the most beautiful laptops on the market today. It's a niche market defiantly but for those who buy Porsche designed Blackberry's and B&O audio equipment it kind of makes sense. Just because you do not see the potential doesn't mean that there aren't those who do. I don't own one myself but I do have the ARM Chromebook and it is very useful, so much so that I now do all of my Office work on it now. Well to be honest my company gave me the Chromebook and a Chromebox for the office, we host a Office 365 site and have moved to a all online work flow. Our internal networks are still Unix which can be easily accessed with a XTerminal using ChromeOS. Anyway, point is these things are a lot more use full then you think.
If your just a little competent with Linux it's fairly easy to install standalone applications, just copy over the binaries and libraries. I have Eclipse, Netbeans, OpenOffice, VLC and a LAMP server installed. If ChromeOS doesn't float your boat then Arch or Ubuntu can be installed as well.
Do you use MS office in the browser, or one of the open office suites? Either way, is it fully functional (compared to locally installed MS Office)? Just curious, I have never tried (I assume you don't have VBA in the cloud, though I know you do have python with google docs...)
Do you use MS office in the browser, or one of the open office suites? Either way, is it fully functional (compared to locally installed MS Office)? Just curious, I have never tried (I assume you don't have VBA in the cloud, though I know you do have python with google docs...)
Yes, I use Office in the browser but you are correct VBA scripts aren't actively accessible. This isn't much of a inconvenience as we do our calculations with Python and Perl before importing into Office. As I mentioned before we are a Unix house and defiantly utilize it's power, unfortunately clearing houses and some stock exchanges still send data as a XLS and not through SWIFT which is a parsed XML file. I personally just use the online word processor and PowerPoint as I'm a command line junkie. Even with my Macbook Air I think I use the terminal more then any other application. Chromebooks are defiantly one of the best dumb terminals, something a lot of people here seemed to have missed, with Citrix, xTerm, remote desktop and a secured system it's pretty great. So a company who utilizes Chromebooks and Chromeboxs and that number is growing by the way the Pixel isn't so far fetched. I work for UBS in Zurich where the average salary is over 75,000 CHF, a lot of us want more then a 300 USD Chromebook, we want the style and power of a Pixel. Google has a market, it's not big but it's there.
1. GoGo in flight is the ONLY currently available WiFi provider (unless you fly private, in which case costs are irrelevant). For a transcontinental flight, the cost is $20.
2. LTE: why would you want to download Ubuntu, or whatever, over LTE? Do you live in your car? You use your home network for big files, and read your mail in cafes, or whatever, using LTE.
100MB still isn't enough for a month's basic usage. A single website can easily be as much as 1MB, an ebook can be 5MB. Not to mention the whole point of the Chromebook being that everything is done on the web so all document changes have to be synced to the web. You could run through 100MB usage in one sitting at a cafe.
The Chromebook's cost (if you use the freebies) is NEGATIVE $700 or so. I don't think you can find a macbook pro (even non-retina) for a price this low.
Throw in some adwords and how could anyone resist. When you throw in a bunch of junk services that aren't going to be much use to anyone then of course deducting it off the price is going to make it look good but the hardware purchase is a tangible transaction. It's not likely that people will even have the opportunity to use all the 'freebies' so they are worth as much as coupons that get sent out in the mail.
5. Google follows Apple: Who cares? We are talking about the merits of the machine.
It's important because Google always does this. They look at whatever Apple is doing, copy it in some half-assed way, sell it cheaper or free and legions of fans try and justify why it's a better option than Apple's products. Just buy the original and for your premium you get some quality control.
Even with my Macbook Air I think I use the terminal more then any other application. Chromebooks are defiantly one of the best dumb terminals, something a lot of people here seemed to have missed, with Citrix, xTerm, remote desktop and a secured system it's pretty great.
Those can be used on any laptop too though. What is it that makes the Chromebooks better at this than a Retina Macbook Pro? The issue is really why would you spend $1300 on a 32GB Chromebook Pixel with 4GB RAM vs $1500 on a 128GB Retina Macbook Pro with 8GB RAM when the Chromebook in its shipped state can only do a fraction of what the Macbook Pro can do?
The focus is on why it's good, not why it's better. Why is it better than a Macbook Pro, which can act as a terminal, a Mac, Linux or Windows machine, a video editing machine, a development machine, a design machine with the CS Suite, anything you want it to be? From every angle, it looks... hmmm, what's the word Android users use for the iPhone? Oh yeah... overpriced.
Only fast enough for data, not video. It'll save money for the people that use it though.
100MB still isn't enough for a month's basic usage. A single website can easily be as much as 1MB, an ebook can be 5MB. Not to mention the whole point of the Chromebook being that everything is done on the web so all document changes have to be synced to the web. You could run through 100MB usage in one sitting at a cafe.
Throw in some adwords and how could anyone resist. When you throw in a bunch of junk services that aren't going to be much use to anyone then of course deducting it off the price is going to make it look good but the hardware purchase is a tangible transaction. It's not likely that people will even have the opportunity to use all the 'freebies' so they are worth as much as coupons that get sent out in the mail.
It's important because Google always does this. They look at whatever Apple is doing, copy it in some half-assed way, sell it cheaper or free and legions of fans try and justify why it's a better option than Apple's products. Just buy the original and for your premium you get some quality control.
Those can be used on any laptop too though. What is it that makes the Chromebooks better at this than a Retina Macbook Pro? The issue is really why would you spend $1300 on a 32GB Chromebook Pixel with 4GB RAM vs $1500 on a 128GB Retina Macbook Pro with 8GB RAM when the Chromebook in its shipped state can only do a fraction of what the Macbook Pro can do?
The focus is on why it's good, not why it's better. Why is it better than a Macbook Pro, which can act as a terminal, a Mac, Linux or Windows machine, a video editing machine, a development machine, a design machine with the CS Suite, anything you want it to be? From every angle, it looks... hmmm, what's the word Android users use for the iPhone? Oh yeah... overpriced.
Re GoGo, you are right, but on US flightsI have only ever seen GoGo (on different carriers, though of course, all the carriers are the same these days. You are right that it is not fast enough for video, but it is incredibly useful nonetheless (for actual work).
Re Verizon: I know that I have a kindle fire, and use the promotional $49 LTE for 100MB a month connection, and this is plenty for all the book and app downloads. In the US, every starbucks is wired, your home is wired, your office is wired, so I assume that most people would only use their LTE on the way between various wired locations, so 100MB may well be sufficient. I have no idea (since I don't own a chromebook) whether it is any cheaper than normal to upgrade to a more robust data plan.
Re Google. I still don't think it is relevant, since it is not relevant to the merits of the machine, but actually they do it with other people (e.g., Google Drive is a response to dropbox, Google docs a response to MS, etc). I agree that they have a tendency to do a half-assed job. The Chromebook actually seems an exception to the rule.
Re Google. I still don't think it is relevant, since it is not relevant to the merits of the machine, but actually they do it with other people (e.g., Google Drive is a response to dropbox, Google docs a response to MS, etc). I agree that they have a tendency to do a half-assed job. The Chromebook actually seems an exception to the rule.
I actually prefer Google Docs to MS. Not quite as many features, but I never really miss MS Office. I've never found I've been wanting features it didn't provide... Google Docs' scripting features also seem quite nice, but like Relic I generally use command line scripts (in Ruby though).
Google definitely likes to ship unfinished software, and I don't use all of it, but I think they definitely are ahead of MS and others in terms of usefulness.
The focus is on why it's good, not why it's better. Why is it better than a Macbook Pro, which can act as a terminal, a Mac, Linux or Windows machine, a video editing machine, a development machine, a design machine with the CS Suite, anything you want it to be? From every angle, it looks... hmmm, what's the word Android users use for the iPhone? Oh yeah... overpriced.
It probably isn't better, after all, you can install Linux on a Macbook Pro at least as easily as on a Chromebook. LTE would be one upside, but then again tethering to a cell phone or getting a USB stick modem isn't a big deal.
I think it's a very niche-oriented machine aimed strait at those who want a developer machine in Google's ecosystem, with nice (vanity) hardware. It's definitely not a mass-market product, and unless you have a large disposable income, the Samsung ARM Chromebook would likely be a better buy.
It probably isn't better, after all, you can install Linux on a Macbook Pro at least as easily as on a Chromebook. LTE would be one upside, but then again tethering to a cell phone or getting a USB stick modem isn't a big deal.
I think it's a very niche-oriented machine aimed strait at those who want a developer machine in Google's ecosystem, with nice (vanity) hardware. It's definitely not a mass-market product, and unless you have a large disposable income, the Samsung ARM Chromebook would likely be a better buy.
Working in bank with a secure intranet that doesn't talk with the internet except through a very secure FTP site the Chrome-uters have been very successful in dealing with those two worlds and with using only one computer. In the past we used an internal now Oracle Sun Ray dumb terminal with CDE for the internal network and a off the shelf Dell for the external.The Chrome|books|boxes have merged those two worlds together for us with a appealing and very secure UI. Meaning users can't install their own software or modify the OS as it has a bios secured boot that checks the integrity and modifications made to the system prior to OS launch.
So in a work atmosphere with this kind of security the days of users bringing in their own personal computer have sadly gone the way of the floppy. Laptops are still used of course but in the form of a Chromebook. As a computer enthusiasts I will always want the best I can have for the tasks that need to get done. The Pixel gives me, my opinion, a pretty fantastic option in a world with very few. I like my ARM Chromebook, it's small, fast enough, cute but it's not as sexy as a Pixel. I want it but I can use it, normal users, no, don't see the appeal, buy a Air.
Working in bank with a secure intranet that doesn't talk with the internet except through a very secure FTP site the Chrome-uters have been very successful in dealing with those two worlds and with using only one computer. In the past we used an internal now Oracle Sun Ray dumb terminal with CDE for the internal network and a off the shelf Dell for the external.The Chrome|books|boxes have merged those two worlds together for us with a appealing and very secure UI. Meaning users can't install their own software or modify the OS as it has a bios secured boot that checks the integrity and modifications made to the system prior to OS launch.
So in a work atmosphere with this kind of security the days of users bringing in their own personal computer have sadly gone the way of the floppy. Laptops are still used of course but in the form of a Chromebook. As a computer enthusiasts I will always want the best I can have for the tasks that need to get done. The Pixel gives me, my opinion, a pretty fantastic option in a world with very few. I like my ARM Chromebook, it's small, fast enough, cute but it's not as sexy as a Pixel. I want it but I can use it, normal users, no, don't see the appeal, buy a Air.
Interesting analysis, pretty neat how your company uses them.
I really do think ChromeOS is the future of computing, after using apps on Chrome that make use of NaCl (native client). Playing 'From Dust' in Chrome is a pretty cool experience, and being able to run native apps in a browser solves alot of fragmentation issues. Technologies like WebGL are also getting pretty mature, real apps in the browser are a reality, and someday in the not too distant future may actually rival native apps.
All the world needs though is more (decent) internet connections.
Comments
Quote:
Originally Posted by EricTheHalfBee
It's a lousy product. There's no way you can create high-end applications for it since you can't actually write native code for it. All it does is run Web Apps inside a browser based OS. It's only good for basic tasks like e-mail, browsing, social interaction or creating basic documents. You can't do anything requiring graphical power (photo or video editing, illustration or even games). It would be useless for web developers since you don't have a way to check your website on multiple browsers for compatibility. You can't code or develop software on it since you're never going to see a Web App compiler (well, they could off-load the compiling to a third party but what programmer is going to trust their code to someone else to compile?).
And when you try and rape people $1,300 for a high-end version it's downright stupid. High-end hardware that lacks the software to do any high-end work.
Bottom line: great for simple tasks, useless for real work.
Online apps have gotten much, much better, website development applications for instance are actually very intuitive and great for colabriation work, plus you can host all of your compilers on your server. Audiotool.com is also one of the coolest music creation apps I have ever used, standalone or web. The Pixel albeit expensive is also one the most beautiful laptops on the market today. It's a niche market defiantly but for those who buy Porsche designed Blackberry's and B&O audio equipment it kind of makes sense. Just because you do not see the potential doesn't mean that there aren't those who do. I don't own one myself but I do have the ARM Chromebook and it is very useful, so much so that I now do all of my Office work on it now. Well to be honest my company gave me the Chromebook and a Chromebox for the office, we host a Office 365 site and have moved to a all online work flow. Our internal networks are still Unix which can be easily accessed with a XTerminal using ChromeOS. Anyway, point is these things are a lot more use full then you think.
If your just a little competent with Linux it's fairly easy to install standalone applications, just copy over the binaries and libraries. I have Eclipse, Netbeans, OpenOffice, VLC and a LAMP server installed. If ChromeOS doesn't float your boat then Arch or Ubuntu can be installed as well.
Ok, so the online storage becomes unusable for writing to until you pay the subscription for the amount you are using and you'd downgrade the plan to whatever you used. That's fair but it's still another cost that should be factored in.
By Gogo flight you mean passes to use in-flight wifi. If you absolutely need wifi for the couple of hours on a flight, I'm sure you can find a reasonable enough service. The LTE is 100MB per month usage. You couldn't even download Ubuntu with that.
If you plan to do that though, why wouldn't you get a 13" Retina Macbook Pro? If you really want Chrome OS, you can install that on it. It's just weird to justify the usefulness of a machine by saying that it is useful if you replace the bundled OS with Linux. Why not buy a computer that has a useful OS on it in the first place that also has a better design, a longer battery life, significantly more storage, USB 3 and Thunderbolt?
Also when people talk about installing Linux being fairly easy, are you running it from an SD card, which really isn't an ideal storage device for an OS or using the stateful partition, which is extremely small and requires a non-trivial process to setup, while also leaving Chrome OS with very little usable offline storage?
The Chromebook Pixel is also another example where Google just follows Apple's lead, even the marketing page:
http://www.google.com/intl/en_us/chrome/devices/chromebook-pixel/
http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/
Google uses the term 'leading laptops' to show 118PPI but do they mean laptops that sell in the highest volume at any price point or ones that sell at the price point of the Chromebook Pixel?
Hardware design: backlit chiclet keyboard, large glass single button trackpad, magnetic latch, 2 USB ports and Mini-DP, trackpad gestures:
http://support.google.com/chromeos/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1047367
Even the very move to Retina displays just follows along on Apple's lead time and time again.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin
Also when people talk about installing Linux being fairly easy, are you running it from an SD card, which really isn't an ideal storage device for an OS or using the stateful partition, which is extremely small and requires a non-trivial process to setup, while also leaving Chrome OS with very little usable offline storage?
No, running it off an SD card would be slow. Partitioning and formatting any disk using Linux tools and installing from a USB stick is incredibly easy these days. The Linux OS itself also requires little space relative to Windows and OSX.
But I think Relic is talking about installing Linux apps on Chrome OS.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin
Ok, so the online storage becomes unusable for writing to until you pay the subscription for the amount you are using and you'd downgrade the plan to whatever you used. That's fair but it's still another cost that should be factored in.
By Gogo flight you mean passes to use in-flight wifi. If you absolutely need wifi for the couple of hours on a flight, I'm sure you can find a reasonable enough service. The LTE is 100MB per month usage. You couldn't even download Ubuntu with that.
If you plan to do that though, why wouldn't you get a 13" Retina Macbook Pro? If you really want Chrome OS, you can install that on it. It's just weird to justify the usefulness of a machine by saying that it is useful if you replace the bundled OS with Linux. Why not buy a computer that has a useful OS on it in the first place that also has a better design, a longer battery life, significantly more storage, USB 3 and Thunderbolt?
Also when people talk about installing Linux being fairly easy, are you running it from an SD card, which really isn't an ideal storage device for an OS or using the stateful partition, which is extremely small and requires a non-trivial process to setup, while also leaving Chrome OS with very little usable offline storage?
The Chromebook Pixel is also another example where Google just follows Apple's lead, even the marketing page:
http://www.google.com/intl/en_us/chrome/devices/chromebook-pixel/
http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/
Google uses the term 'leading laptops' to show 118PPI but do they mean laptops that sell in the highest volume at any price point or ones that sell at the price point of the Chromebook Pixel?
Hardware design: backlit chiclet keyboard, large glass single button trackpad, magnetic latch, 2 USB ports and Mini-DP, trackpad gestures:
http://support.google.com/chromeos/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1047367
Even the very move to Retina displays just follows along on Apple's lead time and time again.
1. GoGo in flight is the ONLY currently available WiFi provider (unless you fly private, in which case costs are irrelevant). For a transcontinental flight, the cost is $20.
2. LTE: why would you want to download Ubuntu, or whatever, over LTE? Do you live in your car? You use your home network for big files, and read your mail in cafes, or whatever, using LTE.
3. Linux: crouton runs ubunto off the same kernel as Chromios, no SD, no USB (though if you want a dual boot, you can either install a partition on the SSD or run it off the USB if you prefer). It takes thirty seconds to set up, and Google has absolutely no objections to doing this -- you just have to run in developer mode.
4. MacBook Pro: You just don't listen, do you? The Chromebook's cost (if you use the freebies) is NEGATIVE $700 or so. I don't think you can find a macbook pro (even non-retina) for a price this low.
5. Google follows Apple: Who cares? We are talking about the merits of the machine.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Relic
Online apps have gotten much, much better, website development applications for instance are actually very intuitive and great for colabriation work, plus you can host all of your compilers on your server. Audiotool.com is also one of the coolest music creation apps I have ever used, standalone or web. The Pixel albeit expensive is also one the most beautiful laptops on the market today. It's a niche market defiantly but for those who buy Porsche designed Blackberry's and B&O audio equipment it kind of makes sense. Just because you do not see the potential doesn't mean that there aren't those who do. I don't own one myself but I do have the ARM Chromebook and it is very useful, so much so that I now do all of my Office work on it now. Well to be honest my company gave me the Chromebook and a Chromebox for the office, we host a Office 365 site and have moved to a all online work flow. Our internal networks are still Unix which can be easily accessed with a XTerminal using ChromeOS. Anyway, point is these things are a lot more use full then you think.
If your just a little competent with Linux it's fairly easy to install standalone applications, just copy over the binaries and libraries. I have Eclipse, Netbeans, OpenOffice, VLC and a LAMP server installed. If ChromeOS doesn't float your boat then Arch or Ubuntu can be installed as well.
Do you use MS office in the browser, or one of the open office suites? Either way, is it fully functional (compared to locally installed MS Office)? Just curious, I have never tried (I assume you don't have VBA in the cloud, though I know you do have python with google docs...)
Quote:
Originally Posted by igriv
Do you use MS office in the browser, or one of the open office suites? Either way, is it fully functional (compared to locally installed MS Office)? Just curious, I have never tried (I assume you don't have VBA in the cloud, though I know you do have python with google docs...)
Yes, I use Office in the browser but you are correct VBA scripts aren't actively accessible. This isn't much of a inconvenience as we do our calculations with Python and Perl before importing into Office. As I mentioned before we are a Unix house and defiantly utilize it's power, unfortunately clearing houses and some stock exchanges still send data as a XLS and not through SWIFT which is a parsed XML file. I personally just use the online word processor and PowerPoint as I'm a command line junkie. Even with my Macbook Air I think I use the terminal more then any other application. Chromebooks are defiantly one of the best dumb terminals, something a lot of people here seemed to have missed, with Citrix, xTerm, remote desktop and a secured system it's pretty great. So a company who utilizes Chromebooks and Chromeboxs and that number is growing by the way the Pixel isn't so far fetched. I work for UBS in Zurich where the average salary is over 75,000 CHF, a lot of us want more then a 300 USD Chromebook, we want the style and power of a Pixel. Google has a market, it's not big but it's there.
There seems to be some alternatives:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Row_44
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OnAir
Only fast enough for data, not video. It'll save money for the people that use it though.
100MB still isn't enough for a month's basic usage. A single website can easily be as much as 1MB, an ebook can be 5MB. Not to mention the whole point of the Chromebook being that everything is done on the web so all document changes have to be synced to the web. You could run through 100MB usage in one sitting at a cafe.
It's important because Google always does this. They look at whatever Apple is doing, copy it in some half-assed way, sell it cheaper or free and legions of fans try and justify why it's a better option than Apple's products. Just buy the original and for your premium you get some quality control.
Those can be used on any laptop too though. What is it that makes the Chromebooks better at this than a Retina Macbook Pro? The issue is really why would you spend $1300 on a 32GB Chromebook Pixel with 4GB RAM vs $1500 on a 128GB Retina Macbook Pro with 8GB RAM when the Chromebook in its shipped state can only do a fraction of what the Macbook Pro can do?
The focus is on why it's good, not why it's better. Why is it better than a Macbook Pro, which can act as a terminal, a Mac, Linux or Windows machine, a video editing machine, a development machine, a design machine with the CS Suite, anything you want it to be? From every angle, it looks... hmmm, what's the word Android users use for the iPhone? Oh yeah... overpriced.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin
There seems to be some alternatives:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Row_44
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OnAir
Only fast enough for data, not video. It'll save money for the people that use it though.
100MB still isn't enough for a month's basic usage. A single website can easily be as much as 1MB, an ebook can be 5MB. Not to mention the whole point of the Chromebook being that everything is done on the web so all document changes have to be synced to the web. You could run through 100MB usage in one sitting at a cafe.
It's important because Google always does this. They look at whatever Apple is doing, copy it in some half-assed way, sell it cheaper or free and legions of fans try and justify why it's a better option than Apple's products. Just buy the original and for your premium you get some quality control.
Those can be used on any laptop too though. What is it that makes the Chromebooks better at this than a Retina Macbook Pro? The issue is really why would you spend $1300 on a 32GB Chromebook Pixel with 4GB RAM vs $1500 on a 128GB Retina Macbook Pro with 8GB RAM when the Chromebook in its shipped state can only do a fraction of what the Macbook Pro can do?
The focus is on why it's good, not why it's better. Why is it better than a Macbook Pro, which can act as a terminal, a Mac, Linux or Windows machine, a video editing machine, a development machine, a design machine with the CS Suite, anything you want it to be? From every angle, it looks... hmmm, what's the word Android users use for the iPhone? Oh yeah... overpriced.
Re GoGo, you are right, but on US flightsI have only ever seen GoGo (on different carriers, though of course, all the carriers are the same these days. You are right that it is not fast enough for video, but it is incredibly useful nonetheless (for actual work).
Re Verizon: I know that I have a kindle fire, and use the promotional $49 LTE for 100MB a month connection, and this is plenty for all the book and app downloads. In the US, every starbucks is wired, your home is wired, your office is wired, so I assume that most people would only use their LTE on the way between various wired locations, so 100MB may well be sufficient. I have no idea (since I don't own a chromebook) whether it is any cheaper than normal to upgrade to a more robust data plan.
Re Google. I still don't think it is relevant, since it is not relevant to the merits of the machine, but actually they do it with other people (e.g., Google Drive is a response to dropbox, Google docs a response to MS, etc). I agree that they have a tendency to do a half-assed job. The Chromebook actually seems an exception to the rule.
Quote:
Originally Posted by igriv
Re Google. I still don't think it is relevant, since it is not relevant to the merits of the machine, but actually they do it with other people (e.g., Google Drive is a response to dropbox, Google docs a response to MS, etc). I agree that they have a tendency to do a half-assed job. The Chromebook actually seems an exception to the rule.
I actually prefer Google Docs to MS. Not quite as many features, but I never really miss MS Office. I've never found I've been wanting features it didn't provide... Google Docs' scripting features also seem quite nice, but like Relic I generally use command line scripts (in Ruby though).
Google definitely likes to ship unfinished software, and I don't use all of it, but I think they definitely are ahead of MS and others in terms of usefulness.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin
The focus is on why it's good, not why it's better. Why is it better than a Macbook Pro, which can act as a terminal, a Mac, Linux or Windows machine, a video editing machine, a development machine, a design machine with the CS Suite, anything you want it to be? From every angle, it looks... hmmm, what's the word Android users use for the iPhone? Oh yeah... overpriced.
It probably isn't better, after all, you can install Linux on a Macbook Pro at least as easily as on a Chromebook. LTE would be one upside, but then again tethering to a cell phone or getting a USB stick modem isn't a big deal.
I think it's a very niche-oriented machine aimed strait at those who want a developer machine in Google's ecosystem, with nice (vanity) hardware. It's definitely not a mass-market product, and unless you have a large disposable income, the Samsung ARM Chromebook would likely be a better buy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mikeb85
It probably isn't better, after all, you can install Linux on a Macbook Pro at least as easily as on a Chromebook. LTE would be one upside, but then again tethering to a cell phone or getting a USB stick modem isn't a big deal.
I think it's a very niche-oriented machine aimed strait at those who want a developer machine in Google's ecosystem, with nice (vanity) hardware. It's definitely not a mass-market product, and unless you have a large disposable income, the Samsung ARM Chromebook would likely be a better buy.
Working in bank with a secure intranet that doesn't talk with the internet except through a very secure FTP site the Chrome-uters have been very successful in dealing with those two worlds and with using only one computer. In the past we used an internal now Oracle Sun Ray dumb terminal with CDE for the internal network and a off the shelf Dell for the external.The Chrome|books|boxes have merged those two worlds together for us with a appealing and very secure UI. Meaning users can't install their own software or modify the OS as it has a bios secured boot that checks the integrity and modifications made to the system prior to OS launch.
So in a work atmosphere with this kind of security the days of users bringing in their own personal computer have sadly gone the way of the floppy. Laptops are still used of course but in the form of a Chromebook. As a computer enthusiasts I will always want the best I can have for the tasks that need to get done. The Pixel gives me, my opinion, a pretty fantastic option in a world with very few. I like my ARM Chromebook, it's small, fast enough, cute but it's not as sexy as a Pixel. I want it but I can use it, normal users, no, don't see the appeal, buy a Air.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Relic
Working in bank with a secure intranet that doesn't talk with the internet except through a very secure FTP site the Chrome-uters have been very successful in dealing with those two worlds and with using only one computer. In the past we used an internal now Oracle Sun Ray dumb terminal with CDE for the internal network and a off the shelf Dell for the external.The Chrome|books|boxes have merged those two worlds together for us with a appealing and very secure UI. Meaning users can't install their own software or modify the OS as it has a bios secured boot that checks the integrity and modifications made to the system prior to OS launch.
So in a work atmosphere with this kind of security the days of users bringing in their own personal computer have sadly gone the way of the floppy. Laptops are still used of course but in the form of a Chromebook. As a computer enthusiasts I will always want the best I can have for the tasks that need to get done. The Pixel gives me, my opinion, a pretty fantastic option in a world with very few. I like my ARM Chromebook, it's small, fast enough, cute but it's not as sexy as a Pixel. I want it but I can use it, normal users, no, don't see the appeal, buy a Air.
Interesting analysis, pretty neat how your company uses them.
I really do think ChromeOS is the future of computing, after using apps on Chrome that make use of NaCl (native client). Playing 'From Dust' in Chrome is a pretty cool experience, and being able to run native apps in a browser solves alot of fragmentation issues. Technologies like WebGL are also getting pretty mature, real apps in the browser are a reality, and someday in the not too distant future may actually rival native apps.
All the world needs though is more (decent) internet connections.