Oh look, another brand-new 1 post shill has shown up telling us how great Chromebooks are.
Oh look, someone who shows up with facts because someone else was incorrectly claiming ChromeOS only ran Web apps. The first thing you do in ad hominem attack someone on their first post, just because they don't say something nasty about Apple's competitors? This reaches a whole new level of Snowflake.
Chromebooks runs Linux, and that is important to Web developers and engineers, for the same reason they prefer MacBooks over iPads or Windows: The Unix Environment. It's a niche market, but so are desktops these days. You can secure in the knowledge that the Slate doesn't threaten your consumer toys, just like the MacBook doesn't. The iPad will always be there for casuals.
@Drumpf ; Ignore Eric and the trolling, He's really relatively harmless and not part of management anyway. He'll post up some good info too if you can look past some of the less-helpful stuff like that one. There's a handful of folks here whose first thought is to be rude/dismissive instead of welcoming but don't let them bother you. That very small (but perhaps LOUD) group won't like you because you're not knee-jerk anti-everyone-else-but Apple. That's OK. Just don't ever be dismissive out of hand or go out of your way to insult others, be sure to make it clear when things are opinions and when they're facts, be quick to apologize if shown to be wrong, and you'll do fine here.
Most readers will appreciate the type of post that you made for your first one. It wasn't insulting, or inaccurate, or anti-Apple in any way. Instead it was informative, reasoned, and well-stated.You did good.
So don't be a stranger and don't let a few bugaboos get to you or push you into replying in kind. AI sometimes gets a bad rap for its forum members and yes a couple might be way over the top at times. Other forums have some of those same types of people who try to bully others into silence, shout 'em down if they can't prove 'em wrong. Sad but that's what things have turned into for the moment everywhere, even in real-life as I'm sure you know. Personally I'm hopeful we'll get past much of it eventually. It's really not as as bad at AppleInsider as it's made out to be. Lots of normals here who appreciate posts like yours.
These are always fun comment threads. Everyone is both wrong and right LOL.
I have a Pixel 2 XL, an Acer 15 Chromebook, and I sold my Google Pixel C tablet and bought last year's new iPad. You won't pry ANY of these out of my hands. I need all of them.
iPad defenders are right: There's stuff you just don't do on a Chromebook, including audio/video editing, which I do on my iPad. There's just no competition for Luma Fusion Pro on my iPad, for example. And even with the new Stylus on the Pixel Slate, it may be even better than Apple Pencil, but does that matter when all too many apps don't properly support it? On the iPad, virtually EVERYTHING supports Apple Pencil! I don't have to compromise there, so I need my iPad and a Chromebook doesn't appeal to me for that. On the other hand, I'm a software developer doing Asp.net core development on Windows 10 at work and deploying to Azure. I need to remote into my work machine a LOT. I tried really hard to see if I could use my iPad for that mobile. But then, oh my goodness, keyboard/mouse support on Remote Desktop for iOS is just...terrible. You have a choice of TWO bluetooth mice that will work, and the mac bluetooth keyboard shortcuts have lots of issues. At a certain point, the aggravation exceeded the benefit, so I bought a cheap Acer 15 Chromebook, which has a 1080p touch screen a nice laptop form factor, and it has been a DREAM by comparison. I didn't honestly put much stock in the Android app compatibility, thinking - oh that's a gimmick that probably doesn't work well. To my shock, it works MORE than well. Google and integrated Android into Chromebook REALLY well, including unified notifications, windowed app support, etc. And many apps notice they are running on Chromebook and act more like full PC apps than Android apps, so yes, when I need Skype for Business for work, I run the Android version of it on Chrome OS with full integration with microphone, camera etc. So, no you can't separate me from my Chromebook. And then of course there is my Pixel 2 XL, which runs beautifully and smoothly on Android Pie, has an awesome Camera, and is getting most of the Pixel 3 new Camera goodies since Google does most of their magic in software. I got the new Pixel 3 Camera APK installed on it yesterday and now have both post-shot depth processing on portrait, as well as changable focus points to anywhere in the picture, and color pop and some other features. It's pretty darned nice and can't wait to see if we also get Night Sight and Super Res Zoom features.
I get that this is an Apple fan forum, and all else must be trashed as trolling, but honestly, good Lord, my motto is "the right tool for the right job", so although it would be lovely to have a single device/OS to rule them all, at the end of the day I'm pretty darn pleased having an iPad/Chromebook/Pixel2XL trio to meet my needs
Seems people fundamentally misunderstand what Chromebooks are.
ChromeOS is basically a super-secure, continuously updateable, verified boot, Linux hypervisor that runs containers. One of those containers is Chrome, which gets you Web Apps/Chrome Apps. One of those containers is ARC, which gets you the Android-Runtime-For-Chrome, which runs Android apps. And one of those containers is Crostini, Linux, which lets you run Linux apps. They all run at the same time.
Who cares about Linux? Developers and Engineers. So for example, you can run Android Studio, a full fledged, heavy, IDE experience for building apps, directly on a ChromeOS device (https://developer.android.com/topic/arc/studio) Can you run the real, full blown XCode on an iPad pro? No you cannot. And with Campfire -- ala Bootcamp for ChromeOS -- you'll even be able to run Windows 10 on Chromebooks.
The Pixel Slate's top of the line model is an 8th generation Intel i7, with 16Gb of RAM and 256Gb SSD, that's a full blown desktop in a tablet form factor that runs 3 operating systems simultaneously (ChromeOS, ARC, and Crostini)
You can pooh pooh the tabletized apps, and I agree, they're not great, but no tabletized app is as good as the desktop app it supposedly replaces. For professionals? Don't kid yourself, outside of a few limited scenarios, a full keyboard and mouse aware app is substantially better, in the same way that a mouse and keyboard are better than analog sticks or touch for playing first person shooters.
I can tell you right now, that tons of developers and engineers who own MacBooks are salivating over the idea of a more compact full-fledged Linux environment with awesome web experience, and they aren't looking to iPad Pros, but to Surface with Linux as an option. Slate is another entry in that category.
The Pixel Slate uses 5 W Intel processors. By definition, that isn’t a full blown desktop experience in a tablet form factor. You can use it for many variety of things, but people can buy themselves a laptop and call it a day too, and not worry about having one device to rule them all. Lots of options competing for our dollars.
Apple offers a Core i7-7Y75 in its Macbook 12 model, a small ultrabook running macOS for people who want a small machine to develop on. It would be more capable than a similarly configured Pixel Slate for PC uses. It’s due to be updated, and it will likely have the same Core i7-8500Y in the maxed out Pixel Slate and may come out earlier than the Pixel Slate, if Apple doesn’t refactor their low end lineup. It may be that Apple will employ 15 W processors in their low end laptop lineup, it which case, the Pixel Slate will end up the slower machine. Hopefully we will find out soon.
Then, you underestimate what people can do with an iPad. It’s true that Xcode isn’t available for iPads (yet), but there are many shell based environment apps available that let people do web development, remote development, and many local language environments such as Pythonista that enable to do script development locally on the machine. People can integrate their image editing, audio editing, video editing, text workflows, and some of their scripting workflows with these environments and basically do what they do on a PC operating system. There are people wanting to have certain iPad apps (Ferrite et al) ported to macOS, and can’t wait for Marzipan to mature. So, the iPad can not do iOS app development, but can support many development workflows.
Then, the fall iPads are set to be released soon, and probably will be released before the Pixel Slate since the PS appears to have a ship date before the end of the year, right? These iPads are going to have a rather remarkable ad blitz and will have features to back it up. It will be faster in CPU, GPU, and NPU than basically all competitors including the Pixel Slate and probably the Surface Pro 6 too, have all manner of fancy apps and games, and will have a flashy new industrial design. Full Photoshop is coming to iPads next year, supposedly. These 2018 iPads will be used to sell that and vice versa. I love my 2017 iPad Pro 10.5, but these upcoming models have me seriously considering selling it and getting the new ones, and I never do that. And I have qualms over certain design aspects of the iPad, too, but these models are going to be blow away.
The biggest weakness of iPads is RAM. Likely won’t have 16 GB, so, if that is needed or an Intel based VM, Intel systems will obviously be the better option.
Comments
Ignore Eric and the trolling, He's really relatively harmless and not part of management anyway. He'll post up some good info too if you can look past some of the less-helpful stuff like that one. There's a handful of folks here whose first thought is to be rude/dismissive instead of welcoming but don't let them bother you. That very small (but perhaps LOUD) group won't like you because you're not knee-jerk anti-everyone-else-but Apple. That's OK. Just don't ever be dismissive out of hand or go out of your way to insult others, be sure to make it clear when things are opinions and when they're facts, be quick to apologize if shown to be wrong, and you'll do fine here.
Most readers will appreciate the type of post that you made for your first one. It wasn't insulting, or inaccurate, or anti-Apple in any way. Instead it was informative, reasoned, and well-stated.You did good.
So don't be a stranger and don't let a few bugaboos get to you or push you into replying in kind. AI sometimes gets a bad rap for its forum members and yes a couple might be way over the top at times. Other forums have some of those same types of people who try to bully others into silence, shout 'em down if they can't prove 'em wrong. Sad but that's what things have turned into for the moment everywhere, even in real-life as I'm sure you know. Personally I'm hopeful we'll get past much of it eventually. It's really not as as bad at AppleInsider as it's made out to be. Lots of normals here who appreciate posts like yours.
I have a Pixel 2 XL, an Acer 15 Chromebook, and I sold my Google Pixel C tablet and bought last year's new iPad. You won't pry ANY of these out of my hands. I need all of them.
iPad defenders are right: There's stuff you just don't do on a Chromebook, including audio/video editing, which I do on my iPad. There's just no competition for Luma Fusion Pro on my iPad, for example. And even with the new Stylus on the Pixel Slate, it may be even better than Apple Pencil, but does that matter when all too many apps don't properly support it? On the iPad, virtually EVERYTHING supports Apple Pencil! I don't have to compromise there, so I need my iPad and a Chromebook doesn't appeal to me for that. On the other hand, I'm a software developer doing Asp.net core development on Windows 10 at work and deploying to Azure. I need to remote into my work machine a LOT. I tried really hard to see if I could use my iPad for that mobile. But then, oh my goodness, keyboard/mouse support on Remote Desktop for iOS is just...terrible. You have a choice of TWO bluetooth mice that will work, and the mac bluetooth keyboard shortcuts have lots of issues. At a certain point, the aggravation exceeded the benefit, so I bought a cheap Acer 15 Chromebook, which has a 1080p touch screen a nice laptop form factor, and it has been a DREAM by comparison. I didn't honestly put much stock in the Android app compatibility, thinking - oh that's a gimmick that probably doesn't work well. To my shock, it works MORE than well. Google and integrated Android into Chromebook REALLY well, including unified notifications, windowed app support, etc. And many apps notice they are running on Chromebook and act more like full PC apps than Android apps, so yes, when I need Skype for Business for work, I run the Android version of it on Chrome OS with full integration with microphone, camera etc. So, no you can't separate me from my Chromebook. And then of course there is my Pixel 2 XL, which runs beautifully and smoothly on Android Pie, has an awesome Camera, and is getting most of the Pixel 3 new Camera goodies since Google does most of their magic in software. I got the new Pixel 3 Camera APK installed on it yesterday and now have both post-shot depth processing on portrait, as well as changable focus points to anywhere in the picture, and color pop and some other features. It's pretty darned nice and can't wait to see if we also get Night Sight and Super Res Zoom features.
I get that this is an Apple fan forum, and all else must be trashed as trolling, but honestly, good Lord, my motto is "the right tool for the right job", so although it would be lovely to have a single device/OS to rule them all, at the end of the day I'm pretty darn pleased having an iPad/Chromebook/Pixel2XL trio to meet my needs
Cheers guys.
The Pixel Slate uses 5 W Intel processors. By definition, that isn’t a full blown desktop experience in a tablet form factor. You can use it for many variety of things, but people can buy themselves a laptop and call it a day too, and not worry about having one device to rule them all. Lots of options competing for our dollars.
Apple offers a Core i7-7Y75 in its Macbook 12 model, a small ultrabook running macOS for people who want a small machine to develop on. It would be more capable than a similarly configured Pixel Slate for PC uses. It’s due to be updated, and it will likely have the same Core i7-8500Y in the maxed out Pixel Slate and may come out earlier than the Pixel Slate, if Apple doesn’t refactor their low end lineup. It may be that Apple will employ 15 W processors in their low end laptop lineup, it which case, the Pixel Slate will end up the slower machine. Hopefully we will find out soon.
Then, you underestimate what people can do with an iPad. It’s true that Xcode isn’t available for iPads (yet), but there are many shell based environment apps available that let people do web development, remote development, and many local language environments such as Pythonista that enable to do script development locally on the machine. People can integrate their image editing, audio editing, video editing, text workflows, and some of their scripting workflows with these environments and basically do what they do on a PC operating system. There are people wanting to have certain iPad apps (Ferrite et al) ported to macOS, and can’t wait for Marzipan to mature. So, the iPad can not do iOS app development, but can support many development workflows.
Then, the fall iPads are set to be released soon, and probably will be released before the Pixel Slate since the PS appears to have a ship date before the end of the year, right? These iPads are going to have a rather remarkable ad blitz and will have features to back it up. It will be faster in CPU, GPU, and NPU than basically all competitors including the Pixel Slate and probably the Surface Pro 6 too, have all manner of fancy apps and games, and will have a flashy new industrial design. Full Photoshop is coming to iPads next year, supposedly. These 2018 iPads will be used to sell that and vice versa. I love my 2017 iPad Pro 10.5, but these upcoming models have me seriously considering selling it and getting the new ones, and I never do that. And I have qualms over certain design aspects of the iPad, too, but these models are going to be blow away.
The biggest weakness of iPads is RAM. Likely won’t have 16 GB, so, if that is needed or an Intel based VM, Intel systems will obviously be the better option.