What Will The Expanding World of ChromeOS Mean For Windows? 263
Nerval's Lobster writes "Hewlett-Packard is the latest PC manufacturer to jump into the Chromebook game, whipping the curtain back from a 14-inch device loaded with Google's Chrome OS. Powered by a dual-core Intel Celeron processor, and touting roughly 4.25 hours of battery life, the HP Pavilion Chromebook follows in the footsteps of other Chromebooks released by Acer and Samsung over the past few months. While these manufacturers continue to produce devices loaded with Windows, the growth of Chrome OS could spark some worry among Microsoft executives, who have become used to their hardware partners operating as Windows-only shops. But is Chrome OS a true threat to Windows, or just a way for manufacturers to gain some additional leverage in negotiating with Microsoft over licensing fees and other matters?"
is Chrome OS a true threat to Windows? (Score:2, Insightful)
For the reasons stated in the summary, from the manufacturer's standpoint it just doesn't matter. The effort to port ChromeOS, measured in engineer hours, could easily be paid for by a 50 cent drop in the per laptop licensing fee for Windows. It's a good gamble. It's a win either way.
Personally though, a Nexus 10, with all those pretty pixels, and a bluetooth keyboard seems to fill this niche better than anything I've seen with a hinge.
Windows 8 (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Windows 8 (Score:5, Interesting)
MS aren't doing themselves any favours. If Windows 8, Windows Mobile, Surface and the planned changes to Small Business Server are anything to go by, it appears their new hobby is committing economic suicide. That's a pretty big threat to Windows and I know a lot of Windows server administrators who are starting to get nervous.
Re:Windows 8 (Score:4, Insightful)
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I do exactly the same thing - I work on a helpdesk that supports both Windows and Mac. I'm also teaching myself Linux on the side, although where on earth do you start figuring out basic Linux desktop support in an environment so fractured and chaotic?! Loving CLI servers though ;)
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I dunno...if doing this professionally, I'd say concentrate more on RHEL. From my experience, that is the predominate (if not only) version of
right... (Score:2, Insightful)
And revenue down 20% overall...
Re:Windows 8 (Score:5, Informative)
I don't usually respond to ACs, but when figures need correcting I make an exception. MS shipped 1.25m Surface tablets Q4 last year but sales figures were only around 700,000. Compared to iPad sales of 22million over the same quarter, that's awful for a major-league product from a tech titan like MS: http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-surface-with-windows-rt-tablet-sales-disappoint-in-fourth-quarter-7000010688/ [zdnet.com]
Windows 8 also doesn't have anywhere else to go but up. It's first quarters numbers will always be inflated by people chasing the latest and greatest at any cost, large enterprises stockpiling licenses early. Also, while it's profit isn't exactly weak, it's certainly not as dominant as it was was 2010 Q1 and previously, especially compared to other tech companies - the eponymous Apple being on of them - that seem to be capitalising nicely on Microsoft's slow erosion. Whether it can be halted is another matter but based on recent sales figures, it's not looking good for Microsoft ever returning to it's former glory days.
Re:Windows 8 (Score:5, Insightful)
MS will always be around, they are too big to just disappear, but in what capacity, health and excellence they are around depends on how they deal with this portable tech iPad/iPhone/Android phenomenon.
Everyone wanted windows 7 and it is amazing IMO and the true successor to XP but I just don't .... want ... anything they're making right now. Give me Win 7, Server 2008R2, Office 2008 and my Android devices and leave me alone for about 5 years and then come around again and see if we need anything ok?
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leave me alone for about 5 years
Don't worry, the licensing will change and cause cross-product incompatibilities so you have to upgrade. They're fairly genius about engineering their upgrade and licensing treadmill into their software.
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MS will always be around, they are too big to just disappear,
If that is the primary reason you believe they will always be around, I guarantee you are wrong. Far bigger, and more important, entities than Microsoft have easily disappeared off the earth.
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Microsoft has lost the consumers, but it has not (yet) lost business. The people that think their tablets are intended for consumers are dead wrong. If consumers buy them great, but comparing iPad to Surface is an apples to oranges comparison.
No one is currently putting line of business apps on mobiles, neither iOS nor Android. They're designed for consumer utility and entertainment not LOBs. Microsoft is betting big that they can fill the vacuum and thus fortify their position with their biggest/best c
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Why do you think SAP (and many other business tools) is available for iOS? Exactly for l-o-b usage. It's not the consumer version of SAP.
That so called "media consumption" device in fact does plenty more.
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This is going to show us if Microsoft can in fact be hurt badly enough that it will have to restructure and dump products which do not sell. I'm expecting fewer and fewer free services from them.
Re:Windows 8 (Score:4, Insightful)
Creative accounting aside - Microsoft's share of the market is shrinking. Bear in mind that their share is so huge, that any measurable shrinkage is freaking HUGE!
If Linux adds five million users to it's share, it will make a huge bump in the charts. When Microsoft loses five million users, it's hardly noticeable. But, over time, continued losses will add up.
Economic ruin? Not for awhile yet.
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Disagree (Score:3, Insightful)
"because obviously there is no such thing as software that is only able to run on Windows"
If they don't port it, it doesn't run, and their commercial decision isn't a turin machine. There *is* such a thing as software that can only run on Windows.
Re:Agreed (Score:4, Funny)
This isn't informative. Its pedantic and unuseful in every possible way.
LiveBook (Score:5, Insightful)
Introducing the new Microsoft LiveBook. Boots right in to Microsoft's cloud-based OS. Skydrive, Skype, Office365, Bing search, Hotmail. Coming your way in 2015 or sooner.
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So far Google has not been so bad in focusing on end users. It's development of current product, like Docs, has been disappointing but these are still useful in a limited ba
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Introducing the new Microsoft LiveBook. Boots right in to Microsoft's cloud-based OS. Skydrive, Skype, Office365, Bing search, Hotmail. Coming your way in 2015 or sooner.
The problem is that this cannibalizes Windows to an extent that I don't Redmond is prepared to accept. They could just simply offer a cheapish tablet with features like this without it necessarily being a direct threat to Windows.
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Evolutionary Niche (Score:5, Insightful)
It seems that Chromebooks are trying to slide into the market slot that Netbooks are currently vacating. I'm not entirely sure I understand what's going on there, netbooks were well refined products that seem to have gone out of favour and everyone is designing Chromebooks from scratch. Considering these are effectively the new dumb terminals, you'd have thought they could've done better than a Celeron and 4.25 hours of battery life - netbooks were rather more capable than Chromebooks appears to be, cost about the same and had far superior battery life.
Or has everyone (finally) just realised that 10" is really not that comfortable a form factor?
Re:Evolutionary Niche (Score:5, Interesting)
Chromebooks are going to be a big hit in education. I work in schools and am testing a Samsung right now. The battery life on it is rated at 6 hours, which will get you through a school day with no charging. Add to that, many school districts are taking advantage of Google's free Apps for education domains, which gives you the same version of Google Apps that businesses are paying for.
For as low as $250 on some models you get a device that does 95% of what students need to do with it, lasts all day without charging, has a screen big enough to satisfy most kids and has a full keyboard.
What's not to like?
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Ah, now it starts to make sense. It's a play by Google to wean the office drones of the future off Office. And I guess 6 hours is okay for education when you can charge them up at recess.
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Chromebooks are going to be a big hit in education. I work in schools and am testing a Samsung right now. The battery life on it is rated at 6 hours, which will get you through a school day with no charging. Add to that, many school districts are taking advantage of Google's free Apps for education domains, which gives you the same version of Google Apps that businesses are paying for.
For as low as $250 on some models you get a device that does 95% of what students need to do with it, lasts all day without charging, has a screen big enough to satisfy most kids and has a full keyboard.
What's not to like?
The other 5% is the killer.
That pitch sounds good to people who don't understand that computers are tools. To paraphrase the sentiment with a different tool: "instead of buying a screwdriver with interchangeable heads why not spend 2/3 as much on one that can only be used on the most common size of screw?"
The answer is of coarse: "I need something that works on more than one type of screw. Just because that type is a minority of the screws I work with does not mean I can ignore it, and buying two screwdrive
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Yeah, 6 hours is all day for school. When I was in school that's how much time I spent in school and doing homework. I'm not sure what's so confusing to you about that. When you figure the computer is turned off during lunch and breaks that's about what you get. Even an 8 hour a day job is really only 7 hours or so when you factor in breaktime.
Re:Evolutionary Niche (Score:4, Funny)
I wouldn't count on it. Remember that at lunch and during breaks is when the kids will be hoping to use their Chromebooks to update their Twitter feed, check out Facebook, and Google for porn.
You thought they'd put away the Chromebooks and sit nicely at the table to eat their sandwiches while studying their geometry lessons?
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Schools could just shut off the wifi at lunch.
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Considering these are effectively the new dumb terminals
Thats the problem.
These aren't dumb terminals. The web sucks with dumb terminals. Turn off plugins and javascript, THAT would make it far more like a dumb terminal, though not completely.
Chromebooks are just a halfassed attempt to make you think its a dumb terminal. Your Chromebook still has to run the browser, display graphics, render OpenGL, process sound and apply effects and tons of other stuff.
A TV with a keyboard attached to the network sending key strokes to the server who then updates the display
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The storyline that I've heard is that Microsoft killed the Netbook with their licensing requirements for Windows. To qualify for cheap copies of Windows, the hardware had to stay shitty. 2 gigs of ram, slow and small hard drives, weak CPU's and GPU's.
So, for the consumer, why would you want to pay $300 for a laptop with 3 ye
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When you consider that their "redesign" is keeping the low power and lousy battery life that played a big role in making said product class unfavorable, and focused on adding an even shittier UI...
No, I guess it's still not confusing. That seems to be the new Tech Company M.O. these days...
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When the redesign ruins those things that actually gave that segment it's appeal in the first place, damn right I'm confused.
re-revolutionary niche. (Score:2)
I feel like the niche that netbooks were filling is being filled by tablets now.
No netbooks as a more portable cheaper, laptops never went out of fashion...look at a Macbook Air or a Surface. Microsoft killed the netbook, Tablets simply are immune to Windows.
Re:re-revolutionary niche. (Score:4, Insightful)
Microsoft killed the netbook, Tablets simply are immune to Windows.
I think this is one of the most insightful comments here.
Microsoft went out of their way to make sure the netbook experience sucked, thus it's no surprise the netbook market has shrunk considerably.
Fortunately, Microsoft has not been able to sabotage the tablet market.
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I can dig that point of view. I saw those covers you can get for tablets with the Bluetooth keyboard built in and immediately liked the idea. If a Chromebook can manage a fast enough start-up time it could compete against tablets in the convenience stakes for a certain type of user with low requirements. However, they'll need to do something pretty special if they're looking to break any significant market share away from the current established players (I'm looking primarily at Windows, good luck luring in
Re:Evolutionary Niche (Score:4, Insightful)
14" isn't too bad actually, around 13-15 inches is a nice sweet spot for the keyboard if you're trying to build for people with big hands. To be honest, the best way to improve laptop usability would be to ditch that shiny coating for matt non-reflective screens instead.
Yeah, I love my Thinkpad and I don't see myself getting over it any time soon ;)
Of course it's a threat! (Score:2, Interesting)
For content consumption, perhaps (Score:2)
For casual use, content consumption, sure. It fills the same niche as those netbooks of a few years ago, and tablets (for the most part) now. But for content creation, they need apps that are currently only ported to Winders and OSX. So, will Chrome OS be a threat to Winders? Don't ask me, ask the developers. I couldn't possibly care less what OS the device is running. I'm only concerned about what I can do with it.
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Agreed. I could easily see it being used in my field (education) as a general-use student machine. If they need to do anything heavier (video editing, graphic design) they could move to a workstation.
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> but it's a hell of a lot smoother than windows 8
Damning with faint praise.
But you're right, depending on the *kind* of development, there are inexpensive tools out there to do that. I do photography, and I basically need the Adobe suite. (Don't say Gimp. Just don't. Yes, I have used it, and it's better than nothing. My workflow doesn't fit with its assumptions.) At the moment, my solution on a slate or a non-Windows (non-Apple) laptop, is to remote into a Windows box or Mac running my tools, whic
What is the market niche of ChromeOS? (Score:3)
I'm not really sure where ChromeOS is supposed to fit in. For people who want to do heavyweight stuff, it's no substitute for a full-fledged OS, and people who just want a content consumption device have mostly already switched to smartphones and tablets running iOS or Android. I sort of see where it fits into Google's marketing strategy – it's an OS for people to live their entire life "in the cloud" – but is there any actual demand for that? One thing we should have learned from the WinRT and WinPhone fiascos is that just because a company thinks a product is strategically important doesn't mean that its customers are going to agree.
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It's a tablet with a keyboard.
Its not a tablet (Score:2)
It's a tablet with a keyboard.
Right now it doesn't even have touchscreen; it has more in common with your standard desktop. I personally would like ChromeOS to come touchscreen with a little android compatibility thrown in :)
Re:Its not a tablet (Score:5, Insightful)
I can't for the life of me figure out how you'd mix a keyboard and a touch screen and have that make sense.
Ergonomically, it would suck to have to reach up to your monitor from typing ... it would look like hitting the carriage return on an old typewriter or something. :-P
On my desk, my monitor is about a foot or more behind my keyboard, I'd need to lean forward to even touch it.
Either I'm suffering from a large lack of imagination, or all of these people clamoring for a keyboard and a touch screen haven't thought this through. It seems more like you'd get a bad compromise of both.
Stop thinking single input (Score:2)
I can't for the life of me figure out how you'd mix a keyboard and a touch screen and have that make sense.
I use a keyboard and mouse for 3D shoot'em action; A Joypad for Platform ....and touchscreen for RTS. Why would you want to be confined to the one form of input.
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It's not that I wish to be constrained, I just can't figure out how having my desktop machine have a keyboard and a touchscreen would work from an ergonomics perspective.
I would need to extend my arm fully and lean forward six inches to reach my monitor -- so I can't even begin to think of how this would be usable.
Even in a laptop, it seems like it would be weird, and it seems like it would be harder to do anything with the touchscreen than the mous
Good riddance to instability (Score:3, Interesting)
People just want something that works and requires little to no maintenance to maintain stability. That's why Android phones and tablets have been very successful globally. On the other hand, just performed a clean install of Windows 8 Pro and while it's noticeably less laggy than Vista it still brings the headache of instability.
Not much (Score:2)
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I don't need Windows for anything except as a platform to run certain applications on. Games, Office, Photoshop, Lightroom and TaxCut are the key actors.
As soon as something without the monkeybusiness that Windows exposes me to (i.e. needless churn) like this Windows 8 malarkey is available I'm no longer a Windows user.
I don't particularly see it happening any time soon, but who knows, we might get lucky.
Chrome OS is great for what it is... (Score:4, Informative)
I've been using Chrome OS for over 2 years since google sent me a CR-48. I use it daily to catch up on news, emails, comics, facebook .... It sits on my nightstand is perfect for how I use it. The OS is really nice and easy to use. I would no hesitate to buy one of these devices for my dad, aunt, etc where I have to be "tech support".
K12... (Score:5, Insightful)
What you're getting is (Score:2)
A piece of hardware that boots very fast to a browser and is semi-useful when connected to the Internet.
When the Internet is not available, you have a useless metal brick.
ChromeOS does not work like that (Score:4, Informative)
A piece of hardware that boots very fast to a browser and is semi-useful when connected to the Internet.
When the Internet is not available, you have a useless metal brick.
ChomeOS and Google Docs do not need a permanent internet link. The work offline quite nicely. Here is a quick overview...I Googled it. http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/landing.html [google.com]
Backwards compatability (Score:2)
Competition = Good (Score:2)
Goodbye MS (Score:2)
Microsoft should be scared shitless. I've done ONE test install of Windows 8, HATED it. I've been installing Linux Mint xfce edition (x64) all OVER the place. Love it. Same functionality as XP, more stable, quicker boot, better software selection out of box.
The ONLY problem with mint atm is that skype is not quite as good (go figure). If google steps up the game and gets google hangouts as good or better than skype and/or gotomeeting (the screen sharing in google is totally unusable right now), I don't
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Microsoft should be scared shitless. I've done ONE test install of Windows 8, HATED it. I've been installing Linux Mint xfce edition (x64) all OVER the place. Love it. Same functionality as XP, more stable, quicker boot, better software selection out of box.
The ONLY problem with mint atm is that skype is not quite as good (go figure). If google steps up the game and gets google hangouts as good or better than skype and/or gotomeeting (the screen sharing in google is totally unusable right now), I don't see Microsoft as having a chance at all in any market.
At least not amongst the IT educated who see all the other options.
And Mac? How can any shop justify the pricing? LOL
Our sysadmins are all on nagios/android now with anag in particular. Most of us aren't even using linux except when we're doing the actual installs. Everything is android now. And the prices keep dropping.
It's game over. Microsoft and Apple are done, and I'm not going to miss them at all. Corporate scum bags should've been put out of their misery years ago. Especially apple with their drm crap. When I explain to apple users how they've been screwed by apple.... Which is not hard to do, they relook at my jellybean phone and tablet, realize that both of them TOGETHER are cheaper than an iphone, and instantly vow never to buy apple again.
I don't know a single person who has any feelings about Windows 8 other than abject hatred. NOBODY is switching to that here. Even on calls where a client got a new machine, their question is always, "How can I downgrade?" For the majority of them (non-gamers in particular), I convince them to use Mint xfce edition, and they couldn't be happier. Now with Steam growing it's library on Linux? The gamers are next. As soon as Civilization 2 comes to steam, I won't even need my old microXP VM any more!
These are good times for Linux, for open source, for human freedom, and for the tech industry. I for one welcome our new open source overlords.
PS Not to be an unabashed google fanboy. I disable google now everywhere I go (battery chewing spyware), as well as killing all the maps background data processes, etc.. Google is great, but only if you install android fresh and turn off all their spyware.
FLStudio still only runs in Windows. They still have a monopoly on that. They also have gaming.
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My larger point is that this is becoming the exception rather than the rule. And I addressed gaming directly. Steam is a huge part of the gaming market, and it's on Linux now, with titles being added almost daily. Then of course, all the nintendo emulators work great in linux... :)
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Samsung Chromebook (Score:3, Informative)
I just picked up a Chromebook yesterday and am fast at work getting Ubuntu running on it. It's a great little machine, fast, light, great battery, cheap as heck. It's perfect for just getting online fast.
These things are going to really slice away at the low cost PC market which in turn will take a real dig at Windows. When I see the market share numbers for where Windows is at I see most of it as just people picking up the cheapest thing they can find to get online. These Chromebooks are perfect for that and undercut the price by a huge amount. This Samsung was $215 from Best Buy. All the Windows 8 machines they had there were several hundred dollars more.
Re:Celeron? (Score:5, Insightful)
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but the article is about chromeos replacing desktop use os...
Re:Celeron? (Score:4, Insightful)
Who cares? CPU isn't the limiting factor on either a tablet or a chromebook. The lack of productivity software is.
Re:Celeron? (Score:5, Informative)
Who cares? CPU isn't the limiting factor on either a tablet or a chromebook. The lack of productivity software is.
What lack of productivity software? I have a quad core i7, and Gmail/Google Drive is my "productivity software".
I understand what you're trying to say, of course, but for many, many people, web based software is more than enough for them.
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The dual-core SandyBridge celeron you find in the HP units is significantly faster than any ARM processor currently on the market. Of course, it also draws far more power, since it's a different class of processor. Apples and oranges there.
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So, how's that hernia working out for you? Have you hired a gorilla to carry the Cray for you yet?
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Because you live in the real world where Windows is pretty much the corporate standard and there's no way to get away from it?
You can get away from it on personal machines, but in any office environment -- Microsoft isn't going anywhere.
Re:Windows? (Score:4, Interesting)
I'd otherwise have agreed with you, but I'm starting to see change. A guy I know who works for the US government (probably the organization you'd expect to leap on board new tech trends *last*) reports his new CIO is aggressively investigating Google products, google hosted email, and so on.
If that's true, there's hope. Face it: Microsoft was a real innovator in the early 90s. Maybe even the late 90s. And for a while there, Microsoft software was useful in ways other software was not.
That age ended long ago, and increasingly Microsoft finds itself struggling to catch up. They have no mojo with the "young" generation, and since Windows/Office has produced no software worth writing home about. Google now has enough brand name recognition even the most easily scared/reticent CIOs can suggest Google products without fear of getting "the blank stare."
Good times for everyone. Bad times for Ballmer (who should've gotten his ass thrown out the Microsoft door - or is it a window - many, many years ago). That guy is sinking the Microsoft ship.
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Re:Windows? (Score:5, Informative)
Face it: Microsoft was a real innovator in the early 90s.
Uh, what exactly did Microsoft innovate? As far as I can tell, people who think Microsoft innovated in the 90s only think so because Microsoft's products are the first place they saw some things, not because Microsoft was the first, or even the best, to do them.
They did have sharp business practices. I will give you that.
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Good thing I can get away from corporate office environments then!
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Yes, my company laptop uses Windows 7. But I did not pay for it. I use Outlook because it hooks into their email system that combines scheduling and tele-conferencing.
Everything else is open source because I have that choice. My development work is all on Unix.
Microsoft isn't going anywhere
Everyday, I am hearing of more and more people using an iPad or and Andoid tablet as their daily working machine. Sure, they still have that Windows desktop, but many days, it isn't even turned on. How much longer will the wallets of that 'office
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Sure, go ahead ... statistically I'll be no more wrong than pundits, economists, analysts, and CEOs will be on the topic; and I've got a 50/50 chance of being right. ;-)
If I was an Australian economist [slashdot.org], those would be good odds.
If you're making long-term, high-dollar decisions based on what I or anybody else on Slashdot says ... well, you'd have to be an idiot to do that. In fact, from what I've seen, all those companies making choices based on what Gartner or a
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Seriously, you should try suggesting that a multi-billion dollar, multi-national. Small shops, maybe, but larger corporations? I doubt it.
There's a lot of inertia involved to start moving corporations to something like Open Office, and corporations want to be sure they have support contracts with a vendor who can actually fix the problems -- not someone who can look at the code and submit a patch. They don't want to post on some internet forum, they
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Oh, I have NO idea what the source code looks like. I just know how it behaves. If it were written well, it wouldn't have to reboot it so often nor would it crash on me all the time. Both the Mac's OS and Linux are better choices.
Although, I do have to say, Windows XP was well done. Security was questionable, but over all, from a user perspective, it was well thought out. However, how long ago did XP come out.
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I don't get why they're pushing ChromeOS (I mean I do but it's fail).
We want a fucking Android Desktop flavor.
Linux hardware support + big company with lots of OEM friends and lots of capital to put towards ironing out issues + a popular platform everyone knows and trusts = death to windows.
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Why would you want Android on the desktop? I love Android, but I don't want it on my desktop.
Besides, if you want that, you can get a tablet and a bluetooth mouse/keyboard. Or get an Asus Transformer with the keyboard/touchpad/battery attachment.
I'm happy with both Windows 7 and Mint on my desktops just now.
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I love Android, but I don't want it on my desktop.
Not as long as desktops are around, which won't be forever. Prounouncing the death of the desktop now would be premature, but lets face it, 20 years from now, 10 even, people aren't going to be using a mouse, dude. Lets get real.
Is it going to be that "Metro" horror? I doubt it. Applications like Siri will be ubiquitous, they will be more intelligent and there will be an ansi s
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Not as long as desktops are around, which won't be forever. Prounouncing the death of the desktop now would be premature, but lets face it, 20 years from now, 10 even, people aren't going to be using a mouse, dude. Lets get real.
They've had the ability to do touch-screen displays for well over 20 years. They even tried to do it in the 1980's. However, they found that it was not practical for a desktop - and produced what got coined as "Gorilla Arm". That's why Touch Screen will never take off on the desktop.
That said, I still think you are right that the desktop won't really be around in 10-20 years except for in some very niche cases. Touch-based systems will replace it, but they won't be desktop's like you think today. They'll
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Why would you want Android on the desktop? I love Android, but I don't want it on my desktop.
Nobody would want the CURRENT Android on their laptop. But they'd sure love a consistent and portable environment that works for all their use cases, preserves app store purchases, provides access to all their data, etc., if it could do what they need a desktop OS to do today.
Right now the ChromeOS laptops can take a SIM card. Give it a couple years, and they'll take the whole phone, and the thing will switch into
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The Year of the Linux Desktop arrives? (Score:4, Insightful)
What we need is an open laptop running the latest Android NOT a locked down Internet only OS
Yes, that's what WE need, but the vast majority of users want a secure machine that only runs signed code, because they REALLY don't want to do system administration, way more so than they care about software choice.
Re:The Year of the Linux Desktop arrives? (Score:4, Insightful)
Not to mention with the ChromeBook all you are doing is trading the openness of X86 for a system that is as locked down as a cellphone.
Which is great in some places (e.g., education) and for some people (e.g., very non-technical users).
With a Windows laptop i can be booting up in under 10 minutes with any flavor of Linux or BSD that I want, I'm not beholden to ANYBODY to continue support of the machine as its mine and i can run what I want.
Running Linux or BSD on the desktop appeals to, what, maybe 1% of desktop users?
So while i'm all for breaking up the MSFT monopoly on X86 this is NOT the way to go about it, we are trading one corporation for another that is worse in every single way.
Wow! Claiming Microsoft is worse than Google in every single way is quite an extraordinary claim!
What we need is an open laptop running the latest Android NOT a locked down Internet only OS.
What's wrong with having both?
I thought MSFT locking systems down with UEFI was wrong, and its still wrong if a company does it while claiming they "do no evil".
This hyperbole is beneath you.
Re:The Year of the Linux Desktop arrives? (Score:4, Informative)
Not to mention with the ChromeBook all you are doing is trading the openness of X86 for a system that is as locked down as a cellphone.
Go educate yourself, seriously. All chromebooks come with a dev mode switch that unlocks the bootloader and lets you do *whatever you want* to the hardware. Such as installing Ubuntu.
Only on Slashdot can such an ignorant, and *factually wrong* post get modded "insightful"
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I don't get why they're pushing ChromeOS (I mean I do but it's fail).
We want a fucking Android Desktop flavor.
Because you don't win against Microsoft by waiting for the merge to be done to get to market. Patience, grasshopper - the OEM's who have signed on for ChromeOS know they'll be hitting the ground running with Android laptops. But now is no time to taint the Android brand with the current status.
Re:The Year of the Linux Desktop arrives? (Score:4, Interesting)
I have it running on my dell mini 10v and android on the laptop is amazing.
And fast. Fast, fast, really fast.
I'm running the AndroVM flavor in VirtualBox, and, hey, I like my phone (a little bit) but damn, JellyBean boots in a couple seconds on my laptop.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:It will mean nothing. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Uh, no. Most people care about having shiny baubles, and them being cheap. They may "claim" to care about privacy, but in practice, they give it up pretty freely.
– Bob Dylan/Sam Shepard, “Brownsville Girl”
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Azure has a better chance of gaining a broader audience than ChromeOS IMHO.
Yeah, specially if you want to take February 29th off
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Yes, but if that half of the ass is the only part you use (Docs, web browsing, web 2.0 apps) Then it's a good, cheap alternative.
Apple arn't even in the fight. (Score:2)
Google itself has no chance against iOS
Seriously you been asleep. iOS could be made from magic of unicorns tears and nobody would care. Its not its kind of stuck in a time loop from 2007, but the fact is they take profits over Market share which makes them irrelevant.