That samsung version looks very nice and 8.5 hours of continuous usage is killer. However, I won't be trading in my brand new Macbook Air 13" any time soon.
It doesn't mention harddrive specs because this is supposed to be a "cloud computer." However, it definitely has a harddrive and I wonder if it is a SSD or regular spinning disc drive.
If it's anything like the CR-48s, it'll have a decent sized SSD. I own a CR-48, and I believe the capacity is something like 80 gb, but I can't confirm right now. It's very fast to boot. Basically instant, I open, it's booted.
The Cr-48 has a 16GB SSD, uses a 5GB partition for the standard OS, and another 5GB partition to restore the first with, plus some free space leftover that's basically unused if you don't tinker with it.
Since ChromeOS is still pretty deficient at file management (even for picture uploading and such), I don't see any reason why they'd provide bigger hard drives unless they were intended to dual boot.
If I were to guess, since Google also just announced programmatic access to 'cloud' storage they are going to create your 'hard disk' in their cloud. Then will be a win for the consumer because if the device is destroyed it won't lose "your" data.
It also allows international travellers to have two of them, one at home and one abroad. They don't have to carry one through customs and subject it to an unreasonable search by border agents. For a small number of people this will be a good value. (I know it assumes you trust the Google cloud more than you trust DHS but that isn't too big of a stretch)
This is a game changer. I plan to get one for my 6 year old daughter. I have started her on Khan academy for math (I have been watching the vids myself - they are fantastic)
EDIT: Just for the record, before the OP edited his entry, it simply said "This is a game changer" which I consider an exaggeration. Of course, I can see how it makes for a nice children-appropriate machine, but that's not something new and exclusive to Chrome OS.
The thing is that we will see a fundamental shift in how people compute in the next 18 months.
The questions are going to be very interesting relating to data security and privacy, though.
We just saw that the NSA captures the equivalent of a Library of Congress in data every 6 hours.
The amount that google will potentially capture through the chromebook system will be amazing.
They are planning other services as well that will enable these books in the long term.
The question about who will be a more valuable / viable company between facebook and google are now clearly ridiculous. Facebook will have a tough time coming anywhere near as influential as google from an infrastructure perspective alone.
Facebook will be a valuable service portal for a long time - but it will have to fundamentally shift in a big way to become a global computing infrastructure provider -- and it simply is not in its DNA -- Zuck < Page/Brin.
I think the next revolution for the chromebook will be the web-app market that will be put on top of it. It will be interesting to see (and participate) in the building of the various lenses that you can view the web through on these things:
Education Lens: Like Khan Academy on Steroids
Business Lens: Business Productivity Suite
Healthcare Lens: All the EHR/PHR point of care service apps
Can't you filter at a higher leve (ie, the router or gateway?). A simple method would be to get the wifi version, NAT it through your desktop acting as gateway and put the filtering software there.
Of course, that's a kludge and easily worked around. Compared to an iPad, currently the Chromebook is harder to filter.
I could, probably. Depends on if I keep the wrt router around, but then I'd need to muck with permissions for the adults in the family. They're not doing internetty stuff on the ipad, mostly garage band and angry birds.
Right now, they're just on safari whitelisting and mail.app's whitelisting, and that works well enough for nearly 7 and 4, but the PPC mini that they're on is not liking flash anymore, they're getting really frustrated when the little edutainment sites don't work because they're too flash intensive and something dies.
They don't seem to be priced any better than similar Windows machines, although it's hard to find exact comparisons since most things with Atom processors only go up to 10" screens.
Same price as a windows laptop but much cheaper to support.
For anyone who's the the family tech support guy, it's almost worth buying these for your relatives just so you don't have to deal with cleaning up their malware infected, bloated PCs every 6 months.
A little pricy for me to be honest. Is an all day battery and 100MB of 3G data a month worth giving up a whole lot of features over a netbook? For some, maybe. But for me, no.
Those "features" of your netbook aren't actually features (and some are even anti-features, e.g. viruses, not auto-updating) for someone like my parents, or for students at a school or employees at a business. To start, it seems this is aimed squarely in their direction.
This doesn't make sense from a bunch of different perspectives.
Yes, with the Chrome computers, you might not get viruses. But that would be the same as if you got any Linux Netbook that they sell, and would still have many more features than the Chromebook.
You also bring out a lot of anti-features with the Chromebook as well. When you give this to your parents, and they ask where their little blue "E" is, or where their Spider Solitaire is, what will you say? What about those students and businesses that require to have certain software on their system, that the Chromebook doesn't support? Suddenly you exchange technical problems like getting rid of viruses with explaining how to do things in a new environment, with new rules.
And at the end of the day, is it worth it? For me, I'd rather take that $450 dollars (or $350) and buy a fully functional PC that can run all my favorite software and also get me access to the web.
That is not to say, however, that I would not buy one in the future. If they brought the cost down ($150 would be almost an instant buy for me), and/or had a fully matured "app" store if you will, I would probably change my mind. But I look at it, and the only key features I see are the great battery life, and free 100MB 3G access a month, and a whole lot of negatives and unanswered questions (Are they going to have bad customer service like they did with the Nexus? Are they going to give up on this like the Wave, or keep pushing it?)
Thats less than a workday's worth of use at a desktop computer. And you're telling me that's the limit for a device that relies so heavily on the cloud?
considering that many webpages have 1MB+ of javascript alone, and this is designed to rely heavily on "the cloud", I am doubting your statement heavily.
If it is web only wouldn't it be better suited to an iPad form-factor? I would get one if it was around $30/mo and you can trade it in for a newer model every year or two. Better yet if they could figure out how to get unlimited 3G in there cheaply.
Heh, I was amused that on Firefox that Javascript that does that whole stupid "fade in" crap took longer than 8 seconds to load :-). Note to web designers, its not studly its worthless bling, please don't give in to the temptation to do that stuff.
From a product perspective it does have some nice benefits for the non-techies. I'd love to get my parents something that they could carry around to read email and view pictures on which wasn't waiting for them to drive by some hijacked site. The pitch about 'let your friend use it' was also clearly the other 'big complaint' about the iPad they are addressing. I hope that means the iPad will get a 'guest' mode where you can hand it to someone without them getting access to your cookies/email etc.
Much more difficult for that to work on iPad. It takes Chrome seconds to sync everything for a particular user. Since iPad apps aren't served on demand ala web apps, you'd have to download every app belong to the guest. Much wasted hard drive space. The iPad will remain a personal device, like a phone.
I disagree, actually; it would be simple for a half-solution. A "party mode" for tablets is really really important. I love handing my Xoom around a room full of people for photos but hate that they can see my email widget on my home screen.
You don't need to immediately download another users apps. You just need to be able to quickly hide your private info.
It would be a mistake for the iPad (or Android tablets) to never get this feature.
Edit: In case it's not clear, anyone who looks at my Xoom - without even touching it - can immediately read my first three or four emails. Wonderfully convenient for personal use, terrible for privacy worries.
I don't think anyone is (yet) asking Apple to support any Mobile Me user to log into any iPad and see all their stuff. Just a way for multiple people to use one. Or for me to be able and make my iPad available to someone without also giving them access to all my email and Dropbox contents. Sort of like OS X...
Couldn't they just have their data access mapped toward space under each current_user account?
Sure, you'd have to flush any cached apps, leading to a little more load time here and there, but even then maybe not until/unless the new user tried to switch to a task still-running under another account.
All data access going through the fairly narrow SDKs, and a lack of willy-nilly multi-tasking would seem to make this a fairly straightforward project.
I am surprised that Google does not publish a version of the OS which runs on VirtualBox/whatever with special hardware (not even sure what it would be) emulated. Imagine how many software folks would show off the OS running a company's internal apps. Making it easy for potential customers to sell something internally is a cheap and effective sales strategy.
ChromeOS (not "buildable", pre-shipped) I assume, ONLY on Chromebook and official google devices
ChromiumOS, (build or download built) on anything it runs on
You can't build the browser Chrome yourself, because that is Google's trademark. But you can build Chromium.
There is little difference between ChromeOS and ChromiumOS, so it doesn't matter. What's wrong with something built outside google? Chromium will have all the beta features first, so it'll be better.
I'm not making any value judgements here - I am just wondering whether or not there will be any official way to download an ISO (in the manner of Ubuntu, for insance) of Chrome/Chromium OS and run it on arbitrary hardware.
I guess the question really comes down to whether or not Google is planning significant work on the hardware hooks into the OS - will it be possible for manufacturers to write ChromeOS drivers for their devices, or will Google develop that on their own?
Guess I'll have to drive down to the US to get one. Canada is somehow always excluded from new google projects. I'd like them to tell us which laws or limitation cause this. Crappy ISPs and Mobile networks?
It's a purely personal point of view, but I sincerely think that the CR-48 looked much better than both of those.
If Crunchgear is right and those laptops hit the market at 350+ & 425+, I'll regret not having an address in the States back then, when Google was distributing CR-48s !
On a more serious note, I think a worldwide 3G plan would make those laptops very interesting for me.
It was barely mentioned in the keynote, but they discussed changing the trackpad from the CR-48, and to me that was practically the biggest announcement of the speech. The CR-48 trackpad is crap. Other than that I would agree with you, it has a very nice feel to it.
It took me a long time of exploring to realize they were talking about a laptop. I was like "Chromebook?" Is it a kindle? Is it an online scrapbook? Is it online literature?
edit: why am i being downvoted? because i don't read tech blogs 24/7? because nowhere on the website does it actually say what a chromebook is?
> Chromebooks are built and optimized for the web, where you already spend most of your computing time. So you get a faster, simpler and more secure experience without all the headaches of ordinary computers.
Their landing text. Assuming we didn't all see the forbes.com piece about this announcement yesterday, that text doesn't tell me a single thing. (Other than Google has a well-paid marketing department.)
I too was confused by the name, I thought it was a tablet until they showed the laptop in the video.
I had actually totally forgotten about ChromeOS until the announcement. That being said, I really like it. For people (and there seems to being a growing number of my friends and acquaintances) who use primarily only web apps this is an awesome idea. I am actually considering buying one for my girlfriend when they come out.
I too thought this would be a kindle or ipad-like device that browsed the web for cheap. I was excited. Then I saw it was a crappy netbook and was disappointed. The form-factor makes a big difference for me, since I already need a full-featured laptop for my work.
1280x800 12.1" display. Netbooks are smaller than that. It doesn't need a bigger screen because it doesn't need more horiz pixels. Most web pages fit into 1280 minus the scrollbar.
The data service (http://www.google.com/chromebook/#features-connectivity) looks nice for people who don't do a ton of streaming. In fact, if chromeos has ssh, it would probably do for my work laptop at something better than a netbook + verizon dongle, and a whole lot cheaper. (well, I think right now it's $60/5gb, and I rarely hit that).
I think those rates only apply to the CR-48, not to the new devices announced today, because the new ones are also going to Europe, where CDMA is pretty much non-existent.
Note that Verizon doesn't operate in Europe, and CDMA is just about unheard of over here.
According to this CNET report ( http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-20061896-266.html ) chromebooks will be sold in several EU countries, so I assume there'll be a UMTS/HSPA model sold with contracts from various carriers.
(It's fairly clear that Google are targeting the same "curated computing" approach as Apple, but via a radically different delivery vehicle -- a netbook-like notebook PC rather than a tablet with a "clean sheet" multitouch user interface. Be interesting to see how the competition shapes up over the next year.)
Well, changing the language to Nederlands got me a different page -- one that I can read but I can make sweedish chef like interpretations of.
Looks like Dutch users can expect wireless from kpn, with a gig of transfer per (garbled) for free, and then it's 20 euros/200MB.
Hell, I should have done the English/uk, They're getting internets from three, and It's 3gig transfer free for the first three months, then pay as you go after.
What the hell, I thought you could get unlimited mobile broadband at least in the Netherlands? This pricing makes no sense.
I mean here in Sweden I can get mobile broadband (i.e. a USB dongle I plug into my laptop) from Three with a speed of (up to) 6mbit/s and no datacap for 9 euro/month. 25 euro/month gives me up to 32mbit/s, and still no caps.
I wouldn't be surprised if they have some sort of operator kickback scheme for the chromebooks, but we'll see if/when they launch them in Scandinavia as well.
I was hoping they'd also announce some ARM based notebooks, maybe with the quad core Tegra 3.Performance should at least be similar to the current notebooks, but they would be cheaper and battery would last even more.
Doesn't that depend on how often you plan to otherwise replace the device? I'm on a three year cycle, consequently $28/month don't seem like a good deal.
I can't imagine anyone buying this and being happy unless they are already intimately familiar with the device ahead of time. Too many limitations, with virtually no big upside functionality or user experience (unlike the iPad that makes up for limitations with some huge upside).
As I'd mentioned before I can buy an ASUS Eee PC with an AMD C30 processor for $289 and be able to use the browser of my choice, sync my iPod/iPad/iPhone, play WoW, use Skype, hook it up to my TV in the dorm, use MS Office, Visual Studio, emacs, vim, etc...
It just feels like a half-baked implementation. The price point on this needs to be a LOT cheaper. Like $100 or free for a netbook, and make the money up with targeted advertising based on them being locked into Chrome. Otherwise this doesn't seem recommendable.
It's quite obviously not targeted at you. There are people who use computers who don't even know what Emacs or Visual Studio are. They're also the ones who have major troubles keeping their computers working. Google's working on abstracting away the IT guy. I hope it works.
And those people don't know what Google Docs are either. And when they get an Excel document where charts don't render correctly, or comments are screwed up, or pivot tables don't work against their datasource, they'll be POed.
Or when all their friends are playing WoW and they realize that this device doesn't play it.
Or when they want to Skype with their grandkids they realize, they can't do that.
Or when they take the photo editing class and realize that the laptop doesn't run the software so they trot halfway across campus to use the lab that has the software installed.
Or when they go to get all their stuff on iTunes and sync their iPhone with it and realize that they still need their old laptop.
Or, or, or...
You can't drop this computer on any average Joe. The subset of people I could recommend this to is crazy small -- maybe zero given the price point.
Make it $0-$100 and I think we have a really interesting device. But at $300 or $20/month, that's a non-starter.
And I should note that I used to be the IT guy for my family and friends. I still am, technically. But it's basically a non-issue nowadays. The only question I've gotten in the past couple of months is someone forgot how to download pictures from her camera. Speaking of which, how well does that work with Chrome (seriously asking)?
> And those people don't know what Google Docs are either. And when they get an Excel document where charts don't render correctly, or comments are screwed up, or pivot tables don't work against their datasource, they'll be POed.
> Or when all their friends are playing WoW and they realize that this device doesn't play it.
Nobody expects epic graphics to run on this. Nobody expects that to run on your netbook either (if it does, cool! but that's NOT why you bought a "net"book).
> Or when they want to Skype with their grandkids they realize, they can't do that.
It has a web cam. Do they have gmail accounts? This is likely intended to be purchased by gmail-using people. Just have them sign in to Gmail. It's not like the Chromebooks don't have cameras or anything.
> Or when they take the photo editing class and realize that the laptop doesn't run the software so they trot halfway across campus to use the lab that has the software installed.
Photo editing isn't an expected activity for these devices. And, as time goes by, more and more really awesome photo editing web apps will arrive. You won't need to take a class to learn how to edit photos.
> The subset of people I could recommend this to is crazy small -- maybe zero given the price point.
Please listen to everyone else here; you and your friends are not the target market for this device. We get that you don't like it and your friends won't either. We don't care. I know ~ 20 people who would absolutely love one of these. Our stories are nothing more than useless anecodes. Don't suggest this device is a failure because you alone can't find someone who wants to just use the web.
> Speaking of which, how well does that work with Chrome (seriously asking)?
The same thing that is wrong with all web apps, they are way, way less functional than their desktop counterparts. Crippled, you might say.
Web Word is missing things that I learned in Grade 2, like spacing options. Average users do actually care about this stuff.
> Nobody expects epic graphics to run on this.
Don't talk to many WoW players, eh? It runs on anything, and they will run it on anything. Most have a netbook they use to play on the go. WoW runs quite well on them with settings turned down.
> if it does, cool! but that's NOT why you bought a "net"book.
You're going to tell other people why they bought a computer and what they want to use it for? No wonder you have no problem forcing Chrome OS on your friends and family.
> It has a web cam. Do they have gmail accounts?
Installed userbase matters. You might be able to switch your grandma over to a Google video solution, your friends are just going to laugh, and tell you to get Skype like everyone else. They aren't going to sign up for another service, install, learn and troubleshoot another app just to talk to you.
> Photo editing isn't an expected activity for these devices.
Um, yes it is. You seem to have a lot of weird preconceptions about netbooks based off the name. They are PRIMARILY used to browse the web, but that is not their only usage at all. People use them for all light duty tasks, and simple photo editing counts.
> Please listen to everyone else here; you and your friends are not the target market for this device.
That isn't where he was speaking from. I could be wrong but I didn't pick up his intense need for Office & WoW from his comment, he sounded like someone who actually listens to what average users want instead of trying to tell them what they want from the point of view of what is easier for you, which is a trap many techies fall in.
> Don't suggest this device is a failure because you alone can't find someone who wants to just use the web.
Actually, I'm going to do exactly that. I've encountered tons of users through help desk work and independent consulting. I haven't met a single person that JUST uses their browser. This person doesn't exist in decent numbers, it's why MIDs failed as well.
I pretty sure Google knows all of this. And are counting on it. They want them in people's hands, and they know once they are, all of those problems play into their vision.
And those people don't know what Google Docs are either. And when they get an Excel document where charts don't render correctly, or comments are screwed up, or pivot tables don't work against their datasource, they'll be POed.
Google likes this. Excel screws up? Perfect, just use Google Docs. Mission accomplished. People are surprisingly flexible if you throw up a barrier. An hour or so of pissing off a customer is a exchange Google is willing to make if it give them a shot at a new Docs user.
Or when all their friends are playing WoW and they realize that this device doesn't play it.
Really? Hardcore gamers are the last people who would use this, and the first people to recognize that.
Or when they want to Skype with their grandkids they realize, they can't do that.
Hmm, Skype doesn't work? I am sure the company with their own browser based video chat system is crying a river.
Or when they take the photo editing class and realize that the laptop doesn't run the software so they trot halfway across campus to use the lab that has the software installed.
As the owners of Picnik, they are again very angry, I am sure.
Or when they go to get all their stuff on iTunes and sync their iPhone with it and realize that they still need their old laptop.
Apple uses their mobile platform to encourage people to use Macs, why can't Google encourage use of their mobile platform with their laptops?
There are always going to be a million reasons why a new device won't fit the current system. But Google is making a big bet on the future, and for my point of view, this seems pretty ingenious. And an utter cash cow if they pull it off.
>Really? Hardcore gamers are the last people who would use this, and the first people to recognize that.
I don't know if you really understand how many people play WoW. Most of the avid WoW players I've known have not been "hardcore gamers" and they've played WoW on really crappy computers, with Intel GMA graphics and everything. There are many normal people that wouldn't drop the cash on a video card that play WoW.
Also, you didn't address things like downloading pictures from a camera, syncing with an MP3 player (not necessarily iTunes/iPod), or any of the other local, non-browser stuff that a normal person does all the time.
> Also, you didn't address things like downloading pictures from a camera, syncing with an MP3 player (not necessarily iTunes/iPod), or any of the other local, non-browser stuff that a normal person does all the time.
Plug in a camera and it offers to upload them to Picasa. With Google Music there is no need to sync anything. Anytime you want to listen to music on your Android phone it just plays from the cloud.
> Plug in a camera and it offers to upload them to Picasa.
I'm on a 3-day trip to Paris, with my wife. At the end of day one we go back to our cheap 3-star hotel room, and we want to upload the day's pictures. All 200 of them (that's about 700MB on my photo camera). What do I do? Do I use my Internet roaming? That would be ~700 euro, so no. Do I rely on my hotel's crappy and expensive Internet connection to upload the photos to Picassa? No, because I don't want to lose half a night and ~100 euros (at ~20 euros per hour).
Why can't I just download all the photos on my laptop, no Internet traffic involved, and upload a select few on Facebook, like everybody does? (because what would be the fun of going to Paris if you can't brag about it on FB? right when it happens, not after 3 days, not after 3 weeks).
I don't mean to defend Google, because I don't know how well this ploy will work out but let me offer a counter analogy.
I would find a Chromebook extremely useful even though I have a laptop, desktop, and Kindle.
A Chromebook would be used for emailing, light reading (aka HN), and web surfing. It'd be an appendage, and not the end-all-be-all of my technology sphere.
I'm also an avid amateur photographer, but like many I never offload my pictures onto a laptop during a vacation or photo-shoot. Years ago, I bought two 16GB flash memory cards for the camera. With that, I can take thousands of pictures and never worry about offloading anything.
If in fact, I absolutely needed to offload data I'd just plug in a handy USB-connected external hard-drive and get instant access to 500GB more space.
----
As an aside, since you're in Paris you should by an Orange card. Its about 10 euros, and gets you Wifi access at many of their hotspots around town.
Alternatively, you should be able to get Wifi in certain public parks too without paying. I haven't done the later, but I have done the former.
The Chromebooks have 16GB of storage. Last I checked that was more then enough to hold 700MB.
You should be able to download all the photos locally to the Chromebook. Granted I don't have a one but on the Cr-48 it simulates a local filesystem for downloaded files/etc.
Ultimately though it comes down to get the tool that works for you.
"Google likes this. Excel screws up? Perfect, just use Google Docs. Mission accomplished. People are surprisingly flexible if you throw up a barrier. An hour or so of pissing off a customer is a exchange Google is willing to make if it give them a shot at a new Docs user."
I'm not sure I understand this, what he was saying is that someone sends you an excel document and all you can open it with is Google Docs then he'll run into issues. Believe me, it is definitely not going to make them want to use Google Docs more. We're not talking about Microsoft Excel screwing up, to the consumer it'll look like Google Docs is crap and not compatible with their friends documents.
True. But, iPad has the psychological advantage of an entirely different form factor. That makes it easier for people to understand that it's a different sort of device. Whereas people will be more apt to feel "robbed" if their laptop can't do the things that their friend's laptop can do. Not necessarily saying it's rational.
I still have a recurring appointment to clean the crap-ware off my mom's Win7 computer. A system that I don't have to do that on is still a selling point.
Google's working on having me do even less as the IT guy for family and friends, and I fully support that.
instead I'll have fiddle with video drivers, get calls when the sound stops working after an update, get calls about why the computer stops waking from sleep like it should, etc, etc
Because if there is anything people who constantly install adware on their computer are great at, it's learning new operating systems and giving up old habits.
At least Windows has remote desktop, your recurring appointment is going to turn into weekly "retraining" sessions.
Chrome OS isn't a solution to this, no more than any previous specialized Linux distro. It will work for a small handful of people, but most of your family and friends will reject it instantly, for the reasons Parent listed.
Big difference with iPad is that it has a great user experience. It's obvious on first use of the iPad. The iPad is this device that you show anyone and drool forms from the lips. It's sexy as hell. Then you list the limitations and lots of people still say, "I don't care" while others will care.
With the ChromeBooks there's no drooling. The limitations hit you like sack of steel. And then you have to explain the upside, which frankly isn't that interesting.
Note the difference. With the iPad you have to convince people its a bad idea to buy one. With the ChromeBook you have to convince people its a good idea to buy one.
How about this. Read reviews of the cr48 and then read them for the iPad. If you don't sense a difference in how they're perceived at a base level then just consider me a bozo.
but, i do care, and i don't find them to be sexy. i don't have one, and don't plan on buying one. i'm not particularly more interested in a chromebook, but its in the same ballpark as the ipad for me.
" The price point on this needs to be a LOT cheaper. Like $100 or free for a netbook..."
But that's exactly what they've done with the monthly hardware/software subscription for businesses and universities. The hardware is free. You just pay $20-$30 permonth.
I consider myself extremely unlucky with laptops but even mine last 2+ years. The Google notebook for two years would cost $480 - $720! This notebook is heavily reliant on Google Services (unless you hack it) so I was expecting them to go much cheaper and make up the $$ on service usage and ads.
You pay $20 to $30 a month for three years. That's a minimum of $720. Unless I'm missing something, the subscription is nothing but a flavor of a payday loan.
Edit: Looks like I was missing the fact that the subscription includes "service and support", although it's unclear exactly what that entails. Page supposedly isn't a fan of customer support (http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/03/mf_larrypage/all/1), which doesn't bode well.
I kinda thought the same way before I received a pilot CR48. This machine is perfect for couch surfing and emailing. It's super light, doesn't get hot, instant on, and I rarely plug in the charger. It fails miserably when I want to do any development though.
Most people don't want a choice of browser or to worry about syncing different accounts or running WoW on every single computer they buy. Most people want to browse the web without virusus or hassles or intrusive software updates.
It's very very clear that this is not meant for full content creation and gaming and a giant desktop experience. This is meant for the web on the go. If you don't want it, that's fine. But are you seriously saying you can't imagine a single living human being wanting this device? Ken, you're being silly here. Clearly, this is something that fits the needs of a huge number of people.
Let me be clear. I'd love this device for free. Or like I said, even $100 I could see it being a fair price. But when you price at the same price of a netbook that performs really well (the new ASUS Eee Pcs are pretty darn impressive beasts for a $289 machine), with all of its limitations, it just doesn't make sense.
This needs to be more like a Kindle. A device you get even if you already have a laptop and an iPad. The price needs to be way lower.
Look, it's not about the hardware. What software is that $289 machine going to run? Windows? Right, so you'll be removing viruses for years after people continue to watch seedy porn sites? Sounds like fun.
This device is intriguing and useful because of the software; it stays out of your way and keeps you safe. That's worth the price to nearly everyone who isn't a nerd.
The only reason that machine runs Windows is because people think they want Windows, it is rather ingrained at this point in time.
I could see some people using this and being okay but I see tons of others wondering where their microsoft office is, and to be honest a boat load of other problems from the people who malware is already a problem. (I can even see people asking where the internet is or how to get to facebook or google while looking at a chrome browser window).
These chromebooks sadly will only satisfy a niche market and this market probably would be served just as well with a similarly specked netbook running linux
I guess our experiences are just fundamentally different. With the plethora of free good antivirus programs that you can download, I find viruses are largely a thing of the past.
In the old days you had to pay $50/year for virus protection. And you had to go to a brick and mortar store or order it from Amazon. Cost and effort made it less common for end users to have antivirus.
Now, I install it on every box I maintain. I don't even ask them (as before, I'd have to ask, do you want to pay $50/year and many friends would say "no thanks").
I just don't get malware/virus calls anymore.
For the most part I don't get many calls at all anymore. The ones I do are generally usability questions like how do I get my pictures properly downloaded and tagged. Or what's the password to my password manager again (yes, I keep a collection to other people's password managers in my password manager, because I've gotten this call often enough) :-)
"With the plethora of free good antivirus programs that you can download"
That's the key: most users don't download and install things, don't know where to find what they want/need, and if they do they screw it up. They don't have free IT (i.e.: you) to do it for them. They want it like TV: turn it on, pick from a limited set of options, and just use it.
Still, you're saying that when a user buys a computer, it is their responsibility to go searching on the web for a free, reputable and safe anti-virus company to download software from? Why? Why should they care? Why is it still necessary to do that? Can't someone build a computer where you turn it on and it works safely the first time?
That's what Google just did. Some people want that. Badly.
Edit: Surely you'll see this problem with your scenario. You, Ken Jackson, must use the computer before your friend/family does, in order to make it safe. That's pretty messed up, no? This stuff should just work, no need to go find programs to download before your computer is working properly.
Still, you're saying that when a user buys a computer, it is their responsibility to go searching on the web for a free, reputable and safe anti-virus company to download software from?
Yes it is.
Why?
Unfortunately due to antitrust concerns. I'm sure MS would love to bundle MS Security Essentials, but they fear doing so would likely end up in the courts.
Can't someone build a computer where you turn it on and it works safely the first time?
You can, although ironically its not in the best interest of most computer vendors. They get paid by McAfee or Norton to put a trial version on the boxes, which when expires usually results in a vulnerable box. Sure they could put a free version, but then they wouldn't get paid.
MS does directly sell computers, through their retail channel, with free antivirus pre-installed. AFAIK they're the only ones, but I wouldn't surprised if there is a small niche in the world of it.
Why should they care?
The reasons they should care are obvious. But they shouldn't have to care. I completely agree. It sucks. But I do think the visibility and sucktidiness of it is a lot lower than all of the other things that will suck when they unwittingly bring a ChromeBook home from the store.
At $20/month it's pretty much disposable. How much more "free" do you want?
Apple has shown the "walled garden" works, despite anguished cries from geeks. People want a machine that just turns on (fast), just works, just does most of the things they want to do without any worries about installation/updates/debugging. Give them enough zero-headache capability and they'll adhere to it despite what lacks.
It's less than a buck a day. Should be able to find 20 empty cans and recycle them daily, if not actually do something profitable with the device at the rate of $1/day.
I can feed a starving child in Africa for that. That's kind of messed up that you'd rather rent the Chromebook than help starving kids in Africa. What happened to "Don't be evil"?
I'm actually already using this computer to free up resources for an African Prince who will send me ten million dollars, upon completion. The proceeds of which I will send to Africa. So as you can see, I need this computer and by keeping it, I will be able to donate many millions.
If I was tasked with selling Chromebooks door-to-door, my primary talking point would be "it just works" and I would point out the high cost of paying someone (GeekSquad, etc.) to perform software services on Windows computers. For people who are stumped by what we on HN consider to be minor annoyances, paying $75+/issue adds up pretty quickly. You are right that, for regular folks, the primary competitor is likely an iPad.
"hook it up to my TV in the dorm"
The Cr-48 has a VGA output, IIRC. Perhaps future Chromebooks will have HDMI output?
"sync my iPod/iPad/iPhone"
This is an interesting problem for Google. Apple clearly has no incentive to support the platform. The value proposition for a home user is not strong unless a Chromebook can replace a Windows laptop. Besides photo uploading, what other device integration issues ruin the game? My wife would react negatively if she could not use a scanner. Google's cloud printing scheme is an obvious end-run around direct support of printers. Perhaps they will roll-out a similar scanning scheme?
I think the Geek Squad charges at least $50 for malware removal. And, your mom would have to take the computer to Best Buy. That her child will do it for free dilutes Google's value proposition :)
In all seriousness, Google's proposition to businesses and schools is probably stronger than the offer to individual users. Corps/Schools feel the real cost associated with Windows desktop administration. Unlike individuals where Windows issues feel random, these organizations know the mean time between interventions and can therefore compute their expected annual service cost per Windows desktop.
If they have one in the $100-$200 dollar range I'll be seriously considering buying one for my Mother. All she uses is a web browser and google documents.
This would be perfect and would solve my issue of her randomly getting toolbars installed and somehow getting Firefox into a state of uselessness.
Because, as he mentioned, it has upside. That whole personal touchy-feely interaction thing that seems to sell people on it in stores, the bulklessness of it that lets you use it as an eReader in bed, it's much lighter than these, the battery life is longer, etc.
These Chromebooks might share the iPad's limitations, but they don't seem to make up for it with any strengths that you couldn't get out of a regular netbook.
"* Obviously, you're going to need a wireless network, be willing to use it subject to the provider's terms and conditions, and be ready to put up with its real life limitations including, for example, its speed and availability. When you do not have network access, functionality that depends on it will not be available."
That's some very important information to put in a footnote at the bottom of the webpage. I'll have to check network availability in my most common locations before deciding whether or not this is useful for me or one of my children.
Well, since the whole point of the Chromebook is having (only) the web, needing internet connection might really have seemed obvious to some Google employee. I don't find it condescending.
To me it sounds incredibly petulant and defensive, especially considering that it basically contradicts the "always connected" header which it's footnoting.
~Always connected!
~PS OBVIOUSLY this computer will not ACTUALLY be always connected in the REAL WORLD, what were you expecting
They went into a bit of detail during the keynote. It's worth checking out a video if you can find one. It's towards the end, in the last 20 minutes.
Anyway, the gist is, a web application (say, Picasa, or Facebook) can register as a file handler for certain kinds of file types (say images) and then handle the upload from the client. A little contextual menu comes up when you plug in a sd card or whatever that asks you which (if any) file handler you'd like to deal with the files.
"...Denise Griffin, the person in charge of Google’s small customer-support team, asked Page for a larger staff. Instead, he told her that the whole idea of customer support was ridiculous. ..."
If Google is truly going to support these devices, they're going to need a paradigm shift from Page's pre-existing "support doesn't scale" attitude... and bring their A-game.
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[ 2.2 ms ] story [ 294 ms ] threadIt doesn't mention harddrive specs because this is supposed to be a "cloud computer." However, it definitely has a harddrive and I wonder if it is a SSD or regular spinning disc drive.
I used to sell thin clients that ran off of CompactFlash cards. (they ran a version of XP, too)
Since ChromeOS is still pretty deficient at file management (even for picture uploading and such), I don't see any reason why they'd provide bigger hard drives unless they were intended to dual boot.
http://www.amazon.com/chromebook
It also allows international travellers to have two of them, one at home and one abroad. They don't have to carry one through customs and subject it to an unreasonable search by border agents. For a small number of people this will be a good value. (I know it assumes you trust the Google cloud more than you trust DHS but that isn't too big of a stretch)
I can't find any info at Amazon/BestBuy or official website http://www.google.com/chromebook/chromebooks.html
http://www.crunchgear.com/2011/05/11/the-google-chromebook-b...
$20/month/user for students.
(from the Engadget live feed)
EDIT: Just for the record, before the OP edited his entry, it simply said "This is a game changer" which I consider an exaggeration. Of course, I can see how it makes for a nice children-appropriate machine, but that's not something new and exclusive to Chrome OS.
Also - this announcement I think is great, see my comment here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2535230 which I made last night.
The thing is that we will see a fundamental shift in how people compute in the next 18 months.
The questions are going to be very interesting relating to data security and privacy, though.
We just saw that the NSA captures the equivalent of a Library of Congress in data every 6 hours.
The amount that google will potentially capture through the chromebook system will be amazing.
They are planning other services as well that will enable these books in the long term.
The question about who will be a more valuable / viable company between facebook and google are now clearly ridiculous. Facebook will have a tough time coming anywhere near as influential as google from an infrastructure perspective alone.
Facebook will be a valuable service portal for a long time - but it will have to fundamentally shift in a big way to become a global computing infrastructure provider -- and it simply is not in its DNA -- Zuck < Page/Brin.
I think the next revolution for the chromebook will be the web-app market that will be put on top of it. It will be interesting to see (and participate) in the building of the various lenses that you can view the web through on these things:
Education Lens: Like Khan Academy on Steroids
Business Lens: Business Productivity Suite
Healthcare Lens: All the EHR/PHR point of care service apps
Good times ahead.
Of course, that's a kludge and easily worked around. Compared to an iPad, currently the Chromebook is harder to filter.
Right now, they're just on safari whitelisting and mail.app's whitelisting, and that works well enough for nearly 7 and 4, but the PPC mini that they're on is not liking flash anymore, they're getting really frustrated when the little edutainment sites don't work because they're too flash intensive and something dies.
$28/user/month for businesses.
$20/user/month for students.
For anyone who's the the family tech support guy, it's almost worth buying these for your relatives just so you don't have to deal with cleaning up their malware infected, bloated PCs every 6 months.
Yes, with the Chrome computers, you might not get viruses. But that would be the same as if you got any Linux Netbook that they sell, and would still have many more features than the Chromebook.
You also bring out a lot of anti-features with the Chromebook as well. When you give this to your parents, and they ask where their little blue "E" is, or where their Spider Solitaire is, what will you say? What about those students and businesses that require to have certain software on their system, that the Chromebook doesn't support? Suddenly you exchange technical problems like getting rid of viruses with explaining how to do things in a new environment, with new rules.
And at the end of the day, is it worth it? For me, I'd rather take that $450 dollars (or $350) and buy a fully functional PC that can run all my favorite software and also get me access to the web.
That is not to say, however, that I would not buy one in the future. If they brought the cost down ($150 would be almost an instant buy for me), and/or had a fully matured "app" store if you will, I would probably change my mind. But I look at it, and the only key features I see are the great battery life, and free 100MB 3G access a month, and a whole lot of negatives and unanswered questions (Are they going to have bad customer service like they did with the Nexus? Are they going to give up on this like the Wave, or keep pushing it?)
Thats less than a workday's worth of use at a desktop computer. And you're telling me that's the limit for a device that relies so heavily on the cloud?
You ain't getting a netbook, an apps account, AND unlimited cell data for anywhere near $30/month though.
From a product perspective it does have some nice benefits for the non-techies. I'd love to get my parents something that they could carry around to read email and view pictures on which wasn't waiting for them to drive by some hijacked site. The pitch about 'let your friend use it' was also clearly the other 'big complaint' about the iPad they are addressing. I hope that means the iPad will get a 'guest' mode where you can hand it to someone without them getting access to your cookies/email etc.
You don't need to immediately download another users apps. You just need to be able to quickly hide your private info.
It would be a mistake for the iPad (or Android tablets) to never get this feature.
Edit: In case it's not clear, anyone who looks at my Xoom - without even touching it - can immediately read my first three or four emails. Wonderfully convenient for personal use, terrible for privacy worries.
Couldn't they just have their data access mapped toward space under each current_user account?
Sure, you'd have to flush any cached apps, leading to a little more load time here and there, but even then maybe not until/unless the new user tried to switch to a task still-running under another account.
All data access going through the fairly narrow SDKs, and a lack of willy-nilly multi-tasking would seem to make this a fairly straightforward project.
I already have a thin and light laptop that I'm pretty happy with - hopefully I can install Chrome OS from an image onto it to tinker with.
you can try it now
you can try the whole thing on a compatible laptop when the chromiumos builds are the same as the chromeos these ship with.
ChromiumOS, (build or download built) on anything it runs on
You can't build the browser Chrome yourself, because that is Google's trademark. But you can build Chromium.
There is little difference between ChromeOS and ChromiumOS, so it doesn't matter. What's wrong with something built outside google? Chromium will have all the beta features first, so it'll be better.
I guess the question really comes down to whether or not Google is planning significant work on the hardware hooks into the OS - will it be possible for manufacturers to write ChromeOS drivers for their devices, or will Google develop that on their own?
Language laws, I think, were the culprit in that case. Not sure about this one though.
1) Small market compared to US, Germany, UK, etc., so not a priority.
2) Service needs to be bilingual.
edit: why am i being downvoted? because i don't read tech blogs 24/7? because nowhere on the website does it actually say what a chromebook is?
http://www.google.com/chromebook/#chromebooks
Their landing text. Assuming we didn't all see the forbes.com piece about this announcement yesterday, that text doesn't tell me a single thing. (Other than Google has a well-paid marketing department.)
[edit] Being serious. They're selling a computer without showing a picture of it. I was surprised.
I had actually totally forgotten about ChromeOS until the announcement. That being said, I really like it. For people (and there seems to being a growing number of my friends and acquaintances) who use primarily only web apps this is an awesome idea. I am actually considering buying one for my girlfriend when they come out.
Has any pricing information been released?
According to this CNET report ( http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-20061896-266.html ) chromebooks will be sold in several EU countries, so I assume there'll be a UMTS/HSPA model sold with contracts from various carriers.
(It's fairly clear that Google are targeting the same "curated computing" approach as Apple, but via a radically different delivery vehicle -- a netbook-like notebook PC rather than a tablet with a "clean sheet" multitouch user interface. Be interesting to see how the competition shapes up over the next year.)
Looks like Dutch users can expect wireless from kpn, with a gig of transfer per (garbled) for free, and then it's 20 euros/200MB.
Hell, I should have done the English/uk, They're getting internets from three, and It's 3gig transfer free for the first three months, then pay as you go after.
I mean here in Sweden I can get mobile broadband (i.e. a USB dongle I plug into my laptop) from Three with a speed of (up to) 6mbit/s and no datacap for 9 euro/month. 25 euro/month gives me up to 32mbit/s, and still no caps.
I wouldn't be surprised if they have some sort of operator kickback scheme for the chromebooks, but we'll see if/when they launch them in Scandinavia as well.
As I'd mentioned before I can buy an ASUS Eee PC with an AMD C30 processor for $289 and be able to use the browser of my choice, sync my iPod/iPad/iPhone, play WoW, use Skype, hook it up to my TV in the dorm, use MS Office, Visual Studio, emacs, vim, etc...
It just feels like a half-baked implementation. The price point on this needs to be a LOT cheaper. Like $100 or free for a netbook, and make the money up with targeted advertising based on them being locked into Chrome. Otherwise this doesn't seem recommendable.
Or when all their friends are playing WoW and they realize that this device doesn't play it.
Or when they want to Skype with their grandkids they realize, they can't do that.
Or when they take the photo editing class and realize that the laptop doesn't run the software so they trot halfway across campus to use the lab that has the software installed.
Or when they go to get all their stuff on iTunes and sync their iPhone with it and realize that they still need their old laptop.
Or, or, or...
You can't drop this computer on any average Joe. The subset of people I could recommend this to is crazy small -- maybe zero given the price point.
Make it $0-$100 and I think we have a really interesting device. But at $300 or $20/month, that's a non-starter.
And I should note that I used to be the IT guy for my family and friends. I still am, technically. But it's basically a non-issue nowadays. The only question I've gotten in the past couple of months is someone forgot how to download pictures from her camera. Speaking of which, how well does that work with Chrome (seriously asking)?
Chrome is clearly meant to be a "do one thing really well" product, not a catch all computing device.
What's wrong with the Office Web Apps?
http://office.microsoft.com/en-ca/web-apps/
> Or when all their friends are playing WoW and they realize that this device doesn't play it.
Nobody expects epic graphics to run on this. Nobody expects that to run on your netbook either (if it does, cool! but that's NOT why you bought a "net"book).
> Or when they want to Skype with their grandkids they realize, they can't do that.
It has a web cam. Do they have gmail accounts? This is likely intended to be purchased by gmail-using people. Just have them sign in to Gmail. It's not like the Chromebooks don't have cameras or anything.
> Or when they take the photo editing class and realize that the laptop doesn't run the software so they trot halfway across campus to use the lab that has the software installed.
Photo editing isn't an expected activity for these devices. And, as time goes by, more and more really awesome photo editing web apps will arrive. You won't need to take a class to learn how to edit photos.
> The subset of people I could recommend this to is crazy small -- maybe zero given the price point.
Please listen to everyone else here; you and your friends are not the target market for this device. We get that you don't like it and your friends won't either. We don't care. I know ~ 20 people who would absolutely love one of these. Our stories are nothing more than useless anecodes. Don't suggest this device is a failure because you alone can't find someone who wants to just use the web.
> Speaking of which, how well does that work with Chrome (seriously asking)?
Very well. Plug it in, dealy pops up.
The same thing that is wrong with all web apps, they are way, way less functional than their desktop counterparts. Crippled, you might say.
Web Word is missing things that I learned in Grade 2, like spacing options. Average users do actually care about this stuff.
> Nobody expects epic graphics to run on this.
Don't talk to many WoW players, eh? It runs on anything, and they will run it on anything. Most have a netbook they use to play on the go. WoW runs quite well on them with settings turned down.
> if it does, cool! but that's NOT why you bought a "net"book.
You're going to tell other people why they bought a computer and what they want to use it for? No wonder you have no problem forcing Chrome OS on your friends and family.
> It has a web cam. Do they have gmail accounts?
Installed userbase matters. You might be able to switch your grandma over to a Google video solution, your friends are just going to laugh, and tell you to get Skype like everyone else. They aren't going to sign up for another service, install, learn and troubleshoot another app just to talk to you.
> Photo editing isn't an expected activity for these devices.
Um, yes it is. You seem to have a lot of weird preconceptions about netbooks based off the name. They are PRIMARILY used to browse the web, but that is not their only usage at all. People use them for all light duty tasks, and simple photo editing counts.
> Please listen to everyone else here; you and your friends are not the target market for this device.
That isn't where he was speaking from. I could be wrong but I didn't pick up his intense need for Office & WoW from his comment, he sounded like someone who actually listens to what average users want instead of trying to tell them what they want from the point of view of what is easier for you, which is a trap many techies fall in.
> Don't suggest this device is a failure because you alone can't find someone who wants to just use the web.
Actually, I'm going to do exactly that. I've encountered tons of users through help desk work and independent consulting. I haven't met a single person that JUST uses their browser. This person doesn't exist in decent numbers, it's why MIDs failed as well.
And those people don't know what Google Docs are either. And when they get an Excel document where charts don't render correctly, or comments are screwed up, or pivot tables don't work against their datasource, they'll be POed.
Google likes this. Excel screws up? Perfect, just use Google Docs. Mission accomplished. People are surprisingly flexible if you throw up a barrier. An hour or so of pissing off a customer is a exchange Google is willing to make if it give them a shot at a new Docs user.
Or when all their friends are playing WoW and they realize that this device doesn't play it.
Really? Hardcore gamers are the last people who would use this, and the first people to recognize that.
Or when they want to Skype with their grandkids they realize, they can't do that.
Hmm, Skype doesn't work? I am sure the company with their own browser based video chat system is crying a river.
Or when they take the photo editing class and realize that the laptop doesn't run the software so they trot halfway across campus to use the lab that has the software installed.
As the owners of Picnik, they are again very angry, I am sure.
Or when they go to get all their stuff on iTunes and sync their iPhone with it and realize that they still need their old laptop.
Apple uses their mobile platform to encourage people to use Macs, why can't Google encourage use of their mobile platform with their laptops?
There are always going to be a million reasons why a new device won't fit the current system. But Google is making a big bet on the future, and for my point of view, this seems pretty ingenious. And an utter cash cow if they pull it off.
They can buy imo.im which lets you use Skype on a the browser. Problem solved.
I don't know if you really understand how many people play WoW. Most of the avid WoW players I've known have not been "hardcore gamers" and they've played WoW on really crappy computers, with Intel GMA graphics and everything. There are many normal people that wouldn't drop the cash on a video card that play WoW.
Also, you didn't address things like downloading pictures from a camera, syncing with an MP3 player (not necessarily iTunes/iPod), or any of the other local, non-browser stuff that a normal person does all the time.
Plug in a camera and it offers to upload them to Picasa. With Google Music there is no need to sync anything. Anytime you want to listen to music on your Android phone it just plays from the cloud.
I'm on a 3-day trip to Paris, with my wife. At the end of day one we go back to our cheap 3-star hotel room, and we want to upload the day's pictures. All 200 of them (that's about 700MB on my photo camera). What do I do? Do I use my Internet roaming? That would be ~700 euro, so no. Do I rely on my hotel's crappy and expensive Internet connection to upload the photos to Picassa? No, because I don't want to lose half a night and ~100 euros (at ~20 euros per hour).
Why can't I just download all the photos on my laptop, no Internet traffic involved, and upload a select few on Facebook, like everybody does? (because what would be the fun of going to Paris if you can't brag about it on FB? right when it happens, not after 3 days, not after 3 weeks).
I would find a Chromebook extremely useful even though I have a laptop, desktop, and Kindle.
A Chromebook would be used for emailing, light reading (aka HN), and web surfing. It'd be an appendage, and not the end-all-be-all of my technology sphere.
I'm also an avid amateur photographer, but like many I never offload my pictures onto a laptop during a vacation or photo-shoot. Years ago, I bought two 16GB flash memory cards for the camera. With that, I can take thousands of pictures and never worry about offloading anything.
If in fact, I absolutely needed to offload data I'd just plug in a handy USB-connected external hard-drive and get instant access to 500GB more space.
----
As an aside, since you're in Paris you should by an Orange card. Its about 10 euros, and gets you Wifi access at many of their hotspots around town.
Alternatively, you should be able to get Wifi in certain public parks too without paying. I haven't done the later, but I have done the former.
You should be able to download all the photos locally to the Chromebook. Granted I don't have a one but on the Cr-48 it simulates a local filesystem for downloaded files/etc.
Ultimately though it comes down to get the tool that works for you.
Yet they will happily drop $15 a month subscription fee? Who are these people? Are there any stats published by Blizzard?
I'm not sure I understand this, what he was saying is that someone sends you an excel document and all you can open it with is Google Docs then he'll run into issues. Believe me, it is definitely not going to make them want to use Google Docs more. We're not talking about Microsoft Excel screwing up, to the consumer it'll look like Google Docs is crap and not compatible with their friends documents.
Google's working on having me do even less as the IT guy for family and friends, and I fully support that.
At least Windows has remote desktop, your recurring appointment is going to turn into weekly "retraining" sessions.
Chrome OS isn't a solution to this, no more than any previous specialized Linux distro. It will work for a small handful of people, but most of your family and friends will reject it instantly, for the reasons Parent listed.
Citation? The devices have USB ports...
With the ChromeBooks there's no drooling. The limitations hit you like sack of steel. And then you have to explain the upside, which frankly isn't that interesting.
Note the difference. With the iPad you have to convince people its a bad idea to buy one. With the ChromeBook you have to convince people its a good idea to buy one.
But that's exactly what they've done with the monthly hardware/software subscription for businesses and universities. The hardware is free. You just pay $20-$30 permonth.
Edit: Looks like I was missing the fact that the subscription includes "service and support", although it's unclear exactly what that entails. Page supposedly isn't a fan of customer support (http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/03/mf_larrypage/all/1), which doesn't bode well.
Can you expand on this? I've read that they're 'great' for portable web development, for some value of 'great'.
It's very very clear that this is not meant for full content creation and gaming and a giant desktop experience. This is meant for the web on the go. If you don't want it, that's fine. But are you seriously saying you can't imagine a single living human being wanting this device? Ken, you're being silly here. Clearly, this is something that fits the needs of a huge number of people.
This needs to be more like a Kindle. A device you get even if you already have a laptop and an iPad. The price needs to be way lower.
Look, it's not about the hardware. What software is that $289 machine going to run? Windows? Right, so you'll be removing viruses for years after people continue to watch seedy porn sites? Sounds like fun.
This device is intriguing and useful because of the software; it stays out of your way and keeps you safe. That's worth the price to nearly everyone who isn't a nerd.
I could see some people using this and being okay but I see tons of others wondering where their microsoft office is, and to be honest a boat load of other problems from the people who malware is already a problem. (I can even see people asking where the internet is or how to get to facebook or google while looking at a chrome browser window).
These chromebooks sadly will only satisfy a niche market and this market probably would be served just as well with a similarly specked netbook running linux
In the old days you had to pay $50/year for virus protection. And you had to go to a brick and mortar store or order it from Amazon. Cost and effort made it less common for end users to have antivirus.
Now, I install it on every box I maintain. I don't even ask them (as before, I'd have to ask, do you want to pay $50/year and many friends would say "no thanks").
I just don't get malware/virus calls anymore.
For the most part I don't get many calls at all anymore. The ones I do are generally usability questions like how do I get my pictures properly downloaded and tagged. Or what's the password to my password manager again (yes, I keep a collection to other people's password managers in my password manager, because I've gotten this call often enough) :-)
That's the key: most users don't download and install things, don't know where to find what they want/need, and if they do they screw it up. They don't have free IT (i.e.: you) to do it for them. They want it like TV: turn it on, pick from a limited set of options, and just use it.
That's what Google just did. Some people want that. Badly.
Edit: Surely you'll see this problem with your scenario. You, Ken Jackson, must use the computer before your friend/family does, in order to make it safe. That's pretty messed up, no? This stuff should just work, no need to go find programs to download before your computer is working properly.
Yes it is.
Why?
Unfortunately due to antitrust concerns. I'm sure MS would love to bundle MS Security Essentials, but they fear doing so would likely end up in the courts.
Can't someone build a computer where you turn it on and it works safely the first time?
You can, although ironically its not in the best interest of most computer vendors. They get paid by McAfee or Norton to put a trial version on the boxes, which when expires usually results in a vulnerable box. Sure they could put a free version, but then they wouldn't get paid.
MS does directly sell computers, through their retail channel, with free antivirus pre-installed. AFAIK they're the only ones, but I wouldn't surprised if there is a small niche in the world of it.
Why should they care?
The reasons they should care are obvious. But they shouldn't have to care. I completely agree. It sucks. But I do think the visibility and sucktidiness of it is a lot lower than all of the other things that will suck when they unwittingly bring a ChromeBook home from the store.
Actually these days they can just opt to install Microsoft Security Essentials and they are done.
Apple has shown the "walled garden" works, despite anguished cries from geeks. People want a machine that just turns on (fast), just works, just does most of the things they want to do without any worries about installation/updates/debugging. Give them enough zero-headache capability and they'll adhere to it despite what lacks.
In college I only bought ramen... on sale.
I had a schedule for when all the clubs at the school had free dinners.
I was mad when the taco stand increased their bean burrito price from 89 cents to 94 cents.
In college, I'd consider it a fair deal if you paid me to use the computer, and I'd put a Google sticker on the back of it.
Although it does seem like college kids are a lot richer nowadays.
Some people will believe anything.
"hook it up to my TV in the dorm"
The Cr-48 has a VGA output, IIRC. Perhaps future Chromebooks will have HDMI output?
"sync my iPod/iPad/iPhone"
This is an interesting problem for Google. Apple clearly has no incentive to support the platform. The value proposition for a home user is not strong unless a Chromebook can replace a Windows laptop. Besides photo uploading, what other device integration issues ruin the game? My wife would react negatively if she could not use a scanner. Google's cloud printing scheme is an obvious end-run around direct support of printers. Perhaps they will roll-out a similar scanning scheme?
In all seriousness, Google's proposition to businesses and schools is probably stronger than the offer to individual users. Corps/Schools feel the real cost associated with Windows desktop administration. Unlike individuals where Windows issues feel random, these organizations know the mean time between interventions and can therefore compute their expected annual service cost per Windows desktop.
This would be perfect and would solve my issue of her randomly getting toolbars installed and somehow getting Firefox into a state of uselessness.
These Chromebooks might share the iPad's limitations, but they don't seem to make up for it with any strengths that you couldn't get out of a regular netbook.
This is as good an overview of the software as I need. Looks good.
http://www.google.com/chromebook/#features
That's some very important information to put in a footnote at the bottom of the webpage. I'll have to check network availability in my most common locations before deciding whether or not this is useful for me or one of my children.
~Always connected! ~PS OBVIOUSLY this computer will not ACTUALLY be always connected in the REAL WORLD, what were you expecting
Really weird of them.
Anyway, the gist is, a web application (say, Picasa, or Facebook) can register as a file handler for certain kinds of file types (say images) and then handle the upload from the client. A little contextual menu comes up when you plug in a sd card or whatever that asks you which (if any) file handler you'd like to deal with the files.
as demo'd here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzNn3YKbvR4&feature=playe...
Contrast with the current CEO's views on support http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/03/mf_larrypage/3/
"...Denise Griffin, the person in charge of Google’s small customer-support team, asked Page for a larger staff. Instead, he told her that the whole idea of customer support was ridiculous. ..."
If Google is truly going to support these devices, they're going to need a paradigm shift from Page's pre-existing "support doesn't scale" attitude... and bring their A-game.
It's ~$400 for a laptop, then $28/mo to use it?
What are you getting from this that I'm not already getting for free from google?
Or is it $28/mo and the hardware is free...?
For Google Apps for Business you can get them for $28 per user per month, this includes the hardware and periodic hardware refreshes.
http://litl.com