I'm disappointed to say that I miss Magsafe and the slant as much as I expected. Otherwise I completely agree. Once you go retina, you can't go back.
(For those that may wonder, I have to rmmod/modprobe a chromeos_laptop module after boot, but everything else works perfectly out of the box. Just bump up the font size or DPI in KDE and you're good to go.)
I think the extent to which the Chromebook Pixel is currently compelling as something to run a regular linux distro on is the extent to which the Chromebook Pixel is currently unmatched among other laptops (greater DPI and cheaper than the 13" Pro Retina. Worse otherwise, but if your priority is the screen...).
Hopefully you won't have to wait for the next Chromebook Pixel, but will be able to buy a more 'regular' laptop with a similar screen in the near future. I think high-dpi screens are posed to make a big impact on the market.
@drivebyacct2 "(For those that may wonder, I have to rmmod/modprobe a chromeos_laptop module after boot"
I had that problem earlier, but it resolved itself with a new kernel (3.10.11 iirc) and config. If you want I can pastebin my config when I get home, but I think the only relevant change I made is I stopped building chromeos_laptop (and dependencies) as a module. I think the root cause was something about the order or timing of the touchpad and I2C stuff being brought online.
i find the galago pro very interesting. 14" full hd. quad core haswell for 1000 usd(well more for me because of ssd, ram etc). unfortunately, 4 hours of battery life just doesn't cut it for me. and 14" might almost be a tad too big. but otherwise it looks like an amazing device.
As long as it comes with increased battery life (as it should). I won't buy a new laptop until I can get one with real all-day battery life - and right now the main two options for that are the new Macbook Airs and the Sony Vaio Pro 13 (with the sheet battery). If the Pixel can pull that off, I'll add it to my list of contenders.
A battery can be recharged, but not the eyes. It might be just my personal experience, but I now have less eye pain in the end of a working day than before, after moving to a high-ppi display.
I think it comes down to the display which really is still unmatched to this day (resolution and aspect ratio of 3:2, which is a very rare sight), proper design and lasting battery life.
"Something for everyone" where everyone includes Google, the NSA, your future ex-wife and her lawyers, the Chinese Public Security Bureau, and any behavioral tracking advertising networks or other businesses Google cares to partner with. I'll stick with non-cloud-based computing for now.
Thanks for that link. The fact that they provide a version that only contains FOSS repos makes me think that calling Ubuntu non-FOSS a bit of an overstatement. That Amazon thing seems a bit icky, though.
When I was in a local electronics shop a few weeks ago, they already had x86 chromebooks (along with the ARM Samsung version). So what's the news here?
The news (which is admittedly kind of buried in the wall of text) is they are releasing new Chromebooks from many manufacturers based on Intel's newer Haswell microarchitecture.
As an owner of an Intel Chromebook, the Acer C7, I really do enjoy it.
It is a bit limited, but for $200, it is a great deal. I have a chroot installed where I can do anything I can't do with the vanilla ChromeOS, and I am strongly considering upgrading the RAM. I don't think I will buy the full 16GB this thing supports.
I could also upgrade the storage, 16GB is getting a little tight.
RAM on the C7 is a piece of cake to upgrade. Ssd on the other hand takes few more screw turns but is easy nonetheless. With a 9mm SSD the back cover doesn't fit flush but 7mm should be better.
Windows-based ultrabooks are selling slowly as it is, and Google thinks $1,000+ ChromeOS devices will sell better?
They really should stick to ARM-based $250 Chromebooks. But this time please put at least a 10" tablet-battery, not a 7" tablet battery inside the Chromebook.
Pretty much all of the existing ARM socs out there suck majorly for gpu support. I really believe Bay Trail will shove arm out of the chromebook/netbook market just because people will be able to tinker with the thing.
As much as I had been rooting for arm a few years ago I'm totally soured on the utter crap support situation. If ARM starts bleeding market it will totally be on their own shoulders for not doing anything about the closed drivers situation.
I really expect the "netbook" category to bump again now that Bay Trail has been released. Finally an actual speed bump in the atom family after all these years!
One positive is that with chromeos being more stable and backed by google should be able to seriously take on windows in this category unlike the mess with linux when the first netbooks were released.
When I used ChromeOS for a weekend I concluded that I couldn't recommend it to my mother because support for playing (arbitrary format) videos and browsing pictures off portable harddrives was really lacking (in the case of pictures, it could do it obviously, but with a worse user experience than windows by far). Probably 25% of what my mother does with her computer is hook it up to her cameras and show her friends her pictures.
I think that Google has been neglecting the non-intensive tasks that people still perform on their computers locally, not through a webbrowser. Not supporting Crysis, SolidWorks, Microsoft Office, or Eclipse... that is all fine, regular users don't really need that sort of stuff. Not supporting something with the functionality of VLC or a good image browser seems like a big oversight. Those sorts of tasks could be done well with ChromeOS, with their programming model and in that form-factor, but from what I have seen that stuff just isn't ready.
that use-case specifically contradicts the whole motivation for chromeOS though. you shouldn't be opening a file browser to play things off a hard drive. if you want to share a video with friends, you should upload it to google+. in fact, chromeOS does this automatically for you - install the google+ photos app, and it will copy any photos off an inserted SD card to your private "ready to share" google+ storage.
It may go against the "idea" or motivation of ChromeOS, but my mother ain't uploading several GB of photos and videos so that she can sit on a couch with her friends and chat about that crap over a bottle of wine.
Whether or not it fits with the motivation of the OS, it is what the OS needs if it wants to be something I can recommend to anybody. They are making an OS for people that, as far as I can tell, do not exist: technically inclined and willing users who have very restricted requirements.
I know, I know, "most people do nothing but Facebook". That is the standard justification of ChromeOS, I've heard that all before... In my experience however those people still perform some (really quite minimal) non-intensive local tasks that ChromeOS falls flat on. I'll sooner tell those people to get an iPad than a Chromebook.
And to be clear, ChromeOS does let you browse images locally, so that is already something they have consigned themselves to doing. ChromeOS isn't saying "this isn't something that you can't or shouldn't do". The problem is that they do it poorly; the UI is shoddy.
Uploading gigabytes of photos so that I can then download them to view them is insane.
Especially with the lousy lousy internet connection that I have.
I haven't seen a Chromebook's handling of locally stored photos, but it's a shame if it can't handle it nicely.
The only thing stopping me from getting a Chromebook now is the lack of functionality without an internet connection (I'd install a Linux, but that feels like a weird solution).
That's why you're not HP, Acer, Asus or Toshiba. They're not interested in marketing or supporting these things as computers, they're consumer electronics, much the way that phones and tablets are.
The moment you start to market these things as real computers at a low price point, somebody's grandmother buys one and starts calling support because they can't run Office (or some other arbitrary Windows software on it). Word gets out, it gets distorted until everyone thinks that the hardware is useless/broken/worthless and you end up with a repeat of MSFT's Surface/Windows RT debacle.
Google has very carefully positioned this platform in the market. They've been very clear that a Chromebook is not just another laptop & buyers should not expect them to be one. The few additional sales they'd get from Linux geeks are not remotely worth the brand dilution that would occur from selling them as anything else.
There's an endcap at my local Sam's Club with Chromebooks. It's amazing to see them lined up like they're an impulse buy. I think they're actually in the boxes and not just a stack of empty boxes to claim the real device from a security cage. That's about as commodity as you can get.
> The moment you start to market these things as real computers at a low price point somebody's grandmother buys one and starts calling support because they can't run Office
Why are they even providing a support line? I'm not sure why a laptop should qualify for support when a tablet doesn't.
When you buy a new car there isn't a Hyundai Support Line to call.
I LOVE my ARM Chromebook. For $250 it's one of the best gadgets I have ever owned (in a class with my Kindle and the original moto Droid). I am very excited for the possibility of the same machine with a Haswell processor. My only complaint with the ARM machine is that its JavaScript performance could be better (it's tablet-level).
It's particularly striking because the Nexus 10 has the same processor as the ARM chromebook, so anything you could run on the chromebook you could conceivably just run on the Nexus 10 as well.
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[ 4.0 ms ] story [ 94.1 ms ] thread(For those that may wonder, I have to rmmod/modprobe a chromeos_laptop module after boot, but everything else works perfectly out of the box. Just bump up the font size or DPI in KDE and you're good to go.)
Hopefully you won't have to wait for the next Chromebook Pixel, but will be able to buy a more 'regular' laptop with a similar screen in the near future. I think high-dpi screens are posed to make a big impact on the market.
@drivebyacct2 "(For those that may wonder, I have to rmmod/modprobe a chromeos_laptop module after boot"
I had that problem earlier, but it resolved itself with a new kernel (3.10.11 iirc) and config. If you want I can pastebin my config when I get home, but I think the only relevant change I made is I stopped building chromeos_laptop (and dependencies) as a module. I think the root cause was something about the order or timing of the touchpad and I2C stuff being brought online.
http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/chromebooks.htm...
The current line of ARM processors has been a major roadblock thus far.
And before someone says it, no "I'll stick Ubuntu on it" isn't a valid answer to the problem as you're still supporting them by buying it.
Mainly, non-free software repositories, and the amazon integration in unity.
OTOH, Google may be giving kickbacks for Chrome OS as well.
To the downvoters, this was supposed to be sarcastic :)
You hate it and I hate it, but the vast majority tolerate it.
It is a bit limited, but for $200, it is a great deal. I have a chroot installed where I can do anything I can't do with the vanilla ChromeOS, and I am strongly considering upgrading the RAM. I don't think I will buy the full 16GB this thing supports.
I could also upgrade the storage, 16GB is getting a little tight.
They really should stick to ARM-based $250 Chromebooks. But this time please put at least a 10" tablet-battery, not a 7" tablet battery inside the Chromebook.
As much as I had been rooting for arm a few years ago I'm totally soured on the utter crap support situation. If ARM starts bleeding market it will totally be on their own shoulders for not doing anything about the closed drivers situation.
One positive is that with chromeos being more stable and backed by google should be able to seriously take on windows in this category unlike the mess with linux when the first netbooks were released.
I think that Google has been neglecting the non-intensive tasks that people still perform on their computers locally, not through a webbrowser. Not supporting Crysis, SolidWorks, Microsoft Office, or Eclipse... that is all fine, regular users don't really need that sort of stuff. Not supporting something with the functionality of VLC or a good image browser seems like a big oversight. Those sorts of tasks could be done well with ChromeOS, with their programming model and in that form-factor, but from what I have seen that stuff just isn't ready.
Whether or not it fits with the motivation of the OS, it is what the OS needs if it wants to be something I can recommend to anybody. They are making an OS for people that, as far as I can tell, do not exist: technically inclined and willing users who have very restricted requirements.
I know, I know, "most people do nothing but Facebook". That is the standard justification of ChromeOS, I've heard that all before... In my experience however those people still perform some (really quite minimal) non-intensive local tasks that ChromeOS falls flat on. I'll sooner tell those people to get an iPad than a Chromebook.
And to be clear, ChromeOS does let you browse images locally, so that is already something they have consigned themselves to doing. ChromeOS isn't saying "this isn't something that you can't or shouldn't do". The problem is that they do it poorly; the UI is shoddy.
Especially with the lousy lousy internet connection that I have.
I haven't seen a Chromebook's handling of locally stored photos, but it's a shame if it can't handle it nicely.
The only thing stopping me from getting a Chromebook now is the lack of functionality without an internet connection (I'd install a Linux, but that feels like a weird solution).
The moment you start to market these things as real computers at a low price point, somebody's grandmother buys one and starts calling support because they can't run Office (or some other arbitrary Windows software on it). Word gets out, it gets distorted until everyone thinks that the hardware is useless/broken/worthless and you end up with a repeat of MSFT's Surface/Windows RT debacle.
Google has very carefully positioned this platform in the market. They've been very clear that a Chromebook is not just another laptop & buyers should not expect them to be one. The few additional sales they'd get from Linux geeks are not remotely worth the brand dilution that would occur from selling them as anything else.
Why are they even providing a support line? I'm not sure why a laptop should qualify for support when a tablet doesn't.
When you buy a new car there isn't a Hyundai Support Line to call.
It's particularly striking because the Nexus 10 has the same processor as the ARM chromebook, so anything you could run on the chromebook you could conceivably just run on the Nexus 10 as well.
A 14-inch screen not large for a laptop.