5 ms·

I think there is a demographic of casual internet users who might be interested in this product. It's inexpensive and occupies little space, one need only provi

by rtl49 11y ago

I think there is a demographic of casual internet users who might be interested in this product. It's inexpensive and occupies little space, one need only provide peripherals and a monitor. It runs ChromeOS, which is reputed to be very secure (except from Google) and easy to use. Yes, the kiosk application seems of dubious value, if only because people tend to prefer touchscreen kiosks. But I don't believe you are correct that this solves no problem. Where before one might buy a $300 HP tower for one's grandmother, this product is a less expensive and possibly superior alternative.

viraptor 11y ago
You can get a touch panel and put it over the screen. A lot of them just work with X server. Connect to the usb port and you're done.
- rtl49 11y ago
  I don't know that ChromeOS uses X server (I know almost nothing about it, in fact). But by the time you've paid for the additional hardware, it may be the case that it's cheaper to buy a tablet or a professional-grade IDS display.
  - sunnyps 11y ago
    ChromeOS doesn't use X11 any more. It uses a custom graphics stack called Ozone[1] that runs on top of libDRM on Linux and uses features such as hardware overlays which are common now that X11 knows nothing about. [1] https://www.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/ozone https://www.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/ozone
vortico 11y ago
Although, cheap computers are certainly not hard to come by. A Thinkpad T60 is about $60 used, and its performance is similar to this device.
- rtl49 11y ago
  Maybe so, but I imagine one's grandmother would respond with more glee to receive this sleek little dongle than a clunky used Thinkpad T60. I'm not arguing that anyone in particular should go out and buy this product, only that some people are likely to do so of their own accord.
  - toredash 11y ago
    This I what I'm thinking. Good solution for someone that is not really into computers and technology.
- 746F7475 11y ago
  Some (older) people have biases towards laptops (since their experience is limited mostly to older crappy laptops) and just suggesting that a laptop would be better than their current, ancient, desktop is met with refusal and denial. I know this situation since my mother falls into this camp. When she last moved I tried to convince her to buy a laptop, but she refused. Later I got her Chromebook which she likes on travels, but still refused to use at home, but continuously complains how slow her desktop is. I'm seriously considering if getting one of these for her would fix the situation. She could still use her old keyboard, mouse and display, but I bet performance would go through the roof (compared to her old PC), but I don't know how compatible things like printers and scanners are with this and would running mouse, keyboard, printer, scanner and external HDD off of same USB port introduce some bottlenecking
art0rz 11y ago
I am definitely buying one of these for my parents/grandparents when they need a new computer. All they do is use Facebook/YouTube/Skype and sometimes editing and printing some documents. More often than not these devices require next to 0 maintenance for both software and hardware, which is a major plus when all they buy is very cheap Windows computers which require constant maintenance on both sides.

by rtl49 11y ago

viraptor 11y ago

You can get a touch panel and put it over the screen. A lot of them just work with X server. Connect to the usb port and you're done.

rtl49 11y ago
I don't know that ChromeOS uses X server (I know almost nothing about it, in fact). But by the time you've paid for the additional hardware, it may be the case that it's cheaper to buy a tablet or a professional-grade IDS display.
- sunnyps 11y ago
  ChromeOS doesn't use X11 any more. It uses a custom graphics stack called Ozone[1] that runs on top of libDRM on Linux and uses features such as hardware overlays which are common now that X11 knows nothing about. [1] https://www.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/ozone https://www.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/ozone

vortico 11y ago

Although, cheap computers are certainly not hard to come by. A Thinkpad T60 is about $60 used, and its performance is similar to this device.

rtl49 11y ago
Maybe so, but I imagine one's grandmother would respond with more glee to receive this sleek little dongle than a clunky used Thinkpad T60. I'm not arguing that anyone in particular should go out and buy this product, only that some people are likely to do so of their own accord.
- toredash 11y ago
  This I what I'm thinking. Good solution for someone that is not really into computers and technology.
746F7475 11y ago
Some (older) people have biases towards laptops (since their experience is limited mostly to older crappy laptops) and just suggesting that a laptop would be better than their current, ancient, desktop is met with refusal and denial. I know this situation since my mother falls into this camp. When she last moved I tried to convince her to buy a laptop, but she refused. Later I got her Chromebook which she likes on travels, but still refused to use at home, but continuously complains how slow her desktop is. I'm seriously considering if getting one of these for her would fix the situation. She could still use her old keyboard, mouse and display, but I bet performance would go through the roof (compared to her old PC), but I don't know how compatible things like printers and scanners are with this and would running mouse, keyboard, printer, scanner and external HDD off of same USB port introduce some bottlenecking

art0rz 11y ago

I am definitely buying one of these for my parents/grandparents when they need a new computer. All they do is use Facebook/YouTube/Skype and sometimes editing and printing some documents. More often than not these devices require next to 0 maintenance for both software and hardware, which is a major plus when all they buy is very cheap Windows computers which require constant maintenance on both sides.