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it is actually an educational problem - specially in the US. Educated people will favor the more flexible operating systems to create things (don't think just p

by zobzu 10y ago

it is actually an educational problem - specially in the US. Educated people will favor the more flexible operating systems to create things (don't think just programming, think video, pictures, whatever), dumb people will care about "selfies" and "email". That said the reality is that the majority of people are the ones that do not want to learn, and thus to be successful it is necessary to cater to them. It makes sense and make their life easier. But do not fool yourself thinking it's not an educational problem for the "feel good" statement. Learning photoshop is a big deal and it's not because of UX. It's because of the concepts behind the editing.

comboy 10y ago
> Educated people will favor the more flexible operating systems to create things (don't think just programming, think video, pictures, whatever), dumb people will care about "selfies" and "email". It seems like a pretty biased view. Apart from the fact that even in HN-like circles for many people most part of their job is just answering e-mails, there's tons of people who don't need anything more than web. I wouldn't consider somebody who mostly does research, reading a lot of stuff and being satisfied with a simple editor "dumb". (there are even quite fine online latex editors too)
gizmo385 10y ago
> dumb people will care about "selfies" and "email" You know smart people can prefer a simple, less-modifiable system as well, right? Just because they don't share the HN communities view for an open product doesn't make them less intelligent.
- spb 10y ago
  Not to mention Chromebooks essentially are open products. The entire source tree for the OS (minus a few proprietary twigs like the Widevine Encryption Module for DRM on Netflix) is a publically-accessible Git repository, and all Chromebooks allow the user to put them into a Developer Mode, which removes the low-level restrictions the system normally runs userspace in to ensure stability and security. Contrasted with the largely-locked-down proprietary development of Mac OS, whose few open-source concessions were shuttered a decade ago, the notion of Chrome OS being somehow less legitimately hacker-friendly just seems plainly absurd.
  - khedoros 10y ago
    > Not to mention Chromebooks essentially are open products. The OS itself is pretty open. If I'm not mistaken though, if you put it into dev mode, you get a scary screen at every reboot, and an opportunity to hit space to re-enable OS verification, and apparently wipe out whatever modifications you've made to the system. In theory, actually rebooting the system should be a fairly rare event, but that's one of the reasons I haven't considered a Chromebook. I understand the security concerns, but if the hardware makes it difficult to do what I'd like, then whatever security they implement is moot anyhow, right? Macs are basically the opposite; the OS itself is closed, but the hardware isn't difficult to install some other OS on. You've got options, because you aren't wedded to the software.
    - jonknee 10y ago
      > I understand the security concerns, but if the hardware makes it difficult to do what I'd like, then whatever security they implement is moot anyhow, right? "Difficult" as in a supported developer mode? Of course there is a way to reverse it otherwise they would have non-stop support calls from people who hit the button to see what it did and freaked out. The whole point of Chromebooks is that you can always get back to a usable state no matter what you do to it (even chuck it out the window, just log-in to a new one and you're 100% up and running).
      - khedoros 10y ago
        I'm thinking about "ctrl-d" to boot, and the likelihood that my kid's going to eventually play with daddy's laptop and pound on the spacebar during reboot. What I'd like: A Linux distro of my choice that boots as cleanly and directly as the original ChromeOS. A dual-boot to Windows would be nice too, although maybe at this point I could get by with a VM. What I think a Chromebook would provide: The option for a Crouton install within ChromeOS or a dual-boot. I think that both options require developer mode. During boot, you get a fun little screen telling you to push the spacebar to "re-enable OS verification", which takes you into a system recovery process...or you press ctrl-d to boot the system as-is. That all sounds like something that I can do, but it sounds like a step back in usability for me. And besides: > Caution: Modifications you make to the system are not supported by Google, may cause hardware, software or security issues and may void warranty. (http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-information-for-chrome-os-devices/acer-c7-chromebook http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-information-fo...) That's a terrible way to prefix a guide for activating a "supported developer mode" :-) A Chromebook may be wonderful for someone else with different desires. I don't think that it's a good fit for what I want to do.
vitd 10y ago
Do you realize that selfies and emails are creative endeavors? It takes a lot of work to take a good picture or compose an email that conveys anything useful.

by zobzu 10y ago

comboy 10y ago

> Educated people will favor the more flexible operating systems to create things (don't think just programming, think video, pictures, whatever), dumb people will care about "selfies" and "email". It seems like a pretty biased view. Apart from the fact that even in HN-like circles for many people most part of their job is just answering e-mails, there's tons of people who don't need anything more than web. I wouldn't consider somebody who mostly does research, reading a lot of stuff and being satisfied with a simple editor "dumb". (there are even quite fine online latex editors too)

gizmo385 10y ago

> dumb people will care about "selfies" and "email" You know smart people can prefer a simple, less-modifiable system as well, right? Just because they don't share the HN communities view for an open product doesn't make them less intelligent.

spb 10y ago
Not to mention Chromebooks essentially are open products. The entire source tree for the OS (minus a few proprietary twigs like the Widevine Encryption Module for DRM on Netflix) is a publically-accessible Git repository, and all Chromebooks allow the user to put them into a Developer Mode, which removes the low-level restrictions the system normally runs userspace in to ensure stability and security. Contrasted with the largely-locked-down proprietary development of Mac OS, whose few open-source concessions were shuttered a decade ago, the notion of Chrome OS being somehow less legitimately hacker-friendly just seems plainly absurd.
- khedoros 10y ago
  > Not to mention Chromebooks essentially are open products. The OS itself is pretty open. If I'm not mistaken though, if you put it into dev mode, you get a scary screen at every reboot, and an opportunity to hit space to re-enable OS verification, and apparently wipe out whatever modifications you've made to the system. In theory, actually rebooting the system should be a fairly rare event, but that's one of the reasons I haven't considered a Chromebook. I understand the security concerns, but if the hardware makes it difficult to do what I'd like, then whatever security they implement is moot anyhow, right? Macs are basically the opposite; the OS itself is closed, but the hardware isn't difficult to install some other OS on. You've got options, because you aren't wedded to the software.
  - jonknee 10y ago
    > I understand the security concerns, but if the hardware makes it difficult to do what I'd like, then whatever security they implement is moot anyhow, right? "Difficult" as in a supported developer mode? Of course there is a way to reverse it otherwise they would have non-stop support calls from people who hit the button to see what it did and freaked out. The whole point of Chromebooks is that you can always get back to a usable state no matter what you do to it (even chuck it out the window, just log-in to a new one and you're 100% up and running).
    - khedoros 10y ago
      I'm thinking about "ctrl-d" to boot, and the likelihood that my kid's going to eventually play with daddy's laptop and pound on the spacebar during reboot. What I'd like: A Linux distro of my choice that boots as cleanly and directly as the original ChromeOS. A dual-boot to Windows would be nice too, although maybe at this point I could get by with a VM. What I think a Chromebook would provide: The option for a Crouton install within ChromeOS or a dual-boot. I think that both options require developer mode. During boot, you get a fun little screen telling you to push the spacebar to "re-enable OS verification", which takes you into a system recovery process...or you press ctrl-d to boot the system as-is. That all sounds like something that I can do, but it sounds like a step back in usability for me. And besides: > Caution: Modifications you make to the system are not supported by Google, may cause hardware, software or security issues and may void warranty. (http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-information-for-chrome-os-devices/acer-c7-chromebook http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-information-fo...) That's a terrible way to prefix a guide for activating a "supported developer mode" :-) A Chromebook may be wonderful for someone else with different desires. I don't think that it's a good fit for what I want to do.

vitd 10y ago

Do you realize that selfies and emails are creative endeavors? It takes a lot of work to take a good picture or compose an email that conveys anything useful.