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Chrome OS overtakes Macs for second place OS market share for the first time

31 points by rmason 5y ago

kevin_young 5y ago
Felt nauseous reading this thread. So much anger, so much aggression. NOT the hacker news I know and love.
verdverm 5y ago
I can say I am happier developing from ChromeOS than Mac. The Linux App is solid and doesn't have weird differences from CI or prod. Preferable to Linux because touchpad and external devices just work and the UI is much cleaner.
phrz 5y ago
The good news for Apple is most of those Chromebooks will have disintegrated or otherwise found their way to the landfill in two years, which certainly helps Apple's chances.
- smoldesu 5y ago
  The good news for Google is that they don't ship software that shreds your soldered SSD in 18 month's time.
  - tw04 5y ago
    Having helped my child with a school issued chromebook: anything Google may gain from students familiarity with ChromeOS is negated by the absolutely abysmal performance. Opening a new tab is a 10 second wait. I have to believe these kids will grow up associating chromebooks and chromeos with pure frustration. I don’t know what, if any, minimum specs Google is enforcing but they need to at least double it.
    - smoldesu 5y ago
      Color me surprised, a $150 laptop is slower than a $900 one. What else is new? Has Apple stopped hoarding all the good silicon at TSMC, or do Chromebooks still have to settle with 14nm chips?
    - kgen 5y ago
      Huh, I've never used a Chromebook (even a cheap one from 2014) that had more than a second wait to open a tab. Sounds like there's something wrong with whatever ones your school particular issued.
    - epakai 5y ago
      The google workspace suite (gmail, docs, etc.) is quite heavy for school chromebooks, but a big part of the issue with school issued machines is they're running a monitoring solution on top of it. I've seen GoGuardian peg a 1/2 cores as well as the additional bandwidth that is probably a concern in a classroom with 20 other machines.
- entropicgravity 5y ago
  My Asus chromebook still going strong after four years (unlike my wife's Samsung laptop). Sure it cost a bit more than the average chromebook but the quality is excellent.
musicale 5y ago
At least Tim Cook still says "installed base" rather than "install base."
- richij 5y ago
  Despite the poorly-written article, the IDC report gives market share data, not installed base.
ruined 5y ago
i guess 2020 was the year of the linux desktop
sieabahlpark 5y ago
The joke is believing Google won't drop the Chromebook OS in another 2 years in favor of fushia. Then some other OS in another 3 years. So the trend goes with Google. Kill a product right when people start using it because the team that built it got promoted.
claviska 5y ago
> Many schools took advantage of deep discounts offered to educators for Chromebooks. This has less to do with Chromebook’s popularity and more with schools buying cheap laptops. It’s still a win for Linux, I guess. I wonder if the next generation of desktop users will grow up thinking our way of saving files and compiling software locally is crazy.
- hulitu 5y ago
  There is no win for linux. AFAIK the only linux thing is the kernel.
  - jmillikin 5y ago
    Linux is the kernel, nothing more. It's notable that the two most popular consumer-oriented distributions of Linux (ChromeOS and Android) are distinguished by not shipping GNU tools or Gnome/KDE UIs.
    - selfhoster11 5y ago
      The name "Linux" carries more than one semantic payload. Linux in the technical sense is only the kernel, true. But in the social sense, it's also all the trappings of an underlying open source system that can be freely moulded by a user if desired. Android and Chrome OS fight against those things.
      - jmillikin 5y ago
        Nothing about using Linux implies the rest of the system is open-source, or even particularly customizable. Look at all the pseudo-embedded systems (routers, NAS appliances, TVs) that run Linux beneath a completely closed-source userland. There's a small population of hobbyists who build open-source platforms that use Linux as a component, but those have their own names (Debian, Gentoo) and there's no reason to go around intentionally confusing the layers.
  - rektide 5y ago
pjmlp 5y ago
Is this one of those US market researches where US == world? I hardly see Chromebooks anywhere in Europe, despite Google desperately trying to sell them. Usually they get continously discounted until finally someone takes the poor unit away.
- timonoko 5y ago
  Chromebooks do not work in Europe. For example, Google has removed world standard DVB-TV-drivers from kernel and you cannot add them yourself. American proprietary TV-dongles work ok.
- richij 5y ago
  The IDC chart title says, "Worldwide market share."
  - pjmlp 5y ago
    Hence my question "Is this one of those US market researches where US == world?", like WWE and such.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
native_samples 5y ago
I'm curious what the best way to develop software for ChromeOS is that's not writing a web app. It can run Android apps, right? With the Linux support can it run anything else, like X apps, or is it restricted to Chrome and Android?
- vrotaru 5y ago
  > I'm curious what the best way to develop software for ChromeOS is that's not writing a web app. Get hired by Google to work on Chrome OS. Certainly the best way. Afraid is also the only way. More seriously. Chromebook have several native apps. The browser, the file browser the gallery app, the movie player.. and that's all I guess. There is chromebrew but it requires you to put the device in dev-mode and it very niche. The are some PWA which seem to work only with Chromebooks, but that's different I guess.
- alexshendi 5y ago
  The Linux support is basically Debian Buster/Bullseye aarch64 in a custom container. Basically you can use every Linux program. I used a low end Chromebook (4G RAM, 64G flash, aarch64) to run FEM simulations and Scheme, Common Lisp, and Interlisp programming. Performance wasn't at all bad for a EUR 150 device.
ksec 5y ago
Tl;dr - This is a crap article. If ChromeOS + MacOS = 10.8% + 7.5%, why is it the graph on Windows shows it is about to touch 75% when the previous two add up to less than 20%? Something about the numbers in the article where they state windows at 80.5% doesn't add up. Edit: Well it turns out the original article [1] doesn't hide the fact IDC numbers are unit sold. Which is normal for IDC. I dont think IDC even does installed base calculation report. But this article then mixes up all things together. May be somebody should push google to release ChromeOS installed base number like Apple does with Mac during Alphabet investor meetings. Apple is currently at >100M Active Mac User. ( And Apple never define the term what Active means. ) [1] https://www.geekwire.com/2021/chromebooks-outsold-macs-worldwide-2020-cutting-windows-market-share/ https://www.geekwire.com/2021/chromebooks-outsold-macs-world...

31 points by rmason 5y ago

Felt nauseous reading this thread. So much anger, so much aggression. NOT the hacker news I know and love.

I can say I am happier developing from ChromeOS than Mac. The Linux App is solid and doesn't have weird differences from CI or prod. Preferable to Linux because touchpad and external devices just work and the UI is much cleaner.

phrz 5y ago

The good news for Apple is most of those Chromebooks will have disintegrated or otherwise found their way to the landfill in two years, which certainly helps Apple's chances.

smoldesu 5y ago
The good news for Google is that they don't ship software that shreds your soldered SSD in 18 month's time.
- tw04 5y ago
  Having helped my child with a school issued chromebook: anything Google may gain from students familiarity with ChromeOS is negated by the absolutely abysmal performance. Opening a new tab is a 10 second wait. I have to believe these kids will grow up associating chromebooks and chromeos with pure frustration. I don’t know what, if any, minimum specs Google is enforcing but they need to at least double it.
  - smoldesu 5y ago
    Color me surprised, a $150 laptop is slower than a $900 one. What else is new? Has Apple stopped hoarding all the good silicon at TSMC, or do Chromebooks still have to settle with 14nm chips?
  - kgen 5y ago
    Huh, I've never used a Chromebook (even a cheap one from 2014) that had more than a second wait to open a tab. Sounds like there's something wrong with whatever ones your school particular issued.
  - epakai 5y ago
    The google workspace suite (gmail, docs, etc.) is quite heavy for school chromebooks, but a big part of the issue with school issued machines is they're running a monitoring solution on top of it. I've seen GoGuardian peg a 1/2 cores as well as the additional bandwidth that is probably a concern in a classroom with 20 other machines.
entropicgravity 5y ago
My Asus chromebook still going strong after four years (unlike my wife's Samsung laptop). Sure it cost a bit more than the average chromebook but the quality is excellent.

musicale 5y ago

At least Tim Cook still says "installed base" rather than "install base."

richij 5y ago
Despite the poorly-written article, the IDC report gives market share data, not installed base.

ruined 5y ago

i guess 2020 was the year of the linux desktop

sieabahlpark 5y ago

The joke is believing Google won't drop the Chromebook OS in another 2 years in favor of fushia. Then some other OS in another 3 years. So the trend goes with Google. Kill a product right when people start using it because the team that built it got promoted.

claviska 5y ago

> Many schools took advantage of deep discounts offered to educators for Chromebooks. This has less to do with Chromebook’s popularity and more with schools buying cheap laptops. It’s still a win for Linux, I guess. I wonder if the next generation of desktop users will grow up thinking our way of saving files and compiling software locally is crazy.

hulitu 5y ago
There is no win for linux. AFAIK the only linux thing is the kernel.
- jmillikin 5y ago
  Linux is the kernel, nothing more. It's notable that the two most popular consumer-oriented distributions of Linux (ChromeOS and Android) are distinguished by not shipping GNU tools or Gnome/KDE UIs.
  - selfhoster11 5y ago
    The name "Linux" carries more than one semantic payload. Linux in the technical sense is only the kernel, true. But in the social sense, it's also all the trappings of an underlying open source system that can be freely moulded by a user if desired. Android and Chrome OS fight against those things.
    - jmillikin 5y ago
      Nothing about using Linux implies the rest of the system is open-source, or even particularly customizable. Look at all the pseudo-embedded systems (routers, NAS appliances, TVs) that run Linux beneath a completely closed-source userland. There's a small population of hobbyists who build open-source platforms that use Linux as a component, but those have their own names (Debian, Gentoo) and there's no reason to go around intentionally confusing the layers.
- rektide 5y ago

pjmlp 5y ago

Is this one of those US market researches where US == world? I hardly see Chromebooks anywhere in Europe, despite Google desperately trying to sell them. Usually they get continously discounted until finally someone takes the poor unit away.

timonoko 5y ago
Chromebooks do not work in Europe. For example, Google has removed world standard DVB-TV-drivers from kernel and you cannot add them yourself. American proprietary TV-dongles work ok.
richij 5y ago
The IDC chart title says, "Worldwide market share."
- pjmlp 5y ago
  Hence my question "Is this one of those US market researches where US == world?", like WWE and such.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

native_samples 5y ago

I'm curious what the best way to develop software for ChromeOS is that's not writing a web app. It can run Android apps, right? With the Linux support can it run anything else, like X apps, or is it restricted to Chrome and Android?

vrotaru 5y ago
> I'm curious what the best way to develop software for ChromeOS is that's not writing a web app. Get hired by Google to work on Chrome OS. Certainly the best way. Afraid is also the only way. More seriously. Chromebook have several native apps. The browser, the file browser the gallery app, the movie player.. and that's all I guess. There is chromebrew but it requires you to put the device in dev-mode and it very niche. The are some PWA which seem to work only with Chromebooks, but that's different I guess.
alexshendi 5y ago
The Linux support is basically Debian Buster/Bullseye aarch64 in a custom container. Basically you can use every Linux program. I used a low end Chromebook (4G RAM, 64G flash, aarch64) to run FEM simulations and Scheme, Common Lisp, and Interlisp programming. Performance wasn't at all bad for a EUR 150 device.

ksec 5y ago

Tl;dr - This is a crap article. If ChromeOS + MacOS = 10.8% + 7.5%, why is it the graph on Windows shows it is about to touch 75% when the previous two add up to less than 20%? Something about the numbers in the article where they state windows at 80.5% doesn't add up. Edit: Well it turns out the original article [1] doesn't hide the fact IDC numbers are unit sold. Which is normal for IDC. I dont think IDC even does installed base calculation report. But this article then mixes up all things together. May be somebody should push google to release ChromeOS installed base number like Apple does with Mac during Alphabet investor meetings. Apple is currently at >100M Active Mac User. ( And Apple never define the term what Active means. ) [1] https://www.geekwire.com/2021/chromebooks-outsold-macs-worldwide-2020-cutting-windows-market-share/ https://www.geekwire.com/2021/chromebooks-outsold-macs-world...