32 ms·

Chromebook Plus

201 points by mikece 3y ago

luke-stanley 3y ago
I'm disappointed that their embed demo video showed at 360p when I have a fibre connection and shows Spanish when I have English captions selected, but I'm only a little surprised. You might think that when they control both frontends and backends end-to-end that they could do it right. Why should people trust a product from a "web company" that can't play a video properly?
squarefoot 3y ago
Does anyone know if the plus models are restricted to ChromeOS only like the older models and, if that's the case, if they can be unlocked like most of the older ones?
turblety 3y ago
Such a shame this isn't ARM, and they stuck with Intel. The battery life vs performance is just too good.
- seabrookmx 3y ago
  Yeah ChromeOS ARM support is already there, they just need the hardware. I dabbled with the Linux container support on my Lenovo Duet and on a larger more powerful device it would be totally usable. But it seems all the ARM devices are 4GB RAM configs with weak SoC's.
ics 3y ago
Roughly 7-8 years ago I was going to be traveling and didn't have a suitable machine to take with me so I went online and found an Acer CB3 for $100 new– I think the retail then was double that, maybe a little more. I bought two, one for myself and one for my mom who was struggling with her aging MacBook both in operation and physical heft. I immediately dropped crouton onto mine and made it my Linux daily driver for the next year. It ran xfce, emacs, and firefox like butter, silently, and never got warmer than a good lap friend. Battery life for (literally) days. It looked good too, with a very simple white case and sturdy black keycaps. The trackpad even was fine. When my work started to involve heavy graphics and multimedia again my daily use dropped, mostly replaced by a newer Mac, and was eventually relegated to closet storage not to be charged or even turned on for at least two years. Now it's 2023, my mom stopped using hers maybe two years ago in favor of a new and even more portable iPad. I have a daughter who is 3 approaching 4. She's interested in computers, tries to touch type on my desk computer, and is no longer a walking hazard to all non-stationary objects. I dug the old Chromebook out of the closet, plugged it in, and the damn thing works. Once the OS connected to the internet it was kind enough to inform me that its version of ChromeOS was EOL and and that there were no newer supported versions for my hardware. But it works. Even browsing the web normally has no issues beyond the occasional spruce goose'd site which could probably bring down the heftiest workstation anyway. It hasn't been locked out of any usage that I can tell but hopefully soon I'll be able to sit down and see to removing ChromeOS entirely for a fresh linux install. There isn't much of a point to all that I've typed out besides some personal nostalgia. I tend to agree with all the comments which come up about Google's worsening business practices in general, surveillance-enabling behaviour, lack of product support, etc. While they seem to still be investing in it, I hope this product space doesn't eventually die in Google's hands. It's disappointing to me that there are not multiple vendors trying to offer something similar: a streamlined linux desktop experience on decent hardware that isn't fussy and is cheap.
- vorpalhex 3y ago
  Recently I had to setup a Windows computer and a Macbook. Both sucked. It was miserable. Lots of dialog after dialog after dialog. Disabling crap just to get like functional local file storage. Turning off news and stocks and notifications galore. Linux is fine in this regard as a poweruser but has it's own rough edges. I think for the moment it is actually ahead despite occasionally having to pop into terminal for the odd task. I just can't believe how horrible using a computer is for a non-poweruser. It is abusive. No wonder so many people hate computers when this is the experience they have.
  - ghaff 3y ago
    >I just can't believe how horrible using a computer is for a non-poweruser. I think it's more that computers have filesystems and a ton of other stuff--unrelated to crapware in many cases--that a lot of people don't understand, don't want to understand, and that a lot of people reading this are probably somewhat contemptuous of them not understanding. So they use phones that don't require them to understand any of that stuff and ask family/friends to help them when they get out of their very narrow comfort zone for some reason.
    - viraptor 3y ago
      > don't understand, don't want to understand They're a threshold for when things are complicated and not wanting to understand something is fair. But as an adult, you very likely have a home with an address, which contains a room with a common name, which contains a folder, which contains your documents (birth certificate or something similar). That means you already understand filesystems. As a non-poweruser that's all there is to it - beyond that is just being uncomfortable with something you haven't encountered.
    - vorpalhex 3y ago
      As someone who actually works with a lot of basic computer users, you are incorrect. Nobody has ever struggled to understand files or folders. My 80 year old aunt has a preference for the names of her email folders. My 11 year old nephew has a sorting system for his little game mods. No the main issue is exclusively "crap". To quote my mom on a recent call: "How do I make this thing go away?" (It was a notification about some new cloud service). Breaking user patterns is a close second - especially anything to do with file management.
anoncow 3y ago
Is the Photoshop via chrome or is this a native application?
- dagmx 3y ago
  Via Chrome. They demoed it a while ago, and I can’t find any changes to that since. Basically streaming from a cloud instance.
itsoktocry 3y ago
>All Chromebook Plus laptops come with the the following guaranteed hardware specs: I feel like these sorts of guarantees used to be useful, but now I'm not sure. Outside of my work computer, I buy off-lease ThinkPads for use around the home (ie family computers). I think the oldest one still in use is a 3rd generation i7. And it's totally fine as a daily driver. On the other side, I bought an off-lease desktop that has a 7th gen(?) quad-core 8 thread i7 with 32GB of RAM, and it's not going to allow me to run Windows 11. Kind of silly.
- inversetelecine 3y ago
  e-waste is a sad thing. Hopefully you can use those computers with Linux or similar for long after Microsoft says they're garbage. By e-waste here I mean: Perfectly good working hardware that gets an arbitrary EoL solely based on software support.
mcoliver 3y ago
I know the tensor power pixelbook was shutdown and I never heard the actual reason just a bunch of speculation about costs/profitability which is probably true. It's a shame that there isn't more competition and development in the neural asic world to harness the power of llms/generative AI on a low power, cheap hardware platform like the pixelbook line. For someone that invented the TPU they have done a not so great job of ensuring it's commercialization and support. Both on the hardware and software side. The coral edge tpu seemed to be the right high level idea but without proper execution. https://github.com/google-coral/edgetpu/issues/668 https://github.com/google-coral/edgetpu/issues/668
losvedir 3y ago
Eight new laptops from Acer, ASUS, HP and Lenovo. I feel like pulled off right, this "shared ecosystem" approach across manufacturers can be very strong, and from a competition perspective is probably pretty healthy. That said, the "everything under one roof" pull of the Apple world is pretty strong. I've been pretty happy with my Google hardware so far (Nexus and then Pixel phones, Nest minis, pixel buds), but now that I'm interested in a smart watch, I'm running into a bit of a wall. I want to want a Pixel watch, but it sounds like the integration with the Pixel phone is not all that great, and for a lot of fitness tracking you also need a separate FitBit account, and have to use a separate FitBit app (!) and it doesn't integrate super well with all my existing data in Google's own Google Fit app that I've got. I know it's not fair to compare these ~$400 laptops with Apple's laptops, but it just seems like Apple is better positioned to pull off seamless integration between laptops, phones, watches, earbuds, etc, when they're not working at cross purposes with a dozen other manufacturers. Then again, some people probably actively don't want all this integration? Maybe just a simple, standalone, cheap laptop is ideal for them, and that's who this is targeting.
- haunter 3y ago
  >pulled off right, this "shared ecosystem" approach across manufacturers can be very strong, and from a competition perspective is probably pretty healthy. I wish the Steam Machines didn't fail, they were pretty much this https://web.archive.org/web/20160303080731/https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steam_machines https://web.archive.org/web/20160303080731/https://store.ste... One can say the Steam Deck is a better successor but I think mostly because of Proton itself became mature through the years (compared to 2016)
  - nolist_policy 3y ago
    There is Steam for ChromeOS in the Beta channel right now. It's working surprisingly well, running inside a VM with virgl acceleration. I could imagine a gaming Chromebox or Chromebook with dedicated graphics in the future.
    - glenstein 3y ago
mrbonner 3y ago
I bought a Lenovo Flex (I think that’s what it is called) from the onset of the pandemic for my kid. It is a convertible tablet. It works perfectly except now it is slow. Is there any suggestion for a replacement with similar tablet but a bit beefy?
YmFzZTY0 3y ago
Does anyone here have one of these framework chromebooks https://frame.work/products/laptop-chromebook-12-gen-intel https://frame.work/products/laptop-chromebook-12-gen-intel? Haven't seen many impressions on it so I've been hesitant to buy one. But it looks pretty good spec wise.
- beretguy 3y ago
  Framework and chromeos feel like a very strange combination to me.
  - freedomben 3y ago
    Hard disagree from me. I've had a lot of Chromebooks and 3 frameworks, and it's a terrific match IMHO. I do wish you could switch back and forth between Linux and Chromebook without replacing the main board, but even that is a great fit. As needs change, you have options. Chromebook is great for many users especially now that it runs Linux apps, and can even be a very capable dev machine.
    - cbsmith 3y ago
      You need to swap out the mainboard to install Linux?
      - danans 3y ago
        It's the other way around. If you want ChromeOS (in particular with its Verified Boot system for the OS image [1]), you need special hardware that comes with Chromebooks, including the Framework Chromebook. That has nothing to do with the ability to run Linux, though. If you don't care about Verified Boot, you can install ChromeOS-Flex on a Framework Linux device (https://www.reddit.com/r/framework/comments/um0mk6/chromeos_flex_framework_amazing_combo/ https://www.reddit.com/r/framework/comments/um0mk6/chromeos_...) On the other hand, installing Linux on Chromebook hardware is straightforward. The options are: 1. Use the Debian Linux VM (Crostini) that is already present on Chromebooks: https://chromeos.dev/en/linux https://chromeos.dev/en/linux All you do is click on a few buttons in the settings. This approach preserves Verified Boot. If you want to replace ChromeOS on a Chromebook with a Linux distro, you can use Crouton: https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton This approach removes verified boot. 1. https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/security-overview/#verified-boot https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/...
pawelduda 3y ago
What is the OS on these? Is it Linux based but very limited? Can you install a normal Linux distro on it without hacking an entire universe?
- jeffbee 3y ago
  It's Linux and not limited in any tangible way.
  - pjmlp 3y ago
    Only selected models support Linux environment, which is anyway executed on its own containarized VM. Plus 128 GB SSD is a severe limitation for modern day storage requirements.
    - jeffbee 3y ago
      Is there an x86 Chromebook you can buy today that won’t run it?
      - pjmlp 3y ago
        The few I see on European shopping malls, being discounted until someone picks them up. Always have Linux support disabled on the settings pane, as "this device is not supported" kind of message.
        danans 3y ago
        Here are the list of models that support the Linux VM, basic everything released since 2019. https://sites.google.com/a/chromium.org/dev/chromium-os/chrome-os-systems-supporting-linux https://sites.google.com/a/chromium.org/dev/chromium-os/chro...
        pjmlp 3y ago
        I am fully aware of that list, does not change the reality of devices in Media Market showing lack of support.
sangeeth96 3y ago
It could be that I'm the wrong audience for this but I can't help but feel this is massively disappointing even for budget options. The minimum criteria is no way acceptable for 2023, especially given there's a lot of development happening around LLMs that can be run on-device. Given the current state of AI, I feel like the baseline specs is all the more important for general consumers also to play with these and to interface with them. Then again, Google's (and Microsoft's) vision is all about locking access behind their cloud empires.
chaostheory 3y ago
The existence of ChromeOS Flex dulls the excitement here for me, but this is good for people who can’t install ChromeOS on their (old) laptops.
dvh 3y ago
Announced or cancelled? It's 50:50 if you don't put it in title.
freedomben 3y ago
I'm a big fan of Chromebooks, but I do find myself wondering at the direction they are heading. I hope they stand by traditional Googley values of open and interactive, rather than a more Apple approach of locking things down. I'm really, amazingly happy that they added Linux support. Are the kernel contributions and other things that make the Chromebook battery life so good being upstreamed? Are they super specific to Chromebook hardware or is that something that benefits all Linux users? With all the AI stuff being added "directly to ChromeOS", is the OS getting more locked down and less owner-hackable? If one enables dev mode, do you lose access to features?
dotBen 3y ago
The key thing here is specifying 8Gb RAM as minimum spec and branding it accordingly. What's hurt Chromebook's reputation is people buying discounted/value priced 4Gb ones, struggling with performance and concluding it's a terrible platform. I'm intellectually curious what the experience of web-based video editing and Photoshop are like for anyone that actually needs to use these tools as part of their repeat workflow.
- notatoad 3y ago
  i agree, but i think they should have gone the other way. "chromebook plus" makes it sound like a premium product that you probably don't need. minimum 8GB of ram should be the standard configuration that most people go for. The people buying Chromebooks with 4GB of ram aren't going to be put off because it doesn't have the "chromebook plus" branding on it. if they want to help the chromebook's reputation, they should be calling this the minimum spec for a chromebook, and putting "chromebook lite" or similar branding on the ones that don't meet it.
  - dotBen 3y ago
    They do this with Android... follow certain specs (and other requirements) and you can have the Google suite of apps + Play Store access. If you don't, you're own your own. It would be great if they could do that with Chromebooks - follow a minimum spec or otherwise <insert punishment>. Problem is, there isn't anything to hold back or punish with. Which leaves them in a situation where, other than a "made for Chromebook" endorsement that can be withheld, there's nothing to stop anyone making any laptop of any spec and calling it "Chromebook".
    - notatoad 3y ago
      There absolutely is. Even more than there is on android. Chromebook is a google trademark, and chromebook-branded devices are tightly controlled by google. I believe that OEMs have to pick from a predetermined set of approved mainboard and CPU combos. OS images and Software updates are delivered directly from google.
- 3y ago
nashashmi 3y ago
Anyone remember when Chromebooks were these really fast lightweight cheap systems? I used to be a huge fan of Chromebooks back then. Not anymore. Chromebooks went off the deep end when they told you and promised you that you would get these computers which could run linux apps and android apps. The idea was great: "Run web apps, mobile apps, and desktop apps, all on a secure throwaway system." The performance of doing that was abysmal on weak laptops. It used lots of memory. It started off very slowly when the Linux VM and Android VMs booted. And slowed down the browser too. Chromebook Co should have followed the Windows/Apple way: release those VMs only on certified premium/plus notebooks.
- nolist_policy 3y ago
  I don't understand your problem, the Linux VM isn't even enabled by default and Android can be disabled with 2 clicks in the settings.
  - nashashmi 3y ago
    The chromebook website lists specific laptops that support android/linux VMs. I bought a laptop based on that list, but they were not usable in reality. It slowed down the computer significantly.
    - nolist_policy 3y ago
      All new Chromebooks support android and linux. I guess you looked at this[1] list? That basically listed the first Chromebooks that got support for it. Doesn't necessarily mean its recommended to run it on these. [1] https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chrome-os-systems-supporting-linux/ https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chrome-os-systems-suppo...
renewiltord 3y ago
Bought a Chromebook to use as a webcam machine for meetings. Thing was fucking useless. We just used an old Macbook instead. Same price point.
devinprater 3y ago
Meh, still the same software. Still the same screen reader that's not gotten a substantial update in like 3 or so years, and even on my Acer Spin 713 with 16 GB RAM, even Emacs, Emacspeak, and IBM TTS under Crostini is more responsive than local Google TTS models. So nah I'm just not the target audience. At least Orca can run properly on Crostini, unlike WSL, and Linux windows don't just... vanish when plugging in my dock connected to a monitor and Ethernet. But not even Crostini makes me want to pull out the Chromebook, ever. I update the thing, look in ChromeVox options and what's new page to see if anything has improved, and then put it away. It's a great piece of hardware, a high end model, just with very lackluster accessibility.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
sirjaz 3y ago
This is google trying to get people more interested in Chromebooks and ChromeOS. ChromeOS device sales have dropped faster and farther than any other compute device in the past year.
mattlondon 3y ago
Not a celeron in sight - hurrah! This will make the Amazon query a lot easier - no more wading through loads of 2 or 3 gen old celeron shite. Perfect
prepend 3y ago
[flagged]
r00fus 3y ago
Does anyone know how long the support model is for Chromebooks?
- danans 3y ago
  10 years of full OS updates. https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/education/automatic-update-extension-chromebook/ https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/education/automatic...
  - clnq 3y ago
    If the Chromebook project itself survives so long.
    - danans 3y ago
      It has been around for 12 years so far. Also, the OS is mostly open source, and modulo some security features, can be run on non-Chromebook hardware. So even if Google stops developing it, it can be carried forward.
      - clnq 3y ago
        Oh definitely. But there wouldn’t be Google’s updates to a dead project, even if it wouldn’t stop working like Jamboards.
pjmlp 3y ago
Intel Core i3, designed for performance?!?
EvgeniyZh 3y ago
I kind of expected google to roll out their own ARM processors
- drewda 3y ago
  Google has had delays trying to design their own processors (for smartphones): https://www.theinformation.com/articles/inside-googles-efforts-to-develop-custom-chip-for-pixel https://www.theinformation.com/articles/inside-googles-effor...
EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK 3y ago
If I need a thin client computer, i.e. a good 4k screen, ~1kg weight and ability to run Remote Desktop, performance and storage don't matter, what would be the best option?
- BoorishBears 3y ago
  M1 Mackbook Air
  - EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK 3y ago
    2.5k screen, 1.3kg, rather expensive for a thin client. I thought one of those chromebooks might fit.
    - BoorishBears 3y ago
      Even for a thin client I wouldn't take significantly worse battery life and performance to lose 290 grams.
- denysonique 3y ago
  "~1kg weight" - LG Gram comes to mind
holografix 3y ago
FHD resolution in 2023 is dead in the water for anything but children or gamers on low end devices.
fragmede 3y ago
The quality of life feature that's missing is a finger print sensor.
aborsy 3y ago
It’s worth mentioning that ChromeOS is one of the most secure operating systems.
- Atotalnoob 3y ago
  Because it's used less...
makeitdouble 3y ago
Those look interesting, definitely a step in the right direction. It's kinda surprising that Samsung is not part of this lineup when they were the spearhead of decently powerful Chromebooks. Did Google come with contractual obligations that made it a hard sell ? At least Lenovo is in it. A weirder aspect of this: why North America only ? In particular, Lenovo or Acer have no such geographical bias, does it mean we'll have a west/east split, with more advanced models only available in Asian markets again ? Edit: FHD was probably the reasons Samsung is not part of this. That's an awfully low resolution compared to what they've been pushing up until now.
- surfingdino 3y ago
  > In Canada and Europe, new Chromebook Plus laptops will be available starting on October 9, 2023. It's not North America only.
pentagrama 3y ago
Don't know about the product but the ad tune is definitely a banger https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfOx8BBICfY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfOx8BBICfY
- silisili 3y ago
  All I heard sadly was "this ain't for you, old man."
pentagrama 3y ago
"Add humor and emojis" to a social media post [1]. This is not too far away from having an AI bot posting cool stuff for you. [1] https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-uniblog-publish-prod/images/Writing_Assistance.width-1000.format-webp.webp https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-uniblog-publish-prod/ima...
fomine3 3y ago
I'd like to buy a cheapo Chromebook with Intel N100, IPS LCD, and 8GB (hopefully 16GB RAM). It should be sweet spot.
footlose_3815 3y ago
I thought Mac was a bad walled-garden, and M$ was being too pushy with the M$ account requirements, but the Chromebook won't even function without a Google account, and they are eager to retire them ASAP. I was burned once and would never do it again.
panda888888 3y ago
This is nice, but I wish there were smaller/more portable options. I'd love a 12-13" chromebook with a thin body design that's closer to 2 lbs.
ecmascript 3y ago
I think the idea of Chromebooks are great, unfortunately it is made by the dystopian surveillance company Google and therefore cannot be trusted. I don't really want AI capabilities that sends my data back to the mothership embedded in my operating system either. Otherwise it would be a great laptop experience but I would never buy one for me or my family and I strongly advice people not to buy one either. The sad part is that people do not realize what data companies like Google holds on them and many would be freaked out if they knew.
- tapoxi 3y ago
  I think most people know but don't care. Their search history, photos, and email are knowingly stored by Google, but it doesn't impact them. You would need a rogue employee or a massive breach to make people care, I think.
- scarmig 3y ago
  Fedora Silverblue is in some ways comparable. Unfortunately it uses Flatpaks. In the end, the architecture and security (against non-Google adversaries) of ChromeOS trumps everything else for my personal use. And when maintaining things for nontechnical family, ChromeOS eliminates large classes of problems that everything else has.
  - xd1936 3y ago
    What don't you like about Flatpaks?
  - a1o 3y ago
    What is the alternative to flatpaks for something like silverblue?
    - yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
      I mean, you could probably put together something that used snaps instead.
    - scarmig 3y ago
kotaKat 3y ago
> All Chromebook Plus laptops come with the the following guaranteed hardware specs: > CPU: Intel Core i3 12th Gen or above, or AMD Ryzen 3 7000 series or above > RAM: 8GB+ > Storage: 128GB+ > Webcamera: 1080p+ with Temporal Noise Reduction > Display: Full HD IPS or better display It feels a little weird and sad that an i3 is the bar to make something "plus" in performance.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- creshal 3y ago
  > It feels a little weird and sad that an i3 is the bar to make something "plus" in performance. Compared to the Celerons found on some Chromebooks, it still counts. …but there were already plenty of i3 (or even i5, or even R7) Chromebooks with 8 or 16 GB RAM on the market, even at the price point. I don't know what the news is supposed to be here.
  - agloe_dreams 3y ago
    The news is that those models with an i3+ and 8GB of ram will be branded differently to 'help inform the customer of enhanced performance and abilities'. They are trying to shed the image of all chromebooks being thought of by the $159 one that the school gave their kid.
    - dmvdoug 3y ago
      Indeed, I’m reading the comments on this post because my only experience of Chromebooks is with the cart of them that my students use at school. And that experience has been such a wonderful one that I literally threw one into the trashcan in frustration one day trying to get it to work.
- agloe_dreams 3y ago
  In fairness, a 12th Gen i3 is not massively far from an M1. The iX branding has become a little silly lately as a user who is not hardcore pushing the system could not possibly tell the difference between a 1215u and a 1235u.
insanitybit 3y ago
The "more performance" is that the new line has newer hardware. It's not like the OS is doing something interesting or new - this is what you would expect when buying a new laptop versus an old laptop. The OS features seem like fairly basic QOL wins, at best. I don't really care about a generative AI background for my video calls or whatever. I guess if I were in the market for a new chromebook I'd say "oh, there are some new ones, I'll check those out" but that's kinda it.
- creshal 3y ago
  Yeah. The hardware is solid, but there's already been Chromebooks announced for this (or last) year's lineup with equal or better specs. And the AI features smell a lot like "we literally have no idea what AI is good for, we'll just throw it at everything and see what sticks".
  - jeffbee 3y ago
    The AI features seem to just be those that can achieve adequate performance on this amount of hardware.
- agloe_dreams 3y ago
  This is a marketing/branding thing Google is starting this year. It isn't that the hardware is newer, it is that Google is trying to draw a line in the sand between the $159 machines and the $400 machines. Machines with a less than Core i3/Ryzen 7000 won't be branded as such, even if they come out next year. They want a buyer to walk into a store and see A $159 Chromebook and a $400 Chromebook Plus and have and idea that the money goes somewhere and gives you 'more'.
  - toast0 3y ago
    Seems like it makes it easier to send your low-needs user shopping on their own. Hey, get a chromebook+, rather than having to go with them or find out where they're shopping and give them a list of ok models to buy. There have always been chromebooks with better or worse choices of hardware. This selection is certainly good. Personally, I don't shy away from Intel's mainstream core Pentium/Celeron either especially in generations where the core count is the same as i3. But Intel also sells Pentium/Celeron branded atom-series chips that I avoid because of past experience with sluggish systems and reports that they're harder to get 3rd party firmware for (once ChromeOS updates stop happening, I want to be able to put something else on these, if the thing still works)
vachina 3y ago
Why can’t companies be honest with themselves. Nobody wants underpowered x86 laptops running a glorified thin client OS.
- wishfish 3y ago
  It's not a thin client. Hasn't been for a long while. Has Android and Linux layers which runs apps / programs locally and offline. There's also several web apps that can be run offline, including Google's own. Certain models have Steam support. Chrome OS devices are closer to being general purpose computing devices than iPads. You could run one as a thin client and have a great time with it. But it's no longer limited to being thin.
- stetrain 3y ago
  My mom actually really likes her Chromebook Pixel and I'm not sure what to replace it with now that it isn't supported. For a lot of users the browser is the whole computer anyway. Windows is now full of ads and User Engagement popups. It's tough to find an Apple-hardware-level device in the Chromebook space though. There are a few, but this new Chromebook Plus spec seems more like a bare minimum than a premium segment.
  - ghaff 3y ago
    I'm using an old 11" Asus on my current trip but it's out of support and I probably won't use it again. With no more Google hardware which a liquid spill killed, not sure what I'll do for travel going forward. <aybe my 13 yo MacBook Pro going forward for a while while I keep a newer MacBook mostly at home. Maybe an Air at some point. Probably not worth another Chromebook at this point even if it's cheap.
    - dylan604 3y ago
      Does your 13 yo MBP have the horrid GPU in it? Can't remember the year they started, but my 2011 MBP had one. My cheap ass would probably still be using it if it didn't freeze every time a GPU request was made, which is everything now. Once the browsers wanted GPU acceleration, the thing was unusuable
fulafel 3y ago
Interesting that there aren't any ARM based systems that made the performance cut.
- dz0ny 3y ago
  The classic arm for ChromeOS is terrible, mostly because they cheaped out on CPU extensions and storage, and memory bandwidth. They mostly repurposed those cheap Android tablet designs that die after a year.
  - cowmix 3y ago
    I use the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5 Chromebook (picked it up for $279 from Best Buy) and it is pretty amazing. OLED screen, ARM performance that's pretty good, a tablet that comes with a keyboard. It's a great Chromebook for on the go stuff.
    - vincent-manis 3y ago
      +1 I have a Duet 5 and a Duet 3 (smaller form factor, ideal for reading in bed). I like being able to run most Android programs, and my go-to software suite, Emacs, TeXLive, and various Scheme systems, runs fine on Debian Bookworm. I tried Crouton years ago, did not like it; but Crostini seems to work very well. I rarely notice lag, except sometimes when logging in. There are some negatives: some Android apps are flaky, and the Linux environment has a few restrictions. And of course the whole requirement to log in with a Google account. But as a daily driver, the device is inexpensive and highly usable.
  - riku_iki 3y ago
    its tradeoff for performance (acceptable for web browsing) vs battery life.
- bee_rider 3y ago
  It is especially funny because the pitch seems pretty similar to the Ultrabook pitch (thin and lights, but the branding guarantees some performance hurdle was passed—started more or less at the same time as the original Chromebook). ChromeOS was of course notable as a laptop OS on both ARM and x86. I suspect the whole Ultrabook thing kinda fizzled out as it became apparent that ARM was not getting much traction in laptops (other than Apple, but then, they are always an outlier).
mark_l_watson 3y ago
Chromebooks are good products for people who need to be on a budget. With Linux container support, a Chromebook can do anything, but not the best for software development.
- mattzito 3y ago
  I got my wife a chromebook a few years ago to replace her mbp that died unexpectedly right when she needed a laptop. I figured she would use it for a while and then we would get her a new Mac and hand-down the chromebook to one of the kids. Almost five years later, though, she's still using it and loves it. She uses it for everything, doesn't play games or need to run heavy compute locally, and now that Docs and Sheets can open Office documents natively (as opposed to conversion, which it used to do), there's really nothing she needs beyond that. Recently I mentioned that the new Macs that had come out had a great battery life/performance profile and did she want to switch back - and she had little interest in it. They're pretty capable machines for general purpose use. That's anecdata, of course, but if I think back to setting my grandmother up with a mac mini many years ago, if I were doing that today I would absolutely get her a chromebook for the security and data reliability alone.
  - paxys 3y ago
    A $300 Chromebook is more than enough for 90%+ of the population, but it's really the marketing that gets them to spend 5-10x as much on fancier hardware. No one needs an M2 Max chip to browse Facebook/Reddit and write Google docs.
  - mattzito 3y ago
    Self-replying because I did think of something that is an annoyance, which is the lack of iMessage/Messages support on the chromebook. We have iphones, so we can still communicate with each other, but I get my messages on my mac laptop, which helps me see high priority stuff while working, and she doesn't. Annoyance, not a deal-breaker.
    - seabrookmx 3y ago
davidw 3y ago
I've been quite pleasantly surprised by the $250 Chromebook I got from Costco nearly a year ago when my Linux machine's hardware started failing. I originally got it because it was the quickest way to have something for writing emails that wasn't my phone. I ended up quite happy with it though. It does everything I need outside of heavier duty programming, and I don't do so much of that in my spare time these days. You can code with it; I set up a for-fun Elixir/Phoenix project that I coded mostly on the Chromebook. I do a lot of writing/communicating and I don't need anything more than what this computer provides.
- jvanvleet 3y ago
  This is fairly close to my revelation as well. I don't run "heavier duty programming" as OP says local anyhow. VSCode runs wonderfully, battery lasts forever and I run anything beyond trivial in some cloud instance. They are so light, the battery lasts so long and they are so cheap mine just bounces around in my backpack and is always with me.
  - hot_gril 3y ago
    Would a local nodejs webserver be easily doable for web dev? It's sorta ok on the cloud as long as you can SSH tunnel and run the browser locally, but you'd have to either sync code changes or use Vim over SSH (not always nice due to latency).
    - rnk 3y ago
      Yes, people do that kind of thing.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
reacharavindh 3y ago
I'd buy a Chromebook if I can kick Google out of the picture, use the hardware to run Linux in full control and still get outstanding battery life. Like a poor man's(or smart man's? ) M* Macs. Why dont I just buy regular Windows laptop then? because they pay Windows tax and often come with weird power hungry choices because windows....
- jeffbee 3y ago
  > run Linux in full control and still get outstanding battery life. Why do you believe this would be the outcome? Good battery life is an attribute of software, not hardware. The likely outcome of slapping Fedora on a Chromebook will be exceedingly poor battery life and prolonged frustration as you attempt to figure out why it doesn't have energy efficiency parity with ChromeOS.
  - hedora 3y ago
    This hasn't been my experience with other devices that have upstreamed kernel device drivers. Worst case, you run powertop (or whatever), and change a few entries in /proc and /sys. This is even true for phones. For instance, stock GrapheneOS gets 3-4x the battery life of stock Android on my Pixel 6 Pro. (Graphene can't run many things from the android store until you install Google Play Services. That then reduces the battery life back to stock Android levels, except stuff is buggy. I gave up on using it.)
    - seanw444 3y ago
      Gave up on using sandboxed Play Services, or GrapheneOS? I had Play Services on my last Pixel until I broke it. Got another of the same phone and installed GrapheneOS again, but didn't install Play nor Services, and honestly F-Droid has almost everything I need. The few apps I have from Play Store, I get through Aurora Store, and they work without Play Services with no complaints.
      - walteweiss 3y ago
        What do you mean by sandboxed? Is it any different to any other ROM?
josefresco 3y ago
What constitutes a "Plus" Chromebooks is very easily defined now, but what about in 6-12 months? Will the Plus moniker evolve continuously or is this a one-time promotion to sell this hardware generation?
lazerpants 3y ago
Interesting product but it's a shame that Chromebooks typically just turn into e-waste after 2-3 years due to lack of support from Google. They're cheap but terrible for the environment.
- insanitybit 3y ago
  Support for Chromebooks is excellent. I've had my Chromebook for 4 years with zero issues getting patches/ updates.
- nolist_policy 3y ago
  Wrong, Chromebooks receive 10 years of updates from the date of release. So check out the release date before buying one.
  - ricktdotorg 3y ago
    that is correct, but this is a new policy, announced only in mid-September 2023[1] [1] https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/education/automatic-update-extension-chromebook/ https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/education/automatic...
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - izacus 3y ago
      And the previous policy was 7 years for most models. The original poster was still blatantly lying.
      - yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
        7 years from initial launch, not from end of sale, so it was quite possible to buy a Chromebook and then have it promptly lose support
  - heresie-dabord 3y ago
polshaw 3y ago
i3/8GB/128GB/1080p IPS + webcam Essentially they have defined "acceptable" performance across the board and given that a name. If I was looking for cheap hardware it ticks the boxes just about. "AI" is just a transparent marketing attempt at throwing a hot buzzword that most people don't understand into the mix. Not awful but it really could do with a more ambitious tier, a lot of manufacturers will meet the requirements as set out (all laptops shown have 1080p displays, which is disappointing as many chromebooks had better before, 3:2 and 4k displays). We had 16GB chromebook options nearly a decade ago (mar 2015). In fact I think would have been preferable if they made this the chromebook minimum requirements and called those with less "chromebook lite" ("Go" already served as this I think?); because celeron/4GB/64GB/<1080p display/webcam is really pushing things for a new device in late 2023 onwards, even as a facebook machine. PS anyone responsible for the chromebook site out there, most of the device information pages are 404'ing; https://www.google.com/chromebook/discover/pdp-asus-chromebook-cm34-flip/sku-asus-chromebook-cm34-flip-8-gb-128-gb-amd-ryzen-3-cpu/ https://www.google.com/chromebook/discover/pdp-asus-chromebo...
- Almondsetat 3y ago
  You are seriously overestimating how much computing power people need and underestimating the capabilities of those laptops.
  - jeroenhd 3y ago
    Very few people "need" more than a Pentium 4, but there are a lot of technically sufficient, practically unusable laptops out there. Modern Celerons dance that line of "usable on the web now, but who knows what next year brings" quite delicately. My benchmark is "can this play an HD Youtube video full screen". Many cheap Windows laptops will struggle at this task, but with remote education in the state that it's at, that would make life very hard for its users. I've also seen laptops go from usable to unusable because everyone switched codecs and suddenly the hardware acceleration didn't work anymore. I think an i3 with a modest amount of RAM is a good decision for a baseline. You can get away with less, but you'll have to constantly maintain your laptop to do so, tweaking settings as the computer ages and acceleration support dies out. For most people, the device will just slow down to a crawl. An i3 and 8GB of RAM are technically overspecced today, but in five years time you'll be happy you didn't buy the Celeron.

201 points by mikece 3y ago

I'm disappointed that their embed demo video showed at 360p when I have a fibre connection and shows Spanish when I have English captions selected, but I'm only a little surprised. You might think that when they control both frontends and backends end-to-end that they could do it right. Why should people trust a product from a "web company" that can't play a video properly?

squarefoot 3y ago

Does anyone know if the plus models are restricted to ChromeOS only like the older models and, if that's the case, if they can be unlocked like most of the older ones?

turblety 3y ago

Such a shame this isn't ARM, and they stuck with Intel. The battery life vs performance is just too good.

seabrookmx 3y ago
Yeah ChromeOS ARM support is already there, they just need the hardware. I dabbled with the Linux container support on my Lenovo Duet and on a larger more powerful device it would be totally usable. But it seems all the ARM devices are 4GB RAM configs with weak SoC's.

ics 3y ago

Roughly 7-8 years ago I was going to be traveling and didn't have a suitable machine to take with me so I went online and found an Acer CB3 for $100 new– I think the retail then was double that, maybe a little more. I bought two, one for myself and one for my mom who was struggling with her aging MacBook both in operation and physical heft. I immediately dropped crouton onto mine and made it my Linux daily driver for the next year. It ran xfce, emacs, and firefox like butter, silently, and never got warmer than a good lap friend. Battery life for (literally) days. It looked good too, with a very simple white case and sturdy black keycaps. The trackpad even was fine. When my work started to involve heavy graphics and multimedia again my daily use dropped, mostly replaced by a newer Mac, and was eventually relegated to closet storage not to be charged or even turned on for at least two years. Now it's 2023, my mom stopped using hers maybe two years ago in favor of a new and even more portable iPad. I have a daughter who is 3 approaching 4. She's interested in computers, tries to touch type on my desk computer, and is no longer a walking hazard to all non-stationary objects. I dug the old Chromebook out of the closet, plugged it in, and the damn thing works. Once the OS connected to the internet it was kind enough to inform me that its version of ChromeOS was EOL and and that there were no newer supported versions for my hardware. But it works. Even browsing the web normally has no issues beyond the occasional spruce goose'd site which could probably bring down the heftiest workstation anyway. It hasn't been locked out of any usage that I can tell but hopefully soon I'll be able to sit down and see to removing ChromeOS entirely for a fresh linux install. There isn't much of a point to all that I've typed out besides some personal nostalgia. I tend to agree with all the comments which come up about Google's worsening business practices in general, surveillance-enabling behaviour, lack of product support, etc. While they seem to still be investing in it, I hope this product space doesn't eventually die in Google's hands. It's disappointing to me that there are not multiple vendors trying to offer something similar: a streamlined linux desktop experience on decent hardware that isn't fussy and is cheap.

vorpalhex 3y ago
Recently I had to setup a Windows computer and a Macbook. Both sucked. It was miserable. Lots of dialog after dialog after dialog. Disabling crap just to get like functional local file storage. Turning off news and stocks and notifications galore. Linux is fine in this regard as a poweruser but has it's own rough edges. I think for the moment it is actually ahead despite occasionally having to pop into terminal for the odd task. I just can't believe how horrible using a computer is for a non-poweruser. It is abusive. No wonder so many people hate computers when this is the experience they have.
- ghaff 3y ago
  >I just can't believe how horrible using a computer is for a non-poweruser. I think it's more that computers have filesystems and a ton of other stuff--unrelated to crapware in many cases--that a lot of people don't understand, don't want to understand, and that a lot of people reading this are probably somewhat contemptuous of them not understanding. So they use phones that don't require them to understand any of that stuff and ask family/friends to help them when they get out of their very narrow comfort zone for some reason.
  - viraptor 3y ago
    > don't understand, don't want to understand They're a threshold for when things are complicated and not wanting to understand something is fair. But as an adult, you very likely have a home with an address, which contains a room with a common name, which contains a folder, which contains your documents (birth certificate or something similar). That means you already understand filesystems. As a non-poweruser that's all there is to it - beyond that is just being uncomfortable with something you haven't encountered.
  - vorpalhex 3y ago
    As someone who actually works with a lot of basic computer users, you are incorrect. Nobody has ever struggled to understand files or folders. My 80 year old aunt has a preference for the names of her email folders. My 11 year old nephew has a sorting system for his little game mods. No the main issue is exclusively "crap". To quote my mom on a recent call: "How do I make this thing go away?" (It was a notification about some new cloud service). Breaking user patterns is a close second - especially anything to do with file management.

anoncow 3y ago

Is the Photoshop via chrome or is this a native application?

dagmx 3y ago
Via Chrome. They demoed it a while ago, and I can’t find any changes to that since. Basically streaming from a cloud instance.

itsoktocry 3y ago

>All Chromebook Plus laptops come with the the following guaranteed hardware specs: I feel like these sorts of guarantees used to be useful, but now I'm not sure. Outside of my work computer, I buy off-lease ThinkPads for use around the home (ie family computers). I think the oldest one still in use is a 3rd generation i7. And it's totally fine as a daily driver. On the other side, I bought an off-lease desktop that has a 7th gen(?) quad-core 8 thread i7 with 32GB of RAM, and it's not going to allow me to run Windows 11. Kind of silly.

inversetelecine 3y ago
e-waste is a sad thing. Hopefully you can use those computers with Linux or similar for long after Microsoft says they're garbage. By e-waste here I mean: Perfectly good working hardware that gets an arbitrary EoL solely based on software support.

mcoliver 3y ago

I know the tensor power pixelbook was shutdown and I never heard the actual reason just a bunch of speculation about costs/profitability which is probably true. It's a shame that there isn't more competition and development in the neural asic world to harness the power of llms/generative AI on a low power, cheap hardware platform like the pixelbook line. For someone that invented the TPU they have done a not so great job of ensuring it's commercialization and support. Both on the hardware and software side. The coral edge tpu seemed to be the right high level idea but without proper execution. https://github.com/google-coral/edgetpu/issues/668 https://github.com/google-coral/edgetpu/issues/668

losvedir 3y ago

Eight new laptops from Acer, ASUS, HP and Lenovo. I feel like pulled off right, this "shared ecosystem" approach across manufacturers can be very strong, and from a competition perspective is probably pretty healthy. That said, the "everything under one roof" pull of the Apple world is pretty strong. I've been pretty happy with my Google hardware so far (Nexus and then Pixel phones, Nest minis, pixel buds), but now that I'm interested in a smart watch, I'm running into a bit of a wall. I want to want a Pixel watch, but it sounds like the integration with the Pixel phone is not all that great, and for a lot of fitness tracking you also need a separate FitBit account, and have to use a separate FitBit app (!) and it doesn't integrate super well with all my existing data in Google's own Google Fit app that I've got. I know it's not fair to compare these ~$400 laptops with Apple's laptops, but it just seems like Apple is better positioned to pull off seamless integration between laptops, phones, watches, earbuds, etc, when they're not working at cross purposes with a dozen other manufacturers. Then again, some people probably actively don't want all this integration? Maybe just a simple, standalone, cheap laptop is ideal for them, and that's who this is targeting.

haunter 3y ago
>pulled off right, this "shared ecosystem" approach across manufacturers can be very strong, and from a competition perspective is probably pretty healthy. I wish the Steam Machines didn't fail, they were pretty much this https://web.archive.org/web/20160303080731/https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steam_machines https://web.archive.org/web/20160303080731/https://store.ste... One can say the Steam Deck is a better successor but I think mostly because of Proton itself became mature through the years (compared to 2016)
- nolist_policy 3y ago
  There is Steam for ChromeOS in the Beta channel right now. It's working surprisingly well, running inside a VM with virgl acceleration. I could imagine a gaming Chromebox or Chromebook with dedicated graphics in the future.
  - glenstein 3y ago

mrbonner 3y ago

I bought a Lenovo Flex (I think that’s what it is called) from the onset of the pandemic for my kid. It is a convertible tablet. It works perfectly except now it is slow. Is there any suggestion for a replacement with similar tablet but a bit beefy?

YmFzZTY0 3y ago

Does anyone here have one of these framework chromebooks https://frame.work/products/laptop-chromebook-12-gen-intel https://frame.work/products/laptop-chromebook-12-gen-intel? Haven't seen many impressions on it so I've been hesitant to buy one. But it looks pretty good spec wise.

beretguy 3y ago
Framework and chromeos feel like a very strange combination to me.
- freedomben 3y ago
  Hard disagree from me. I've had a lot of Chromebooks and 3 frameworks, and it's a terrific match IMHO. I do wish you could switch back and forth between Linux and Chromebook without replacing the main board, but even that is a great fit. As needs change, you have options. Chromebook is great for many users especially now that it runs Linux apps, and can even be a very capable dev machine.
  - cbsmith 3y ago
    You need to swap out the mainboard to install Linux?
    - danans 3y ago
      It's the other way around. If you want ChromeOS (in particular with its Verified Boot system for the OS image [1]), you need special hardware that comes with Chromebooks, including the Framework Chromebook. That has nothing to do with the ability to run Linux, though. If you don't care about Verified Boot, you can install ChromeOS-Flex on a Framework Linux device (https://www.reddit.com/r/framework/comments/um0mk6/chromeos_flex_framework_amazing_combo/ https://www.reddit.com/r/framework/comments/um0mk6/chromeos_...) On the other hand, installing Linux on Chromebook hardware is straightforward. The options are: 1. Use the Debian Linux VM (Crostini) that is already present on Chromebooks: https://chromeos.dev/en/linux https://chromeos.dev/en/linux All you do is click on a few buttons in the settings. This approach preserves Verified Boot. If you want to replace ChromeOS on a Chromebook with a Linux distro, you can use Crouton: https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton This approach removes verified boot. 1. https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/security-overview/#verified-boot https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/...

pawelduda 3y ago

What is the OS on these? Is it Linux based but very limited? Can you install a normal Linux distro on it without hacking an entire universe?

jeffbee 3y ago
It's Linux and not limited in any tangible way.
- pjmlp 3y ago
  Only selected models support Linux environment, which is anyway executed on its own containarized VM. Plus 128 GB SSD is a severe limitation for modern day storage requirements.
  - jeffbee 3y ago
    Is there an x86 Chromebook you can buy today that won’t run it?
    - pjmlp 3y ago
      The few I see on European shopping malls, being discounted until someone picks them up. Always have Linux support disabled on the settings pane, as "this device is not supported" kind of message.
      - danans 3y ago
        Here are the list of models that support the Linux VM, basic everything released since 2019. https://sites.google.com/a/chromium.org/dev/chromium-os/chrome-os-systems-supporting-linux https://sites.google.com/a/chromium.org/dev/chromium-os/chro...
        pjmlp 3y ago
        I am fully aware of that list, does not change the reality of devices in Media Market showing lack of support.

sangeeth96 3y ago

It could be that I'm the wrong audience for this but I can't help but feel this is massively disappointing even for budget options. The minimum criteria is no way acceptable for 2023, especially given there's a lot of development happening around LLMs that can be run on-device. Given the current state of AI, I feel like the baseline specs is all the more important for general consumers also to play with these and to interface with them. Then again, Google's (and Microsoft's) vision is all about locking access behind their cloud empires.

chaostheory 3y ago

The existence of ChromeOS Flex dulls the excitement here for me, but this is good for people who can’t install ChromeOS on their (old) laptops.

dvh 3y ago

Announced or cancelled? It's 50:50 if you don't put it in title.

freedomben 3y ago

I'm a big fan of Chromebooks, but I do find myself wondering at the direction they are heading. I hope they stand by traditional Googley values of open and interactive, rather than a more Apple approach of locking things down. I'm really, amazingly happy that they added Linux support. Are the kernel contributions and other things that make the Chromebook battery life so good being upstreamed? Are they super specific to Chromebook hardware or is that something that benefits all Linux users? With all the AI stuff being added "directly to ChromeOS", is the OS getting more locked down and less owner-hackable? If one enables dev mode, do you lose access to features?

dotBen 3y ago

The key thing here is specifying 8Gb RAM as minimum spec and branding it accordingly. What's hurt Chromebook's reputation is people buying discounted/value priced 4Gb ones, struggling with performance and concluding it's a terrible platform. I'm intellectually curious what the experience of web-based video editing and Photoshop are like for anyone that actually needs to use these tools as part of their repeat workflow.

notatoad 3y ago
i agree, but i think they should have gone the other way. "chromebook plus" makes it sound like a premium product that you probably don't need. minimum 8GB of ram should be the standard configuration that most people go for. The people buying Chromebooks with 4GB of ram aren't going to be put off because it doesn't have the "chromebook plus" branding on it. if they want to help the chromebook's reputation, they should be calling this the minimum spec for a chromebook, and putting "chromebook lite" or similar branding on the ones that don't meet it.
- dotBen 3y ago
  They do this with Android... follow certain specs (and other requirements) and you can have the Google suite of apps + Play Store access. If you don't, you're own your own. It would be great if they could do that with Chromebooks - follow a minimum spec or otherwise <insert punishment>. Problem is, there isn't anything to hold back or punish with. Which leaves them in a situation where, other than a "made for Chromebook" endorsement that can be withheld, there's nothing to stop anyone making any laptop of any spec and calling it "Chromebook".
  - notatoad 3y ago
    There absolutely is. Even more than there is on android. Chromebook is a google trademark, and chromebook-branded devices are tightly controlled by google. I believe that OEMs have to pick from a predetermined set of approved mainboard and CPU combos. OS images and Software updates are delivered directly from google.
3y ago

nashashmi 3y ago

Anyone remember when Chromebooks were these really fast lightweight cheap systems? I used to be a huge fan of Chromebooks back then. Not anymore. Chromebooks went off the deep end when they told you and promised you that you would get these computers which could run linux apps and android apps. The idea was great: "Run web apps, mobile apps, and desktop apps, all on a secure throwaway system." The performance of doing that was abysmal on weak laptops. It used lots of memory. It started off very slowly when the Linux VM and Android VMs booted. And slowed down the browser too. Chromebook Co should have followed the Windows/Apple way: release those VMs only on certified premium/plus notebooks.

nolist_policy 3y ago
I don't understand your problem, the Linux VM isn't even enabled by default and Android can be disabled with 2 clicks in the settings.
- nashashmi 3y ago
  The chromebook website lists specific laptops that support android/linux VMs. I bought a laptop based on that list, but they were not usable in reality. It slowed down the computer significantly.
  - nolist_policy 3y ago
    All new Chromebooks support android and linux. I guess you looked at this[1] list? That basically listed the first Chromebooks that got support for it. Doesn't necessarily mean its recommended to run it on these. [1] https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chrome-os-systems-supporting-linux/ https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chrome-os-systems-suppo...

renewiltord 3y ago

Bought a Chromebook to use as a webcam machine for meetings. Thing was fucking useless. We just used an old Macbook instead. Same price point.

devinprater 3y ago

Meh, still the same software. Still the same screen reader that's not gotten a substantial update in like 3 or so years, and even on my Acer Spin 713 with 16 GB RAM, even Emacs, Emacspeak, and IBM TTS under Crostini is more responsive than local Google TTS models. So nah I'm just not the target audience. At least Orca can run properly on Crostini, unlike WSL, and Linux windows don't just... vanish when plugging in my dock connected to a monitor and Ethernet. But not even Crostini makes me want to pull out the Chromebook, ever. I update the thing, look in ChromeVox options and what's new page to see if anything has improved, and then put it away. It's a great piece of hardware, a high end model, just with very lackluster accessibility.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

sirjaz 3y ago

This is google trying to get people more interested in Chromebooks and ChromeOS. ChromeOS device sales have dropped faster and farther than any other compute device in the past year.

mattlondon 3y ago

Not a celeron in sight - hurrah! This will make the Amazon query a lot easier - no more wading through loads of 2 or 3 gen old celeron shite. Perfect

prepend 3y ago

[flagged]

r00fus 3y ago

Does anyone know how long the support model is for Chromebooks?

danans 3y ago
10 years of full OS updates. https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/education/automatic-update-extension-chromebook/ https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/education/automatic...
- clnq 3y ago
  If the Chromebook project itself survives so long.
  - danans 3y ago
    It has been around for 12 years so far. Also, the OS is mostly open source, and modulo some security features, can be run on non-Chromebook hardware. So even if Google stops developing it, it can be carried forward.
    - clnq 3y ago
      Oh definitely. But there wouldn’t be Google’s updates to a dead project, even if it wouldn’t stop working like Jamboards.

pjmlp 3y ago

Intel Core i3, designed for performance?!?

EvgeniyZh 3y ago

I kind of expected google to roll out their own ARM processors

drewda 3y ago
Google has had delays trying to design their own processors (for smartphones): https://www.theinformation.com/articles/inside-googles-efforts-to-develop-custom-chip-for-pixel https://www.theinformation.com/articles/inside-googles-effor...

EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK 3y ago

If I need a thin client computer, i.e. a good 4k screen, ~1kg weight and ability to run Remote Desktop, performance and storage don't matter, what would be the best option?

BoorishBears 3y ago
M1 Mackbook Air
- EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK 3y ago
  2.5k screen, 1.3kg, rather expensive for a thin client. I thought one of those chromebooks might fit.
  - BoorishBears 3y ago
    Even for a thin client I wouldn't take significantly worse battery life and performance to lose 290 grams.
denysonique 3y ago
"~1kg weight" - LG Gram comes to mind

holografix 3y ago

FHD resolution in 2023 is dead in the water for anything but children or gamers on low end devices.

fragmede 3y ago

The quality of life feature that's missing is a finger print sensor.

aborsy 3y ago

It’s worth mentioning that ChromeOS is one of the most secure operating systems.

Atotalnoob 3y ago
Because it's used less...

makeitdouble 3y ago

Those look interesting, definitely a step in the right direction. It's kinda surprising that Samsung is not part of this lineup when they were the spearhead of decently powerful Chromebooks. Did Google come with contractual obligations that made it a hard sell ? At least Lenovo is in it. A weirder aspect of this: why North America only ? In particular, Lenovo or Acer have no such geographical bias, does it mean we'll have a west/east split, with more advanced models only available in Asian markets again ? Edit: FHD was probably the reasons Samsung is not part of this. That's an awfully low resolution compared to what they've been pushing up until now.

surfingdino 3y ago
> In Canada and Europe, new Chromebook Plus laptops will be available starting on October 9, 2023. It's not North America only.

pentagrama 3y ago

Don't know about the product but the ad tune is definitely a banger https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfOx8BBICfY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfOx8BBICfY

silisili 3y ago
All I heard sadly was "this ain't for you, old man."

pentagrama 3y ago

"Add humor and emojis" to a social media post [1]. This is not too far away from having an AI bot posting cool stuff for you. [1] https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-uniblog-publish-prod/images/Writing_Assistance.width-1000.format-webp.webp https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-uniblog-publish-prod/ima...

fomine3 3y ago

I'd like to buy a cheapo Chromebook with Intel N100, IPS LCD, and 8GB (hopefully 16GB RAM). It should be sweet spot.

footlose_3815 3y ago

I thought Mac was a bad walled-garden, and M$ was being too pushy with the M$ account requirements, but the Chromebook won't even function without a Google account, and they are eager to retire them ASAP. I was burned once and would never do it again.

panda888888 3y ago

This is nice, but I wish there were smaller/more portable options. I'd love a 12-13" chromebook with a thin body design that's closer to 2 lbs.

ecmascript 3y ago

I think the idea of Chromebooks are great, unfortunately it is made by the dystopian surveillance company Google and therefore cannot be trusted. I don't really want AI capabilities that sends my data back to the mothership embedded in my operating system either. Otherwise it would be a great laptop experience but I would never buy one for me or my family and I strongly advice people not to buy one either. The sad part is that people do not realize what data companies like Google holds on them and many would be freaked out if they knew.

tapoxi 3y ago
I think most people know but don't care. Their search history, photos, and email are knowingly stored by Google, but it doesn't impact them. You would need a rogue employee or a massive breach to make people care, I think.
scarmig 3y ago
Fedora Silverblue is in some ways comparable. Unfortunately it uses Flatpaks. In the end, the architecture and security (against non-Google adversaries) of ChromeOS trumps everything else for my personal use. And when maintaining things for nontechnical family, ChromeOS eliminates large classes of problems that everything else has.
- xd1936 3y ago
  What don't you like about Flatpaks?
- a1o 3y ago
  What is the alternative to flatpaks for something like silverblue?
  - yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
    I mean, you could probably put together something that used snaps instead.
  - scarmig 3y ago

kotaKat 3y ago

> All Chromebook Plus laptops come with the the following guaranteed hardware specs: > CPU: Intel Core i3 12th Gen or above, or AMD Ryzen 3 7000 series or above > RAM: 8GB+ > Storage: 128GB+ > Webcamera: 1080p+ with Temporal Noise Reduction > Display: Full HD IPS or better display It feels a little weird and sad that an i3 is the bar to make something "plus" in performance.

deleted 3y ago
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creshal 3y ago
> It feels a little weird and sad that an i3 is the bar to make something "plus" in performance. Compared to the Celerons found on some Chromebooks, it still counts. …but there were already plenty of i3 (or even i5, or even R7) Chromebooks with 8 or 16 GB RAM on the market, even at the price point. I don't know what the news is supposed to be here.
- agloe_dreams 3y ago
  The news is that those models with an i3+ and 8GB of ram will be branded differently to 'help inform the customer of enhanced performance and abilities'. They are trying to shed the image of all chromebooks being thought of by the $159 one that the school gave their kid.
  - dmvdoug 3y ago
    Indeed, I’m reading the comments on this post because my only experience of Chromebooks is with the cart of them that my students use at school. And that experience has been such a wonderful one that I literally threw one into the trashcan in frustration one day trying to get it to work.
agloe_dreams 3y ago
In fairness, a 12th Gen i3 is not massively far from an M1. The iX branding has become a little silly lately as a user who is not hardcore pushing the system could not possibly tell the difference between a 1215u and a 1235u.

insanitybit 3y ago

The "more performance" is that the new line has newer hardware. It's not like the OS is doing something interesting or new - this is what you would expect when buying a new laptop versus an old laptop. The OS features seem like fairly basic QOL wins, at best. I don't really care about a generative AI background for my video calls or whatever. I guess if I were in the market for a new chromebook I'd say "oh, there are some new ones, I'll check those out" but that's kinda it.

creshal 3y ago
Yeah. The hardware is solid, but there's already been Chromebooks announced for this (or last) year's lineup with equal or better specs. And the AI features smell a lot like "we literally have no idea what AI is good for, we'll just throw it at everything and see what sticks".
- jeffbee 3y ago
  The AI features seem to just be those that can achieve adequate performance on this amount of hardware.
agloe_dreams 3y ago
This is a marketing/branding thing Google is starting this year. It isn't that the hardware is newer, it is that Google is trying to draw a line in the sand between the $159 machines and the $400 machines. Machines with a less than Core i3/Ryzen 7000 won't be branded as such, even if they come out next year. They want a buyer to walk into a store and see A $159 Chromebook and a $400 Chromebook Plus and have and idea that the money goes somewhere and gives you 'more'.
- toast0 3y ago
  Seems like it makes it easier to send your low-needs user shopping on their own. Hey, get a chromebook+, rather than having to go with them or find out where they're shopping and give them a list of ok models to buy. There have always been chromebooks with better or worse choices of hardware. This selection is certainly good. Personally, I don't shy away from Intel's mainstream core Pentium/Celeron either especially in generations where the core count is the same as i3. But Intel also sells Pentium/Celeron branded atom-series chips that I avoid because of past experience with sluggish systems and reports that they're harder to get 3rd party firmware for (once ChromeOS updates stop happening, I want to be able to put something else on these, if the thing still works)

vachina 3y ago

Why can’t companies be honest with themselves. Nobody wants underpowered x86 laptops running a glorified thin client OS.

wishfish 3y ago
It's not a thin client. Hasn't been for a long while. Has Android and Linux layers which runs apps / programs locally and offline. There's also several web apps that can be run offline, including Google's own. Certain models have Steam support. Chrome OS devices are closer to being general purpose computing devices than iPads. You could run one as a thin client and have a great time with it. But it's no longer limited to being thin.
stetrain 3y ago
My mom actually really likes her Chromebook Pixel and I'm not sure what to replace it with now that it isn't supported. For a lot of users the browser is the whole computer anyway. Windows is now full of ads and User Engagement popups. It's tough to find an Apple-hardware-level device in the Chromebook space though. There are a few, but this new Chromebook Plus spec seems more like a bare minimum than a premium segment.
- ghaff 3y ago
  I'm using an old 11" Asus on my current trip but it's out of support and I probably won't use it again. With no more Google hardware which a liquid spill killed, not sure what I'll do for travel going forward. <aybe my 13 yo MacBook Pro going forward for a while while I keep a newer MacBook mostly at home. Maybe an Air at some point. Probably not worth another Chromebook at this point even if it's cheap.
  - dylan604 3y ago
    Does your 13 yo MBP have the horrid GPU in it? Can't remember the year they started, but my 2011 MBP had one. My cheap ass would probably still be using it if it didn't freeze every time a GPU request was made, which is everything now. Once the browsers wanted GPU acceleration, the thing was unusuable

fulafel 3y ago

Interesting that there aren't any ARM based systems that made the performance cut.

dz0ny 3y ago
The classic arm for ChromeOS is terrible, mostly because they cheaped out on CPU extensions and storage, and memory bandwidth. They mostly repurposed those cheap Android tablet designs that die after a year.
- cowmix 3y ago
  I use the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5 Chromebook (picked it up for $279 from Best Buy) and it is pretty amazing. OLED screen, ARM performance that's pretty good, a tablet that comes with a keyboard. It's a great Chromebook for on the go stuff.
  - vincent-manis 3y ago
    +1 I have a Duet 5 and a Duet 3 (smaller form factor, ideal for reading in bed). I like being able to run most Android programs, and my go-to software suite, Emacs, TeXLive, and various Scheme systems, runs fine on Debian Bookworm. I tried Crouton years ago, did not like it; but Crostini seems to work very well. I rarely notice lag, except sometimes when logging in. There are some negatives: some Android apps are flaky, and the Linux environment has a few restrictions. And of course the whole requirement to log in with a Google account. But as a daily driver, the device is inexpensive and highly usable.
- riku_iki 3y ago
  its tradeoff for performance (acceptable for web browsing) vs battery life.
bee_rider 3y ago
It is especially funny because the pitch seems pretty similar to the Ultrabook pitch (thin and lights, but the branding guarantees some performance hurdle was passed—started more or less at the same time as the original Chromebook). ChromeOS was of course notable as a laptop OS on both ARM and x86. I suspect the whole Ultrabook thing kinda fizzled out as it became apparent that ARM was not getting much traction in laptops (other than Apple, but then, they are always an outlier).

mark_l_watson 3y ago

Chromebooks are good products for people who need to be on a budget. With Linux container support, a Chromebook can do anything, but not the best for software development.

mattzito 3y ago
I got my wife a chromebook a few years ago to replace her mbp that died unexpectedly right when she needed a laptop. I figured she would use it for a while and then we would get her a new Mac and hand-down the chromebook to one of the kids. Almost five years later, though, she's still using it and loves it. She uses it for everything, doesn't play games or need to run heavy compute locally, and now that Docs and Sheets can open Office documents natively (as opposed to conversion, which it used to do), there's really nothing she needs beyond that. Recently I mentioned that the new Macs that had come out had a great battery life/performance profile and did she want to switch back - and she had little interest in it. They're pretty capable machines for general purpose use. That's anecdata, of course, but if I think back to setting my grandmother up with a mac mini many years ago, if I were doing that today I would absolutely get her a chromebook for the security and data reliability alone.
- paxys 3y ago
  A $300 Chromebook is more than enough for 90%+ of the population, but it's really the marketing that gets them to spend 5-10x as much on fancier hardware. No one needs an M2 Max chip to browse Facebook/Reddit and write Google docs.
- mattzito 3y ago
  Self-replying because I did think of something that is an annoyance, which is the lack of iMessage/Messages support on the chromebook. We have iphones, so we can still communicate with each other, but I get my messages on my mac laptop, which helps me see high priority stuff while working, and she doesn't. Annoyance, not a deal-breaker.
  - seabrookmx 3y ago

davidw 3y ago

I've been quite pleasantly surprised by the $250 Chromebook I got from Costco nearly a year ago when my Linux machine's hardware started failing. I originally got it because it was the quickest way to have something for writing emails that wasn't my phone. I ended up quite happy with it though. It does everything I need outside of heavier duty programming, and I don't do so much of that in my spare time these days. You can code with it; I set up a for-fun Elixir/Phoenix project that I coded mostly on the Chromebook. I do a lot of writing/communicating and I don't need anything more than what this computer provides.

jvanvleet 3y ago
This is fairly close to my revelation as well. I don't run "heavier duty programming" as OP says local anyhow. VSCode runs wonderfully, battery lasts forever and I run anything beyond trivial in some cloud instance. They are so light, the battery lasts so long and they are so cheap mine just bounces around in my backpack and is always with me.
- hot_gril 3y ago
  Would a local nodejs webserver be easily doable for web dev? It's sorta ok on the cloud as long as you can SSH tunnel and run the browser locally, but you'd have to either sync code changes or use Vim over SSH (not always nice due to latency).
  - rnk 3y ago
    Yes, people do that kind of thing.
deleted 3y ago
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reacharavindh 3y ago

I'd buy a Chromebook if I can kick Google out of the picture, use the hardware to run Linux in full control and still get outstanding battery life. Like a poor man's(or smart man's? ) M* Macs. Why dont I just buy regular Windows laptop then? because they pay Windows tax and often come with weird power hungry choices because windows....

jeffbee 3y ago
> run Linux in full control and still get outstanding battery life. Why do you believe this would be the outcome? Good battery life is an attribute of software, not hardware. The likely outcome of slapping Fedora on a Chromebook will be exceedingly poor battery life and prolonged frustration as you attempt to figure out why it doesn't have energy efficiency parity with ChromeOS.
- hedora 3y ago
  This hasn't been my experience with other devices that have upstreamed kernel device drivers. Worst case, you run powertop (or whatever), and change a few entries in /proc and /sys. This is even true for phones. For instance, stock GrapheneOS gets 3-4x the battery life of stock Android on my Pixel 6 Pro. (Graphene can't run many things from the android store until you install Google Play Services. That then reduces the battery life back to stock Android levels, except stuff is buggy. I gave up on using it.)
  - seanw444 3y ago
    Gave up on using sandboxed Play Services, or GrapheneOS? I had Play Services on my last Pixel until I broke it. Got another of the same phone and installed GrapheneOS again, but didn't install Play nor Services, and honestly F-Droid has almost everything I need. The few apps I have from Play Store, I get through Aurora Store, and they work without Play Services with no complaints.
    - walteweiss 3y ago
      What do you mean by sandboxed? Is it any different to any other ROM?

josefresco 3y ago

What constitutes a "Plus" Chromebooks is very easily defined now, but what about in 6-12 months? Will the Plus moniker evolve continuously or is this a one-time promotion to sell this hardware generation?

lazerpants 3y ago

Interesting product but it's a shame that Chromebooks typically just turn into e-waste after 2-3 years due to lack of support from Google. They're cheap but terrible for the environment.

insanitybit 3y ago
Support for Chromebooks is excellent. I've had my Chromebook for 4 years with zero issues getting patches/ updates.
nolist_policy 3y ago
Wrong, Chromebooks receive 10 years of updates from the date of release. So check out the release date before buying one.
- ricktdotorg 3y ago
  that is correct, but this is a new policy, announced only in mid-September 2023[1] [1] https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/education/automatic-update-extension-chromebook/ https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/education/automatic...
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - izacus 3y ago
    And the previous policy was 7 years for most models. The original poster was still blatantly lying.
    - yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
      7 years from initial launch, not from end of sale, so it was quite possible to buy a Chromebook and then have it promptly lose support
- heresie-dabord 3y ago

polshaw 3y ago

i3/8GB/128GB/1080p IPS + webcam Essentially they have defined "acceptable" performance across the board and given that a name. If I was looking for cheap hardware it ticks the boxes just about. "AI" is just a transparent marketing attempt at throwing a hot buzzword that most people don't understand into the mix. Not awful but it really could do with a more ambitious tier, a lot of manufacturers will meet the requirements as set out (all laptops shown have 1080p displays, which is disappointing as many chromebooks had better before, 3:2 and 4k displays). We had 16GB chromebook options nearly a decade ago (mar 2015). In fact I think would have been preferable if they made this the chromebook minimum requirements and called those with less "chromebook lite" ("Go" already served as this I think?); because celeron/4GB/64GB/<1080p display/webcam is really pushing things for a new device in late 2023 onwards, even as a facebook machine. PS anyone responsible for the chromebook site out there, most of the device information pages are 404'ing; https://www.google.com/chromebook/discover/pdp-asus-chromebook-cm34-flip/sku-asus-chromebook-cm34-flip-8-gb-128-gb-amd-ryzen-3-cpu/ https://www.google.com/chromebook/discover/pdp-asus-chromebo...

Almondsetat 3y ago
You are seriously overestimating how much computing power people need and underestimating the capabilities of those laptops.
- jeroenhd 3y ago
  Very few people "need" more than a Pentium 4, but there are a lot of technically sufficient, practically unusable laptops out there. Modern Celerons dance that line of "usable on the web now, but who knows what next year brings" quite delicately. My benchmark is "can this play an HD Youtube video full screen". Many cheap Windows laptops will struggle at this task, but with remote education in the state that it's at, that would make life very hard for its users. I've also seen laptops go from usable to unusable because everyone switched codecs and suddenly the hardware acceleration didn't work anymore. I think an i3 with a modest amount of RAM is a good decision for a baseline. You can get away with less, but you'll have to constantly maintain your laptop to do so, tweaking settings as the computer ages and acceleration support dies out. For most people, the device will just slow down to a crawl. An i3 and 8GB of RAM are technically overspecced today, but in five years time you'll be happy you didn't buy the Celeron.