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I know of one person who has brought one and ended up describing it as useless, selling it on, and buying a macbook air. I've not seen or heard of anyone else

by rjd 13y ago

I know of one person who has brought one and ended up describing it as useless, selling it on, and buying a macbook air. I've not seen or heard of anyone else with one. Shipping volumes do not equal consumer purchases, so till I actually see people with them I'll take this as some sort of advertorial.

kbaker 13y ago
I bought a Samsung ARM Chromebook to play around with and see what Chrome OS is like. It definitely has a single-purpose, very limited use case - to deliver web content. But, it does this extremely well. The good parts: Automatic syncing with Google services, such that you can wipe everything and restore, and it will automatically reinstall all of your applications and settings; encrypted storage and signed binaries so it is difficult if not impossible to load malware; and a very polished UI that gets you into a browser and gets out of the way to let you surf the web. However, it does start breaking down when you want to start doing more CPU-intensive tasks like gaming, there is a big gap right now between where HTML5 gaming is and what native gaming (even through Flash) delivers. For a system that runs all apps through the browser, that is going to continue being difficult. Also, the almost-continuously-online requirement can be tough in some cases, but really I already have wifi everywhere I want to use it... I can see it being a great option for 95% of day-to-day computer users, though. Mine was $250, and it definitely outperforms low-end laptops - great battery life, good speed, lightweight, etc. Not to mention it can run a full version of armhf Ubuntu so I can still run tuxracer when necessary. TFA may be an advertorial, but I see Chromebooks as the evolution of the original netbook idea - a cheap PC that goes everywhere and is good enough for most online activities.
- jyf1987 13y ago
  also bought this, the only problem is there're so less REALLY offline chrome apps in the store
jamesbritt 13y ago
Counterdote: I know a person who bought one and thinks it absolutely perfect for both entertainment and development, as he shells into other machines if he needs to and gets amazing battery life.
VikingCoder 13y ago
Chrome Remote Desktop means I can access my Desktop computer anywhere in my house that I want to.
- shmed 13y ago
  A cheap Windows RT tablet/laptop can do this too. Plus, you can even use the RT device without internet (since it has more than a couple decent off line apps).
  - Toshio 13y ago
    The tablet/laptop you speak of isn't cheap, because of the OS license. Chromebooks can be cheap (like $200 cheap) because ChromiumOS/Linux is free (in both senses of the word). I have not seen other OS vendors being able to deliver a device that's even remotely price-competitive with a Chromebook.
  - VikingCoder 13y ago
    There are also offline Chrome apps that you can use without internet.
  - VikingCoder 13y ago
    Also, you're kind-of a little bit lying. Chrome Remote Desktop works through (most) firewalls, no configuration required. In order to use Windows Remote Desktop, you'd need to open up your firewall by hand. Also, Chrome Remote Desktop lets me use two-factor authentication to log in, where Windows Remote Desktop is much, much more vulnerable.

by rjd 13y ago

kbaker 13y ago

I bought a Samsung ARM Chromebook to play around with and see what Chrome OS is like. It definitely has a single-purpose, very limited use case - to deliver web content. But, it does this extremely well. The good parts: Automatic syncing with Google services, such that you can wipe everything and restore, and it will automatically reinstall all of your applications and settings; encrypted storage and signed binaries so it is difficult if not impossible to load malware; and a very polished UI that gets you into a browser and gets out of the way to let you surf the web. However, it does start breaking down when you want to start doing more CPU-intensive tasks like gaming, there is a big gap right now between where HTML5 gaming is and what native gaming (even through Flash) delivers. For a system that runs all apps through the browser, that is going to continue being difficult. Also, the almost-continuously-online requirement can be tough in some cases, but really I already have wifi everywhere I want to use it... I can see it being a great option for 95% of day-to-day computer users, though. Mine was $250, and it definitely outperforms low-end laptops - great battery life, good speed, lightweight, etc. Not to mention it can run a full version of armhf Ubuntu so I can still run tuxracer when necessary. TFA may be an advertorial, but I see Chromebooks as the evolution of the original netbook idea - a cheap PC that goes everywhere and is good enough for most online activities.

jyf1987 13y ago
also bought this, the only problem is there're so less REALLY offline chrome apps in the store

jamesbritt 13y ago

Counterdote: I know a person who bought one and thinks it absolutely perfect for both entertainment and development, as he shells into other machines if he needs to and gets amazing battery life.

VikingCoder 13y ago

Chrome Remote Desktop means I can access my Desktop computer anywhere in my house that I want to.

shmed 13y ago
A cheap Windows RT tablet/laptop can do this too. Plus, you can even use the RT device without internet (since it has more than a couple decent off line apps).
- Toshio 13y ago
  The tablet/laptop you speak of isn't cheap, because of the OS license. Chromebooks can be cheap (like $200 cheap) because ChromiumOS/Linux is free (in both senses of the word). I have not seen other OS vendors being able to deliver a device that's even remotely price-competitive with a Chromebook.
- VikingCoder 13y ago
  There are also offline Chrome apps that you can use without internet.
- VikingCoder 13y ago
  Also, you're kind-of a little bit lying. Chrome Remote Desktop works through (most) firewalls, no configuration required. In order to use Windows Remote Desktop, you'd need to open up your firewall by hand. Also, Chrome Remote Desktop lets me use two-factor authentication to log in, where Windows Remote Desktop is much, much more vulnerable.