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I have something in between an observation and a theory about chromebooks, though I'm not entirely sure about it. First, I think there's still a big whole in h

by netcan 12y ago

I have something in between an observation and a theory about chromebooks, though I'm not entirely sure about it. First, I think there's still a big whole in home computing. Windows laptops are a bundle of compromises that doesn't serve the average home user all that well. Chromebooks are an appealing concept. OTOH, the praise of chromebooks since the start always seems to be "these are cool, they would be great for X" where X is your theoretical aunt, nephew or neighbor. Enthusiasts also like them as a "2nd machine." At the same time, while they continue to sell well I see very little of Chrome OS traffic in web analytics. When the iphone first went on sale, the traffic ramped up immediately. Android web traffic lagged behind sales a lot more and the build up took longer, but it was still obvious. Public data seems to be generally similar. I don't know how far to take conclusions from that. I realize that certain sites do experience significant Chrome OS traffic, especially US education focuses sites. But, for most of the web, Chrome OS seems to be fighting to get to the middle of the "other" category, with SymbianOS and Playstation as rivals. I think Chrome OS is awesome, but still not done. Some sort of a merger with android, some rejigging of the apps and the basic metaphors might be an improvement. I know for my part I'd like to get my Dad one, but it doesn't run Skype so...

ZeroGravitas 12y ago
Skype team blog co-announced Microsoft's intention to support WebRTC, so it shouldn't be that long till it has support. Also, they've already announced the ability to run Android apps on ChromeOS (and Android now has Chrome as it's main browser). So some sort of merger has already happened (if you don't count both using linux + wekbit/blink + Google accounts & apps as enough of a merger already. I think it's also weird to have "ChromeOS" as a seperate category in web stats. It's basically Chrome, which the stats will tell you is doing just fine, both on mobile and desktop.
jdeibele 12y ago
Anecdotally: My 12-year-old daughter uses her phone to text friends and her Android tablet (Nook running Cyanogenmod) to read books from the library in the Kindle app. She's constantly dragging around a Chromebook because "it has better speakers" and the folding screen doesn't need to be held to show YouTube videos. The 10-year-old daughter (not old enough for a phone (for us), reads paper books) drags around another Chromebook for YouTube and writing. The 8-year-old son uses a Kindle Fire tablet to play games and read books we've bought. We replaced the iMac in the kitchen with a Chromebox and that's been hugely popular. The old iMac was six years old and very slow. My 10-year-old has had some trouble at her school because they use MS Office and she's not used to having to save her changes. She's written 6730 words in her story for English class since the start of November in Google Docs and we transfer it onto a flash drive so she can take it to school. My wife and I have MacBook Airs but I would find it tempting to replace mine with a new Toshiba Chromebook (1920x1080 IPS screen for $330) if my MacBook died today. I'd like shell access without necessarily needing root access. Trying shell access meant flipping a switch on the Chromebooks that brought up a scary warning every time I opened the lid. This was a couple of years ago and I hope things have progressed.

by netcan 12y ago

ZeroGravitas 12y ago

Skype team blog co-announced Microsoft's intention to support WebRTC, so it shouldn't be that long till it has support. Also, they've already announced the ability to run Android apps on ChromeOS (and Android now has Chrome as it's main browser). So some sort of merger has already happened (if you don't count both using linux + wekbit/blink + Google accounts & apps as enough of a merger already. I think it's also weird to have "ChromeOS" as a seperate category in web stats. It's basically Chrome, which the stats will tell you is doing just fine, both on mobile and desktop.

jdeibele 12y ago

Anecdotally: My 12-year-old daughter uses her phone to text friends and her Android tablet (Nook running Cyanogenmod) to read books from the library in the Kindle app. She's constantly dragging around a Chromebook because "it has better speakers" and the folding screen doesn't need to be held to show YouTube videos. The 10-year-old daughter (not old enough for a phone (for us), reads paper books) drags around another Chromebook for YouTube and writing. The 8-year-old son uses a Kindle Fire tablet to play games and read books we've bought. We replaced the iMac in the kitchen with a Chromebox and that's been hugely popular. The old iMac was six years old and very slow. My 10-year-old has had some trouble at her school because they use MS Office and she's not used to having to save her changes. She's written 6730 words in her story for English class since the start of November in Google Docs and we transfer it onto a flash drive so she can take it to school. My wife and I have MacBook Airs but I would find it tempting to replace mine with a new Toshiba Chromebook (1920x1080 IPS screen for $330) if my MacBook died today. I'd like shell access without necessarily needing root access. Trying shell access meant flipping a switch on the Chromebooks that brought up a scary warning every time I opened the lid. This was a couple of years ago and I hope things have progressed.