17 ms·

Jesus, designing a usable ultrabook must be very difficult. We have one contender from California, but their ideology has them offer just a single USB-C port.

Jesus, designing a usable ultrabook must be very difficult. We have one contender from California, but their ideology has them offer just a single USB-C port. Now we get the competitor from Mountain View, who have rightly recognized the need for more than one fucking port when that's how you charge the damn thing, and what do they decide? Oh yeah, we'll top out storage at 64GiB.

jedmeyers 12y ago
Mountain View is also in California, by the way. Apple and Google are 15 minutes drive apart.
egonschiele 12y ago
The whole point of a chromebook is that the storage is in the cloud. I was surprised they offered so much storage.
- revelation 12y ago
  That's great, but even at 1GBit over Google Fiber that has still less bandwidth than an actual SSD. And of course the most important part of why you use an SSD in the first place is latency, where cloud storage is significantly slower than 1995 spinning platter hard disks. So even if I accept that the storage is in the cloud, it doesn't make sense since the hardware is clearly not there, but the software isn't either. I can't tell VMWare to use Google Drive for storage. It's a propietary data-dump, not an actual drive.
  - knodi123 12y ago
    can you use VMWare on a chromebook?
    - darcyparker 12y ago
      Inside a chroot - yes. See https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton
    - gnopgnip 12y ago
      The newer versions of VMware are html based instead of using the thick client. Managing them and accessing the console should work in theory. Also the Citrix receiver and Remote Desktop clients both work well on the newer chromebooks. If you mean running vms I would consider a more powerful machine with more ram and a supported operating system.
      - X-Istence 12y ago
        Too bad that VMWare still hasn't upgraded their VMWare Integration plugin to use the new plugin architecture for Chrome, and that Adobe no longer makes Flash for Linux because right now the only way I can manage my VMWare/vCenter is using the Freshplayerplugin that wraps the Pepper Flash version that comes bundled with Chrome so that I can have the VMWare integration plugin function so that I can upload/download OVF's. --- Suffice to say, the newer versions of VMWare are not HTML based. It's a full on Flash application.
        tmosleyIII 12y ago
        I have a Dell XPS13 running Ubuntu and I use the vSphere Web Client in Chrome to manage our infrastructure.
        X-Istence 12y ago
        Do you have the VMWare Client Integration plugin? So that you can upload/download OVF files? So that you can browse the datastore and download files?
        tmosleyIII 12y ago
        I apologize I read that last line right after I hit reply. I still cannot transfer files. I use it to manage the existing FreeBSD\Windows\Linux boxes that we currently have and have a bunch of templates that I use already.
  - fizzbatter 12y ago
    To be fair, you're not running VMWare on the Pixel either (i don't think?). I'm skeptical that it is even a problem for just about anything you can actually run on the OS. It's a Chromebook afterall, running disk-utilizing programs is not it's design speciality. Sure, you could dump Linux on it - but i'm not sure how many would choose a Pixel over some other highend brands for a Linux machine. I believe the disk is mainly just used as a cache, for web apps (music/etc). Just about everything is stored in the "cloud". (I own a first generation Chromebook, but things may have changed)
    - revelation 12y ago
      Surely a majority of people buying this won't be running the actual Chromebook system on it? What application can you even run on that system that would use 8GiB of RAM and an i5? And last I checked, you couldn't even run Skype on it, so I mean I just come up pretty much empty for the set of people willing to run Chromebook the OS and buy a 1k machine to do it. Since Chromebook is Linux under the hood, they'll presumably have the driver situation down. So this makes for a very nice Linux system.
      - dragonwriter 12y ago
        > Surely a majority of people buying this won't be running the actual Chromebook system on it? "Chromebook" is the hardware device. ChromeOS is the operating system. > What application can you even run on that system that would use 8GiB of RAM and an i5? Is there an upper limit to the RAM or CPU a browser-based application can use?
      - xnxn 12y ago
        > couldn't even run Skype on it Hangouts?
        nfoz 12y ago
        ... would be fine until I want to talk to my mother, who uses Skype. And then it would feel strangely limiting to not be able to do that on my $999 computer.
- Cakez0r 12y ago
  It seems like the first models where initially intended to be more of a thin client type deal, but that doesn't seem to be the case with this model (given that it can go up to an i7 with 16gb of RAM). The disk space is disappointing mark on an otherwise excellent ultrabook report card.
- choward 12y ago
  In a world where cable companies monopolize broadband Internet and cell phone carriers charge for data by the megabyte, I'm pretty sure I don't want to rely solely on the cloud.
  - vetinari 12y ago
    In a world, where I achieved today 50-200 kbps connection via ipsec to my company I don't want to rely on network connection either.
- dragonwriter 12y ago
  > The whole point of a chromebook is that the storage is in the cloud. The whole point of a Chromebook is that the Chrome browser is the app platform. But among the many big pushes of Chrome to enable browser to be a compelling app platform (and one that eventually moved into web standards) is enabling local storage for browser applications so that they don't need to rely on remote storage for everything. So it makes sense that it would have less storage than a laptop with a traditional OS, but more storage than you would expect from a "the storage is in the cloud" model.
  - pekk 12y ago
    The typical usage of local storage for webapps is as a cache. That's different in practice from the traditional desktop pattern of installing apps.
- darcyparker 12y ago
  I upgraded my acer c720p chromebook to 120GB NGFF drive so I'd have more space for my debian chroot. The chromeos is nice. But I really depend on running linux (debian).
edvinbesic 12y ago
One is promoting a completely wireless way of computing and the other is promoting a completely cloud based way of computing. Apples to Oranges, no pun intended.
pgodzin 12y ago
Well the goal of all the Google integration is that the majority of things are stored in the cloud.
__m 12y ago
if you use a hub as a charger i don't really see a problem. At home i have a usb hub and outside i don't even use usb. One cable ought to be enough for a portable device.
chez17 12y ago
It has an SD card reader. You can double the storage for super cheap.
- mmastrac 12y ago
  You could even triple it with the new 200GB SD cards, but the performance won't be that great. Not so bad for storing documents and large media, I suppose. Any idea if it uses one of the many standard-ish SSD SATA or PCIe interfaces?
  - darcyparker 12y ago
    You can upgrade the NGFF drive in many other chromebooks. I suspect you should be able to do the same for the new pixel. For example, see bubble 4 in the image at the bottom of this page: http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-information-for-chrome-os-devices/acer-c720-chromebook http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-information-fo... I upgraded my ngff to 128GB on my acer c720P chromebook.
    - ash 12y ago
      This option doesn't seem to be available in Pixel. SSD is soldered.
- cjbprime 12y ago
  I have bad news -- the SD card reader on both the new and old Chromebook Pixel is hooked up over USB2 (i.e. max 20MB/sec transfer rate). There is no internal expansion via msata/pcie. And the SSD is soldered down.
  - derekp7 12y ago
    Would it be worth putting a large SD card on it, and using a portion of the internal storage as high speed cache?
    - cjbprime 12y ago
wahsd 12y ago
Well, you just store all your data on the NSA cloud from your NSA terminal. To your point about he MacBook one port. They do offer a rather smart "splitter" dongle at $60-$90 that allows you to charge while I/Oing other data when that uncommon scenario uncommonly arises. I just don't get the whole Google approach. They think far higher of their "OS" than is warranted. They should have been selling this thing as a loss leader at around =<$800. I don't know too many people ... as in none ... who want to spend $1k on a Google "OS" machine.
- zanny 12y ago
  If it had 256GB and Ubunutu it would be the Linux Macbook we need. A large portion of buyers will almost certainly be trying to run GNU/Linux on it anyway.
  - yungchin 12y ago
    And not just any Linux notebook: assuming they don't change this from the last version, it'll be open down to the embedded-controller firmware. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTMwOTY http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTMwOTY
  - badloginagain 12y ago
    "How hard would it be to install Ubuntu" is the first thing I think whenever I see a Chromebook. I never look into it further because I assume they've made it difficult.
    - fragmede 12y ago
      It's really not though. There's crouton which makes it trivial to setup a chroot - https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton which is good enough for most users. If you'd rather blow away ChromeOS and install Ubuntu, it's just a few commands on the command line to boot from USB and install Ubuntu.
      - 12y ago
ChuckMcM 12y ago
What most people have missed is that USB allows charging and data over the same port. So you can easily get a power adapter that has a charging tip which has on the same cord another USB-C port (socket) which you can plug into your display chain, or port replicator or what not. In Apple's case I fully expect they will make it so that when you plug your Apple display into your laptop it also charges it since the charger is permanently connected to (or built into) the Apple monitor/display.
- cV6WB 12y ago
  > In Apple's case I fully expect they will make it so that when you plug your Apple display into your laptop it also charges it since the charger is permanently connected to (or built into) the Apple monitor/display. Except that this display does not exist.
  - outericky 12y ago
    Adapters will exist for now. I think a solution to a single port (though, having more than 1 is probably better) is great. Why do we need 8 different port types? We should have one and it should do everything. But we should have 2 of them.
    - Zak 12y ago
      I haven't seen anybody complaining about the move to a single port type. Most of us in the tech world recognize that as a Good Thing. What many of us don't like is that you have to unplug the power adapter just to plug in a flash drive unless you have a dongle.
      - seanp2k2 12y ago
        Hopefully the charger has 4x USB built in (2x normal + 2x type C)
        mark-r 12y ago
blfr 12y ago
They do add 1TB of Google Drive storage for three years so, if you have a good connection, it's not that big an obstacle.
zanny 12y ago
I thought this years XPS 13 from Dell looked really slick. When it comes out in Sputnik mode it will definitely be the Linux notebook of the year.
- ericfrederich 12y ago
  "Sputnik mode"?
  - xnxn 12y ago
    https://sputnik.github.io/ https://sputnik.github.io/
  - mercnet 12y ago
    Sputnik mode = Laptop loaded with Ubuntu (Developer's Edition)
- darcyparker 12y ago
  It's a nice laptop... but underspec'd for me. I'd like to see USB-C and more than 1920 x 1080 resolution. I don't care as much about the resolution on a 13" screen. But I'd like to be able to drive a 4K monitor. It's not clear to me whether it can drive a 4K monitor with its display port.
  - bri3d 12y ago
    There's an optional 3200x1800 resolution display. Also, unless Dell have done something very strange it should be able to drive 4K, although I haven't found any confirmation.
  - krakensden 12y ago
    What's got USB-C other than the Macbooks released yesterday? If it catches on it might be nice in the future, but unless you're daisy-chaining expensive laptops...
- tacticus 12y ago
  Shame about the price and the inability to put more than 8GB in it. (and the fact that dell are still stupid about global availability)
AustinDizzy 12y ago
Google's marketing strategy for the Pixel isn't geared towards the "hacker" and developer type, it's more geared towards students and people who solely use their computers for simple web browsing and document processing. Offering 1TB+ of online storage is enough for all your office/school documents and all the photos you could ever want for the average person. If Google were making hardware only for developers and the hacker type, you bet they'd put more local storage in it and make it more "offline" friendly.
- revelation 12y ago
  It's a 3:2 display with an i5 upwards and minimum of 8GiB of RAM. That doesn't particularly fit into the simple web browsing and document processing crowd, who would presumably be much better served with something like the Intel Core M Apple uses, which could easily yield twice the battery runtime at a zero cost for these usecases. It also costs >$1k, so theres that.
  - kbenson 12y ago
    Here[1] is a break down of a core M and i5 mobile processor. I don't know if they are the specific processors, but there are some interesting differences, mostly around cache size, graphics chip, and graphics capabilities (the i5 has more hardware decode capabilities it seems). That said, since they are advertising 12 hours of battery, it's not like it's a slouch in that department. 1: http://ark.intel.com/compare/84672,85213 http://ark.intel.com/compare/84672,85213
    - revelation 12y ago
      The most important part is TDP, 4.5W versus 15W. Now sure, both processors tick all the boxes, but at the end of the day, you get performance as you put watts in (certainly when you are comparing processors as similar as these two). So the M will perform perfectly fine for YouTube, web browsing, office etc. but it will suffer significantly in benchmarks (and subsequently any high load / long time situations). Which is a very good tradeoff to make since you get 1/3rd of the power consumption but can run all the important usecases, if the office is what you're targeting.
sspiff 12y ago
Google is trying to push people to cloud storage, nothing new about that.
pbreit 12y ago
Complaining about Apple removing ports is foolhardy and pretty much always wrong.
- TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
  They've done it many times before: * Original iMac (all-USB, no floppy disk drive) * MacBook Air (no CD drive) * MacBook Pro (no Ethernet) People have gotten used to it each time.
  - kryptiskt 12y ago
    The original Air had one USB, didn't work out very well.
    - ceejayoz 12y ago
      Didn't work out very well? The original Air basically created the "ultrabook" market and ended the netbook one. I doubt anyone at Apple is disappointed in it.
      - m_mueller 12y ago
        The first gen Air was probably the most unusable machine Apple has created since the NeXT acquisition. It also didn't sell well, so it hardly 'created a market'. Only when second gen came out, with much better harddisk, more ports and better chipset, they really took off. The first gen was a good investment into the future by Apple, a testbed to try out new manufacturing technologies and probing the market. I suspect this Macbook could turn out the same, even though it's probably much more usable than the first Air.
  - akhilcacharya 12y ago
    The problem isn't the new port in my opinion, the problem is you only get one of it, and its the only port that can be used for charging as well. If it had another means of charging or another port (like, say, on the back) I wouldn't mind as much.
dschiptsov 12y ago
This is rather obvious - everyone nowadays want you to use their paid cloud services and to buy their content.
j_baker 12y ago
Well yes, I think designing an ultrabook probably is difficult. I mean, you have to cram a lot of powerful components into a very small computer. You've only go so much space, so something's gotta give.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
akhilcacharya 12y ago
I completely agree. This would be a killer alternative to an MBPr if an option to upgrade/purchase a 256GB SSD was available. So close to perfect, yet so far.
- darcyparker 12y ago
  Most chromebooks these days are NGFF... And you can get a 256GB NGFF on amazon. It's a common upgrade for chromebook users. Especially those running a chroot with crouton.
  - akhilcacharya 12y ago
    One of the Pixel's engineers stated that its not upgradable, sadly. Oh well.
krapp 12y ago
Neither Apple nor Google, when designing these ultrabooks, really seem to consider 'usability' a top priority in the way the typical HN user would define the term. They seem like fashion accessories first, brand adverts second, and general purpose computers... somewhere further down. Of course i'm one of those cranky old dinosaurs who likes cords and ports and who doesn't particularly like 'the cloud' so obviously it's not for me anyway.
- rbanffy 12y ago
  Is there such a thing like a "general purpose computer" anymore? My computers need to be light. I don't need a powerful CPU and, since I run small VMs, not a lot of memory. With containers, the needs are even more spartan. What I do need is a good battery, screen and keyboard. Were I running simulations over large datasets, I would prioritize a large amounts of memory, fast CPUs and the fastest GPUs I could lay my hands on. And a fast network so I could move the datasets easily. My general purpose computer would have Xeons (E7s and Phis), Nvidia GPUs and Infiniband interconnects across multiple chassis. My mom needs a keyboard, a mouse and a screen. And a browser. And that's about it.
  - krapp 12y ago
    I'd say a general purpose computer at the very least is one that doesn't make too many assumptions about what you should and shouldn't do with it. These ultralight notebooks seem indended primarily for consuming media and the web - which is fine, if that's what you want. But having more ports and more local storage is still less opinionated.
  - nfoz 12y ago
    My mom needs a webcam and Skype to chat with her grandkids. She needs a USB slot so she can load a document from a conference. She needs flash to play that silly train game she found online that the grandkids admire her for. She needs a decent CPU and RAM because webbrowsing requirements are legit ridiculous these days.
zobzu 12y ago
That's because you're supposed to store all your data on Google servers (this is not sarcasm). For 1000 USD however this is ridiculous. Just go DELL or Asus or similar. The XPS13 is excellent for example, come with proper ports, disk space, is light, is fast, has long battery life, has great screen, etc. Getting an Apple or Google ultra-light laptop just because they're big, rich, trendy companies doesn't seem like a great idea this year. Maybe they'll catch up next year.
- spot 12y ago
  xps13 does not have a retina screen. i don't think i could buy a non HiDPI device anymore.
  - DanTheManPR 12y ago
    It has the option of a 3200x1800 screen.
    - darcyparker 12y ago
      Where did you see this? I tried adding it to my cart and I don't see the option. And I don't see it in their 'configuration' description.
      - bmurphy1976 12y ago
        The mystery of Dell's website. Go back to Google and search again. Dell gives you different options (and prices) depending on how you enter and navigate the web site. It's a maze of wonderful discovery! Usability at its finest!
        Alterlife 12y ago
        Dell uses targeted discount links. People post on 'deal' forums. The lower prices available on Google search results are special offers that people posted. They won't be accessible through the standard menu. It's Dells model: coupons, discounts, offers, combo offers and all.
superuser2 12y ago
I see this as a slightly more flexible docking station. I don't mind having a hub on my desk. Connecting one cable when I return the laptop to my desk would be amazing - currently it takes 3. I need peripherals frequently - but only at my desk.

jedmeyers 12y ago

Mountain View is also in California, by the way. Apple and Google are 15 minutes drive apart.

egonschiele 12y ago

The whole point of a chromebook is that the storage is in the cloud. I was surprised they offered so much storage.

revelation 12y ago
That's great, but even at 1GBit over Google Fiber that has still less bandwidth than an actual SSD. And of course the most important part of why you use an SSD in the first place is latency, where cloud storage is significantly slower than 1995 spinning platter hard disks. So even if I accept that the storage is in the cloud, it doesn't make sense since the hardware is clearly not there, but the software isn't either. I can't tell VMWare to use Google Drive for storage. It's a propietary data-dump, not an actual drive.
- knodi123 12y ago
  can you use VMWare on a chromebook?
  - darcyparker 12y ago
    Inside a chroot - yes. See https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton
  - gnopgnip 12y ago
    The newer versions of VMware are html based instead of using the thick client. Managing them and accessing the console should work in theory. Also the Citrix receiver and Remote Desktop clients both work well on the newer chromebooks. If you mean running vms I would consider a more powerful machine with more ram and a supported operating system.
    - X-Istence 12y ago
      Too bad that VMWare still hasn't upgraded their VMWare Integration plugin to use the new plugin architecture for Chrome, and that Adobe no longer makes Flash for Linux because right now the only way I can manage my VMWare/vCenter is using the Freshplayerplugin that wraps the Pepper Flash version that comes bundled with Chrome so that I can have the VMWare integration plugin function so that I can upload/download OVF's. --- Suffice to say, the newer versions of VMWare are not HTML based. It's a full on Flash application.
      - tmosleyIII 12y ago
        I have a Dell XPS13 running Ubuntu and I use the vSphere Web Client in Chrome to manage our infrastructure.
        X-Istence 12y ago
        Do you have the VMWare Client Integration plugin? So that you can upload/download OVF files? So that you can browse the datastore and download files?
        tmosleyIII 12y ago
        I apologize I read that last line right after I hit reply. I still cannot transfer files. I use it to manage the existing FreeBSD\Windows\Linux boxes that we currently have and have a bunch of templates that I use already.
- fizzbatter 12y ago
  To be fair, you're not running VMWare on the Pixel either (i don't think?). I'm skeptical that it is even a problem for just about anything you can actually run on the OS. It's a Chromebook afterall, running disk-utilizing programs is not it's design speciality. Sure, you could dump Linux on it - but i'm not sure how many would choose a Pixel over some other highend brands for a Linux machine. I believe the disk is mainly just used as a cache, for web apps (music/etc). Just about everything is stored in the "cloud". (I own a first generation Chromebook, but things may have changed)
  - revelation 12y ago
    Surely a majority of people buying this won't be running the actual Chromebook system on it? What application can you even run on that system that would use 8GiB of RAM and an i5? And last I checked, you couldn't even run Skype on it, so I mean I just come up pretty much empty for the set of people willing to run Chromebook the OS and buy a 1k machine to do it. Since Chromebook is Linux under the hood, they'll presumably have the driver situation down. So this makes for a very nice Linux system.
    - dragonwriter 12y ago
      > Surely a majority of people buying this won't be running the actual Chromebook system on it? "Chromebook" is the hardware device. ChromeOS is the operating system. > What application can you even run on that system that would use 8GiB of RAM and an i5? Is there an upper limit to the RAM or CPU a browser-based application can use?
    - xnxn 12y ago
      > couldn't even run Skype on it Hangouts?
      - nfoz 12y ago
        ... would be fine until I want to talk to my mother, who uses Skype. And then it would feel strangely limiting to not be able to do that on my $999 computer.
Cakez0r 12y ago
It seems like the first models where initially intended to be more of a thin client type deal, but that doesn't seem to be the case with this model (given that it can go up to an i7 with 16gb of RAM). The disk space is disappointing mark on an otherwise excellent ultrabook report card.
choward 12y ago
In a world where cable companies monopolize broadband Internet and cell phone carriers charge for data by the megabyte, I'm pretty sure I don't want to rely solely on the cloud.
- vetinari 12y ago
  In a world, where I achieved today 50-200 kbps connection via ipsec to my company I don't want to rely on network connection either.
dragonwriter 12y ago
> The whole point of a chromebook is that the storage is in the cloud. The whole point of a Chromebook is that the Chrome browser is the app platform. But among the many big pushes of Chrome to enable browser to be a compelling app platform (and one that eventually moved into web standards) is enabling local storage for browser applications so that they don't need to rely on remote storage for everything. So it makes sense that it would have less storage than a laptop with a traditional OS, but more storage than you would expect from a "the storage is in the cloud" model.
- pekk 12y ago
  The typical usage of local storage for webapps is as a cache. That's different in practice from the traditional desktop pattern of installing apps.
darcyparker 12y ago
I upgraded my acer c720p chromebook to 120GB NGFF drive so I'd have more space for my debian chroot. The chromeos is nice. But I really depend on running linux (debian).

edvinbesic 12y ago

One is promoting a completely wireless way of computing and the other is promoting a completely cloud based way of computing. Apples to Oranges, no pun intended.

pgodzin 12y ago

Well the goal of all the Google integration is that the majority of things are stored in the cloud.

__m 12y ago

if you use a hub as a charger i don't really see a problem. At home i have a usb hub and outside i don't even use usb. One cable ought to be enough for a portable device.

chez17 12y ago

It has an SD card reader. You can double the storage for super cheap.

mmastrac 12y ago
You could even triple it with the new 200GB SD cards, but the performance won't be that great. Not so bad for storing documents and large media, I suppose. Any idea if it uses one of the many standard-ish SSD SATA or PCIe interfaces?
- darcyparker 12y ago
  You can upgrade the NGFF drive in many other chromebooks. I suspect you should be able to do the same for the new pixel. For example, see bubble 4 in the image at the bottom of this page: http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-information-for-chrome-os-devices/acer-c720-chromebook http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-information-fo... I upgraded my ngff to 128GB on my acer c720P chromebook.
  - ash 12y ago
    This option doesn't seem to be available in Pixel. SSD is soldered.
cjbprime 12y ago
I have bad news -- the SD card reader on both the new and old Chromebook Pixel is hooked up over USB2 (i.e. max 20MB/sec transfer rate). There is no internal expansion via msata/pcie. And the SSD is soldered down.
- derekp7 12y ago
  Would it be worth putting a large SD card on it, and using a portion of the internal storage as high speed cache?
  - cjbprime 12y ago

wahsd 12y ago

Well, you just store all your data on the NSA cloud from your NSA terminal. To your point about he MacBook one port. They do offer a rather smart "splitter" dongle at $60-$90 that allows you to charge while I/Oing other data when that uncommon scenario uncommonly arises. I just don't get the whole Google approach. They think far higher of their "OS" than is warranted. They should have been selling this thing as a loss leader at around =<$800. I don't know too many people ... as in none ... who want to spend $1k on a Google "OS" machine.

zanny 12y ago
If it had 256GB and Ubunutu it would be the Linux Macbook we need. A large portion of buyers will almost certainly be trying to run GNU/Linux on it anyway.
- yungchin 12y ago
  And not just any Linux notebook: assuming they don't change this from the last version, it'll be open down to the embedded-controller firmware. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTMwOTY http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTMwOTY
- badloginagain 12y ago
  "How hard would it be to install Ubuntu" is the first thing I think whenever I see a Chromebook. I never look into it further because I assume they've made it difficult.
  - fragmede 12y ago
    It's really not though. There's crouton which makes it trivial to setup a chroot - https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton which is good enough for most users. If you'd rather blow away ChromeOS and install Ubuntu, it's just a few commands on the command line to boot from USB and install Ubuntu.
    - 12y ago

ChuckMcM 12y ago

What most people have missed is that USB allows charging and data over the same port. So you can easily get a power adapter that has a charging tip which has on the same cord another USB-C port (socket) which you can plug into your display chain, or port replicator or what not. In Apple's case I fully expect they will make it so that when you plug your Apple display into your laptop it also charges it since the charger is permanently connected to (or built into) the Apple monitor/display.

cV6WB 12y ago
> In Apple's case I fully expect they will make it so that when you plug your Apple display into your laptop it also charges it since the charger is permanently connected to (or built into) the Apple monitor/display. Except that this display does not exist.
- outericky 12y ago
  Adapters will exist for now. I think a solution to a single port (though, having more than 1 is probably better) is great. Why do we need 8 different port types? We should have one and it should do everything. But we should have 2 of them.
  - Zak 12y ago
    I haven't seen anybody complaining about the move to a single port type. Most of us in the tech world recognize that as a Good Thing. What many of us don't like is that you have to unplug the power adapter just to plug in a flash drive unless you have a dongle.
    - seanp2k2 12y ago
      Hopefully the charger has 4x USB built in (2x normal + 2x type C)
      - mark-r 12y ago

blfr 12y ago

They do add 1TB of Google Drive storage for three years so, if you have a good connection, it's not that big an obstacle.

zanny 12y ago

I thought this years XPS 13 from Dell looked really slick. When it comes out in Sputnik mode it will definitely be the Linux notebook of the year.

ericfrederich 12y ago
"Sputnik mode"?
- xnxn 12y ago
  https://sputnik.github.io/ https://sputnik.github.io/
- mercnet 12y ago
  Sputnik mode = Laptop loaded with Ubuntu (Developer's Edition)
darcyparker 12y ago
It's a nice laptop... but underspec'd for me. I'd like to see USB-C and more than 1920 x 1080 resolution. I don't care as much about the resolution on a 13" screen. But I'd like to be able to drive a 4K monitor. It's not clear to me whether it can drive a 4K monitor with its display port.
- bri3d 12y ago
  There's an optional 3200x1800 resolution display. Also, unless Dell have done something very strange it should be able to drive 4K, although I haven't found any confirmation.
- krakensden 12y ago
  What's got USB-C other than the Macbooks released yesterday? If it catches on it might be nice in the future, but unless you're daisy-chaining expensive laptops...
tacticus 12y ago
Shame about the price and the inability to put more than 8GB in it. (and the fact that dell are still stupid about global availability)

AustinDizzy 12y ago

Google's marketing strategy for the Pixel isn't geared towards the "hacker" and developer type, it's more geared towards students and people who solely use their computers for simple web browsing and document processing. Offering 1TB+ of online storage is enough for all your office/school documents and all the photos you could ever want for the average person. If Google were making hardware only for developers and the hacker type, you bet they'd put more local storage in it and make it more "offline" friendly.

revelation 12y ago
It's a 3:2 display with an i5 upwards and minimum of 8GiB of RAM. That doesn't particularly fit into the simple web browsing and document processing crowd, who would presumably be much better served with something like the Intel Core M Apple uses, which could easily yield twice the battery runtime at a zero cost for these usecases. It also costs >$1k, so theres that.
- kbenson 12y ago
  Here[1] is a break down of a core M and i5 mobile processor. I don't know if they are the specific processors, but there are some interesting differences, mostly around cache size, graphics chip, and graphics capabilities (the i5 has more hardware decode capabilities it seems). That said, since they are advertising 12 hours of battery, it's not like it's a slouch in that department. 1: http://ark.intel.com/compare/84672,85213 http://ark.intel.com/compare/84672,85213
  - revelation 12y ago
    The most important part is TDP, 4.5W versus 15W. Now sure, both processors tick all the boxes, but at the end of the day, you get performance as you put watts in (certainly when you are comparing processors as similar as these two). So the M will perform perfectly fine for YouTube, web browsing, office etc. but it will suffer significantly in benchmarks (and subsequently any high load / long time situations). Which is a very good tradeoff to make since you get 1/3rd of the power consumption but can run all the important usecases, if the office is what you're targeting.

sspiff 12y ago

Google is trying to push people to cloud storage, nothing new about that.

pbreit 12y ago

Complaining about Apple removing ports is foolhardy and pretty much always wrong.

TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
They've done it many times before: * Original iMac (all-USB, no floppy disk drive) * MacBook Air (no CD drive) * MacBook Pro (no Ethernet) People have gotten used to it each time.
- kryptiskt 12y ago
  The original Air had one USB, didn't work out very well.
  - ceejayoz 12y ago
    Didn't work out very well? The original Air basically created the "ultrabook" market and ended the netbook one. I doubt anyone at Apple is disappointed in it.
    - m_mueller 12y ago
      The first gen Air was probably the most unusable machine Apple has created since the NeXT acquisition. It also didn't sell well, so it hardly 'created a market'. Only when second gen came out, with much better harddisk, more ports and better chipset, they really took off. The first gen was a good investment into the future by Apple, a testbed to try out new manufacturing technologies and probing the market. I suspect this Macbook could turn out the same, even though it's probably much more usable than the first Air.
- akhilcacharya 12y ago
  The problem isn't the new port in my opinion, the problem is you only get one of it, and its the only port that can be used for charging as well. If it had another means of charging or another port (like, say, on the back) I wouldn't mind as much.

dschiptsov 12y ago

This is rather obvious - everyone nowadays want you to use their paid cloud services and to buy their content.

j_baker 12y ago

Well yes, I think designing an ultrabook probably is difficult. I mean, you have to cram a lot of powerful components into a very small computer. You've only go so much space, so something's gotta give.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

akhilcacharya 12y ago

I completely agree. This would be a killer alternative to an MBPr if an option to upgrade/purchase a 256GB SSD was available. So close to perfect, yet so far.

darcyparker 12y ago
Most chromebooks these days are NGFF... And you can get a 256GB NGFF on amazon. It's a common upgrade for chromebook users. Especially those running a chroot with crouton.
- akhilcacharya 12y ago
  One of the Pixel's engineers stated that its not upgradable, sadly. Oh well.

krapp 12y ago

Neither Apple nor Google, when designing these ultrabooks, really seem to consider 'usability' a top priority in the way the typical HN user would define the term. They seem like fashion accessories first, brand adverts second, and general purpose computers... somewhere further down. Of course i'm one of those cranky old dinosaurs who likes cords and ports and who doesn't particularly like 'the cloud' so obviously it's not for me anyway.

rbanffy 12y ago
Is there such a thing like a "general purpose computer" anymore? My computers need to be light. I don't need a powerful CPU and, since I run small VMs, not a lot of memory. With containers, the needs are even more spartan. What I do need is a good battery, screen and keyboard. Were I running simulations over large datasets, I would prioritize a large amounts of memory, fast CPUs and the fastest GPUs I could lay my hands on. And a fast network so I could move the datasets easily. My general purpose computer would have Xeons (E7s and Phis), Nvidia GPUs and Infiniband interconnects across multiple chassis. My mom needs a keyboard, a mouse and a screen. And a browser. And that's about it.
- krapp 12y ago
  I'd say a general purpose computer at the very least is one that doesn't make too many assumptions about what you should and shouldn't do with it. These ultralight notebooks seem indended primarily for consuming media and the web - which is fine, if that's what you want. But having more ports and more local storage is still less opinionated.
- nfoz 12y ago
  My mom needs a webcam and Skype to chat with her grandkids. She needs a USB slot so she can load a document from a conference. She needs flash to play that silly train game she found online that the grandkids admire her for. She needs a decent CPU and RAM because webbrowsing requirements are legit ridiculous these days.

zobzu 12y ago

That's because you're supposed to store all your data on Google servers (this is not sarcasm). For 1000 USD however this is ridiculous. Just go DELL or Asus or similar. The XPS13 is excellent for example, come with proper ports, disk space, is light, is fast, has long battery life, has great screen, etc. Getting an Apple or Google ultra-light laptop just because they're big, rich, trendy companies doesn't seem like a great idea this year. Maybe they'll catch up next year.

spot 12y ago
xps13 does not have a retina screen. i don't think i could buy a non HiDPI device anymore.
- DanTheManPR 12y ago
  It has the option of a 3200x1800 screen.
  - darcyparker 12y ago
    Where did you see this? I tried adding it to my cart and I don't see the option. And I don't see it in their 'configuration' description.
    - bmurphy1976 12y ago
      The mystery of Dell's website. Go back to Google and search again. Dell gives you different options (and prices) depending on how you enter and navigate the web site. It's a maze of wonderful discovery! Usability at its finest!
      - Alterlife 12y ago
        Dell uses targeted discount links. People post on 'deal' forums. The lower prices available on Google search results are special offers that people posted. They won't be accessible through the standard menu. It's Dells model: coupons, discounts, offers, combo offers and all.

superuser2 12y ago

I see this as a slightly more flexible docking station. I don't mind having a hub on my desk. Connecting one cable when I return the laptop to my desk would be amazing - currently it takes 3. I need peripherals frequently - but only at my desk.