Why do all the Pixels look like Gen 1 Apple products?
Introducing Pixel C
31–40 of 88 posts
Re: Introducing Pixel C
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Key problem is it's ARM and not Intel processor. How much of a real developer experience a crouton style solution enables on ARM, I'm not sure. But I'm guessing it's a lot more limited.
Limited in what respect? There's plenty of Linux distros which run on ARM/ARM64.
I guess I was only referring to being able to install anything precompiled for Intel linux, which would include just about any proprietary software. I had a few problems running things in my past attempts with this (running Ubuntu on an Android tablet). However I was surprised to see from Googling around that people have indeed now got most common dev tools working on the Samsung ARM chromebook so I might be completely wrong about it
Re: Introducing Pixel C
#33Why is this running Android instead of Chrome OS? Internal politics are clearly at work. Moreover, why isn't there a stylus. I really, really, appreciate 1:sqrt(2), but without an accurate, ultra low-latency stylus you can't treat it like a pad to express ideas on. The build looks fantastic, though. Arrrrgh, so much promise...
Android M has Bluetooth stylus support as standard.
Also, I wouldn't give up on native pen support just yet.
NVIDIA's DirectStylus technology is supposed to be processor-based and, more importantly, uses standard touch sensors (no active digitizer required), though it does seem to require support for a faster-than-normal touch refresh rate (NVIDIA's DirectTouch).
With luck, good pen support on the Pixel C might be just a software update away...
Re: Introducing Pixel C
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
One could argue that internal politics (in the form of the rise of Sundar Pichai) are what propped ChromeOS up to the point where it was even a question whether a device like this should run Android or not given that ChromeOS's functionality is theoretically a subset of Android (given a full-featured Chrome browser for Android). I realize that in practice many people buy ChromeOS devices primarily to run Crouton or t…
I disagree. I see them as very different value propositions. Chrome OS is about giving you a baseline (80-90%) computing environment with as little administrative overhead as possible (easy to setup, easy to share device, no driver issues and so on). That's why Chromebooks are doing well in the education sector. By contrast, an Android convertible like the Pixel C is about giving you a general-purpose Android environ…
And a device like this points up those distinctions rather well. It's a 2-in-1, like the iPad Pro and the Surface/Surface Pro line. But, and I'd say weirdly even more than the iPad Pro highlights the dichotomy between iOS and OS X, the Pixel C really drives home the difference between Android and ChromeOS. To get the full Google 2-in-1 experience (something that offers all the promise of a tablet AND all the promise of Google's version of a notebook, you'd want something that can run the offline versions of Google Docs that ChromeOS has (not the Android versions that seems geared more towards consumption) and the tablet apps that Android has. So it's a 2-in-1 that's an Android tablet AND an Android notebook.
(And honestly, I think this also points out how weak Google's OSes are outside the smartphone space. Android still doesn't have the sort of high-end creation apps for tablets that iPad and Surface have, and ChromeOS doesn't have the sort of productivity apps the Windows, OS X or even Linux offer.)
Re: Introducing Pixel C
#35> The Pixel C takes an entirely new approach to the tablet experience.
It looks like any other tablet.
Re: Introducing Pixel C
#36What a poor product page. And the official blog post is very light on information too. Only the press conference had some details. https://youtu.be/Jc-LEG0T_4c?t=4382 I was hoping for OLED, which wasn't mentioned. What I did notice is that the screen is incredibly reflective.
Right. Could you POSSIBLY design a less-helpful, less-informative page?Maybe one with even more annoying keyhole-cropped images? Maybe! But you could not possibly under-improve on the random little rainbow bug bottom right that does nothing and says nothing.
Re: Introducing Pixel C
#37> The Pixel C takes an entirely new approach to the tablet experience. It looks like any other tablet.
If only it had an ESC key (vim), and backtick (markdown) above the Tab key. I don't get it.. they had me for a second, but then that kind of ruins using it for anything "serious". I know, I know.. I'm probably not the target market...
Re: Introducing Pixel C
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Limited in what respect? There's plenty of Linux distros which run on ARM/ARM64.
I guess I was only referring to being able to install anything precompiled for Intel linux, which would include just about any proprietary software. I had a few problems running things in my past attempts with this (running Ubuntu on an Android tablet). However I was surprised to see from Googling around that people have indeed now got most common dev tools working on the Samsung ARM chromebook so I might be complete…
As voltagex_ pointed out you will have no problem with open-source packages, but I imagine you could try QEMU for running proprietary x86 bits in a pinch.
Re: Introducing Pixel C
#39> The Pixel C takes an entirely new approach to the tablet experience. It looks like any other tablet.
If only it had an ESC key (vim), and backtick (markdown) above the Tab key. I don't get it.. they had me for a second, but then that kind of ruins using it for anything "serious". I know, I know.. I'm probably not the target market...
The lack of bracket keys [ and ] is most serious.
Re: Introducing Pixel C
#40Why is this running Android instead of Chrome OS? Internal politics are clearly at work. Moreover, why isn't there a stylus. I really, really, appreciate 1:sqrt(2), but without an accurate, ultra low-latency stylus you can't treat it like a pad to express ideas on. The build looks fantastic, though. Arrrrgh, so much promise...
I've never understood the point of Chrome OS's existence as a separate thing from Android. So I'm glad it's an Android device.
I used to question this, too, but then again, I also sincerely appreciate having a Chromebook that boots in about 5 seconds ... compared to my phone that takes about a minute to go from off to "useful".
I know it doesn't matter for consumers as much, but it's far easier to centrally administer ChromeOS devices than Android devices, too.