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Chromebooks outsold Macs for the first time in the US

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Re: Chromebooks outsold Macs for the first time in the US

#161
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "Year of the Linux Desktop" FINALLY arrived, and the HN community finds out about it after the fact from the mainstream media...

Well that's not the Linux Desktop we were referring to all along, to be fair. And the whole ChromeOS stack beyond the kernel is closed-source. Hardly a win for "Linux", unless you assimilate the OS to the Kernel.

Linus disagrees. https://plus.google.com/+LinusTorvalds/posts/GPbJZX8fmtL

Re: Chromebooks outsold Macs for the first time in the US

#162
Doesn't surprise me, chromebooks are so much better value than anything else!

I was going to get a dell xps 13 when that power saving bug was unveiled so I ended up getting a toshiba chromebook 2 and a 256gb SSD for Now I'm running native linux via seabios and loving it. I hate the spacebar screen on startup but I'm not sure I'd be willing to pay 500$ to get rid of it.

Re: Chromebooks outsold Macs for the first time in the US

#163
post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention Chromebooks essentially are open products. The entire source tree for the OS (minus a few proprietary twigs like the Widevine Encryption Module for DRM on Netflix) is a publically-accessible Git repository, and all Chromebooks allow the user to put them into a Developer Mode, which removes the low-level restrictions the system normally runs userspace in to ensure stability and security. Contrasted with…

> Not to mention Chromebooks essentially are open products. The OS itself is pretty open. If I'm not mistaken though, if you put it into dev mode, you get a scary screen at every reboot, and an opportunity to hit space to re-enable OS verification, and apparently wipe out whatever modifications you've made to the system. In theory, actually rebooting the system should be a fairly rare event, but that's one of the rea…

> I understand the security concerns, but if the hardware makes it difficult to do what I'd like, then whatever security they implement is moot anyhow, right?

"Difficult" as in a supported developer mode? Of course there is a way to reverse it otherwise they would have non-stop support calls from people who hit the button to see what it did and freaked out. The whole point of Chromebooks is that you can always get back to a usable state no matter what you do to it (even chuck it out the window, just log-in to a new one and you're 100% up and running).

Re: Chromebooks outsold Macs for the first time in the US

#164
post #104

I think it's hilarious how little the HN community knows about Chromebooks. Every time it pops up, there's a wave of people saying "I don't know a single person who has one!" and "They seem useless without an internet connection!" and "I wonder how they compare to mac books." People forget that most of the world doesn't write code, and doesn't need native applications. They write email, take selfies, and write extrem…

> You'd be amazed how many people encounter a problem with their computer and give up because "it's mad at me." This isn't an educational problem Wow, you'd have to wonder how everyone here actually learned how to use computers back when there was no Internet and no help from your friends because you were the only one using them. It's NEVER been easier to use a computer nowadays, not just because they have become bet…

Don't be so elitist. "Back in the old days", computers were a niche item that only called to enthusiasts. Now they're an everyday appliance.

It's like calling people lazy because they call a refrigeration technician to fix their fridge rather than do it themselves. Computers are ridiculously complex, and you need a ton of knowledge to even start troubleshooting any but the most trivial problem.

Re: Chromebooks outsold Macs for the first time in the US

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? I've developed 100% on a cloud VM for years. All I need locally is a browser. Obviously wouldn't work for some things, but as a full stack developer: no problem.

How do you test your website in other browsers, on a Chromebook?

With a cloud based VM no doubt. Something like https://www.browserstack.com/ would fit the bill.

Re: Chromebooks outsold Macs for the first time in the US

#166
post #15

I wonder how much cheaper macs would be if their primary purpose was tracking users to deliver ads

I gather that you're implying the primary purpose of Chromebooks is tracking users to deliver ads? Are users tracked any more on a Chromebook than a) a MacBook Air running Chrome b) a MacBook Air running Safari?

> Are users tracked any more on a Chromebook than a) a MacBook Air running Chrome b) a MacBook Air running Safari

Can you use a Chromebook without being logged in to a Google account? Can you block ads, trackers, and other creepy JavaScript on a Chromebook? Even the ones from Google?

Re: Chromebooks outsold Macs for the first time in the US

#167
post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You'd be amazed how many people encounter a problem with their computer and give up because "it's mad at me." This isn't an educational problem Wow, you'd have to wonder how everyone here actually learned how to use computers back when there was no Internet and no help from your friends because you were the only one using them. It's NEVER been easier to use a computer nowadays, not just because they have become bet…

Don't be so elitist. "Back in the old days", computers were a niche item that only called to enthusiasts. Now they're an everyday appliance. It's like calling people lazy because they call a refrigeration technician to fix their fridge rather than do it themselves. Computers are ridiculously complex, and you need a ton of knowledge to even start troubleshooting any but the most trivial problem.

I'm not elitist at all. I am simply pointing the fact that someone who has an attention span of 2 minutes and refuses to search for help when facing an unfamiliar situation has a problem in the first place.

Let's not try to make everyone believe that our machines are the issue, where the issue is clearly cultural before everything else.

Re: Chromebooks outsold Macs for the first time in the US

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well that's not the Linux Desktop we were referring to all along, to be fair. And the whole ChromeOS stack beyond the kernel is closed-source. Hardly a win for "Linux", unless you assimilate the OS to the Kernel.

Linus disagrees. https://plus.google.com/+LinusTorvalds/posts/GPbJZX8fmtL

It's probably more of a joke than anything. Linus was calling in late 2014 or early 2015 for an ARM-based Linux laptop and he was certainly not referring to ChromeOS.

Re: Chromebooks outsold Macs for the first time in the US

#169
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "Year of the Linux Desktop" FINALLY arrived, and the HN community finds out about it after the fact from the mainstream media...

Well that's not the Linux Desktop we were referring to all along, to be fair. And the whole ChromeOS stack beyond the kernel is closed-source. Hardly a win for "Linux", unless you assimilate the OS to the Kernel.

I'm not sure where you got the perception that Chrome OS only has the kernel open. Most of the userspace is also open.

http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-guide

And there are even a few forks[1], including one that came out this year.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium_OS#Builds_and_forks

Re: Chromebooks outsold Macs for the first time in the US

#170
post #104

I think it's hilarious how little the HN community knows about Chromebooks. Every time it pops up, there's a wave of people saying "I don't know a single person who has one!" and "They seem useless without an internet connection!" and "I wonder how they compare to mac books." People forget that most of the world doesn't write code, and doesn't need native applications. They write email, take selfies, and write extrem…

For the usage you describe, i would actually recommand a Tablet ( iPad ) rather then Chromebook. I was actually waiting to upgrade to iPad Air 3, but instead we got a 9.7" iPad Pro.

From a hardware perpestive, once the iPad Air gets 4GB Ram, there is very little difference between it and the Chromebook.

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