Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

$600 Chromebooks are a dangerous development for Microsoft

arstechnica.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 426 posts

Re: $600 Chromebooks are a dangerous development for Microsoft

#211

Post by AlexeyBrin »

syntaxing wrote: post #153

Bought a relatively highend Chromebook for a family member and I have to say, these things are honestly really nice and perfect for the average user. I just wish there was something similar for standalone linux. The same sleek profile and price point as the Acer 14/15 series but runs some generic distro like Ubuntu natively. I know you can run Crouton but it just doesn't feel the same.

You can install a pure Linux distro on a Chromebook, but you will need to update the firmware. Search for installing GalliumOS on a Chromebook.

I read about other people installing Arch Linux directly on a Chromebook. (I've tried only GalliumOS.)

Re: $600 Chromebooks are a dangerous development for Microsoft

#212

Post by ThatPlayer »

mentos wrote: post #178

My dream is to get a light weight laptop with just enough power to send/receive input to/from my more powerful desktop where I do Gpu intensive game development on Windows. Sadly Remote Desktop is lacking in a lot of ways mainly the refresh rate makes it very difficult to resolve the rendered scene I’m working on. Any suggestions?

Steam In-Home Streaming ? It's even got a mobile Steam Link app now if you want to use your phone with a Bluetooth controller.

Re: $600 Chromebooks are a dangerous development for Microsoft

#213

Post by xtrapolate »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #168
Crontab wrote: post #156

I like the idea of ChromeOS but I don't understand why anyone would want to own a computer that you can't even create a user account on without the manufacturer's permission. I am also unsure, from a privacy prospective, if it is wise to use an OS created by an advertising company.

Because after a day of work, most people just want to see funny pictures and check their email and login to a bank account to pay some bills. They're consumers, not producers.

> "Because after a day of work, most people just want to see funny pictures and check their email and login to a bank account to pay some bills. They're consumers, not producers."

You're simply saying people want affordable technology. In that case, what is Chromebook's advantage over the competition? The market is flooded with cheap hardware, targeting those exact types of consumers.

Re: $600 Chromebooks are a dangerous development for Microsoft

#214

Post by tonyedgecombe »

ChrisSD wrote: post #169
moksha256 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's even worse than that. There's 2 types of crap now: vendor crap and Windows crap. You can avoid vendor crap by reinstalling a fresh version of Windows from Microsoft, but you'll still get Microsoft crap (i.e., various apps from the Microsoft store pre-installed with links prominently displayed on the Start menu).

These are what Microsoft calls "suggestions" (aka adverts). I think they only actually install when you first click on them. Fortunately they're UWP apps so are easy to completely remove. Turning off the "Show suggestions" settings will stop them coming back.

Then they all come back with the next update.

Re: $600 Chromebooks are a dangerous development for Microsoft

#215

Post by michaelmrose »

Soldered in emmc storage seems kind of unattractive to me. 128GB is enough to get by but it really hurts that you can't spend $100 and have 4x as much later.

Of course you could carry around an external drive but do you want to have to plug in a drive every time you wake up your computer.

Re: $600 Chromebooks are a dangerous development for Microsoft

#216

Post by lotsofpulp »

xtrapolate wrote: post #213
lotsofpulp wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because after a day of work, most people just want to see funny pictures and check their email and login to a bank account to pay some bills. They're consumers, not producers.

> "Because after a day of work, most people just want to see funny pictures and check their email and login to a bank account to pay some bills. They're consumers, not producers." You're simply saying people want affordable technology. In that case, what is Chromebook's advantage over the competition? The market is flooded with cheap hardware, targeting those exact types of consumers.

Lack of malware and ease of use.

Re: $600 Chromebooks are a dangerous development for Microsoft

#217

Post by michaelmrose »

Fnoord wrote: post #107
nextos wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm interested in Chromebooks for a different reason, the same reason that brings me to Pixel phones. I hate software that tracks me, but if I wipe out Android and I install a self compiled AOSP, it's a superb user experience for me. Will these more upmarket Chromebooks (which have x86 CPUs and acceptable RAM & storage) be OK to run any regular Linux distro? Right now, Xiaomi laptops are excellent cheap machines to r…

> Xiaomi laptops are excellent machines to run Linux on (thanks to having just Intel components) Which ones exactly? Do you have resources? The ones I've seen sport Nvidia GPUs [1] [2]. Which means no Wayland, and only proprietary drivers. Not "excellent" or "just Intel components" in my book. [1] https://www.banggood.com/XiaoMi-Gaming-Laptop-Intel-Core-I7-... [2] https://www.banggood.com/Xiaomi-Pro-Notebook-15_6-Inc…

Any practical benefit right now to switching to wayland?

Re: $600 Chromebooks are a dangerous development for Microsoft

#218

Post by ChrisSD »

zahrc wrote: post #198
ChrisSD wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are what Microsoft calls "suggestions" (aka adverts). I think they only actually install when you first click on them. Fortunately they're UWP apps so are easy to completely remove. Turning off the "Show suggestions" settings will stop them coming back.

A clean install of Windows 10 (not n versions) is shipped with stupid game installers for things like candy crush, Disney magic and march of empire which you can remove easily, but not just "hide" with disabling suggestions.[1] [1] just did a clean install of win10 home

Yes, I meant disabling "suggestions" stops them coming back again in the future. Although Windows has had update "bugs" whereby this setting is ignored. This is solved by delaying feature updates until at least a week or so after release.

Re: $600 Chromebooks are a dangerous development for Microsoft

#219

Post by tonyedgecombe »

adrianN wrote: post #51
osrec wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it wasn't for Office and the ecosystem around it, I don't think many firms would opt for Microsoft products. In my firm, we're purely Linux, but have Windows VMs, just for Excel. As an aside, we run a business management app called Bx ( https://usebx.com/app ) and have recently started making some money. We're putting aside some cash to fund the development of a feature-rich, cross-platform spreadsheet app (I wish…

I hope you consider funding the improvement of Libre Office instead of trying to write your own spreadsheet app. There has been an incredible amount of work poured into it, starting from scratch doesn't make much sense imho.

I don't think you can beat Microsoft at their own game, it's probably better to strike off in a completely different direction.

Re: $600 Chromebooks are a dangerous development for Microsoft

#220

Post by tonyedgecombe »

donarb wrote: post #176
on_and_off wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It reminds me of Microsoft organizing a burial for Android when they launched a new Windows Phone version .. Both are extremely bad reactions at face value but also show how clueless the company can be (at least if you believe it is indicative of the company's mindset)

That was actually a funeral for the iPhone. They even rented a hearse and had pallbearers walking a iPhone casket through the streets of Redmond. https://www.cnet.com/pictures/microsofts-funeral-for-the-iph...

That seems so pathetic in retrospect.
Post reply on HN