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Chromebox

google.com

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Re: Chromebox

#31

Post by AntiRush »

wavephorm wrote: post #19

Raspberry Pi makes products like this completely obsolete. I see nothing here worth paying an order of magnitude more money for. Google seems to have a really bad habit lately of building products that nobody wants.

The Raspberry Pi is targeted squarely at enthusiasts (which, granted, is probably most people here).

It comes without an operating system, any storage, a case, or even a power supply. This is a huge, if not insurmountable, barrier to entry for a large portion of the population.

The Chromebox is a turnkey, plug in power, plug in TV, surf the web product. They couldn't be more dissimilar.

Re: Chromebox

#32

Post by fierarul »

ksat wrote: post #9

I think it's a good choice in india. We have customers who bought our software but first they need a computer to use it. $329 is not cheap but there's the 'google' brand to it, so to customers 'we are not recommending something bad'. Wonder how much will it cost in india though.

I think it's too expensive to be a good choice in any country, especially India where I assume it will cost even more than in the US.

I assume you are selling some software solution to your customers and they also need hardware to run it. It might be a good purchase for some companies but at this price they can also get a standard desktop.

Re: Chromebox

#33

Post by ajuc »

josteink wrote: post #30

While definitely an interesting development in computing, I find the advertising used disingenuous. They advertise "built-in anti virus" all over, when the truth probably is that there is no anti-virus at all. You can argue that there is a lack of need for this and as such advertising for a device without mentioning anti virus at all would make it seem "unsafe" or confusing for the less technically inclined. But stil…

Why do you thik there's no antivirus? There are antiviruses that run on unices, like ClamAV for example - it's open source, they can include it for free - maybe they did.

Re: Chromebox

#34

Post by taligent »

Groxx wrote: post #2

Interesting. Too bad the 'specifications' tab is so anaemic - I'm curious how this stacks up against e.g. a Mac mini, or other mini computers. edit: Amazon has a lot more info: http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-XE300M22-A01US-Series-3-Chrome... edit the second: it seems pretty competitive with a Mac mini, actually. 1.9ghz Celeron instead of 2.3 i5, same RAM, and same graphics card. The 16gb SSD vs 500gb HDD might make th…

You can't possibly be serious.

There's a tiny little thing called the operating system which makes significantly more of a difference to the overall experience, performance and value of a computer than a few GHz.

Re: Chromebox

#35

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

josteink wrote: post #30

While definitely an interesting development in computing, I find the advertising used disingenuous. They advertise "built-in anti virus" all over, when the truth probably is that there is no anti-virus at all. You can argue that there is a lack of need for this and as such advertising for a device without mentioning anti virus at all would make it seem "unsafe" or confusing for the less technically inclined. But stil…

I wouldn't say that's strictly true. The Chromebook OS most likely has anti-virus in the same sense that Mac OS X does: A remote kill switch.

Re: Chromebox

#36

Post by fierarul »

The UK store doesn't have any of the new generation Chromebooks and especially not the new box. So, select countries means only one: USA.

Re: Chromebox

#37

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

Groxx wrote: post #8
markessien wrote: post #5

Try answering the question "What does it do?" by reading the copy on the website. Almost impossible. The questions I wanted to know were: Will VLC run on this? Can I download stuff and put on a hard drive? The website does not seem to indicate this.

I'd guess everything the Chromebooks can do. Which essentially means: run Chrome. They're meant to be (rather exclusively) always-connected devices, and not for heavy offline use. And you can run VLC if/when they target NaCl. That said, I don't have a Chromebook, and haven't watched the changes for a while. Anyone have a link or something handy for what they're up to lately?

https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/features.html

Re: Chromebox

#38

Post by arihant »

I installed ChromeOS on my old VAIO recently. It is definitely not bad in the sense that things it cannot do don't fall in the 99%. I would be happier if Google manages to bring the Play store and run android apps on it. Anything I could imagine the machine couldn't do, there's an app on Android that does it.

If this could run Android apps too, $329 would appear to be a bargain.

Re: Chromebox

#39

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

nodesocket wrote: post #14

Assuming this runs ChromeOS, which is basically just the Chrome browser. Can it download, install apps?

You don't strictly "download" or "install" web apps, Chrome's "installed" apps are glorified shortcuts. There is a Chrome store full of web apps. However, thanks the HTML5 and app caching, these applications will work offline.

Re: Chromebox

#40

Post by zoul »

wavephorm wrote: post #19

Raspberry Pi makes products like this completely obsolete. I see nothing here worth paying an order of magnitude more money for. Google seems to have a really bad habit lately of building products that nobody wants.

I see nothing here worth paying an order of magnitude more money for.

Simplicity? I am very much willing to pay for a simple device that requires close to no support and maintenance. And I’m sure this is quite a common sentiment among people who have to service their relatives’ computers – huge, complex machines used mostly just to browse the web.

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