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The Chromebook Pixel

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Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#291

Post by takluyver »

unalone wrote: post #122
rdtsc wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That's $100 more than a 13" MacBook. Some will see that as "So Chromebook is better than a MacBook then? They wouldn't have priced it that high if it wasn't. I want one". Kind of how some expensive wine is sold. Sell it for $15 / bottle and it gets lost on the shelves among others. Put it in a special glass case and sell it for $120 / bottle and surprise people will buy, taste it and think it is really the best one…

I don't know anybody who only bought a Mac because it was expensive. They bought it because it was worth the expense. Chrome OS is an unproven platform that doesn't have nearly the popular support of Apple's products, and it's coming from a company that's still fairly new at both software and hardware design. That's not to say this will be a bad product, but this is certainly a risky marketing strategy. I'd love it t…

I wonder if this is intended as a flagship - not so much to actually sell, but to give Chrome OS the aura of quality, so that the cheap ones feel like a good deal, rather than a poor alternative for people who can't afford a 'real' laptop. Google presumably has the cash to do it.

Plus, of course, there's simple media exposure. Most people don't associate Google with laptops, but this is on the BBC homepage at the moment (first story under technology).

Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#292

Post by zmmmmm »

rayiner wrote: post #142
Kerrick wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chrome has a wonderful SSH client [0], and with a $5/mo Digital Ocean [1] (or other [2]) VPS for all your UNIX work, it's a perfectly capable dev machine. [0]: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/secure-shell/pnhec... [1]: https://www.digitalocean.com/ [2]: http://www.lowendbox.com/

So you pay $1,300 to log into a $5/month remote box with 20GB of storage and 512MB of RAM?

I think it might work reverse to this. You don't buy your think client and then figure out how to live with it. Rather, Google is betting that in the future people will be using thin clients and cloud services because of all the other reasons they are attractive.

Once you've already decided you want to live in the cloud, then your question becomes, what is the best possible device I could buy for doing that? And that is what the Pixel is for.

Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#293

Post by joestringer »

chris_mahan wrote: post #229
Kerrick wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chrome has a wonderful SSH client [0], and with a $5/mo Digital Ocean [1] (or other [2]) VPS for all your UNIX work, it's a perfectly capable dev machine. [0]: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/secure-shell/pnhec... [1]: https://www.digitalocean.com/ [2]: http://www.lowendbox.com/

I got a cr-48 in november 2010. The new chromeOS remaps ctrl-o to "open window" even when in crosh, so you can't save files in nano or pico. I stopped using it altogether. It's gathering dust.

crosh is being deprecated in favour of a newer ssh client:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/secure-shell/pnhec...

Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#294

Post by samstave »

It all started a few years ago. People didn't understand at first. It looked hap-hazzard.. but now. Now they get it - but even more than that, they're trapped.

One used to be able to expect both freedom and choice. Now they have neither.

It was a kicker too, starting out with a service here, a device there, a bit of infrastructure over there.... but now? Now its one big system. From bit to brick, its all one big pipe - an experience fully enclosed, encapsulated, enumerated, evaluated and.... exploited. For every single bit of information about, well, everything.

They worked their way down the layers. What was once a web service is now the actual physical net.

You cant push a packet without them seeing it.Most people don' care though - they bought into the web services decades ago. Phones were next, then laptops, service providers and frequencies.

Its basically the commercial version of the NSA these days, hell, there hasn't even been a real difference between the two for some time now.

Now, pretty much any connection is provided by them. They started out nice enough... do no evil and all... but when you're the only game in town - it's pretty hard to not abuse your power. Hell, its more than power. Power is limited... omnipotence is not. That's what they are now - omnipotent, and there isn't anything anyone can do about it now, either.

Every spoken word, every communication mashed out from keyboard to carrier is captured in the goog. They pretty much own thought at this point...

Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#295

Post by bitsoda »

Besides being too expensive for something in which you can't do real work (yes, I know, you can SSH into a hosted box, but why would I pay $1300 and $X.XX for hosting, to essentially use this new machine as a dumb terminal), what's the point of having a touch screen on a laptop? Haven't we concluded that this is a horrible idea? Just look at this demo (http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/21/4013480/google-chromebook-...) from The Verge, Dieter fumbles around trying to hit a tab.

It strikes me odd that Google, a company with no shortage of talent, can't get retail right. Who is this laptop for? The 12 year old Engadget/Verge reader who thinks this Chromebook Pixel is the nail in Apple's coffin?

This is so misguided. I know I shouldn't be so infuriated over a botched product launch, but this irks me for some reason. I guess it's because I like Google's products and want them to succeed in hardware, but I lose hope when I see questionable decisions like the manufacturing of this neutered MacBook Pro ripoff. Ugh.

Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#296

Post by jonknee »

javajosh wrote: post #58

There are only three meaningful things you can do with a computer with specs like this: development, design, or gaming. And yet ChromeOS can't do any of these things. Perhaps this is a vanity product for the wealthy. But wealthy people are going to just surf the web on an iPad. I really don't get this product.

Using that logic I don't know how Apple sells so many of its MacBooks. They're all expensive and have "specs like this", but the vast majority are not used for development, design or gaming.

I can see the appeal of a small (thinner than a MacBook Air), well constructed, blazingly fast laptop. If I could run 1Password on it I would be very tempted to take it for a spin, with the LTE it would make an excellent travel machine.

Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#297

Post by pax »

neverm0re wrote: post #277
rbanffy wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe it's much easier to hack this one to run Linux than any ARM-based Chromebook. It certainly has enough memory, storage and processing power to be a decent development machine (provided you avoid heavy IDEs). It's likely possible to even run Windows on this machine.

It's already braindead easy to put Linux on the ARM Samsung Chromebook. One of the first things I did was to assemble my own personal Linux distro and besides having to copy some blob files out of the original ChromeOS image, it's all very straight-forward stuff and I pulled up about a hundred packages I wanted including an X.org stack without fuss. The compile speeds are adequate if you aren't cross-compiling, I've…

'brain-dead easy ... assemble my own personal distro' :))

Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#298

Post by dannyr »

rjv wrote: post #191
dannyr wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree it doesn't make sense. Unless Google announces something in the near future that would make it more than just a web-browsing device...

If that's the case then they should have waited to reveal the Pixel. I'm of the mind that you should buy a device for what it is, not for what it may be in the future.

No. Buy a device for what it is capable of doing in the future.

You buy a computer with faster processor so it can support applications in the future.

The Pixel will be the same a year or so from now. I don't think the hardware is upgradable. But it will be handle resources-intensive apps coming in the future.

Imagine a video-editing app or 3D games.

Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#299

Post by dman »

j-b wrote: post #231
mtgx wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. ChromeOS is not for such powerful machines, because the OS itself is not powerful. So ChromeOS with a $1000 machine is far from a perfect match (at least it isn't yet, maybe 5-10 years from now). But right now ChromeOS is and should be for light web machines. And I've said it many times before. There's absolutely no reason for Chromebooks to use x86 chips. I've said Google will almost surely mess up the pric…

Why pay $1,299 for a thin client OS even if it's running thick client hardware? I can run a browser and so much more in a macbook air or thinkpad in the same price range.

To encourage a world where

a) companies build desirable hardware

b) companies realise having a good screen is a feature

c) companies build screens with more code friendly aspect ratios

Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#300

Post by MrVitaliy »

jonknee wrote: post #296
javajosh wrote: post #58

There are only three meaningful things you can do with a computer with specs like this: development, design, or gaming. And yet ChromeOS can't do any of these things. Perhaps this is a vanity product for the wealthy. But wealthy people are going to just surf the web on an iPad. I really don't get this product.

Using that logic I don't know how Apple sells so many of its MacBooks. They're all expensive and have "specs like this", but the vast majority are not used for development, design or gaming. I can see the appeal of a small (thinner than a MacBook Air), well constructed, blazingly fast laptop. If I could run 1Password on it I would be very tempted to take it for a spin, with the LTE it would make an excellent travel m…

MBAir is best dev laptop I ever had. Its super light, plenty of power and space for most app development and within reach price wise. Also, I suggest you look up Linus's rant about how he loves Mac book air and SSD for kernel development.
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