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The Curious Case Of The Chromebook: Is It Really A Hit?

forbes.com

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Re: The Curious Case Of The Chromebook: Is It Really A Hit?

#2

Post by bdfh42 »

A hit or not - but I just ordered one.

I stopped carrying a Windows laptop around early in 2013 when I switched to a Nexus 10 for everyday use. Now I want to show other people that there are alternatives even within the familiar laptop form factor. Plus I want to demonstrate to customers that I can deliver a fully functional application without Windows.

Re: The Curious Case Of The Chromebook: Is It Really A Hit?

#3

Post by na85 »

I don't think it's all that surprising. If my daily routine consisted mostly of email and simple documents (i.e. not code) I'd buy one in a heartbeat. They're great little machines.

I had a chance to play with the Pixel version and it's really nice. Cold boots in something like 7 seconds. Chiclet-style keyboard, nice touchpad, etc.

Truthfully I'm not sure my next laptop won't be a chromebook anyways: Surely it's possible to put linux on them, in which case you've basically got yourself a netbook.

Re: The Curious Case Of The Chromebook: Is It Really A Hit?

#4

Post by j2kun »

na85 wrote: post #3

I don't think it's all that surprising. If my daily routine consisted mostly of email and simple documents (i.e. not code) I'd buy one in a heartbeat. They're great little machines. I had a chance to play with the Pixel version and it's really nice. Cold boots in something like 7 seconds. Chiclet-style keyboard, nice touchpad, etc. Truthfully I'm not sure my next laptop won't be a chromebook anyways: Surely it's poss…

My daily routine consists of code and I still enjoy my chromebook. It has ssh, so I don't need to wipe everything to do the little bit of coding I need to when I'm on the go.

It's not a replacement for my desktop machine, but still worth the $250 bucks.

Re: The Curious Case Of The Chromebook: Is It Really A Hit?

#6

Post by ajcarpy2005 »

Chromebooks actually can be viable for coding. Firstly, Crouton lets you operate Linux and switch instantly between ChromeOS and Linux. Secondly, you can use an online IDE through Chrome. Thirdly, you could remotely operate in Windows using either a personal machine or a hosted Web server and this could be either through Linux or Chrome. This would enable using Visual Studio, for instance. I think the Chromebook Pixel with a decent home Server used for a traditional and powerful desktop environment would pair quite nicely.

Re: The Curious Case Of The Chromebook: Is It Really A Hit?

#7

Post by corresation »

While this is a rehash of exactly the pattern we saw as Android grew ("Shipments not sales. Haven't seen one in a coffee shop. No one in my family. Some web stat source says..."), with the same players regurgitating their old hits, I do wonder why people trust StatCounter so much?

StatCounter relies upon subject sites adding a bit of code that reports back to StatCounter, giving them their metrics. Curious, I inspected every single site I visit in a typical day, and zero of them have the StatCounter code.

I am invisible to StatCounter. I don't roll with Chromebook, so not really relevant in this case, but it's interesting how frequently StatCounter is used to make some proclamation or other with no one ever questioning what their coverage is.

Re: The Curious Case Of The Chromebook: Is It Really A Hit?

#8

Post by ocfx »

j2kun wrote: post #4
na85 wrote: post #3

I don't think it's all that surprising. If my daily routine consisted mostly of email and simple documents (i.e. not code) I'd buy one in a heartbeat. They're great little machines. I had a chance to play with the Pixel version and it's really nice. Cold boots in something like 7 seconds. Chiclet-style keyboard, nice touchpad, etc. Truthfully I'm not sure my next laptop won't be a chromebook anyways: Surely it's poss…

My daily routine consists of code and I still enjoy my chromebook. It has ssh, so I don't need to wipe everything to do the little bit of coding I need to when I'm on the go. It's not a replacement for my desktop machine, but still worth the $250 bucks.

Makes a good guest/living room computer too

Re: The Curious Case Of The Chromebook: Is It Really A Hit?

#9

Post by katcooke »

ajcarpy2005 wrote: post #6

Chromebooks actually can be viable for coding. Firstly, Crouton lets you operate Linux and switch instantly between ChromeOS and Linux. Secondly, you can use an online IDE through Chrome. Thirdly, you could remotely operate in Windows using either a personal machine or a hosted Web server and this could be either through Linux or Chrome. This would enable using Visual Studio, for instance. I think the Chromebook Pixe…

If you're dropping that kind of money on a Chromebook Pixel, why not get a Retina MacBook or one of the high res Ultrabooks like the Yoga 2 Pro and have a bigger choice of OSes including ChromiumOS? About the only thing I can see is the 4:3 screen.

Re: The Curious Case Of The Chromebook: Is It Really A Hit?

#10

Post by seabrookmx »

j2kun wrote: post #4
na85 wrote: post #3

I don't think it's all that surprising. If my daily routine consisted mostly of email and simple documents (i.e. not code) I'd buy one in a heartbeat. They're great little machines. I had a chance to play with the Pixel version and it's really nice. Cold boots in something like 7 seconds. Chiclet-style keyboard, nice touchpad, etc. Truthfully I'm not sure my next laptop won't be a chromebook anyways: Surely it's poss…

My daily routine consists of code and I still enjoy my chromebook. It has ssh, so I don't need to wipe everything to do the little bit of coding I need to when I'm on the go. It's not a replacement for my desktop machine, but still worth the $250 bucks.

Using crouton you don't need to wipe it to run Linux. It installs Debian or Ubuntu into a chroot.

I agree with the SSH sentiment though.

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