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

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

#51

Post by VLM »

agumonkey wrote: post #49
pkulak wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been slowly replacing every machine that I'm responsible for supporting (family members who ask me which computer to buy, and to please set it up) with a ChromeOS computer. Usually it's just a case of buying the new laptop and logging them in. Last week I found a used Chromebox for my dad to replace his WinXP desktop. It went well, but I did get bitten. I didn't know he even had a printer, and since you can't pl…

If I knew how to make ChromeOs talk to my wifi printer (Lexmark s605, which does not seem to support CloudPrint) I'd free my mom from the "burden" that is her Acer AspireOne (too cramped, too slow) right now.

Perhaps I can help you with this.

"Install Google Cloud Print on a Linux server"

this is headless mode, BTW.

https://support.google.com/a/answer/2906017?hl=en

I have a substantial server infrastructure at home, although reports all over the net indicate a rasp-pi is more than good enough to be a mere print server.

If the chromebook I wanted wasn't hopelessly sold out due to christmas demand, my wife would probably be using one right now.

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

#52

Post by VLM »

thirdsight wrote: post #47
deadhead wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Write the assignment using docs offline mode. Print it out or email it from school. Or from a friends house. Or from the countless places that have free internet these days.

a) Offline mode is unreliable. I know because I trialled it on a borrowed C720 last week. It's barely usable. Not only that you can't easily shift a document onto an SD for example in offline mode. Try it, then poke it in a PC and see what happens. b) school doesn't have a public WiFi network and all the ethernet ports are MAC address locked to the workstations plugged in for security reasons. This is the correct way…

The problem with bringing up local issues for a global product is all the people who live in local areas without those issues.

I'd be extremely hard pressed to lose wifi connectivity. I've been carrying around a republic wireless phone which offloads calls over voip for a couple years (got in on the beta) and I have excellent connectivity at home, work, library, kids school, every coffee shop I've ever entered, one fast food joint and two family dining restaurants within 2 miles of home, and believe it or not, our local grocery store. Oh and auntie's house, and about 20 of my kids friends houses all of which seem to have wifi either DSL, fiber, cablemodem, or who knows what (satellite?). My kids pediatricians office has a guest wifi, it helps the waiting room time a little.

I'd have to think for a second, other than in my car while driving, where I don't have wifi. The movie theater (probably just as well). The local fast food sub sandwich store. The Home Depot store. The local walgreens drug store. Um... that's all I can think of? There must be more. City hall, where I spend 5 minutes annually paying my property tax, OMG thats the end of the world having no wifi there.

If I was really hard pressed, I'd buy one of those wifi hotspot gadgets on a pay as you go and use that. They're cheap.

When it gets to the level of the ridiculous, like whatsoever shall I do after the solar flare wipes out all internet and the zombie apocalypse begins and I really want to see that kitten video on youtube, well, I'll have better things to do than watch youtube videos, so I'm STILL not worried.

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

#53

Post by DanBC »

thirdsight wrote: post #47
deadhead wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Write the assignment using docs offline mode. Print it out or email it from school. Or from a friends house. Or from the countless places that have free internet these days.

a) Offline mode is unreliable. I know because I trialled it on a borrowed C720 last week. It's barely usable. Not only that you can't easily shift a document onto an SD for example in offline mode. Try it, then poke it in a PC and see what happens. b) school doesn't have a public WiFi network and all the ethernet ports are MAC address locked to the workstations plugged in for security reasons. This is the correct way…

The product isn't bad. It's just not ready for anywhere without very very good connectivity.

Sadly lots of companies focus on "fast" internet, and very few focus on low speed but very reliable internet.

I have lousy internet but i could get a lot of use from a chromebook.

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

#54

Post by agumonkey »

VLM wrote: post #51
agumonkey wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I knew how to make ChromeOs talk to my wifi printer (Lexmark s605, which does not seem to support CloudPrint) I'd free my mom from the "burden" that is her Acer AspireOne (too cramped, too slow) right now.

Perhaps I can help you with this. "Install Google Cloud Print on a Linux server" this is headless mode, BTW. https://support.google.com/a/answer/2906017?hl=en I have a substantial server infrastructure at home, although reports all over the net indicate a rasp-pi is more than good enough to be a mere print server. If the chromebook I wanted wasn't hopelessly sold out due to christmas demand, my wife would probably be…

Oh so the rpi will bridge cloudprint and printer through normal linux drivers ?

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

#55

Post by VLM »

adolph wrote: post #46

Maybe the relevant question for this audience is "Chromebook: Is It an Addressable Market?" I wasn't able to find an application in the Chrome Web Store with a price. Maybe the store for proper Chromebooks is different? Sure lots of things are freemium or charge on the services side. However, I was expecting at least a few applications that cost something. Are there enough Chromebook users and do they buy software/se…

"do they buy software/services?"

In my research for a potential purchase, its just chrome, so if it works on your desktop...

So right now, in my family, $200/yr for Ancestry, then there's Evernote, and Airdroid, video streaming services, this stuff adds up to a lot more than the typical 99 cent mobile app market... Probably a couple hundred dollars per year total.

I suspect most of the money snapped up by people providing services to chromebooks don't even know/care that they're providing service to a chromebook, from their perspective its just another chrome browser.

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

#56

Post by DanBC »

VLM wrote: post #52
thirdsight wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a) Offline mode is unreliable. I know because I trialled it on a borrowed C720 last week. It's barely usable. Not only that you can't easily shift a document onto an SD for example in offline mode. Try it, then poke it in a PC and see what happens. b) school doesn't have a public WiFi network and all the ethernet ports are MAC address locked to the workstations plugged in for security reasons. This is the correct way…

The problem with bringing up local issues for a global product is all the people who live in local areas without those issues. I'd be extremely hard pressed to lose wifi connectivity. I've been carrying around a republic wireless phone which offloads calls over voip for a couple years (got in on the beta) and I have excellent connectivity at home, work, library, kids school, every coffee shop I've ever entered, one f…

You've described a few small cities plus New York.

London has that kind of connectivity if you're prepared to pay - at which point the cost savings of chromebook start to fail. Especially with the increased uk cost of the device.

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

#57

Post by VLM »

agumonkey wrote: post #54
VLM wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps I can help you with this. "Install Google Cloud Print on a Linux server" this is headless mode, BTW. https://support.google.com/a/answer/2906017?hl=en I have a substantial server infrastructure at home, although reports all over the net indicate a rasp-pi is more than good enough to be a mere print server. If the chromebook I wanted wasn't hopelessly sold out due to christmas demand, my wife would probably be…

Oh so the rpi will bridge cloudprint and printer through normal linux drivers ?

That would be the plan. I was motivated enough to google for you and that particular printer "just worked out of the box" no fooling around for one guy, on one version of Ubuntu, so I would not be overly surprised if it also just worked on the rpi. I have never fooled around with printing on a rpi although I have one, due to lack of need to print.

My personal plan would revolve around installing that software on an existing server which already talks perfectly well to an older model Brother laser printer. So the server to printer link is done, working, rock solid, no problem, I'd only have to debug the headless cloud print interface. Which I've been meaning to do for some time, but I've been busy and unmotivated to set that up.

My plan was foiled by the chromebook I wanted to get being sold out due to christmas. Otherwise I'd be reporting glorious success or failure rather than my vague plans and suspicions.

If I can't get it working headless, well, I'd figure a way to get it working on one of my linux desktops, although I'm not sure the microscopic gain in being able to print exceeds the microscopic increase in electrical use. The cost of wasted toner and paper would likely exceed the cost of the electricity...

My existing desktops all have google drive and printer access so anytime I print something, to pick up the printed sheets I'd have to physically walk past a machine that could do the printing instead of the chromebook. And its kind of a post paper world so I don't print very much. If my printer broke I don't know if I'd bother buying another.

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

#58

Post by eli »

bane wrote: post #48
eli wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not disagreeing with you, but it's interesting that iPhone still dominates Android in metrics that measure actual use (go check android vs iphone in your web logs, for example).

Yeah, that's true. I wonder if that's an artifact of the sites used by populations in different countries. A U.S. site would bias towards U.S. users which is not entirely dominated by Android devices.

I wonder if the availability of really cheap (and often crappy) Android phones skews the stats. At least in the US you can get a "free" one with a new plan. I suspect the people who get those phones are far less likely to use apps or websites.

It would be easy enough to test the location theory: just slice your web traffic by country or find someone with a big non-US site

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

#59

Post by eli »

bane wrote: post #48
eli wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not disagreeing with you, but it's interesting that iPhone still dominates Android in metrics that measure actual use (go check android vs iphone in your web logs, for example).

Yeah, that's true. I wonder if that's an artifact of the sites used by populations in different countries. A U.S. site would bias towards U.S. users which is not entirely dominated by Android devices.

Also, pretty sure there are more Android devices than Apple even just in the US. http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Press_Releases/2013/11/comS...

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

#60

Post by VLM »

DanBC wrote: post #56
VLM wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with bringing up local issues for a global product is all the people who live in local areas without those issues. I'd be extremely hard pressed to lose wifi connectivity. I've been carrying around a republic wireless phone which offloads calls over voip for a couple years (got in on the beta) and I have excellent connectivity at home, work, library, kids school, every coffee shop I've ever entered, one f…

You've described a few small cities plus New York. London has that kind of connectivity if you're prepared to pay - at which point the cost savings of chromebook start to fail. Especially with the increased uk cost of the device.

"You've described a few small cities plus New York."

LOL no, typical neighborhood in the 2nd richest suburb of a boring former top 30 midwestern urban center about 20 miles from "downtown", nearby a really freaking huge freshwater lake. Everything around me was built around 1960, the modern exurbs and mcmansions are all 5 to 10 miles further out so I guess you'd call this an inner-ring suburb. My commute length is about in the middle of my coworkers commute lengths. This is Extremely stereotypical suburbia at least in the midwest USA. 100K people, basically no real crime, the crime blotter is all "drunk idiot did this" and "drunk idiot got into fight" type stuff. One rare bright spot is our local HS always makes it thru regionals and into state at the Academic Decathlon, always every year no exceptions, and when I was on the team we made 4th at state, but once in awhile the local H.S. places pretty high at nationals, I guess the year I was on the team I must have dragged them down (LOL). They're not going to be filming a reunion episode of Friends or any other trendy urban stuff here any time soon, we don't have a Tesla dealership or anything like that. There is an Apple store but its 10 miles away. We only got a frozen yogurt store last summer, we didn't even have cupcake stores until after they already peaked on the coasts, its just not that trendy of an area. So a very nice area, but hardly the urban paradise SV is supposed to be, or all of CA is supposed to be, or pretty much anywhere on the coasts. We're referred to as flyover country, made fun of a lot. The nearest smart car dealership is 30 miles away but I don't know if they're even still cool. The closest IKEA is like 100 miles away, no kidding. We have a symphony orchestra that no one attends (well, far under 1% of population) so unsure if thats culturally good or bad. And no, our symphony does not play dueling banjos or whatever just because we're well over 1000 miles from any ocean coast. Nor do all our summer vacations look like "Deliverance" movie although sometimes it gets kinda iffy. TLDR is on average its a pretty typical boring suburb, some things a little better, some a little worse.

I'm more a tea drinker than coffee, but I've been given the impression for about a decade its illegal or something to sell coffee without free wifi.

Oh and I forgot the local McDonalds about 1.5 miles away has free wifi, I don't eat that kind of "food", but if I needed wifi I'd do what I have to do to get it, including eating a big mac or whatever.

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