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

$149 Chromebooks

chrome.blogspot.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

321–330 of 425 posts

Re: $149 Chromebooks

#321

Post by TheTaO »

nevir wrote: post #225
TheTaO wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is a colossal, market-moving play from Google. Is it that or is it just an effort to stay relevant? If you can get a laptop/tablet that can do the same thing that this Chromebook does and has a full OS for a few bucks more, would you do it? There are tons of tablets from HP/Dell that cost 100-200$ and run full windows OS and have comparable specs to the Chromebooks. As far as I know they are selling quite well…

I don't think having a "full OS" factors very much into the decision process for someone considering this kind of device.

Not phrased that way but phrasedmore like: why can't I run skype on this? Or why can't I use this while on plane and so on

Re: $149 Chromebooks

#322

Post by wstrange »

VikingCoder wrote: post #256
Tloewald wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the problems I run into when recommending Chromebooks (I tried to convince my 75 year old mother, for example) is that almost every user turns out to have a need for something you can't do on a Chromebook. It ends up being a 90% solution for 90% of people, rather than a 100% solution for 80% of the people.

What was she trying to do? For me, it's the camera-printer link that keeps messing me up.

A google cloud print enabled printer solves the printing issue.

Re: $149 Chromebooks

#323

Post by fpgeek »

noteloop wrote: post #307
nightpool wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, I upvoted this, but on reflection I think this is wrong. Here's why: - Most Chromebooks are freely bootloader unlocked, allowing any operating system to be loaded on them. - ChromeOS follows the same open source model as Chrome—Most core features open, with things like Flash/Wildvine/API keys held secret. - There are no native apps on ChromeOS—the correct question is not "Can Mozilla write a browser for Chr…

> There are no native apps on ChromeOS This is not correct, you can run native apps for Chrome OS via Native Client (NaCL) or App Runtime for Chrome (ARC). VLC, a poster child for native apps, will be released for Chrome OS in a few months using ARC. Anandtech has already tested a beta version: http://www.anandtech.com/show/9082/the-chromebook-pixel-2015...

Hmm... If you can port VLC to Chrome OS with ARC, I wonder what happens if you try to shove Firefox for Android into it. Are there fundamental roadblocks that would prevent it from working, or would you just end up with a slow and buggy waltzing bear?

Re: $149 Chromebooks

#324

Post by zobzu »

haberman wrote: post #217
ntakasaki wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's sad to see folks celebrating computing devices that are more extremely locked down than even the iDevices. A Windows PC/laptop is much more open than a Chromebook. Can Mozilla even make a Firefox browser for ChromeOS? Only Google can make system and native apps, unlike the iDevices where you can access most of the native functionality even if you have to go through Apple's approval and you're not forced to uploa…

> Can Mozilla even make a Firefox browser for ChromeOS? Can Google even make a Chrome browser for FirefoxOS? All of the PR surrounding the creation of FirefoxOS lauded how it was completely open because it was built on standards like HTML/CSS/JavaScript. But when Google does the same thing, it is an example of "locking everything down while still calling itself open." Mozilla has been arguing for years that compile-t…

nacl is not exactly "standard"

Re: $149 Chromebooks

#325

Post by ssmoot »

sjtechie wrote: post #315
ssmoot wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That wasn't the vision that I recall. Maybe part of some of it, but I'm talking about the Internet Terminal idea. A lot of cool things came out of Sun. I don't think this was one. Have you tried Web IDEs? They're probably decades behind their desktop counterparts.

You mean like Atom? A lot of the web IDEs are pretty good nowadays. Not decades behind desktop software.

No. Atom is a text-editor with plugins. It's no more a competitor for IntelliJ than UltraEdit was a competitor to Visual Studio.NET. (IMO)

But I was actually talking about in-browser environments like CodeAnywhere.

Re: $149 Chromebooks

#326

Post by jiffytick »

nl wrote: post #268
aikah wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 10 hour battery life on an 8 second boot? 8 second boot ,frankly who cares ? my windows machine takes 40 second to boot sure, but I boot it like 2 times a week. 10 hour battery life ? maybe on idle, I bet this thing doesn't last 10 hours with 50 tabs opened or when playing youtube videos ... I can't believe there are still people defending that stuff, it's netbooks all over again but worse cause it's only a browser…

10 hour battery life ? maybe on idle, I bet this thing doesn't last 10 hours with 50 tabs opened or when playing youtube videos ... You are right - it's probably more like 8 hours. The older Acer c720 got between 6 and 7 hours streaming Netflix[1]. The Chromebook 13 got 10 hours[2]. [1] http://www.trustedreviews.com/acer-c720-chromebook-review-ba... [2] http://www.engadget.com/2014/09/23/acer-chromebook-13-review...

Those numbers are with hardware decoding, aren't they. I'd be more intrested in something compute-intensive that was compiled to asm.js. I bet they'll last much less.

That said, these are machines with mobile processors and an OS that is tailored for mobiles. It isn't all that suprising that they are more capable than their normal counterparts.

Re: $149 Chromebooks

#327

Post by ksk »

asuffield wrote: post #293
ksk wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google has indeed sold information to the NSA. http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertlenzner/2013/09/23/attveri...

(Tedious disclaimer: my opinion, not my employer's. Not representing anybody but me. I work at Google, not on lawful intercept.) That's not what this article says. This article is about what happens when the government lawfully issues a warrant to obtain somebody's private data, and orders a private company to give them the data. When this happens the company has some rights to recover their costs from the government…

>But it's still the law, and companies that operate in the US have to comply with it.

It's interesting that you guys figured out how to circumvent the US tax law, by hiding money in tax havens. I guess dodging the NSA warrants is not a priority.

Re: $149 Chromebooks

#328

Post by ssmoot »

Mikeb85 wrote: post #317
ssmoot wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That wasn't the vision that I recall. Maybe part of some of it, but I'm talking about the Internet Terminal idea. A lot of cool things came out of Sun. I don't think this was one. Have you tried Web IDEs? They're probably decades behind their desktop counterparts.

> Maybe part of some of it, but I'm talking about the Internet Terminal idea. I'm pretty young, so I was woefully ignorant of this. However the more I read about it, the more it sounds like 'Cloud computing' and 'internet of things'. In fact, Chrome OS isn't too far from their Java Internet Terminal idea. > Have you tried Web IDEs? They're probably decades behind their desktop counterparts. I have. My main IDE, and p…

> In fact, Chrome OS isn't too far from their Java Internet Terminal idea.

That's what I was getting at. That was 19 years ago.

> Not sure why you think they're decades behind.

I was thinking in person-hours. I don't mean to belittle them. But I feel like these are mostly "JustAnotherTextMate".

Re: $149 Chromebooks

#329

Post by rbanffy »

raesene9 wrote: post #12
dpcan wrote: post #6

Where is the $149 Windows-Based laptop with SSD, 2-4GB RAM, and moderate graphics, that can run your usual Office to Minecraft software? The Chromebook-killer from Microsoft should be here, but all I hear about are the Surfaces. Honestly, the only reason my kids don't have Chromebooks is because they don't easily run Minecraft or downloadable games. Sure they can do their school work on them, but they also like to pl…

http://www.amazon.com/HP-Stream-Laptop-Personal-Horizon/dp/B... HP Stream 11 is likely the closest to what you're looking for $199 so slightly more expensive, but a year of Office365 included...

I doubt the battery life is any longer than the ARM based competition. "Better" depends on what value you put on which feature. For me, I wouldn't use a Chromebook because Emacs needs Alt and Super keys.
Post reply on HN