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Chromebooks outsold Macs for the first time in the US

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Re: Chromebooks outsold Macs for the first time in the US

#171

Post by kstenerud »

I had a chromebook for about a year. I tried to make it my main laptop. I really did. But online only apps just don't work for me (I'm not always close enough to an internet connection). The native apps weren't usable enough, and often froze the whole desktop. Crouton, while cool, is flaky. I never did get audio working on it, and it also froze the system once or twice a day. And the lack of local storage became problematic. I could plug in a USB flash drive, but some stuff HAS to be on the main drive, and shuffling things around is a pain, especially on their file manager (which is SLOW, although not quite as horrible as Mac's file management).

I gave it to my dad, who just loves it! He uses it for his email, browsing, document editing, photos, and videos.

If that's all you do, then Chromebook is the system for you.

Re: Chromebooks outsold Macs for the first time in the US

#172

Post by lern_too_spel »

ekianjo wrote: post #168
lern_too_spel wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linus disagrees. https://plus.google.com/+LinusTorvalds/posts/GPbJZX8fmtL

It's probably more of a joke than anything. Linus was calling in late 2014 or early 2015 for an ARM-based Linux laptop and he was certainly not referring to ChromeOS.

Read the comments under that post. Linus is not joking.

Re: Chromebooks outsold Macs for the first time in the US

#173

Post by Lio »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #158
seabrookmx wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Web assembly gets first class access to browser API's and the DOM, which Applets never did. Applets had virtually zero ability to communicate with the webpage they were contained in. This paired with the fact that most users at the time (on Windows) had to download additional nagware to run them, and you have a recipe for disaster. Web assembly is a continuation of JavaScript and ASM JS and is poised to be a much bet…

Why would they need the ability to communicate with the webpage they were contained in? They can communicate with themselves. What's the difference between a single-page web application in WebAssembly and a single-page java applet in java bytecode? What's the DOM adding? Suppose I want to run Quake in the browser. Applets already do that. It's not a new idea or a new technology.

Well there's a certain consistency to what you can do in a browser. E.g. Opening part of the app in a new tab or searching for things on the page. A soon as you're in flash or an Applet all bets are off. It might work, might not. Its jarring. (Of course this ignores single page apps that deliberately break things like right click, etc.)

Re: Chromebooks outsold Macs for the first time in the US

#174

Post by ksec »

jdeibele wrote: post #89

A couple of weeks ago I bought an Airport Capsule for backups. Thursday, I got the "your backup can't be verified" message, meaning that Apple threw away my backups. This is Apple product backing up to Apple product. I tried fixing it with fsck_hfs but it wasn't finished when I went to bed. Today, I woke up and my MacBook Air is doing a nice loop where it lets me log in, then reboots. It's done that 10 times. I've tr…

I think the iPad is what suppose to replace the Chromebook, although Apple were a little late with the Keybroad attachment.

Seriously, Apple needs to rethink Airport Capsule. Either make everything iCloud Backup, or make Airport Capsule actually safe and consumable.

Re: Chromebooks outsold Macs for the first time in the US

#175

Post by ekianjo »

lern_too_spel wrote: post #172
ekianjo wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's probably more of a joke than anything. Linus was calling in late 2014 or early 2015 for an ARM-based Linux laptop and he was certainly not referring to ChromeOS.

Read the comments under that post. Linus is not joking.

Indeed he's not joking, but then that means he changed his mind compared to what he says 1-2 years ago.

Re: Chromebooks outsold Macs for the first time in the US

#176

Post by SCAQTony »

j2kun wrote: post #104

I think it's hilarious how little the HN community knows about Chromebooks. Every time it pops up, there's a wave of people saying "I don't know a single person who has one!" and "They seem useless without an internet connection!" and "I wonder how they compare to mac books." People forget that most of the world doesn't write code, and doesn't need native applications. They write email, take selfies, and write extrem…

I think you nailed it but I also think that people who don't want to learn how to code, or learn a software suite, or create something important or beautiful and simply prefer to look at a computer as a source of entertainment and communication (read as 70% of the population) are summarily doomed.

Re: Chromebooks outsold Macs for the first time in the US

#177

Post by tkubacki »

ksec wrote: post #170
j2kun wrote: post #104

I think it's hilarious how little the HN community knows about Chromebooks. Every time it pops up, there's a wave of people saying "I don't know a single person who has one!" and "They seem useless without an internet connection!" and "I wonder how they compare to mac books." People forget that most of the world doesn't write code, and doesn't need native applications. They write email, take selfies, and write extrem…

For the usage you describe, i would actually recommand a Tablet ( iPad ) rather then Chromebook. I was actually waiting to upgrade to iPad Air 3, but instead we got a 9.7" iPad Pro. From a hardware perpestive, once the iPad Air gets 4GB Ram, there is very little difference between it and the Chromebook.

difference is $200

Re: Chromebooks outsold Macs for the first time in the US

#178

Post by slantyyz »

ekianjo wrote: post #156
j2kun wrote: post #104

I think it's hilarious how little the HN community knows about Chromebooks. Every time it pops up, there's a wave of people saying "I don't know a single person who has one!" and "They seem useless without an internet connection!" and "I wonder how they compare to mac books." People forget that most of the world doesn't write code, and doesn't need native applications. They write email, take selfies, and write extrem…

> You'd be amazed how many people encounter a problem with their computer and give up because "it's mad at me." This isn't an educational problem Wow, you'd have to wonder how everyone here actually learned how to use computers back when there was no Internet and no help from your friends because you were the only one using them. It's NEVER been easier to use a computer nowadays, not just because they have become bet…

As someone who started using computers in 1982, I would have to disagree.

Computers today are incredibly powerful, and because of that, operating systems and applications have become complex beasts themselves.

My first computer only had 4K and a text based interface. As an end user, I only needed to know a handful of commands. Most navigation was done through multiple choice text menus.

Even moving into the early 90s, when using System 6 and System 7 on Macs, the very notion of needing a second mouse button was considered a bad thing. If you needed that right button, your application design was too complex.

Fast forward a quarter of a century, and I can't live without a context menu, but I have 35 years of accumulated knowledge that lets me take this stuff for granted..

IMO, the amount of stuff I need to know today to get around a computer is an order of magnitude more than "back when".

Back in the old days, all you had to do was load and run stuff off discretely labeled physical media like a cassette or floppy. You only ran one program at a time. You didn't need to worry about network security, because the only network you could afford consisted of you putting your sneakers on and bringing a disk to another machine. Your computer was turned off with a switch. There was no need for a "shut down" command to fire. If you had a virus, it meant you caught a cold. Things were really simple back then.

Re: Chromebooks outsold Macs for the first time in the US

#179

Post by khedoros »

jonknee wrote: post #163
khedoros wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not to mention Chromebooks essentially are open products. The OS itself is pretty open. If I'm not mistaken though, if you put it into dev mode, you get a scary screen at every reboot, and an opportunity to hit space to re-enable OS verification, and apparently wipe out whatever modifications you've made to the system. In theory, actually rebooting the system should be a fairly rare event, but that's one of the rea…

> I understand the security concerns, but if the hardware makes it difficult to do what I'd like, then whatever security they implement is moot anyhow, right? "Difficult" as in a supported developer mode? Of course there is a way to reverse it otherwise they would have non-stop support calls from people who hit the button to see what it did and freaked out. The whole point of Chromebooks is that you can always get ba…

I'm thinking about "ctrl-d" to boot, and the likelihood that my kid's going to eventually play with daddy's laptop and pound on the spacebar during reboot.

What I'd like: A Linux distro of my choice that boots as cleanly and directly as the original ChromeOS. A dual-boot to Windows would be nice too, although maybe at this point I could get by with a VM.

What I think a Chromebook would provide: The option for a Crouton install within ChromeOS or a dual-boot. I think that both options require developer mode. During boot, you get a fun little screen telling you to push the spacebar to "re-enable OS verification", which takes you into a system recovery process...or you press ctrl-d to boot the system as-is.

That all sounds like something that I can do, but it sounds like a step back in usability for me. And besides:

> Caution: Modifications you make to the system are not supported by Google, may cause hardware, software or security issues and may void warranty.

(http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-information-fo...)

That's a terrible way to prefix a guide for activating a "supported developer mode" :-)

A Chromebook may be wonderful for someone else with different desires. I don't think that it's a good fit for what I want to do.

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