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Google Pixelbook – A High Performance Chromebook

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Re: Google Pixelbook – A High Performance Chromebook

#171

Post by Filligree »

hnnsj wrote: post #87

Forgive my ignorance, but when I was introduced to the Chromebook concept a few years ago, it was basically supposed to be a cheaper "thin" (not physically necessarily but spec-wise) computer mostly running web apps. Now they're instead high-end laptops. Are they no longer about running mostly web apps, or what? What changed in the last couple of years? Why is this hardware needed? I don't get it.

Now they run Android apps as well.

Also, the web changed; there are webapps that require gigabytes of memory out there, such as Gmail.

All respect to Google, I use a Chromebook for offline writing and general browsing and it's wonderful, but I agree that I'm not seeing the use-case for this one yet.

Maybe they'll port Android Studio to it? That might be pretty nice.

Re: Google Pixelbook – A High Performance Chromebook

#172

Post by bischofs »

There is a lot of comments in here confused with chromeOS and all the justification for an expensive machine that doesnt really run that much software.

I agree with most of the sentiment and I think they should just keep the nice UI but switch to a debian distro so that devs and some creatives could use all the linux software if they know how to install it. I would use the crap out of a google UI debian distro.

Re: Google Pixelbook – A High Performance Chromebook

#173

Post by terminalcommand »

hnnsj wrote: post #87

Forgive my ignorance, but when I was introduced to the Chromebook concept a few years ago, it was basically supposed to be a cheaper "thin" (not physically necessarily but spec-wise) computer mostly running web apps. Now they're instead high-end laptops. Are they no longer about running mostly web apps, or what? What changed in the last couple of years? Why is this hardware needed? I don't get it.

Nowadays browsers use relatively a lot of resources. I don't know how ChromeOS handles tabs, but I imagine running everything in a browser takes a toll on performance.

I remember the agony I experienced when I needed to use Word365 online for a project. The javascript implementation was so slow and resource heavy that I was almost going to go crazy. Google Docs on the other hand worked fine most of the time. But none of them could replace a native MS Office or Libreoffice. Maybe with webassembly things are going to get different, but adding abstraction layers come at a cost.

Also these machines need to run videos and process pictures and maybe movies. With those requirements performance doesn't hurt.

Re: Google Pixelbook – A High Performance Chromebook

#174

Post by gressquel »

busterarm wrote: post #113
notheguyouthink wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Previously everything of mine went through Google. Email, phone, phone number, search, etc. I've migrated everything away (except Google Voice) for this very reason. My life would have came to a grinding halt if they banned me, and I couldn't even email them about it.

What was your gmail alternative? I tried to switch everything to Lavabit, but then a month later the Snowden thing happened...that didn't last (and I'm still out all that money)

outlook.com is excellent. I used the free version for years, now I have bought premium.

Re: Google Pixelbook – A High Performance Chromebook

#175

Post by Filligree »

nikolaj wrote: post #128

I bought an ASUS c302 Chromebook for $500 earlier this year, and somehow this doesn't seem that different. More CPU/RAM (does this matter on a chromebook), and maybe a pen. The c302 has a pretty high res display, does the flip thing and is a touch screen, runs all day, and boots in a couple seconds. The case feels a bit flimsy, but withstood the rigors of my 6yo twins wrestling over it on a road trip to play the next…

I really suspect they partnered with Asus for this one, yeah.

Which should be a good thing. I love my C302CA.

Re: Google Pixelbook – A High Performance Chromebook

#176

Post by BinaryIdiot »

uniformlyrandom wrote: post #88
rimliu wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you think majority of the users will do with those $1k-$2k devices—desoldering storage or looking at the pictures of cats and kids? The CPU or RAM specs alone don't tell much how well the device will perform.

But who are the majority of users here? If all the developers betrayed by latest Apple's MBP lineup migrate to a new platform, suddenly 'majority' starts to care about number of cores and upgradable memory. But that is not likely to happen, given the dumbed-down specs and OS.

Didn't the latest MBP line have the best sales in MBP history? I get many people were upset by some of the changes (including myself) but that doesn't mean people are migrating in mass.

Also, a chromebook? No developers are migrating to a chromebook. This is targeting the normal user who wants a nice laptop to do normal web surfing and text work.

Re: Google Pixelbook – A High Performance Chromebook

#177

Post by morganvachon »

raesene9 wrote: post #153
joshuacc wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I uploaded full seasons of a very old 90s cartoon and my account is disabled. I cannot even purchase YouTube TV to try it out. You violated the law and their (rather reasonable in this case) terms of service and are shocked to find they'd rather not do business with you?

I think the problem is where accounts control a large part of someone's digital life. so for example here, it appears that someone breached Youtube ToS and lost their whole Google account. Now imagine you've got all your e-mail/photos/contacts etc in that account and you've just permanently lost them due to that ToS breach. Of course as technical people we can say "ahh you should have had off-cloud backups", but real…

"I think the problem is where accounts control a large part of someone's digital life.

so for example here, it appears that someone breached Youtube ToS and lost their whole Google account."

Exactly. I recall the incident[1] where some Google Pixel phone customers were reselling their phones and making a tiny profit. Google permanently deleted hundreds of accounts and never restored them, for violating a mobile phone TOS. Ban them from the Fi mobile service, sure, but don't delete their entire digital lives! That's like getting a life sentence for shoplifting in the physical world.

All your eggs in one basket is never a good strategy, and though I wasn't personally affected by it, the Pixel Phone fiasco opened my eyes to just how much Google and Facebook controlled my own digital persona. I now use neither of their services.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/nov/17/google-su...

Re: Google Pixelbook – A High Performance Chromebook

#178

Post by Filligree »

vyrotek wrote: post #14

Who is the target audience for a $1k Pixelbook? How much friction will there be to try and use it as a dev laptop? I'm in the market but at the moment I'm more attracted to something like the SurfaceBook for something I can dev on, have a pen, and watch stuff in tablet mode.

Well, there's Termux, but I don't think this is any good for developing on yet. Maybe once Android Studio is ported?

Re: Google Pixelbook – A High Performance Chromebook

#179

Post by ehsankia »

tclancy wrote: post #67
dchuk wrote: post #5

Interesting that there is no reference to targeting developers/coding at all for this device. Seems targeted at creatives with the Pen and Lightroom/etc on it. Other than that, none of the example apps it can support seem to me to really require "high performance" at all. Which is too bad, because it's a pretty device. Just seems like it's in a weird uncanny valley where it's probably way too much horsepower for most…

Same. I tried doing development on the Chromebook I'd bought for my wife because a client needed a ChromeOS-specific extension. The process was painful; you had to boot into a separate mode to use things like a text editor to write js and it booted out of that mode every time it woke back up (or maybe my wife just kept resetting it so she could actually get her work done). I'd be happy to have one for development, bu…

I've done a lot of development on my Chromebook and I absolutely loved it, but it was with a ssh connection to a machine in the cloud and a browser based editor. But yeah for that, you don't need insane specs like the Pixelbook.

Re: Google Pixelbook – A High Performance Chromebook

#180

Post by daxorid »

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #66

I think a major issue is what happens if Google locks your account for some reason. There have been instances in the past where Google has locked the account of a user for some TOS violations. http://m.gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/news/google-pixel-reseller... http://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/aug/1/jordan-b-peters... http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-08-21/one-statistics-prof... Given that Google has a propensity…

The real utility in this device is to flash with coreboot and install Linux, not to run client endpoints of Google's horrible services.
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