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Google Hardware makes cuts to laptop and tablet development, cancels products

arstechnica.com

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Re: Google Hardware makes cuts to laptop and tablet development, cancels products

#261

Post by ppseafield »

jedberg wrote: post #164
robocat wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I guarantee you that if Google produced the laptop that you and 22 other people would buy you'd hear nothing but complaints about it. Counterpoint: I know plenty of happy developers that own multiple Nexus and Pixel products, without bagging them. Engineers want good hardware and many are willing to pay for quality. > As for the so-called "Apple tax" For as close to equivalent as I could get (specification, reliabi…

> Paying for an unused Windows license for the XPS was unavoidable The website gives you the option to save $90 if you have them install linux on the XPS 13. I suspect you may be able to call and get the same deal on the XPS 15. At least when I was buying from them 20 years ago you could do that...

That's correct, you may in fact order an XPS 13 pre-installed with Ubuntu from Dell. But you won't find an XPS 15 model with that option. I couldn't find it in January when I went to buy mine.

Re: Google Hardware makes cuts to laptop and tablet development, cancels products

#262

Post by switch007 »

broknbottle wrote: post #115
kamarg wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Three gripes with my Dell XPS13. 1) The docking station is horribly buggy. If I unplug it to take my laptop somewhere and then plug it back in, I have to do a full reboot or none of the USB peripherals on the docking station get power. Monitors, power, ethernet all still work through the docking station after being plugged back in. Dell support took 4hrs of my time installing/uninstalling drivers and firmware updates…

All 3 of these issues appear to be related to one common variable.. Windows. I have a Dell XPS 13 9360 8th Gen i5-8250u running Fedora 29 and I've never experienced any of these issues. Why don't you try another OS instead of blaming the hardware. If it continues with Ubuntu 18.04/18.10/Fedora 29 then contact Dell for support..

The 9360 hardware sucks, too. Search "9360 coil whine". The CPU (i7) throttles all the time. The fan noise is intolerable. (I run Fedora 29 too)

Re: Google Hardware makes cuts to laptop and tablet development, cancels products

#263

Post by oceliker »

mruts wrote: post #253
anticodon wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Macbook is a very poor choice for developer because of the keyboard without Escape key. I tried to use keyboard without Esc and it's simply too painful to use. I don't care about the tax. But I can't buy a tool built for aliens by aliens. I could adapt to all the crazy keyboard changes all manufacturers tried over the years. But removing Esc key makes it completely unusable.

For vim? I'm not a vim user but most of them just rebind it to something better, right? I use emacs/intellij and almost never have had the need to use the Esc key for anything at all.

I use vim. I do map Esc to caps lock, but it’s muscle memory to reach for Esc at this point, so it’s still difficult to justify the touch bar. Thankfully I use a Macbook (not Air, not Pro), which I (affectionately) call the SSH machine.

Re: Google Hardware makes cuts to laptop and tablet development, cancels products

#264

Post by nl »

tdfx wrote: post #117
compiler-guy wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although I love Inbox, it had no chance of being a $100 million dollar business. It would have been lucky to clear $10 million, even ignoring the fact that nearly all of its revenue would be cannibalized from gmail itself.

The odd part is that they developed a successful blueprint for how to beat their existing Gmail product and are apparently walking away from it. Anecdotal, but I don't know anyone who I introduced Inbox to that does not prefer it to standard Gmail. I wish they would focus their consolidation efforts on their awful messaging mess and leave Inbox alone.

I really didn't like Inbox at all.

Re: Google Hardware makes cuts to laptop and tablet development, cancels products

#265

Post by anticodon »

mruts wrote: post #253
anticodon wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Macbook is a very poor choice for developer because of the keyboard without Escape key. I tried to use keyboard without Esc and it's simply too painful to use. I don't care about the tax. But I can't buy a tool built for aliens by aliens. I could adapt to all the crazy keyboard changes all manufacturers tried over the years. But removing Esc key makes it completely unusable.

For vim? I'm not a vim user but most of them just rebind it to something better, right? I use emacs/intellij and almost never have had the need to use the Esc key for anything at all.

Mostly for vim, yes. I can't remap it to CapsLock, because I'm Russian and I already use CapsLock for switching keyboard layouts for 20+ years.

Re: Google Hardware makes cuts to laptop and tablet development, cancels products

#266

Post by automathematics »

gonesilent wrote: post #245
bubblethink wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main downsides are the wimpy processors, soldered ram, storage and wifi cards, poor repairability, non upstreamed code.

Mostly it's the keyboard that pisses me off on the pixel books

The keyboard on the pixelbook has been regarded as one of the best keyboards on a laptop nearly everywhere I've read! It's the only non-mechanical keyboard I like!

Re: Google Hardware makes cuts to laptop and tablet development, cancels products

#267

Post by automathematics »

robocat wrote: post #208
automathematics wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you kept up with the Pixelbook development? Chrome OS is pretty great for general "cloud" work (AWS management for example). It runs containerized Android apps (which I use to run the native Gmail app to fly through my inbox). But that's nothing compared to the new stuff. It runs containerized linux with a great abstraction layer that connects GUI calls from linux into the beautiful hi-dpi Chrome OS desktop envi…

As the article says "A report from Business Insider claims that Google has axed 'dozens' of employees from its laptop and tablet division." I would love a Pixelbook, but I need a laptop if I want to work while travelling - I often end up with poor cellular data (or none at all!). Does having both a laptop and a pixelbook make sense? Work also bought a device to get satellite data - so that we can do operational suppo…

> I would love a Pixelbook, but I need a laptop if I want to work while travelling

I don't follow. Pixelbook is a laptop! It's actually the only one I travel with

Re: Google Hardware makes cuts to laptop and tablet development, cancels products

#268

Post by jessaustin »

scarface74 wrote: post #225
jessaustin wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would Google have disputed an obvious lowball? They were getting sued... The first line at your link: "...revenue of about $31 billion and profit of $22 billion..." Again, fake numbers, but wow that's profitable.

Do you really think in discovery in official court documents that Google could get away with having false numbers? 22 billion in profit in almost a decade for having 80% of the market is peanuts. Google has paid more than that to Apple for being the default search engine on iOS for the same time period.

It's not as if the chart of accounts has a particular account for "this is our profit from screwing over whoever bought the rights to Java". This would always be a judgment call, first from the inherent uncertainty in measuring that if one wanted to measure it correctly, but more importantly from the uncertainty over what can be proved in court. Remember, Oracle had the burden of proof in this situation, and they thought they could prove that the number was at least $22B. Google had no duty to argue the number should have been higher, because even if that duty existed how would it be enforced?

Much of your analysis in this thread suffers from a form of wishful thinking. I suspect you are a fan of "iPhone" devices.

Re: Google Hardware makes cuts to laptop and tablet development, cancels products

#269

Post by scarface74 »

jessaustin wrote: post #268
scarface74 wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you really think in discovery in official court documents that Google could get away with having false numbers? 22 billion in profit in almost a decade for having 80% of the market is peanuts. Google has paid more than that to Apple for being the default search engine on iOS for the same time period.

It's not as if the chart of accounts has a particular account for "this is our profit from screwing over whoever bought the rights to Java". This would always be a judgment call, first from the inherent uncertainty in measuring that if one wanted to measure it correctly, but more importantly from the uncertainty over what can be proved in court. Remember, Oracle had the burden of proof in this situation, and they tho…

It's not my analysis. It was Oracle's well paid lawyers' analysis. Do you have insight that they didn't have to come up with a more accurate number? I'm sure if you do, Larry Ellison will be glad to hear from you.

Re: Google Hardware makes cuts to laptop and tablet development, cancels products

#270

Post by jessaustin »

scarface74 wrote: post #269
jessaustin wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not as if the chart of accounts has a particular account for "this is our profit from screwing over whoever bought the rights to Java". This would always be a judgment call, first from the inherent uncertainty in measuring that if one wanted to measure it correctly, but more importantly from the uncertainty over what can be proved in court. Remember, Oracle had the burden of proof in this situation, and they tho…

It's not my analysis. It was Oracle's well paid lawyers' analysis. Do you have insight that they didn't have to come up with a more accurate number? I'm sure if you do, Larry Ellison will be glad to hear from you.

Oh yeah Larry will be waiting by the phone; I'll understand if he has to land his S.211 first. This is all fake anyway. None of these big corporate lawsuits are about justice or truth. We copyrighted an API that someone else wrote before they went out of business and we bought the remains, even though there was never an actual copyright notice and after all it's a blooming API? Give me a break. Those brilliant analytical lawyers were too busy pulling everyone's legs (not the jury's!) to dig up any more alleged profits... Oracle don't actually care if the lawsuit ever ends.
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