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Google Pixelbook – A High Performance Chromebook

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Re: Google Pixelbook – A High Performance Chromebook

#31

Post by Zee2 »

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…

I really agree with the "uncanny valley" judgement. I would absolutely love to ditch my Windows 10 laptop for a smooth, efficient, and secure ChromeOS device. However, it simply doesn't have the software support, unfortunately.

What I see a lot of "power users" doing is simply using their Chromebook to remote into their desktop for their application work. However, what then is the point of putting such powerful hardware in the Chromebook? Either you make a "thin" portable client that is used to remote into your "real" PC, or you make a powerful portable device that is self sufficient.

An overwhelmingly powerful device that can only be used to remote into another system to do the "real" work is simply a waste.

Re: Google Pixelbook – A High Performance Chromebook

#32

Post by matthewbauer »

ngoldbaum wrote: post #27
zitterbewegung wrote: post #10

I'm not sure why Google tries to make a really expensive version of their Chromebooks . If this came out before the new iPad Pro's and Surface laptops it might be compelling to buy. But, if I want a walled garden experience I would choose an iPad Pro. And if I want a real keyboard with a stylus there is the Surface Book and many others. It is even competing with the lower end Chromebooks due to the price. It would be…

They need hardware to give to google interns.

Do they actually make interns use chromebooks?

Re: Google Pixelbook – A High Performance Chromebook

#33

Post by robert_foss »

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…

Personally I'd love to have a dev Chromebook.

The software stack running on it is second to none.

Even the BIOS is light-years ahead any Windows/Linux box. As for OSX I'm not familiar with the boot process.

Re: Google Pixelbook – A High Performance Chromebook

#34

Post by Sir_Cmpwn »

dabockster wrote: post #25
millstone wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android phones send your location history to Google. iPhone location history stays on the phone. That's the key difference.

This exactly. Android phones can't do a thing without connecting to some privacy-invading cloud service. And yeah, I've tried Replikant. Nice proof of concept, but not usable.

Try LineageOS without GApps. More usable, but contains driver blobs.

Re: Google Pixelbook – A High Performance Chromebook

#35

Post by notatoad »

cuu508 wrote: post #24
Radial3D wrote: post #18

My initial observations: * 12.4" 2400x1600 (235 ppi) is great * Battery life looks good at "up to 10 hours" * 4 Mics for noise cancelling is interesting * $99 for the pressure sensitive Pixelbook Pen seems steep * Core i5 options ship in 3-4 weeks * Core i7/16GB/512 SSD option puts you on a waitlist * Fully spec'd out: i7, Pen, and Preferred Care is $1997 * Why only two USB-C ports?!

My initial observations: * bezel

it's a convertible tablet. they all have huge bezels, because that's where you put your thumbs.

Re: Google Pixelbook – A High Performance Chromebook

#36

Post by wazanator »

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…

I'm willing to bet crouton runs on it out of the box so you can get a dev environment up fast.

Re: Google Pixelbook – A High Performance Chromebook

#37

Post by napa15 »

I dont know why anyone would buy this unless the pen drawing experience is a lot better than on the Surface Pro and Ipad Pro and you're primarily an artist. The Surface Pro has a real OS with Windows on it, I'm sure somebody will hack the Pixelbook to allow Linux but it will probably have a bunch of stuff removed and unsupported then. It makes zero sense to buy this locked down device for 1k as far as I'm concerned.

Re: Google Pixelbook – A High Performance Chromebook

#39

Post by dymk »

cryptoz wrote: post #26
millstone wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android phones send your location history to Google. iPhone location history stays on the phone. That's the key difference.

> iPhone location history stays on the phone. Not if you take photos and use iCloud.

There is a clear difference between using iCloud (which is opt-in) with geotagged photos (which you can disable from on-phone settings), and your phone sending your location to Google at regular intervals.

Re: Google Pixelbook – A High Performance Chromebook

#40

Post by fgblanch »

As a Chromebook user for almost a year now (since December 2016, using a pixel 2 LS) I can't be more excited about a computer like this. My only regret on my current computer has been not been able to use containers properly (i used rkt and not docker) because of kernel restrictions but now this should be solved with ChromeOS kvm support.

Imagine the performance of being able to run Android apps thought for much less powerful processors(Mediatek ARMs) in an i7 chip. While on the Mac you are using chromified version of the webapps (electron) which eat all the RAM.

Also a lot of android apps are very innovative versions of desktop computer ones ( for example adobe ideas, now Illustrator) That you are not able to run on a Mac.

The filesystem perfectly integrated with the cloud is another advantage.

In addition, Chrome OS is as simplified as a phone, which removes much of the legacy complexity in current OS.

And in case you are missing anything, the project crouton allows you to run a fully functional linux system. (Now probably even better thanks to the KVM+ wayland integration support https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/platform/crosvm...)

I total win for me

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