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The Chromebook Pixel

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Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#421

Post by Evbn »

hamxiaoz wrote: post #165
spankalee wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Discliaimer: I work for Google, but don't know about real strategy decisions about this. I think it's all about establishing more demand for web apps. Already I can do everything I need to in Chrome except for a nice development environment, though Cloud9 is getting closer, and music apps like Logic. Those are quite doable though, especially with the Chrome App APIs, someone just needs to get the ball rolling. The cu…

I don't think a high price (>$1000) will establish 'more' demand.

anyone who buys these will establish demand for apps. Even if it isn't many, it is one front.

Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#422

Post by drummer32 »

DigitalTurk wrote: post #71

The Verge has more pictures. http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/21/4013480/google-chromebook-... It looks an awful lot like a Macbook: Just witness the aluminum-like color and the black bevel around the screen. Where it looks different, it's uglier. The hinge looks particularly bad. And judging by the pictures it's an awful lot bulkier than a Macbook Air. Chrome OS strikes me as an underpowered OS. That is, there's a lot…

So now Apple has a patent on aluminium color and black bezel? Most laptops (and for that matter tablets) have a black bezel cause it provides a good contrast from the content on the screen. When I saw the picture i thought "At least they won't say it looks like a macbook. It has a hard-edge look, from the pictures i looks like it has a dark tone aluminium color and it has that (admitetly awfull looking) hinge thingy. But hey, it's a laptop and and it's small and silvery, Google made a Macbook clone...

Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#423

Post by dannyr »

javajosh wrote: post #58

There are only three meaningful things you can do with a computer with specs like this: development, design, or gaming. And yet ChromeOS can't do any of these things. Perhaps this is a vanity product for the wealthy. But wealthy people are going to just surf the web on an iPad. I really don't get this product.

"There are only three meaningful things you can do with a computer with specs like this: development, design, or gaming. And yet ChromeOS can't do any of these things."

If ChromeOS wants to do these things, they need something like Pixel.

You got it the other way around.

Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#424

Post by alexose »

neverm0re wrote: post #388
neverm0re wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

* Enable developer mode.[1] * Drop Crouton[2] onto Chromebook to get a full dev stack and unfortunate Ubuntu/XFCE environment. * Set up chroot and start building other people's crap. * Write to SD Card/internal storage and reboot. Which step here is hard? Tedious to roll your own I'd give you, but you don't even need to as there's stuff like ArchLinuxARM[3] which skips the middle two steps. [1]: https://sites.google.…

Whoops, serves me right for not double-checking [2]: https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton

Not gonna lie, I just spent several minutes trying to figure out what context sensitive notifications for Android had to do with hacking the chromebook.

Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#425

Post by mbillie1 »

cremnob wrote: post #383
mbillie1 wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not many people in the tech industry buy Macs because they are expensive, but I'd venture that (like many other trendy products) there are a good number of people who have bought it for the status/trendiness/cost/whatever. Not that it matters really, but it's an odd claim to make that all Mac purchasers were informed consumers. Most consumers are relatively uninformed, regardless of what they're buying, and loads of…

What's odd is making the assumption that all Mac purchasers weren't informed consumers. Your attitude reeks of arrogance and superiority (which seems to be common in the tech community). >Most consumers are relatively uninformed, regardless of what they're buying, and loads of people buy things for no other reason than that they saw a commercial on TV and can afford it. I have a few friends that work in creative at a…

I'm not saying that it happens without advertising :) but it happens, right?

Also, I am not trying to be superior or critical - I'm not slamming Mac owners, I own Apple products. There is nothing wrong with not knowing the GHz on your CPU. It doesn't matter for many people, and that isn't an arrogant judgment (or at least I don't mean it to be). I just think it's silly that we sometimes assume all people will evaluate technology the way we (tech people) do. Just because a thing is more/less expensive, more/less powerful, has more/less storage, does not mean that it might not be the perfect solution for someone else.

edit: I should add that I buy things for weird reasons all the time. I know nothing about fashion - I assume that the $80 jeans are nicer looking than then $40 jeans. Or I assume that the BMW 3x is a better car than the Accord. I do of course try to look into these things thoroughly, but sometimes I don't care, and I just want to buy a credible product. I suspect that lots of people do this with lots of things that aren't their primary concern - that's all I'm saying. A well-marketed, slick Chromebook could find an audience if for no other reason that there are a lot of people who think about computers like I think about cars: "I want a good one. This one looks pretty good to me, I haven't heard anything bad, it has a good reputation, it looks well-made, I don't want to spend the cycles endlessly investigating it, it's in my price range, I'll grab it."

Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#426

Post by seanmcdirmid »

jimmaswell wrote: post #404
kunai wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

May be true for desktops, but if you have ever tried to code on a 1366x768 14" laptop display, you'll agree. 8:5/16:10 or even 3:2 fill the horizontal field of view well while also delivering more vertical space. Even if 16:9 is theoretically better, why shouldn't we have a choice? Every notebook computer out there besides Apple has a 16:9 display, and I'm sick of it, and many others are as well. At least offer us mo…

I use Visual Studio on a 1360x768 display all the time, and it's not so bad. It does encourage writing the code better because you can't read large chunks at once.

I heard a story where one famous computer scientist (Dijkstra, McCarthy, Hoare, or Knuth?) said something about how using punch cards encourages writing code better because the compile/debug loop is so long and annoying.

Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#427

Post by tutysara »

Kerrick wrote: post #130
criley wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you develop on this? I'm used to using Linux, command line, text editors, local installs of the product I'm developing for, virtual machines, etc... Are you simply forced into using ALL websites to actually develop and unable to use anything else? Seems strange to pay $1250+ to develop on a machine that cannot even run or test the code you write.

Chrome has a wonderful SSH client [0], and with a $5/mo Digital Ocean [1] (or other [2]) VPS for all your UNIX work, it's a perfectly capable dev machine. [0]: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/secure-shell/pnhec... [1]: https://www.digitalocean.com/ [2]: http://www.lowendbox.com/

I guess you are talking about the $250 chromebook, I am using a lenovo x120, having all my dev setup in digitalocean 1GB server. Do you use X or just fine with command line/emacs? Just curious to know how other people are using ec2/linode/digitalocean for development.

Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#429

Post by curveship »

javajosh wrote: post #58

There are only three meaningful things you can do with a computer with specs like this: development, design, or gaming. And yet ChromeOS can't do any of these things. Perhaps this is a vanity product for the wealthy. But wealthy people are going to just surf the web on an iPad. I really don't get this product.

Some speculation about one thing a machine like this might be for:

1. Google purchased Nik Software a few months ago. Nik makes several industry leading tools for photo retouching.

2. Before the acquisition, Nik had started transitioning their desktop technology to touch, for use in their tablet app Snapseed.

3. The Nik folk have been kind of quiet since the acquisition.

4. Now Google comes out with a hi-res, touch-oriented laptop, an absolute dream machine for photo editing.

5. ... New Chrome OS native photo editing app?

Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#430

Post by jonknee »

MrVitaliy wrote: post #300
jonknee wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using that logic I don't know how Apple sells so many of its MacBooks. They're all expensive and have "specs like this", but the vast majority are not used for development, design or gaming. I can see the appeal of a small (thinner than a MacBook Air), well constructed, blazingly fast laptop. If I could run 1Password on it I would be very tempted to take it for a spin, with the LTE it would make an excellent travel m…

MBAir is best dev laptop I ever had. Its super light, plenty of power and space for most app development and within reach price wise. Also, I suggest you look up Linus's rant about how he loves Mac book air and SSD for kernel development.

I never suggested it's not a great machine.
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