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First Day Review: The Google Chrome OS Cr-48 Notebook

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Re: First Day Review: The Google Chrome OS Cr-48 Notebook

#4
post #3

The vast majority of the things he was trying to do are outside of the planned usecase of this device. It's like if someone was disappointed at the lack of photoshop on the iPad...it simply wasn't designed for that.

I was surprised that these devices have atom processors and SSD drives as opposed to an ARM chipset and embedded flash because the former specs essentially put it in netbook territory. Why would anyone want a netbook with such a limited OS?

Re: First Day Review: The Google Chrome OS Cr-48 Notebook

#5
post #4
post #3

The vast majority of the things he was trying to do are outside of the planned usecase of this device. It's like if someone was disappointed at the lack of photoshop on the iPad...it simply wasn't designed for that.

I was surprised that these devices have atom processors and SSD drives as opposed to an ARM chipset and embedded flash because the former specs essentially put it in netbook territory. Why would anyone want a netbook with such a limited OS?

> Why would anyone want a netbook with such a limited OS?

Maybe they didn't have tablets for this pilot thing.

Re: First Day Review: The Google Chrome OS Cr-48 Notebook

#6
post #3

The vast majority of the things he was trying to do are outside of the planned usecase of this device. It's like if someone was disappointed at the lack of photoshop on the iPad...it simply wasn't designed for that.

Attempting to hook up a monitor to the VGA port, attempting to use an external hard drive, attempting to get photos off his phone onto the internet, using an app (Aviary), using a calendar that can't be trivially moved to Google, and printing are all things he tried to do but did not have great success with. Except maybe the first one (hard to tell, though I would think if the port is there it ought to work), this still seems like enough stuff to me that is a planned use case that it is clear that this is UTTER DOOMED TR.... errr, ahem, obviously still alpha-ish level stuff. I don't think it was that unfair of a test; for instance, I would imagine "hooking up the house backup USB drive and sucking off the files for the cloud" really is a core use case.

Also, I think this isn't necessarily a bad test of what happens if you push the cloud concept to the extreme. Personally I'm more a hybrid kind of guy, where some things make sense "in the cloud" and some things make sense locally and am a bit skeptical about pushing the cloud "too far" just because it's convenient for a company, rather than necessarily the user, but YMWV. (Though, actually, the fact that YMWV is actually part of my point, that the balance lies in different places for different people and 100% cloud is rarely the solution.)

Re: First Day Review: The Google Chrome OS Cr-48 Notebook

#7
The Google Chrome Notebook does not work like a normal desktop and is probably not supposed to. It's not surprising that he wasn't used to it. What's insightful that he expected it to work like a normal desktop and couldn't get his mind to work otherwise. This is something that google probably has to overcome.

Apple's iPad did not have such teething problems probably because it looks and feels so different from a conventional laptop. No one expected the iPad to be used like a normal laptop. Google can probably take a page out of the iPad chapter to see how to manage expectations of their notebook. A simple start would probably be to name it something else other than a notebook. The Chrome webBrowser. Browserbook. webBook. ok, i'm probably not good at names, but you get the idea.

Re: First Day Review: The Google Chrome OS Cr-48 Notebook

#8
post #3

The vast majority of the things he was trying to do are outside of the planned usecase of this device. It's like if someone was disappointed at the lack of photoshop on the iPad...it simply wasn't designed for that.

The application for access to the Cr48 asks you to use the laptop as your main computing device, so if he'd do it with his usual machine, it seems like fair game.

Re: First Day Review: The Google Chrome OS Cr-48 Notebook

#9
You can deduce two things out of this post :

- First, chrome OS is still very alpha software - Second, this guy will never be the audience for such an OS.

This certainly leaves the question, for who will this OS be for ? The fact of not even being able, by design, to have two windows visible at the same time is a show stopper for me.

I liked the tone of the review in the end, even if it irritated me at first. The guy is really telling what is bothering him with the os. Some small things, like the screenshot thing, just tells you that this os isn't finished yet.

Some other things, like the files thing, looks like a pointer to me, that google is vastly underestimating the importance of the local storage interface at the moment.

Even if some people don't really grasp the folder model that well (although that seems to be true only for older people now), it doesn't imply that you can take out local storage altogether and have something functionnally equivalent by plugging the "cloud" in.

The major problem i see with cloud storage at the moment is that for most people the local storage is still the link between a space of fragmented cloud storages, and that if you remove it, it really makes things harder more than easier.

Re: First Day Review: The Google Chrome OS Cr-48 Notebook

#10

You can deduce two things out of this post : - First, chrome OS is still very alpha software - Second, this guy will never be the audience for such an OS. This certainly leaves the question, for who will this OS be for ? The fact of not even being able, by design, to have two windows visible at the same time is a show stopper for me. I liked the tone of the review in the end, even if it irritated me at first. The guy…

“The fact of not even being able, by design, to have two windows visible at the same time is a show stopper for me”

You cannot have multiple windows on most mobile devices. Or TV's. People live fine with it.

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