My mom was recently diagnosed with cancer, shortly thereafter her house was burgled and someone stole her laptop and phone.
I bought her the chromebook off amazon and brought it to her. I had to create a gmail account for her as she was required to have one for this machine.
While the price was right, I was REALLY disappointed that the farking camera doesn't work in these yet! Neither does chrome Remote Desktop.
My mom has a tracheotomy right now and cannot speak, so doing Skype/FaceTime/video calls is important for her to see my kids.
Overall, I'd rate this machine a 4/10 based on the limited functionality, the limited storage and apps and the rather clunky UX.
The physical form-factor is really nice, but the thing, at half the cost of an iPad has maybe 1/100th the functionality. I can browse the web and create a google doc. That's it.
The camera works just fine... I've used mine regularly for meetings via Google Hangouts since I picked it up a month after release.
As for storage, what exactly are you trying to store on the device? It really seems to only be intended for use as a dumb terminal to Google services, and in the current iteration I've yet to find a reason to use the local storage.
My biggest beef is the inability to locally cache music and video from Google Play. I think if this functionality existed, I would agree that the local storage is inadequate.
What do you mean the camera doesn't work? Is it defective? Or do you mean you can't use Skype with it? And did you honestly expect Facetime to work on it?
I suggest you use Google Talk or Google+ Hangouts. If you care that much about using Skype, I think you can use https://imo.im. I know you can login with Skype, but I've never checked to see if video-calling works.
The used & new price 'starts at $250' but there aren't any actually available at that price when you follow the link, and even that would be more like 3/4 the price.
I have a Cr-48, and the Camera has worked fine for me for doing Google Hangouts. I also can use my laptop to do Chrome Remote Desktop to another machine - but I cannot use Chrome Remote Desktop to drive the Chromebook.
Worth pointing out that CrOS's "secure boot" is somewhat unique among mainstream OSes in that it still respects the user's wishes by design[0] (aka developer mode), unlike iOS, WinRT, and (with some exceptions) Android devices.
New HTC, Motorola and Samsung devices have unlocked bootloaders, not to mention the generally superior Nexus brand anyway. The "exception" is locked bootloaders and that's pretty much a Verizon thing these days.
I never bought a "netbook" -- always had top-end notebooks for travel and desktops for home/office, so there never was a reason to consider a netbook for myself. However, I just bought three Chromebooks for family members this Christmas because, compared with tablets, Chromebooks are nearly as good for content consumption and far better for content creation.
Tablets, combined with popular online destinations and SaaS offerings, appear to have changed the market potential for newer netbooks such as the Chromebook.
The netbook didn't die, it was killed. Firstly by Intel and Microsoft licensing fees and hardware restrictions, and secondly by hardware manufacturers not actually wanting to make something quite so low-margin.
Netbooks were great for travel where you didn't want to lug around a big laptop, and I'd argue that ultrabooks are essentially a new name for netbooks. Even full-size desktop-replacement laptops have got a lot thinner (and with better battery life) than they were five years ago. So I don't think the netbook has failed; it's just been subsumed into the wider laptop market.
On a Chromebook you're just using the web, and for that it's pretty fast - iPad-fast (or faster) - unless you're keeping like 20 tabs open, which is something you don't do on an iPad.
But on Windows-based netbooks, every other program, and the OS itself seem pretty slow, which is probably why people don't feel like buying them anymore. Surface RT and all the Atom touchscreen hybrids are actually the same way - as they fall in the same performance range, and Windows 8 is not visibly faster than Windows 7, except for some animations that make you think it is. But when using the old x86 apps on them (just Office in Surface RT's case), they're just as slow as they've ever been on netbooks.
Just bought and did a big upgrade on a used Acer Aspire One ZG5. Great little machine.
Perfect for working on the train, where space is very cramped, and since I'm already walking 4 miles a day with one full size laptop in my backpack, the low weight is a big plus!
Success of the Chromebook? Sure there needs to be more data than being at the top of Amazon bestsellers list?
Real hard numbers from Google would be good but I don't think they're going to release them(no Nexus sales numbers). Statscounter and Net Applications numbers would be good for a proxy count.
A few commenters are asking about running their favourite distro on these. I've installed a Debian chroot on mine. I've been using it as my main machine for almost 2 months now. I'm quite happy with it, but I mostly use it as a terminal to bigger machines at the university.
To get X I hacked together a Chrome App[0] VNC client, based on noVNC. It's a bit laggy sometimes, but does the job for my purposes.
Ron Minnich (of Coreboot fame) wrote a guide for doing the same with Arch[1]. And there's Crouton[2] for Ubuntu, but I'm not sure whether it does ARM or not.
Nowadays I'm very douptfull about those rankings, I've seen a seller that we set up with Amazon in the top 3 in a category despite having done no sales.
They aren't straight rankings. They have a complex algorithm that has several weightings and probably include some velocity variables that affect placement.
There's been lots of speculation but Amazon rarely gives more than hints about how they calculate their best seller lists:
"We base rankings on all-time sales, as well as recent sales that are weighted more heavily than older sales, so that our lists are timely and aren't always dominated by all-time best-sellers like Harry Potter."
- Amazon Spokeswoman
As much as I'm pleased* to see this, I don't think "without a major advertising campaign" is fair. There are no end of Google ads in the Underground at the moment, featuring Chromebooks front and centre, and I assume that's not the only place.
*disclaimer: I work for Google, so I may not be totally unbiased on this point.
How many people buy laptops through Amazon? I always found the selection impossible to sort through, let alone figuring out if I'm getting this year's model or last year's model.
I'm a little surprised it's happened so early but I'd attribute it to the fact that it's actually cheaper than an iPad. I've got the Acer c710 and actually like working with it even though it seems like the processor is a little slower than my old cr-48.
Interesting because for me it is showing up as $324 and not the famous $250 price. I am definitely buying one of these when it comes back in stock. I think I'll replace my Asus Transformer with a Chrome book and a Nexus 7
I tried one at Best Buy earlier this month, since nobody else has one that you can actually put your hands on. They were sold out but they had a live demo model working in a display.
The keyboard just felt...odd. I don't know if it was because the keys were slightly larger and spaced farther apart than a similar low-profile Mac keyboard, or if it was the different placement of keys (no Alt key, but a large "search" key in it's place)
My opinion is that all keyboards feel odd compared to what I use on a daily basis. If I use any keyboard for 2-3 days straight, it will stop feeling odd.
It's all a matter of what you're accustomed to using.
Yes, I agree - I'm pretty sure the key placement/spacing isn't 100% standard.
That said, I still really love the device as a very portable, long-battery-life second computer. Recommended my girlfriend get one (she's going to be getting a desktop soon as her main comp) and she's really happy with it...
Windows laptops have many different brands and models, and even Macbooks have been around long enough that there's different types, but there's basically just 2 Chromebooks.
This means they might only be a tiny fraction of PC sales, but still out come as the #1 specific product.
Anyone know where I could get one around Santa Clara? As a Canadian I don't think I can buy one in Canada. But I have to go to Santa Clara for the Open Compute summit. I checked the nearest best buys but nothing.
I haven't tried running Eclipse. Oracle recently released an Early Access version of Java 8 with hardfp support to cash in on the Raspberry Pi fever, presumably that build would work on the ARM/Chromebook running Ubuntu (though it wouldn't be totally optimized for it) but I haven't tried it to be sure.
If I were doing Android development on this system I'd probably stick with ant based builds and use emacs or gedit (I wish Sublime Text 2 had an ARM build, the fact that it doesn't is kind of killing it as a useful editor for me these days). Eclipse is already a bit slower than I would like on my desktop, I'd imagine using it wouldn't be that great on the Chromebook.
Even if possible, for me I think this setup would be a very painful experience with a slower CPU, low resolution display, and only 2GB RAM compared to what at least I'm used to, which is a Dell M4500 i7 with 8GB RAM, granted it did cost five times as much a couple of years back.
I've always been interested in having a cheap, replaceable and portable laptop like this as a dev machine, but the more I think about it the more I realize this is more like an iPad (i.e. for media consumption) than a dev machine. That is until we have some solid browser-based "cloud" IDE's.
Is it sustainable as a business? Anyone know if Google is subsidizing these or if there is a profit margin, however small? I think it's all about attracting people to Google Apps for Business but if a lot of folks just load Ubuntu on it, Google might have second thoughts on it. I think it is meant as mostly a bundle with Google Apps for Enterprise to attract companies with cheap and/or rented hardware.
Also, being on the Amazon bestseller list is not a very good indicator of popularity. Since Google is very unlikely to release the real numbers we will have to rely on things like StatCounter, Net Applications or even popular web sites run by HN'ers to get more data on sales.
Will RMS consider this more or less free than Windows/Apple machines? On one hand you have multiple OEMs, dev mode to boot alternative OSes, compability with Web etc. but on the other hand you need a Google account to even use it, and it's tied heavily to Google cloud services, no native API, no chance of Firefox for it etc. i.e It can be seen as taking consumers even more away from independent offline usage to being at the mercy of the cloud providers. What happens if your Google account gets locked?
[+] [-] samstave|13 years ago|reply
I bought her the chromebook off amazon and brought it to her. I had to create a gmail account for her as she was required to have one for this machine.
While the price was right, I was REALLY disappointed that the farking camera doesn't work in these yet! Neither does chrome Remote Desktop.
My mom has a tracheotomy right now and cannot speak, so doing Skype/FaceTime/video calls is important for her to see my kids.
Overall, I'd rate this machine a 4/10 based on the limited functionality, the limited storage and apps and the rather clunky UX.
The physical form-factor is really nice, but the thing, at half the cost of an iPad has maybe 1/100th the functionality. I can browse the web and create a google doc. That's it.
[+] [-] subway|13 years ago|reply
As for storage, what exactly are you trying to store on the device? It really seems to only be intended for use as a dumb terminal to Google services, and in the current iteration I've yet to find a reason to use the local storage.
My biggest beef is the inability to locally cache music and video from Google Play. I think if this functionality existed, I would agree that the local storage is inadequate.
[+] [-] mtgx|13 years ago|reply
I suggest you use Google Talk or Google+ Hangouts. If you care that much about using Skype, I think you can use https://imo.im. I know you can login with Skype, but I've never checked to see if video-calling works.
[+] [-] simonh|13 years ago|reply
The used & new price 'starts at $250' but there aren't any actually available at that price when you follow the link, and even that would be more like 3/4 the price.
[+] [-] VikingCoder|13 years ago|reply
I have a Cr-48, and the Camera has worked fine for me for doing Google Hangouts. I also can use my laptop to do Chrome Remote Desktop to another machine - but I cannot use Chrome Remote Desktop to drive the Chromebook.
[+] [-] 89a|13 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] ConstantineXVI|13 years ago|reply
[0] http://dev.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/f...
[+] [-] drivebyacct2|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kjhughes|13 years ago|reply
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/dec/31/netbooks-de...
I never bought a "netbook" -- always had top-end notebooks for travel and desktops for home/office, so there never was a reason to consider a netbook for myself. However, I just bought three Chromebooks for family members this Christmas because, compared with tablets, Chromebooks are nearly as good for content consumption and far better for content creation.
Tablets, combined with popular online destinations and SaaS offerings, appear to have changed the market potential for newer netbooks such as the Chromebook.
[+] [-] makomk|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lmm|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mtgx|13 years ago|reply
But on Windows-based netbooks, every other program, and the OS itself seem pretty slow, which is probably why people don't feel like buying them anymore. Surface RT and all the Atom touchscreen hybrids are actually the same way - as they fall in the same performance range, and Windows 8 is not visibly faster than Windows 7, except for some animations that make you think it is. But when using the old x86 apps on them (just Office in Surface RT's case), they're just as slow as they've ever been on netbooks.
[+] [-] thisone|13 years ago|reply
Perfect for working on the train, where space is very cramped, and since I'm already walking 4 miles a day with one full size laptop in my backpack, the low weight is a big plus!
[+] [-] cooldeal|13 years ago|reply
Real hard numbers from Google would be good but I don't think they're going to release them(no Nexus sales numbers). Statscounter and Net Applications numbers would be good for a proxy count.
[+] [-] saljam|13 years ago|reply
To get X I hacked together a Chrome App[0] VNC client, based on noVNC. It's a bit laggy sometimes, but does the job for my purposes.
Ron Minnich (of Coreboot fame) wrote a guide for doing the same with Arch[1]. And there's Crouton[2] for Ubuntu, but I'm not sure whether it does ARM or not.
[0] https://bitbucket.org/saljam/vnc
[1] https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IVABFl9TJMFPqoE_c0vWP7Yh...
[2] https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton
[+] [-] cake|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] huxley|13 years ago|reply
There's been lots of speculation but Amazon rarely gives more than hints about how they calculate their best seller lists:
"We base rankings on all-time sales, as well as recent sales that are weighted more heavily than older sales, so that our lists are timely and aren't always dominated by all-time best-sellers like Harry Potter." - Amazon Spokeswoman
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32336521/ns/business-us_business...
[+] [-] archangel_one|13 years ago|reply
*disclaimer: I work for Google, so I may not be totally unbiased on this point.
[+] [-] tedunangst|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brown|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chayesfss|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] duck|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mtgx|13 years ago|reply
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57534803-93/google-offers-l...
[+] [-] habosa|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dannyr|13 years ago|reply
If you look on the right side, you'll see $250 from Amazon but it's out of stock.
[+] [-] joezydeco|13 years ago|reply
The keyboard just felt...odd. I don't know if it was because the keys were slightly larger and spaced farther apart than a similar low-profile Mac keyboard, or if it was the different placement of keys (no Alt key, but a large "search" key in it's place)
Anyone else have some opinions of the keyboard?
[+] [-] autotravis|13 years ago|reply
My opinion is that all keyboards feel odd compared to what I use on a daily basis. If I use any keyboard for 2-3 days straight, it will stop feeling odd.
It's all a matter of what you're accustomed to using.
[+] [-] saljam|13 years ago|reply
Are you sure you weren't using one of the Intel ones? Maybe it's the British/American difference...
[+] [-] alexhawdon|13 years ago|reply
That said, I still really love the device as a very portable, long-battery-life second computer. Recommended my girlfriend get one (she's going to be getting a desktop soon as her main comp) and she's really happy with it...
...when she gets to use it ;)
[+] [-] arikrak|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] serverascode|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aidenn0|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] juusto|13 years ago|reply
Is it possible to install Java+Eclipse+Android SDK on it?
[+] [-] georgemcbay|13 years ago|reply
I haven't tried running Eclipse. Oracle recently released an Early Access version of Java 8 with hardfp support to cash in on the Raspberry Pi fever, presumably that build would work on the ARM/Chromebook running Ubuntu (though it wouldn't be totally optimized for it) but I haven't tried it to be sure.
If I were doing Android development on this system I'd probably stick with ant based builds and use emacs or gedit (I wish Sublime Text 2 had an ARM build, the fact that it doesn't is kind of killing it as a useful editor for me these days). Eclipse is already a bit slower than I would like on my desktop, I'd imagine using it wouldn't be that great on the Chromebook.
[+] [-] yogeshgirdhar|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] osivertsson|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jxi|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cheriot|13 years ago|reply
1 Chrome
2 OSX
3 Windows 7
4 OSX
5 Windows 7
6 Windows 8
7 Windows 8
8 Windows 8
9 Windows 7
10 Windows 8
11 Chrome
[+] [-] aidenn0|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] batgaijin|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Inufu|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wes-exp|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cooldeal|13 years ago|reply
Is it sustainable as a business? Anyone know if Google is subsidizing these or if there is a profit margin, however small? I think it's all about attracting people to Google Apps for Business but if a lot of folks just load Ubuntu on it, Google might have second thoughts on it. I think it is meant as mostly a bundle with Google Apps for Enterprise to attract companies with cheap and/or rented hardware.
Also, being on the Amazon bestseller list is not a very good indicator of popularity. Since Google is very unlikely to release the real numbers we will have to rely on things like StatCounter, Net Applications or even popular web sites run by HN'ers to get more data on sales.
Will RMS consider this more or less free than Windows/Apple machines? On one hand you have multiple OEMs, dev mode to boot alternative OSes, compability with Web etc. but on the other hand you need a Google account to even use it, and it's tied heavily to Google cloud services, no native API, no chance of Firefox for it etc. i.e It can be seen as taking consumers even more away from independent offline usage to being at the mercy of the cloud providers. What happens if your Google account gets locked?
[+] [-] Raphael|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|13 years ago|reply
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