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Google Announces 'Chromebook' Laptops, No Word on Chrome-Based Tablets
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Please don't confuse the client-server model and thin computing. Both are not synonyms. You can very much have client-server using fat client software.
But let's also face it : Those thick computer applications were much more powerful and offered many capabilities that just weren't possible in the 70s and 80s in the thin client model.
As it stands, these days, thin clients and their backing infrastructure is much more powerful that it was, and it is now possible to have rich multimedia experiences "over the wire". Things like sound, graphics and complex animations can now be pushed out in a deported display environment using protocols like ICA, NX or RDP. Things that in the 90s you couldn't even start to imagine.
Not to mention the Web browser is becoming the ultimate thin client. WebApps have been growing and the frameworks surrounding them have been in constant improvments.
I saw the beginnings of "DHTML" and Webapps, back in the 90s. We wrote our stuff back then with mod_perl to get 100 mhz servers to push out the HTML that our scripts created fast enough to multiple clients. Things started out quite simple : We replaced E-mail applications, NNTP news readers, IRC chats. We wrote all of these as Web Apps instead of thick clients that you needed to install.
Everyone laughed at Scott McNeily when he proclaimed around 1998 : "The Network is the Computer" as he introduced the concept of the NC to supersede the PC. Today, people can't stop talking about cloud computing. This ChromeBook is very much the NC realised.
Just because people here can't stop talking about cloud computing doesn't mean it'll sell to the masses. The list of things discussed on tech websites that go absolutely nowhere is limitless.
Let's see how these sell.
Show me the money.
Then get back to me.
Have I understand it correctly in that it is not possible to install any apps on Chrome OS? Have it been discussed whether this will be possible in the future? Are there any LaTeX online editors? For a geek like me the thing looks hot to try, but I will NOT do my thesis on Google Docs, that is some of the worst crap I have seen.
Yes, more expensive than a netbook, with all the power of a netbook, without the netbook's ability to really function offline. Sounds just fabulous.
x2 Yeah it's like a big cellphone, with those crappy atom cpus it won't go very far. but it's way to expensive, I can get a faster netbook from about 230 eur, our an full sized notebook for 350eur. I don't see anyone buying them.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; en-gb) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8H7 Safari/6533.18.5)
EXACTLY!!!
Come to Australia... I work in prisons across the country (teaching) and there's no wifi ANYWHERE when you're on the go. I imagine a 3.5G broadband stick will just make these computers REALLY slow.
These PC's are nothing new anyway. All Australian prisons have the same thing... they're called PrisonPC's. Everything's sandboxed and nothing is stored locally (to prevent hacking.) They're basically just a web browser and word program (and no, they're not allowed to use the internet on them.)
Sorry, but these are really useless.
alent1234 said:
EXACTLY!!!
Come to Australia... I work in prisons across the country (teaching) and there's no wifi ANYWHERE when you're on the go. I imagine a 3.5G broadband stick will just make these computers REALLY slow.
These PC's are nothing new anyway. All Australian prisons have the same thing... they're called PrisonPC's. Everything's sandboxed and nothing is stored locally (to prevent hacking.) They're basically just a web browser and word program (and no, they're not allowed to use the internet on them.)
Sorry, but these are really useless.
Here is my guess
I think in a few months you will walk into bestbuy and see dozens of these sitting on the shelves.
But then if you go to a school or a library you will see these things filling up the computer labs.
Fact millions of Americans rely on computers in public places. They mainly use the internet on those computers. This will allow libraries to offer more computers and they will be able to get more at lower prices. This is a genius idea that google has came up with. They are not aiming at the everyday consumer but rather corporations, schools, and libraries. This will change this decade for public computers.
We should thank google for this advancement. They just came up with a way to give those who can't afford a computer to have the full experience. My guess is we will start to see desktop based devices in no time to prevent theft.
I think in a few months you will walk into bestbuy and see dozens of these sitting on the shelves.
But then if you go to a school or a library you will see these things filling up the computer labs.
Fact millions of Americans rely on computers in public places. They mainly use the internet on those computers. This will allow libraries to offer more computers and they will be able to get more at lower prices. This is a genius idea that google has came up with. They are not aiming at the everyday consumer but rather corporations, schools, and libraries. This will change this decade for public computers.
We should thank google for this advancement. They just came up with a way to give those who can't afford a computer to have the full experience. My guess is we will start to see desktop based devices in no time to prevent theft.
A coworker just received a new company-issued laptop yesterday. An ultra cheap-feeling plastic model, nothing like my semi-metal EliteBook (which still pales in comparison to a MacBook Pro despite the similar price tag).
Guess what his new HP laptop is called?
ProBook.
Take the MacBook Pro, drop the Mac part, switch the Book and Pro around...bingo!
Just no originality out there in PC Land.
A coworker just received a new company-issued laptop yesterday. An ultra cheap-feeling plastic model, nothing like my semi-metal EliteBook (which still pales in comparison to a MacBook Pro despite the similar price tag).
Guess what his new HP laptop is called?
ProBook.
Take the MacBook Pro, drop the Mac part, switch the Book and Pro around...bingo!
Just no originality out there in PC Land.
lolwut?
How do you get from ProBook to MacBook Pro in any thought pattern?
Thanks for your clarification about thin computing, I was (erroneously) assuming it was just another variant of the client-server model.
I guess that in the end this is a matter of trusting in the "cloud" providers, and I guess that many users will not be happy giving away control of their data to a company, no matter how much the underlying infrastructure is "ready" for cloud computing. And I say "ready" because internet is not as ubiquitous and or cheap as we would like...
By completely ignoring EliteBook. ProBook, EliteBook. There's the real pattern.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notebook#Possible_electronic_successors
Apple did not invent the use of "book" to describe a laptop.
Yes, you're all right of course. There are only a few words in the world other than "Pro" and "Book" to name your laptop model line.
Yes, you're all right of course. There are only a few words in the world other than "Pro" and "Book" to name your laptop model line.
Neither did Apple invented the use of the word "pro" to describe up-scale products.
Yes, you're all right of course. There are only a few words in the world other than "Pro" and "Book" to name your laptop model line.
Well apple stole "book" from notebook, so what's your point? Also apple stole "pro" from nivida: GeForce 2 Pro.
But Apple coined "Macbook Pro" which is 100% original and nothing sounds as cool as Macbook Pro.
Any company that sells a product containing the words "pro" or "book" CLEARLY is stealing from Apple.
Also included is anything spelled with the letter i.
Also included is anything spelled with the letter i.
Exactly. Some people on this site really need to remove their Apple branded blinders. It's not like Apple invented the Xbook notation or anything. These things have been called notebook computers in forever.
Next thing you know, someone will go and claim Apple created Webkit and thus Google is taking Apple's creation for Chrome. You'd have to really be ignorant of Webkit's history to do that.
Steve Jobs invented books. And the printing press.
Therapy and medication can work wonders. Check it out.
Next thing you know, someone will go and claim Apple created Webkit and thus Google is taking Apple's creation for Chrome. You'd have to really be ignorant of Webkit's history to do that.
To say Apple only tweaked KHTML would be uninformed though.
lol is rather sad that this wonderful thread deteriorated to this point because of this stupid dumb ass.