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How are the chromebooks?
- Thread starter fokmik
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The Pixelbook and Surface Laptop are two dramatically different devices.
The variety, quality, and functionality of chromebooks has never been better.
The Pixelbook, IMO, is the Rolls Royce for those who are already sold on chromebooks and want the ultimate experience. It is NOT for those who are dipping their toe into the chromeOS waters. That may sound like a cop-out, but $1000 is a steep price to pay for a device that you're not sure will serve your needs.
If you are open to considering a chromebook, I recommend getting a hold of the cheapest chromebook that supports Android apps and giving it a test drive. It will require you to "think different" for some of the tasks that you do on tablets and notebooks. Sometimes there are acceptable alternatives, for some tasks chromebook are actually BETTER, but then some things are downright impossible. It's highly subjective and dependent upon the things that one does on their devices.
I'm currently doing some extensive experimenting with an Acer R11 chromebook. I'm quite impressed with how well it is going and am seriously considering a Samsung Chromebook Plus, with the Pixelbook being a longshot (solely due to price).
Rumor is that the PixelBook is open hardware. You can run linux, ChromeOS, Windows 10 whatever you want on it.
Historically surface stuff needs a highly customized kernel and a distro that's paid to have the certificates needed to boot with secure boot, it's a PITA and not for the novice.
I agree that if you want to try Chomeos get an inexpensive Chromebook and if you really want to try a Google version of a Chromebook then pick up a second gen pixel up off ebay/Amazon/Swappa
It looks like it's for ChomeOS not Android so I'll give it shot tonight I've got some .exe's around here
Thanks for the correction. I installed it on my Acer R11. When attempting to install a Windows app, it failed to parse the Windows app installer. This installer worked fine in WINE under Linux and macOS so, I'm chalking it up to a bug in CrossOver for chromeOS. I'll see if I can submit a bug report to them to help them troubleshoot the issue.
update:
I was able to install CrossOver on my Lenovo Yoga Book (Android version). The same issue as on my chromebook. I'll try installing a different app.
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Excellent! How much of an impediment is it for you that the chromeOS filesystem is separate from the Android filesystem (except for the Download folder)? I find it to be a bit of an irritant.I'm really impressed with the Samsung Chromebook Pro - Intel m3, 4GB/64GB, pen, running Chrome OS and Android apps. Solid, fast, doing everything I need for under $500. Macbook Air is rather dusty.
None at all for me, I use the cloud and a 500 GB Samsung T5 SSD for files (great for movies using Android VLC). The Chromebook chromeOS and Android system both use the external drive exFAT directory and files; and internally is showing 45GB free.
[doublepost=1511288096][/doublepost]Thought I'd add: although the ChromeOS and Android systems appear to be kind of sandboxed to directly opening files from within Apps, I open external USB thumb or SSD files with either system from ChromeOS "Files" manager using the "Open with" menu which shows both types of Apps.
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How so? Linux is hardly awash with high quality apps that end-users are craving.
Linux is a full fledged OS. For one, the app Rhythmbox is a decent alternative to Google Music / iTunes. Gimp is also a decent free alternative to Photoshop. You could say MacOS is pretty limited too compared to Windows. ChromeOS is just a web browser but to be fair that's all many people need these days. May also be able to run Windows apps too using the Linux app Wine.
A Chromebook will do exactly what I need an I might end up going that route even though I have been enjoying this MacBook I have been testing out.
Only issue is longevity with the Chromebook. It is more for browsing and very basic tasks which Is what I will be doing and what I am doing now. Just not sure what the future holds. I may want to store music on my device, I may want to back up my phone to the device, I may want to watch movies on my device. I may be in school and have to handle documents. All those things a Chromebook wouldn't be capable of.
Only issue is longevity with the Chromebook. It is more for browsing and very basic tasks which Is what I will be doing and what I am doing now. Just not sure what the future holds. I may want to store music on my device, I may want to back up my phone to the device, I may want to watch movies on my device. I may be in school and have to handle documents. All those things a Chromebook wouldn't be capable of.
Most of that junk on Linux has been around since Red Hat Linux was still distributed freely (a long, long, long time ago), and it has hardly advanced at all in a decade. GIMP is not a Photoshop alternative.
Chromebooks are viable for people who can do most of their work in a web browser. Progressive Web Applications may also help bridge some of the gap. I believe what little is distributed on Linux these days is wrapped in non-native frameworks like Electron, which is terrible for performance and battery life on laptops. I imagine PWA's will suffer many of the same problems. Bottom line - Linux isn't going to make much of a difference for people buying into Chromebooks in terms of apps.
This isn't bashing Linux btw. There's very little happening on Windows anymore either in terms of development. Microsoft is pretty much giving up and shifting Windows to maintenance mode and refocusing on cross-platform productivity, cloud, enterprise and hoping to capture some of the internet of things market that everyone expects to explode soon.
macOS is pretty much the only traditional computing platform that still has a vibrant and thriving indie development scene, but how long this lasts is a question mark also. I still believe the future of Mac is iPad.
Linux is just more capable than ChromeOS and will be a nice addition. I don't think you can even watch a DVD on ChromeOS let alone rip one. Linux has much more gaming potential than ChromeOS especially with retro emulators. I find Linux very enjoyable compared to MacOS and Windows without nagging you to update the software every few days. It's also much more secure although who knows how nefarious Google is.
Well I definitely agree it's more capable. I just think you should pick Linux if you want Linux apps, and do your Chrome stuff in the Chrome browser on Linux. It'll be interesting to see how Google offers Linux apps on ChromeOS if they do go through with it.
Chromebooks are more mainstream than Linux though it seems. You have to seek out Linux while Chromebooks are a bestseller on Amazon for their simplicity and cost. They are popular in schools and will give people exposure to something besides MacOS and Windows which is a good thing and will provide more competition and likely force Apple to lower their outrageous prices and improve quality control. Apple is trying to gain more exposure to schools with their lower priced iPad but Google integration and apps with Chromebooks seem to be more popular than a tablet.
Works very well, IMO.
I don't understand this question.
You can't "install" icloud on the chromebook, but you CAN access the web version of iCloud. This is how I get access to my iCloud files.
SO I have a new 12.9 ipad pro.... One of the things I need to do is access a web page for business. It has a private Sign In. They have a flash enabled upload area for our zip files. I know that on Windows, I have to select “load unsafe scripts” to access it.
So on the iPP I can’t access this, even have tried Photon browser etc. None of them allow this. SO I was looking at Black Friday ads and was wondering about the Chromebooks.... Especially when Chrome browser is one of the browsers I can use on this site.
I also have an internal hard drive (from my desktop that I gave to my son), in a docking bay. It won’t connect properly to my modem (I do have a My Cloud as well). So I was wondering if I could access it from the Chromebook to the iPP. That I could do I guess thru itunes? But I know it was much easier when I had installed icloud on my Windows comp. It looks like they do have a Chromebook app.
I am looking for something inexpensive, that would do the job. Plus I want a small form factor, not take up a lot of desk space since I will only be using it occasionally...
So on the iPP I can’t access this, even have tried Photon browser etc. None of them allow this. SO I was looking at Black Friday ads and was wondering about the Chromebooks.... Especially when Chrome browser is one of the browsers I can use on this site.
I also have an internal hard drive (from my desktop that I gave to my son), in a docking bay. It won’t connect properly to my modem (I do have a My Cloud as well). So I was wondering if I could access it from the Chromebook to the iPP. That I could do I guess thru itunes? But I know it was much easier when I had installed icloud on my Windows comp. It looks like they do have a Chromebook app.
I am looking for something inexpensive, that would do the job. Plus I want a small form factor, not take up a lot of desk space since I will only be using it occasionally...