Looks like cloud computing is seriously here with googles new range of Chromebooks which are basicly netbooks limited to a browser. The current machines are Series 5 Acer Chromebook Chromebox My opinion is I personally think they are very overpriced (Avg $425) for what they are and can't really see them taking off. I can't get my head round why people would buy one of these when most netbooks are a similar price and can run their own OS of choice. I actually think I can do a lot more cloud computing on my current netbook than these things for an example with clients like onlive gaming my samsung nf110 can play pretty high end game over the network like Homefront, Dirt 2 and others. With these chromebooks as far as I can see you are limited to what you can do only in a browser so in essence google apps. So have I got it wrong or is Google losing their minds, unless these things get much cheaper they seem like a complete waste of space as far as I'm concerned. Services like onlive do make me think the cloud has a future but not such a limited one.
349 is the cheapest. This is obviously not going to be geared for home users; it's an inroad to businesses. With rentals at 28 a month per user with full support, warranty and end of life (the chrome books not the user) replacement-that's a VERY sweet deal. Students can get the same thing for 20 a month. Is it something I would use? Probably not. I prefer my laptop, and only vageuly interested in the upcoming Toshiba tablet-but for businesses this could be an awesome deal. As for gaming, this isn't designed or intended for that-believe it or not, people have other uses for their hardware other than Angry Birds or minesweeper.
from the Chromebook website: It sounds like it's not necessarily solely for the internet, although it is centered around. It's more like a one-stop solution for the things that people usually use computers for-- internet, documents, photos, music, etc.-- without having to bother with a full computer. And it also looks like there is an appstore, although it is a bit basic at the moment. Until it can compete with the nettop (prices as low as $200 currently, similar stats), however, the Chromebook is probably not going to succeed except in certain situations.
Still the main point stands that for the same prices you can get a machine that can do everything these can and much more. Anything with a web browser is just as capable and probably not as limited. I do like the look of the samsung 5 though it's a nice design reminds me of their 9 series which I want. I also have to question the wisdom of any company storing important documents on googles servers so I can't see that taking off either as it would be one pass crack away from disaster. I guess time will tell. edit: Looks like people are comparing it to the macbook air now I guess that's natural with them being pretty lightweight. I did watch their keynote there to help me understand where they see this going but I still found it rather restricting. They did show they have a media player though but they had to connect a USB stick with the mp4 files on it. Another thing I found rather backwards is they kept claiming instant-on but then said it needed an 8 second boot so I guess not so instant then. I timed my own netbook at 34 seconds to get into win 7 but after the initial boot I can use samsung quick start and wake it in 3 seconds. So I don't see an advantage for them in booting either all in all yeah 8 seconds is quick but current netbooks are no slouches either. The battery lives seem quite low as well especially considering all they do, my netbook has an 11 hour battery which beats all of them but I expect this will have to improve in future models especially when they are claiming that's an all day battery. Really seems quite sloppy to me I've a feeling the machines were rushed just for the keynote.
I think this is a decent option for somebody like my wife, who wants nothing to do with my iPad because it doesn't have a keyboard. She just needs to write basic word processing documents, browse the web, check email, etc. Netbooks often have undersized keyboards, though I presume some don't. Also, this is probably trouble free, unlike Windows. At least I'd hope it was given the simplicity of it - basically just a web browser and cloud storage. The $20 a month thing seems appealing too. Is that only for students, or is it for anybody other then business users? How often do you get a hardware upgrade? If it's every year, that's a steal.
It is a good option for people that want something simple I imagine it would be very easy to put right and maintain I can't help thinking they should be cheaper although the Samsung looks more laptop sized despite the internals. My netbook has a quite nice keyboard but I can appreciate it's not quite full sized so it's not for everyone it's been going everywhere with me lately though very useful it's a surprisingly good all rounder.
Just read on Engadget about the $20 per month thing. It's not for consumers, and even if it were it would absolutely not be a good choice - there's a 3 year contract! That's 36*$20 = $720! So if we get one it will be an outright purchase. I'm definitely going to check them out in-store and see how they feel in practice. Is there an ETA on when these are arriving? Are they already out?
Available june 15th amazon and best buy I think was the announcement so at least a month away. If you are really curious about them this is the keynote that announced them and gave a few demos. I can't recall them talking about contracts though but I think a certain 3g limit might be involved. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IY3U2GXhz44 Not quite as interesting as one of apples but I watched it you may be able to find the highlights just covering the chromebooks with a search though.
The contract is for the $x per month leasing option, as it is leasing. But it's not for consumers, so it's moot. Thanks for the info on release dates. I'll try to find time to watch the presentation as well.
This is PERFECT for family. No tech support, no complex systems, if they crash it its all on the web, familiar brand name, and it's easy to use. I am just in love with the idea of everything stored in the cloud. Maybe I've had to many things crash on me, but if I can literally throw my computer in a lake, and not lose ANY data, that would be insane for me.
I know.. I want one SOOO badly. Btw I think you can get the beta for the software somewhere on the internet.
These aren't geared towards nerds like us posting on forums, it's more towards our uncles, aunts, grandparents, people who want to get online, write an email, look up something on ebay, play farmville, type up a word document, without having to worry about their data or the specs of their machine. From what I heard Google is including device upgrades included with subscriptions, so you would basically swap out your machine once it becomes outdated. @SkyMuffin It'll succeed, there's way more average people in this world, those on this forum, or those of us that know computing are the minority.
Pretty cool having dosbox in a browser I guess but it's not exactly cutting edge and I even have dosbox and Scumm on my PSP as homebrews so it can't be too intensive. On a related note the first half of the keynote I posted earlier was about the chrome app store making a big deal about angry birds. I had no trouble playing this demo of it in any of my normal browsers it's nice but it's not something you need a chromebook for. http://chrome.angrybirds.com/?version=standard I'm interested in where they try and take this but I still think that at the minute it's much to highly priced and the included 100mb 3g limit is a complete joke for a system that needs to be permanently connected and using web apps I'd think it's probably about 10 minutes usage in real terms. I've also read that while they boot up in 8 seconds it takes them around 20 or so to find a signal and let you do anything so probably about par with netbooks there. One big plus though is I think because of these google will start making some really cool web content so that's a major plus for everyone.
