Google Chromebook?

[Chicago Jake]

Anyone excited about the upcoming Google Chromebook?

To me, it just sounds like another flavor of a netbook: an appliance with little to no native applications, but rather optimized to use cloud-based applications and data storage. Google, of course, is claiming that it is much more than that.

Any opinions?.......Jake


www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/227666/will_the_google_chromebook_replace_your_laptop.html#tk.fv_rel

[♥ COVID-19♥]

The netbook's days were short. Now that people can do on their smartphones what you can do on a netbook, there's no reason for a netbook. Chromebook is a day late and a dollar short, IMO. This really seems more like a hook-in for the next Android version.

[Chicago Jake]

May 12, 2011 12:27:06 GMT -6 ♥ COVID-19♥ said:

The netbook's days were short. Now that people can do on their smartphones what you can do on a netbook, there's no reason for a netbook. Chromebook is a day late and a dollar short, IMO. This really seems more like a hook-in for the next Android version.

There is a lot of truth to that. I recently went on a trip, and I brought my netbook to answer emails with. But first, I checked for emails on my Android phone. If I had gotten a complicated one that needed a long answer, I would have fired up the netbook. But the ones that needed my attention were short and simple, and I just dealt with them from the phone.

[♥ COVID-19♥]

www.infoworld.com/d/open-source-software/why-chromebooks-do-have-role-in-your-enterprise-955

This writer maintains that Chromebooks should be considered for use in an enterprise by at least *some* users because it creates greater flexibility for IT.

[Ardbeg... innit]

"flexibility" and "IT" dont go well together in many cases.

[♥ COVID-19♥]

I wouldn't disagree, but what I think he means there is that it frees up a company's own IT Dept. because it's not managing their own servers -- basically, the concept Google's promoting here is selling IT as a service, trying to get people to work in the cloud ... meaning they are managing the servers (further implying that they have access to your data, which is another issue altogether).

[♥ COVID-19♥]

A favorable review here ...

techcrunch.com/2011/05/15/samsung-series-5-chromebook/

These things are being made by Samsung. There's a major red flag right there, IMO.

[♥ COVID-19♥]

From Infoworld:

Whatever you do, don't buy a Chromebook

The sad truth is that the Chrome OS vision of all your computing occuring through the Internet is an unsatisfying reality. I've tried to be open to the idea and given the beta Chrome OS the benefit of doubt in its early versions. But as the ship date approached, I began to get nervous that Google couldn't take Chrome OS beyond being an awkward sub-OS.

Now that we're at the point of Chromebook reality, I cannot in good conscience be generous. The Chromebook concept is a failure, as is the foundational "Webtone" idea that Google got from Sun Microsystems.

Simply put, I don't believe Chrome OS will ever get as good as a world of real apps that tap into the Internet but don't depend on it. The Web apps that run on Chromebooks' Chrome OS -- and they're the only apps that can -- are still primitive and not that capable. Google itself still doesn't have its Google Apps -- the key apps it expects every Chrome OS user to rely on -- yet working in offline mode. That was promised for March, and still it's MIA. Remember, this is Google: a company that has no trouble shipping apps before they're ready.

Ouch!

[Ardbeg... innit]

Sounds like it would be better to have a Chrome Dome