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Chromebook Takes Top Place In Laptop Sales On Amazon
rtfa-troll writes "Amazon's latest table of the top selling laptops will be a surprise for many on Slashdot whose first reaction when we discussed this before was 'so what,' with pundits describing it as 'an enterprise contender.' Given the recent launch and huge advertising campaign, you might expect that the top selling consumer laptop would be based on Win8. If you read recent discussions about Microsoft's troubled new system you might expect a Mac to be leading, but Google's Chromebook topping the sales chart on a consumer site without any major advertising campaign is a major surprise. We've discussed before that apart from its web based ChromeOS, Chromebooks are also very fast running Ubuntu Linux and have several other distributions already ported."
My big question is what the return rate will be like. I suspect that some people are expecting a full desktop OS, like Windows.
It's cheap and do what most people want a laptop to do - check emails, surf the web and type up the occasional letter. It's also a good machine for geeks, since it's not locked down with Windows or OSX - meaning you can stick any flavour of Linux you want on it if you know how. In the current economic situation it taps into the same markets as the original netbooks - the 7" and 9" Eee - did; people needing a cheap machine to get online and geek-heads wanting a toy.
The danger is off course that the Chromebook will go down the same slippery slope as the netbooks fif; bigger screens, more beefed up hardware... until they are just another laptop.
Everything in the world is controlled by a small, evil group to which, unfortunately, no one you know belongs.
Yes, though Hangouts are a good replacement.
But it's not a lack of skype, it's a lack of each and every local app, but then again, that's part of the concept.
bickerdyke
Yes I know, Chipzilla is doing just fine, thankyaverymuch. But think about it: about 10 years ago we thought AMD would be the big challenger that would compete with Intel and reduce the Wintel monopoly. But AMD only did that semi-effectively. Yes it helped control costs (God help us to think what we'd be paying for computers these days if Intel were allowed to set its prices in a world without competition). But Android on ARM, some netbooks not long ago, and now Chromebooks seem to be the ones challenging the dominant computing paradigm. That means ARM has actually been the chip(s) that is currently causing the folks at Intel to sweat a little bit. Interesting times we live in.
If this were Usenet, I'd killfile the lot of you.
Yeah, it's shocking how fast this Exynos processor is, and the Chromebook handles graphics processes with ease. I can run more videos concurrently on it than on my desktop. My daughter hooks up the HDMI port to run her big flat screen TV with it and watch Hulu. I guess Netflix isn't working yet on the $250 model, but they are supposed to fix that soon. Also nice that you get a full-sized USB 3.0 port, a full-sized USB 2.0 port, and a full-sized HDMI port. Nicer than the MacBook Air in that regard - no need to run out and buy the MacBook-to-HDMI conversion adaptor for $30.
You get a gaming PC (hardware only) for £600, but Windows 7/8/whatever costs an extra £200. Same in Norway, Get a gaming PC for 6000 Kronar, but Windows whatever costs another 2000 Kronar, which amounts to the cost of another GPU card, external backup drive, some extra memory or simply 2/3 weeks food shopping.
What is the major difference between Windows 7/8 and XP or a Linux distro? Just the GUI
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
An apple like laptop for $300 bucks seems to be a bit of a no brainer. Like many slashdotters I am the technical adviser for most of my large family as well as work. With the exception of those who need specific Microsoft Programs or iTunes a Linux desktop on a machine with those specs would nicely meet the budget and needs of at least half my family. For my self I would love it as a second laptop. There are so many specs in the typical computer that far exceed the typical user's needs. My sister for example just bought an asus machine that I suggested as staples had a pretty good deal and her 7 year desktop really needed replacement. She is one of the people who must run a Windows machine so the specs are more demanding yet her 2TB HD is extreme overkill as she might need 20GB between the OS, MS Office and whatnot. I am willing to bet that in 2018 when she replaces this machine that the vast majority of her machine will be empty. Thus the tiny storage capacity of a Chromebook should be little detriment to most. But the better construction and lighter weight are far more important features that make the chromebook comparable to staples machines priced closer to $1000 as most of the sub $1000 stapes machines are clunky with cheap features such the split left shift key and load of bloatware. The same with many of the other lesser features of the chromebook as compared to "better" machines; most of the features where the chromebook is lesser are unimportant. The fact that at a glance the thing looks like a macbook won't hurt sales at all. So for anyone to be surprised that the chromebook is kicking ass is a surprise to me.
I am willing to bet that the MBA-types at places like HP are scratching their heads saying HP entry models are better than that damn thing as they go through a check list of how their machines are so much better feature for feature not realizing that 98% of customers don't even know what RAM does but their customers do know what they like when they see a friend with one and see that it runs a HD youtube video just as smoothly as the HP machine that has way more "L2 Cache".
The other thing that the MBA types are not realizing is that they are no longer competing with the laptop next to theirs in the display section of Staples or Best Buy but they are competing with the cell phone in the person's pocket.
Try Google Hangouts. It works much better than Skype.
Somebody mod this up, please! Google Hangouts has been so very much more stable than Skype ever was when video chatting with our son off at college. Skype would die 2-3 times during a normal conversation, and we'd have to reconnect. Google Hangouts is rock solid so far, and leverages account credentials we already use heavily. No need to maintain a second username and password for the Skype ecosystem.
God look at me, I'm just a man, but you tell me I'm not just a man, so hard to understand, after all, I'm just a man.
What is the major difference between Windows 7/8 and XP or a Linux distro? Just the GUI
I truly wish that was the major difference. If that was all that was different I would have switched our company away from Windows years ago and so would many others. The major difference is the applications and that is the only difference that truly matters. If everything was written cross-platform, then you would have a credible argument.
For better or worse there are a LOT of applications (including games) that only run on Windows and it remains sadly true that there often are no acceptable replacements. Our accounting software, MRP software, CAD software and some others simply are not available on linux, nor is there any acceptable substitute. We use LibreOffice, GIMP, Scribus, Inkscape, Chrome, Thunderbird, VNC, and more but there simply is no way we could get rid of our Windows boxes in the near future because of the applications we need to use. The moment there is a linux version of Quickbooks Enterprise and a compatible MRP system, I'd dump windows that minute but that simply isn't going to happen in the foreseeable future.