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What Will The Expanding World of ChromeOS Mean For Windows?
Nerval's Lobster writes "Hewlett-Packard is the latest PC manufacturer to jump into the Chromebook game, whipping the curtain back from a 14-inch device loaded with Google's Chrome OS. Powered by a dual-core Intel Celeron processor, and touting roughly 4.25 hours of battery life, the HP Pavilion Chromebook follows in the footsteps of other Chromebooks released by Acer and Samsung over the past few months. While these manufacturers continue to produce devices loaded with Windows, the growth of Chrome OS could spark some worry among Microsoft executives, who have become used to their hardware partners operating as Windows-only shops. But is Chrome OS a true threat to Windows, or just a way for manufacturers to gain some additional leverage in negotiating with Microsoft over licensing fees and other matters?"
Shame that it's in a creepy, Google-centric way. Goodbye, last vestiges of privacy!
(also, first post)
If it has a celeron in it, there is no need for Microsoft to worry.
For the reasons stated in the summary, from the manufacturer's standpoint it just doesn't matter. The effort to port ChromeOS, measured in engineer hours, could easily be paid for by a 50 cent drop in the per laptop licensing fee for Windows. It's a good gamble. It's a win either way.
Personally though, a Nexus 10, with all those pretty pixels, and a bluetooth keyboard seems to fill this niche better than anything I've seen with a hinge.
Windows 8 is the true threat to windows.
Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75. -Benjamin Franklin
Introducing the new Microsoft LiveBook. Boots right in to Microsoft's cloud-based OS. Skydrive, Skype, Office365, Bing search, Hotmail. Coming your way in 2015 or sooner.
640YB ought to be enough for anybody.
It seems that Chromebooks are trying to slide into the market slot that Netbooks are currently vacating. I'm not entirely sure I understand what's going on there, netbooks were well refined products that seem to have gone out of favour and everyone is designing Chromebooks from scratch. Considering these are effectively the new dumb terminals, you'd have thought they could've done better than a Celeron and 4.25 hours of battery life - netbooks were rather more capable than Chromebooks appears to be, cost about the same and had far superior battery life.
Or has everyone (finally) just realised that 10" is really not that comfortable a form factor?
Because most human beings value privacy, and acknowledge the concept of ownership rights.
Microsoft is leaps and bounds ahead of Elgoog in this regard. Azure has a better chance of gaining a broader audience than ChromeOS IMHO.
Chrome OS is a threat in that it enables users to easily make use of Google's applications. As far as operating systems go, Windows 8 is the biggest threat to MS (in the sense that it is probably causing a lot of users to steer away from MS). But as a platform for using Google's services, MS definitely will have to worry seeing as how many of Google's applications (e.g. Google Docs) eat into Microsoft's profits.
Because you live in the real world where Windows is pretty much the corporate standard and there's no way to get away from it?
You can get away from it on personal machines, but in any office environment -- Microsoft isn't going anywhere.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
And why would I want to pay for a poorly wriiten piece of crap?
I dunno. Why would anyone want to read your poorly wriiten comments?
I'd otherwise have agreed with you, but I'm starting to see change. A guy I know who works for the US government (probably the organization you'd expect to leap on board new tech trends *last*) reports his new CIO is aggressively investigating Google products, google hosted email, and so on.
If that's true, there's hope. Face it: Microsoft was a real innovator in the early 90s. Maybe even the late 90s. And for a while there, Microsoft software was useful in ways other software was not.
That age ended long ago, and increasingly Microsoft finds itself struggling to catch up. They have no mojo with the "young" generation, and since Windows/Office has produced no software worth writing home about. Google now has enough brand name recognition even the most easily scared/reticent CIOs can suggest Google products without fear of getting "the blank stare."
Good times for everyone. Bad times for Ballmer (who should've gotten his ass thrown out the Microsoft door - or is it a window - many, many years ago). That guy is sinking the Microsoft ship.
If this were Usenet, I'd killfile the lot of you.
Are you speaking from qualitative experience of the Windows source code there, or just repeating what all the cool kids on the forums say?
For casual use, content consumption, sure. It fills the same niche as those netbooks of a few years ago, and tablets (for the most part) now. But for content creation, they need apps that are currently only ported to Winders and OSX. So, will Chrome OS be a threat to Winders? Don't ask me, ask the developers. I couldn't possibly care less what OS the device is running. I'm only concerned about what I can do with it.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
I *need* Windows, the apps I run can only run on Windows. Yet I cannot find a Windows PC that's suitable.
I want, i7 or i5, 4Gb+ ram, big portrait monitor for code, these days 2500 vertical pixels I think should be the minimum. I want mouse and window system, because touch doesn't really work on a big screen. I want quiet, I want DVDR+-, card reader, reliable big hard disks, RAID perhaps, maybe SSD if the price come way down.
I took a look at the Windows 8 all in ones, there's a Dell one with a big 27" screen. Yet you can't rotate the screen into portrait for code editing, the DVD is on the side, and would be on the bottom if you rotated it! I also see them use touch in the review video by tilting the screen till it's almost flat. Seriously? Do you imagine anyone wants to use it like that?? What are they going to do? Tilt it to touch and move the mouse, then tilt it vertically to read the screen??
It's like Microsoft's directionless right now, a ship without a captain, just trying to copy Apple or Google depending on what day of the week it is!
So, IMHO, Chrome will take the just-for-surfing market, because Ballmer seems quite clueless. But the core development/business market they could still keep simply by basic competence. Yet they push Windows 8 to everyone????? Why! Seriously why push a touch OS on a non-touch user??
I'm pretty sure that's what Blackberry makers thought, only to watch their smartphone dominance go *poof* in just a few years.
Do you know how corporate players will see Chrome OS? Easy to install, zero maintenance needed, secure and trustworthy sources. All the benefits of Linux and Windows combined. Security of the first and ease of use of the second.
Will see about that soon enough. I'm guessing when most sysadmins and enterprise users "use" something else at home, the enterprise will have no choice but to follow. How do you think windows got into the enterprise? Certainly not because of it was better than anything else available at that time.
And revenue down 20% overall...
I'm not really sure where ChromeOS is supposed to fit in. For people who want to do heavyweight stuff, it's no substitute for a full-fledged OS, and people who just want a content consumption device have mostly already switched to smartphones and tablets running iOS or Android. I sort of see where it fits into Google's marketing strategy – it's an OS for people to live their entire life "in the cloud" – but is there any actual demand for that? One thing we should have learned from the WinRT and WinPhone fiascos is that just because a company thinks a product is strategically important doesn't mean that its customers are going to agree.
"... poorly wriiten piece of crap?"
Kinda like your comment?
I totally agree. Look at that ship sinking under Ballmer's tenure. The shareholders must be furious over 12 straight years of billion dollar profits. http://www.wolframalpha.com/share/clip?f=d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427ee35g2o7iim
People just want something that works and requires little to no maintenance to maintain stability. That's why Android phones and tablets have been very successful globally. On the other hand, just performed a clean install of Windows 8 Pro and while it's noticeably less laggy than Vista it still brings the headache of instability.
People and systems need Windows, I don't think we'll reach a point where we can finally sever the birth cord to it, no matter what at some point there will need to be a windows computer running. Microsoft might see sales drop off a bit but they wont, at least for a long while, need to really worry.
Good thing I can get away from corporate office environments then!
Pretty good is actually pretty bad.
I find it interesting that Google can repackage Linux with their own web browser and call it an operating system, and we have no problem with that, yet will engage in lengthy discussions about whether Stallman really invented GNU/Linux.
The US government is not a monolith. In the USDA where I currently contract, Google Chrome is banned from installation. There is alternating reticence and enthusiasm from the various agencies I've worked with lately about cloud solutions, so there a patchwork of 'progress' depending on how that's even defined.
I've been using Chrome OS for over 2 years since google sent me a CR-48. I use it daily to catch up on news, emails, comics, facebook .... It sits on my nightstand is perfect for how I use it. The OS is really nice and easy to use. I would no hesitate to buy one of these devices for my dad, aunt, etc where I have to be "tech support".
Zoid.com
It's a niche market in which Windows has only been the traditional default OS by virtue of brand recognition and stability versus other Linux variants -- sorry, but as much as I wish otherwise, that latter bit is true for the userbase at which this product is aimed.
So, the "expanding world" of Chrome OS will pretty much mean two things for Windows: jack and shit.
Yes, but if that half of the ass is the only part you use (Docs, web browsing, web 2.0 apps) Then it's a good, cheap alternative.
It starts becoming a threat when Google makes it very cheap (approaching free) to own a Chrome OS device.
This will eventually be possible because Google is not in the software or hardware business, they are in the advertising business,
an industry that values collecting personal information to profile a potential sales audience.
Google will cause the collapse of the traditional software and hardware vendors because they will not be able to compete with free.
User content is king.
Well at least that is my 2c prediction...
I work in a software development environment for embedded Linux. IT has to make provision for allowing Linux hosts to connect despite IT being a Windows shop. Now any sole can use Linux in our enterprise because engineers forced the need to use Linux desktops.
In North America, Chromebooks are largely an education (K12) play. The "traditional" OEMs are seeing tremendous market share erosion to iPads in schools - So this provides them with something to sell. The schools struggle with iPads because they're expensive (next to no edu-discounting from Apple), fragile, difficult to manage and are theft targets. It's also difficult to create content (such as writing and essay) on iPad.
Oh, I have NO idea what the source code looks like. I just know how it behaves. If it were written well, it wouldn't have to reboot it so often nor would it crash on me all the time. Both the Mac's OS and Linux are better choices.
Although, I do have to say, Windows XP was well done. Security was questionable, but over all, from a user perspective, it was well thought out. However, how long ago did XP come out.
Seriously, you should use Open Office, or Libre Office.
I think Visual Studio in software development has already been Eclipse'd by Eclipse, when developers started focusing on Android & server side Java, Eclipse works better for that. Well at least that's what's happened with us, Visual studio isn't used now.
We still have Office licenses at work, but I can't think of the last time I wrote a text document for print out. So I've never opened MS Word! Excel is use by who? Not by me! Maybe someone in accounts? Database? We use Oracle, why would we use SQL Server?
Source control? Perforce, I don't even know what comes with that MS bundle anymore. Management order it, but I don't know why! Habit? I don't want it, they just buy a per-seat license and nobody ever wonders if we actually need it!
So you can say Microsoft aren't going anywhere because they own the corporate, but that's really just to focus on Chrome and ignore the fact they've been replaced in all areas by free or better products!
What killer app is locking Microsoft into any market now?
A piece of hardware that boots very fast to a browser and is semi-useful when connected to the Internet.
When the Internet is not available, you have a useless metal brick.
Tubby or not tubby. Fat is the question
If Chromebooks are a hit, it's evidence around how much backwards compatibility is important; or in other words, how it might be unimportant. Windows is full of bugs, which don't get fixed, or have really nasty work arounds, because somebody has a crappy written piece of software that they tell the Windows team that they can't live without. So Windows merrily, goes along shimming, or not fixing existing bugs. Perhaps a successful Chromebook would show the Windows team that the type of customers who refuse to pay for updates to broken applications are also the type of customers who aren't going to buy new copies of Windows. Giving Microsoft the guts to risk breaking 15 year old software, is what Chromebooks might do to Windows.
yes, as another pain in the ass to manage, configure, and deploy.
Also, corporate players are big on "corporate standards" - single standards that everybody uses. Chromebooks might be sufficient for "those guys in sales." They're not gonna cut it for "the guys in Engineering." Corporate standards are selected on the basis of "which device satisfies ALL of the needs of ANY of our users?"
Which means the engineering guys get slightly-slower-than-they wanted hardware, the sales guys get way-faster-than-they-needed hardware, and EVERYBODY runs Windows, Office, and Sametime for easy sharing, administration, and communication.
Also, there's going to be a (very legitimate) fear of Chromebooks opening holes through which corporate data will end up leaked or stolen, since all of their data storage and applications are "online in the cloud."
Why is it that whenever there's a "cloud" story on Slashdot, the overwhelming response is "LOL UR AN IDIOT IF U TRUST THE CLOUD," but as soon as Google offers a "cloud" based, only-available-online set of tools, the overwhelming response seems to be, "Google! Your dick! I need it in my mouth now"?
Yes, my company laptop uses Windows 7. But I did not pay for it. I use Outlook because it hooks into their email system that combines scheduling and tele-conferencing.
Everything else is open source because I have that choice. My development work is all on Unix.
Microsoft isn't going anywhere
Everyday, I am hearing of more and more people using an iPad or and Andoid tablet as their daily working machine. Sure, they still have that Windows desktop, but many days, it isn't even turned on. How much longer will the wallets of that 'office environment' be willing to shell out for an unused system?
So in a few years, can I quote you about MS?
I feel like the niche that netbooks were filling is being filled by tablets now.
No netbooks as a more portable cheaper, laptops never went out of fashion...look at a Macbook Air or a Surface. Microsoft killed the netbook, Tablets simply are immune to Windows.
You are not using the computer right or you have some faulty hardware or drivers if you are experiencing Windows OS crashes "all the time." You should only have to reboot when you install updates (and generally not every time).
Yea, I think you have some serious issues with either yourself or your computer(s).
Pure NSA/corporate spyware
Professional development:
Yes, we probably cannot do real-world programming projects merely inside a browser.
But old school people should really do a Google/Bing search to see how many online compilers / IDEs / interactive learning environments are already available.
Yes, I've seen low-end embedded chips with proprietary and Windows-only supply software.
But how many people ever seen "embedded" and "chip" been put together; who cares?
Anyway, how many normal people still have ideas about programming today?
Professional authoring:
We all know there are Google Apps.
There are a shit load of sophisticated online graphical editor already.
Yes, there is no Adobe Crappy Suite.
Crappy Suite is cryptic enough for some people to make a living, quite cool.
Most personal could take a break away from Adobe stuff at some point, though.
Professional gaming:
Most non-hard-core game should be available right in iPad or Android tablets.
There are Windows-only hard-core games.
What about waiting some time for PlayStation 4 or Xbox next, though?
I'd like to see if someone can add something new into the list.
"because obviously there is no such thing as software that is only able to run on Windows"
If they don't port it, it doesn't run, and their commercial decision isn't a turin machine. There *is* such a thing as software that can only run on Windows.
A piece of hardware that boots very fast to a browser and is semi-useful when connected to the Internet.
When the Internet is not available, you have a useless metal brick.
ChomeOS and Google Docs do not need a permanent internet link. The work offline quite nicely. Here is a quick overview...I Googled it. http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/landing.html
Google itself has no chance against iOS
Seriously you been asleep. iOS could be made from magic of unicorns tears and nobody would care. Its not its kind of stuck in a time loop from 2007, but the fact is they take profits over Market share which makes them irrelevant.
It's a tablet with a keyboard.
Right now it doesn't even have touchscreen; it has more in common with your standard desktop. I personally would like ChromeOS to come touchscreen with a little android compatibility thrown in :)
YES please, a desktop, but much smaller much quieter, and with a RAID and Windows 7 and less fuss.
When I look, I get Nettops (too slow) or faster all in ones (but Windows 8 touch), I then need to add the RAID myself, (if possible which I doubt).
It's like you can give me what I want, but only in a big box from the last millenium, and even then I have to modify it to add the RAID. The 1990's called, they want their mini-tower case back.
Looks like what M$ did to nokia was just a test run before doing it to themselves
In ten years chrome may provide a commensurate level of productivity that Windows does today. But by that time Windows will have achieved a new level of being all together. What's most disturbing about Chrome is the short-sighted strategy that it will be an alternative to Windows without acknowledging how much ground it has to make up. If you want me to be excited about Chrome give me a vision, not just some hype based on anti-Microsoft sentiment. I’d love to see Chrome do something meaningful in computing and society but right now it’s on the wrong track and the only fuel for its marketing engine is irrational exuberance.
Except for those with the near monopolies...
Sure, go ahead ... statistically I'll be no more wrong than pundits, economists, analysts, and CEOs will be on the topic; and I've got a 50/50 chance of being right. ;-)
If I was an Australian economist, those would be good odds.
If you're making long-term, high-dollar decisions based on what I or anybody else on Slashdot says ... well, you'd have to be an idiot to do that. In fact, from what I've seen, all those companies making choices based on what Gartner or any other market analyst says would be as well off flipping their own coins.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Microsoft should be scared shitless. I've done ONE test install of Windows 8, HATED it. I've been installing Linux Mint xfce edition (x64) all OVER the place. Love it. Same functionality as XP, more stable, quicker boot, better software selection out of box.
The ONLY problem with mint atm is that skype is not quite as good (go figure). If google steps up the game and gets google hangouts as good or better than skype and/or gotomeeting (the screen sharing in google is totally unusable right now), I don't see Microsoft as having a chance at all in any market.
At least not amongst the IT educated who see all the other options.
And Mac? How can any shop justify the pricing? LOL
Our sysadmins are all on nagios/android now with anag in particular. Most of us aren't even using linux except when we're doing the actual installs. Everything is android now. And the prices keep dropping.
It's game over. Microsoft and Apple are done, and I'm not going to miss them at all. Corporate scum bags should've been put out of their misery years ago. Especially apple with their drm crap. When I explain to apple users how they've been screwed by apple.... Which is not hard to do, they relook at my jellybean phone and tablet, realize that both of them TOGETHER are cheaper than an iphone, and instantly vow never to buy apple again.
I don't know a single person who has any feelings about Windows 8 other than abject hatred. NOBODY is switching to that here. Even on calls where a client got a new machine, their question is always, "How can I downgrade?" For the majority of them (non-gamers in particular), I convince them to use Mint xfce edition, and they couldn't be happier. Now with Steam growing it's library on Linux? The gamers are next. As soon as Civilization 2 comes to steam, I won't even need my old microXP VM any more!
These are good times for Linux, for open source, for human freedom, and for the tech industry. I for one welcome our new open source overlords.
PS Not to be an unabashed google fanboy. I disable google now everywhere I go (battery chewing spyware), as well as killing all the maps background data processes, etc.. Google is great, but only if you install android fresh and turn off all their spyware.
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
Only on the desktops MS is on top, but it's not 90s anymore when there was only desktop market. The market has widened to desktop, phones and tablets. Android and iOS (OS X) has dominating 65% share and it's growing fast, pic: http://www.cultofandroid.com/19298/how-ios-android-are-murdering-microsoft
Looks like /. can't run out of interrogation marks.
I just picked up a Chromebook yesterday and am fast at work getting Ubuntu running on it. It's a great little machine, fast, light, great battery, cheap as heck. It's perfect for just getting online fast.
These things are going to really slice away at the low cost PC market which in turn will take a real dig at Windows. When I see the market share numbers for where Windows is at I see most of it as just people picking up the cheapest thing they can find to get online. These Chromebooks are perfect for that and undercut the price by a huge amount. This Samsung was $215 from Best Buy. All the Windows 8 machines they had there were several hundred dollars more.
I can't for the life of me figure out how you'd mix a keyboard and a touch screen and have that make sense.
I use a keyboard and mouse for 3D shoot'em action; A Joypad for Platform ....and touchscreen for RTS. Why would you want to be confined to the one form of input.
Face it: Microsoft was a real innovator in the early 90s.
Uh, what exactly did Microsoft innovate? As far as I can tell, people who think Microsoft innovated in the 90s only think so because Microsoft's products are the first place they saw some things, not because Microsoft was the first, or even the best, to do them.
They did have sharp business practices. I will give you that.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
I guess it depends what field you are in...or maybe just where you happen to work. The Sysadmins here are all complete 100% windows guys. They couldn't get a job in any other environment. Some of the employees are windows only at work people...but the infrastructure guys are all windows only. It has been this way at the last couple places I have worked. I haven't changed companies in a while, however.
A few less ways for clueless users to get malware and contribute to stinking up the Internet.
I just can't figure out how having my desktop machine have a keyboard and a touchscreen would work from an ergonomics perspective.
I'm sorry I suspect your talking to the wrong person, I would never suggest touch for the sake of it. I find the Dual environment of tablet/Desktop in Windows 8 messy, with Microsoft trying to make traditional desktop Applications touch, programs where a mouse and keyboard are simply better choices like say Gimp/LibreOffice.
I would love an environment where keyboard and mouse are prefered say Gimp/LibreOffice in as desktop environment it would stay in desktop [keyboard and mouse] and only Applications specifically designed *and* preferable to being touch would be touch enabled. like manipulating share graphs/maps [with fat fingers]....in a mixed *windows* environment. The simple method of getting this working would be windowed Android Apps [I'd run them on Ubuntu rather than ChromeOS]
To me the *preferable method* of input decides which is used not whether you are comfortable or not.
There will be no massive waves of people migrating from laptops to Chromebooks because of one simple fact:
People are used to the Start menu, and they won't find it in Chrome OS.
Wait a minute.....
Naturally if anyone creeps up on their market share they'll lash Office tighter to Win 8. In corporate environments they do that by default through AD and Sharepoint.
What will the expanding world of ChromeOS mean for privacy?
The idea of a chromebook is to be small, light, inexpensive, fast booting, and long battery life.
Samsung gets it with $249 chromebook. HP doesn't get it.
and it works in my world. Maybe it doesn't in yours...
I don't have it set up yet, but I noticed someone said these can't be dual booted. Yet I find sites where people state they have these things dual booting w/ Ubuntu & Fedora. I plan on trying this shortly.
If all the ISPs go in strike, I'm shut down anyway... My cellphone is AT&T which I hear is essentially a voip system, or rapidly being converted to one, any more. My office is all voip telephones. I do real estate and that entire system is net based anymore. Even if I still had a land-line at home, I don't, if the local ISPs go on strike, they are also our local phone companies. I suspect that if one side goes down, so does the other.
The chief academic attraction of Chromebooks is precisely their crippled nature. As true "netbooks", the ordinary users can do less harm with them than with laptops running a full OS. Would-be computer geeks can of course repurpose them. But I suspect that these classroom versions, classChromebooks, will include a "security" feature that will prevent casual modification.
What sharp business practices? They have systematically alienated every single sector of their customers by ignoring them and overcharging them for the last 10 years. They appear to be screwing their products one-by-one and making alternatives look better and better every single day.
When they tell system admins that they have removed a heap of useful functions from Windows Server 2008 to 'decrease cognitive loading' in the GUI it gives an insight into a company that has completely lost the plot. They are supposed to make OSes - systems for operating computers. They have forgotten that.
I don't think Chrome OS is any more a threat to Windows than Windows is to itself. The Windows business model may not work anymore, but it has worked so long that Microsoft could (and probably will) glide along on inertia for a very long time. So are Netbooks going to destroy Windows, no they didn't. Is Android? Nope. Chromebooks? Nope. Tablets? No again. Will Microsoft realize too late that the rest of the industry has switched to a different business model, (which, incidentally, is the real issue, of which all the other technologies above are only symptoms) and make increasingly desperate attempts to win back the market, both trying unsuccessfully to play in these new markets and with decreasing success to force the market back into their comfortable space? One could say that's already happening. But it will continue to happen for a very long time, and a lot more chairs will fly, before the company is to the point where people would say yes, right now, they're threatened. Potential threat, meta threat, maybe, but not real threat.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
But the whole point about Metro, GNOME 3.x and Unity was that having the same interface for laptops and tablets is a bad idea. The people who got it right so far have been Apple, w/ iOS & OS-X being different, the KDE folks, who made Plasma Active for tablets, and the normal KDE for laptops. Now, Google is doing the sensible thing - leaving Android alone for tablets, while using ChromeOS for desktops.
Good thing about Google driving this is that there is some viability here, instead of the usual distro wars that one sees. Only thing - I think they ought to take ReactOS, make it as close to Windows 7 as possible, and run w/ it - covering all the win64 apps. Include in that Windows VirtualPC (XP-Mode) and the win32 apps and run w/ that. The advantage of that approach is that no one would have to toss their current PC apps - be it their games, work applications or whatever - or run it under Crossover. Just let it run normally under a Google Windows, and let the current ecosystem - like Symantec, Kaspersky, et al help maintain their security updates, instead of the OS itself.
The thing is that Microsoft already has an Enterprise software called Dynamics, which it tries to pitch against Oracle, SAP and others. Now, if they got into services, they'd again get into the same trouble they got into w/ the DoJ for simply bundling Internet Explorer w/ Windows. IE was small potatoes - now, if they get into services, they'd instantly be accused of leveraging their Windows monopoly for this.
I do think that at this stage, Microsoft should declare Windows as complete, and that from now on, they'd only be doing maintenance fixes. If they did something like Symantec and just issued patches for an annual fee of, say, $49.99, they could easily get huge business. In fact, if they throw in support for pirated versions in exchange for such a fee, their gravy train will grow even more. Honestly, most of their apps are mature enough, and any improvements can be released as patches, again for a fee.
As it is, they've seen what it is being in the crosshairs of the DoJ, so becoming even bigger should not be their goal. Maybe, they could start paying dividends on their stock to justify low growth in stock value. Leave the mobile wars to Google & Apple, and just focus on what's already theirs.
Before they lose it completely!
The Chromebooks won't be a hit when people find out that Google is harvesting all their personal data and violating their privacy in the worst way imaginable.
Idiots need only apply for a SpyBook.