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Here Come the Chromebooks, As Google and Intel Cozy-Up On Haswell

Posted by timothy on from the tradeoffs-and-favorites dept.

MojoKid writes "News from Intel (and Google) today includes an announcement that more Chromebooks are on their way to market packing Intel's Haswell processors. The new chips are designed to consume less power, thus preserving battery life for an all-day charge, while still offering better overall performance. Google notes that there are schools in over 20% of school districts across the country that now use Chromebooks, and with prices for some of the machines dipping as low as $199, deploying fleets of these machines in academia is an attractive option. What's interesting is the alignment between Intel and Google now, which should cause folks in Redmond to smart a bit, as yet another major competitor to the Windows operating system seems to clearly be coming into focus. Intel-Google partners including Acer, ASUS, HP, and Toshiba will be rolling out Chromebooks based on Haswell soon, and they'll collectively be sporting more variety of form factors."

6 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Interesting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Could always just replace it with a full blown Linux distro. Problem solved.

  2. Re:Windows competitor by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Chome OS is competition to Windows in the same way a bicycle is competition to an automobile.

    And if what most people need is a bicycle, and a Chromebook covers their needs it's a competitor. If people buy these instead of something from Microsoft, it is definitely a competitor.

    It may not be as general purpose as Windows, but it might show people they don't really need Windows. And that should at least worry Microsoft.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  3. Re:Interesting by Dimwit · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I bought a Chromebook for my mother-in-law. For her, it's absolutely perfect: she can't break it too badly, there's essentially no risk of malware, updates are installed automatically, and it's got a keyboard. All she needs to do is read email, look at pictures of her grandson, and surf the web.

    As for me, I want a Chromebook Pixel, but wiped and running a full distro of Linux...the hardware is gorgeous.

    --
    ...but it's being eaten...by some...Linux or something...
  4. Re:Interesting by gishzida · · Score: 5, Funny

    Actually... yes Malware is already available for devices like these... Its a multi-platorm, multi-government malware called NSA-ware(TM)... you can't leave home without it... but please don't tell anyone.... they might think we live in Soviet Russia.

  5. Where are the ChromeBoxes? by Ancil · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The Chromebooks look nice for certain situations, and I've been tempted to pick one up.

    But why haven't there been any good ChromeBoxes?? I have unused monitors and keyboards sitting around, and there's plenty of cases which need a larger screen and a real keyboard.

    If you can sell a full notebook with LCD, keyboard, and battery for $199, where is the $49 Chromebox?

    Samsung's efforts have been a complete joke. Over $300? Really? Dell sells "real" computers for less. With Windows, even.

    Supposedly the new Chromebox from ASUS is based on Intel's "Next Unit of Computing". That thing starts at about $200 with no RAM.

    If Roku can sell an ARM box capable of decompressing Full HD streams for $49, why can't Google get one to run ChromeOS?

  6. Re:Interesting by realityimpaired · · Score: 5, Informative

    You'd be mistaken...

    http://jeffhoogland.blogspot.ca/2012/12/bodhi-armhf-alpha-for-samsung-chromebook.html

    There's a more recent build of that particular distro for it, but that's the instructions for how to do it. That's not a chroot, it's a native boot. You can, if you choose, nuke the chrome partition entirely and go fully native.