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Chromebooks Have a Lucrative Year; Should WinTel Be Worried?
Chromebooks, and ChromeOS have come a long way, and this year two of the best selling laptops at Amazon are Chromebooks. Computerworld calls it a punch in the gut for Microsoft.
"As of late Thursday, the trio retained their lock on the top three places on Amazon's best-selling-laptop list in the order of Acer, Samsung and Asus. Another Acer Chromebook, one that sports 32GB of on-board storage space -- double the 16GB of Acer's lower-priced model -- held the No. 7 spot on the retailer's top 10. Chromebooks' holiday success at Amazon was duplicated elsewhere during the year, according to the NPD Group, which tracked U.S. PC sales to commercial buyers such as businesses, schools, government and other organizations. ... By NPD's tallies, Chromebooks accounted for 21% of all U.S. commercial notebook sales in 2013 through November, and 10% of all computers and tablets. Both shares were up massively from 2012; last year, Chromebooks accounted for an almost-invisible two-tenths of one percent of all computer and tablet sales."
it's that Windows 8 isn't.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
I'm a full-time college student, and I'm a part-time web developer. I'm constantly surrounded by the demographics that are the heaviest users of mobile and portable computing devices. Yet I NEVER see anyone using a Chromebook, even though it's something I specifically watch for.
Nobody in my lectures uses one of them. Most of them have an Apple laptop of some sort, or a Dell. I never see people in the college library with Chromebooks. Again, they've got their iLaptops, Dells, and occasionally a tablet.
Nobody at my workplace uses a Chromebook, from executives to managers to the marketing squad to us lowly web devs. We all have real laptops, and there are a few people who use a tablet now and then.
Nobody I know outside of work and college has a Chromebook. None of my extended family members do, my wife doesn't, my kids don't, and none of my friends do.
Even on the goddamn subway or bus I never see people carrying a Chromebook, never mind actually using it. When I'm out for lunch or getting a coffee, again, I never see Chromebooks being carried or used. The last time I was on a flight, I saw lots of people using Apple or PC laptops, but nobody had a Chromebook.
If these devices truly were as widespread as is claimed, then why the hell am I not seeing anybody actually use them? Of the hundreds of people I'll see with devices in a given day, or the thousands upon thousands of people I've seen since these devices first came on the scene, none of them have or are using a Chromebook. I see Apple laptops. I see PC laptops. I see tablets. I see mobile phones. But I never see Chromebooks. Never!
should be noted that at the current time the touchpad is not supported in Linux distros, so it must be used either entirely from keyboard shortcuts, or with a usb mouse/trackpad/rollerball. Still a great deal but thats quite a failing in a laptop that doesnt have a touchscreen (unless you buy the C720P touchscreen version which is 50% more expensive)
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
This is a guess I'm pulling out of my @$$, but they look pretty profitable to sell. Those screens can be had for $50 bucks in quantities of 1000 (let alone what Samsung buys) and they hardware's a cheap SOC. The entire thing's probably under $120 bucks and you can sell it for $250. That's a pretty sweet profit margin. It's kinda like how Android phones were outselling Windows 8 Phones because the sales reps got better bonuses. Amazon's going to push the product with the better margin.
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The Acer C720 Chromebook is Intel Haswell-based, and perfectly compatible with most Linux distros.
Phoronix did an awesome review of linux on the C720 several weeks ago, and in short: it's awesome. It runs everything you'd need - movies, internet, USB 3.0, streaming, 7-8 hours of battery life. There is some issue to work out with the touchpad, but it's possible to run most distros out of the box with an external mouse, or by applying a kernel patch. This is temporary though - I'd expect the touchpad to be incorporated in due time.
For $199, there's no better laptop on the market for Linux.
If you wipe ChromeOS with Arch Linux, there's a patch available for the C720 touchpad. They even have the touchscreen working for the C720P. I know they're working on getting the patches to work with Ubuntu, Mint, etc.
Alternatively, you can just run Crouton to duel-boot alongside ChromeOS...which solves the touchpad issue.
It's spelled 'arse' :-)
You are using an OS specifically designed as spyware and you are using it for online banking and other financial activities?? Seriously??
Are you actually suggesting it's safer to do online banking with your typical malware ridden Windows system than with a Chromebook?? Seriously??
This is not correct anymore, the touchpad works fine under Ubuntu 13.10 if you install it using the Chrubuntu scripts. The Chrubuntu author has integrated the patches from Chrome dev Beson Leung into the Chrubuntu scripts so that it automatically patches the Ubuntu kernel for you.
If, like me, you want to use 12.04 LTS instead of the latest you can use an Ubuntu 13.10 machine or VM to build the patched modules and then use them with the 13.10 kernel on 12.04, see here for instructions https://plus.google.com/+BensonLeung/posts/EJUSUudzHb3
And just to be clear, I'm talking about the Chrubuntu method of installing a full-fledged Ubuntu installation here as a the only OS or a dual-boot, i.e. not the Ubuntu-using-the-ChromeOS-kernel setup of Crouton.
Pre-canned Evolution Links for all those Slashdot holy wars.