Slashdot Mirror
New HP Laptop Would Mean Windows at Chromebook Prices
New submitter nrjperera (2669521) submits news of a new laptop from HP that's in Chromebook (or, a few years ago, "netbook") territory, price-wise, but loaded with Windows 8.1 instead. Microsoft has teamed up with HP to make an affordable Windows laptop to beat Google Chromebooks at their own game. German website Mobile Geeks have found some leaked information about this upcoming HP laptop dubbed Stream 14, including its specifications. According to the leaked data sheet the HP Stream 14 laptop will share similar specs to HP's cheap Chromebook. It will be shipped with an AMD A4 Micro processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of flash storage and a display with 1,366 x 768 screen resolution. Microsoft will likely offer 100GB of OneDrive cloud storage with the device to balance the limited storage option.
But will it run Linux??
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
I think Microsoft gives manufacturers a discount if they limit their ram to 2 GB.
They are really shooting themselves in the foot, because a web browser can easily use 2 GB by itself, bringing the computer to a crawl.
Seriously.. my cell phone has 2 GB of ram.... This laptop will be nearly unusable without more memory.
This is as counterproductive as outlet stores. Sure, you pay a little less but the clothes shrink or fall apart.
And there on my ruined clothes it says Gap or Banana Republic - 2 brands I've bought lots of stuff from before, and will never ever buy again. But they made a little money, and I 'saved' a little money.
This laptop is the outlet mall version of an HP laptop - itself a brand that doesn't exactly exude quality these days..
Well no, but I can see MS making. Chromebooks are sold as a browser-based solution, that's the expectation. An MS laptop will have a different set of expectations placed on it, right or wrong. If they aim to "just" provide a browser experience, they'll fail.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
Here's the thing. Part of the problem is that they're not really beating Chromebook on anything, just matching the price. I still am going to need to load an anti-virus program, still going to have to sit through a long startup, and still have to sit through Update Tuesday. Yeah, I know Chromebook isn't perfect, but for most of what I do, it's really good enough and with my Macbook covering the 10% of things I can't do with my Chromebook, I'm really not seeing the need for Windows at all. Office? Please. I've been using OpenOffice and/or Google Docs for the past 4 years and no one has even noticed a difference so long as I save to .doc format.