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Chrome OS Can Now Run Android Apps With No Porting Required

Posted by timothy on from the that-could-be-big dept.

An anonymous reader writes On Thursday, Google launched "App Runtime for Chrome (Beta)" which allows Android apps to run on Chrome OS without the need for porting. At the moment, only Duolingo, Evernote, Sight Words, and Vine are available on the platform with the rest of the Play Store's offerings to come later. Google "built an entire Android stack into Chrome OS using Native Client" in order to achieve this.

78 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. Is this the new emulator story for Android devs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Because the stock AVD emulator stinks and HAXM acceleration is difficult to get working on it. Genymotion is my current solution when I need a fast emulator.

  2. Android by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    So now it's just Android with a windowing system?

    1. Re:Android by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Chromebook seems to be doing pretty well.

      According to US market-watcher NPD, during the 11 months from January through November 2013, the platform’s share of the computing device market had risen to 9.6 per cent from just 0.2 per cent in the same months of the previous year.

      Giving it the ability to run Android apps just makes it more capable. Assuming the "emulation" works well on the underpowered hardware running most Chromebooks.

    2. Re:Android by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I think those stats are total bullshit.

      I'm a part-time college lecturer, and I work part-time in the finance industry. On a daily basis I work with all sorts of people, from students to academics to accountants to lawyers to traders to managers/executives. Then there are my friends and family. While I've seen thousands upon thousands of these people using Dell, Apple, Toshiba, HP and Lenovo laptops, I don't think I've ever seen anyone using a Chromebook. If Chromebooks make up 10% of the market, then after seeing thousands of everyday laptop users, I should expect to see at least some Chromebooks. But I just don't see them being used.

      If they actually do make up that share of the market, I can only presume that many of those purchases were made accidentally by people thinking that the Chromebooks were just low-priced Windows laptops, not realizing that a Chromebook is nothing like a typical Windows or Apple laptop.

    3. Re:Android by ChunderDownunder · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The cynic in me suggests this is a pre-emptive strike against alternative open-source OSes Tizen and Firefox OS.

      By utilizing a Chrome-only technology (NaCl), by value-adding, Google kills off Gecko and Webkit competitors running a pure HTML5 platform.

      (Also stifling adoption of BB and Sailfish, which both include Android compatibility)

    4. Re:Android by wiredlogic · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They aren't being used by students because they need to be able to run general purpose software. They are bought by budget minded people who only need a web browser and web apps to use a computer which is the case for most non-technical people these days.

      --
      I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
    5. Re:Android by Rob+Y. · · Score: 1

      I would imagine that this new "Android in Chrome" capability will end up most commonly used to play Candy Crush on Windows systems. And that's fine. The nicest thing about Chrome (the browser) is it's (largely realized) potential as a meta-platform that works on just about every device out there - except iOS. And if Apple would allow it, it'd be on iOS too. That was the initial promise of Netscape before Microsoft got scared and started with their dirty tricks. It was never the promise of IE, which was primarily built to prevent Netscape from realizing that potential.

      --
      Posted from my Android phone. Oh, I can change this? There, that's better...
    6. Re:Android by Rob+Y. · · Score: 1

      If anything is being preempted, it's the still present threat that developer resources will be diverted into application rewrites for Windows 8 Metro - locking users into Windows-only apps for another generation. Whatever qualms you may have about Google, Chrome is about the best supported large multi-platform app, and there's nothing about Chrome (the browser) itself that locks you into Google apps or services. It's primary purpose is to keep the open web open and available on all devices, living up to its full potential. That just happens to fit well with Google's business plan, but it also fits well with what most people use computers for these days.

      --
      Posted from my Android phone. Oh, I can change this? There, that's better...
  3. Re:Wow by Teresita · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That makes my little Chromebox that much more awesome. Redmond be very afraid.

  4. Re:Is this the new emulator story for Android devs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Sure, if you're the dev for Duolingo, Evernote, Sight Words, or Vine.

  5. Why not all apps at once? by bogaboga · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Google launched "App Runtime for Chrome (Beta)" which allows Android apps to run on Chrome OS without the need for porting. At the moment, only Duolingo, Evernote, Sight Words, and Vine are available on the platform with the rest of the Play Store's offerings to come later.

    I wonder why all apps aren't available at once. I understand this App Runtime for Chrome akin to the Java RunTime, which when installed, would have all Java applications available. What am I [mis]understanding?

    1. Re:Why not all apps at once? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The massive testing required to ensure all the apps will work.

    2. Re:Why not all apps at once? by nleven · · Score: 2

      I would assume this emulation layer is still not perfect. Say, many android apps have arm binaries. There are other subtle gaps in user differences as well. You really don't want to make it look like an android emulator for chrome os.

    3. Re:Why not all apps at once? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Even if it were perfect, almost no ChromeOS devices have touchscreens and almost all Android devices do (especially if you count on the ones Google even slightly endorses, not the media-player-mystery-HDMI-dongle stuff). For applications that are basically hobbled by the touchscreen, a keyboard and mouse will be an improvement. For those that are enhanced by, or actively dependent on, it, that will be a bit of a mess no matter how perfect the runtime is.

      Unless those proportions change fairly markedly, it probably makes sense for them to start with some popular, mouse and keyboard friendly, applications that don't lean on native ARM blobs much or at all.

    4. Re:Why not all apps at once? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Say, many android apps have arm binaries.

      Well, many Chrome OS devices are ARM-- and supporting multiple architectures is something all Android apps have to deal with on actual Android.

      With only a few apps released, I'm guessing not everything is ready and they want to do it slow and steady. I wish they'd release this stuff and let everyone develop in the open on the canary builds of ChromeOS and let devs know what this environment is like, what SDK might be needed, how to configure the manifest, how to prepare, test, etc, how to send bug reports, how to submit to the web store, etc. In other words, tell everyone what's going on. Running Android apps in Chrome is too cool and exciting to go in drips and drabs... if it's NaCL I wonder whether it will show up on regular chrome as well...? If so, that might mean Android apps on OS X and Windows as well... lots of potential...

      The Vine app looks and behaves like the L-preview, which is cool tho...

    5. Re:Why not all apps at once? by viperidaenz · · Score: 1

      Perhaps they want to make sure it works for a few selected apps, so the developers of all the other apps in the play store don't get flooded with complaints if there are issues?

    6. Re:Why not all apps at once? by mhkohne · · Score: 1

      The first big issue will be screen sizes - Android has provisions for apps supporting multiple screen sizes, but it's kind of weird in how it works, and not every app works well (or at all) if you hand it a screen size markedly different than what it was designed for.

      --
      A thousand pounds of wood moving at 300 feet per minute. Don't get in the way.
    7. Re:Why not all apps at once? by Guspaz · · Score: 5, Informative

      Some points here:

      - Most Android apps are Java bytecode, not native code, so the underlying processor architecture is irrelevant (for those apps)
      - x86 is a supported Android platform, so many apps that do require native code have x86 binaries available
      - Intel provides an ARM emulator for the x86 version of Android so that x86 Android devices can run ARM binaries
      - Some ChromeOS devices use ARM processors to begin with.

    8. Re:Why not all apps at once? by Fwipp · · Score: 1

      The Evernote app, at least, appears to "solve" this by putting a fixed-size window on the screen. Not resizable, or dockable.

    9. Re:Why not all apps at once? by iamacat · · Score: 2

      Luckily all chromebooks come with multitouch touchpads which are perfectly capable of handling pinch/rotate gestures.

    10. Re:Why not all apps at once? by scorp1us · · Score: 2

      Google's NaCL only works with x86[64] the majority of apps use native libraries that are ARM. Only pure Android SDK apps (Java and java dependencies) will work. So say if you use libZbar (bar code decoding library) which is supplied in x86 and ARM, will work, is that app packaged the x86 version... which they didn't do becuase no one runs android on x86....

      So that's the main technical reason.

      --
      Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
    11. Re:Why not all apps at once? by batkiwi · · Score: 1

      Incorrect. Many android apps have arm binaries.

      https://developer.android.com/...

      Many do not, to be fair, but most games do at the very least.

    12. Re:Why not all apps at once? by exomondo · · Score: 1

      Android apps are interpreted byte-code, not native binaries

      Unless they use the NDK.

      The only binary you need is the dalvek apk interpreter

      What about if they use the NDK? What happens if the application uses OpenGL ES?

    13. Re:Why not all apps at once? by BitZtream · · Score: 2

      Since when did Google test android apps?

      --
      Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
    14. Re:Why not all apps at once? by jareth-0205 · · Score: 1

      I wonder why all apps aren't available at once. I understand this App Runtime for Chrome akin to the Java RunTime, which when installed, would have all Java applications available. What am I [mis]understanding?

      Probably partly because it's not stable yet, but allso many/most apps won't work well since they tend to assume that the device has touchscreen support. That's reasonable for Android devices, but usually wrong for ChromeOS. Properly supporting keyboard navigation is a bit of a task when you've designed for touch... as Windows 8 metro demonstrates... Metro's OK if you have a touchscreen but a nightmare with a mouse.

    15. Re:Why not all apps at once? by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1
      The only people I know who own chromebooks are university students. They already have smartphones to play their games on. And regular pcs. And game consoles. Also, a quick look shows that stores are now offering dual-core intel cpus on their chromebooks, so apps running using native arm methods are going to have to be ported anyway. The upside of this is two-fold.
      1. Given the larger screen size and different input methods, this is an opportunity to re-imagine any game or other app.
      2. Given the faster cpus compared to, say, 5 years ago, native methods might no longer be needed. (remember all those old phone ads that showed incredibly fast scrolling, and had a disclaimer at the bottom saying "simulated screen"? No need to fake it any more on modern hardware ... )

      The hardware situation is only going to improve in the future, so there will be less and less need to use native code, even in games.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    16. Re:Why not all apps at once? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      - Android apps are compiled into Google's Dalvik bytecode, not java.
      - x86 and arm does not play well together, despite 'emulation'

    17. Re: Why not all apps at once? by chikanamakalaka · · Score: 1

      NaCL works on ARM, but you can compile to pNaCL which runs on both architectures.

    18. Re:Why not all apps at once? by Guspaz · · Score: 1

      - The difference is irrelevant, the apps are stored as platform-independent bytecode that (as of the next Android release) is then converted to machine code by ART or done on-the-fly by Dalvik itself. As a result, so long as Dalvik or ART supports the processor architecture, the application doesn't need to.

      - As long as the ARM app doesn't use NEON (which I believe Intel's Houdini emulator doesn't support), it shouldn't have any problems running the ARM code on the x86 devices. In fact, you're likely to have better compatibility running emulated on x86 than you are natively on some older ARM devices.

    19. Re:Why not all apps at once? by batkiwi · · Score: 1

      That doesn't make what you said any less incorrect.

    20. Re:Why not all apps at once? by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1
      Actually, the incorrect part was you writing "Incorrect. Many android apps have arm binaries." There's a difference between using native methods, and being an arm binary. Something that's an arm binary doesn't need dalvik to run (example - the linux os that dalvik runs atop of). Apps, even those using native methods, cannot run stand-alone on the arm cpu..

      The very first part of the very first sentence you linked to:

      The NDK is a toolset that allows you to implement parts of your app using native-code languages

      There is simply, by definition, no such thing as an "arm binary android app." All apps require dalvik to start. They can't run on the bare metal or directly atop the host os.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  6. Re:Is this the new emulator story for Android devs by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 2

    The Moto G series of Android phones is cheap, easy to put into developer mode to load your apps via usb, runs kitkat, and takes less time to load your compiled app onto than it takes to even start up the emulator on a quad core pc. And there's plenty of $100 android tablets around if you want to test larger displays. The AVD emulator absolutely sucks, and would have been better with a simulator.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  7. Re: Wow by binarylarry · · Score: 1

    Yay?

    I say that with extra skepticism.

    --
    Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
  8. Android apps on all Linux distros? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Does this mean that we'll be able to run Android apps on Linux soon? ChromeOS is basically just Gentoo as far as I am aware.

    1. Re:Android apps on all Linux distros? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Do not forget http://www.android-x86.org/

      I use it within KVM to run closed source Andriod apps that have no native app for Linux.

  9. Re:Why not just run Chrome on Android on Chromeboo by Teresita · · Score: 2

    Here's why ChromeOS (and Chrome and Chromiumn) is not idiotic: I'm tired of having to install the latest Flash player just so the ads don't crash the whole shooting match. So to hell with it, I have a Chromebox attached to the living room TV for Youtubes and Netflixes, let Google keep the thing updated. If I install 7 on something, I get Firefox and DON'T add Flash. Life is good. For Slashdot I use Lynx since there's no pictures anyway, it's faster, loads ALL the comments on one page, and has a much smaller RAM footprint.

  10. Re:Why not just run Chrome on Android on Chromeboo by msobkow · · Score: 5, Funny

    So your friend's husband bought a web-connected device, knowing fully well that they live in a rural area with shitty web connections?

    What your you going to complain about next? Not being able to tow semi-trailers with your Yugo?

    --
    I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
  11. Re:Why not just run Chrome on Android on Chromeboo by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 2
    There are still plenty of XP boxes out there, and plenty more that are running XP in a VM.

    Most of these boxes have zero need to access the greater Internet, since they're for internal use (business, civil service) or running stand-alone games or whatever (home), so nobody in these scenarios cares about SHA2 certs. XP will still have users at the end of the decade, same as DOS and Win3x apps are still around.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  12. Here's where this gets funny by atari2600a · · Score: 2

    There are 2 Acer C710's in the house right now. My own spec-upped one w/ a custom seabios booting directly to ubuntu, & my little brother's friend has a stock one. I bolt in all OMG go to the app store go to the app store! You can download Google Play! He's all what's Google Play? "The app store!"

  13. Re:Is this the new emulator story for Android devs by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Been there, done that. Show me a $100 tablet that's actually running Ice Cream Sandwich or Kit Kat... as opposed to all of the ones running Gingerbread with a skin hack to look like ICS/KK and displaying a bullshit version number in Setup.

    Neighbor just bought 2 today running Jelly Bean, which is newer than ICS. Dell Venue 7, $105.00 each. 2 gigs ram, 16 gigs storage, 2 (rather crappy) cams, but nice displays and long battery life.

    I doubt Dell went to the trouble to print up packaging with fake specs and get them stocked in stores ... so these are the real McCoy. Same as the 32 gig Kingston USB 2.0 stick I bought on sale this week for $15 that I'm installing Fedora 20 on for another laptop. There's some crazy loss-leaders out there if you look.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  14. Preempting mobile OSes that are total non-threats? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    What exactly are they preempting here?

    Aside from BlackBerry OS, which only has something like 1% of the market these days, the other mobile OSes you listed are well, well under 1%. They're all irrelevant today, and have no hope in hell of ever becoming relevant.

    Fuck, Firefox OS goes out of its way to make itself undesirable. All of the reviews I've read suggest that the software is total shit, the hardware it has been available on so far is total shit, there are next to no apps for it, and that it offers an awful experience. It hurts itself more by merely existing than Google could ever hope to hurt it with Android or Chrome OS.

    And Firefox OS at least has Mozilla and the Mozilla fanbois to hype it whenever they can. Nobody really gives a damn about Tizen or Sailfish. You know a mobile OS is completely irrelevant when even Firefox OS looks superbly viable compared to it!

    Google doesn't have to do a damn thing and their software will still be massively more widely used than all of the competitors you listed put together, ten times over. Even if Google managed to drive away more than half of the existing Android users, they'd still have a 30% market share lead over Firefox OS and the other no-name mobile OSes! That's just how irrelevant Firefox OS and the others are.

  15. Re: Wow by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

    Yay?

    I say that with extra skepticism.

    Um, yes. Tell me what is your assessment of Chrome?. I've used it for about a year, and it is vastly superior to any windows OS I've seen yet. Yay.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  16. Re:Why not just run Chrome on Android on Chromeboo by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

    He probably wasn't fully aware how crippled Chromebooks truly are..

    Perjhaps he has about your levell of just how cripled Chromebooks are.

    Now you'rehow about some specifics of just how crippled Chromebooks are?

    I have one, and we'll compare notes..

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  17. Re:Wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    What does any of that matter? The only real practical thing anybody cares about is running their applications. Whether you are running Photoshop or Maya or ProTools on Windows or a Mac makes no difference when you are actually *doing* things with your computer.

    Its nifty that you can run Android apps in Chrome but I can already do that (through bluestacks and probably now through chrome os mode) and a *lot* more on my Mac or Windows computer. I dont see as a feature that will somehow supplant Mac or Windows.

  18. Very soon by jbeaupre · · Score: 1

    As in years ago.
    http://www.linuxinsider.com/st...

    --
    The world is made by those who show up for the job.
  19. Re: Wow by exomondo · · Score: 2

    Um, yes. Tell me what is your assessment of Chrome?. I've used it for about a year, and it is vastly superior to any windows OS I've seen yet.

    The OS is nice, I agree but outside of very basic tasks it doesn't really have the capability (mostly lack of 3rd party support) to do much else. Personally I don't need MS Office, I use Google Docs because even if there is some little formatting bug when importing a document it's no big deal so as far as that is concerned ChromeOS works but if you're gaming it's no good, same goes for professional photo, audio, video editing/production or architectural and product design, simulation, etc...

    I can absolutely see this replacing Windows for office workers (presuming they don't mind the few-and-far-between formatting bugs with GDocs importing DOCX) and those people just concerned with web browsing and email but leveraging dinky smartphone apps doesn't really make it any more useful, that stuff is perfectly at home already on a smartphone which most people have. Kinda like this whole Metro apps stuff in Windows 8, pretty pointless on a desktop even if there was a huge catalog of applications.

  20. Never failed before by Sun · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I mean, OS/2 running Windows apps was a huge push forward for IBM. Wine completely changed the Linux desktop picture, and BSD's Linux binary compatibility made it an effective super set of Linux, to the point nobody bothers to install the later (not to mention the similar capability of SCO Unix: they wouldn't be where they are today without it).

    I hear that ChromOS is a nice platform and is doing well. I'm glad, in a "diversity is good" non-committed sort of way. I don't think this particular feature will change much.

    Shachar

    1. Re:Never failed before by Sun · · Score: 1

      Actually, Wine does a surprisingly good job on a surprisingly large number of applications.

      But also, and I cannot stress this enough, whoosh. In your haste to spew unfounded ridicule, you completely missed the sarcasm.

      Shachar

    2. Re:Never failed before by Sun · · Score: 2

      Yeah, I heard that claim before. Aside from the Novel Wordperfect stink, that is just not so.

      What people fail to consider when saying this is that, even if it were still true (and I don't think it is), it is immaterial. Wine does not need to, and does not do so, implement every one of Windows' APIs. It just needs to implement those APIs that programs are actually using.

      MS cannot change interfaces to existing APIs. That will break application compatibility (without which, MS has no monopoly). They can add new functionality all they want. Until applications start using them (i.e. - after release), they are immaterial to Wine.

      Also, you simply assumed everything else I said was the same. Linux interfaces in BSD are not subject to the same rules, and yet they did very little to drive adoption of BSD based OSes.

      It all boils down to this. If you want to run Windows apps, you are going to do so on Windows. If you want to run Linux apps, you are going to do so on Linux. If you want to run Android apps, you are going to do so on Android. Every so often, you will want 90% from your native OS, and the support for those extra 10% would be great. It is not, however, something that drives large scale market shifts.

      Shachar

      P.S.
      Judge Jackson's finding of facts had everything to do with IE integration, some to do with Java embrace and extend, and nothing at all to do with private APIs.

  21. Re:Wow by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

    That makes my little Chromebox that much more awesome. Redmond be very afraid.

    Remond has no reason to be afraid until it gets movable, resizeable windows.

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  22. Re:Why not just run Chrome on Android on Chromeboo by hetz · · Score: 1

    Few things, AC:

    1. Chrome on Android is way, way slower compared to Chrome on Chrome OS. Go ahead, run any benchmark and see the numbers.
    2. Chromebooks are locked down to prevent end users damaging their system. nothing prevents you from pressing a combination of keys and switching to developer mode, and then you can format the machine, install Linux or anything else that you want (although not Windows since the firmware doesn't support it).
    3. The hardware sucks? I beg to differ. The whole point was to make cheap machines so you can grab it, log-in and start browsing, and you can do it without a problem on those machines. Sure, more memory would help (4GB instead of 2GB) and hardware vendors starts to "get it" (most of them used to offer only 2GB machines, now you got 4GB version and on devices like ASUS Chromebox, you can open it without voiding your warrenty and expand up to 16GB, and replace the SSD.
    4. Android has support for keyboard and mouse, but that support is an "afterthought". It really sucks, almost no keyboard short support, and the mouse support is horrible (go ahead, press the right mouse button while doing some work...) and I haven't mentioned yet issues like landscape/portrait mode (try to open Dolphin browser on a PC running Android, see what I mean)

    Android on ChromeOS runtime will let the ChromeOS have access to tons of Android apps, but only after the developers of those apps will add some UI that reflects the situation where you cannot switch display modes, there is no touch screen, etc.. It's not some "emulator" which you can stick an APK and run the app.

    --
    nah, no sig... move on..
  23. Re:Is this the new emulator story for Android devs by hetz · · Score: 1

    Here, Dell Venue 7 - $120 offer (you'll have to add shipping costs): http://hetz.me/sq-xk

    --
    nah, no sig... move on..
  24. XBMC by adam.jimenez · · Score: 1

    Hopefully we will eventually see an android port of XBMC or similar for ChromeOS. Not being able to conveniently stream local content is the biggest limitation to CrOS imo.

    1. Re:XBMC by should_be_linear · · Score: 1

      There is Android MX Player, right? As soon as Android apps are running OK, problem of multimedia on ChromeOS is solved.

      --
      839*929
  25. Re: Wow by Wootery · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I can absolutely see this replacing Windows for office workers (presuming they don't mind the few-and-far-between formatting bugs with GDocs importing DOCX)

    Err, what? There are several elephants in the room who'd like to be acknowledged.

    • - Not all organisations trust Google with their documents, which may contain proprietary information
    • - Using Google Docs introduces a dependency on Google (they're uptime track-record is pretty damn good though, granted)
    • - Using Google Docs introduces a dependency on an Internet connection

    These are the real problems with cloud-based office software. They would apply even if Google Docs were totally free of bugs, and capable of everything that MS Office is capable of.

    Of course all those points apply equally to Microsoft's surprisingly good web-based Office offerings, and to any other rival 'cloud-based office software' services.

  26. Re:Wow by BitZtream · · Score: 1

    ... Right because Redmond doesn't know anything about forcing a tablet style UI on desktop/laptop users and having it fail utterly.

    While theres nothing wrong with a Chromebook, pretending its going to take over the world is kind of silly.

    Native Client ... REALLY? Let me put a VM in your VM so you can run VMs ...

    This may sound like a great idea, but I suspect you'll find after using it a minor amount that its not all that great in reality.

    --
    Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
  27. What's the diff? by countach · · Score: 2

    So to ask a stupid question... since Android contains Chrome, and now Chrome contains Android, why are they different, and/or why do they need to be different?

  28. Re:Why not just run Chrome on Android on Chromeboo by hink · · Score: 2

    RE: "Locked down" http://lmgtfy.com/?q=install+l...
    RE: "no offline use" http://lmgtfy.com/?q=chromeboo...
    Things that were true when they first came out have changed. Wow, that NEVER happens with software and hardware. Try keeping up with things.

    --
    - speaking only for myself, as always
  29. Re:Wow by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

    What does any of that matter? The only real practical thing anybody cares about is running their applications.

    Tell that to the fanbois that love to quote their installed user base. Whether you are running Photoshop or Maya or ProTools on Windows or a Mac makes no difference when you are actually *doing* things with your computer.

    Sure. I look at computers as tools, I do video and photo work on my Mac. And it's built for that. Dual 27 inch screens, and a lot of horsepower.

    And my last gasp of Windows use was for travel and out and about use, with laptops.

    But the Chromebook is so remarkably superior to the Windows offerings that it is almost uncanny. It starts in 6 or 7 seconds. It is blistering fast for it's intended applications. What it doesn't do is bitch itself up with updates, and all the other fun little problems that Windows users seem to think all computers have.

    The "Doesn't work when not on the internetz" meme is also remarkably wrong. While it is designed to be net centric, I can and do work on mine offline all the time. Although I have heard that a Chromebook cannot access the web when not connected to the internet. Who though that was a good idea? Kidding...

    Email is seamlessly coordinated with my other computers and devices, (please, no "Google reads your email" stuff - who doesn't?) and it's just a whole lot better of an experience.

    And if I want to channel my inner geek, I can boot it into linux an about 6 seconds, because I installed dual boot capability.

    A Chromebook isn't designed to do Photoshop or Maya (I use Lightwave on my Mac myself) But what it is designed to do, it does very, very well.

    Looking forward to Some of the applications I use now on my Cyanogen rooted Touchpad on my Chromebook. And that's why I think Microsoft should be concerned. Once upon a time, they were the big dog as far as applications. Now everyone else is catching up big time. Soon the only thing the fanbois will have left is their denial.

    Its nifty that you can run Android apps in Chrome but I can already do that (through bluestacks and probably now through chrome os mode) and a *lot* more on my Mac or Windows computer. I dont see as a feature that will somehow supplant Mac or Windows.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  30. Re:Wow by ArcadeMan · · Score: 2

    I agree, Windows is an excellent gaming OS. But when I work, I want OS X on my desk and Linux on my server.

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    Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
  31. Re: Wow by ArcadeMan · · Score: 1

    Is that you?

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    Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
  32. Re:Wow by water-and-sewer · · Score: 1

    Not sure what you mean, but if you're talking about chromeos, that already happened. ChromeOS windows do everything Redmond windows do.

    --
    If this were Usenet, I'd killfile the lot of you.
  33. Re:Is this the new emulator story for Android devs by afidel · · Score: 1

    You can get a refurb 2013 Nexus 7 for less than $150, it will run 4.4.4 today and is guaranteed to get L. Asus MemoPad 7 is available for $124 new at Walmart.com and runs 4.4, though for a developer the Atom might not work (it depends on if you're using native code, though if you're going there you shoudl probably get a sample of the top x devices you plan to support)

    --
    There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
  34. Re:Wow by Rob+Y. · · Score: 1

    Granted. But good enough to pay for - if all you want to do is stuff you can do on a Chromebook? If you need or want to run Windows apps, Windows is the best solution for you. If you don't, and don't want to keep paying for Windows, Office and their endless upgrades, a Chromebook is a great alternative. Cheap hardware that still performs well - and free applications. If they do what large numbers of people need them to do, why do you feel the need to insist they're wrong? And If they don't do what you need, well there are options for you too - including desktop Linux, which "works pretty good these days" too...

    --
    Posted from my Android phone. Oh, I can change this? There, that's better...
  35. Re:Why not just run Chrome on Android on Chromeboo by Minwee · · Score: 2

    Perjhaps he has about your levell of just how cripled Chromebooks are.

    Now you'rehow about some specifics of just how crippled Chromebooks are?

    I have one, and we'll compare notes..

    I didn't know this before right now, but it looks that Chromebooks have bad keyboards.

  36. Re: Wow by stephanruby · · Score: 2

    • - Using Google Docs introduces a dependency on Google (they're uptime track-record is pretty damn good though, granted)
    • - Using Google Docs introduces a dependency on an Internet connection

    Google Docs/Google Drive does offer offline access.

  37. Re:Why not just run Chrome on Android on Chromeboo by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

    I didn't know this before right now, but it looks that Chromebooks have bad keyboards.

    You are correct, for at least he Acer 720 has had trouble with the left space button on the bottom. Mine did, and a search found others. Same key mostly. I think at issue is the plastic the keys are made of can break too easily. I took the computer back to order a new key, and they replaced the whole thing, so I'm pretty certain they knew, and I believe they fixed it, because the new one they gave me is all good so far.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  38. Re:Wow by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

    Every day, less of the utter shit that we have to put up with in using Windows.

    What utter shit? Despite the horrible Modern UI, Windows works pretty good these days.

    Well, the horrible UI is good enough reason all by itself. But messed up updates, dropping support for the one system that just about everyone loved, The Vista Basic debacle, where unsuspecting people bought computers rated for Vista that could hardly be called functional, the Vista driver problems, the disappearing codecs that without announcement stopped playing a lot of videos, the Ribbon POS (if it was that good, Office for Mac would use it, and Open Office would deploy it) The insane updates that caused some of my computers to go into endless reboot mode. They'd get right to the main screen, and about a half second later, it was reboot, forever. The Vista Driver issue, and one of my favorites was the Windows 8 consumer preview. Which as it turns out was no reversible on Vista machines. Too the entire program files folder renamed it, and installed a new programs file folder with only notepad in it. Wrecked everything. And of course, I found out it was my fault because I wasn't running W7 , and anyhow. It was also my fault because No ONE! would ever run a consumer preview not in a VM. Um, If I'd been told I had to run in a VM, I would have, plus Grandma is a consumer, so if you're calling it a consumer preview, it should be something consumers could use. Funny, every Linux distro I've used allows you to preview the sytem without making any changes at all to your system. Must be too hard for Microsoft. Regardless, if all you need to do is show th emain screen and a copy of Notepad, you hardley need to do all that stuff.

    So yeah, I've found that as much as all the above things are blamed on the user in Windows world, I just switched to OS's where I don't make those mistakes. A lot of Windows users just think that is the shit you have to put up with to use a computer. I think they just don't know any better. There are other options out there, and yes, for simplicity and usability, Chrome OS is a much better experience. And when I want to channel my inner geek, my Linux and OSX systems suit just fine. Remember, although the Windows rallying cry is that OSX is a closed system, you can have a lot of fun, and do amazing things in the terminal.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  39. Re:Wow by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

    I agree, Windows is an excellent gaming OS. But when I work, I want OS X on my desk and Linux on my server.

    I had to smile - that's what people used to say about the Amiga.

    But yeah - The most awesome thing about my Mac is I don't spend much time bbbszzzzzz! ANY time at all futzing with it to keep it working. On the linux side, I do mess a little more with it, but that's mostly a learning curve thing, plus checking out different distros and resurrecting perfectly good computers that Microsoft abandoned.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  40. Re:Wow by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

    ChromeOS windows do everything Redmond windows do.

    They do not look like windows, they look like browser tabs. Because they are. Until they look like _Windows_ windows and include all the same functionality, many potential adopters will be needlessly alienated.

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  41. Not true, NaCl supports arm as well by Technomancer · · Score: 2

    http://blog.chromium.org/2013/01/native-client-support-on-arm.html

    And PNaCl supports whatever you have, since it uses intermediate code that is compiled and optimized on the client system.

  42. Re: Wow by chikanamakalaka · · Score: 1

    They have looked like regular windows for years.

  43. Re:Wow by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1
    Only on Slashdot can a person note that they like Chromebooks in a Chrome OS thread, and some Microsoft Fanboi mods it as a troll. Good work fanboi, Troll? Over rarted maybe, but msrking me as a troll says a lot more about you than me.

    As in you can't handle the truth.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  44. Re: Wow by exomondo · · Score: 1

    - Not all organisations trust Google with their documents, which may contain proprietary information

    Yeah I'm not saying 100% of everything can go on there, many things would stay completely offline and perhaps you would need to run Libre/Open Office in a chroot for those things.

    - Using Google Docs introduces a dependency on Google (they're uptime track-record is pretty damn good though, granted)

    - Using Google Docs introduces a dependency on an Internet connection

    That changed years ago, you can use them offline.

    These are the real problems with cloud-based office software.

    Well given the offline access the only real issue is the privacy one, but it's not to say everything has to go on google docs. Would be nice if there were some self-hostable web-based version of Libre/Open Office, with Google and Microsoft paving the way on that front with their mainstream offerings I expect FOSS will catch up in a couple of years.

  45. Re: Wow by Wootery · · Score: 1

    Neat. Does it sync back with Google's 'cloud' when it's back online, though?

  46. Re:Wow by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

    The part where you installed over your vista partition is your own stupid fault.

    Absolutely. Every single problem I ever had with Windows was my fault. I supported Windows for years, and not once mind you not once ever was any of the problems that I mentioned with Windows ever anyone's fault but mine. A computer could be sitting in another building, an update bitches it up, and somehow, some way, it was my fault.

    I know the drill shillboi. Windows can never fail - only we can fail Windows.

    Which is why I switched to Unix like systems, where I'm nowhere near as stupid.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  47. Re: Wow by Wootery · · Score: 1

    As I replied above to another comment:

    Neat. Does it sync back with Google's 'cloud' when it's back online, though?

  48. Re: Wow by exomondo · · Score: 1

    As I replied above to another comment:

    Neat. Does it sync back with Google's 'cloud' when it's back online, though?

    In your sync settings you can choose what you want to sync and what you don't.