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Google Ponders About a Chromebook Pro (venturebeat.com)
Google is currently surveying people about what a Chromebook Pro should be like. VentureBeat's report cites two people who recently shared the development on a forum. One user was asked the question, "How would you think a Chromebook Pro is different than a Chromebook?" whereas the other user was asked, "what a Chromebook Pro should be like in [his/her] opinion and what type of people would want to use it." From the report:The word "Pro" would imply a high-end laptop running Chrome OS, just like, say, the MacBook Pro or the Surface Pro 4. But there are many other companies -- Asus, Dell, HP, and Samsung, among others -- that make Chromebooks, along with Google. It isn't clear from these survey questions if Google is thinking about making a Chromebook Pro itself, just as it has made high-end Chromebook Pixel laptops, or if Google is just wondering how consumers would perceive a Chromebook Pro made by a third party. Meanwhile, Google last month published a job posting entitled "Quality Engineer, Chromebook Pixel," suggesting that a third generation of that device could be on the way.Chromebooks are becoming increasingly popular. They outsold Mac for the first time in the United States earlier this year. The majority of the Chromebooks available today, however, pack in entry-level specifications, giving users very limited choice. Though we have seen devices like Chromebook Pixel, a range of high-end Chromebooks could entice even more customers.
No hidden management engine. As little binary blobs as possible. Runs well with free video drivers.
C'mon, Google. You're big. You can pull it off.
Show us you are *not* the NSA.
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
1. Longer service life - I want both the hardware and software to be supported for more then 4-5 years.
2. No advertising - If this is a pro model then its probably aimed more at a work computer. So do not spam be or hit me up for upgrades or anything else during business hours for sure.
3. Ability to turn off all telemetry
If they did just those three things I would probably buy one. Until then I just torture my kids with them.
Do the people who use a Chromebook create anything or are they simply consuming web content? If they are consumers, there is literally no reason to create a Pro version of the device.
If they actually create lasting useful content that has meaning, then perhaps there is a reason to have a Pro version of the device. I'm doubtful.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
Give me a trackpoint and I will buy it. Touchpads suck, period. I don't care who makes them I have never seen a touchpad that was anywhere near as good as the trackpoints I have had on my laptops over the years.
As long as it doesn't have a trackpoint. Trackpoints suck, period. I don't care who makes them I have never seen a trackpoint that was anywhere near as good as the touchpads I have had on my laptops over the years.
In other words, YMMV.
English, mother******, do you speak it?
what?
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
How about running a full Ubuntu system, while still supporting all Chrome and Android apps?
I'm a SRE at a large (non-Google) tech company, and I have a Chromebook Pixel as a secondary system I use all the time, at work and at home. It's incredibly useful and I'm quite happy with it (with ChromeOS in developer mode, which just gives me a shell that's occasionally useful). The idea of high-end Chromebooks makes a lot of sense (for some people) even though I couldn't've guessed it would before I had one. Still, right now to me "Pro" is just a word. It's unclear to me how it'd be different from what I already have.
For every problem, there is at least one solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I find trackpoints utterly unusable. Using them to guide the pointer is like trying to guide a drunk across a busy road using sign language from 2 miles away. A trackpad is much better, but the small trackballs that used to be incorporated into laptops back in the day are far superior to both.
I find it puzzling that not a single vendor goes to market a laptop with a fully free as in freedom software stack, including the initializing program or BIOS.
Programmable components apart from the CPU, say hard drive controllers or 4G modems, should be isolated with an IOMMU.
The last laptops that don't tread on your freedom are from 2008: https://libreboot.org/docs/hcl...
Is this problem too hard for corporations with billions of R&D money at their disposal?
Are they forbidden to develop hardware that doesn't subjugate the user's freedom by 3 letter agencies?
Or, is it simply that most people do not care?
It's an interesting idea... I mean, I certainly looked at Chromebooks before but took a pass on buying one due to the low hardware specs. I've worked in I.T. for decades - and it's a fairly regular thing to run across a 5-6 year old notebook computer that someone is happy to get rid of free. Spend $20 on a new battery for it from some vendor on Amazon and maybe upgrade the RAM or swap in a new SSD, and you have a laptop that performs at least as well as any Chromebook for very little money. (And you recycled something existing, instead of buying more gear. Arguably a good thing.)
But I have a feeling the appeal of the Chromebook as it stands today is the low price-point. You get something that looks modern, is relatively thin and lightweight, and for less money than the Windows laptops they're selling everywhere. They're good enough for schools (their biggest customers) too.
If you beefed it up to deserve the "Pro" moniker - how would that affect the price? IMO, the vendors selling the "nicer" Chromebooks with more RAM and so forth are already nearing the price points where you wonder why you'd still buy one instead of a full-featured notebook on sale, running Windows 10.