"Why Chromebook Pundits Are Out of Touch"

[afv011]

The HP Chromebook 11 is now available in Canada via the Goolge Play Store, $299. That's reasonably close to the US price of $279, especially considering the loonie has taken a dive as of late.

[frahse]

Originally Posted by afv011

The HP Chromebook 11 is now available in Canada via the Goolge Play Store, $299. That's reasonably close to the US price of $279, especially considering the loonie has taken a dive as of late.

That HP11 is also "fanless." No noise!

I had decided that "push come to shove" on purchasing a Chromebook, the HP11 seemed the best, with a great screen, and no fan. The Acer 720P might be next. Still I want more.

So I was happy to see this article today:

January 15th, 2014, 12:24 GMT · By Alexandra Arici
HP New Chromebook with Verizon LTE Incoming [Reuters]


"Next gen HP Chromebooks to have Verizon LTE
This year will certainly prove to be a full year for Chromebooks. Toshiba has just announced its very first offering at CES 2014 and Dell has joined the party not so long ago.

Also expected to make an appearance this year is ASUS, which has been reportedly prepping two Chromebook models as well. And talking to the press at CES, a Lenovo official revealed they too, are planning to spawn the market with “multiple Chromebook offerings” in 2014.

HP has already some models on the market, but that doesn't mean the company isn't looking to refresh its line. New information reported by Reuters allows us to take a sneak peek into HP’s plans concerning Chromebooks.

Apparently, Hewlett Packard has teamed up with Israel’s Altair, a manufacturer of fourth-generation chips for (4G) mobile technology known as LTE, in order to bring Verizon LTE compatibility to its revamped line of Chromebooks.

According to the new report, the laptops in question will be based on the Wi-Fi version of the HP Chromebook 11 that made an appearance on the market back in October. Thus HP will have the only LTE capable Chromebook offering on the market....

See:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/HP-Pl...s-417192.shtml

[Kumabjorn]

Lucky Americans!

[forsooth]

Originally Posted by frahse

I am working to gather the info for the "coming" Chromebooks.

The smattering of new Samsung info available is very exciting.
Twice the display resolution and an Octa-core CPU.

Is Haswell expected?

[Graham]

Originally Posted by forsooth

Is Haswell expected?

No, it's going to use Samsung's own new chip. Not quite the battery life of the Haswell ones, though better than the current ARM Chromebooks, but presumably has the advantage of still being fanless.

Graham

[Rizla]

Installing linux on one these devices is attractive to make a limited but cost-effective laptop. Saying that, other than being fanless, what would be the advantage of it over a barebones laptop?

[Graham]

Originally Posted by Rizla

Installing linux on one these devices is attractive to make a limited but cost-effective laptop. Saying that, other than being fanless, what would be the advantage of it over a barebones laptop?

Do you mean what's the advantage over a barebones laptop with ChromiumOS installed, or over a barebones laptop running a more traditional Linux variant?

The advantage over a cheap machine running Linux (or Windows, or OSX) is what's not there, rather than what is. We've covered that before in this thread, but basically it's the absence of hassle.

I've had my Samsung Chromebook for a year now. In that whole time I've never had to wait for operating system or security updates, I've never had driver issues, I've never had to wait for applications to update with patches, I've never had to upgrade applications, I've never had to reinstall anything. For a whole year I've just had to lift the lid and carry on working.

Graham

[afv011]

Originally Posted by Rizla

Installing linux on one these devices is attractive to make a limited but cost-effective laptop. Saying that, other than being fanless, what would be the advantage of it over a barebones laptop?

Cheaper, instant boot, no bloatware (antivirus and other crap you have in windows machines), no "I'm going to update now and take your PC ransom for the next hour", no "yes, I'm shutting down any minute now, just finishing some other stuff here" and so on. It's a no-frills machine that does less than a PC, but still covers most needs and does them better than a PC.

[frahse]

Originally Posted by Graham

Do you mean what's the advantage over a barebones laptop with ChromiumOS installed, or over a barebones laptop running a more traditional Linux variant?

The advantage over a cheap machine running Linux (or Windows, or OSX) is what's not there, rather than what is. We've covered that before in this thread, but basically it's the absence of hassle.

I've had my Samsung Chromebook for a year now. In that whole time I've never had to wait for operating system or security updates, I've never had driver issues, I've never had to wait for applications to update with patches, I've never had to upgrade applications, I've never had to reinstall anything. For a whole year I've just had to lift the lid and carry on working.

Graham

Dead on target!

Most people haven't really wrapped their head around what a profound development Chromebooks are. A radical change of paradigm.

That is not to say that they can't be improved on of course. When we reach the point where there is no need for improvement, we will all be in Heaven.

The thing about the Chromebooks is that when you lift that lid, "they are already improved."

My wife has one. I am waiting for my own. (Of course I want the "Land Rover" version.)

[frahse]

Originally Posted by afv011

Cheaper, instant boot, no bloatware (antivirus and other crap you have in windows machines), no "I'm going to update now and take your PC ransom for the next hour", no "yes, I'm shutting down any minute now, just finishing some other stuff here" and so on. It's a no-frills machine that does less than a PC, but still covers most needs and does them better than a PC.

Or my least favorite.
Leave your machine on (my desktop is on 24 hours a day) doing something important, and the next morning, you see the *&*$*@*!* thing has rebooted after some obligatory update.

[Graham]

Originally Posted by frahse

Or my least favorite.
Leave your machine on (my desktop is on 24 hours a day) doing something important, and the next morning, you see the *&*$*@*!* thing has rebooted after some obligatory update.

I'm experiencing one right now. I turned on my Windows machine 20 minutes ago to check a DVD that's not playing in the living room player for some reason. It started then decided it had to do a critical update, then rebooted, and it still hasn't quite got back to the point where I can simply put in this disk and check it. <sigh>

Hmm. My wife's got an old USB DVD drive somewhere; I must try to find that to see if it works with the Chromebook.

Graham

[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by Rizla

Installing linux on one these devices is attractive to make a limited but cost-effective laptop. Saying that, other than being fanless, what would be the advantage of it over a barebones laptop?

Are you asking the question that Graham answered or are you inquiring whether a person who wishes to install Linux on an inexpensive "bare-bones" laptop would be better served by a Chromebook in terms of cost and features? It sounds to me as though you're considering your purchase options as a Linux user, not questioning the inherent viability of the Chrome OS.

If you're asking the second question, wouldn't everything depend on the specs of the particular Chromebook you were considering in comparison to other "bare-bones" laptops in the same price range?

Personally, I'm floored that we're talking about Haswell processors in budget machines. So far, my cursory searches suggest that Chromebooks are the best value in entry-level hardware. (Then again, I haven't been trawling for bargains seriously.)

[afv011]

Originally Posted by frahse

Or my least favorite.
Leave your machine on (my desktop is on 24 hours a day) doing something important, and the next morning, you see the *&*$*@*!* thing has rebooted after some obligatory update.

Case in point, I decided to update the windows laptop from 8 to 8.1 (work machine). It's a nearly 4GB download, it's been about 1.5 hours and it is still applying the update, it's in the boot screen with a very slowly moving percentage indicator... And of course, the machine is useless in the meantime.

[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by Rizla

Installing linux on one these devices is attractive to make a limited but cost-effective laptop. Saying that, other than being fanless, what would be the advantage of it over a barebones laptop?

Are you asking the question that Graham answered or are you inquiring whether a person who wishes to install Linux on an inexpensive "bare-bones" laptop would be better served by a Chromebook in terms of cost and features? It sounds to me as though you're considering your purchase options as a Linux user, not questioning the inherent viability of the Chrome OS.

If you're asking the second question, wouldn't everything depend on the specs of the particular Chromebook you were considering in comparison to other "bare-bones" laptops in the same price range?

Personally, I'm floored that we're talking about Haswell processors in budget machines. So far, my cursory searches suggest that Chromebooks are the best value in entry-level hardware. (Then again, I haven't been trawling for bargains seriously. I do recall seeing a 17" i7 46GB/500GB Haswell laptop for $499 from Dell last December.)

[shalym]

Originally Posted by afv011

Case in point, I decided to update the windows laptop from 8 to 8.1 (work machine). It's a nearly 4GB download, it's been about 1.5 hours and it is still applying the update, it's in the boot screen with a very slowly moving percentage indicator... And of course, the machine is useless in the meantime.

I'm sorry that it's taking such a long time for you--I did my laptop and desktop both, and neither took longer than an hour. Maybe your internet connection is slower than mine?

Shari