I am, I'm very interested in both having one, and evaluating it for my parents' use.
Last time I checked ChromeOS still had no easy GUI way of configuring a VPN, which is a deal breaker, but they were working on it. If that's fixed, this could be a perfect replacement for my Dad's Eee PC 701 (yeah, the original one, still going strong).
Thing is though... why Atom? Isn't Zacate comprehensively better than Atom?
Also, waiting for the day where ChromeOS fully runs on ARM. I think running Chromebooks with a Cortex-A9 is going to be very interesting, especially considering the potential battery savings and lower costs.
Drivers, there is proper open source drivers for the GMA3150. However it's lacking in features instead. They are basically useless. A computing platform which doesn't do video acceleration, or has the power to run heavier flash stuff or anything. Chromium on ARM runs fine already however. But it's not the cpu that makes them cost 500 dollars.
$300 is too high for a netbook. $450 for one is insane. Affordable would be $99, which is probably what the hardware in these is worth. Being a chromebook the manufacturers can't even use the tired old "the windows license drives up the cost and by the way we also have to install 500 malware applications to subsidize it" excuse. Time and time again we have been promised devices at the $100 price point and all we ever get are excuses, excuses, greed and lies when they never reach market.
There is absolutely no reason why any person should buy one of these over a used enterprise class laptop such as a Lenovo T60 or Dell Latitude D630 which would blow it out of the water in every way possible except for size/weight. Just remember to get the intel graphics versions and not the nvidia bumpgate timebombs. If your back can't handle an extra 1-2 pounds, you need to see a chiropractor, hit the gym, or barring that, hold off on your morning coffee and donut for a week.
Battery life I will give you. TBH it slipped my mind entirely as it is a factor I never look at when computer shopping, I simply never use a computer away from an outlet for more than an hour at a time so it never comes up.
Noise I don't agree on. Both systems would have a processor fan. The fan would be working a lot less on a core duo or core 2 duo notebook running at 5% usage than the screaming micro fan on an atom as it struggles to render a webpage. The mechanical hard drive in the laptop would make some noise, yes. It can also be argued that you can drop an SSD into one of these older laptops to also make it near silent, and still be ahead both financially and in performance vs the chromebook. Many of the corporate level laptops also support hard drive acoustic management to make the hard drive silent at the cost of performance.
--[Battery life I will give you. TBH it slipped my mind entirely as it is a factor I never look at when computer shopping, I simply never use a computer away from an outlet for more than an hour at a time so it never comes up.]--
This is a common thread in the "Atom is rubbish" crowd! It's just different use cases. The ability to do programming or write a paper on a 8-hour transatlantic flight is an instant win for me. (And yes, Atom/Intel graphics are sucky, so I do gaming/video back at the desktop.)
These Chromebooks are (hopefully) better built and designed, so they're not just chasing lowest cost platforms. The idea is a reasonably fast and responsive laptop replacement that gets most of its content from the cloud. Given that tablets are considered sufficiently fast by a lot of users, Atom with the right OS should be sufficient as well -- though the GMA 3150 graphics is definitely not going to help things out. We're working to get a review sample (or two) in for testing, and I'll be sure to try out all the major sites (YouTube and Hulu being particularly important tests as far as performance goes in my book).
As for the $450 price, I'm not sure what you're thinking. The price is $300 for the Acer and $350 for the Samsung, and the higher priced models include 3G support for an extra $100. You can want a 3G enabled laptop for $100, sure, but unless you end up with a two-year, $100/month contract it's not going to happen. The iPod Touch is a $200 device that comes with substantially less hardware than a laptop. Yes, it's easier to fit things into a larger chassis, but you still have to add a keyboard, a larger battery, more RAM, etc. and I'd say realistically $200 is the lowest price we'll ever see for new laptops, with $300 being far more realistic.
The new pricing and other improvements should make Chromebooks even more attractive to businesses and schools. Ericom has an offering that can extend the benefits of Chromebooks by providing quick and easy access to Windows applications and virtual desktops. Ericom AccessNow is a pure HTML5 RDP client that enables Chromebook users to connect to any RDP host, including Terminal Server (RDS Session Host), physical desktops or VDI virtual desktops – and run their applications and desktops in a browser.
Ericom‘s AccessNow does not require Java, Flash, Silverlight, ActiveX, or any other underlying technology to be installed on end-user devices – an HTML5 browser is all that is required.
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14 Comments
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trochevs - Monday, November 21, 2011 - link
"In a similar vein, ... and an N270 CPU."Did you mean N570 processor? N270 is single core Atom.
JarredWalton - Monday, November 21, 2011 - link
Yup, sorry. I linked the N570 above and then put the wrong number in on the Samsung. :-)sprockkets - Monday, November 21, 2011 - link
"and it should be far more secure as the applications come through Google's app store."Well, if they don't vet apps on Android, why then Chrome? And if they do on Chrome, why not Android?
inighthawki - Monday, November 21, 2011 - link
I'm just curios, just for more of a statistical purpose,How many people here are interested in buying a chromebook?
B3an - Wednesday, November 23, 2011 - link
No one? Absolute fail. Makes Google TV look like a massive hit.aryonoco - Monday, November 21, 2011 - link
I am, I'm very interested in both having one, and evaluating it for my parents' use.Last time I checked ChromeOS still had no easy GUI way of configuring a VPN, which is a deal breaker, but they were working on it. If that's fixed, this could be a perfect replacement for my Dad's Eee PC 701 (yeah, the original one, still going strong).
Thing is though... why Atom? Isn't Zacate comprehensively better than Atom?
Also, waiting for the day where ChromeOS fully runs on ARM. I think running Chromebooks with a Cortex-A9 is going to be very interesting, especially considering the potential battery savings and lower costs.
Penti - Monday, November 21, 2011 - link
Drivers, there is proper open source drivers for the GMA3150. However it's lacking in features instead. They are basically useless. A computing platform which doesn't do video acceleration, or has the power to run heavier flash stuff or anything. Chromium on ARM runs fine already however. But it's not the cpu that makes them cost 500 dollars.Beenthere - Tuesday, November 22, 2011 - link
You sure get a lot more from Llano for the price than from Atom.Pessimism - Tuesday, November 22, 2011 - link
$300 is too high for a netbook. $450 for one is insane. Affordable would be $99, which is probably what the hardware in these is worth. Being a chromebook the manufacturers can't even use the tired old "the windows license drives up the cost and by the way we also have to install 500 malware applications to subsidize it" excuse. Time and time again we have been promised devices at the $100 price point and all we ever get are excuses, excuses, greed and lies when they never reach market.There is absolutely no reason why any person should buy one of these over a used enterprise class laptop such as a Lenovo T60 or Dell Latitude D630 which would blow it out of the water in every way possible except for size/weight. Just remember to get the intel graphics versions and not the nvidia bumpgate timebombs. If your back can't handle an extra 1-2 pounds, you need to see a chiropractor, hit the gym, or barring that, hold off on your morning coffee and donut for a week.
MrSpadge - Tuesday, November 22, 2011 - link
"which would blow it out of the water in every way possible except for size/weight, battery life and noise"Fixed.
Pessimism - Tuesday, November 22, 2011 - link
Battery life I will give you. TBH it slipped my mind entirely as it is a factor I never look at when computer shopping, I simply never use a computer away from an outlet for more than an hour at a time so it never comes up.Noise I don't agree on. Both systems would have a processor fan. The fan would be working a lot less on a core duo or core 2 duo notebook running at 5% usage than the screaming micro fan on an atom as it struggles to render a webpage. The mechanical hard drive in the laptop would make some noise, yes. It can also be argued that you can drop an SSD into one of these older laptops to also make it near silent, and still be ahead both financially and in performance vs the chromebook. Many of the corporate level laptops also support hard drive acoustic management to make the hard drive silent at the cost of performance.
stephenbrooks - Sunday, November 27, 2011 - link
--[Battery life I will give you. TBH it slipped my mind entirely as it is a factor I never look at when computer shopping, I simply never use a computer away from an outlet for more than an hour at a time so it never comes up.]--This is a common thread in the "Atom is rubbish" crowd! It's just different use cases. The ability to do programming or write a paper on a 8-hour transatlantic flight is an instant win for me. (And yes, Atom/Intel graphics are sucky, so I do gaming/video back at the desktop.)
JarredWalton - Tuesday, November 22, 2011 - link
These Chromebooks are (hopefully) better built and designed, so they're not just chasing lowest cost platforms. The idea is a reasonably fast and responsive laptop replacement that gets most of its content from the cloud. Given that tablets are considered sufficiently fast by a lot of users, Atom with the right OS should be sufficient as well -- though the GMA 3150 graphics is definitely not going to help things out. We're working to get a review sample (or two) in for testing, and I'll be sure to try out all the major sites (YouTube and Hulu being particularly important tests as far as performance goes in my book).As for the $450 price, I'm not sure what you're thinking. The price is $300 for the Acer and $350 for the Samsung, and the higher priced models include 3G support for an extra $100. You can want a 3G enabled laptop for $100, sure, but unless you end up with a two-year, $100/month contract it's not going to happen. The iPod Touch is a $200 device that comes with substantially less hardware than a laptop. Yes, it's easier to fit things into a larger chassis, but you still have to add a keyboard, a larger battery, more RAM, etc. and I'd say realistically $200 is the lowest price we'll ever see for new laptops, with $300 being far more realistic.
ECIT - Thursday, November 24, 2011 - link
The new pricing and other improvements should make Chromebooks even more attractive to businesses and schools. Ericom has an offering that can extend the benefits of Chromebooks by providing quick and easy access to Windows applications and virtual desktops. Ericom AccessNow is a pure HTML5 RDP client that enables Chromebook users to connect to any RDP host, including Terminal Server (RDS Session Host), physical desktops or VDI virtual desktops – and run their applications and desktops in a browser.Ericom‘s AccessNow does not require Java, Flash, Silverlight, ActiveX, or any other underlying technology to be installed on end-user devices – an HTML5 browser is all that is required.
For more info, and to download a demo, visit:
http://www.ericom.com/html5_RDP_Chromebook.asp?URL...