Chrome OS coming this summer, named Chromebook

[basf11214]

My school's IT only supports Windows and OSX. If I can't take my law exams and can't access the library's network, then this thing has no educational uses for me.

 

[KingdomBlade]

When your upload speed goes at 25kB/s and downloading is 150kB/s, I don't think that storing everything on the internet is a good thing. Doubt this will be good anywhere without decent speed internet.

My netbook can run Portal and an insanely large number of free (and some not free *Braid and Audiosurf*) indies. It has around a hundred movies, Sony Vegas, Photoshop, around a thousand e-books, a decent amount of music and a ton of documents, and with all that it still has around 75 GB left. No thank you Google. As for the whole "5 seconds" thing, I hibernate my netbook, don't like shutting it down. It loads just about that fast from Hibernation.

I find it quite difficult to see this being used that productively when you have so many limitations with it.

 

[FireGrey]

Only way i see this being a win is if it has most of these features:
-under $100
-10-20 hours battery life
-Play any flash game
-Developers making chrome apps of programs (eg. Game Maker, Photoshop, etc.)
-Low specs not noticeable even when 50 tabs are opened

 

[Wintrale]

It's not actually that bad an idea - a lightweight device to be used predominantly for general internet use. Surf the web, check your mail, watch some Youtube videos, update your Facebook or Twitter... You aren't meant to do much more'n that, at least that's the impression I get. Sure, the Chrome Store adds a bunch of other stuff but nothing exceptional. Seems mostly Flash Games people are stupid enough to actually pay for.

 

[nintendoom]

It's not actually that bad an idea - a lightweight device to be used predominantly for general internet use. Surf the web, check your mail, watch some Youtube videos, update your Facebook or Twitter... You aren't meant to do much more'n that, at least that's the impression I get. Sure, the Chrome Store adds a bunch of other stuff but nothing exceptional. Seems mostly Flash Games people are stupid enough to actually pay for.

It is a bad idea...

What would happen if their servers get hacked?
or when their servers are down?

 

[FireGrey]

It's not actually that bad an idea - a lightweight device to be used predominantly for general internet use. Surf the web, check your mail, watch some Youtube videos, update your Facebook or Twitter... You aren't meant to do much more'n that, at least that's the impression I get. Sure, the Chrome Store adds a bunch of other stuff but nothing exceptional. Seems mostly Flash Games people are stupid enough to actually pay for.

It is a bad idea...

What would happen if their servers get hacked?
or when their servers are down?

Sure cause google isn't that secure /sarcasm

 

[purechaos996]

Google practically owns the internet already so I doubt they are going to get hacked anytime soon.

 

[SifJar]

It's not actually that bad an idea - a lightweight device to be used predominantly for general internet use. Surf the web, check your mail, watch some Youtube videos, update your Facebook or Twitter... You aren't meant to do much more'n that, at least that's the impression I get. Sure, the Chrome Store adds a bunch of other stuff but nothing exceptional. Seems mostly Flash Games people are stupid enough to actually pay for.

It is a bad idea...

What would happen if their servers get hacked?
or when their servers are down?

I cannot remember a time when Google has gone down completely. Occasionally GMail has off days, but that's about it I believe. And anyway, there are plenty of other sites out there to use if Google is down, provided you can get past the login screen without connecting to Google's servers (not sure if its possible or not).

 

[Sora de Eclaune]

They had a site where you could sign up to be a beta tester, at one point. I signed up, but never got anything of the sort.

But you know, would this allow for Minecraft play? Technically, it IS a flash game.

 

[prowler]

They had a site where you could sign up to be a beta tester, at one point. I signed up, but never got anything of the sort.

But you know, would this allow for Minecraft play? Technically, it IS a flash game.

Technically, Minecraft is a Java game.

 

[Wizerzak]

They had a site where you could sign up to be a beta tester, at one point. I signed up, but never got anything of the sort.

But you know, would this allow for Minecraft play? Technically, it IS a flash game.

no cause apparently you can't install stuff.... *grumble*

 

[ProtoKun7]

I'd never even heard of Google Gears.

Funny vid though; I like the sense of humour.

 

[The Catboy]

I cannot remember a time when Google has gone down completely. Occasionally GMail has off days, but that's about it I believe. And anyway, there are plenty of other sites out there to use if Google is down, provided you can get past the login screen without connecting to Google's servers (not sure if its possible or not).

There was one day I remember when Google crashed and that was when the Dream World started in Japan and pretty much the whole internet suffered

 

[Slyakin]

They had a site where you could sign up to be a beta tester, at one point. I signed up, but never got anything of the sort.

But you know, would this allow for Minecraft play? Technically, it IS a flash game.

Technically, Minecraft is a Java game.

Isn't there some type of Java emulator out there? I know it sounds kind of stupid, but I think I remember some type of in-browser Java emulator for... some reason.

And since Minecraft can be played in browser...

 

[SifJar]

Java can run in a browser, its not an emulator. You can just embed Java applets in web pages, and with a little bit of work you can run them in Chrome OS (or Chromium OS) - there's a guide on Hexxeh's Chromium OS wiki.

 

[Foxi4]

Isn't there some type of Java emulator out there? I know it sounds kind of stupid, but I think I remember some type of in-browser Java emulator for... some reason.

And since Minecraft can be played in browser...

The Minecraft levels are *huge* and require Temp storage to even run, let alone expand. No access to storage cuts your dreams short.

I've seen an article about a Chromebook running Ubuntu though, apparently those babies have 6Gb flash drives, they're just not accessible via ChromeOS.

Dual-boot time, ladies and gentlemen.

 

[Wintrale]

It is a bad idea...

What would happen if their servers get hacked?
or when their servers are down?

This is Google we're talking about. Their security is basically Skynet and they converted most of China into storage for their servers. Even if someone was stupid enough to try to hack the biggest search engine in the world, the chances of them actually succeeding are remarkably slim.

 

[Foxi4]

It is a bad idea...

What would happen if their servers get hacked?
or when their servers are down?

This is Google we're talking about. Their security is basically Skynet and they converted most of China into storage for their servers. Even if someone was stupid enough to try to hack the biggest search engine in the world, the chances of them actually succeeding are remarkably slim.

ORLY?

 

[cwstjdenobs]

This thread got me interested so I decided to start reading up at chromium.org. I really liked this.

Subcases:

Chromium OS developer: They will use the device in a manner similar to Google Chrome OS, perhaps with some added capability (shell access, etc). This is a common and valuable developer use case; these developers contribute back to the Chromium OS project.
Interactive developer: The developer uses the device like a normal laptop.
Remote developer: The developer uses the device as a media server, set-top box, or some other use case where they do not have direct access to the keyboard and primary display.


We must allow these use cases. If we don't, it is likely developers will hack holes in verified boot to enable them.

EDIT: And to the neigh sayers, I'd read up a bit. I was a bit sceptical but I'm really liking some of the ideas here http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromi.../developer-mode.

 

[stinkoman]

For $500 bucks I can get a decent notebook and install actual linux on it. Thanks, but no thanks until I can get something for what I'm paying.