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Google's ChromeOS Laptops for $20/month

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zridling:
@app103:
WebTV, oh boy, that brings back memories. Saw a movie the other day where a character was using an Apple Newton. Good ideas that didn't have the chips to back them up at the time.

rgdot:
Without 'business class' (whatever that means  ;) ) internet access I won't ever bother with '100% in the cloud'. Might sound very silly or crazy but I would rate reliable and solid internet access higher than security issues as far as cloud computing goes. The reason I say that is most or all of us have been using 'cloud' for many years anyway...email, banking accessible via the internet etc. To me a google netbook won't mean storing more stuff online it just means having a managed device.

zridling:
To me a google netbook won't mean storing more stuff online it just means having a managed device.-rgdot (June 11, 2011, 09:42 AM)
--- End quote ---

Good point. I have an exquisite porn collection (all legal), but almost no one is going to allow me to store it online without some self-righteous admin coming along and deleting it "accidentally." Besides, who would ever want to keep their porn collection online! And then there are other things, such as files I have with key personal/financial info in them that I could never trust being online. It would be one LulzSec hack attack away from wiping me out. (No, I don't have any money, but I am always one paycheck away from instant poverty.)

I could go on, but the advantage of the Chromebook would be to take it to the burger joint to read the news while eating. (My small town does not sell newspapers anymore except inside Walmart and one large gas station.)

Mark0:
One thing to note about Chromebooks is that they aren't necessarily tied to Google and/or even to the Internet.
The "Cloud" term itself just refer to "remote" computational resources (storage, CPU cycles, etc.) accessed via some kind of network.

A lot of companies nowadays relay on web applications that run on some local intranet servers. So they basically already use some full blown PCs & OSs to just run a browser, with the usual and unneeded hardware & software complexities that they come with.
A device that contain the bare minimum to fire up a browser seems to be just perfect for a scenario like that.

zridling:
A lot of companies nowadays relay on web applications that run on some local intranet servers. A device that contain the bare minimum to fire up a browser seems to be just perfect for a scenario like that.-Mark0 (June 18, 2011, 06:06 PM)
--- End quote ---

Exactly the case with my wife's massive company (over 150,000 employees). Why they're still using full PCs over some form of thin client I've no idea. It's not MS Office 2003 they're still using that's tying them down, that's for sure. (I've seen the idiotic way they compose their spreadsheets; as if they forgot to read the Excel book.) IT is a "get along" expense that no company really wants to spend money on until they absolutely have to.

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