Google's ChromeOS Laptops for $20/month

[zridling]

[attach]

[Renegade]

...“student package”  that combines both hardware and online services, according to a senior Google executive.  The product is almost certainly a precursor to an enterprise offering.

Well, building up to it makes sense. We'll see though. I don't know anyone that uses Google Apps in the real world that doesn't prefer MS Office... Online makes sharing easier though. But I think I'd rather just see the ability to open a URL in Office and save it to the cloud. Oh, that's Sharepoint I believe... Or perhaps any one of a trillion issue trackers...

$20 is hard to beat though. Now, how much was that broadband connection?

[zridling]

iFixit.com breaks down the Samsung Series 5 3G Chromebook:
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Samsung-Series-5-3G-Chromebook-Teardown/5939/1

[Stoic Joker]

Is it just me or does the fact that a financial magazine (Forbs) is excitedly anouncing a technology item make anyone else a bit leary too?

*Shrug* But if it flies, it'll pretty much end the Linux is to complicated for the masses argument.

[mouser]

Sounds like a brilliant idea to me on the part of google.  And a good deal for consumers, at least in the beginning.

Of course i'm assuming the plan is for google to subsidize these and just lose money on them for years until they can destroy the market for normal OS/laptops and make it unprofitable for their competition to stay in business.

What comes after that is anyone's guess -- though we shouldn't be surprised to eventually see advertisements on our laptop cases, boot screens, etc.

Yipee! Welcome to the future!

[Stoic Joker]

Of course i'm assuming the plan is for google to subsidize these and just lose money on them for years until they can destroy the market for normal OS/laptops and make it unprofitable for their competition to stay in business.

Indeed. However quite unlike the normal OS/laptop which has a fixed price that you pay for ... Here you have a Pezz dispenser. It's completely useless, save for its access - that you pay, and pay, and pay... - to all your data which is now firmly entrenched in the cloud (e.g. held hostage).

[mahesh2k]

So they're not going to log my search history and demographic oriented searches ? or even some personal mails ? pattern of site visits or search ? I doubt it.

[zridling]

So they're not going to log my search history and demographic oriented searches ? or even some personal mails ? pattern of site visits or search ? I doubt it.

That's good for a laugh. Wonder what the default settings are! (All your keystrokes belong to us.) Still, given the economy, these would be great for too many lower income students I know in my town.

[zridling]

No hard cable connection, though? (I didn't see it.) What if I don't want to buy wi-fi?

[app103]

it's a portable WebTV for the modern age...that's all it really is. And the same kinds of people that bought WebTV back then will be the same kind of people that go for this.

[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.

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.

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.