Anybody Gettin a Chromebook?

LOL

"If they switch over the lot to Chromebooks, they can let 3 staffers go because IT support will be very minimal. Maybe they can let all 4 go and get some kids to do the rest, but let's say 3 for now. Also, they have no moving parts... Not many getting broken, and those that do get replaced immediately without any fees. So let's knock off the extra 200 PCs for support..."

riiiiiiiiiiiiiight


you obviously live in an IT fantasy world where the average user is savvy. Average users are not savvy. This has it's place in totally wired locations and is 'neat'

As for revolutionizing computing when full featured laptops are $500 - which is DIRT FUCKING CHEAP?

Not a chance in hell.

For being able to provide people in 2nd world countries with a competitive device? Yup.

I'm sure businesses/government and decision makers will LOVE to make sure that their employees cannot possibly use a laptop on a plane (ever flown business class mid-week? See a trend re: working on a coast-coast flight?), or risking that during a presentation/pitch the wifi in a rented conf room goes out making the presentation worthless.

Yeah - great risk to save a couple hundred dollars per machine.

Never.Gonna.Happen.

Sorry to spoil your outpouring of love. There's a place- but you're nuts.
 
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I've not heard of these but sounds like they can compete in the low end netbook market. Particularly for people who mainly do email and internet surfing. Seems like a cost effective thing for schools also. As a tax payer I hope they take advantage.

Businesses - no way. Having worked for three fortune 50 companies over the years I know there is no way they would entrust their data, inovations, strategic planning, and business operations to this. Also, depending on the kind of data, privacy laws in many countries are very strict and might not even allow it.
 
The majority of applications that college students use are not applications which google can provide in the cloud. They are SPSS, Stata, SAS, Adobe, Mathmatica, Matlab, Latex, Visual Studio, etc etc. Those computer labs (and virtual labs) that Universities provide and staff are extremely effective at sharing these software applications (and licenses) amongst these students.

Universities are not moving to this shit. This will be a complete failure and the more resources Google puts into this, the better idea shorting their stock is.
 
justo_tx said:
Support staff will remain in place maybe not at current levels but a 75% reduction isn't realistic, the network still needs to be maintained and the the administration still needs to be supported (probably on PCs). Also you changed the salary for the one last IT guy and dropped the need for spare units (you say they will be replaced "immediately" but since it's the equivalent of a child not having a book spares will have be on hand).
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Since they have no disk drives, far fewer will break. Sure a baseball hitting a screen will break it but the $28 fee replaces this instantly, where it wasn't replaced before without expensive insurance.

I agree "immediately" is too much to shoot for at first, but eventually something like a CDW will be nearby and change these out pretty much instantly in time. -Until then they'd only need 10 extras lying around, instead of 200. Feel free to factor 10 more into my equation, all $280 of it per month.

As for the $10k smaller salary, I'm sure google/acer/samsung will pitch it to them that way... The tech won't even need to know what a hard drive is or how to install any software!

justo_tx said:
But more importantly you glossed over the fact that PC is purchased once. If a purchased Windows based PC can currently be bought for $500 (your number) but can be used for say 5 years (schools are cheap they'll get at least that out of them) the hardware cost alone of PC is $500 versus $28 X 12 X 5 = $1680 for the Chromebook.
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5 Years is a fuzzy number too. Let's try 3 years, brah: $1008 for the Chromebook, that doesn't need any software, upgrades, tech support, installations, and is replaced quickly for free if broken.

Is it for every school? No, but probably every school facing a state educational budget crisis like CA, MO and KS are currently.


Sonny Forelli said:
you obviously live in an IT fantasy world where the average user is savvy. Average users are not savvy. This has it's place in totally wired locations and is 'neat'
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Man you just don't get it... THIS REQUIRES NO TRAINING... Savvyness don't figure into it. Geez!

FYI: I spent 12 Years in fortune 500 Tech support. My last J-O-B was a hardware room manager, before that I led a staff of 4 to build computers to spec in a working office environment. I've done the helpdesk, user training, the field support, all of it. I even drove around the south fixing Printers for HP at one point. Trust me when I say I'm quite sure that companies and schools will JUMP at the chance to pay this much less for the majority of their work machines. The IT department reduction cost alone will make some red companies black.

Sonny Forelli said:
As for revolutionizing computing when full featured laptops are $500 - which is DIRT FUCKING CHEAP?

Not a chance in hell.
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All prices are relative, bro. When you buy in bulk, you only face decisions like this one:

A. The HPs will cost $520k w/2 years support
B. The Gateways will cost $490k w/1 year support
C. The Chromebooks will cost $28k annually with full support... Plus I get to lay off 60% of the department and get a huge promotion!


Sonny Forelli said:
I'm sure businesses/government and decision makers will LOVE to make sure that their employees cannot possibly use a laptop on a plane (ever flown business class mid-week? See a trend re: working on a coast-coast flight?), or risking that during a presentation/pitch the wifi in a rented conf room goes out making the presentation worthless.
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Obviously no one here thinks that these wi-fi dependant dumb terminals will replace the Executive Laptops or the specialty machines that run software which can't be ported through Chrome. -But lots can so they'll make a great terminal for the masses.

Poo-poo it all you want; but the savings are there dudes. I'm guessing schools will take to it pretty quick, bizzes slower, but eventually this low operating cost will be a competitive advantage that no large organizations can ignore.
 
what public high school and middle schools provide a computer for each student?

maybe it's just me in broke CA - but this is unheard of. Private schools where tuition (at least here) runs $8000-18,000/year/kid can spring for a real computer (and most distribute macs).
 
lukep said:
Because they are reinventing the TERMINAL form factor here, much like iPads reinvented the PDA form factor... This is not an entertainment device primarily, but it can do that too. It's a dumb terminal to run work apps on and that's how you're going to see it pushed.
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They are not reinventing any form factor, they are just putting a browser on a laptop and getting rid of everything else. This pos is only going to be able to run Google's web apps and browse the internet which my phone can pretty much do. So the only reason this thing exists is to supply a keyboard to a phone.

We have already seen that terminal is not the future, touch is. Why do most phones not have keypads anymore? Why has there been a LANDRUSH of touch pads coming to market. Apple started it, everyone loved it, everyone is copying it.

I do not believe that ipads are for entertainment only. Most users use them for this, but schools are using them now, doctors use them now. The only reason you think they are for entertainment is because that is what most public apps are.

There is nothing that limits a ipad/iphones abilities other than the market. Its not like objective C says its for entertainment only. Its closed minded to think that no private company has written their own apps for business. It is plenty possible to write full scale apps for iOS devices.
 
One last thing on the Google bashing, all of the recent Google successes have been acquisitions, and with the exception of Chrome, anything that have created in house has been a failure.

Unlike Android, this is all in house. The market for this device is exactly one where people don't want to / can't afford to buy $500 laptops with much greater functionality AND where there exists ubiquitous high speed internet access (fucking LOL). Its a brain dead concept.
 
I don't think I will ever buy one but I can see why big businesses and maybe parents would like these.

The IT support argument is a little silly the way some of you are talking about it - it seems obvious to me that G did try to reduce the need for support and make it as user friendly as possible. Obviously upgrading and training to roll out new computer systems for an entire organization is timely and expensive, but nobody will be doing that because there are loads of people who either won't be able to use these for their jobs at all or will not even be worth the $28/month investment. But if 25% of their people can use these most of the time, and that happens to reduce support needs by 10+% over time, then this move could be a big win for some companies.

Example: Service employees who need a mobile laptop

EDIT: Maybe not a 'big' win per se but still worthwhile for enough companies for G to get their big smelly foot in the door.
 
Sonny Forelli said:
what public high school and middle schools provide a computer for each student?

maybe it's just me in broke CA - but this is unheard of. Private schools where tuition (at least here) runs $8000-18,000/year/kid can spring for a real computer (and most distribute macs).
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Most private schools don't provide laptops for students either.
 
mikecarquote said:
^^
I was thinking more in terms of high schools and middle schools. Agreed usage at university is very limited.
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Same principle though, their biology lab software is not on the web, neither is autocad or visual studio. Many of these kids have already had personal labtops since they were 12, and those are just getting cheaper. Not all kids obviously but its growing.
 
lukep said:
5 Years is a fuzzy number too. Let's try 3 years, brah: $1008 for the Chromebook, that doesn't need any software, upgrades, tech support, installations, and is replaced quickly for free if broken.
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You're smoking crack if you think schools refresh hardware every 3 years.

lukep said:
Is it for every school? No, but probably every school facing a state educational budget crisis like CA, MO and KS are currently.
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Broke schools will try and get the most use out of their existing setups, instead of saying "it's been 4 years (I'll split the difference in our usage duration estimates) let's examine pricing of our options" there's a pretty good chance they'll just say "we already laid off 90 teachers, let's find a way to get two more years out of these things".

It'll probably come down to sales guys doing a dog and pony show and blowing smoke up some under appreciated school administrators ass, but that's just marketing. There isn't anything revolutionary about renting a browser and keyboard.
 
Sonny Forelli said:
what public high school and middle schools provide a computer for each student?
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Just because it is a small laptop does not mean it can't be bolted to a desk. -I was never imagining them letting kids take these things home.


BeerNuts said:
They are not reinventing any form factor, they are just putting a browser on a laptop and getting rid of everything else.
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Your vision is so limited it makes me sad to respond to you.

BeerNuts said:
This pos is only going to be able to run Google's web apps and browse the internet which my phone can pretty much do. So the only reason this thing exists is to supply a keyboard to a phone.
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So, so sad indeed. You can't imagine web apps being used through the browser? Man, back in my day, like over a decade ago, my company was already doing web apps through IE, securely... Proprietary stuff. Our HR system and even a financing engine were both done that way... I know SAP is done that way too, and all of this can be kept UBER Secure, being https with better than 128 encryption.

BeerNuts said:
We have already seen that terminal is not the future, touch is. Why do most phones not have keypads anymore? Why has there been a LANDRUSH of touch pads coming to market. Apple started it, everyone loved it, everyone is copying it.
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Touch is not appropriate for data entry, it's fun but it's not for bizzes.

There WILL always be a need for a desktop machine or at least a terminal.

BeerNuts said:
There is nothing that limits a ipad/iphones abilities other than the market. Its not like objective C says its for entertainment only. Its closed minded to think that no private company has written their own apps for business. It is plenty possible to write full scale apps for iOS devices.
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Wow, you can see this but you can't think that Google would encourage (it does already in fact) people to write apps for it's marketplace??!?

I'm dumber for having read your post.


conv3rsion said:
The market for this device is exactly one where people don't want to / can't afford to buy $500 laptops with much greater functionality AND where there exists ubiquitous high speed internet access (fucking LOL).
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You're just as bad as Beernuts. businesses always buy the cheapest shit that can get the job done; schools even more so when they are in crunch mode like now.

Getting the job done will require things be done differently with a chromebook; but it won't stop shit. (i.e. Use secure web-devved apps instead of proprietary apps from 2002.)

The market for this is far larger than you'd believe.


---> TO EVERYONE THINKING THERE IS JUST TOO MUCH NON-WEB SOFTWARE FOR THIS CONCEPT TO CATCH ON:

This concept is a TERMINAL to the WEB. -And on the web lives software that can do ANYTHING, even be SECURE. Banking, photoshop editing, PPC, anything you can imagine CAN NOW BE DONE online.

You're watching the evolution of computing at it's most perilous stage: Processor power moving from your local machine to a central web service. (Even if that central web server is down the hall & proprietary.)

It's only a matter of time (like 5 years? 10 max...) before the rest of all software runs on the web or is WORTHLESS. All it takes for each company is a programmer to make the Next version of their software a web software, and they'll be forced to do this to keep their marketshare.
 
lukep said:
You're watching the evolution of computing at it's most perilous stage: Processor power moving from your local machine to a central web service. (Even if that central web server is down the hall & proprietary.)

It's only a matter of time (like 5 years? 10 max...) before the rest of all software runs on the web or is WORTHLESS. All it takes for each company is a programmer to make the Next version of their software a web software, and they'll be forced to do this to keep their marketshare.
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I'd say you're probably right about this. Or if not worthless then cloud versions will become as ubiquitous as local versions. It's the way things have been going in a lot of ways. If you are right then Google's well placed because they've been playing this strategy for a long time. I know for a fact that countless MS and HS teachers use G docs for student collaboration, remote teacher editing, etc.

I think it'll take another generation or two of infrastructure overhauls in server/client hardware, and intertube upgrades for more bandwidth, before things are fast enough throughout the cloud to compete with everything locally. Eventually the technology will probably get so fast that it won't matter, the differences will be negligible.

It's also worth mentioning that a bunch of municipalities, school districts, and even town and city govs have basically switched over to G for data management, from gmail to docs to other api stuff. I don't know all the details but I don't think it's cool that the G is now openly in control of large swaths of public data.
 
lukep said:
Are you joking? Here are some basic numbers:

If they switch over the lot to Chromebooks, they can let 3 staffers go because IT support will be very minimal. Maybe they can let all 4 go and get some kids to do the rest, but let's say 3 for now. Also, they have no moving parts... Not many getting broken, and those that do get replaced immediately without any fees. So let's knock off the extra 200 PCs for support...

$28 x 1000 x 12 months = $33600. 1 Salary = $32,000 =

Total $65,600.

Every school in the nation is being pitched this number right now. So are Bizzes and government offices, etc... Think any of them might bite?
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Are YOU fucking joking?

Absolute moron.

$28 x 1000 x 12 = $336,000.

NOT $33,600.

What's worse is you slate others on this forum quoting 'i'm dumber for reading your post' and you can't even use a fucking calculator.

Fuck you and fuck your chromebook bullshit.
 
warling said:
$28 x 1000 x 12 = $336,000.

NOT $33,600.

What's worse is you slate others on this forum quoting 'i'm dumber for reading your post' and you can't even use a fucking calculator.
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Ahh shit. Good catch... You're right, I dun fucked up... Missed a zero obviously.

That places these priced compatibly with the smarter systems, but the advantage is still googles with a much smaller tech support department needed.

For some businesses their entire hardware cost could be $28 per month per user... And all users can be their own tech support department because these things take no support or training at all.
 
lukep said:
Your vision is so limited it makes me sad to respond to you.
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LOL you defend this piece of crap like to invented it. How is my vision limited compared to yours? You really think keyboards and shit powered laptops are the future of computing? Keyboards are probably not going to exist in 10yrs. Everyday some new tech comes along to help get rid of the things forever. Kids today can text with their phones faster than they can type. Younger kids are learning touch controls before ever seeing a keyboard. Every new device coming out is using touch, every gaming console now has movement. Sorry but the future is not in terminal web based laptops.

This thing may carve out a little niche as a cheap type writer, or throw away computer for 3rd world countries but that's it. If you want data entry you buy a BT keyboard for your touch device.

The only reason they even released this pos is because they have a hardon for user data and this laptop would give them all of it.
 
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