Chrome OS has been a total failure in my opinion.....
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Chrome OS has been a total failure in my opinion.....
I'd disagree entirely... Having implemented a batch of Chromebooks at my last school, seeing the sharing abilities when its all tied into Google Apps? It works brilliantly...Quote:
Originally Posted by zag
Is Chrome OS only available on the Chrome hardware unless you compile it yourself?
I tried a developers version but had mixed success depending on the hardware used.
Indeed, it is an OEM OS only. If you compile yourself, you have Chromium OS instead of Chrome OS, and you take the responsibility of getting it working on rather than Google.Quote:
Originally Posted by Davit2005
By developers version, do you mean Hexxeh's Chromium OS builds? Lime supports more hardware than Vanilla does.Quote:
Originally Posted by Davit2005
Chromium OS also has several limitations compared to Chrome OS...
Quote:
- The two projects fundamentally share the same code base, but Google Chrome OS has some additional firmware features, including verified boot and easy recovery, which require corresponding hardware changes and thus also don't work in Chromium OS builds.
- Google Chrome OS runs on specially optimized hardware in order to get enhanced performance and security.
- Chromium OS does not auto-update (so that changes you may have made to the code are not blown away), whereas Google Chrome OS seamlessly auto-updates so that users have the latest and greatest features and fixes.
- Google Chrome OS is supported by Google and its partners; Chromium OS is supported by the open source community.
- Google Chrome OS includes some binary packages which are not allowed to be included in the Chromium OS project. A non-exhaustive list:
- Adobe Flash
- Adobe PDF
- Netflix Instant
- Google Talk
- 3G Cellular support (but work is on going to address this)
- Older versions of Chrome OS might contain proprietary Synaptic Touchpad Drivers
- All recent releases (R20+) should be using the open source CMT driver
- NB: open source drivers have long existed and are automatically used in Chromium OS
Samsung has just released a new ARM-based Chromebook (the Series 3 XE303C12). It costs £190.83 (ex. VAT) from PC World.
Source: Google (Via Ars Technica)
Quote:
Google today announced a new Chromebook from Samsung with refreshed specs and a $249 price point, pitching the computer as an additional laptop for people who do their primary computing on a Windows or Mac computer. Think of it as a computer for your kitchen counter. The new device is the first Chromebook to use an ARM chip rather than an Intel one, which may well prove to be a better fit for what has historically been a niche device.
Google’s Chromebook has its fans, and it has seen adoption in school settings, but it hasn't achieved any sort of mass success. But Google has steadily improved both the software and hardware, earlier this year introducing the Aura interface that made viewing multiple windows at the same time possible. A few months later, the company announced software tweaks to the OS and the Chromebox, a desktop running Chrome OS. This time, though, it hopes to move away from the school-and-business market to users who want a simple extension of their home network.
The Samsung-made device is designed to be cheaper, faster, and easier to use than other comparable laptops. The company says the laptop will be much more widely available in brick and mortar stores starting next week (and you’ll start seeing jazzy new commercials from its new ad campaign tonight). The new laptop—which SVP of Chrome and Apps Sundar Pichai says will be simply called “the new Samsung Chromebook”—will be available in the US and UK only.
The specs
The $249 device is the first consumer-oriented laptop to ship with the A15 ARM chip from Samsung, the Exynos 5250 or "5 dual" chip. (This was designed to show great performance in smartphones and tablets.) Google went to lengths to differentiate its offering from Windows RT devices. Pinchai speculated that most Windows RT devices will be more expensive than the new Chromebook, while not operating on the newer A15. “Certainly some [Windows Devices] will be on A9," he noted.
The “New Samsung Chromebook” is Wi-Fi-only, weighs 2.5 pounds, and is 0.8 inches thick. The laptop also supports 1080p video at 30 fps for an 11.6” display. Google claims it has 6.5 hours of battery life. While previous Chromebooks have come with built-in 3G connectivity and a limited amount of free access from Verizon Wireless, the low price of the laptop makes the decision to include only Wi-Fi a lot more tolerable.
The computer comes with 16GB of flash storage, 2GB of RAM, and a free 100GB allotment of cloud storage on Google Drive for two years with the purchase of the new Chromebook. Google’s Pichai said, “We really want people to rely on keeping their information in Google drive so they have access to their information everywhere,” and naturally, extend Google’s reach to improve search.
The Chromebook will have a full-size keyboard and trackpad. It also lacks a fan—so it will be nice and quiet. The device comes with one USB 3.0 port, one USB 2.0 port, and an HDMI port. (Source)
http://i.imgur.com/I7mql.jpg http://i.imgur.com/gKw4B.jpgQuote:
- 11.6’" (1366x768) display
- 0.8 inches thin - 1.1 kg
- Over 6.5 hours of battery
- Samsung Exynos 5 Dual Processor
- 2GB RAM (Non-upgradable)
- 100 GB Google Drive Cloud Storage with Solid State Drive
- Built-in dual band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n
- VGA Camera
- 1 x USB 3.0, 1 x USB 2.0
- HDMI Port
- Bluetooth 3.0™ Compatible
http://i.imgur.com/IOu5d.jpg http://i.imgur.com/QIdUP.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/kMuvV.jpg http://i.imgur.com/vqe3N.jpg
Now we're talking the sort of price range they should have been all along...
@localzuk, since you've had some experience with these in schools, a question for you: do you still have to get Chromebooks on a lease if you want management via the Google Apps dashboard, or can you get that with an upfront purchase now?
Great idea, but still needs a long time to mature.
Glad to see the software is improving though.
From what we were told, they no longer did the lease option. It was upfront or nothing, and the purchase includes 2 years of management.Quote:
Originally Posted by AngryTechnician
You want to speak to a reseller though, we used C-Learning for it. They also can arrange a test set of them to try out for a week or so.
Google had a full double-page spread ad in Metro (newspaper) this morning advertising the new Chromebook as the £229 (which, I assume, includes VAT) laptop "for everybody".Quote:
Originally Posted by Arthur
What about the new Office 365 with office 2013 and sharepoint, that allows similar things and the current version is free to Education?Quote:
Originally Posted by localzuk
Office 2013 and sharepoint are not free, and don't work on chromebooks, android or IOS.Quote:
Originally Posted by pmdc199
Google apps does work on chromebooks, android, ios and windows - it is entirely free and has way more features than the free version of Office 365.
There isn't much competition comparing the two because google apps wins hands down.
Office 2013 is not free, SharePoint Online (as part of the A2 offering of Office 365) is has no direct cost but is not a full SharePoint implementation (but still pretty good).Quote:
Originally Posted by CyberNerd
Google Apps for Education also has no direct cost.
The costs for both of the above is time, training, blah, blah, blah ...
In the words of Miles Berry ... think of free as in free kittens. They might be given for free but they still have to be fed, watered, taken to the vet, etc.
Google Apps and Office365 both have their quirks on a range of browsers and platforms and are designed to work best with their accompanying OSes.
Neither wins ... but neither loses.
I might be inclined to agree with you if there was an area where Office 365 was actually ahead, but it isn't. It feels about the same standard Google apps was 4yrs ago when they started.Quote:
Originally Posted by GrumbleDook
But it seems that the web is where things are growing with both these giant companies investing rather than apps for tablets tec, or am I wrong. Some of 2013 365 is good, but Word is very basic.