Chrome OS

[dhicks]

I think Adobe would be the licensee for H.264, not Google or the OEM - as they're the ones producing the software (ie. Flash).

 

I think Qualcomm are the H.264 patent holders:

 

H.264/MPEG-4 AVC - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Adobe own the copyright on Flash, and might well have freely licensed Google to install and distribute it on whatever devices they want, but the patent license is completly separate. Typically, I understand that it's not worth trying to collect patent fees from individuals, a license-collecting agency would normally deal with OEMs.

[localzuk]

I think Qualcomm are the H.264 patent holders:

 

H.264/MPEG-4 AVC - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Adobe own the copyright on Flash, and might well have freely licensed Google to install and distribute it on whatever devices they want, but the patent license is completly separate. Typically, I understand that it's not worth trying to collect patent fees from individuals, a license-collecting agency would normally deal with OEMs.

 

But it is not Chrome that is using the H.264 codec, it is Flash. If I build a PC and stick Chrome and Flash on it, I am not the person using the H.264 patent, Flash is. I simply need to sign a license with Adobe to distribute Flash and the buck stops with them.

[CAM]

Personally found YouTube to be going downhill without Flash. Nearly every video I click on in Firefox 4 says I need Flash player and I have to start Chrome up. Which makes sense for Google I guess...

 

These do look like nice toys to play with though, a mixture of mobile phone and portable computer. I assume they come with a means to watch bandwidth consumption over 3G?

[russdev]

Also for business (not sure about ed) need to rent minimum of 10 machines. Was hoping to get one for testing purposes...

 

Russell

[Arthur]

What do people think of the specs and/or prices? Too expensive?

 

Samsung Series 5 ChromeBook - £349 ($429) WiFi // £399 ($499) WiFi + 3G

Both models available 24th June 2011 in the UK exclusively through Amazon and Dixons

 

• 12.1" Widescreen LCD (1280x800 / 16:10 / 300 nit's)
  
• Intel Atom N570 1.66GHz Dual Core CPU
  
• 2GB DDR3 RAM
  
• 16GB mSATA SDD
  
• 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi
  
• 1 MegaPixel WebCam
  
• 4-in-1 SDXC Memory Card Reader
  
• Mini-VGA port
  
• 2 x USB 2.0 ports
  
• 8.5 hour non-removable battery (lasts for 1,000 cycles)
  
• 1.48 kg
  

Acer ChromeBook - $349 WiFi

 

• 11.6" Widescreen LED-backlit LCD (1366x768 / 16:9)
  
• Intel Atom N570 1.66GHz Dual Core CPU
  
• 2GB DDR3 RAM
  
• 16GB mSATA SDD
  
• 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi
  
• 1.3 MegaPixel WebCam
  
• 4-in-1 Memory Card Reader
  
• HDMI port
  
• 2 x USB 2.0 ports
  
• 6.5 hour battery
  
• 1.34 kg
  

[Arthur]

Also for business (not sure about ed) need to rent minimum of 10 machines.

Students in the US can rent one for $20 per month over three years. Not sure about UK pricing though.

[localzuk]

Students in the US can rent one for $20 per month over three years. Not sure about UK pricing though.

 

Knowing UK pricing, it'll be £30 per month...

[Arthur]

I wouldn't be surprised. Samsung's ChromeBooks are also ~£30 more expensive in the UK compared to the US once you add the VAT.

[dhicks]

What do people think of the specs and/or prices?

 

We've hopefully now got to the stage where processor, RAM and storage specifications don't matter, they're simply adequate for the job. That said, I'd probably go for the Samsung - longer battery life, should be able to connect it up to a VGA projector if needed, higher verticle resolution. £400 sounds about right, the same as the iPad.

[SYNACK]

Everyone says that Windows is a hardware hog but those machines would easily run Windows 7 sans the bios restrictions. I'm actually quite suprised as I thought of ChromeOS as a slimmed down OS that would probably run on ARM or something for efficiency and really long battery lives, 8h is still good but the hardware is way higher level than I expected. I guess I wonder what the point is of having such capible hardware and running such a limited 'OS' on it. I run an entire home server on very simmilar hardware subbing in big HDs of course.

 

In response to CAM I think that a bandwidth moniter would probably be some kind of app addon assuming that these are allowed under the OS as this is something built in the US meaning that it is build almost with sole consideration for the US market where mobile data is less visciously capped than elsewhere. I imagine that they would leave it to the cell providers own bandwidth metering web pages anyway given the all web nature of it.

Edited May 15, 2011 by SYNACK

[Arthur]

I'm actually quite suprised as I thought of ChromeOS as a slimmed down OS that would probably run on ARM or something for efficiency and really long battery lives

I agree. Notebooks running ChromeOS is one area where using an ARM processor makes perfect sense. 8.5 hours is good, but 16+ would be even better. I'm glad they made SSDs mandatory though.

 

I guess I wonder what the point is of having such capable hardware and running such a limited 'OS' on it.

It looks good in demos? At the recent Google I/O conference, they enjoyed showing off a modified WebGL version of Microsoft's FishTank demo with 10,000 fish @ 30 fps in the latest version of Chrome.

 

Original: http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/performance/fishietank/

WebGL: http://people.mozilla.org/~jmuizelaar/fishie/fishie-fast.html

Video:

[dhicks]

I guess I wonder what the point is of having such capible hardware and running such a limited 'OS' on it.

 

Probably because the cheapest way to make a laptop was simply to buy available parts rather than set up for manufacturing new ones. That'll probably change in the future, this is only the first generation of these devices.

[localzuk]

My guess would be that decent specs are needed for:

 

Flash

Hardware graphics acceleration

High end Javascript stuff

 

Not to mention, as time goes on, more and more of that is appearing in browsers.

[dhicks]

So, nice as new ChromeBooks would be, we have 30-odd EeePCs (the 901 model with 4GB of decent-speed flash storage) which it'd be a shame to waste, and we need a small, cut-down OS that just does web browsing for our reception classes. I tried Debian with Firefox/Iceweasel first, and then Chromium, but in the end Chrome seems to provide the best combination of plugin compatability (it handles Flash and PDF nativly) and kiosk mode - we want a simple computer that 5-year-olds can't go too far wrong with.

 

Here are my working notes on setting up a minimal install of Debian running XFCE, Chrome, wireless connectivity and not much else. This gives you a computer that boots straight into a web browser (you get a bunch of scrolling Linux text and a flicker of the desktop as it loads, although boot time is probably under a minute), connecting to your wireless network at boot. The browser is in icognito and kiosk mode, so you can't open tabs and browsing history isn't kept. Also, the user can't enter URLs into the address bar, so if you don't make Google or similar the homepage they can be fairly limited as to what sites they can actually get to.

 

If on EeePSs:
Make smaller SSD (4GB partition) sda, give it boot priority
	SM, then SD as order of harddrives in priority list.
Install Debian - text only, no GUI components.
Set hostname: KSOS
Root password: ......
New user: administrator
Same password
Set minimal boot time in grub settings:
nano /boot/grub/grub.cfg
set timeout=0
Install minimal GUI
apt-get install xfce4
Wireless
Edit /etc/apt/sources.list:
	Edit line to read:
	deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian squeeze main contrib non-free
apt-get update
apt-get install firmware-ralink wireless-tools wpasupplicant
chmod 0600 /etc/network/interfaces
Edit /etc/network/interfaces:
	auto wlan0
	iface wlan0 inet dhcp
		wpa-ssid NetworkSSIDGoesHere
		wpa-psk PasswordGoesHere
Auto-logon administrator
From http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=29333:
	Edit /etc/inittab, Comment out the line:
		1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty1
	And replace with:
		1:2345:respawn:/bin/login -f administrator tty1 /dev/tty1 2>&1
Reboot
	Auto logged on as administrator, edit .bashrc, add to the end:
		if [ -z "$DISPLAY" ] && [ $(tty) == /dev/tty1 ]; then
		    startx
		fi
Reboot
Install Chrome:
Download from Google, place on to memory stick, load on target machine seems
	to be best bet - target machine doesn't have web browser by default.
dpkg -i google-chrome-stable_current_i386.deb
apt-get -f install
rm google-chrome-stable_current_i386.deb
Run Chrome
Set homepage to your homepage
Set mouse cursor:
apt-get install big-cursor
In XFCE: Start menu, Settings, XFCE 4 Settings Manager
Add item for Chrome:
	google-chrome --incognitio --kiosk

 

In future we'll probably configure some machines for a slightly older age group, so a web browser with tabs might be a good idea - I'll have to reconfigure XFCE so it has no menu options and make a startup script that reloads Chrome if closed.

[Arthur]

@dhicks. Out of interest did you try ChromiumOS? The EeePC 901 is supported if you use an Intel or Atheros wireless NIC.

[dhicks]

Out of interest did you try ChromiumOS?

 

No - having looked at what ChromeOS does, now that it's out, I understand it's rather keen on you using Google's services. For our internal use, on our wireless network, we wanted machines that simply use a web browser, nothing else. It turns out to be quite simple to do - those instructions above pretty much cover setting up a laptop from scratch. We also wanted something the children wouldn't be able to fiddle with - no wireless settings or anything, so wireless is connected via wpasupplicant before the GUI/browser loads.

 

Interestingly, Chrome itself still seemed like the best choice for browser - it has a nice kiosk mode (Firefox doesn't seem to), Flash and PDF just work, and if I understand correctly it should still update itself automatically.

[CyberNerd]

there is a debian chrome repository that you may want to try instead of installing from usb.

Linux Software Repositories ? Google

 

installing from .deb should update the repository info anyway to allow automatic updates.