New blow for Microsoft Surface: Touch Chromebooks 'on sale in 2013'
Google has developed a new touchscreen Chromebook that will be out this year, claim industry sources. It's the latest story to surface about a touch-driven netbook powered by Google's Chrome operating system, which is based on open-source Linux. A video leaked earlier this month appeared to be an advert for a touchscreen Google …
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Re: "Blow"?
Right, especially the Pro. On one side you have a table that can run any Windows application locally, and even with no connectivity - and join a Windows domain, on the other side something strongly tied with Google online services only.
Re: "Blow"?
"On one side you have a table that can run any Windows application "
I'd buy that for a dollar
Re: "Blow"?
there is one, but it's more than a dollar. It's called the surface 42 and it's made by Samsung.
Re: "Blow"?
Lets face it - if it was announced the Babbage Analytical Engine was to be relaunched it would be a blow to Surface.
Re: "Blow"?
Chrome OS is not "tied to google services only" and the Surface to which this is a blow is probably the Surface with Windows RT, which cannot run all windows apps. But Windows RT has a browser, so can do all the stuff Chrome OS does (and much more). And unlike the Pixel it costs well under £1000.
Re: "Blow"?
Even the Surface Pro is likely to be cheaper than this by the looks of it. Given that the cheap Surface haters seem to have resorted to "it's too expensive" for the Pro version, despite the Chromebooks being competition, this does provide a marketing boost to the Surface Pro (as well as the help from raising awareness of touchscreen PCs in general).
(Personally I'm not likely to buy either of these devices, but still think it's good to see competition and choice.)
Re: "Blow"?
Not if you include the Skateboard market. A Chrome tablet might just about compete there: http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/48165/microsoft-surface-skatebord-pictures-and-hands-on
Different kinds of products
While it is likely to compete with netbooks, WinRT, IOS and Android, I really don't think that the Chromebook is going to compete with machines that run full OS's like MacOS or Win8.
Re: Different kinds of products
"machines that run full OS's like MacOS but not Win8"
Re: Different kinds of products
You can dislike the interface if you like but if you can name something Win7 has as an OS feature and Win8 doesn't, I promise you an upvote and a mark of approval.
Note - "start button" is not an OS feature.
Re: Different kinds of products
"While it is likely to compete with netbooks,..."
"I really don't think that the Chromebook is going to compete with machines that run full OS's..."
I thought most netbooks do run full OSs - all of mine do.
Re: Different kinds of products
@dogged
Of course it's an OS feature! Making sure there is a little image there to let people know they can get to a list of programs and save them from the terror of having to press Windows Key & Q at the same time is just as important as process scheduling & memory management ;)
Re: Different kinds of products
Did I say Win 7 was any good?
Re: Different kinds of products (@ dogged)
"you can name something Win7 has as an OS feature and Win8 doesn't"
A single. well integrated user environment. Win8 has two poorly integrated environments.
Seriously, The GUI formerly known as Metro is a PITA in ideal conditions, and an undescriptable horror if your machine lacks a touchscreen.
Re: Different kinds of products (@ dogged)
@Mephistro - really? really?
I've been using it on a multi-monitor no touchscreen dev box since November. It annoyed me for a week but that's long in the past. It's fine. Taste not being arguable, etc, I can't make an absolute statement. Your milage obviously varies. I'm actually more familiar with it than with Win7 now.
However, "undescriptable horror" would be well into the realms of rampant exaggeration even if you disliked it and, less feasibly, if there was such a word as "undescriptable".
Re: Different kinds of products (@ dogged)
Do remember the time where men where real mean, women were real women, and techies were real techies?
No?
Well, anyway, somewhen around that Microsoft released Vista to almost universal derision, almost as there never failed to be someone in the thread saying how great it was.
Re: Different kinds of products
Start Button is an OS feature! You can't say name an OS feature Win8 has that Win7 doesn't, and then say apart from the OS features that Win8 has but Win7 doesn't!
Re: Different kinds of products
No, it's a UI element.
And technically, it's still there. Just smaller.
Re: Different kinds of products
"Note - "start button" is not an OS feature"
doubleplus good @dogged! War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is power.
Windows 8 has been an utter disaster in the market place, on desktop and on tablets and on phones. Yet people are ordering kit with Windows 7 on it (and that's a bad enough OS (in my opinion)).
So there are 3 explanations
a) Windows 8 has removed something that was in Windows 7 that people want.
b) Windows 8 has added something to Windows 7 that people detest.
c) both a) and b)
I vote c.
Re: Different kinds of products
Look, there's a dungfly buzzing around.
Swat it, somebody.
Re: Different kinds of products
If you just use Ninite to install the essentials on your new Win 7 machine (Codec packs, several browsers, Foxit reader, WMP Classic, whatever you poison is) you'll notice that Classic Startmenu is there- that's right: adding a start menu to Win 8 literally takes one extra tick-box.
Similarly, Win 8 can be made to skip the 'Metro' interface entirely. I imagine that most people here do some faffing around with an OS after installing it, so why all the fuss about a start menu?
Re: Different kinds of products
Windows XP Mode.
May I have my upvote please?
(Digging for other features to list as well but that one comes to mind right away)
Re: Different kinds of products
Some say that he can reduce a PC World employee to tears with five words
and that his technical knowledge is so great that he knew how to program VCRs before they invented video tape
all we know is he's called Eadon
Re: Different kinds of products
> No, it's a UI element.
For the majority of people with W8, its just as compulsory to use as the memory allocation manager and the DMA subsystem.
The W8 desktop OS is there to support the GUI console system. It still isn't designed to be multi-user or used independently of the GUI.
Unless there has been progress I've completely missed!
Re: Different kinds of products
Thing about Windows 8 is it has added enough useful stuff :
Powershell 3.0
Improved Multimonitor Support
Much improved task manager.
It feels like an upgrade to Windows 7
The only metro app I really use is the Mail client (Supports Exchange Activesync (back to the version google uses). The pdf viewer is reasonable as well. (Bit annoying I cannot use IE at all if I have Firefox as default browser (For such as Internet Banking I would use it).
You don't really have to use Metro at all 99% of the time.
Hit Windows Key and type (Same as Windows 7 to launch apps).
And the old school shortcuts (alt-tab / alt f4 / windows + r etc etc all still work (Along with WIndows + x which gives you most of the rest of what you might want (Admin stuff pretty much - control panel computer management command prompt etc). On Windows 7 you are better off using the shortcuts anyway.
Re: Different kinds of products
Look, there's a dungfly buzzing around. Oh wait it's the fans in the Surface going nuts...
Re: Different kinds of products
@stephajn - upvoted, as promised ;)
Re: Different kinds of products
Eadon - yes i can just imagine him sitting on the "Tech Guys" benches, ignoring the customers ringing on the phone, surfing The Reg all day, praying 5 times a day that Linux will actually sell something on the desktop.
(Maybe I mixed up that last part with the cheap imports they employ...)
Desktop Wars!!!!!
The media have been focussed on whether MS can get back into the Mobile game. (No, they can't). But now there's another war...
First we had the OS wars - IBM OS2 vs Windows. Windows won. (Linux on Desktops never had a big corporation to merket and push it)
Then the Browser wars - FIrefox vs IE. Firefox Won.
Then the Search wars - Google vs MSN / Bing - Google Won
Then the Console wars - Nintendo Sony MS - A draw - but Ms kind of lost - their XBox has not made a return on the 11 billion invested.
Then the Mobile phone wars - Apple / Google / Nokia / Microsoft / Blackberry - Apple and Google won
Then the Tablet wars - Apple / Google / Amazon/ Microsoft - Amazon / Google / Apple won
Then the Server Wars - Oracle(Java) and Linux vs Microsoft (Windows server + .NET). Oracle and Linux won
Then the Cloud Wars - Amazon, Google, Salesforce, Microsoft Azure. - Amazon, Gogole, Salesforce won.
Now Desktop Wars - MS Windows vs Google ChromeOS (With Linux waiting in the wings).
Next we will have - Office suit wars Google Docs / LibreOffice / MS Office / Office 365
So MS won only one War (by stabbing its partner, IBM, in the back (again))
So things do not bode well now for MS. Google is attacking the desktop. And when Google makes a movie, history teaches us that it does not screw up. Google and MS have fought four wars now, and it's Google 4 Microsoft 0.
I dislike Google's spying business model, but that very model means it doesn't need to fleece OEM's for licence fees. Google has a strong hand to play in the new Desktop War. Microsoft can't afford to lose this one, if it does, it's...
GAME OVER!
Re: Desktop Wars!!!!!
Only one? Hardly. Handy how you relegated the Office wars to "Next we will have", Eadon. Instead of saying that they won. And Chromebook is Google competing on the desktop now is it? So it's going to compete with tablets, desktops and presumably laptops? That means it's a potential trouble for Linux too then.
Back soon, throwing all my stuff away so I can replace it with a Chromebook.
Re: Desktop Wars!!!!!
Browser wars - still running. IE still ahead, but performing a tactical rear-guard retreat
Search wars - Google vs MSN / Bing - Google Won. Actually, yes they did.
Console wars - no clear winners here yet.
Mobile phone wars - Apple opened a new western front, progress halted, and now it's a trench war. Ongoing.
Tablet wars - Apple invaded Poland, took over most of Europe, and now Google is gradually getting it's shit together for a counter attack.
Server Wars - Stuck in a trench war, with Linux holding territorial advantage.
Cloud Wars - The data security equivalent of global thermo-nuclear war. Nobody wins.
Desktop Wars - Microsoft controls all of western Europe airspace, but their new dual-role 109's are no match for the new Spitfires, Mosquitos and Mustangs from Linux, Google and Apple. Fronts are being eroded.
Office suit wars: Microsoft controls all of western Europe, but their Panzer tank is now too heavy, too slow, and the driver controls overly complicated. The easier to use and lighter, faster Shermans and Churchhills of LO/OO and - I can't believe I'm saying this - iworks are making advances.
You are correct - only one war was won - but it was Google's search war.
Re: Desktop Wars!!!!!
Browser wars - Firefox vs IE ?? No it wasn't, it was IE vs Netscape and IE won by such a margin they're still dealing with anti-trust suits. IE is still the dominant browser, by a decreasing margin.
Search wars - Google vs Bing ?? No, again, it was Google vs Alta Vista (if anything).
Console wars - Nintendo won, due to changing the game. MS and Sony are both runners up to them.
Mobile phone wars - Arguably Google are the current winners, but given the Win Pho "push" is less than 6 months old that's hardly a revelation.
Server wars - which one? Mainframe, midrange, file etc. Most companies have a mixture of OSs at server level, depending on what they want to do on it.
Cloud wars - are you kidding me? No-one has won, the "cloud" has been touted as a panacea for decades and every time it gets side-lined for very good reasons.
Desktop wars - No mention of OSX? You know, the second most widely used desktop operating system?
Office suite - no war, businesses will continue to use Office. We may see a move by home users to Oo, LO, Google docs, but that's a drop in the ocean compared to the corporate users.
If you want to come up with an argument, at least make it hold some water.
Re: Desktop Wars!!!!!
Whilst I prefer FF to IE in what way did FF win the browser battle? FF has never had a larger market share than IE.
Currently Chrome is winning that battle anyway.
Re: Desktop Wars!!!!!
I used to post crap like you Eadon when I was a 20 something jobless dickhead. I grew up though, got a job and realised that being a biased, closed minded moron when it comes to technology makes you unemployable in IT.
Re: Desktop Wars!!!!!
Did Bill Gates personally come to your house and butcher your dog in front of your kids?
Define winning. Here's one - if MS "won" all these "wars", the antitrust cases against them would have led the American govt and the European Union to break the company up. So would they have won or lost?
You are confusing competition with monopoly. Once upon a time, you could have said Microsoft had a Monopoly. They got their wrists well slapped for that. So in order to not be dismembered, they now compete in a slightly more open market (currently being turned into a oligopoly by patent wars (yey I found one for ya!). How they compete in that market is entirely up to them. Their strategy may or may not be to everyone's taste, but thats okay, because nor is Apples, Googles, Oracles, Ubuntus...
1UP!!!
Re: I used to post crap like you...
I take it you don't work in IT then.
Re: Desktop Wars!!!!!
Let me fix that. (Let's agree that wars are big things, that make or destroy 100s of beeelions):
First we had the OS wars.
Then the Console skirmish.
Then the Browser shouting match.
Then the Desktop food fight.
...
Re: Desktop Wars!!!!!
Too true. Businesses don't particularly like black and white minded absolutes... not very customer focussed ;)
Re: I used to post crap like you... @hplasm
Your statement doesn't follow from his. Still, Eadon's upvoted you. As far as I'm concerned though -
EPIC LOGIC FAIL!
meh. Don't see why Eadon gets such a thrill out of that.
Re: "Did Bill Gates personally come to your house and butcher your dog in front of your kids?"
Oh God, if only he had.
Re: I used to post crap like you... @hplasm
Sorry if you are reading it wrong, Try again.
"unemployable in IT"?
Naw... as el Reg forums show, IT is full of biased, closed minded morons. As long as you're biased toward the same technology as your PHB, you'll keep your job just fine.
Now I'm going back to upvote Eadon, just on principle ;-)
Re: Desktop Wars!!!!!
Shome Correcktions:
Console wars - Microsoft are currently winning here. Sony and Nintendo are both making a loss. Microsoft is making a healthy profit.
Mobile phone wars - Microsoft are 3rd but are fastest growing. Who knows....
Server wars - Microsoft are currently wining with over 50% market share and still growing.
Office Wars - Microsoft is currently the leader by miles
Desktop Wars - Microsoft is currently the leader by miles.
Cloud Wars - Amazon Winning, Azure and others still climbing.
Re: Desktop Wars!!!!!
"Mobile phone wars - Microsoft are 3rd but are fastest growing. Who knows...."
Do you understand rate of change ?
Re: Desktop Wars!!!!!
Sure - and Microsoft are currently on an exponential trajectory. The question is, how long will that last...
Re: Desktop Wars!!!!!
"Microsoft are currently on an exponential trajectory"
Would that be exponential growth or decay ?
Re: Desktop Wars!!!!!
>Sure - and Microsoft are currently on an exponential trajectory. The question is, how long will that last...
I can answer that for you RICHTO. Until they hit the water at the bottom of the pan.
Re: Desktop Wars!!!!!
A few small improvements to "Shome Correcktions":
Console wars - Very open at the moment. Valve/Steam are about to eat your lunch. Who needs stinking middle men anyway?
Mobile phone wars - After YEARS of trying, Microsoft is STILL nowhere... with Tizer, Ubuntu and Mozilla all about to land WinPhone's bargain basement "featurephone" microcosm might be about to be whipped out from under it. Bless.
Server wars - Microsoft is still trying and still impressively stagnant. Nginx is where the action is.
Office Wars - Microsoft has spent the last decade sitting on its fat arse tinkering with its lock-in while myriad interesting innovative projects have sprung up... Who knows...
Desktop Wars - Microsoft is clinging to a rapidly diminishing sector. Wonder how that'll work out for you.
Cloud Wars - Amazon & (FL)OSS won, Windows Azure just accidentally flushed itself. Again.
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