Dell, Google dangle Chromebooks over IT bosses sick of Windows

Re: Fail

<quote>As far as manageability goes, how is this better? </quote>

YOU and I might know better, but this is pitched at business executives damagement who don't.

The """pitch""" is: it's NOT Windows.

Re: Fail

"Management doesn't just magically go away in the business sector just because you move away from Windows workstations."

However, I am using Google Docs for Business and Chromebooks for a charity, and administration is much, much simpler than for Windows.

I like the look of these Dells and one might well be my next laptop. OK I have a Windows box (or two) for some stuff that won't run on anything else (digital camera and phone backup software) but I only need this back at the ranch.

However getting the excuse may be difficult as this Samsung I'm typing on has taken two years of abuse and the only damage so far is a scratched corner and the paint worn off the a key. No worries about drivers with the next release of Chrome, no signs of slowdown.

Re: Fail

The marketing pitch is to the MBA's who control the money who sort of have somewhat legitimate concerns about running Windows packages. It is not pitched directly at boffins who know how to install an OS and have probably done it.

Re: Fail

"For $600 you can buy an Asus ultrabook with Windows 10 installed"

The majority of the costs for a company is not in buying hardware but in maintaining.

At this moment, ChromeOS is SUPERIOR in maintaining costs. Close to 0 if you have thousands of devices done by just 2 persons.

Re: I still don't see the value.

The value is the $600 you spent all went to the hardware.

As for the management piece, I guess you skipped the part of the article where they discussed it.

I'm still leery of it because:

1) It's cloud based and I don't trust internet connections for that sort of up time.

2) It's cloud based and I don't trust the cloud for data migration.

3) It's Chrome which phones home to Larry.

If those things don't other you, go for it. And as you noted you can easily convert it to Linux or possibly even an MS Volume license depending on the terms of your contract.

>Pick any Windows OS of the last 15 years and there are still more current computers running it than Chrome or any flavor of desktop Linux.

It does seem that a chromebook is a laptop with a pathetic-sized SSD.

As for Chrome's failure, that's down to the same reason linux hasn't really taken off. No-one wants to be responsible for the failures involved in the a project as massive as a Windows removal. The potential savings are far outweighed by the potential losses. That isn't to say that Windows is a good thing, merely that extracting it is tricky. Like a fixed-size brain tumour, you have to decide if its worth pulling it out.

Microsoft always has been very smart about pricing of server CALS, causing that the costs of a user login on a MS Server were equivalent to buying an new PC with windows. This fact put every alternative, using server based solutions, on a cost disadvantage.

The mix of Microsoft software which is good enough quality, and the fact that developing alternatives did not offer significant reduction in costs compensating for the risks of user revolt, "Hey my MS-Word icon is not on the right top and it looks weird". Until recent this all worked out well for MS.

Perhaps times changed. First people are now used to smart phones, forcing them to get used to something else than the MS interface, users are more flexible.

A consultant who nowadays still would propose a local 1995 style windows farm implementation to small/mid sized companies is blinded by ancient box shifting paradigms.

The operating costs of a 1995 MS-farm are significant. Many people needed for backup, constant exchange server breast feeding, sql servers crying all the time, and how about rebooting the whole farm once a month for patching the latest set of 9+ CVE's ?.

It can be explained that windows alternatives were not successful in the past, for the future there is a clear potential for alternatives, cloud and thin client based, to gain a significant share on the working place.

@IJC

Have you made any post that wasn't Windows astroturfing?

I think we only down vote US-based Microsoft employees...

...but I hope this doesn't upset you.

Re: $900 ??

You see, I ask that same question of a PC or a Mac. Who in their right mind would pay that amount when the upgrade cycle being forced on the user is shortening on an increasing scale. Unfortunately that is the type of money you would pay for a functional PC/entry level Mac, in the Chromebook world that is top of the range where you are out to impress others or spoil yourself. You don’t need to spend it just to get onboard.

I won’t get into the debate over what functionality is available to the Chromebook user apart from saying that perhaps your view of what software people use 'to do work' and the vast majority of users differs somewhat. In three years of using a CB I can count on the fingers of one hand when I felt that I missed some specific function. This soon passed however as I found a ready solution.

I don’t have to get bogged down in maintaining the tool, I can just get on with the work and leisure pursuits the tool is there to provide, confident my data and work will be there when I want it. The privacy argument (which is something that invariably gets thrown up), I am currently comfortable with, if and when I feel uncomfortable, I will find another solution.

Precisely my requirement from any tool I use.

Google Exchange/Outlook replacement

Genuine question:

What is it that Exchange/Outlook does (from an end user perspective) that you don't think Google's applications do? (Mail, Calendar etc.)

I interchange between the two for work/personal use and don't see much in the way of features that you can do with Microsoft's kit but not with Google's

But maybe there are features MS offers that Google doesn't that I'm unaware of?

... In fairness, I've never had a need to set up an out of office notification in GMail as I'm never in an office for that account