Comment by IkmoIkmo | Hacker News Reader

Comment by IkmoIkmo | Hacker News Reader

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I don't really understand the appeal personally. At this price level you could get a dell xps.

ChromeOS seems brilliant at a few hundred bucks, especially for kids & elders who get the browser/video/text experience, without the complexity, bloatware, viruses etc of a windows environment.

But at $600 or $1000, there just seem to be better windows alternatives, to me at least. And above that you get into OS X range. ChromeOS just doesn't seem to provide the environment where you really need beefy specs (e.g. compiling large code or editing large videos), so if it's just consumer-type stuff, I'd rather have a 2014 Macbook Air 13' at $800-900 at Best Buy, or a Dell XPS, than this.

Would love to hear from peoples usecases and experiences. I think there's a genuine usecase for people to put linux on it, or SSH into something else, but for your average straight up consumer, why the pixel and not something else? I understand the low-price Chromebooks, the higher price is hard to grasp for me.

I believe that is exactly the idea.

Google as the ecosystem provider (ChromeOS) does not really want to compete with the companies that are intended to use the OS.

Google does not want to compete with Dell, HP, Lenovo or Acer, but to convince them to use ChromeOS.

Google creates hardware as a reference for others to follow. This is very important, as there is a before an after the release of the Nexus phone.

Google releases high quality hardware with their OS to prove that a good machine could be make with it, but at a price that does not compete with others.

> Google releases high quality hardware with their OS to prove that a good machine could be make with it, but at a price that does not compete with others.

That is a very interesting notion that I had not considered at all, but can that be entirely true? It must cost a small fortune to get a device like this ready for public consumption, even if they don't sell very many of them.

Like Apple, Google just want you in the ecosystem.

The money is really in the "App Stores" as such.

Vendor lockin is certainly huge (especially data for Google to drive their main ad business), but Apple's app store is a fraction (something like 15b/180b. I'd say vendor lockin is still much, much more important to drive their hardware sales, despite making very big steps in earning from software (app stores) in the past decade.

Writing this from my 2011 MBA. Looking at a replacement, and the CBP is a strong contender. If I swap out the storage for a 256 or 512 GB drive and throw linux or windows on it, then it's better hardware than a macbook air, for cheaper. In fact, it's impossible to build a MBA that stands up to CBP's hardware.

the chromebook represents essentially what i wanted out of a macbook air refresh, instead the ipad-with-a-keyboard Macbook showed up.

But why wouldn't you get the Dell XPS 13 instead? (Linux edition coming out soon.) The Pixel is heavier than the MBA, while the XPS is lighter/slimmer and has a real harddrive. There are minor trade-offs here and there but it's the limitation of ChromeOS that really makes this a strange option.

I myself am debating both options, but I've ordered a Pixel specifically because I'm hoping the keyboard is a bit better than the XPS, and to see how well it will run Debian natively.

If only the US had ultraportable options like they have in Japan.

As someone who runs Linux and ChromeOS on my personal laptops, was looking at the XPS, and just ordered a Pixel, I can answer that:

1. Chromebook is zero-hassle. It's great that Dell is putting native Ubuntu on their laptops, but fundamentally those are still machines that were designed for Windows first and awkwardly adapted to Linux. They'll always have a few niggling issues that a designed-for-ChromeOS machine won't have.

2. I prefer ChromeOS to Linux. The ultra-minimalist ChromeOS UI is just amazingly clean and elegant, in a way that none of the Linux desktops are (and I say that as a huge fan of GNOME 3).

3. The high-DPI version of the XPS 13 is more expensive than the Pixel (and might not be the one that gets released with Linux, they haven't announced it); high-DPI is a mandatory thing on an expensive laptop now for me.

4. 3:2 screen is the perfect aspect ratio, and the XPS isn't that.

5. USB-C charger is sweet.

But the XPS 13 looks like it'll be a nice laptop when the Linux version comes out. Still, I wish Dell would design Linux-first laptops rather than trying to awkwardly retrofit Linux onto designed-for-Windows machines.

Your point (1) is incorrect, actually the reverse of the truth. Dell specifically deserves credit for sourcing and designing the XPS hardware to natively support Ubuntu. There are no "niggling issues" because hardware components and all elements of the supply chain are required to work with Canonical to ensure that Ubuntu is a full experience.

So sorry but the XPS range is a "Linux-first laptop" in the sense that you mean - Dell deserves credit for that work.

Both Dell and Google basically work to define a spec requirement, then put it out to tender to ODM's to respond. In both cases part of the design requirements will have been certification for the OS. For Google it would be ChromeOS, for the XPS from Dell it was Ubuntu and Windows - Window will work anyway for obvious reasons, but it means additional work for the ODM and Dell to ensure that Ubuntu works.

What is the difference between a laptop designed for Windows and one designed for Linux? Apart from device drivers (graphics, Wi-Fi, bluetooth) which are usually not a problem, I can't think of any difference. Perhaps Linux might not look very good on very high DPI screens, but that's it.

Look at what the Project Sputnik people are saying about getting Linux working on the current XPS 13 -- they're working on drivers for various portions of it that don't currently work currently on Linux. (If you install Ubuntu on the XPS 13 today, it will have problems.)

It's great that Dell is doing that, it really is. But if they were building a laptop for Linux first, they never would have sourced those components.

Can you replace the drive? I dislike the newer Macbooks because nothing can be upgraded. If I can throw a 512GB SSD in this thing, I'd honestly sell my Retina Macbook Pro and replace it with the Chromebook.

Speculation: I suspect the way its going with storage and processing that they are pivoting it to be a contender with Air etc. The cloud storage thing is nice but it just doesn't really have a use case above a few GB of data. The cost of storage just keeps coming down and the price of bandwidth hasn't really moved in years.

I think its in a transitory stage, can't really compete with the air yet but likely will in a couple of iterations (think android vs iphone, iphones were cheaper spec wise but android caught up and imo overtook iphones in only a couple of iterations.

I do agree there is still a use case for ssh'n into something else, but I also can't see the original use case working at this price point.

Maybe it is just not targeting the "average straight up consumer". There should be a product for everyone..

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