Comment by resoluteteeth | Hacker News Reader

Comment by resoluteteeth | Hacker News Reader

The real review here seems to be by BittenRottenApple in the comments, rather than the actual anandtech article. In particular I think this part sums up the main issue I have with the Chromebook Pixel:

The entire conceit of Chrome OS is that it's sort of a diet computer. It does the basics, and just the basics. Chrome OS will give you internet, basic word processing through Google Docs, video via YouTube, and the rest of Google's web services including a free as in freedom lifetime direct hotlink to the NSA. You can stick in Chrome extensions for added "apps" if you'd like, possibly even a future NSA all inclusive backup app. But you're not going to get any full software here, because Chrome OS isn't compatible with anything outside of itself. And that's been OK, because Chrome OS laptops have been very cheap: a few hundred bucks for the essentials is a good deal. Thirteen hundred dollars for those same essentials is a very, very, hugely, wow-bad deal.

I have an ASUS C200, and because lately I have a need for a word processor and browser on the go, I love it despite its limitations. It's cheap and light and has insanely good battery life with an operating system that stays out of the way. I emphatically don't feel a desire to go out and buy a >$1000 chromebook, though (if I bought the pixel I would probably go and replace the OS with linux, whereas on my C200 I haven't even bothered to install a linux chroot).

Assuming by "the real review" you mean "the mostly cut'n'pasted rant against the first Pixel, published by Sam Biddle on Gizmodo 2 years ago".

http://gizmodo.com/5986031/every-reason-not-to-buy-the-googl...

You don't need to replace the OS with linux, it is already linux based. If you enable developer mode you can get to the terminal, and if your linux-foo is strong that should be all you need (and you'll still be able to use ChromeOS).

This is what made my (free) Cr-48 awesome. Does it make the (expensive) Chromebook Pixel awesome? I don't know.

Technically, yes, but not in the way the parent meant. Getting access to a few GNU tools is not the same thing as a real fully-featured desktop and software repositories.

That's before mentioning proper support for closed-source x86 applications. Most developers target Ubuntu, not ChromeOS.

Official Docker support in ChromeOS would be awesome. Most applications also work in dockerized Ubuntu.

Yeah, all the people I know who have a pixel (three) spend a lot of their time in linux. I think that the pixel is better conceived of as a really, really nice linux laptop rather than a netbook. That said, the market there is probably really small.

Of course, the pixel is also just an excuse to push parts and system manufacturers so that high-quality screens, keyboards and touchpads may trickle down into the regular chromebook market.

It would be a really nice Linux laptop if you could somehow get more storage in it than an emachine from a decade and a half ago.

The Dell XPS 13 is my Linux laptop of the year, assuming they do a proper Sputnik release for it and publish some FOSS drivers. As it is it does not work and where it does its with ugly proprietary hacks, but previous iterations of the line have fixed them and I hope this one does too.

Some people will be more likely to buy a more expensive product, even if the price/value ratio is inferior than a cheaper alternative, merely because they want something better, and can afford the trade-off.

Not everyone needs native software. I work in an office in which over half the employees use Chromebooks because they don't have any requirements beyond web-based applications and the Google ecosystem.

Don't underestimate the value of 'incredibly simple', 'virus-free', and 'always up-to-date'. These factors may be worth much more to another sector of the market than to you.

ChromeOS is apparently the very first operating system to only run apps targeted to it.

And yet...I want one.

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