The Chromebook / Chromebox Thread

[PityOnU]

well to be fair i still use MS windows but i HATE 8.1 and it runs like shit

Windows 8.1 runs great for me. They made a number of small under-the-hood changes since Windows 7 that when combined end up being more than a sum of their parts. It's actually a little bit painful for me going back to Windows 7 now because it all seems so choppy and dated.

i never used chrome OS and no interest in doing so i hate google even more than MS
i will never use cloud based anything i don't trust it and i never will
i don't like the idea of MS trying to copy apple and google with this cloud stuff ,metro and other things the only good thing they have copied from apple is the implementation of actual brick and mortar stores where you can actually get free support, it's the only thing this company has done right
probably since win7

I do agree about "the cloud" idea. I'm not sure why there is such a huge push to go back to dumb terminals reliant on a central servers like in the 60's (approximate timeframe, of course).

And yeah, the stores were certainly a long time coming.

and google chrome runs like shit on win8.1, but google probably runs like shit on 7 now too i bet,

i noticed when i was running it on win7 that it had gotten significantly worse and slower before i switched to brand new 8.1 machine and not just chrome but pretty much all browsers since about 2011 2012 have gotten much much slower and much worse performance with each"update" seems like performance continues to significantly decline with each new version update that is forcefully updated automatically i cant even use FF anymore ,

i dont what they are doig but i suspect they are putting in more and more spyware to the point it is really seriously affecting performance firefox is the worst one and chrome has been declining really bad now as well though
i remember being able to have 5 windows open with 60 tabs in each window open and multiple browsers
open at once and having no problems no slowdown nothing
now i have like 20 to 30 tabs open in one window and its crashing slowing down and all kinds of problems
FF is slow its not even useable for me and chrome is not what it used to be

You seem convinced that it's tracking and spyware that is making things run poorly. Trust me, it is wayyyyy easier to track/log someone's activity than it is to actually render a webpage. The slowdowns you are experiencing are probably due to the advancements of web technologies that are now able to perform fairly advanced tasks, requiring more resources. There have been steps taken to reduce the performance iompact from this - FireFox, for example, stops actively rendering a page when you switch away from the current tab.

Pixels are always awesome but they're damned expensive (at least for me).

Yeah, but man, that build quality and display! So awesome. If only Windows could be shoehorned onto the damn things, I would totally buy one (and complain about an empty bank account after). Seriously, it puts so many ultrabooks to shame.

 

[weatMod]

Windows 8.1 runs great for me. They made a number of small under-the-hood changes since Windows 7 that when combined end up being more than a sum of their parts. It's actually a little bit painful for me going back to Windows 7 now because it all seems so choppy and dated.



I do agree about "the cloud" idea. I'm not sure why there is such a huge push to go back to dumb terminals reliant on a central servers like in the 60's (approximate timeframe, of course).

And yeah, the stores were certainly a long time coming.




You seem convinced that it's tracking and spyware that is making things run poorly. Trust me, it is wayyyyy easier to track/log someone's activity than it is to actually render a webpage. The slowdowns you are experiencing are probably due to the advancements of web technologies that are now able to perform fairly advanced tasks, requiring more resources. There have been steps taken to reduce the performance iompact from this - FireFox, for example, stops actively rendering a page when you switch away from the current tab.



Yeah, but man, that build quality and display! So awesome. If only Windows could be shoehorned onto the damn things, I would totally buy one (and complain about an empty bank account after). Seriously, it puts so many ultrabooks to shame.

yeah i actually would like 8.1 if it wasnt for metro ,it's just useless and fractures the whole experience, i miss the stat menu
and creating and adding desktop shortcuts has gone absolutely full fucking retard

and the major problem i have with all windows is windows explorer the fucking thing is so god damn slow it never generate and populates thumbnails when browsing folder with images, i dont what he fuck the problem is but it's annoying as fuck and it;s total bullshit that this is ot fixed by now, also the should have animated thumbs for gifs

when you look at the obscene amount of net worth these execs have and all cash these companies are hoarding and/or tossing down the fucking turd world shithole toilet with their foundations and"philanthropy" organizations

instead of reinvesting in R&D it really pisses me off to have to deal with all these bugs when they could fix it tomorrow if they would just pull the heads out of their asses and invest a fraction of that money in R&D and fixing shit

 

[RevPokemon]

yeah i actually would like 8.1 if it wasnt for metro ,it's just useless and fractures the whole experience, i miss the stat menu
and creating and adding desktop shortcuts has gone absolutely full fucking retard

and the major problem i have with all windows is windows explorer the fucking thing is so god damn slow it never generate and populates thumbnails when browsing folder with images, i dont what he fuck the problem is but it's annoying as fuck and it;s total bullshit that this is ot fixed by now, also the should have animated thumbs for gifs

when you look at the obscene amount of net worth these execs have and all cash these companies are hoarding and/or tossing down the fucking turd world shithole toilet with their foundations and"philanthropy" organizations

instead of reinvesting in R&D it really pisses me off to have to deal with all these bugs when they could fix it tomorrow if they would just pull the heads out of their asses and invest a fraction of that money in R&D and fixing shit

Then gates would have less $$$ to wipe his ass with

 

[Arras]

yeah i actually would like 8.1 if it wasnt for metro ,it's just useless and fractures the whole experience, i miss the stat menu
and creating and adding desktop shortcuts has gone absolutely full fucking retard

and the major problem i have with all windows is windows explorer the fucking thing is so god damn slow it never generate and populates thumbnails when browsing folder with images, i dont what he fuck the problem is but it's annoying as fuck and it;s total bullshit that this is ot fixed by now, also the should have animated thumbs for gifs

when you look at the obscene amount of net worth these execs have and all cash these companies are hoarding and/or tossing down the fucking turd world shithole toilet with their foundations and"philanthropy" organizations

instead of reinvesting in R&D it really pisses me off to have to deal with all these bugs when they could fix it tomorrow if they would just pull the heads out of their asses and invest a fraction of that money in R&D and fixing shit

install start8/classicshell/whatever other start menu replacement programs there are and suddenly windows 8 has a perfectly functioning start menu again. (also, 'just fix it' tends to be not as easy as one may think when you're dealing with millions of lines of code. Windows Explorer is indeed more unresponsive than it probably should be though, and it still baffles me that Windows Explorer runs in the same process as the desktop and taskbar)

 

[LightyKD]

Again, let's get back to CHROME OS. This isnt a Windows thread ppl!

 

[RevPokemon]

Again, let's get back to CHROME OS. This isnt a Windows thread ppl!

Yes indeed.

But when you talk about os it gets compared to other os systems

 

[weatMod]

i dont even know what chromeOS is or why it's even needed i mean they already have android stick PC's and those run android so what the hell is chromeOS anyways? and why do they even need it? why not just base their shit off of android? why make a whole new OS? whats the difference between the 2 anyways?
i don't get it whats the point

 

[RevPokemon]

i dont even know what chromeOS is or why it's even needed i mean they already have android stick PC's and those run android so what the hell is chromeOS anyways? and why do they even need it? why not just base their shit off of chrome OS why make a whole new OS? whats the difference between the 2 anyways?
i don't get it whats the point

1. Money

2. Android is associated with phones and tabs so people would be skeptical of it on laptops or desktops

3. If android was on mobile and PC it would end up like windows 8

 

[Lacius]

you just admit that the schools are too lazy to teach how to use an actual OS and too cheap to provide real computer, you are teaching them how to use inferior ssytems

It's your unsubstantiated opinion that they're inferior systems. As I've already described in detail, the Chromebooks are actually superior with regard to our needs. And it's not that we're too lazy to teach students about all of the possible computer options; it's that we're too busy teaching them other things. You know, like math, science, language arts, etc.

and because the school is too cheap to provide proper machines

Yes, because my school, like most public schools, is rolling in money and is just too cheap to arbitrarily buy Windows machines that, as I've already described, would just be middlemen between students and Google Chrome anyway. If it settles you down, my district unnecessarily spends roughly $1,000 a year on Windows volume licenses.

and you are very naive if you think that these companies are not data mining the children
i can assure that they most certainly are all their data is being sold to the government the corporations, potential future employers

Time to break out the tin foil hat.

and i can bet your schools is signed on to common core as well

Irrelevancy aside, schools don't sign on to Common Core; states do. A quick look underneath my avatar and simple Google search would have let you know whether or not I live in a state that has adopted Common Core.

 

[takieda]

I have a chromebook Acer C720 and absolutely love this little thing. It's my favorite little creativity work center, getting away from gaming, and watching TV, etc.. (Netflix works on it, I assume, but I refuse to get onto that site while I'm working). It's great to have such a good amount of battery life for such an inexpensive device, as well as the speed that ChromeOS affords.

Though I am tempted to get a larger SSD, because I do like to do basic work on my pictures, and keep them stored in case of a lack of wifi (I take sometimes up to 2000 pictures a day while out and about, so sifting through them in my off time is also a hobby of mine). Haven't tested an offline media player on it, if one exists, so can't comment there, though Pandora is great for listening while I work.

All in all, for the specific purposes I have (as a writer, primarily, and a hobbyist photographer), it has been a wonderful little escape machine, so I don't get wrapped up in gaming on my standard WinLaptop.

Though, to be fair, I would never have considered one if I couldn't use Google Docs while offline - that took a bit to get used to, but works a treat now, and when I'm hiking and get a good writers bug, I can sit down by a tree, pull out the Chromebook and write for a few hours before heading back.

I'm slightly afraid of what's going to happen in a year and a half when my 2 years of free 100GB storage is up ( though I haven't really used much more than the free 5GB yet). I'll probably just end up spending the extra yearly fee for it, as Google Drive has been invaluable for me (needing instant access to my work away from the chromebook hasn't happened often, but when I needed it, it was great to have it there, and exactly as I left it).

 

[takieda]

as far as a Chromebox, I'd get one, run Chrubuntu on it, or openelec (shouldn't be a big deal on that end), then use it as a player for Kodi (previously known as XBMC), but there are more efficient methods for getting a good HTPC.

 

[LightyKD]

1. Money

2. Android is associated with phones and tabs so people would be skeptical of it on laptops or desktops

3. If android was on mobile and PC it would end up like windows 8

I totally agree with number 3. I like Apple and Google's current approach to computing. the "mobile" OS should ALWAYS be different than the home OS. Chrome OS is just better suited for at home use. Right now, a major issue I'm having with Chrome OS is the damn Google Drive syncing. It's to the point that I'm no longer using Drive from the file browser and will only use Drive via the web app. I got tire of it placing files offline that i didn't want there. Hell, out of 16 GB you only get access to roughly 9 of it. I don't want that sucked up by files that just shouldn't be local.

 

[takieda]

I totally agree with number 3. I like Apple and Google's current approach to computing. the "mobile" OS should ALWAYS be different than the home OS. Chrome OS is just better suited for at home use. Right now, a major issue I'm having with Chrome OS is the damn Google Drive syncing. It's to the point that I'm no longer using Drive from the file browser and will only use Drive via the web app. I got tire of it placing files offline that i didn't want there. Hell, out of 16 GB you only get access to roughly 9 of it. I don't want that sucked up by files that just shouldn't be local.

Haven't personally experienced that issue myself, but then most of my stuff is either kept on the camera card, or synced offline and online simultaneously anyway (either writing or pictures for me).

My only real problem with my Chromebook is the proliferation of "apps" that are overglorified links to the online website - that's why I have a bookmarks toolbar - HATE those "apps." I actively one star any app like that.

 

[LightyKD]

Haven't personally experienced that issue myself, but then most of my stuff is either kept on the camera card, or synced offline and online simultaneously anyway (either writing or pictures for me).

My only real problem with my Chromebook is the proliferation of "apps" that are overglorified links to the online website - that's why I have a bookmarks toolbar - HATE those "apps." I actively one star any app like that.

I don't mind those type of apps if the site is truly a web app, I.E. Google Drive or Sumo Paint. I would like to see more app developers from Android make a stab at creating Chrome OS versions of their products.

 

[PityOnU]

I totally agree with number 3. I like Apple and Google's current approach to computing. the "mobile" OS should ALWAYS be different than the home OS. Chrome OS is just better suited for at home use.

If android was on mobile and PC it would end up like windows 8

I actually strongly disagree with this. I have absolutely no idea who made the call to make a whole new OS instead of just making a branch of Android. It would have been so much simpler (and useful for end users) to just make a desktop optimized launcher and system UI for Android tjan to create a whole new OS and API from scratch. They even already have all the hooks in place on the Play Store to check if a device is using a touchscreen or not.

WTF guys.

 

[LightyKD]

I actually strongly disagree with this. I have absolutely no idea who made the call to make a whole new OS instead of just making a branch of Android. It would have been so much simpler (and useful for end users) to just make a desktop optimized launcher and system UI for Android tjan to create a whole new OS and API from scratch. They even already have all the hooks in place on the Play Store to check if a device is using a touchscreen or not.

WTF guys.

You could say the same about Apple but to me a OS is just as much about the philosophy. The same is true with game consoles. I want a OS dedicated to the dsktop, not a mobile OS edited to work on a desktop.

 

[RevPokemon]

You could say the same about Apple but to me a OS is just as much about the philosophy. The same is true with game consoles. I want a OS dedicated to the dsktop, not a mobile OS edited to work on a desktop.

Plus android systems are mainly arm and desktops/laptops are x86

 

[LightyKD]

Plus android systems are mainly arm and desktops/laptops are x86

Exactly and lets be blunt, Android x86 kinda sucks. There are plenty of good apps that just wont run on it.

 

[ody81]

Personally I feel that I like Chromebooks but for myself they aren't worth the price when for a bit more you can get a windows with more features. Now I don't have a problem with chrome books but they don't suit me needs

Yeah screw the chromebooks, I get soooo much enjoyment from my toshiba encore and that's a cheap as chips win 8 tablet. Get windows and while you're at it, grab the win 10 tech preview.

Android's great in you're palm on a phone but the living room's a different beast. I'm sure android WILL be a powerhouse for living room HTPC/Gaming one day, but not today.
As for style: I've used many an android and many a custom kernel, they're not real stylish gui-wise and a litttle cumbersome to noobs at an house party too.

Windows 8/10 tab/laptop + Kodi & Steam and you're set.

 

[ody81]

Because to simply put it, Windows 8 may not work great on tablets due to specs but it is better than the faster RT because RT has always been mediocre due to lack of support.

From experience Windows 8 works fantastic on tablets bar a couple of issues. I recently went to Win 10 on my tablet (tech savvy only, bring an otg for emergencies) and all those problems are gone, yay! The system maintenance was a little off in win 8.