Acer sees success in Chrome; Windows fails to drive sales
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 28th Jan 2013 22:38 UTC
Hardware, Embedded Systems "Acer, the Taiwanese computer maker that's suffered two consecutive annual losses, posted strong sales of notebooks using Google's Chrome platform after the release of Microsoft's Windows 8 failed to ignite the market. Chrome-based models accounted for 5 percent to 10 percent of Acer's U.S. shipments since being released there in November, President Jim Wong said in an interview at the Taipei-based company's headquarters. That ratio is expected to be sustainable in the long term and the company is considering offering Chrome models in other developed markets, he said." HP is also planning a Chrome OS laptop, and it's been at the top of Amazon's charts (whatever that means) for a while now. In case you haven't noticed - the desktop world, too, is changing. Nobody wants Windows 8 (touch or no), so OEMs are finally looking elsewhere. We're finally getting what we wanted 13 years ago.
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Be careful what you wish for, you may get it.
by tidux on Mon 28th Jan 2013 22:49 UTC
tidux
Member since:
2011-08-13

Yay, they're using GNU/Linux!

Wait, ChromeOS? Isn't that some horrible piece of crap that refuses to even give you a local shell and has a whole bunch of proprietary crap in the GUI? How is this better than Windows again?

Reply Score: 4

project_2501 Member since:
2006-03-20

For most users ChromeOS offers just enough of what they need. Most users don't need a shell prompt.

If you do, I'm sure you know how to get one.

Reply Parent Score: 9

tidux Member since:
2011-08-13

Yeah, by nuking ChromeOS and installing Debian - assuming I'm physically able to do that on a Chromebook.

Reply Parent Score: 2

Read more of this thread... >
the_randymon Member since:
2005-07-06

For most users ChromeOS offers just enough of what they need. Most users don't need a shell prompt.

If you do, I'm sure you know how to get one.


Seriously, I was thinking the same thing. You'd say the same thing about Android ("it's a tablet OS, it just works, your mom knows how to use it, it's not for geeks, etc."). But go to the Google Play store and you'll find dozens of terminal/shell apps, and other apps that give you a command line on your Android device.

Seems like this argument has run off the rails.

Reply Parent Score: 3

Casey99 Member since:
2011-07-14

Most users don't want shell. It is intimidating to them. It is one of the things that scares people from Linux in general.

Reply Parent Score: 4

Sodki Member since:
2005-11-10

Most users don't want shell. It is intimidating to them. It is one of the things that scares people from Linux in general.


Please don't make that kind of generalization, it's simply not true.

Reply Parent Score: 3

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Fergy Member since:
2006-04-10

Most users don't want shell. It is intimidating to them. It is one of the things that scares people from Linux in general.

Most users don't want a shell most of the time. That one time that it might help them is removed from the device. (kind of like being able to remove the battery/storage. when you need it you are really glad you could)

Reply Parent Score: 4

Sodki Member since:
2005-11-10

Wait, ChromeOS? Isn't that some horrible piece of crap that refuses to even give you a local shell and has a whole bunch of proprietary crap in the GUI? How is this better than Windows again?


Regarding ChromeOS, I was one of those who cried out in disgust regarding this locked-down system, but now I can see its redeeming features. And apparently it's based on Gentoo Linux. :-)

ChromeOS is a locked-down, secure system that offers a good chunk of features for a good chunk of people. I'm talking about people who mostly use the web for their computing needs, which is quite a large target. And if you consider that there are offline versions of Gmail and Google Docs, things start to get interesting.

Now, for the *very* interesting part. ChromeOS might be locked down, but the devices are hacker-friendly. You can simply grab a Chromebook and install another OS of your liking. A very cheap, good, open, light, silent ARM or x86 laptop running Gentoo? I simply haven't got the nerve to buy one yet, but I'm sure I will in the near future.

Reply Parent Score: 7

JAlexoid Member since:
2009-05-19

You'd surprised but it's most people. Most people start their computers, open a browser and never leave it.
They may open some document to edit or run iTunes(because god forbid Apple to give you full access to your media library through icould.com)

Reply Parent Score: 4

przemo_li Member since:
2010-06-01

You just need to set hardware switch witch is hidden under cover.

Easily doable. And proper UEFI Secure Boot implementation. Like one you will find in Win8, like one you will not find in WinRT.

What is really good about Chromebooks is hardware selection.

You can pick ARM hardware and other dirty cheap parts, to build dirty cheap offering. And you will still be able to run ChromeOS on top of it with good performance.

That is biggest advantage over Win8 and WinRT, first require too "big" hardware, second do not have lots of apps (compared to "the internet").

Reply Parent Score: 3

darknexus Member since:
2008-07-15

Yay, they're using GNU/Linux!

Wait, ChromeOS? Isn't that some horrible piece of crap that refuses to even give you a local shell and has a whole bunch of proprietary crap in the GUI? How is this better than Windows again?

Because it actually works with very little configuration, unlike desktop Linux? Besides, the market these devices are targeted at don't give a damn about GPL vs proprietary. Actually, neither do I. Plus, the more of these devices that are sold, the less we'll see the web dependent on one operating system. No matter how you slice it, that is an excellent consequence. Besides, you can hack the hell out of one of these babies if that's what you want to do, and it'll help get rid of what so many open source fanatics call the "Microsoft tax." Sure seems like a promising situation to me, even though ChromeOS is far too limited for my needs.

Reply Parent Score: 4

moondevil Member since:
2005-07-08

No, you just get to pay the Google Tax to get a browser trying to be an operating system.

Then you need to wipe it out of the system and install a proper operating system.

Somehow I think it feels similar to another operating system developed by a company in Redmond.

Reply Parent Score: 3

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pgeorgi Member since:
2010-02-18

Wait, ChromeOS? Isn't that some horrible piece of crap that refuses to even give you a local shell ...

No, it's not: http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/poking-around-your-chrome-os-de...

Reply Parent Score: 5

tidux Member since:
2011-08-13

Cool! This appears to be Secure Boot done right - a verified image for people that want it, but a GNU/Linux system with root access for people that don't. Now if only they'd switch to an open source PDF engine and drop Flash...

Reply Parent Score: 2

Lennie Member since:
2007-09-22

Well, you can easily get at the local shell by enabling 'developer mode' at startup.

The shell isn't proprietary. Most of the code from the Chrome-browser is from the open source Chromium-project. The same applies to ChromeOS which is based on the open source ChromiumOS-project.

It is a lot more open than the Android project. Development all happends in the open.

Reply Parent Score: 3

Valhalla Member since:
2006-01-24

whole bunch of proprietary crap in the GUI?

What is this 'whole bunch of proprietary crap'?

Reply Parent Score: 2