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Comment by OliverJones | Hacker News Reader

I volunteer in an after-school supplemental program for kiddos in public housing. Three years ago we scared up a grant to buy four iPads to help the kids do their homework.

Then a local teacher intervened and said, no, no, no, get Chromebooks. We did. We got six for the same money. They're compatible with the local school IT systems. They reset themselves when somebody logs off, so we don't have to worry about what the kids install on them.

THEY HAVE KEYBOARDS! Kids can use them to for written-word assignments without futzing around with the onscreen keyboards.

They aren't quite as game-focused as the iPads. That means we get less squabbling over who gets to use them and for what. (I've taken to leaving my iPad at home because it's an attractive nuisance.)

They're cheap enough that it's not the end of the world if one gets damaged.

The chromebooks are a big win for us and the kids we serve.

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https://www.neverware.com/

Can be used on recycled laptops. Provides Chromeos. Free for personal (no support). I have no connection with neverware other than being impressed with their work when I tried it on a 9 year old Thinkpad.

Agreed, chromebooks make the most sense after a certain age.

The youngest kids still should get tablets though (if anything.)

Just pointing out that it's still a matter of what's appropriate for a particular classroom, never one size fits all.

I hope you will find something equally good when Google decide to discontinue the OS.

Given that they are pichai's baby, and are poised to gain the ability to run Android apps, I would not expect that to happen any time soon.

They're also a work laptop option for Google employees.

Yeah, the pixel line of devices seems in part to be about weening Google off their Apple product addiction. Never mind dogfooding their own software products.

out of curiosity what is the model of choice internally?

I'd expect it to be the Chromebook Pixel.

FWIW Friend of mine at Google could not get a CB Pixel. Are they supply constrained? Anyway, he was mad at Apple for such a long wait for MBP updates (6 months ago), so he purchased a Razer Blade Stealth and loves it.

HP Chromebook 13 and Dell Chromebook 13

Looks like you're still pissed at Google for shutting down Google Reader.

It's reasonable not to trust Google to keep any particular product or service alive once it's no longer politically fashionable inside the company. Their record speaks for itself, loudly.

So you want Google to only launch products that are guaranteed to be supported until the end of time?

I guess if you don't count Gmail, Search, Android, Drive, Photos, etc, Google's record is pretty bad.

There were 29 words in my post. Looks like you stopped reading after 14. Any reason for that?

Photos is new. It replaced Picasa, which was discontinued.

Picasa was a pretty great app... as was desktop search widget thingy... I wish that Picasa/Photos were better integrated, and the interface were cleaned up like other MD apps from google... that said, Picasa was a great app for managing photos.

There is a complete list of google products and services and what's been canceled and when: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products

Google canceled a whole bunch of things, some of which a lot of people used. Now a lot of people are perhaps rightfully sceptical about all their products, if that product is not part of their core.

They still have quite a lot of stuff though.

Google's record is pretty bad. If you didn't count Gmail, Search, Andriod, Drive, and Photos, it would go from pretty bad to abysmal.

I want Google to launch and support the products I like, and not shut them down while I still enjoy using them.

I'd also like them to have a clear and unambiguous strategy so I can cleanly move from one product to the next when they do phase out a product.

But, "people in Hell want ice water," as they say.

And Fiber rollouts and Wave and XMPP and a whole host [1] of other things it committed to... My favorite unfortunately-named one was Google Keep.

[1] https://www.gwern.net/Google%20shutdowns

As far as I can tell, that article doesn't actually name Google Keep as being shut down, and was in fact written shortly after Keep was released. Which is a relief, since Keep is exactly what I want from a notes app.

Yes, as far as I could tell then in 2013 (or now), Keep was alive. Given that it had just been released (and a sarcastic article on it was actually part of my impetus for that analysis), the survival model only gave it a 61% chance of surviving until 2018. As it's almost 2018 now and Keep is alive, that suggests (on purely statistical grounds) it has a better chance of sticking around for a while.

Can't the same be said for Apple or Microsoft? If either company changes its mind, say Apple release an iPhone XL and discontinues tablets, then the older devices will become less supported in the same way.

The iPad is an iPhone XL.

Which also can't get voice cell service.

How would adding that feature kill the platform? I'm not sure what the contention is here.

> I'm not sure what the contention is here.

Found the Ars Technica Battlefront veteran.

> I volunteer in an after-school supplemental program for kiddos in public housing. Three years ago we scared up a grant to buy four iPads to help the kids do their homework.

> Then a local teacher intervened and said, no, no, no, get Chromebooks. We did. We got six for the same money. They're compatible with the local school IT systems. They reset themselves when somebody logs off, so we don't have to worry about what the kids install on them.

> THEY HAVE KEYBOARDS! Kids can use them to for written-word assignments without futzing around with the onscreen keyboards.

> They aren't quite as game-focused as the iPads. That means we get less squabbling over who gets to use them and for what. (I've taken to leaving my iPad at home because it's an attractive nuisance.)

> They're cheap enough that it's not the end of the world if one gets damaged.

> The chromebooks are a big win for us and the kids we serve.

How did you only get six Chromebooks for the price of four iPads?

> How did you only get six Chromebooks for the price of four iPads?

By avoiding the absolute bottom-of-the-barrel ones that might not stand up to a classroom environment?

The Asus Chromebook Flip C302 and Samsung Chromebook Plus are $449, for example.

The C302 definitely looks interesting... have any experience with "corporate" vpn connections? When my last mbp was stolen, I used an earlier atom chromebook for nearly a year, but without VPN access (at the time) that worked, it wasn't great.

When I needed more, I could RDP, or SSH to something bigger... was nice light/small machine to have with me to stay connected. As it is, my current (2014 rmbp) sits mostly in the bag and rarely goes with me. My work issued one is tethered to the desk. Wouldn't mind a machine I care a little less about losing to have with me, or keep in the car even.

Also, how is the feel of the touchpad? I'm guessing newer builds/kernels should support docker now.

My kids' school has had them for a number of years now. They are all Dell and don't cost much more than $200/unit w/ coverage. Sure, kids break them occasionally, but most of the drops and slams that break a $200 unit will also break a $450 one.

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