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Comment by belltaco | Hacker News Reader

It is exactly like ChromeOS, and focused on education as well and probably won't sell as much as them anyway.

>Recent numbers from consulting firm Futuresource paint a similar picture, with Google commanding 58 percent of U.S. K-12 schools. Windows is in second with around 22 percent and the combined impact of MacOS and iOS are close behind at 19 percent. It’s a rapidly shifting landscape. Three years earlier, Apple’s products represented nearly half of devices being shipped to U.S. classrooms

Can students install anything like Steam on Chromebooks or iPads without jailbreaking them?

It feels like once people see 'Microsoft' in the headline they lose all sense of perspective and automatically scream murder but Google and Apple get a complete free pass to do whatever lockdown they want.

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> Can students install anything like Steam on Chromebooks without jailbreaking them?

Turning on "developer mode" isn't exactly jailbreaking, so yes, they have access to the underlying Linux and can even run a Linux desktop environment of their choice on top of ChromeOS. They can't install Steam because that only supports x86 but you can't blame ChromeOS for that.

I'm pretty sure you won't be able to do that with Windows S, so, no, it's not exactly like ChromeOS.

edit: See http://www.dudleymediagroup.com/Detail/id/how-to-game-with-s...

> I'm pretty sure you won't be able to do that with Windows S, so, no, it's not exactly like ChromeOS.

You are correct, it's not. You can turn Windows 10S into full, unlocked Windows 10 Pro in a few seconds, and that's fee for education users.

However, Windows 10S does solve a lot of problems for education users in preventing kids from downloading non-Store apps that may not be easily removable.

> However, Windows 10S does solve a lot of problems for education users in preventing kids from downloading non-Store apps that may not be easily removable.

I may be wrong, but isn't that basically AppLocker? Why introduce a custom version of your operating system if you could easy merge such a feature into already existing administrative tools (assuming that it isn't, I'm not that familiar with AppLocker)?

There are multiple ways to lock down Windows, and various schools use them. The problem with AppLocker is that it assumes you have a reasonably sophisticated IT department that knows what it wants and can write rules to achieve it.

Windows 10S is much more flexible and requires no set-up and no maintenance. If it's in the Windows Store, you can install it.

Bear in mind that schools run fleets of PCs and children do not have their own. They get whichever comes off the trolley. The Windows store installs whichever apps they use when they log on.

Many Chromebooks are x86-based, but probably not the cheaper ARM ones.

You're absolutely right, somehow I connected Chromebooks to "always ARM". My bad.

This outrageous attack on general purpose computing doesn't become less outrageous just because Google also does a similar attack.

You can upgrade it to normal Windows 10 for $50 through the Windows App Store, which allows you to use whatever browser you want. The goal of this device, when it's stock, is to reduce the configuration headaches that come with computers that aren't locked down and are used by students. It's not a huge deal.

Chrome OS is not a general purpose computer. It is an OS that runs a Browser and is advertised as such. Windows 10 S is Windows normally a general purpose computer now limited for "ease of use and deployment."

How is ChromeOS not a limited version of Gentoo that it's based on and locked to Google's cloud for "ease of use and deployment"?

The argument is General Computer. I argued that Chrome OS is not a general computer operating system. People then down voted me and

> How is ChromeOS not a limited version of Gentoo that it's based on and locked to Google's cloud for "ease of use and deployment"?

I don't understand the statement regarding Chrome is advertised as a solution for certain people but is not a general purpose computer?

Windows 10 S has some very capable general purpose computers that are limited.

There are several different versions of Windows including those for Home and Pro users, upgrades to Enterprise and Education editions, a mobile version that runs on ARM-based phones, an IoT version that runs on a Raspberry Pi, and server versions.

If you cover the whole market from thumbdrives to server farms, you're obviously going to make different versions to fit different usage scenarios. People do that with Linux, too.

Windows 10S is just a new version of Windows 10 Pro that addresses certain needs in the education market in particular.

If you don't want it, don't buy it. If you buy it and decide you don't like it, you can upgrade it to Windows 10 Pro. No big deal.

It's frankly insane to have hissy fits about it destroying civilization as we know it. It's not.

Okay so your okay with Windows 10 S being more Chrome OS and locked down by default?

Not really, but when was the last time you saw a HN article with a title like "Google is stealing computing freedoms with Chromebooks".

Instead, the Chromebook posts and comments on here are mostly about how they're malware free and perfect for older parents and kids, and how they're selling like hotcakes taking over the education market from Windows and Macbooks.

I don't have a problem with Chromebooks as a pragmatic Linux user. Google has been very open in what it was for and who it was for. It wasn't marketed as a general purpose computer. It just was a better tool for certain instances where cloud computing could fill their needs. To be anti-Chrome OS is to be anti-cloud and to my pragmatic goofball thinking I LOVE the cloud even if I do own my own Linux server at home.

Chrome OS was a new system to basically be just a browser that made it easy for my mom and daughter who have serious issues keeping Windows or OS X systems stable. I hand them the Chromebook and tell them that if they need anything they can download it. It works for them and I don't have to save them from disasters all the time.

So I see it as a tool that works for these types of people and is much better then a tablet.

>Chrome OS was a new system to basically be just a browser that made it easy for my mom and daughter who have serious issues keeping Windows or OS X systems stable. I hand them the Chromebook and tell them that if they need anything they can download it. It works for them and I don't have to save them from disasters all the time.

I don't see how Windows 10S is different. It'd be free of malware like "codecs" and spyware that's so common because everything has to run in a strict sandbox plus approved through the Store approval process.

Everything you said applies to Windows 10S as well and if you decide as a parent that you want your child to run whatever they want there's an option to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro. They're marketing it to Education users just like Chromebooks are, not as a 'general purpose computer'.

Windows 10 will still be available on all other devices so I don't understand how you perceive these devices to be so different from Chromebooks. You can hand them to kids and parents and not risk them getting unstable or harmed by downloads.

> Everything you said applies to Windows 10S as well

Your 100% right but

1) The Hardware. They have a $999 Surface Laptop that screams general purpose laptop, but it is Windows 10 S. That right their is the reason why I brought up Steam. That is a laptop very capable of doing a lot but instead it is a Chromebook lock down?

2) The world knows Windows as a general computer operating system. Now we had RT and now S that changes that.

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