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Comment by j7ake | Hacker News Reader

Cool dev machine but for 1200 dollars I want to be able to run Microsoft office when people send me documents without asking them to reformat and also edit and modify images with standard software when necessary.

In a collaborative world it is not worth the pain to pay 1200 and not be able to work with people who do not code.

Chrome books are acceptable at the 200 dollar price point (I have one that dual boots archlinux) but they are not replaceable as a main work station unless you never interact with people who use popular software.

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Can't new Chromebooks run Android applications?

Microsoft has Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for Android so it seems like the only think you might be missing out on is Access.

I can't speak to the quality of the Android applications, but the iOS versions are surprisingly well done.

You're right that there are android apps for some of the software I mentioned, but my experience always feels like they are some compromise of the real thing (formatting issues, some problems with commenting involving multiple people...) and image editing software doesn't compare with adobe. My point is this type of compromise is acceptable at a lower price range but not when you're paying 1200 or more.

They can be glitchy(in the sense they are not supported) in my experience not to mention the Page Down doesn't work in Android applications on a Chromebook(unless the app has implemented it which is incredibly rare). I'm just trying to say they aren't useful for many people but just not for me.

My couple years old Pixel runs the Play Store, and most apps are compatible. You run into some apps that don't support every tablets and larger devices, but the big players know what they're doing.

Honestly though, once I bought the thing and tried out Google Docs, I haven't bothered to see if Office works on it. It reads and saves to .docx, and it's nice not having to send or store documents, I just share them.

Good news, you can open Microsoft Office documents at office.com.

MS docs can all open as google docs in browser. When done export out of google docs as .doc or .docx. So no worries on colab.

One caveat: You might get some fuckery with complex excell, as google sheets is not quite as fully functioned.

You've got to be kidding. Have you actually tried that with highly complex documents using tracked revisions, comments, embedded objects, and special styles? It just doesn't work.

This new pricing strategy for the Pixel line seems a very odd strategy.

It sounds like the Pixel phone has sold terribly, and I imagine this will too.

Pixel sold incredibly well and far beyond expectations, it was sold out for months.

Looking into it a bit more, it does seem to be completely dependant on who you read.

Depending on who you read, the 1-2 million speculated to have sold is good or bad.

Yeah, the goodness or badness of those numbers really depends on what Google's intent is in selling them directly. Is it really trying to get into the business of selling phones for profit? If that's the primary goal, then 1-2mm is pretty 'meh' in terms of making a dent in the global high end phone market.

Without knowing what their intent is, the goodness or badness of it can only be speculation. Which won't stop people from stating either position as fact.

It's not dependent on who you read. Selling single digit millions of phones is not impressive.

Apple sells 80M iPhones in a quarter. Samsung is estimating 20M per quarter for the S8.

The Pixel is insignificant in the larger market.

I don't know that I've ever seen a Pixel in the wild.

Its one step towards high-end line like the iphone is going for. Having 1200 bucks computer makes it ok to have 1600 next year. Same is happening with new pixel phone. They went for the luxury clients copying apple style.

Wow, who uses Office these days? I thought everyone has migrated to the cloud docs. Have not seen a Office file in years now...

Every single working day.

We don't put classified data in the hands of third parties and Google Docs just doesn't support the features our users rely on.

It is nice to take notes or Lotus 1-2-3 like features.

I don't know anyone who doesn't use Office in some way.

Really? I still deal with them daily. Is your employer hiring? ;)

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