Google ChromeBook Review: ChromeBomb? | Hacker News Reader

Google ChromeBook Review: ChromeBomb?

stefanweitz.wordpress.com

72 pointsStefandweitz51 comments

Google ChromeBook not ready for primetime...

I can't even begin to comprehend the stupidity that went into this blog post.

The entire point of the Chromebook is that your OS is constantly updated, and you're complaining about it updating when you start it for the first time? Also: rich coming from someone that works for Microsoft. A fresh install of Windows has nearly a gig of updates to download.

It tells you what product you're using after booting for the first time? You know, like basically every product in existence? Let me introduce you to the dozens of Welcome to Windows screens you get after installing your company's OS.

I honestly didn't think it was possible for someone to physically complain about getting a free taste of 3G service, but there you go on your silly little rant.

Yes, it's not without its flaws. But for what it's aiming to do: be an extremely accessible internet-browsing laptop that has absolutely zero IT overhead, it's a great first shot as a flagship product. Give it 6 months to a year for a lot of the kinks to be worked out, some better file-system interaction, third-part offline Chrome apps to come out, and for the prices to drop a little. Or don't, because you clearly already made your mind up about the product before even laying a finger on it.

>The entire point of the Chromebook is that your OS is constantly updated, and you're complaining about it updating when you start it for the first time? Also: rich coming from someone that works for Microsoft. A fresh install of Windows has nearly a gig of updates to download.

Chromebook was touted as something that doesn't need updates(especially the ones that need full reboots) in the media. The MS guy might have wondered how that was possible, and boom, gets hit by a long update that needed a reboot. How is that rich?

>I honestly didn't think it was possible for someone to physically complain about getting a free taste of 3G service, but there you go on your silly little rant.

He is right to complain about the really low limit of 100MB when it takes all your personal info(and gets stuck in a loop!).

>Or don't, because you clearly already made your mind up about the product before even laying a finger on it.

Huh, he did lay a finger on it, he used it. Did we read the same article? And you were calling his blog post stupid. Now that's rich.

> Chromebook was touted as something that doesn't need updates

Say what? Everything so far has said it would have automatic updates. That is not the same as saying it requires no updates. In fact it is the opposite.

> >Or don't, because you clearly already made your mind up about the product before even laying a finger on it.

> Huh, he did lay a finger on it, he used it. Did we read the same article?

What I believe the grandparent meant was that the author had already made his decision before using it, and that having made his decision of how to view it he then proceeded to view it in that way. This is as opposed to the ideal of reviews, in which the reviewer forms opinions on the usability and quality of a product solely through interaction with a product.

Google Chromebook will have updates but they will be of chrome browser types where they happen behind the scenes and downloads are tiny. You restart your browser and you are on a new version. No one even cares what version of chrome browser you are running now, because they have made versions obsolete. That being said it is a little curious why they had to do it on first boot for 7 minutes. But everyone who is used to microsoft PC's please 7 minutes is like a blink of an eye we have dealt with microsoft's day long updates for 2 decades now.

Have you used ChromeOS? Because that review was almost word-for-word my first experience. At this point, I'm switching my Cr-48 over to Ubuntu.

I have, and it's getting better constantly. You can see positive changes in the UI, speed, and virtually everything else on a weekly or fortnightly basis.

Exactly. Cr-48. You're using a very sub-par version of the final product.

http://www.ifixit.com/blog/blog/2011/06/08/samsung-series-5-...

Chrome on Ubuntu on the Cr48 is more usable the ChromeOS on the Cr48. IMHE. Also, reviewing your link: the specs don't seem much different, except maybe a shiny case and a better trackpad.

No offense, but you come off like a Google fanboy. Nothing in this article seemed out of line or inaccurate.

The best part is that you say to wait a year for the product to get finished. Then you list some of the very criticisms made in the article.

I'd be fine if any of the criticisms I listed were the content of this article. They weren't, they wee an afternote in the last sentence. Instead the author decided to go on a nonsensical rant that made his biases plainly evident.

I paid half that money for an ASUS eee-pc a couple of years ago that had all of those problems. The only difference is I don't have 3G service or 100mb free with it. But it runs Chrome slowly, loses WIFI a lot, has a terrible trackpad, and hangs any time I look at any page with Flash on it.

There is honestly something to be said for an iPad without Flash. I keep trying to convince myself that I want a lightweight laptop instead, but everything I've tried is a letdown. I'm glad I saved my $500.

click-to-flash. but I don't see why anyone would still think flash support is a good differentiator.

Wierd; flash does fine on my first gen eee (as long as I use flashblock and only run it when I need to)

I got mine June 7th too from Gilt. I'm contemplating trying to return it, I'm not sure how returns work out with Gilt though after you've opened a box. The other option is to give it to my parents/little sister as a good machine they can never screw up, but I'd kind of like that $500 back.

I'd be careful about giving this computer to your family. It sounds good, but there are some issues:

- Your family can't screw up the software, but they're not going to understand that they can't run a bunch of programs they'd expect.

- Woe to the guy/gal who lets his/her family's wi-fi connection go down. (EDIT: Specifically your modem and router)

- There are serious compatibility issues with Google apps. Just try sending yourself a powerpoint or word document and see what I mean. It can be really frustrating trying to collaborate with someone if they're not also working in Google apps.

- Printing is going to be an insane pain in the ass and for some reason that's something that's really hard to troubleshoot far away.

Uh, have you read about Cloud print?

I hate printers, printers in Linux have actually been easier than printers in Windows for me lately if you're willing to walk to the printer and determine the IP Address or hostname.

But Cloud Print makes it stupid simple. Install it on your desktop connected to the printer via basic USB, then login to your Google Account. You can now print to that printer anywhere in world from Chrome. Seems pretty easy to me.

Yeah and there's only one printer (I think) from HP that supports cloud print...

The assumption is that you've set up a desktop Windows machine. Printers are fickle things at best, made cheaply, and have mechanical in addition to software problems.

He's either got to buy a compatible printer (extra cost) or set up a windows machine too. It probably has to be on. Not the end of the world (and might be just right considering the family computer situation), but I stand by the notion that there are more potential points of failure.

I don't see how it's any more difficult to set-up a printer with a Chrome device than it is with a regular desktop, especially for a random noob user. It's just not that hard, even if you opt against Cloud Print.

Oh come on, at least tell me what's wrong with the post if you're going to downvote it? Even if we leave of Cloud print entirely, how is it harder for a user to configure a printer with this than it is with any conventional laptop? Surely you don't think the Windows process of downloading a 200MB driver hidden in a manufacturer's website is easier than the Chrome utility?

The requirements to use "Cloud Print" are basically[1] a desktop machine, always on, fully powered and connected to an always on printer, for which one has gone through the hassle of setting up the printer. And after that you can print only from Chrome, and only where you've paired the printer to your account.

"Stupid simple" is only half right.

To me that's a lot of hassle to get basic functionality from a $500 dumb terminal. Better to spend $350 on a laptop, then use printer sharing on that desktop machine. Printer sharing is something that is in all major os's since Windows XP at least. This solutions allows you to print from any app on your laptop.

Better still to perhaps print from the desktop machine which is wasting space, money, and electricity acting as your print spool.

[1] of course cloud ready printers will become more available, but they are rare in the market atm

I don't know about your parents, but my parents have low expectations on what a computer can and should do, and they are cheap.

My mom was doing real estate and the only software their stuff ran on was Windows (no, not even on a mac) despite the software being in Java (yeah, I know, WTF?). I can't for the life of me keep malware out of my parents computers and I live 1200 miles away. For further reference, my mom still refers to the internet, and her email (hotmail) as "the e" aka "the only button that works with my things" and asks "what is a browser" when I tell her to open one up.

-I've had no problems with wifi on my chromebook, I'm not sure what you are talking about

-My dad browses ebay and reads motorcycle forums, and that's about it

-My little sister mostly uses her iPod for the internet, which is on OS 2 I think still.

For the most part, Ubuntu works okay for them to fall back on, but even that gets annoying with all the updates, and I once had to talk them in to setting up a reverse tunnel so I could fix a broken video driver, which wasn't exactly a fun 3 hours. None of them deal with spreadsheets, and my mom's HP printer breaks half the time anyways, so that's where I'm coming from.

Will this replace their other computers? I wish, but no. At the end of the day, I'm confident it's still the most reliable way for them to get on the internet and stay on the internet without me intervening at all, and the utter lack of functionality is a benefit, IMO. I'm completely fine pulling an Apple and saying "Sorry, you can't do that with this computer, but here's what you can do."

Right, until there's malware that can kill chrome.

At which point Google releases and update which 99% of Chrome users have within a month vs several months for Firefox and several years for IE.

http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2011/05/web-browser-market-s...

I received mine on the 8th and I love it. While it is true that the file manager is missing a lot of functionality I think the real problem that Chrome OS brings to the fore is the severe lack of good Chrome apps.

Also, I had no problem getting past the fourth step in the trackpad training tab, unlike the OP who was probably experiencing a PEBKAC exception.

Severe lack of good "Chrome apps"? Every web app that has ever existed is a "Chrome app."

Chrome's extensions can live as entirely unique tabs for offline apps. Shorthand: Chrome apps.

Chrome Web Store - installable, available offline apps/games:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore

As far as I am aware all "Chrome apps" are available via good old URLs. Yes "installing" a "Chrome app" may give the client code access to more caching/offline functionality. But these apps should work just fine without that as well. It just seems odd to lament the dearth of chrome apps as a problem when the whole point of ChromeOS is to give you a web browser without anything extra. You just keep using all the same web apps you always have.

They come in two kinds - hosted which is what you're referring to, and packaged which is actually downloaded / (primarily) self-contained.

Maybe it sounds silly but they do actually want to make the laptop useful without a constant internet connection. IMO the point of the ChromeOS is to run apps in a web browser regardless of whether you have a constant internet connection -- instead of using web apps when online and desktop apps while offline as may people do now.

OT, but is anyone else tired of that Onswipe theme that so many sites seem to force on you if you visit them on an iPad? It wouldn't be so bad ifbthe link at the bottom to go to the normal site worked.

hey, two things and we're working on them:

a) Scrolling sucks since it has to use momentum scrolling. None of the current WP implementation uses Swipecore, our framework for touch publishing. This will fix a lot and is actually quite pleasant

b) Opt-out link should work. Going to submit a fix for this soon.

Feel free to talk more indepth: j@onswpe.com

I guess you could always spoof your user-agent, or use an ssh tunnel if the tracking's more subtle.

Weird, I have a cr-48 and I encountered the same problems with Verizon activation. You think they would have figured this out.

Hmm, I was in the beta and I thought this would be a good buy at say $150. $500? they must be mad.

You have to take this in stride. As an example, have you ever bought a laptop with a built-in WWAN card? Lots of hassle and custom software to "activate" your device. Activating my Thinkpad X220 took nearly two hours on the phone with Sprint, because they were convinced that there was no way a Thinkpad could use Sprint. Only Dell. And of course there was no interface like "log into your Sprint online account to activate this thing". Nope, "call some random people that know nothing about computers and maybe you'll get it to work." Wonderful user experience, and that's with Windows 7 from Microsoft right there. (I erased Windows after this step, of course.)

And of course, many manufacturers don't even allow dongle-free 3G at all -- good luck getting a MBP with Sprint service.

The same goes for most of the points. Yeah, it has a shitty wifi card. Of course it does, so does nearly every laptop ever made. Yeah, it needs updates. Do you think for $500 they personally hand-inspect each device before shipping it to you, making sure it's up to date? Nope, they burn the OS image to a million hard drives 3 months before the release date.

When you spend $500 on a computer, it's not going to be very good. Chrome, Windows, or otherwise.

> When you spend $500 on a computer, it's not going to be very good.

Uh? The two last machines I bought were under $500 and they're working pretty well. Price and quality aren't always correlated.

Did you get an SSD for that price? Probably not.

That's the compromise that the reviews were complaining about. It's instant-on, but there is only 16G of space. Well, if you paid $100 more, then you'd have 80G of space and it'd be instant-on. Or, you could have 500GB of space, but it wouldn't be instant-on anymore.

The less something costs, the more compromises there are. That's all I'm saying.

Actually, to be precise, one of the machines was an early Eee PC, costing 300 EUR, with a 4 GB SSD. :-P

Yeah, the 901 was a nice machine. Great screen, working wifi, and very light. I "replaced it" with a newer Eee PC last year, but the newer model was more expensive, had the same CPU, was heavier, and had a much shittier screen. Worst laptop ever.

I replaced that with a Thinkpad X220, and it blows both of them away. (But it cost twice as much.)

The big thing for the ChromeBook for me is the price. It shouldn't cost more than a more fully-featured notebook. $250 - I'd be all over one. $500? No thanks.

The author starts with a disclaimer "I do work for Microsoft so you can expect bias" and ends with a conclusion like "we can absolutely dismiss this thing because of its shitty OS."

Maybe because it's not running Windows?

Maybe. But why not address his points before knocking someone that did full disclosure?

This review is absolutely asinine, which is clear regardless of your leanings towards the concept of a browser-as-an-os device. It'sa thinly veiled one-sided lash-out against a new technology which is apparently disruptive to MS's (or at least this blogger's) world view.

I thought it was informational, he gave his first impressions.

I don't think just because you're a Microsoft employee your opinions should automatically be discarded regarding competitor's products because they may be tainted. Also, since MS competes with virtually everyone, by your standards, this guy could pretty much close down his blog for good.

Anyone tried switching one of these machines to Ubuntu? I'm in the process of moving my Cr-48 over.

http://chromeos-cr48.blogspot.com/2011/04/ubuntu-1104-for-cr...

meh. I would argue that the title is editorializing ("bomb" appears nowhere in the blog post), but I suppose it's the original author submitting. Maybe add a "BREAKING!!" next time to really get the votes?

I've only gotten to use a CR48, but I thought it was fine, if a little underpowered. Engadget liked the new samsung pretty well[1], just thought it was somewhat underpowered, and Gizmodo liked it alright but also thought it was underpowered[2]. Both talked about missing the features that weren't there yet (like offline support), but that are coming.

To the author: if you have to include phrases like "What amazes me most is the number of reviews I’ve seen today that overlook the fatal flaws", yes, it could be that they're all suffering from groupthink, or they're too forgiving, or they're bad at their jobs.

On the other hand, this machine could just not be for you. Honestly, why did you even think it was? You're bitching about having to wait on the network to load a document...I think you could have figured out you were going to have to do that without even getting a chromebook. People are pointing out your statement about working at Microsoft (and google has done a little baiting there, so I understand), but I think the real crux is right here: "I’m also a computer scientist from the days of old with a fetish for hardware". Yeah...there a lot better ways to spend your money.

[1] http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/10/samsung-chromebook-series... [2] http://gizmodo.com/5810831/samsung-series-5-chromebook-built...

better title: "microsoft employee doesn't like chromebook"

>Oh right – the one where Google announces the desktop OS dead in favor of a networked computer that uses the browser as the OS. It is precisely because they’ve made this an OS play that we can absolutely dismiss this thing because of its shitty OS.

Oh sure, I remember that being precisely how Google phrased all of this.

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