Google is coming for Microsoft's lunch with converged Android PCs | Hacker News Reader

Google is coming for Microsoft's lunch with converged Android PCs

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12 pointswalterbell13 comments

As a staunch Linux user, I'd rather have a Windows where I can install anything than a "Linux" where all software comes from an app store. But I expect Google to find some middle ground that allows enough freedom to develop on the OS for the OS, with enough fiddling and scary warnings to keep most users from using that mode.

For now I'm kind of neutral leaning negative on this initiative. I fear more dumbed down, locked down and centrally controlled computing on PCs.

Android "Developer Mode" = pKVM VM with standard Debian Linux package repos and vGPU. Qualcomm Arm SoCs include h/w nested virt for pKVM/gunyah. Hopefully this encourages Apple to enable Developer Mode CLI VM on iPadOS, beyond JIT-less iSH.

I've used DeX on and off on Samsung devices since my Tab S3 and Note 9 ... so a long time. DeX is pretty polished.

I have met zero other DeX users, but know a ton of people with devices that support it. I currently have two extra docks and have offered to set up friends with a DeX setup ... they don't want a computer or understand how their phone and a TV and keyboard become one.

So I don't know if this will eat anyone's lunch, because I thought DeX would have proven the market if it existed.

It could probably dent some of the players in the enterprise market, especially ones that are heavily in the Google workspace. Instead of giving everyone Macs, they may roll out these Google devices.

> Instead of giving everyone Macs, they may roll out these Google devices.

Wouldn't they give these people iPads?

Google devices have generally been expensive compared to the market, had abysmal hardware QA/QC, mediocre performance per dollar, and have been bricked by updates repeatedly. If they get updates at all.

iPads, on the other hand...

But they're partnering with Qualcomm, so I'd imagine they'll be using their latest ARM chips to try and compete with Macbooks. I think iPads have too much of a stigma now (not a 'real' 'computer'), and it may take a few years to break out of that for enterprises to take it seriously, whereas Google can start fresh in positioning this platform if they play it right - though that's a big ask coming from the company that has (lost count of how many!) chat platforms.

> I think iPads have too much of a stigma now (not a 'real' 'computer')

This is conflating what has been said in techy reviews and forums like this as if this is how the average technology buyer feels.

iPads are everywhere. Literally, they come with cars as digital manuals, they're on walls in houses, they're used for cash registers, they're used in medical offices... people think of "computers" as something hooked to a monitor on a desk, and most people don't want anything to do with one.

In my experience, completely the opposite is true. All Apple devices were always built with inferior hardware specs but with a highly polished user experience. On the other end of the spectrum, Windows and Android was always a hit and miss experience, but if you get one on good hardware, it outperforms a similarly priced Apple devices on all fronts.

Chromebooks get 10 years of updates.

Isn’t DeX a Samsung-specific thing? I don’t think that will ever compete with Windows. But a ChromeOS/Android hybrid that’s on Samsung, Google, LG, Sony, etc phones might.

The iPad experience on iOS 26 is so desktop-like that I don't think Google is trying to eat Microsoft's lunch with these plans

And I don't think they'll touch Apple's marketshare with iPad because Android on tablets has been treated so badly for so long the market is uneasy

Yeah. At the end of the day, these will be laptops running Android but with a ChromeOS-like experience on top.

Devs (including Google themselves) already neglect Android tablets as is, hell even Android on the phone is neglected when comparing app quality to iOS. Look at the amount of well designed bespoke little iOS apps vs. what's available on Android, and anything available on both already treats Android as a second class citizen.

Even being able to run a Linux VM, these won't touch iPad market share at all.

> Both Google and Apple are coming for the PC market with more lean and modern operating systems, something Microsoft doesn’t currently have.

Both Google and Apple look very much like Microsoft with nothing new to offer: security - fail, UX - at the level of Windows 1.0, Multitasking - at the level of MS-DOS.

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