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Comment by hbn | Hacker News Reader

My pet theory with this move from Chromebooks to Googlebooks is simply that Chromebooks have a major stink on their entire brand reputation, especially in the younger generation that went through school with terrible cheap (and likely used/damaged) Chromebooks being given to them for schoolwork.

I think if you say "Chromebook" around most 20-something and unders, they have an instant negative association with the word.

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Unfortunately I don't think that's going to work.

Unless you are the most hardcore Google fan, I don't see why you want to spend $1k on a Googlebook instead of a Windows laptop or MacBook at the same price range.

Agree from a branding standpoint. Idk what a googlebook is or is going to be, but if it’s kneecapped the same way Chromebook, Android, and “iPad OS” are, it’s never going to be a real competitor.

And by this I mean being captive to App Store/Play Store, the weird “everything has to be inside Chrome” thing of Chromebook, the obtuse window-management contortions of iPad, etc. People expect to be able to install software of their choice on a real computer. I already have a smartphone. I don’t need a second giant one with a keyboard.

If they want to actually compete they should put their weight behind a real Linux distribution that works normally. Totally OK to add all the custom features they want, like running Android apps. But just don’t make it so weird.

(And no, developer-mode side loading doesn’t change any of that.)

I was a hardcore Google fan and that's what made me hate them. Trying to invest in their ecosystem is like being in an abusive relationship. They can't commit to anything, so any product you make part of your workflow will be inevitably ripped away from you with an assured promise that the new, blatantly worse thing replacing it is so much better.

All of their output is entirely dependent on internal product owners using Google products as stepping stones to ladder climb. Once they replaced a product, or did a giant 2.0 revamp, they move on and no one wants to maintain it.

> They can't commit to anything

Site updated fast https://killedbygoogle.com

Because a Windows laptop is a nightmare?

Most work great with Linux or BSD

Most of them work very, very poorly with either of those, by ChromeOS standards. Webcams, touchpads, energy management, etc.

My kid had a school supplied Chromebook for 4 years that she was allowed to keep. She hated it, constantly abused it and was thrilled to stop using it. It's now my spare/mobile work device and I LOVE IT. It has a rock solid build, small enough to use in my lap, touchscreen, still has a great battery and being a Chromebook... it just works! Kids are kinda dumb (I'm only half joking) and I think even if they were given MacBooks she would have shit all over it just because it was associated with school.

> My pet theory with this move from Chromebooks to Googlebooks is simply that Chromebooks have a major stink on their entire brand reputation

I think you're right. Many of the students I've talked to have an immediate reaction of "slow, limited" when asked about a Chromebook. The early years of under-powered hardware and limited storage/memory really did them a disservice when it comes to brand

I was in a Chromebook pilot program when I was at Google. They gave me a different model every month or three as long as I kept giving them feedback. The build quality and usability varied wildly. Some models were so good I forgot I wasn’t on a real laptop. Some were so slow and unusable even on basic sites. Unfortunately the latter tended to be the ones that were so cheap that they ended up in schools.

I guess it's true this could be their AOL disc.

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