Chromebook Threatens Windows

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Let's take reality for what it is... until Google gets its head out of its rear-end and develops meaningfully practical alternatives to Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat Pro\Reader, then Chromebook will always remain an "attack" on Windows equivalent to someone annoyingly shooting a BB-gun at your thick-gauge steel sided building... tink, tink, tink... merely annoying, and not much else - as it can't even put a chip in the paint.

Google has earned a reputation of going so far and then stopping. For example, they took Google Drive features to within the ball park of Dropbox, but then stopped (or settled-upon) at a too-basic, missing-features Google Drive client when they could have made it a real Dropbox contender.

Basic is a very asymmetric and precarious proposition... too basic and nobody wants it, cross that line of too much and all the benefits of "less-is-more" are gone, and nobody wants it.
 
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ForgottenSeer 58943

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I am so cheap that I bought a used Acer Chomebook for Work 14 on eBay - brand new in the box - for $385 instead of the current going rate of $540+. Because they are essentially disposable devices I didn't worry about the warranty. I think spending big bucks on a 12.5 inch Pixelbook makes no sense. Then again... I have come to think that spending $1,000 on a "powerful, high-end" Windows or Mac laptop for most of us is a bad deal also. Those $2,000+ purchases are foolhardy. The $3,500+ ones cuckoo. And the $4,500+ I don't know... I haven't invented the words yet.

This kind of thing shocks me.. For my daughter, a $250 i5 Elitebook Refurb with 256GB SSD and 8GB of ran, once de-bloated and WD disabled flies like the wind and can do EVERYTHING she needs, including graphic design. A buddy of mine purchased a $1900 productivity laptop and uses it stock and I really think it feels slower than my daughters. No kidding.

Gaming on laptops is a total waste IMO. They're obsolete too quick and too hard to upgrade. The cost of a good solid gaming laptop outstrips a high end gaming rig pretty quickly and that gaming rig can be upgraded for half a decade or more. I just put 1070 Ti's in ALL of our gaming rigs because those Bitcoin miners are flooding the market in desperation to unload them. I picked up 3 1070Ti's off Ebay for the price of one before. ($250 each lol)

I'd never spend a lot on a Chromebook, it's just not necessary when a Sub-$500 one will get you everything you could ever need.
 
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ForgottenSeer 58943

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Let's take reality for what it is... until Google gets its head out of its rear-end and develops meaningfully practical alternatives to Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat Pro\Reader, then Chromebook will always remain an "attack" on Windows equivalent to someone annoyingly shooting a BB-gun at your thick-gauge steel sided building... tink, tink, tink... merely annoying, and not much else - as it can't even put a chip in the paint.

Basic is a very asymmetric and precarious proposition... too basic and nobody wants it, cross that line of too much and all the benefits of "less-is-more" are gone, and nobody wants it.

Things are changing. Google has a almost full lockdown on the EDU. We've increasingly seen firms switching to G Suite. I was shocked that a major, well known Fortune 500 company we deal with entirely switched to G Suite. From that firm alone, Microsoft is losing millions.

Features - G Suite
 
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This kind of thing shocks me.. For my daughter, a $250 i5 Elitebook Refurb with 256GB SSD and 8GB of ran, once de-bloated and WD disabled flies like the wind and can do EVERYTHING she needs, including graphic design. A buddy of mine purchased a $1900 productivity laptop and uses it stock and I really think it feels slower than my daughters. No kidding.

Gaming on laptops is a total waste IMO. They're obsolete too quick and too hard to upgrade. The cost of a good solid gaming laptop outstrips a high end gaming rig pretty quickly and that gaming rig can be upgraded for half a decade or more. I just put 1070 Ti's in ALL of our gaming rigs because those Bitcoin miners are flooding the market in desperation to unload them. I picked up 3 1070Ti's off Ebay for the price of one before. ($250 each lol)

I'd never spend a lot on a Chromebook, it's just not necessary when a Sub-$500 one will get you everything you could ever need.

It's like owning a Lambo... it's great until you've driven one for a while and come to realize all the caveats, limitations and quirks that you didn't have the foresight to consider because you mentally and emotionally ##### yourself - blinded yourself in glorious whirl-wind Lambo-badge-cache self-denial - buying your first Lambo. Vroom, vroom... the happy romance and thrill of ownership lasts only a short while as they invariably are apt to do. $47,500 auto insurance with a $50,000 deductible ! $4,500 for a single tire ! $7,500 light bulb and $3,500 floor mats... and the depreciation and resale are atrocious because I need every single penny. I mean I'm literally losing hundreds of dollars per day with that depreciation curve. Or is it per hour or second ? Wha... ?
 
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Let's take reality for what it is... until Google gets its head out of its rear-end and develops meaningfully practical alternatives to Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat Pro\Reader, then Chromebook will always remain an "attack" on Windows equivalent to someone annoyingly shooting a BB-gun at your thick-gauge steel sided building... tink, tink, tink... merely annoying, and not much else - as it can't even put a chip in the paint.

Google has earned a reputation of going so far and then stopping. For example, they took Google Drive features to within the ball park of Dropbox, but then stopped (or settled-upon) at a too-basic, missing-features Google Drive client when they could have made it a real Dropbox contender.

Basic is a very asymmetric and precarious proposition... too basic and nobody wants it, cross that line of too much and all the benefits of "less-is-more" are gone, and nobody wants it.
You just scratching the surface with Office and Adobe alternatives, I only mentioned Office cause it's the most basic and highly used program in both schools and enterprise (in which no one to date has given a good alternative, even LibreOffice is basic compared to Microsoft Office, and there's always the compatibility issues with already existing files and files from third-parties that use MS Office).
There's many more programs that are needed like AutoCAD, Colibri and many more. Even if people come up with alternatives they'll probably be more basic, even if not they'll need to waste even more resources to educate their employees on how to use the new Software, which will lower productivity.
So I can't keep a straight face when reading this article, while knowing everything I said above. The claims are ridiculous at best and won't affect the Windows market at all.
ChromeOS is fine for casual use, but when it comes to work even Linux Distros are ahead, and even more ahead is Mac.
 
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509322

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You just scratching the surface with Office and Adobe alternatives, I only mentioned Office cause it's the most basic and highly used program in both schools and enterprise (in which no one to date has given a good alternative, even LibreOffice is basic compared to Microsoft Office, and there's always the compatibility issues with already existing files and files from third-parties that use MS Office).
There's many more programs that are needed like AutoCAD, Colibri which are needed and used. Even if people come up with alternatives they'll be probably be more basic, even ignoring that they'll need to waste even more resources to educate their employees on how to use the new Software, which will lower productivity.
So I can't keep a straight face when reading this article, while knowing everything I said above. The claims are ridiculous at best and won't affect the Windows market at all.
ChromeOS is fine for casual use, but when it comes to work even Linux Distros are ahead, and even more ahead is Mac.

You'd be surprised that there are some well-known companies who are making Chromebook work for them. One of our corporate parents - All Nippon Airways - adopted G Suite Enterprise.

By the time today's 5 year-olds enter IT positions - who have used Chromebook for two decades or more - the established attitudes towards Chromebook, Windows, and their place within Enterprise IT will have fundamentally changed. Most of what goes on today in IT is legacy-driven, tied to hardware that is obsolete but nevertheless really expensive to replace and human thinking and behaviors that can best be described as "stuck." Those kinds of hurdles are overcome by a consistent and persistent long-horizon strategy.

Chromebook has succeeded in gaining in-roads to the extent that Microsoft is paying attention and attempting to come up with its own product alternative - which usually for Microsoft is way to little, too late.

So the reality is that Google's stated plan of sure-but-slow chipping away and erosion of Windows in certain market sectors is succeeding. And it is laying one of the most powerful foundations for the future... and that is getting a Chromebook in every kids hands.
 
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DeepWeb

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I think if I ever bought a cheap laptop I would just install some linux distro on it than to be dependent on a constant internet connection. But Microsoft offering Windows 10 upgrade for free until well into 2019 is a massive disincentive for any other laptop/desktop OS. Why would I bother?
 
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ForgottenSeer 58943

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Keep in mind, you can run Linux apps perfectly in ChromeOS these days via Crostini which Google custom designed ground up.

Surprisingly, it's relatively easy to adapt to Chromebooks and unless you use specialized hardware (like my daughter and her drawing pads) it's easy to make the transition. Especially these days. Remember the EDU environment has almost entirely switched away from Windows ecosystem to the point Microsoft is in panic mode. Netflix corporate switched to Chromebooks awhile back, but we're seeing a good number of Fortune 500 firms switch to them. Security theater largely ends, and they basically present a hardened OS to each employee.
 
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I think if I ever bought a cheap laptop I would just install some linux distro on it than to be dependent on a constant internet connection. But Microsoft offering Windows 10 upgrade for free until well into 2019 is a massive disincentive for any other laptop/desktop OS. Why would I bother?

Hassle-free is much more important to me than features. I don't game. I am not an app collector. I am not a media hoarder. I just want clean, simple, low-maintenance, low-hassle, long battery life, fast-and-easy reset if needed, and just plain simple and problem-free. That sure ain't Windows. And it definitely ain't no Linux distro.
 
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Keep in mind, you can run Linux apps perfectly in ChromeOS these days via Crostini which Google custom designed ground up.

Surprisingly, it's relatively easy to adapt to Chromebooks and unless you use specialized hardware (like my daughter and her drawing pads) it's easy to make the transition. Especially these days. Remember the EDU environment has almost entirely switched away from Windows ecosystem to the point Microsoft is in panic mode. Netflix corporate switched to Chromebooks awhile back, but we're seeing a good number of Fortune 500 firms switch to them. Security theater largely ends, and they basically present a hardened OS to each employee.

They can do all kinds of stuff with it, but its the legacy Windows mentality.
 

Ink

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From a security perspective Android apps just aren't a good idea. What I meant was "Don't do that" for the security-conscious ascetic among us.

People give short-shrift to Chrome OS and Chromebook, but when you research it, it turns out to be a little adventure in IT experimentation - or a big one - depending upon where one is willing to take it.
Nor are Win32 apps on Windows desktop or those legacy Firefox add-ons, once installed they have full access to every files on your PC or Browser.

Apps running on Android, iOS and possibly Chrome OS(?) will ask the user for access to the devices Camera, Location, Files, Microphone etc.

What I meant was "Don't do that" for the security-conscious ascetic among us.
This I am not. :)
 
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Same response as to @Lockdown. Some of us aren't really into all that technical stuff. But also don't disregard Apple products as a trash option - not that it was implied.
Actually Mac OSX is the only suitable alternative to Windows when it comes to work, it supports natively most of the programs we need/use. I honestly don't like nor use Apple products, but I'm not a fanboy, I like facts and hate misinformation.

In terms of productivity ChromeOS is far behind Linux Distros, and Linux Distros are far behind Mac OSX.

I've seen how many companies tried and failed to change their systems to Linux, I was actually a big help in some and provided all I could considering the Linux limitations in terms of Software, in the end after less than a year they all went back to Windows (as it lowered productivity, caused issues with some old content, and were unstable overall).

I still have my Surface tablet that was given away by my company, and has helped a lot with productivity in our company (in fact everyone loves it), and I don't see a ChromeOS Machine replacing even that any time soon.

All I see from this guys is talk of security this, security that, it's understandable since this is a security community. But fact is, we need more than security in our daily lives (specially when talking school/work), and being paranoid over security is not healthy either, Windows can be perfectly safe for the majorly of us.

What I mean again, is that ChromeOS is not replacing Windows anytime soon specially in the professional market, I've seen articles like this before only replace ChromeOS with Linux. Let the fever pass and as everyone tries and reaches ChromeOS limitations they'll go steady fast back to Windows.
 
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Actually Mac OSX is the only suitable alternative to Windows when it comes to work, it supports natively most of the programs we need/use. I honestly don't like nor use Apple products, but I'm not a fanboy, I like facts and hate misinformation.

In terms of productivity ChromeOS is far behind Linux Distros, and Linux Distros are far behind Mac OSX.

I've seen how many companies tried and failed to change their systems to Linux, I was actually a big help in some and provided all I could considering the Linux limitations in terms of Software, in the end after less than a year they all went back to Windows (as it lowered productivity, caused issues with some old content, and were unstable overall).

I still have my Surface tablet that was given away by my company, and has helped a lot with productivity in our company (in fact everyone loves it), and I don't see a ChromeOS Machine replacing even that any time soon.

All I see from this guys is talk of security this, security that, it's understandable since this is a security community. But fact is, we need more than security in our daily lives (specially when talking school/work), and being paranoid over security is not healthy either, Windows can be perfectly safe for the majorly of us.

What I mean again, is that ChromeOS is not replacing Windows anytime soon specially in the professional market, I've seen articles like this before only replace ChromeOS with Linux. Let the fever pass and as everyone tries and reaches ChromeOS limitations they'll go steady fast back to Windows.

Nobody cares whether another person uses Windows or Chromebook. If a person likes Windows then they should use it. If a person doesn't like Windows, then the only viable out-of-the-box alternative is Chromebook. Sure, they can use Linux or any of the other OSes out there if they wish. The only thing that matters is what that person finds works for them personally. It's a matter of personal choice.

Except in special use cases, Enterprises want fully functional right out of the box. So that means Windows or Chromebook. And once again, nobody cares which one that they use.

From a security perspective, one should care about what others use. Because what others use affects you personally in multiple ways, whether you realize it or not.

The primary reason Chromebook is displacing Windows is cost. It's all about money. The second reason is that people realize they don't need Windows to do the things that they need to do. Sure... at this time, comparatively speaking, Chromebook cannot run all the 3rd-party programs that Windows can, but that limitation is contextual as opposed to an absolute impediment. In all of the most important areas, Chromebook is every bit the equal of Windows - if not better. Most people choose Chromebook because they adhere to a "Less-is-More" mentality - wanting and knowing that Chromebook with be a better usability experience for them personally.

There is no misinformation being spread here. Chromebook is challenging Windows. And in some particular markets Chromebook is now king.
 
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ForgottenSeer 58943

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Linux is not a serious contender with anything given lack of OEM support for Linux. Companies that have tried it moved back to Windows.

For all its promises of ease-of-use and ease-of-management, Windows is garbage.

I see the uninitiated struggle badly with Windows all the time. They don't have the same problems with Chromebook. Anyone who uses a Chromebook figures out that they cannot do things the Windows way - which is the whole reason that they chose a Chromebook in the first place... to get away from all of Windows' annoyances and problems, to use something that is a whole lot easier to manage.

Google's plan is to slowly chip-away at the Windows market. That plan has been working over a decade now. There is a rather long list of large companies that have chosen to adopt Chromebook because it does one thing for them that Windows does the exact opposite - and that is Chromebook saves the organization millions whereas Windows is a huge expense.

Windows keeps support people and managed service providers in business. Almost all of it is over the top buggy or convoluted. It's insecure nature is great for the billion dollar security industry. I know of guys at huge MSP firms and literally - all day fixing windows crap. Dedicated support teams for buggy office products. Dedicated 'pain alleviation' teams to deal with bugs, slowdowns, popups, temp files, optimizations.

One firm we looked at that switched away from Windows cut their IT costs by 82%. That's insane. Moving from managing software and devices to managing data which the productivity increase that came with it once the migration was fully implemented and users were trained. There are a few humps to get over first, but it's getting there!

It will be quite some time before ChromeOS captures a significant share of markets outside of EDU, which they currently dominate to the point they've locked out competition. Windows isn't anywhere near dying obviously and in some cases, has no real competition depending on the segment.
 
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509322

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all day fixing windows crap.

Or trying to figure out how to use Windows in the first place. At least 25 % of the aggregate IT activity time spent on an average day-to-day basis is trying to figure out how to do something on Windows. And that statement applies to the activities from the neophyte home user up to programmers at the highest level with all the other Windows users in-between.

The lower entry-cost and absolutely easier to learn and master nature of Chromebook are huge attractions.

Chrome OS is better in almost every way, especially documentation. Have a question about how to do something on your Chromebook ? Do a search and invariably multiple support.google.com guides will be present in the returned search results.
 
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Windows is blessed bread for repair guys, all kind of issues i could charge 50euros to fix in 30mn max.. LOL.
Then one day, tablets became very popular, then my usual customers disappeared, i closed my business.
Now most repair shops only survive by managing small businesses.
 

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