Who Here Is Getting A Chromebook?

By | May 16, 2011 | 10 Comments

Are You Getting One?

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I am rather curious about this matter. Although Google Chrome OS is an operating system, it is an operating system that consists of only a web browser. It boots you into an enhanced version of Google Chrome and you do what you need to do from there. It has never been done before to my knowledge, and since major browser vendor Google is pushing this project with all that it’s got, Google Chrome OS may very well be here to stay. Who knows, perhaps Opera, Mozilla, or even Microsoft will follow?

For now, however, it is just Google. And Samsung. And Acer. Two of the largest manufacturers of consumer electronics have taken it upon themselves to support Chrome OS, each offering a sleek looking laptop computer running Google’s upcoming operating system. The Samsung laptop will go on sale for $429 with the 3G model costing $499 while the Acer Chromebook will be starting out at $349. Google also announced a unique pricing model for student and business users. They will be able to get their hands on a Chromebook for $20 and $28 per month respectively including both hardware and software.

If you would like to know more about Chrome OS, then click here. If you want to know about the hardware that Chrome OS will be on, then click here for the Samsung model and here for the Acer model.

So, who here is a big fan of Chrome and could see themselves ditching their current operating system to dwell entirely on Chrome? Who here uses another browser as their primary browser but is intrigued by the notion of booting straight into a web browser? Anybody intending to stick to conservative means of browsing?


About (Author Profile)


Being passionate about software, Armin joined FavBrowser.com in early 2011 and has been actively writing ever since. Having accepted the challenge, he also enjoys watching anime, indulging in good books, staying fit and healthy, and trying new things.

  • Alexei Demchouk

    Google has sent me their Cr-48 and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I believe it is a profitable idea, despite Chromebook’s somewhat steep price tag.

  • http://www.favbrowser.com Vygantas Lipskas

    Nop, eying MSI Wind U270 or ASUS 1215B though. Fusion looks promising.

  • Mohan

    I don’t need one, I have my notebook that runs well with Ubuntu and I have an Archos 70 which runs Android. Also I will be graduating soon with my degree, so a Chromebook for me will be useless.

  • Geist

    They seem to have made something even worse than the ipad, which already worthless to begin with. I don’t understand anyone who buy deliberately crippled devices that cost the same or more than real computers.

    • http://templeofandrex.com Andrex

      The “crippled” devices offer features their “real” cousins can’t.

      For example, security in Chrome OS is virtually impenetrable. It’s Linux (the most malware- and virus-free desktop OS, with a security-conscious modular kernel) plus Chrome (the most malware and virus-free browser, surviving three consecutive Pwn2Owns even when Google has offered $20k for serious exploits and is the third most-used browser worldwide (compared to Safari, which is always  pwned and is in fourth place.))

      Chrome OS devices boot in less than eight seconds (in fact I’ve seen videos of them booting in 4 to 5!) That is not possible with a full BIOS and traditional Windows-like kernel. Many operating systems fake this with a hibernate mode, but it will never come close to what Chrome OS does because they’re simply not designed for it. By being so “limited,” Chrome OS devices become the apex of usability. No more blinking notifications yelling at you to update Java, or Adobe Acrobat, or Adobe Flash. All web apps are always up to date by default and installed Chrome apps are updated without user interference in the background, just like Chrome and Chrome OS itself.

      Because there is only one program, and that program has gotten better over time, Chromebooks will be the reverse of Windows PCs: they’ll get much *faster* over time, instead of getting slower. This is a big deal to me and many others. If you don’t mind wiping your hard drive or replacing it every few years, this isn’t a bonus, but for 99% of computer users it will be.

      Every Chrome OS device so far has a 3G option that gives you 100 MB of data free every month. Few Windows PCs even come with a 3G antennae built-in, and none that I know of give you free data.

      These are the benefits to Chrome OS. It’s not for everyone, but I think people overplay the one downside (no native apps) without even stating the upsides (everything above.)

  • Anonymous

    All you need is the web… if you’re a secretary.  People like myself, on the other hand, need software with no current port to the web platform, such as Steam, XBMC, and Adobe Creative Suite.

    As Chrome climbs above 25% marketshare (probably within the year), we may see a larger push from popular software companies to port their products.  OS marketshare begets software, and hardware begets OS marketshare.

  • Armin

    I can’t help but feel that Google should push OnLive on Chrome OS to entice gamers. A cloud gaming service that simply requires a plug in and basic hardware would probably sell more Chromebooks.

  • http://templeofandrex.com Andrex

     I’d buy one if I had the money, it’s practically my dream device.

  • Nobody

    nice toy for facebookers and people that dont do anything serious

    and for people that ‘trust’ everybody on the internet with their data..

    recent sony and amazon debacles should ring some alarms in people that ‘trust’ cloud computing is and can be safe – it cant.

    how fun it is to have a piece of hardware that is only usefull when one service in remote country runs. you say google will always run? and what about blogger last week? what about gmail incident last month when millions (temporarily, true) lost their emails? ah the happy moment when all your games are not available because steam is in mainteneance or your movies failing to ‘authorize’.. i like to keep my stuff working.

    if all you do in life is facebook – then go for it – i’ll pass

    there is also a little issue with webdeveloper tools – javascript is relatively mature language, but tools for it – are still not (and noone seems to make them mature). writing serious apps with javascript is still more expensive than with other languages. even if you intend them to run on one browser (chrome apps or whatever are these called). this will lead to most apps being thinest of thin clients and all logic run server side – enjoy ZI LAG! dont make games fool you, games are fancy gfx and little logic, make me a MS project replacement with javascript and make it run fast.

    btw – somebody above said that ipad is pointless – it isnt, but it is usefull for reasons different than apple wanted us all to believe (and you can make huge cash selling apps for it, it is another matter)

    btw2 – someone said about boot time – this is ‘resume from sleep’ trick – same stuff all android 3.0 tablets do. take battery out, making it trully dead, and start it over – it will take awhile, not as long as custom build pc, but not 8 seconds. want to see the difference – wait for your android to get an update over the air and let it reboot after updated – that cold start taaaaaakeeeessss sommmmeeee tiiiiimeee..

  • http://rudivisser.myopenid.com/ Rudi Visser

    I fail to see why anybody would waste their money on this, perhaps it’s just me! 

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