My, my... Cats and dogs living together!
I wonder whether they are trying to convince people who need windows applications, or if it's a competition thing.
Google plans to allow Windows 10 to run on its budget Chromebooks, with the Chocolate Factory’s blessing. Chatter has been discovered in the low level source code of a branch of the Google Pixelbook firmware code that would seem to indicate that Google is working on providing drivers that Windows 10 needs to run. The Github …
"ChromeBooks have gained the ability to run Android applications, and more recently Linux binaries too."
Do you think that they'll be executing Windows applications within the ChromeBook ecosystem?
Sooner or later, the various OSs will just run each others' apps. In the same way that a refrigerator can keep both meat and fruit cool. It just won't matter.
How? It'll be virtualization all the way down.
Some chromebooks costs a couple of hundred quid, some cost a grand so hardware will be variable and I wonder if Windows will only support a minimum spec so only the more expensive chromebooks will have it as an option.
Either way, my aincient chromebook runs linux anyway.
Some chromebooks costs a couple of hundred quid, some cost a grand so hardware will be variable and I wonder if Windows will only support a minimum spec so only the more expensive chromebooks will have it as an option.
They're pretty much going to have too. The 8gb Surface Go costs just over 500 notes, despite the availability of an equivalently specced Chromebook for 300. That's a pretty big different - even if the Chromebook lasts half as long as the Surface (and I know of no reason why it should), you'd be better off with a Chromebook as the 2nd upgrade would be 'free'.
I say this as a lifelong MS dev......
It's no good MS looking at Macbook prices and using them to set the cost of a Surface - 3 or 4 years from now I can flog a Macbook for almost half what I paid for it, the 2nd hand Surface won't run anything like that level of residual value.
Without the premium price, how else would these Surfaces look "better"?
I might pay a premium price for an Aston Martin, but I'd not pay it for a Ford. The brands are different market segments. Apple is, completely unfathomobly to me, "cool"; Microsoft just isn't and it will never be.
So how would a Surface look better? Well, it'd do more - most apps run on Windows, certainly most professional level apps (I care not how many fart apps your phone has). That's not to say stuff doesn't run on linux, of course it does, but Windows is the desktop/professional user GUI (sorry penguins, it just is). Leverage that for "better", but just making it expensive means I'm not buying one - residual value is a thing if you upgrade every few years.
I'm sure we're talking a pared-down Windows 10 S or something like that, but with Google's "everything in the cloud" mentality, will they be able to fit more stuff on a Chromebook, or will they have to expand the storage?
I have purchased dedicated Windows 10 tablets before, and even 32GB disappears too quickly.
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I'll bet Google see this as a way to stave off Surface sales - "We run your familiar Office apps too", meanwhile M$ see it as a way to do the exact opposite and penetrate the Chromebook market, and are busy putting together a suite of crippleware for it - "Our apps work so much better on our own hardware".
The licensing deals would make interesting reading.
I am reminded of George Orwell's Animal Farm, in which the rest of the animals could no longer tell the pigs apart from the men they were doing deals with.
> Windows 10 support adds native printing - an alternative to jumping through hoops with Google’s cloud printing service or an OEM equivalent - and management capabilities to the humble Chromebook.
I just VNC or FTP into my humble Raspberry Pi (with CUPS etc installed) and I can network print, scan and do loads of cool stuff with no probs - apart from being a bit slow sometimes.
M$? - no thank you.
Exactly, he just described the hoops you have to jump through to get printing working, and at a slower rate as well. At the same time though I find it hard to imagine that the very people who aren't willing to jump through those hoops are likely to go through the trouble of installing windows on a Chromebook instead of just buying a window laptop.
I bought a little micro computer thingy on Amazon, which was basically equivalent to most Chromebooks: wimpy Atom processor, 32 GB of dog-slow flash storage, 2GB RAM. The plan was to install Ubuntu server, but it came with Windows 10 preloaded. Out of morbid curiosity, I fired it up to see how it ran.
As one would expect, running 10 on that hardware was excruciating. The only thing it did quickly was get worse, as Windows filled up the meager flash storage with non-declinable updates and then consumed all available RAM and CPU cycles for >8 hrs installing them. Even after the update spasms had subsided, it was an absolute dog.
Windows 10 should run passably on premium hardware like a Pixelbook, but it will be bitterly disappointing on the zillions of $200 Chromebooks.
There are some new Chromebook ads running on TV over here, and they specifically target Windows error pop-ups and the BSOD. Will be interesting to see how they work their way back from that marketing strategy. "All the power of Google with all the inconveniences of Windows!" Maybe with a photo of Big Brother as the default desktop background image?
"For as long as no one else can open documents and such reliably from other vendors."
Can anyone open Office documents reliably? My experience was that MS couldn't reliably open their own docs on different versions of their own application. But at least on Linux the doc that had meant Big Red Switch time with MS Office on Windows only hung LibreOffice and not the entire OS.
I suspect that the selling point to corporations is that everybody can have a Chromebook and the management tools, but those who need it can run Windows or Linux on the same hardware. The TCO could be considerably lower than for a Windows fleet with a number of machines running Linux or Macs.
"Now they are pretty much equivalent to all the other 2G Celeron cheap windows 10 home machines"
Except for the ones that run i3 or i7. Of which there are now a fair number.
Though I prefer ARM ones as I have no intention of running anything Windows. I have a box or two for that.
My research when I bought my last tablet (which is actually a 2-in-1 Chromebook) leads me to believe that Google has decided that ChromeOS will be the large form-factor OS (ie. tablets and such) while Android gets relegated to the phone world. I could find relatively few choices from major vendors for Android tabbies. Tons of off-brand kit but IIRC, only Lenovo, Samsung and Huawei for recognizable vendors.
In my other life I do some education work. I like Chromebooks in the school environment because management is an absolute cinch. All the high maintenance and drama stuff happens on the random kit and OS jungle of the day job. At school I just use stuff and only occasionally have to wave a neuron in the general direction of an admin tool.
What fresh hell will having a bastardized Chrome/Win experience and associated dependency + patch management introduce?
"You can guarantee this won't be reciprocal. No chance that MS will want PCs running Chrome OS."
MS don't have any sway on what goes onto a PC other than OEM deals about what's on there when you buy it. The big problem with getting ChromeOS onto random H/W is that, at least last time I looked, builds of ChromeOS were H/W specific and if you wanted it for something other than a standard Chromebook product you had to build it yourself, always assuming you could get the requisite drivers.
MS aren't in the frame for this one. Unless Google have a change of heart it's always going to be easier to put a standard Linux or BSD on your PC than ChromeOS.
I have had good results with CloudReady version of ChromeOS on my Thinkpad and HP thin clients (although I nearly choked at Win install to a USB key - eventually got the Mac download and use of dd to work).
Also ChromeOS from builds on arnoldthebat.co.uk work on my Wyse thin client laptop.
Perhaps not the "full" ChromeOS e.g. run android apps but they both run fine....(personally I prefer Debian+LXDE on the same hardware but have to think of other family members...)
"You can guarantee this won't be reciprocal. No chance that MS will want PCs running Chrome OS."
Microsoft don't have much say in the matter. Yes, I know that for some PCs you need to have your bootloader / OS signed by Microsoft, but you can turn that off for a lot of them. Or run Chrome OS an a locked down PC under a VM.
The printers heard about the paperless office concept, and have been waging an existential war with us ever since. That's why we now have lots of multifunction printers, they are trying to remain useful.
On Monday I installed one of them on someones desk, a multifunction scanner/inkjet printer. One that had been sitting unused in another office. It's ink cartridges are dried out already, and are likely to remain that way, coz the user only wanted the scanner. I think they recently threw away the fax/printer, coz they no longer need faxes.
The big photocopier/printer in a room by itself was recently hooked up to the network so they could use it as a printer as well. The printer forces won that battle at least. So that's Printer Liberation Front 1 v Humans 2. It'll be a long and costly war, but I think we can win it.
Good report, soldier! It sounds like you and the men are making progress. Make sure they are rested today and have a man look after their kit. Tonight's mission will be rather special- I want you to figure out why the hell the big HP in HR is doing port scans. Doesn't happen often so make sure someone on point has an eye peeled.
Bloody sneaky bastards these new printers. Back in my day you could grab em by the Centronics cable and bash their heads into the fscking wall. Now they're wireless. But I've got total confidence in you.
Now remember, man. Got to keep your spirits up because this game is for keeps. We don't have an "lp0 on fire" error message for the hell of it. You may have to set a couple of the Lenovos on fire to degrade enemy morale. I guess they would do it to you, so make damn sure that any printer you engage becomes a dead 'un.
I shall report to higher authority that you are executing the mission successfully.
That is all, you're dismissed.
Aye! CANON. Damn. I didn't see any intel these were coming in.
OK, I've got some Intel on what we do about these. It's not all bad news
Without drivers the CANON are immobile. At at present their Win 10 drivers refuse to work, and their Linux drivers are bloated and slow. Other drivers? Generally suck but occasionally the enemy gets a good one. At any rate maybe this buys us enough time for the boffins to get LART tested. Looks interesting but this is an effen battlefield, not a science fair.
Push your scouts in a bit, we need to know what sort of CANON these are. If its a single function laser CANON, that's a right nasty piece of work. We need to drop back, plan a bit and maybe engage with indirect fires. If its an all-in-one we're in luck - the enemy is almost never able to buy enough supplies for these units. Send 'em a black fax so they shoot their wad. Or if you've got a good man, have him run off 5,000 photocopies of his butt cheeks and leave them by the machine. No one will use it for days - psych warfare, mind.
The real question is, who the hell is funding the PLF to get these CANON in the first place? Ideas?
My guess is the purchase card office or contracts have got something to do with it. Fsck'em.
P-card is pretty small, you can probably reduce it with a couple 'o Javelin. Contracts? We do this the American way ... we're gonna blow it right off the map; I will go to higher authority and get the aircraft - make sure there is an FO team in place to start the music when I get a gig...
Thanks for the info. Mt regards to the men for a good job. Now we both have work to do...
Quite. But remember that 30 odd years ago, men were men; women were women; printers only tried to print.
Today I've got something on my desk that tries to do a bit much. Its only really solid attribute is getting me to waste $ on ink cartridges
As several have noted above, Win10 running on cheap (low powered) chromebooks is going to be, unpleasant at best, but from the article....
Google plans to allow Windows 10 to run on its budget Chromebooks....
..low level source code of a branch of the Google Pixelbook firmware code...drivers that Windows 10 needs to run. (edited for brevity)
My point is, at £1k+ Pixlebooks are anything but budget.
Low level firmware code for a Pixlebook, is unlikely to run on a much lower level hardware, budget chromebook.
I REALLY like chromebooks (consistently fast, great battery life, secure, economical, easier to manage on scale in enterprise than Windows, OS rarely malfunctions, no drive image cloning needed, google roaming profile between chromebooks is impressive, OS updates are crazy fast, you can call google and get quality help, with google mgmt license). The biggest limits have been that it is largely limited to web based applications and the printing can be sometimes difficult to configure (although much improved), and there are some peripheral device limitations. (I know Android and new Linux apps support will fill some gaps). I'm an I.T. professional. I use chromebook 90% of time and Windows the other 10%. I carry two computers with me most of the time. If I had a chromebook that would dual boot to Windows on the occasions where I need something that only runs on Windows, then I'm got my whole toolset on a single device and don't have to use Windoze unless absolutely necessary. Can't wait for this to be available.