The MS-laptop may be dead but the Linux laps are thriving

[viking60]

Tablets are in fashion and Apple has had great success with it. Microsoft that newer knew what hit them ...heavily enforced the Windows preinstallation on the OEM's Intel and Microsoft the dinosaurs in the market, had a colossal grip on every OEM and their situation got harder since sales were down. To make things worse Microsoft launched their own competing hardware. ... and it did not sell.

So tablets it is then an the laptop is dead -right? Well that must pretty much have been the idea behind Windows 8. They added some functions to limit the hardware even further with the secure booting and made the OEM's compete internally with their margins in a dying market...

Then out of the blue comes Chromebook and Arm. And it has been a huge success - Acer and Samsung are selling it and now Lenovo is following and wants to offer it to the Schools.
It still is a part of the education to learn how to write so a keyboard seems like a good idea after the first pointing at pictures (The Norwegian parliament has got iPads though - we have good hope for that they will be learning to write next year )

This might well be a nail in Microsofts coffin. Googles Chromebook on Samsung is already amazons top selling laptop and Acer is selling lots of Chromebooks too. And now Lenovo..

Those Linux laps are very affordable and way cheaper than the tablets so once again Google has analyzed the market better than Microsoft.

And they are doing it with a Linux laptop....

[rolf]

Little brother asked for recommendations about a laptop but I don't do laptops. His needs are simple, "email, some word processing,..." and I imagine he will be doing some interaction with his work contacts as the County Building Official, where mention of Linux elicits some respectful admiration that he uses it from IT but everything used @ County is Windows-based, afaict.
So, I'm thinking these Chromebooks look pretty slick, might be an option for him but I get more marketing fluff than practical howto at the site, after some digging around. For example, I have to guess the apps are run in "THE CLOUD"? LibreOffice for the word processing but you can't do any work without an internet connection and the speed of the application can be affected by the quality of the connection? I see usb ports, so a printer could be installed but you couldn't print without an internet connection, where, I have to guess, the drivers would be installed?

[rolf]

A little more reading and it seems like Google Docs/Drive is what is used for word processing, naturally, and there is a Google Cloud Connect plugin that installs to Microsoft Office, so the Google Drive document can be imported to MS Office, iianm.
So, here is my first google doc

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aoi ... sp=sharing

(That should be a link that opens for everyone)

[viking60]

Yes the cloud is the "price".
I am not sure how to interact with that doc though I should have an Office 2003 CD somewhere....But downloading .odt works fine. I bet it will work just fine in Word too. Google are good at this.
I am reluctantly admiring them for their great products - those blody spies! As dangerous as it is; the Google cloud is going to be big and very convenient.

[R_Head]

The people that knows does not trust the cloud. But, what if, you bring the cloud to home. All you need is a computer that does the same like mail, storage, word processing, etc at your home so you know where your data is. If you do not want it that close? The same computer can be in any phisical location. Just a home server and smaller devices connects to it. If you sell a computer like that and is pretty much pre configured I think it will be what we need. I think coining the word Semi-Cloud Computing would be in order.

[rolf]

Reading further, it looks like google is smart enough to install such productivity apps as google docs to the chromebook, for offline work, still a little fuzzy about how the offline docs are stored. I guess you would use usb local storage, hard-drive, key, or flash card on even the $200 Acer.
Could be doable.

[R_Head]

I think connectivity will be there via Cell Towers or Wi-Fi.