Microsoft's Rumored CloudBook Could Be Your Next Cheap Computer (venturebeat.com) 206
An anonymous reader shares a report: In a few weeks, at its education-oriented software and hardware event in New York, Microsoft could unveil a sub-premium laptop -- something more robust than a Surface but not as fancy as a Surface Book. And rather than run good old Windows 10, the new product could run something called Windows 10 Cloud, which reportedly will only be able to run apps that you can find in the Windows Store, unless you change a certain preference in Settings. The idea is that this will keep your device more secure. However, that does mean you won't be able to use certain apps that aren't in the Store -- like Steam -- on a Windows 10 Cloud device, such as the rumored CloudBook. Microsoft is going after Google's Chromebooks that are very popular in the education space -- so much so that they are playing an instrumental role in keeping the entire PC shipments up.
Brick by design (Score:5, Insightful)
So...a brick by design? The only reason to still run Windows is to run stuff that ISN'T in an app store.
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Lot of uncertainty in reporting here. It would be a totally bizarre move to have an edition that by default locks to windows store but allows user to select otherwise unless it's a broad change across the board (since the editions would be equally capable, but different defaults).
Of course it could be like 'Windows 8 with bing', where the edition was free just for having a different default browser setting guaranteed (and only through select re-sellers). Trying to lock out direct sales and third party sto
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These things are ARM based, so 'select otherwise' isn't likely to be too useful if you're trying to turn them into full-blown Windows laptops that can run X86 stuff. Then again, there are rumors that these will run X86 stuff via an ARM emulator - so maybe they're trying to get WIN32 apps bundled with emulation into the Windows store to make up for the decided lack of 'native' Metro stuff. I wonder whether that would be more or less useful than the Android phone apps you can run on a Chromebook. There are
M$ wouldn't let devs recompile Win32 apps for ARM (Score:4, Informative)
During the Windows RT era, developers of Windows desktop applications wanted to recompile their applications for ARM. Microsoft wouldn't let them, instead requiring them to port the applications to Windows Runtime and distribute them exclusively through Windows Store. Only Microsoft's own applications (File Explorer, Internet Explorer, and Office) could run on the ARM desktop.
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Did you ever wonder *why* this was?
Like it or not, Windows RT was pretty damn secure (I know a couple folks who only use those devices (and nothing else) for online banking), the fact that only MS signed code code run eliminated the risk of entire classes of malware.
At the time, the only way to ensure 3rd party was limited with regards to what it could do was to run within the rather limited sandbox of WinRT, now though, out of a bit of desperation I expect of people not wanting to write full fledged native
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Yes, sadly this is why I do not think Apple's walled garden of iOS is all that bad. IT is good to have SOMEONE responsible keep the goddamn hackers at bay. People whine too much about the NSA and the CIA. Sure, they are running a surveillance state but they are really not interested in you, unless you look like some violent towelhead.
The criminals? The spammers? The phishers? They will f*ck you over twice on a Sunday. They are the real problem. And no-one seems too worry too much about that.
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The big problem is that with Android, iOS, and Microsoft, there's no framework for the native app distribution to add trusted parties to the list explicitly. So while it may look good to say 'security', it also just happens to dovetail nicely with 'cut of the revenue goes to the platform owner'.
Contrast with yum or apt, which is extensible to allow third party sources.
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Isn't that called... side-loading and/or Cydia?
Just last month I finally gave up on Windows Phone/Mobile, having been on it since it was first available on my carrier at the time and am now carrying an Android device running 7.2.
I've been pleasantly surprised by the amount of access I now have to so many little nooks and crannys of the API set on my phone, as well as how well built apps can work together to keep me & my data safe.
One of my biggest laments on Windows Phone (aside from it being abandoned
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The issue is that it is a boolean situation.
Either a) you have a fully vetted way for a package repository to give you a validated set of updates from a single place
Or b) you just install .apk application from whoever and whenever with little security and no update mechanism (apart from whatever home-grown update mechanism the specific app developer has dreamed up, which is usually none).
If I add a third party apt or yum repository, then I can say 'all packages must be signed by a trusted packager (trusted
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But is it going to be ARM based? There's unsubstantiated rumors all sorts of ways.
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Correct, Windows with Bing was just a default browser choice, not anything more. It was a way to give their system partners a break on licensing in exchange for a guarantee that their search engine slaps that partners customers in the face (much like internet explorer all over again).
Re:Brick by design (Score:5, Interesting)
I think that Microsoft is longingly looking at Apple's iOS App Store, knowing that they're getting something like a 20% cut of all revenue that's generated from application sales. They probably also want to use this to force independent application developers to put their applications in the Windows Store as well or risk not having access to this new hardware.
They would probably be willing to sell their branded tablet with a razor thin profit margin if they knew that they would be making that money back on the backend every time they sold an app or processed an in app purchase. The walled garden approach (while annoying) also cuts down on casual piracy and malware installations as well.
Of course, an obnoxious feature like this would probably end up getting hacked within days of release if for no other reason than developer spite towards Microsoft. They would be better off leaving a "allow third-party applications" checkbox buried in the security settings screen like Android has. That should be enough to keep most end users from accidentally downloading malware, while giving power users the ability to install their "legacy" applications.
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So...a brick by design? The only reason to still run Windows is to run stuff that ISN'T in an app store.
The only reason to not run Windows for basic things are licensing costs, and to an extent that no one cares about: security. This is a direct dig at Chromebooks. Given Chromebook's general success, people don't care about brickyness. Given the iPad's general success as educational tools, institutions don't care about brickyness.
As long as the costs remain low Microsoft would be on a win here ... if it could attract developers to the ghosttown err I mean Windows Store.
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you mean like a chromebook? Oh sure you can put it in developer mode but that totally rots since now you have to manage it's updates yourself, defeating the entire rationale for having a cloud based notebook.
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Funny you ask - I've actually had this role a few times for local schools.
Generally, if you want tablets to surf the web and dink around on some learning apps, the only financially responsible choice is Android tablets. They're wipe-able and cheap enough that you can break a few every year and not really care that much. Anything over $50 or so a table starts to quit making fiscal sense when you're handing them to second-graders to surf the web -
Re:Brick by design (Score:5, Interesting)
The only thing Windows is good for is running the three decades of old Windows applications that are still hanging around doing useful things. Without that you might as well use Linux.
The other thing Windows is good for is that entry-level laptops warranted to run it are easy to find. Subnotebooks that "just work" with GNU/Linux used to be easy to find until the end of 2012 [slashdot.org]. System76 and Dell currently don't have anything below 13 inches or below $700. Installing Linux on Bay Trail devices that shipped with Windows, such as the ASUS T100TA and X205TA, has left things like Bluetooth, built-in Wi-Fi, webcam, and suspend broken. And before you bust out "Android is Linux; try a tablet and a Bluetooth keyboard":
With Wine it can run more old Windows applications
As I understand it, most Android tablets have ARM CPUs that can't run Wine, which requires a CPU capable of executing i386 instructions. Or were you referring to Wine in an Ubuntu chroot on an Android/x86 device [google.com]? Or an x86 Chromebook in developer mode, which begs to be erased every time someone turns it on?
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Subnotebooks that "just work" with GNU/Linux used to be easy to find until the end of 2012 [slashdot.org]. System76 and Dell currently don't have anything below 13 inches or below $700. Installing Linux on Bay Trail devices that shipped with Windows, such as the ASUS T100TA and X205TA, has left things like Bluetooth, built-in Wi-Fi, webcam, and suspend broken. And before you bust out "Android is Linux; try a tablet and a Bluetooth keyboard":
I have a subnotebook (Acer Aspire One) that "just works" with Linux and has for a long time, but it's predictably slow and the small display is an issue. I now use an Asus Zenbook which runs Linux perfectly. For the type of work I need to get done, I don't really want a subnotebook --- of any kind. That means a tablet is not an acceptable replacement, either. So I don't think it's much of an issue that small Windows devices aren't suitable for Linux.
And yes, "Android is Linux" but with all the modifications it's very far from an unfettered (and spyware free) productivity oriented Linux distribution.
Android phones and tablets have their place but not as work/productivity devices.
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Subnotebooks that "just work" with GNU/Linux used to be easy to find until the end of 2012
I have a subnotebook (Acer Aspire One) that "just works" with Linux and has for a long time
From Wikipedia's article [wikipedia.org]:
I guess my user story differs from that of most such "consumers".
I now use an Asus Zenbook which runs Linux perfectly.
I have no experience with that make and model, but its official web site [asus.com] looks clunky and pretentious. It opens with an automatically playing video larger than the window, it isn't obvious how to proceed, and the layout doesn't fit in a web browser wi [imgur.com]
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Subnotebooks that "just work" with GNU/Linux used to be easy to find until the end of 2012. System76 and Dell currently don't have anything below 13 inches or below $700.
Litebook? [slashdot.org]
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I just bought a 14'' Lenovo Ideapad for testing and travelling
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Sure (Score:2)
I'm sure all the Windows phone users will buy one.
Both of them.
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education space and windows store? (Score:2)
See how there are alot of education apps that will not work under the windows store rules I don't see it working to good. also what about the European Union rules about MS.
MS trying to lock users to there IE edge and lock out steam will not fly very far there.
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Shots fired
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"See how there are alot of education apps that will not work under the windows store rules"
Such as? Why?
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any thing that does not fit the MS sandbox.
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Okay, so it's a matter of the devs saying no to the store then.
That does not explain how they "will not work" under the windows store rules. They can use centennial to port win 32 to store in a few minutes, so...
I think maybe you need to do more homework on what is isn't possible on UWP.
It could be... (Score:2)
Cheap is the word (Score:2)
Only if made Mandatory (Score:2)
As long as I have a legal right to use something else, that's what I'm going to do
Laptop = not interested (Score:2)
Laptop usually means: small screen, crappy keyboard, awful trackpad, poor durability, and little expandability, but more expensive than an equivalent desktop machine.
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Microsoft is going after Google's Chromebooks that are very popular in the education space
Laptop usually means: small screen, crappy keyboard, awful trackpad, poor durability, and little expandability, but more expensive than an equivalent desktop machine.
But for this expense, you gain two things:
1. Ability to get work done while riding transit or in a waiting room, as opposed to just reading a book. This is important for K-12 schoolchildren, who ride a school bus because they are too young to drive.
2. Not having to buy a separate computer for your work desk and your living room, as you can instead carry it back and forth.
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1. Why would kids do that? Last minute "oh shit I forgot to do the homework"?
2. That's related to the "poor durability" bit I had mentioned.
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Ability to get work done while riding transit
Why would kids do that? Last minute "oh shit I forgot to do the homework"?
Eagerness to complete the assignment during the ride home from school in order to have more play time after school. Or ability to complete the assignment at all if the assignment is assigned today at the end of class and due tomorrow at the start of class and tonight is the family's shopping night.
Not having to buy a separate computer for your work desk and your living room, as you can instead carry it back and forth.
That's related to the "poor durability" bit I had mentioned.
In what way?
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Come on, that's logical: carrying a machine around all the time causes mechanical stress, affecting its weak points, such as hinges and connectors.
And I really can't imagine many kids acting like that.
AIO + UPS + Steam Link (Score:2)
Let me try to follow Stormwatch's logic:
1. Instead of a laptop, you can buy an AIO and a Steam Link or other thin client. Put the AIO in one room, and put the thin client in the living room and use it to remotely access the AIO over your home LAN. By Stormwatch's logic, an AIO and a thin client would last longer than a laptop before breaking. Thus they'd likely be cheaper than two laptops: one to use now and one to use later after the first breaks.
2. An AIO and an external UPS might be cheaper than a laptop
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Sounds like an AIO is worst of both worlds: not portable, not expandable, and not cheap.
Sounds like a repeat of Windows RT (Score:3)
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Windows RT failed due to lack of infrastructure. Windows RT had no apps, no office applications, and was released in a world before do-everything-online became the new programming norm.
Yes it sounds like Windows RT because it effectively is Windows RT, except now it has a name that makes sense out of the box, and exists in a time where people in general are accustomed to online only (Chromebook) or store locked (every tablet OS).
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Windows RT was nonsensical : it was like they were ashamed of the tablet software it ran, so they grafted a IE + Office only desktop to make it more useful. So, it sucked both as a tablet and a desktop, and was undesirable if bought without the keyboard. They didn't make a cheaper, tablet-only tablet i.e. an oversized Windows Phone, so Android was free to capture the entirety of the non iOS market. People did buy iOS and Android tablet-only tablets, until moving to 5" and 6" phones mostly. Not sure if anyth
Microsoft's got an uphill climb (Score:5, Interesting)
Looking at the initial comments, various posters are hoping that the Cloudbook isn't as restricted as a Chromebook but I think Microsoft has a bigger fundamental issue than that.
And that is to accept to be successful in this space, you aren't going to sell a PC and the software tools that go into it.
In evaluating systems to provide to students, our company evaluated Chromebooks (2GByte DDR, 16GByte EMMc/Flash Drive) and low-cost Windows 10 PCs (4GByte DDR, 32GByte EMMc/Flash Drive) - both were manufactured by Acer and had the same Processor/display/Network IO. I should point out that probably nobody on this site would be customers for this type of platform; they're best suited for students and clerks.
Even though the Chromebooks had half the memory of the PC, they booted in a few seconds and allowed surfing the web, running Chrome Extensions/Apps (including those that provide basic, not complete, Office functionality) as well as accessing network resources (ie printers). Something we didn't realize at the time was that updates are annoying but fairly painless along with this, we didn't realize that updates were more or less automatic and just took a minute or two to work through. There are no ads/demands for virus protection under ChromeOS.
The WIndows 10 PCs took considerably longer to boot, required loading Chrome because our customers (that are schools) require it for the students (who all have gmail or Google Classroom accounts) and, if we wanted to use "true" Office, that needed a license and is painfully slow and unusable if you have two apps active at the same time. If did provide a familiar way of adding devices and networks (not that ChromeOS is that difficult to use, but I wanted to put something positive about the Win10 machines). What would have been a killer for us is updates; for the two evaluation machines we still have, they require 16GByte or better thumb drives to perform updates about twice a year and these updates take between one and two hours with lots of warnings about not losing power, network connections or forcing a reboot - I would expect if there was a larger hard drive, they would be considerably less painful. Then there is the inclusion of the 30 day trial of Norton which you are always being bugged to buy.
So, if Microsoft wants to compete against Google and their Chromebooks, I would recommended:
- Coming up with a small, fast booting version of Win10 that can be updated in less than a minute
- Develop a set of web accessible Office compatible apps
- Consciously avoid the desire/need for paid apps.
I can see Microsoft coming up with an OS that meets the first requirement - the second two so go against the grain that I don't think they'll be able to take that plunge and will create yet another also-ran that will be remembered with the same fondness as the Ford Edsel.
Microsoft has a number of products that work to customer satisfaction (Windows 10 being a good example - again, it's really not for people on this list, but I know a lot of non-technical users that really like it) that makes them a ton of money. Rather than putting good money down a rat hole of trying to compete in a space that they will have to give value away to make sales, they can either look at improving the products they have and make them more compatible with what's out there (cough - Edge - cough).
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Where can I see a link for an online copy of Office that won't nag me to pay? When I look at the Office website, I keep getting pointed to Office 365 which is free only for the first month.
I would be interested in seeing what they have that is free and would not hassle my customers asking them to get a subscription.
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Does Mr. Nadella know you use that type of language?
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They also cost - https://products.office.com/en... [office.com]
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But can you play without being harassed to pay?
I've got an outlook.com account as well. If anything, the level of harassment/distraction goes up when you try to use it.
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Are the Chromebooks you are purchasing replacing older Windows machines? That's why MS is probably competing in this space, because they have to. If they don't they lose ground that was theirs.
What's the price difference between the Chromebooks you are looking at and a core i3 laptop with 8 gb DDR, and a non-SSD drive from Dell/HP?
How big a consideration is lack of MS Office in your decision to go Chromebook?
No, they are not replacing older Windows machines. New company, new requirement.
It's hard to find an apples to apples comparison between devices, but if I look at list prices on the manufacturers' websites for i3 processored systems with 4GByte of DDR and 32GByte/64GByte (EMMc) SSD, Windows 10 devices command a 40% premium over Chromebooks.
The ability to access/create Office documents is important but the update issue and if I were to go with a Windows platform, I have to make sure my customers don't get p
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Oh no settings. No ... No settings (Score:2)
There is absolutely no basis for TFA saying that it will work with Windows Store only unless you change the settings. Windows 10 Creators Edition introduced the setting, but that's not what is coming to these devices. Why introduce a separate version of Windows 10 called "Cloud" if you have the intention to give people a choice to not use the cloud?
The settings won't exist in the Cloud edition I will bet a Mars bar on it.
The new Miscreant-o-soft 'Un-computer' (Score:3)
I of course would never go for any of that, and I'd hope that most people would likewise draw the line well before that point, too.
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And bang goes your Cellular Data limit. Two reboots and you are into paying $$$ per Megabyte.
The only upside is that it solves the thorny problem of updating your device. Other than that, this is an attempt at total lock-in by Microsoft.
Doomed to fail IMHO
As Luke Skywalker said to Han Solo.... (Score:2)
What a piece of junk! And this thing does NOT go 0.5 past lightspeed....
If anyone has taken a look into the Windows Store, it's crap... absolute garbage... Practically nothing of note is there, and the few apps that may be useful are poorly written with limited features. Who is Microsoft trying to fool here?
Of course, I doubt you'd be able to use another browser other than Edge, so you are really limited with this device (that was a big problem with their phones, too). This reminds me of Sun Corporation's o
Ugh... (Score:3)
Because RT worked so so well AMIRITE? :P
Sometimes, I dunno what Microsoft is thinking. RT is still plenty fresh on people's minds, Windows Store is a complete failure both to attract an userbase and to attract developers (despite being shoved down people's throats since Windows 8.0), most of the complaints about Windows 10 right now have exactly to do with privacy, telemetry and the OS basically working as spyware, I think lots of people still remember how Microsoft tried to forcibly scale back and cut down free OneDrive plans, the ad everywhere scandal is still plenty recent, and yet they come up with a new product line that possibly combines ALL of those in one big shitcake.
It's like someone there just though: Hey guyze, let's pick up all the most notorious and recent complaints about Windows, pack it up in a single product, and see if it sells! Genius product development at work here!
And they are trying to push this in against a device that had none of those issues in the past. I know plenty of people don't like Chromebooks a whole lot, but if anything, it had humble prototype like starts and has been on a steady development frame that works plenty well for schools and whatnot.
Most decidedly not (Score:2)
First, all my hardware must run Linux and be able to dual-boot. And second, hardware from Microsoft? Over-priced and not so good? No way.
No. No, it couldn't. (Score:2)
The story is newsworthy, but msmash should have given TFS a different title than TFA. I think VERY few people on Slashdot will rush out to buy one of these things, and probably the majority here are at least a little bit insulted at being implicitly lumped in with Windows Magazine subscribers and other such MS fanbois.
As for the CloudBook mentioned in the article, I'm guessing it will have all the spying and advertising of Windows 10, PLUS the additional vulnerability and privacy loss associated with all yo
"The idea is that this will keep your device..." (Score:3)
"...more secure" [by putting everything in the cloud].
Wat.
Re:FUDget about it... (Score:4, Insightful)
So you essentially turned your $250 Dell laptop into the $500 Dell laptop you could've bought in the first place.
Microsoft doesn't want OEM's building cheap full Windows machines - i.e., the kind where the Windows license accounts for 30% of the price of the machine. They will go as far as making Windows Cloud free for OEMs in order to keep from being pressured to make full Windows 10 free for 'real' laptops.
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So you essentially turned your $250 Dell laptop into the $500 Dell laptop you could've bought in the first place.
Not quite. I only spent $100 on the new memory and SSD. The $250 Dell laptop had a keyboard without the numeric keypad because I wanted the keyboard centered with the screen. A $500 Dell laptop would have a keyboard with the numeric keypad that I didn't want.
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I wonder how much feedback Dell gets on that. Not enough I guess.
You mean keyboard versus keyboard with keypad? Or Dell keyboards in general? I've used Dell keyboards for 20+ years, so I'm not a keyboard snob.
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You can't buy a $500 Dell laptop that already has SSD. They make you buy a more expensive computer to even have the option, or offer you a "hybrid drive" with only 32GB of flash. And even when your laptop does come with an SSD, you have no idea what the specs are on it or who made it.
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We aren't all rich contractors living off the taxpayers dime though.
If you consider making $50K+ per year as being "rich" in Silicon Valley.
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You should try video game testing. You would be good at it and make a lot of money.
I was a video game tester for six years (1997-2004). My beginning pay rate was $10 per hour and ending pay rate was $16 per hour. After I went back to school to learn computer programming on a $3,000 tax credit that George W. signed into law after 9/11, I got a help desk support job that paid $20 per hour. Do the math.
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I'll bet you were so good at your job you got fired from it too.
The only job I ever got fired from was when I worked with my father in construction and got into a fistfight with the owner's grandson. Fast forward 40 years, I'm working in tech and the grandson is a drug addict. Sad.
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I heard you got laid off because you were too good at your job.
That was a different situation. My boss at eBay in 2009 had a choice of laying off five people or laying me since I did the work of five people. He found it easier to lay off one person than five people. It didn't do him any good. Not long after I left eBay, my manager had to laid off those five people as well as others.
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Yeah, businesses always get rid of the awesome productive people first.
No, bad management. When I was a video game tester, a supervisor got promoted to QA manager and anyone who wasn't willing to swear absolute loyalty to him got forced out. I was the third of a dozen senior testers who left the company. The manager didn't get fired until the company went into bankruptcy.
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i'm sorry - did you say "senior" video game tester?
Yes.
is that like "senor" busboy or more like George Forman Sr.?
Neither.
because there is no senior title for a job that by definition is junior.
I was a senior lead video game tester responsible for ten titles when I left the company after six years. A fellow senior lead video game tester built Midway arcade machines in the 1980's. Another senior lead video game tester tested pen-and-paper games in the 1970's.
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As grand high senior platinum dragon edition tester, I say you are a fat, smelly, dumpy, slob and that's why you get fired repeatedly, leaving you with plentiful time to troll slashdot.
Most of my jobs keep me busy for one hour out of an eight-hour shift, leaving seven hours available to wait for something to roll downhill from the powers to be. Only Google kept me busy but they were hiring 300+ people per week in 2008.
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a good way for underachievers to stay off of prozac is to redefine the word achievement. any time someone brings up their achievement is shown to not be an achievement, they provide more detail on the achievement, proving they achieved it.
Senior lead video game tester is a legitimate title in the video game industry. The problem with most people outside of the video game industry think that testing video games is all fun and games. That is false. Most people can't last six weeks much less six years as a video game tester.
[...] the person can change and actually achieve something, instead of living in some weird loser dream.
I'm a senior system administrator responsible for 80,000+ workstations. My coworkers and I have 20+ years of experience in IT. This is not a 'weird loser dream' in the real world.
[...] a big strong boy. you took a big boy poop.
Normal poop has the consistency of toothpaste
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have fun being responsible for 80k+ laptops, "sr systems admin."
Workstations. A small number of them are $3K laptops that are design to replace desktops.
[...] the real systems administrator who manages the servers will let you know when he needs adobe acrobat upgraded [...]
Server owners are responsible for administrating their server and maintaining the application baseline. If they can't do that, their server gets deleted (VMs) or decommissioned (pulled from rack and dropped on their desk).
[...] they do call you when they spill redbull on their keyboard.
I would give them the phone number to the help desk hotline.
i wouldn't lost a day shoveling shit in the sewers.
Sewers, no. But I did shovel shit as a kid. Nothing worse than a horse sneezing on you and some of the black specks are moving.
do you make over 200k? do you make over 150?
Nope. I only n
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[...] for stable multiyear contracts.
I'm halfway through a five-year IT support contract that is fully funded. If Congress shuts down the government over the budget, I'll still be at work and getting paid. My contracting agency gave me an extra month of pay as a Christmas bonus for my exceptional work.
you've never touched a server in your life,
I built out a data center for Google and managed a wireless server for 300+ laptops at Cisco.
[...] since you think people install acrobat on those.
As if a server admin never had to open a PDF file on how to configure his server. Adobe Reader shows up a lot for severs on the NESSUS scan.
I met a kid once who presented himself as a successful CEO.
I walked past
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you quote things as if you were responding with a counterpoint, then you respond with just extra random information, and lots of weird irrelevant details.
That's because I don't take you seriously. I'm too busy laughing my ass off.
have you ever spent 150 on a night out?
I spent ~$428 per night in Las Vegas. Otherwise, I live a modest lifestyle. Which means I'm not going to piss away $3,000 on wine and brag about mismanaging my finances.
my dick is much much bigger, and I enjoy slapping your autistic head with it loser.
You sound like my older brother. He owns a landscaping design business, a big house, two cars and two trucks, and buys $180 designer jeans. Yeah, he's a rich fuck. Unfortunately, he 60-years-old, can't retire and have to keep on working. The mortgage on his house is
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You couldn't pay me to use a spybook like this or Chromebooks.
That is rather tinfoil hatish. Do you use a smartphone? The internet? Then you are being tracked. You can minimize it but not eliminate it. As a 'boycott' your refusal is ineffectual at best as the spying device horse left the barn long ago. The choices now, are ignore it, or do your best to enter the discussion and try to point public policy in the right direction. That task feels a bit sisyphean, but it looks like you just gave up, instead of having something tangible to offer.
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I do not use any kind of "App" currently and never will use one on any screen bigger than a mobile phone if I can help it. No I do not currently have a mobile. It is not just the oversharing of your personal data with corporations monetizing your ass off. The worst problem is that Apps are designed to transition to become services with a renewable rental fee. I remember when telephone exchanges and televisions were rented to their users and the fantastic profits it made for their vendors. I use software tha
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It's not that hard. If you do not want to pay to use the system, they are going to have to pay for it it somehow. That is half of the problem. Everyone wants everything free. The money has to come from somewhere.
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Do you use a smartphone? The internet? Then you are being tracked.
I don't use a smartphone or the internet.
That was a joke, right? Slashdot is on the Internet.
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Then he is still using the Internet. Indirectly perhaps, but still.
Re: You couldn't pay me (Score:2)
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Provided your user story doesn't include offline (Score:2)
i think is a version that runs most of the applications in the cloud using something like RemoteApp.
Which would be useless for people who are often out of range of a usable Wi-Fi signal.
A device intended for use primarily as a Remote Desktop client might be fine for people who drive and who choose where to eat and shop by the availability of Wi-Fi. But otherwise, good luck using that while riding public transit, or while waiting for your meal in a restaurant that doesn't offer Wi-Fi, or while waiting for your roommate to finish shopping for groceries in a store that doesn't offer Wi-Fi, without paying hun
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Children completing homework assignments while riding in the back seat of mom's car or a yellow school bus are roadwarriors.
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I dont know whether the slow speed is due to the crappy Atom CPUs, slow library wireless, or slow Chrome apps.
My laptop has an Atom CPU. I've put a CPU meter in the operating system's notification area to help me tell whether slowness is due to slow Internet (rare) or the slow CPU (more common). Often the slow CPU is busting its ass trying to run JavaScript code with layers upon layers of abstraction, as well as ad exchanges' client-side bidding scripts to find which of a dozen ad networks is willing to pay a fraction of a cent more for an impression on a particular pair of article and user viewing history.
Re:But can it run Linux? (Score:5, Informative)
Almost any intel chromebook can be wiped and linux can be installed
Until someone else in the household turns it on and presses Space as prompted then Enter as prompted to initiate a factory reset. Installing GNU/Linux on a Chromebook requires putting it in developer mode, and the firmware of a Chromebook in developer mode begs at every power-on to be switched back to "run the Google Chrome web browser and nothing else" mode.
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In theory, Microsoft might sell a license upgrade to Windows 10 Pro (perhaps with a requirement of 64GB or more minimum main storage. Hopefully some laptops come with an M.2 slot for either main or additional storage).
You would then run Suse-on-linux-on-Windows or Ubuntu-on-linux-on-Windows if not cygwin, or even try to install some NFS or sshfs client on Windows proper if that is an option.
That's not what you were talking about, but it would be a somewhat honorable way to allow to make the hardware more us
First hit's free. Oh wait, you stopped lactating (Score:5, Insightful)
And what forces poor people to buy baby food that they can't afford, regardless of who's marketing it to them?
Nestle has been accused [wikipedia.org] of two things. One is failing to label infant formula in local languages. The other is getting mothers "addicted" to formula by providing it without charge to the maternity ward for just long enough that the mother stops producing milk.
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The other thing Nestle was being blamed for was the unsanitary condition of water in shitholes like Pakistan. Quite right - it's Nestle's fault that third world countries don't know/care about sanitary water and other such standards.
I'll see your sarcasm and split the difference: It was Nestle's fault for over-promoting formula despite a lack of sanitation that Nestle knew about or reasonably should have known about. This goes hand in hand with the lack of labeling in local languages, particularly a warning that clean water is required to prevent harm to the baby.
once Sony started outsourcing their manufacturing to China, I lost any reason to prefer them over no-name brands, but then again, I haven't had a TV for 9 years.
Where would one buy an affordable living-room-sized monitor for composite, analog RGB, and DVI/HDMI sources that isn't "a TV"?
The most extreme boycott list I have seen has been from RMS, and if one really lives that way, one would pretty much have to live like the Amish. I'm sorry, but I'll pass on that one.
The philosophy underlying the tech choices of Ami
Merchantability: goods fit for intended purpose (Score:2)
So any company that's selling things needs to first verify from its customers whether they can properly use it or not, failing which, they should refuse to sell.
Correct. A merchant can't fulfill the implied warranty of merchantability [wikipedia.org] without understanding its market to some extent.
I don't. I use my laptop or tablet and watch YouTube live.
Doing without a living-room-sized monitor might work for the use case of someone who lives alone, doesn't often entertain visiting friends and family, and doesn't play (genuine copies of) retro video games.
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I have actually seen RMS give a talk and asked him a question on the podium and frankly, he is a nutcase.
I bought my last cheap computer 2 weeks ago (Score:2)
It was a Raspberry Pi Zero. Cost me a whopping $5 and since it was part of a larger order, shipping was essentially free.
Already have too many keyboards, mice and monitors. And the best thing is that it's not networked, so it can't go tattling back my entire life to OS vendors, app vendors, ISPs or the NSA. But it can play multimedia and run office software.
Of course, if I'd needed it as an Internet computer, I could pay twice as much and get a Pi Zero W. Or jack in an Ethernet USB, since I've got one of th