I got a little laptop from Google the other day. I had to buy it off of Craigslist, but I was intrigued.
I am not quite the tech-head that most people with these things are. But I already sort of like it. I like the lack of logos, I like the name, and I like the style. But physically, Cr-48s are built like Fisher-Price toys. That is the primary detraction. It's a Macintosh from Mattel. In the software, I would have also liked access to just one folder for a file system. Just a little local storage. But what can you do. I expect that will be included by the time the OS actually launches.
Overall, I think that it's a little underwhelming. Partially because I wanted to use the battery-efficient computer to watch Netflix and didn't realize that Linux has no compatibly with Silverlight. There were also some compatibility issues with Google Docs... which is rather strange. Both of these I expect to be fully resolved by launch as well. The computer is very open, so I loaded Ubuntu on the thing with instructions I got from here (rather than Google's instructions... I'm not that good at Linux and I didn't have a way to print it or anything for reference. I am not sure how either way works, or if there are problems with one over another but I read from someone on a forum who also used the easy way that his Ubuntu disappeared after he used Chromeos again... So I am hesitant to move back for a little while...)
Ubuntu's running pretty well. I've not had the chance to use Linux on a competent computer and am pretty happy. I run Chrome for the internet, so I'm pretty close to still being a Chromeos user. However, Ubuntu is not set up to use the nifty touchpad that comes with the Cr-48's. Caps-lock doesn't work, most of my f keys don't work, it's not set up for it. Someday, I'll figure those little things out.
In Chromeos, everything works pretty well. Pressing Alt+Ctrl+/ will bring up a shortcut key layout which will help anyone figure out how to use the operating system. Early users complained of how the touchpad functioned, but I didn't have any problems. Instead, I have a lot of those problems in Ubuntu.
Chromeos is "Nifty". If you can handle livin' in th' clouds, it's great and I kinda think it and it's ilk will work well on netbooks. But I also expect the line between netbooks, tablets, laptops, and desktops to be further blurred. Most "netbooks" of the future will probably be "tablets", which means that Android is the Google OS of choice in the future and it is already out.
I am not quite the tech-head that most people with these things are. But I already sort of like it. I like the lack of logos, I like the name, and I like the style. But physically, Cr-48s are built like Fisher-Price toys. That is the primary detraction. It's a Macintosh from Mattel. In the software, I would have also liked access to just one folder for a file system. Just a little local storage. But what can you do. I expect that will be included by the time the OS actually launches.
Overall, I think that it's a little underwhelming. Partially because I wanted to use the battery-efficient computer to watch Netflix and didn't realize that Linux has no compatibly with Silverlight. There were also some compatibility issues with Google Docs... which is rather strange. Both of these I expect to be fully resolved by launch as well. The computer is very open, so I loaded Ubuntu on the thing with instructions I got from here (rather than Google's instructions... I'm not that good at Linux and I didn't have a way to print it or anything for reference. I am not sure how either way works, or if there are problems with one over another but I read from someone on a forum who also used the easy way that his Ubuntu disappeared after he used Chromeos again... So I am hesitant to move back for a little while...)
Ubuntu's running pretty well. I've not had the chance to use Linux on a competent computer and am pretty happy. I run Chrome for the internet, so I'm pretty close to still being a Chromeos user. However, Ubuntu is not set up to use the nifty touchpad that comes with the Cr-48's. Caps-lock doesn't work, most of my f keys don't work, it's not set up for it. Someday, I'll figure those little things out.
In Chromeos, everything works pretty well. Pressing Alt+Ctrl+/ will bring up a shortcut key layout which will help anyone figure out how to use the operating system. Early users complained of how the touchpad functioned, but I didn't have any problems. Instead, I have a lot of those problems in Ubuntu.
Chromeos is "Nifty". If you can handle livin' in th' clouds, it's great and I kinda think it and it's ilk will work well on netbooks. But I also expect the line between netbooks, tablets, laptops, and desktops to be further blurred. Most "netbooks" of the future will probably be "tablets", which means that Android is the Google OS of choice in the future and it is already out.
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