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/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl General Category >> The Cafe >> Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly /cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1392832676 Message started by Oldfeller on 02/19/14 at 09:57:56 |
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Title: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 02/19/14 at 09:57:56 Last month I was nattering on about ARM needing a hardware standard such that a general purpose broad range ARM FOSS operating system or two could be written. Asus then came out with a $179 Chromebox that could run Ubuntu as well as Chrome OS and I thought "Well, Chrome has a hardware standard built into it that is actually enforced by Google, and it is the ONLY hardware standard/interface standard that currently exists in the ARM world". Since then Microsoft's new exec has had his worker bees sniffing around FOSS for code sources and media pundits are talking about MS trying to fork Android into their own personal flavor called "Windroid" by the press guys. I wrote a prediction that the $179 Asus Chromebox signals that a tipping point is coming, when HP starts shipping Chromeboxes it signals the tip is happening and when the Chinese Cheapie guys start shipping Chrome boxes it signals full acceptance has occurred. .... AND THAT MS WAS IN REAL TROUBLE and had best be about DOING something about it before it was too late. Well, step #2 is here .... http://www.zdnet.com/hp-to-join-chromebox-fray-with-mini-pc-available-in-four-color-choices-7000026072/ http://cdn-static.zdnet.com/i/r/story/70/00/026072/hp-chromebox-google-chrome-desktop-pc-620x377.jpg?hash=ATAwBGyvBQ&upscale=1 If you count on your fingers the number of NEW ChromeOS laptops and ChromeOS boxes that have come out in the last 2 months, you will run out of fingers ..... soon you will run out of toes too. Standard Hardware Based Foss PC type boxes for less than $200 are here, now. Look for the larger Linux distros like Ubuntu and such to start offering support for these Google boxes, in essence providing a second set of general purpose FOSS ARM OS support for those not happy with Google's net-based system. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by verslagen1 on 02/19/14 at 10:12:20 ching... ching... ching... don't worry MS... this cash register doesn't toll for you. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by justin_o_guy2 on 02/19/14 at 12:57:01 Awwrite,, w/o me havin to read a buncha gobbledygook Im not gonna understand.,, is this a replacement for the tower I have thats not running wurfahoot? |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by verslagen1 on 02/19/14 at 13:35:03 And it should be noted that it's the design for the new Sochi train station. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by gizzo on 02/19/14 at 14:28:57 HAhahahahahaha ;D |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 02/19/14 at 14:52:57 For Justin a chrome box would be a pretty good fit is all he really does is go online and he doesn't do a lot of office clerical work or spreadsheet work. He would appreciate the fact it was constantly kept up to date and didn't have viruses and didn't require an antivirus or defagmenting. What would screw him up is a large degree of "different" as it is a new browser, new office programs, etc. Justin would be happier with Linux Mint and an old Dell refurbished trade in. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by verslagen1 on 02/19/14 at 15:31:40 pssst... don't mention the nsa and Chinese back doors built into the os of the chromebook. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 02/19/14 at 16:12:21 If you were judging operating systems for being flawed, security wise, Win 8 would be much worse. NSA could trap the signal in any internet node in the US and catch signal on Chrome that way. I'd like to think Google could keep them out of their servers. Maybe not. Ubuntu or Mint would be better for a real security paranoid person. There are versions of Ubuntu that are encripted. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by justin_o_guy2 on 02/19/14 at 18:31:06 Well,, IM gettin ready to take a step. so, if one of you smart guys would pop a link to The Critter you suggest,, Ill pass it along to the wife.. being done with Bills software would suit me just fine, |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 02/19/14 at 19:45:23 If you want a recommendation to Linux Mint, wait 2 months until the next long term support version comes out. This version will stay fresh and good for 5 long years, enough time for you to become totally accustomed to it. Justin, in the town you live in you need to find a local Linux Support Group. You can find them through the public library or a local university or a local computer store. You will have to make the effort to find them and to meet with them. You my friend lack some of the skills you will need to deal with a change in OS. All newbies at the beginning needed some form of support (me too). Linux Mint makes it as easy as can be to change over, but it isn't flawlessly easy -- having somebody LOCAL who has done it before who can get you over the speedbumps is a good thing to have. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Kirill Timofeev on 02/19/14 at 20:48:42 ChromeOS devices have not much local storage, they assume that all your data is in google services. And personally I don't like it. If those devices can be modded to add storage and if they would allow installation of linux - probably I'll try them. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 02/20/14 at 06:28:57 The current crop of Chrome devices DO allow you to run Google services local on your machine with no internet connection (so you can do word processing and spreadsheet and whatever when you are off line or on a train, plane, etc). The current crop of Chrome devices allow you to access 16-64 gig of internal FAST flash systems memory and as much of a fast USB 3.0 hard drive as you care to plug in. They all have large capacity SIMM slots too. These can go up to 128 gigabytes right now. So Really Now, memory or on-line/off-line is not an issue with the current Chrome devices. That ain't what is stopping you. You are like all of us, comfortable with what you already know how to use and you are quite reluctant to change it ..... BTW, a terabyte USB 3.0 portable drive by Western Digital costs $69 on sale at Costco right now. I just bought one to plug into my Simple.TV DVR device. It is the biggest drive I have ever bought, by a factor of 3 at least and it sits (1/4" thick) flat in the palm of just one hand. Chrome boxes, since they are hooked up to AC power all the time, can afford the power to run a USB hard drive and also have a larger "power wasting" Intel processor like an I-5 or an I-7 if you really really think you still need it. Chrome was designed for battery powered devices, so it is inherently power friendly, even in the Chromebox which doesn't have to be so power contained. Chrome boxes and Chrome books are very very light and VERY quick when you actually go to use one. And you don't need a big huge Intel processor either. Actually, Chrome OS runs just fine on any current crop quad to octa core ARM processor, but we Americans, we do just love all that raw speed and power whenever we can find it, now don't we? ================ I think the point here is that you can buy a "hardware standard honoring" Chromebox for cheap and then you can put an Ubuntu derivative on it later on if you find you don't like the Chrome experience. Or you could go Android. Or pay to go Windroid (when it gets here). Me, for example, I like to use Linux Mint Mate edition because it is almost exactly like XP in how it works. (very intentional, that, I am sure). What all this does is to put TREMENDOUS PRESSURE on MS to pull their pride out of their butts and go ahead and write an ARM OS. They can see that all of these FAR less expensive alternatives are popping up now, removing their potential market share by entire percentage points every few weeks. And their old partners (Intel, ASUS, Lenovo, HP) ARE NOT GOING TO WAIT FOR THEM ANY LONGER -- Intel is supporting ARM calls natively in their newest designed generation of Cherry Trail chipsets and the actual ARM chipsets have become much much more powerful recently. Over half of these Chromebooks and Chromeboxes are running off Intel's current crop of processors (and they will likely continue to do so as long as Intel continues doing their loss leader pricing). ARM processors cost less (a lot less) even when Intel is trying to price support their stuff with 15-20% loss leader pricing. As soon as ARM accepts they need to enforce a hardware interface standard in all their designs, then the more powerful of the ARM chipsets will swing firmly into the forefront due to their lower cost. Once somebody shuts off that Intel loss leader pricing with a lawsuit or two, Intel will be left with just the legacy "power loving" markets in America and Europe. Intel vs ARM, Google vs Microsoft --- these competitive pair-offs have cause some rapid progress to be made recently. Problem is that Microsoft is moving soooooooooooo slowly they make even Intel look fleet of foot. Intel sees their market going away as they watch and is actually FIGHTING to save what they can. Intel is on the field, trying to move the ball. Microsoft is still sitting in the snow out past the sidelines, trying desperately to get their bearings and to get up after stitching on a brand new head. It is very shocking to the invalid MS when you can buy an entire ASUS Chromebox brand new for the exact same money as what the retail license for Windows 8.1.1 Pro currently goes for. Very shocking indeed. :D Apple is reaping the benefits of Microsoft's inability to move and to innovate, Apple is certainly picking up the bulk of Microsoft's lost upper end sales here in America. Prediction: Microsoft stays stuck on their dime long enough for Apple sales to exceed Microsoft PC sales -- this to take place any time now. http://www.asymco.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Screen-Shot-2014-01-13-at-1-13-3.09.21-PM.png |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by justin_o_guy2 on 02/20/14 at 08:32:55 Hello,, Im justin, & my windows software is outta control. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 02/21/14 at 16:30:05 Prediction: Microsoft stays stuck on their dime long enough for Apple sales to exceed Microsoft PC sales -- this to take place any time now. And, as the world turns, it comes to pass .... Apple's iPhone Is Now Worth More Than All Of Microsoft http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/08/19/apples-iphone-is-now-worth-more-than-all-of-microsoft/ "One Apple product, something that didn’t exist five years ago, has higher sales than everything Microsoft has to offer. More than Windows, Office, Xbox, Bing, Windows Phone, and every other product that Microsoft has created since 1975. In the quarter ended March 31, 2012, iPhone had sales of $22.7 billion; Microsoft Corporation, $17.4 billion." The post-PC era takes shape: Apple devices outsold Windows in Q4 http://bgr.com/2014/02/14/iphone-ipad-mac/ http://boygeniusreport.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/iphone-ipad-mac-vs-windows-unit-sales-q3-2013.jpg?w=625&h=239 Read it, both articles certainly indicates that Apple has continued to spike and Microsoft has continued to tank and the colored lines have indeed crossed in Q1 2014 (or may have actually done so around Christmas last year). Microsoft is no longer #1 in new product sales. Microsoft is no longer even #2 in new product sales. Microsoft is now #3 overall and is still sinking. There are other numbers out there such as "installed base" in which Microsoft does somewhat better. Consideration of such "installed base" numbers is why MS did not kill XP on the date that was originally planned. It would have killed off 1/3 of their installed base number and since it is the only glory MS has left they just couldn't do it. :D Now, who beats Apple worldwide carrying 81.2% of the current sales in the cell phone world and 60%+ of the current sales of tablets? Did you really need to ask ?? Android is the largest OS in the word with huge growing lead. http://i0.wp.com/blog.goyello.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/2014-01-23-13_15_18.png?resize=400%2C300 ;) Look at the red pie slice -- remember, that little red slice is worth more than Microsoft's current entire everything ..... |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 02/21/14 at 20:20:29 Who else is getting re-ranked in America vs the I-Phone by itself? http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-25/listen-up-apple-haters-iphone-sales-eclipse-microsoft-and-amazon http://wbbw1.bwbx.io/cms/2013-09-25/0925_iphone_vs_dow_630inline.jpg Android is tough to characterize in this sort of list since it is hundreds of companies in lots of countries with Google waving the FOSS leadership baton but making its real money by selling ads and various other sorts of odds and ends. Plus they give both of their OS products away for free .... so they don't really turn much of a profit off of it, now do they? |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by raydawg on 02/23/14 at 06:46:20 Waaaaaaaaaaaaaay over my head OF, but I can vouch Apple is earning the highest stars by customers satisfaction, as I am trying to find a laptop for the wife. Her old one failed and now she is bogarting my PC. She needs her own platform as she gets hundreds of correspondences a day re: her INTERNET business, and yes, time is money. I use mine for editing her products onto which I then send her the folder of my finished editing, where she adds text and uploads to her sites for sale. On any given day I may have 10 to 20 products, each requiring 5 different camera exposures, which need some tweaking in PS to improve. Her sales pretty much match our available output.... So.... Me working 10 hour days, toss in a couple more commuting, and a few hours EACH day taking, editing, pictures, I can't really share my work space. She is looking at a Dell.... |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 02/23/14 at 07:19:55 Dell retail brand new is quite pricey to buy once you add in the options you decide that you want in it. Extra options cost big with Dell as new. A Dell coming off their lease program is very reasonable, verging on cheap. Some boxes come with the bells and whistles the original lessor paid for --- sell used for same same refurbie unit pricing. Appearance of the units hasn't changed in 5-6 years, so what's inside the box is about the whole story. Dell sells about 3-4 major variants inside the same case. Look for the processor hp, power supply rating and the graphics system to explain the variations. Watch out for the power supply size in what you are buying. Make sure it is big enough watt-wise and has the extra power leads for whatever you plan to add to that unit yourself. Intel GMA graphics suck and many of the slim cases require the use of a low profile video card that you can buy from New Egg for $109 whenever they actually come into stock. This card does not require extra power leads and it will fit inside a low profile case. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202002#top They sell out quick when they come into stock as they are about the only card that fits inside a slim line Dell case .... and fits the stock slim line power supply output levels too. Buying a full sized case would be a better idea. Buying a full sized PC case from Dell signals to them you wanted a workstation, so the guts get stronger & bigger on the full sized units. A full sized case can hold anybody's video card and generally has a beefy enough power supply with some extra leads. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by justin_o_guy2 on 02/23/14 at 08:59:04 Ive got a dell tower,, all I need is a hard drive & an OS & all the drivers. Some Jakass , who Was supposed to FIX the thing, Kept my XP disk, |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 02/23/14 at 11:32:59 Justin, if you get a hard drive you can install Linux Mint on it, it comes with all the drivers and all the software ..... ..... for free. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by justin_o_guy2 on 02/23/14 at 17:09:51 & itll just plug & play in this Dell? You got any suggestions on WHICH hard drive? PLease, post a link to what you think is the best answer.. I seriously am outta my league shoppin for such. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 02/23/14 at 17:38:18 No, first you need to identify which dell you have, identify the old hard drive that was spec'd for that machine and get a replacement drive that will fit THAT dell unit. Try this search string "replacement hard drive for Dell model xxxxxxx" Do you have the cable that came with the Dell that goes from motherboard to the now missing hard drive? |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Steve H on 02/23/14 at 17:41:29 Anybody notice that Microsoft dropped it's licensing fees for Windows by 70% the other day in an effort to stay at least somewhat relevant until they figure they can come up with something to put them on top again. But, they are still pushing the same old crap that nobody wants. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 02/23/14 at 18:29:50 http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/21/5435152/windows-8-1-license-fees-cut-by-70-percent-rumor http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2453835,00.asp Both analyst say the same thing -- Microsoft will literally give Windows 8.x away to an OEM short term to stop the OEM from putting out a Chromebook or Chromebox. Question becomes, do people really want Windows 8.x even at the price? Microsoft is at the "do anything stage" to just stay alive for another year until they can come out with Threshold (which is supposed to fix all the various ills, right ....) Look for the ads bars to pop up on the start screen and some other zero price at point of sale tricks to pop up in the free (or nearly free) Windows 8.x for sub-$250 cheapie laptop/boxes OS offerings. Also look for MS to start changing things even more quickly, as when you are operating at loss leader pricing it focuses your mind wonderfully on what really counts -- making customers happy. Ad bars will NOT make customers happy. ===================== Some numbers that have to change --- MS requires 4 gigs of systems memory (Chromebox needs two) MS Win 8.x requires X86 quad core processor at at least 2 ghz to run worth a durn (or dual core at 3 ghz) (Chromebox runs good on a two year old 1.5 ghz 28nm ARM dual core A-15, so you know it can really cook on the current crop of smaller lithography higher core count & better graphics ARM chipsets) MS will require Intel to strongly loss leader price to all Microsoft's builder buds for all the extra motherboard components that are required to run an Intel chipset. Lawsuit food here, Intel has to give the exact same pricing to the folks doing Chromebooks and boxes with the exact same chips or get sued over it. (ARM chipsets are fully integrated right on the microprocessor die itself) If this is a battery powered device, Microsoft will still require a 25% larger battery than ARM does to get the same battery life. OEMs will be very reluctant to accept a Microsoft Secure Boot chip in their products because people realize what it is now -- a can't get over it security hole in the base hardware of the device that locks you out of changing OSs at a later point in time. Customers should refuse all such offerings. It will be harder this time for Intel and Microsoft to lie grossly about what they are actually selling, as the fairly quick and fairly complete outing of the last crop of lies has cost them considerable credibility with the OEMs, the ANTUTU test folks, magazine reviewers, the large retailers and computer customers. Being sued by your own stockholders for hiding financial downturn results and large "scrap it charges" does that to you ..... The VERY LARGE FINANCIAL LOSSES suffered by several of the major OEMs will make them very reluctant to EVER do that sort of trust MS nonsense ever ever again. The fired CEOs of 3 of these firms (4 if you count Microsoft, 6 if you count the head guy's "early retirements" over at Intel) act to reinforce that lesson. All the new guys DO remember how they got their jobs .... ============== Unless you make it totally pain free and VERY VERY LUCRATIVE to take this sort of bad risk, forget about it. A $15 discount per unit isn't gonna do it. Hell, free might not do it, not with Windows 8.x as the incentive. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Steve H on 02/23/14 at 20:38:52 I don't know about everyone else but I won't accept a machine that I can't install whatever software (including OS) that I want nor will I accept a desktop OS purveying ads. Installing an ad popper on their already bloated, underperforming OS will really kill off what little demand there is for their product. I can't see Android ever becoming an OS worthy of note for desktops until all the ads are removed from it too. If they can ever get together for a set of hardware standards. I have a list of a few thousand known ad hosts blocked on my system. It makes a tremendous difference in web page load times and in unwanted, unrequested ad poppers, spyware, malware, and virii being found on my system. It just keeps chugging along. I really enjoy using Linux. It seems that no matter which distro I get, I have problems getting drivers for some piece or other of hardware in my system. It does run really sweet and so much faster than Windows on the same system. I haven't had a distro installed in a couple years. Might be time to try it again. My system is at least 10 years old. By now, drivers should be available for everything in it if they ever will be. If some of these Chromeboxes can decently run Linux and do it without a lot of hacking to get it to work, I might pick one up one day to run Linux. I refuse to use a desktop OS tied to Google or anyone else for operation. That knocks out Chrome. Dunno if Firefox OS will ever make it to desktop systems. Haven't really heard much of anything about it. I have a feeling we are in for some major OS and hardware wars in the near future until things settle out again for a while before the whole circle starts over again. Guess I'll either have Linux or Windows. Both of those will run forever without their creator being out there. I know win will most likely balk and pitch a fit if I ever try to install it on a different system. But, there are plenty of ways out there around it's ascenine registration crap that will let it just install and run. I applaud the vendors / manufacturers for pulling Win and installing something that people want and selling their equipment. It's about time the big software vendors learned they are just a piece of the puzzle and that several other pieces will fit in their space to achieve the desired objective. Software and hardware should be driven by the wants and needs of the customer...not the desires, forcasts, wants of the manufacturer, the NSA, Google, or anyone else. Conversely, the customer should be educated enough to make a decent decision about what they are getting. Salespeople are going to try to sell highest margin so their commission is better. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 02/23/14 at 20:43:08 http://www.edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2014/01/google-chromebooks-make-big-waves-notebook-market Read this little nugget from the education side of things, about how much less it costs a school system to put in a new Chromebook and Chromebox based system vs the cost of even maintaining the licensing on a Wintel system already there on existing older equivalent X86 hardware/software. IT and educators ARE money conscious and they flat out love the things that make their job easier to do. Give them a product that does both at the same time and they will place an order for it as soon as they get the budget money to do so. Google is offering the education system the cloud based education software infrastructure to run on those Chromebooks that makes the teacher's job much easier to do also. Teachers don't even have to grade the stuff, the Google servers do it for them. Schools are now teaching kids how to use Google products, the kids don't forget that later on in life as they consider all OS products to be OK and usable. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 02/23/14 at 20:58:09 http://opensource.com/government/14/1/italy-open-source-software-procurements Italy joins Germany and France and China in preferring open source software products for all sensitive government data functions. Security is one reason, but price is another compelling reason for the preference. It simply costs too much to keep up with a Windows network, or if you let the machines actually be freestanding it costs too much to keep them simply running from one trojan to the next rootkit to the next virus, etc. etc. etc. You might not like "Google cloud" holding on to your data for you, (it is a trust issue on your part mostly) but Google actually does a good job of maintaining your stuff securely and making it available to you ANYWHERE at ANY TIME compared to any other means of holding on to your stuff. It is estimated that of the original "no offline work possible" Chromebook hardware that was originally purchased before last year that a good bit of the early stuff was re-purposed using a Linux distro. ======================= Linux use has spiked up some from last year, going from 0.9% to 1.1% to 1.9% using the very most Windows friendly statistics. Considering the prevalence of multi-boot set ups in use on PC hardware, Linux ranks higher in the real world accordingly. The net hit counting software counts your machine as "Microsoft" if it has a Windows boot sector on it (even if you never use it). ======================= Could Microsoft recover? Yes, lay off over 50% of their employees and sell their software for a MUCH LOWER PRICE and really really stress making their customers happy as an ongoing thing (instead of scratching some Ballmer-type moron's mental itches) and they could do OK. Can Microsoft pull this off with their current management mentality? ..... no |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 02/23/14 at 21:36:31 Speaking about Microsoft layoffs. http://techrights.org/wiki/index.php/Microsoft_-_Layoffs This is just the last 3 years of layoffs and off-shoring done by MS. Each line is a link to an entire article about the subject. To get to the lists of links go to the link at the top of this post. 2010 Rumors of Additional (Stealth) Microsoft Layoffs Former Microsoft Executive: Microsoft Should Lay Off 30%-40% of Its Workforce Quick Mention: More Microsoft Layoffs News Reports About Microsoft’s Confirmation of Layoffs FBR Capital Markets and Morgan Stanley Both Cut Microsoft Estimates While Microsoft is Hiding the Losses and Layoffs Are Rumoured for Next Month “Hearing Lots of Rumors of More {Microsoft} Layoffs Next Week or the Week After.” Microsoft’s Debt is Growing and More Layoffs Likely Imminent Based on Steve Ballmer’s Remarks 2011 Microsoft Forced to Reveal More Layoffs, Offshoring; Sues Escapees 2012 Microsoft to Start 2012 With More Layoffs 2013 Microsoft is Unloading Divisions, Many Employees Leave Microsoft is Hiring Moles Inside Free/Open Source Software (the Competition) While Sacking Its Own Staff (Microsoft Layoffs Silently Occurring Every Quarter) Also see: Microsoft - Offshoring and Visas |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by justin_o_guy2 on 02/24/14 at 08:36:45 Im using the tower I want the new drive for. I just want to start fresh, ditch whatever BUGS are in this thing,, I open F/fox & 10 minutes later, the cpu is running at 65% +,, Or, like now, it was open all nite & its at 28% & running along reasonably quick,, but sometimes it pops to 100% & MAN does it act weird,, Ive considered just loading a new Firefox & then killing the existing one. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by justin_o_guy2 on 02/25/14 at 08:37:37 I really cant decipher all this,,by the time I get it read Im confused..I dont mind if it operates somewhat differently.,may take a while to get used to it, but I really want something that will cruise the net & not get hijacked or bugged up. If thats Linux or Ubuntu,, hey,I dont mind,, I just need a hard drive with an OS thats slip in this tower & run. I am no longer enough "up to speed" to do much other than remove & install parts.. Heck,, Its time to open & clean the tower anyway.. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 02/25/14 at 09:01:55 So you have a working machine and a working hard drive. How big is the hard drive and how much of it is unused at this point in time? If you got 20 gig of free space you can put Mint on the old hard drive as a dual boot arrangement. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by justin_o_guy2 on 02/25/14 at 12:41:19 The drive is a biggun, plenty O ram,, I just want rid of this drive, even IF theres room for a new OS,, & dual boot,, I would rather replace it. I have 203 free G/bytes on a 232 gig drive.. I just want it out. Ill keep it & MAYBE mess with it,, but, drives arent that expensive now.. Id even consider a digital drive, no spinning disk, IF you smart guys say theyre cool, |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 02/25/14 at 16:38:36 What I would suggest is getting a disk defragmenter that will stack everything together in a cohesive clump at the front of the drive. Windows world has many, quite a few of them are free. Defrag and CoMPACT your current hard drive using Windows tools. Tell it to move everything to the front if you have that option (most just do it automatically anyway) Your drive is huge, you have a ton of space. You can install Linux Mint Mate version on 20-30 gigs of hard drive and think it was a 100 gigs --- Linux files are smaller and much fewer of them are required to run a system. =============== Go here and download and burn the OS to a DVD with your DVD burner. (cksum it to make sure it all got there) http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=104 Scan down the page and pick a USA mirror from the list and click on it right before you go to bed. Downloading takes quite a few minutes for an entire OS DVD load and people fricking around with the PC and tapping on the keyboard actually cause more bad downloads than anything else really does. ============== Like I said, in a couple of months Mint Mate edition goes to a new 5 year LTS version, and me, I'm waiting for it. Once you boot Linux, it doesn't matter how eat up your old Windows is with crap and viruses nor how badly your old program files are chewed up. Linux will create a new set of partitions, written in a format Windows can't read and it will organize a nice neat new world on those partitions that Windows (and Windows viruses) can't touch. Your drive may wheeze and moan all the time under Windows because the boot sector has root kits on it and the FAT table is mangled and the drive struggles to read stuff that has been corrupted. When you boot Linux, magically all that hard drive illness just stops. On my old while box I was running a hard drive that Windows and the manufacturer's fix it disk said was 100% dead & gone -- but it was fine under Linux. Think of it as an experiment -- you can always change the drive out later if you want to. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 02/25/14 at 16:47:09 If you want to follow Justin as he gets himself all geeked up -- go here http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1393375353/0#0 |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 02/26/14 at 02:25:44 http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/08/windows_market_shares-100048534-orig.jpg "Other" has doubled in size just last year. But what will happen when MS really pulls the plug on XP with it sitting at 37% desktop market share? Old retired folks like us aren't going to rush out and buy a bunch of expensive new stuff that we don't know how to use .... Reactos is pushing a kickstarter campaign to finish their XP clone stuff up in time .... Linux Mint will likely put out a XP to Mint on-line guide .... Ubuntu will put out a magazine type booklet out to do the same thing (with the software DVD included) Your old XP hardware can move all fast again, just change your OS .... :) |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by justin_o_guy2 on 03/01/14 at 08:29:42 I guess now is a good time for me to be having probs with the tower,, if theres gonna BE a good time for hassles, at least right now there are a lot of people out there looking to sell a replacement for XP. I like how XP navigates, I know nothing of spread sheets, or doing anything other than hitting websites. I am the computer equivalent of the person who drives, but cant change the oil or change a flat tire. I get in, fire it up & go where I want to go.. & Thats it.. Looks like I musta driven thru a few construction sites,, I seem to have picked up a few "nails" along the way,., Im gonna hafta get the tower dragged out & get all the pertinent info & go find a hard drive that'll plug in,, I want it to come with the OS on it,, can I do that? |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 03/01/14 at 10:57:26 Nope, you got to download the OS and put it on a DVD as that is what your old box will most likely read. Quick question -- is the disc reader/writer on at least one of your machines at home a DVD reader/writer? What sort of CD/DVD drive does your old tower have? Heck, just tell us the model # of the old Dell Tower .... ============= If this starts to sound too hard to figure out, then you need to pick somebody geekish that you know to get you some local type help. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by justin_o_guy2 on 03/01/14 at 11:36:12 It SAY Optiplex GX620 Then it SAY Intel Pentium 4HT Thats on the front. If thats not enough, Ill drag it out. Now, it was bought off the refurbished site, so, maybe the guts & the advertising arent an exact match,, I dunno,, & thanks for your help, man,, really.. I Have no local geeky friends.. the one I had joined the air force,, but, heck,, he moved to Dallas I bet a year ago,, aint seen that boy in a while.. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 03/01/14 at 13:07:29 Is this what you got? If not, pull it out and read the info off the main label on the back of the unit. That is the info that counts. You got to pull it out anyway and pop the back of the case off and make sure what you have looks exactly like the video before you go order anything. Next, before you order anything, do you have a DVD WRITE drive on one of your other machines that is working? What came on your old Dell is a read only DVD which cannot write the OS files to a DVD. You will need another machine to do that. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWCxaJbJZVE[/media] If so this relatively inexpensive older technology 3.5" hard drive should mount your plastic slide rails and plug into your SATA connectors. http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000Q85WOK/ref=sr_1_6_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1393707900&sr=8-6&keywords=3.5%22+sata+hard+drive&condition=new :) (everybody feel free to jump in if I picked wrong or you can find a drive cheaper somewhere else) |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 03/01/14 at 13:24:06 And Justin, write all your stuff in the "Justin does Linux" thread and quit replying in a random fashion to all these old info threads left over from the Barcelona show. The rest of the boys are tired of looking at them and want them to drop off the face of the earth ..... |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 03/04/14 at 06:21:46 copied from first post in thread Last month I was nattering on about ARM needing a hardware standard such that a general purpose broad range ARM FOSS operating system or two could be written. Asus then came out with a $179 Chromebox that could run Ubuntu as well as Chrome OS and I thought "Well, Chrome has a hardware standard built into it that is actually enforced by Google, and it is the ONLY hardware standard/interface standard that currently exists in the ARM world". Since then Microsoft's new exec has had his worker bees sniffing around FOSS for code sources and media pundits are talking about MS trying to fork Android into their own personal flavor called "Windroid" by the press guys. I wrote a prediction that the $179 Asus Chromebox signals that a tipping point is coming, when HP starts shipping Chromeboxes it signals the tip is happening and when the Chinese Cheapie guys start shipping Chrome boxes it signals full acceptance has occurred. .... AND THAT MS WAS IN REAL TROUBLE and had best be about DOING something about it before it was too late. Well, step #2 is here .... http://www.zdnet.com/hp-to-join-chromebox-fray-with-mini-pc-available-in-four-color-choices-7000026072/ http://cdn-static.zdnet.com/i/r/story/70/00/026072/hp-chromebox-google-chrome-desktop-pc-620x377.jpg?hash=ATAwBGyvBQ&upscale=1 Gots lots of stuff in between, but gist is that we are waiting for step #3 to come rolling around. The original Chinese Cheapie guys have become HUGE Chinese guys now, they are not little incidental companies any more. Allwinner, originally the smallest of the lot has become arguably the biggest of them now and Allwinner has just made an announcement concerning ARM standards for their chipsets. Allwinner joins Linaro Digital Home Group, commits to open source chip support http://liliputing.com/2014/03/allwinner-joins-linaro-digital-home-group-commits-open-source-chip-support.html Allwinner has just announced a hell for strong Octa Core chipset with the ability to run 3 desktop monitors wide (off a phone/tablet chip no less). Folks are saying the Allwinner A-80 is really an ARM PC chip and Allwinner intends to use it to sell ARM all-in-ones and ARM desktop boxes. This latest move, actually becoming a charter member of the Linaro Digital Home standards group and committing themselves (and VR graphics along with them) to adhering to the to be written Linaro standards going forward indicates that step #3 is coming soon (when Chinese cheapie guys adhere to an ARM FOSS standard so ARM based broad range OS products can be built). So, you got a Linaro desktop standards body now. Allwinner’s not exactly the first chip maker to join Linaro. ARM, AMD, Broadcomm, Freescale, HiSilicon, Marvell, Qualcomm, Samsung, and STMicroelectronics are all listed as members. Linaro is a non-profit working to bring Linux to ARM-based hardware and the team offers builds of Android, Ubuntu, and OpenEmbedded for a variety of ARM-based systems and chipsets. Think of Linaro as the grocery store that folks go to visit to pick up the bits and pieces to make up a tablet or phone or desktop using ARM processors. If Allwinner and VR are serious about the FOSS standards thing, then Ubuntu will have them listed as supported partners in the next general Ubuntu release. Somebody will likely build a cheap chrome box or two with their chipset as well. Certainly an Ubuntu box or two. Competitive pressure will fall on Rockchip and all the rest to do the same thing -- adhere to a build standard. Rockchip and Media Tek could be a no brainer for their next A-17 chip since it is a plain vanilla ARM reference design that is fully supported by Linaro anyway. Ubuntu will support those chipsets if the boys actually do the output I/O connections to any reasonably complete standard and actually do really connect up to all the traces (Rockchip is bad for not connecting up the ARM provided I/O traces for hard drives, etc. etc. etc.) This will be step #3 --- Chinese cheapie guys making full free OS supportable products to a known build standard. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 03/04/14 at 09:48:35 http://blogs.computerworld.com/sites/computerworld.com/files/u98/gartner_total_sales_0.jpg Folks have begun to list all devices in their statistics since phones/tablets are basically PC class devices now-a-days. It will be interesting to see how MS fares going out into the future ..... ============================== Time to stroke the smoke filled crystal ball and make a prediction for the next 8 months .... likely sooner than later. Microsoft stirred the waters with the "Windroid" threat and ARM/Linaro/chipmfgs/majordevicemakers instantly all clumped together to form a standards body for ARM FOSS hardware/interface standards. You notice Microsoft wasn't invited, right? Nor was Intel, although their latest Merryfield vapor chip is about as much an ARM chip as any of the Qualcomm chipsets are. You also noted that Merryfield midrange performance slot got instantly filled up with a more capable new ARM A-17 chipset, right? Microsoft is going to try to broach a new ARM OS standard soon and they will attempt to preempt any ARM hardware interface standard from developing by throwing a conflicting one out first. Microsoft MUST lay claim to "writing the standards in ARM space" or else they can't sue everybody into submission later on ... and without the ability to sue they can't control the fate of this new industry. Google has been playing Switzerland for so long nobody really expects them to step up to the plate and lead on this fairly critical issue. Linaro seems to be stepping up to the plate, but remember, Linaro is a paid for by the main chip builders and main hardware makers type of non-profit service company -- they really lack the ability to make anyone do anything. If Microsoft succeeds in claiming any sort of dominant control over ARM space, watch for Google to suddenly "improve" Android to add more broad OS functionality to it .... something they wouldn't do quickly otherwise. With 4x everybody else's market share, Google simply isn't going to act preemptively to destroy anybody, not MS, nor anybody else. Coming out of left field, with some old old moldy grudge bones left to pick with MS, Firefox (Mozilla Foundation) might just pop up to do the job if Ubuntu doesn't get there first. Firefox currently has quite a low end following in South America and in Italy and in Spain .... the gap from the new Firefox for tablets to an All-in-one OS wasn't hard for them to bridge at all. Remember, Mozilla Foundation has been in FOSS all along from the very beginning. Heck, Mozilla Foundation used to be Netscape -- they date back to BEFORE the earliest Windows versions, to the earliest OS -2 days when IBM and Microsoft were duking it out the first time. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 03/05/14 at 19:49:48 http://www.anandtech.com/show/7721/arm-and-partners-deliver-first-arm-server-platform-standard http://images.anandtech.com/doci/7721/ARMSBSA_575px.png So the first hurdle for ARM to take was to develop a platform standard. And that is exactly what ARM is announcing today: the platform standard for ARMv8-A based (64-bit) servers, known as the ARM ‘Server Base System Architecture’ (SBSA) specification. The new specification is supported by a very broad range of companies ranging from software companies such as Canonical, Citrix, Linaro, Microsoft, Red Hat and SUSE, OEMs (Dell and HP) and the most important component vendors active in this field such as AMD, Cavium, Applied Micro and Texas Instruments. In fact, the Opteron A1100 that was just announced by AMD adheres to this new spec. All those partners of course formulated comments, but the best comment came from Frank Frankovsky, president and chairman of the Open Compute Project Foundation. "These standardization efforts will help speed adoption of ARM in the datacenter by providing consumers and software developers with the consistency and predictability they require, and by helping increase the pace of innovation in ARM technologies by eliminating gratuitous differentiation in areas like device enumeration and boot process." ================= OK, Microsoft was there --- and they are now claiming to the MS press they "wrote the standard" which is utter nonsense of course, but watch them, they will repeat this lie more times than Al Gore did when he was inventing the internet. They must lay a framework for "controlling the standards" or they have no controlling future in 64 bit ARM. The big lie has worked for them in the past at other critical junctures, so they will try the big lie yet again. Enough incidences of claiming something goes a long way in court 10 years from now in convincing a jury that damages and royalties are due to you. A large chunk of this server standard will become the 64 bit consumer product standard since the actual ARM A57 product is actually pretty much the same in both cases. Note please that AMD is currently putting out a 28mn 8 core chipset (all A57 bigs) that adheres to this standard. Broadcom has announced that it will produce a 3 GHz 16 nm quadcore server ARMv8 server CPU. ARM SoC market leader Qualcomm has shown some interest too, but without any real product to hang it on yet. At this point in time MS has bupkiss of their own creation -- no code, no ARM OS, NO NOTHING that they haven't just lifted from somebody else. The liftees should all band together and sue MS right now while it is still nice and clear cut to anyone what exactly MS just did. Don't wait, IBM and Digital Research can tell you all about giving MS a year or two of free time to claim all the lifted stuff as theirs. Expect a whole rash of 64 bit chip announcements ASAP -- the great 64 bit race of 2014-15 starts today. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 03/06/14 at 16:52:16 [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xfCk9iCFRU#t=284[/media] For you fine folks who think Chrome OS isn't able to really do your stuff, the Linux hackers have now had at the lowest cost Acer Chromebooks (non-touch screen @ $199 and touch screen @ $299) and have figured out how to simo-kernel (dual boot to you MS people) Ubuntu on the same unit and the same Linux kernel as the stock Acer Chrome OS. You can flip back & forth between them with just a combination key push. This guy Brad Linder shows you how it works and it works pretty well. For such a light processor, etc. the Acers haul butt pretty good. Brad always tells it square & blunt, so he will tell you what he likes about the Acer keyboard and screen and such and what he doesn't care for all that much. He also gets into the better memory specs you can order on the non-touch screen $199 unit that you can't get yet on the $299 touch screen unit. Before you go hating on something you've never really touched yet, at least watch the man kick the tires on a Croton simo-kernel (?? dual boot ??) Acer set up and listen to him tell you briefly how durn easy it is to scrape Chrome OS off totally & completely & permanently and replace it with Ubuntu. ;) |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 03/08/14 at 06:57:46 http://liliputing.com/2014/03/asus-chromebox-available-pre-order-179.html http://cdn.liliputing.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/asus-chromebox_002.jpg Oh My Goodness !!! Do you think they are going to ship a few of these? "The first Chrome OS desktop computer from Asus is now available for pre-order. The Asus Chromebox-M004U is a tiny desktop with an Intel Celeron processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and a $179 price tag. It’s expected to ship March 14th, but you can pre-order the Chromebox from Amazon, TigerDirect, or Newegg. This model features an Intel Celeron 2955U processor based on Intel’s “Haswell” architecture. Asus also plans to offer a Chromeboox M-005U model with an Intel Core i3-4010U Haswell chip starting in mid-March. Both models feature built-in WiFi and Bluetooth, 4 USB 3.0 ports, an SD card slot, HDMI and DisplayPort. The $179 model comes with 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and 100GB of free cloud storage space with Google Drive for 2 years. The Asus Chromebox measures 4.9[ch8243] x 4.9[ch8243] x 1.7[ch8243] and ships with Google’s browser-based operating system. But as we’ve seen over and over again, it’s pretty easy to install Ubuntu, Debian, and other operating systems on Chrome OS hardware. That could make the Asus Chromebox a pretty nifty little machine not only for folks who buy into Google’s vision that a web browser is your most important app… but also for folks looking for a cheap alternative to an Intel NUC or Gigabyte Brix mini-PC". :D Now, having just installed some Linux Mint lately into a little under 8 gigs of space, a lot of our new Linux users now begin to understand that the Chromebox at 16 gigs DOES have plenty of room for the OS and a goodly bunch of little tiny Linux files. If you do run out of room, just pop in an SD card or plug up a USB hard drive -- keeping your data on a mobile drive is a smart thing that also makes distro hopping easier later on anyway. $179 buys you a whole real computer box. Yes, I think they are going to sell a bunch of them, especially when the 32 gig version comes out in a month or so with the more powerful Intel processor that they are promising. AMD is working on several of these with different partners ..... Me, I like AMD integrated graphics much better than Intel's. When the Chinese Cheapie guys get here it will be Allwinner A80's and Media Tek and such like -- still able to carry the load VERY EASILY since an old RK3188 A-9 quad core can do it right now. Heck, a dual core A-9 can do it too, so processor power isn't an issue with Linux, really. Paying more than $200 for a box should never be necessary ever again. ;D |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 03/08/14 at 07:40:04 What does it really TAKE to run Linux Mint Mate 64 bit Olivia? (the current one, not the new one out next month as I ain't got that one yet) It takes 6.5 gig of hard drive space for my OS and all my current files. It takes 741.2 k (not gigabytes, not megabytes, less than 1 meg) to run an Intel Core 2 Duo system. It took 515 k to run my old AMD Athlon 64 bit single core and I had to run a bunch of open stuff all at the same time to get up to that. ;) It takes less than half of the ASUS Chromebox's built in resources to do the job. And it is FAST, much much quicker than your Winbox is right now. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Kirill Timofeev on 03/08/14 at 08:26:57 How you measured memory consumption? Hard drive requirements vary a lot depending on do you store a lot of video and photos locally or not. This is hard drive in my laptop: Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/sda1 909G 739G 125G 86% / |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 03/09/14 at 06:28:18 I used Systems Monitor (built in XP-like Mint utility) to measure my system while I was running it. My memory usage may be less than yours because I keep fewer windows open at one time than you do -- and I tend not to have any background tasks running. Obviously you have a lot of stuff on your machine beyond a standard Linux Mint install. Quite a bit more. My machine represents what a new Linux Mint Mate user will have on his machine when he gets started. Your machine represents what a Linux power user may develop into over some time. Linux users range from the newbie just loading his first distro --- up to a power user -- up to a Cray XT5-HE supercomputer located at the US Oak Ridge National Laboratory -- all of them use progressively more systems memory and hard drive space. ;) ..... nothing I have ever done on Linux won't run comfortably within the confines of a $179 Chromebox. Nothing Kirill has ever done wouldn't run within the confines of a $179 Chromebox with a $69 one (1) terabyte USB portable hard drive plugged into the USB 3.0 port. This does not mean Kirill would be happy with less machine than he currently has, he's a long term Linux power user after all. He geeks terminal and uses some of the core OS language commands like we used to use DOS. He does not miss XP because he's been away from it sooooo long he doesn't miss it or Windows at all. He is like you would be after 5-10 years on Linux. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 03/10/14 at 19:35:12 Wow, the Asus Chromebox is being presold right now at Amazon and guess what unit is leading the desktop computer sales at Amazon right now .... yup, you guessed it. http://www.amazon.com/s?rh=i%3Acomputers%2Cn%3A565098&field-enc-merchantbin=ATVPDKIKX0DER&field-availability=-1&field-price=00000-39999&ie=UTF8&pf_rd_p=1719525302&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-5&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=4972214011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0GS90PAZDTNZQQDS7SM6&ref_=acs_ux_ct_3_a3_refTest The #1 best desktop seller at Amazon is the Asus Chromebox, stealing the lead from the Asus Chromebook and putting them old moldy MS Windows products completely out of the top 4 computer items all over again. We await the first salvo from the Cheapie guys, which has yet to land. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 03/12/14 at 06:45:13 http://cdn.liliputing.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/asus-chromebox-handheld_02.jpg Here is a comprehensive review of the $179 Asus Chromebox. http://liliputing.com/2014/03/asus-chromebox-review-chrome-desktop-celeron-cpu.html BTW, this little box is now verified as really being the hottest selling thing in PC desktop space from all 3 of the early pre-order sellers. http://cdn.liliputing.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Chart.png This graph says that the $179 device is actually the most powerful compared to any of the existing Chromeboxes out there -- it kicks the more expensive HP unit's arse in all tests. It is second only to the $1,200 Chrome Pixel deluxe Google proof of concept unit. When more powerful processors and even more system memory comes out (or folks plug in even more memory into the standard memory slots) expect the overall performance to increase on this "the Most Powerful Chrome Box" device. Also expect matched versions of Ubuntu and some well documented installation pages to follow on shortly. http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10&qpcustomd=0 http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/08/windows_market_shares-100048534-orig.jpg Next, expect the dark blue pie sliver for Linux on this netracking thingie to increase a little bit in months to come since there is no windows associated with the machine at all to fool the tracking so these units should report themselves cleanly as "Linux". :) |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 03/12/14 at 14:43:35 Well it sounds like all the chrome box and chrome book predictions have just about come true now. The Ubuntu predictions are coming true as well, the lower cost Edge phone is in production now for "a large Chinese customer" and will start shipping worldwide by midsummer. Bet you can get a encrypted version if you want one. Standards exist now for ARM so new products (that keep to the standards) can come to market quickly and be fully OS supported when they arrive. Microsoft has got the blood bowl out again, getting ready to bleed all the XP people yet one more last time. I think they are going to get a surprise instead -- folks might just go over to Linux on them. An open Prediction exists now on the increase in Linux / Chrome "other" market share to go up past the Vista mark that is now out there, awaiting new half year summary numbers to drive them higher and higher and higher (plus all them folks taking their XP boxes over to Linux will help some too). Everybody is prepping custom ARM based game controllers all of a sudden. Everybody is announcing improved on line gaming standards ????? an Unreal 4 on-line gaming engine ????? That seems to point to some serious Chromebox style on-line gaming is coming, now don't it?) =========================== The first shot out of the gun on more powerful ARM based Chromebooks and Boxes has just been fired by Samsung. Samsung has now put their most modern upgraded and improved big Exynos 5 Octa into their chromebook, churning out speeds 2x-3x faster than the old Exynos 5 dual that is in the current Samsung chromebook. All the brand new HP chromeboxes just got all moldy obsolete before they even get shipped. :D Trust that if Samsung proves out that a real Octa core chromebook/box market exists, that Allwinner and Media Tek will not be slow to pop their brand new 8 core big littles right into the same slot at some reduced price points. Look at this chart and triple the yellow bar height for the Exynos 5 dual and you will see something that could give the current champ, the Intel Core I-5 a bit of a run for its Chromium crown (at a much reduced cost of course). http://cdn.liliputing.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Chart.png And we thought there wasn't a real use case out there for all that meaty Octa core goodness ..... ;) |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Serowbot on 03/12/14 at 23:57:09 I just spent about an hour browsing news of the "Xpocalypse"... ... and,... it exposes the flaw in any OS business model... We like what we know and are good at... Windows, Mac, Linux , or whatever... you learn it, get comfortable, know every in and out... then loose the rug out from under you... and nobodie's happy with that... Linux will do better,... not because it is better, but because you don't have to pay $100+ to receive this agony... In comparison to bikes... it's not as if these companies are selling you a better machine... it's as if they are pulling you off your ride, and giving a machine with a right foot clutch and a bum operated throttle... (adjust what you must)... :-?... I do believe, they need to keep the controls the same,... and offer increased performance, safety, and reliability... for a reasonable maintenance sum... say $10.00 per year... Instead of $120.00,.. learn a new environment, discard all your familiar programs,.. and face doing it again down the line... If I want to switch from my Geo Metro to a jet... I'll pay that price, and learn those controls... but don't make learn to fly a jet just to drive my car... Linux will gain some in the pie chart from this fiasco... but only because it's free... Ultimately, the lesson is, keep our interface the same, keep our programs valid, and update what you must in the background... charging a maintenance fee, not an upgrade fee... (until we decide to upgrade to a new computer)... I don't want to learn a new Linux any more than a new Windows... It's only natural that the leading OS push this boundary and learn this lesson ahead of the others... But it's just a mater of time... before all Os's learn this lesson... England drives on the left... America drives on the right... (I had to think about that)... ;D... It ain't easy to change... I personally will pay money, not to change... but don't ask me to pay to change... Some younger people may find that prospect exciting,.. but just remember.... in 10 years,.. you'll be very used to what you got... ...(don't believe me?... try brushing your teeth with the opposite hand tomorrow...) ;D... Bottom line... I would pay money not to have to brush my teeth with my left hand... I won't pay you penny, for you to force me... PS... I love this site... 'cause I can rant into the ether... don't matter if it get's read or not... I just huffed a bunch of air that was trapped inside... ...and now it's out... Ahhhhhhhhh!.... ;D... |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 03/13/14 at 03:15:38 I read it, what would make you happy is changing as little as possible to get to something that is STABLE and does not mash around on you all the time. You are unhappy with the choices Microsoft is forcing upon you and are very correct in your analogy of being abruptly yanked off your ride and forced to change over to a rocket ship with poor hover capability and strange awkward left hand British controls. ;) |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 03/13/14 at 04:34:54 HOW HARD IS IT TO UPGRADE THE $179 ASUS CHROMEBOX? Not very hard at all. Watch Brad do it with just his little jeweler's screw driver. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8aBOWOKAQo#t=199[/media] I can see ASUS planned well for creating other models with up to 8 gigs of systems memory and up to 128 gigs of flash type hard drive space. Same case & motherboard arrangement can hold up to a Core I-7 Intel processor (you will grow a fan and a heat sink inside the case for those models, of course). HOWEVER, anything past 4 gigs of systems memory in the current model is likely overkill since you really can't figure out a way to use it all with Chrome OS. And, unless they are going to actually ship it with Ubuntu or another relatively large resource consuming OS (like any MS OS always is) you likely are fine with the stock components that come with the $179 ASUS unit. Still, knowing that the potential expandability is there is always nice to know. ===================== The full Unreal 4.0 gaming engine is now running on the web, doing web-based games -- from the Mozilla Foundation no less. Firefox OS supports it, Firefox on Linux (all flavors) supports it. A real on-line gaming engine that is already commonly used by big gaming houses. Asus is sending a game controller to the FCC for registration --- pieces of the same puzzlement, yes? no? Nope, Asus is supposedly prepping a super powerful ANDROID OS gaming device likely using their new chromebox hardware ??? Well, a Asus Chromebox's hardware would be sorta "superpowerful" in the Android gamebox world, this is true enough .... And Sony is now jumping into bed with Firefox OS and Mozilla foundation by putting their Sony widgets into Firefox OS -- hmmmm ? Sony, Playstation Sony -- putting some effort into Mozilla and Firefox all of a sudden ..... ???? Something's up on the low end side of things again. http://cdn.liliputing.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/asus-gamebox-controller.jpg [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2uNDlP4RiE[/media] |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 03/14/14 at 09:49:51 [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdfpJgvL9Aw#t=147[/media] Here is the actual online advertising for the Asus Chromebox. .... funny ain't it, how the Asus Chromebox became the #1 bestselling desktop unit before the folks ever even saw the ads? Something the ads make clear that was never mentioned before is that the Asus Chromebox can support running two monitors right out of the box. Not shabby at all for $179 ..... :D |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 03/14/14 at 17:58:42 http://liliputing.com/2014/03/mozilla-kills-firefox-windows-8-metro-figures-probably-wont-notice.html Mozilla kills Firefox for Windows 8 Metro, figures you probably won’t notice Windows 8 and 8.1 Metro (the Win 8 Pro interface) for Windows Tablets really isn't doing very well right now. How bad? The original volume of first produced units is still out there in discount land churning down the price ranges while being moved .... very slowly. How bad is the market penetration of these devices? Pretty poor, and several of the initial vendors have scraped the OS off of their warehouse stocks and put Android or Ubuntu on them just so they can sell them off at a discount. Numerically, nobody has said all that much about just how bad Windows Metro is doing, but Mozilla foundation has just now dropped their 2 year old effort to support Firefox on Windows Metro. When asked why, they replied that less than 1,000 downloads were ever done and it made no sense for them to do the upkeep on an unused item when they had more pressing needs in supporting the ever expanding Firefox OS platforms (which now include phones, tablets and the newest platform -- their PC platform that they are currently developing). Right now I can easily remember in excess of 6 major suppliers who have recently dropped supporting the Windows Metro platform with hardware or software. And I can easily remember in excess of 6 major suppliers who have just put out a Chromebook or Chromebox. Some are at Chromebook version #2 now and are going upscale with more processing power and systems memory accordingly. ::) Meanwhile, back at Microsoft .... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/microsoft-layoffs .... it's time to get out the blood bowl and the little vein scalpel and go out and visit all them XP people yet again .... On the flip side, Walmart as the largest US retailer has had something to say about them newfangled chromebook dinguses ..... http://www.walmart.com/search/search-ng.do?search_query=chromebook&adid=22222222220212924661&wmlspartner=wmtlabs&wl0=b&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=38382563667&wl4=&veh=sem Amazon says the same thing, even louder. http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=chromebook&index=blended&link_code=qs&tag=linmin-20 ..... look at the reviews at Walmart and Amazon and the star ratings the units get given, people really do understand what they are buying and they LIKE it. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 03/14/14 at 22:20:51 Qualcomm leapfrogs over Samsung in the 64 bit vapor race -- Qualcomm outing first 3 Snapdragon Octa-core 64 bit A-8 architecture chipsets. http://www.pcworld.com/article/2100701/qualcomm-overtakes-apple-with-eightcore-64bit-mobile-processor.html Remember, we said the 64 bit race has begun in earnest now? Apple's first dual core 64 bit chipset from last year was really sorta weak as it got outpaced by even the Chinese Cheapie guys within a month or two after their release of the A-15 big little octa cores. These were some relatively powerful 20-28nm chipsets that were put quickly into play by Allwinner and Media Tek using proven ARM designs. For a very short period of time the CC guys had also leapfrogged over Samsung and Qualcomm's then current released products, which at the time brought a quck reaction from Samsung with a new updated beefier Exynos 5 Octa core chipset and then yet another yet stronger Octa core Samsung product .... but brought nothing but silence from Qualcomm. A big silence. A deafening silence. A long silence. Qualcomm's huge silence that has now been broken. Qualcomm has just outed three new 64 bit chips that have all come out since the Barcelona show. How fast Qualcomm can find the production facilities to really actually run these chips at 16mn remains to be seen. Samsung's own plans are now contingent on upgrading one of their own lithography lines to a new more capable ASML lithography process and the ASML delays on that line are forcing Samsung into their own deafening silence right now. But the intent of the larger more capable big boy players is very clear, 16nm or less at 64 bits is where they are going to go and they are going to go there just as fast as they can possibly get there. 2015 sales vis a vie Intel are now at stake in these new product moves and everybody knows it. 14nm EUV processes have all hit snags and ASML the company producing these new lithography systems has just burned one of them slam up at TSMC during a post-installation prove out trial run. Ouch -- a right expensive multi-million dollar boo boo to say the least. Folks will hang out at 20mn-16nm for a while until the 14mn bugs all get worked out by ASML and their new EUV lithography equipment. As Intel has also discovered, 14nm and less when pressed to run beyond very slow lab trials is fraught with some very very expensive learning curves .... Intel has also put their 14nm moves on hold for a while until the ASML volume production bugs are worked out. Energy levels being tapped to run these new EUV processes at full production speed are somewhat akin to military laser energy levels -- when EUV goes awry metal parts get turned into metal vapor and some related stuff just melts down from the discharged energy. Ask TSMC -- they can tell you all about it. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 03/15/14 at 11:59:03 GAMING ON LINUX I watch Steam weekly to see if any decent Linux games go on sale. Painkiller has showed up as a Linux Beta (pending fixing the last of the bugs) which was sort of a surprise to me. Painkiller runs on Unreal Engine #3 and apparently all the work that is being done on the on-line Unreal Engine #4 is backporting into a whole crop of older but goodier full bore type games from the last 5 years or so which were done in Unreal Engine #3 and #4.. As the Unreal Engine tricks all work themselves out to completion, look to see lots and lots of older titles moving over to the Steam OS category (.... and to all the Ubuntu based Linuxes, which includes Mint Mate 64 our favorite flavor). They won't be 100% free, but Steam runs older games on sale at 80% - 90% off periodically which knocks the price down to $5-6 for a full bore major attraction game. I can live with that. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 03/15/14 at 13:29:34 What can Unreal Engine do for me? This gives you a flavor of what is able to run on-line using Unreal Engine 4.0 and this is what you can expect if the people writing actually use all the features that are available in on-line play. Suggestion: click on the YouTube by the window "expand" and watch the clip in full screen from Youtube or else you simply can't see all the good stuff going on in the tiny little window. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO2rM-l-vdQ#t=183[/media] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtfCWYjOsvI[/media] |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by old_rider on 03/16/14 at 17:56:55 Trailers of games are always more video enhanced than the games are. Our PS4 is almost a match for the online trailers, really close.... but I never count on a game playing like the trailer looks. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 03/26/14 at 09:30:43 Asus Chrome Box was a run-away AMAZON best pre-seller even before it was actually shipped from Asus. Asus has now shipped all the pre-orders and AMAZON is already out of stock on their main initial stocking orders already. So is every other seller. The channel has been sucked totally dry at this point in time with people frantically placing B/Os as fast as they can to lock in the $179 price. Places that will still sell for $179 are here https://www.google.com/search?q=%24179+Asus+Chromebox+for+sale but lots of retailers have sold out their entire year's current allocation and won't even take a B/O at this point in time (until they get allocated more units that is). Asus needs to set up another assembly line or two ASAP .... This reminds me of when Google started selling Nexus 7 tablets, or when Apple I-Phones were so hot you couldn't get your hands on one. Asus is looking to have a real rebound quarter this quarter based off Chromebox and Chromebook sales if they can just get enough stuff to churn out those Chrome Boxes at the rate they need to make them to properly ride this wave of popularity. :D Hey Asus, it is quite a contrast to not selling that Windows RT and Surface Pro shite last year, ain't it? http://blogs.computerworld.com/cloud-computing/23628/asus-chromebox Multiple reviewers have now suggested getting 4 gigs of memory if you want to keep more than 12-15 tabs open at one time without slowing the machine down. So far no body suggests more than 4 gigs (up to 50 tabs open) although you can go as far as 8 gigs using the stock slots if you really really want to. Now let's watch all the other players rush to get a unit into the feature/price range of the Asus Chromebox now that Asus has shown having a real hit on their hands. ..... and let's see who is bold enough to put out an Ubuntu 14.04 or Mint 14.04 box with the same specs. ;D |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 03/26/14 at 17:00:08 http://liliputing.com/2014/03/ecs-liva-mini-pc-tiny-bay-trail-desktop-200.html http://cdn.liliputing.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/ecs-liva_01.jpg First Shot out of the Chinese Cheapie Guys No, it isn't a chrome box, it has no OS at all. Specs are: Taiwan-based ECS has unveiled a new mini-desktop PC with an Intel Atom Bay Trail-M processor and it has 2GB of RAM, 32GB of eMMC flash storage, 1 USB 3.0 port, 1 USB 2.0 port, HDMI, VGA and Ethernet jacks, and 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0. Unfortunately the memory and storage are not upgradeable — they’re soldered to the motherboard. If it starts out at $200 it will quickly drop down to a competitive $179 and then slowly go down below that some. "At launch the ECS LIVA will support Windows 8.1, but the company says support for Windows 7 and Ubuntu Linux are also in the works." Now that Asus has shown the way, there will be a plethora of cheap little PC boxes hitting the market very very quickly. =========================== The very least of the ARM processors that can do this Chromebox duty are out now, that being Rockchip's RK3288 (quad core A17 with Mali T760 4 core graphics engine). This chip is cheap, readily available and it makes a dual core Exynos chipset look sick in comparison. Look for Samsung and HP to upgrade their ARM based Chromebox products to better, more powerful A17 (and upwards, up to Hexa and Octa core chipsets) ASAP. Because the low end is called out now by the A17 generation from Rockchip and Media Tek, also look for HD accelerated graphics output to be available in the new low end ARM Chromeboxes from the very beginning. Also look for stick PCs to carry this same chipset starting very soon. Look for the Intel Bay Trail, Haswell and Merrifield chipsets to keep going into these boxes as well, for just as long as Intel is giving "free money" away if you use their chipset products anyway. Microsoft is giving away free Win 8.1 to those OEMs that are making sub $250 devices -- the intent here is to bribe the OEM to not use Chrome OS, but instead to lock himself into using Windows 8.1 by giving it to him for free for a while. Bad news is that Win 8.1 for ARM plumb sucks ditchwater, so it really isn't working out for MS the way they wish it would. Nobody is taking them up on their offer. Can the old school big boys really bribe the oriental vendors to stay away from Chrome OS? ;) Hah ...... the orientals will take their bribe, and their wristwatch and their shirtsleeve, then go do whatever the heck it was they were going to do before anyway. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 03/29/14 at 05:23:43 Well, first waves of Asus Chrome boxes have shipped to the end users and been all unboxed and installed. Reviews at New Egg are positive but relatively sparse in number. Amazon is more prolific, lots & lots of reviews on Amazon with more rolling in all the time. http://www.amazon.com/Asus-CHROMEBOX-M004U-ASUS-Desktop/product-reviews/B00IT1WJZQ/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?showViewpoints=1 Prices have just jumped up from $179 due to the extreme demand and the low supply flow from Asus (they weren't expecting a run-away hit like this). New Egg is $199.99 and Amazon is out of stock and selling a few from other suppliers at $219. Read a few reviews from Amazon, especially the lower star reviews to get a feel for the thing once you get past the glitz and glitter. Lots of folks bought it to make an Ubuntu machine out of it, that is a fact. But not the majority -- most bought it because they have chromebooks and REALLY LIKE the Google-centric lifestyle. Still, you read a few reviews from old folks using it for the first time as a Chrome OS device and being all happy with it too. ====================== PS Fry's Electronics still will sell you one for $179. http://www.frys.com/product/8047974?source=googleps&gclid=CI3VrMHft70CFe1QOgodyUQAyg |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Art Webb on 03/31/14 at 12:08:38 Hmmm, not sure about the chromebox for my usage now, I do tend to leav my comp on for hours on end, and at least one reviewers says you can't do that, or it gets too hot add in an extra $50 for the keyboard and mouse (I have a keyboard and mouse for my current setup) and the fact everyone is sold out, and it gets to be a questionable decision |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 03/31/14 at 17:51:18 20333536242323410 wrote:
Give us the reference link for this overheating test "information" please --- the Asus Chrome boxes all actually shipped with the enlarged heat sink and the variable speed fan that is intended to support the yet to come Intel Core I-3 and Core I-7 processors. The thought that any mobile tablet class Intel chip is going to "overheat" the unit with that large heat sink and variable speed sensor controlled fan set up is kinda sorta out there, don't 'cha think? Or is the person just trying to say the fan actually sped up on him when he was twisting on its tit hard? |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Art Webb on 03/31/14 at 20:12:30 It was just one of the reviews on amazon, i don't think the guy ran a test perse, he just said it gets too hot, let me find the review http://www.amazon.com/Asus-CHROMEBOX-M004U-ASUS-Desktop/product-reviews/B00IT1WJZQ/ref=cm_cr_dp_qt_hist_four?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addFourStar&showViewpoints=0 the only other less than 5 star rating was obviously an idiot that expected it to be a touch screen unit |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 04/01/14 at 15:07:44 Been keeping an eye out for $179 Asus Chromeboxes that are actually shipping. Found this, but kinda sorta don't trust them totally for telling the actual factual on the situation. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=8919600&SRCCODE=WEBGOOKWL&cm_mmc_o=mH4CjC7BBTkwCjCs81CjCE&gclid=CL-xi9ilwL0CFWEV7Aod1GIAng http://liliputing.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/asus-chromebox_002.jpg Still, you could ask them if it was for real if you wanted to get a Chromebox actually at your house before XP goes tits up in 7 days. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Art Webb on 04/01/14 at 15:20:22 well I already use google chrome as my browser, so I'd probably be pretty comfy with the OS, of course there's still the issue of an extra $50 for the keyboard and mouse, without which it's just a box ;D if they have the right ones for the chromebox oops reread the ad, not available for immediate shipmt, pre-order to reserve |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 04/01/14 at 15:34:24 You can use the custom Asus bluetooth keyboard and mouse if you are looking to lose your mouse's tail and just have to have the custom marked keys for all the Chrome functions. But good luck on actually getting one any time soon. But remember, the standard USB stuff works fine, it just lacks the keyboard notations that are Chrome keyboard exclusives right now. Yeah, I see where TigerDirect added the pre-order note -- typical TigerDirect misdirection in the original ad I am afraid .... I sorta expected it was too good to be true and said so in the original post. Kudos for Amazon, they got some real customer feedback shite for not shipping on time so they pulled THEIR OWN ADS for the product until production levels catches up and they are in actual stock again at Amazon warehouses. However, Amazon's system is still letting the gougers sell jacked up price units on the Amazon site though, which will continue the Amazon feelings of a customer relations "black eye" for a bit. Fact is Asus has a hit on their hands, way beyond their ability to buy components and assemble units. It takes time to set up a 3x quantity bump through the supply chain and set up two additional assembly lines. And even then, it might not be enough in the short term. Microsoft has set up the conditions for a perfect storm, and storming it is. The winds of change are blowing at gale force right now. Directly away from MS and their Win 8.x products, that is .... |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Art Webb on 04/01/14 at 15:57:39 Maybe I should just get the chromebook, I knoe it's available through WM for $200 (if XP doom hasn't messed that up) and it will use wired internet from what I've heard I dunno, still thinking here, might be the best move I could make hell maybe a tablet and wireless router this 9" might be ok http://www.walmart.com/ip/Nobis-9-Tablet-8-GB-Memory-Bonus-Case-Keyboard/34163789 not so sure about security with these though, chromebook or box is safe my existing keyboard and mouse are not USB they be old school |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 04/01/14 at 16:13:04 Up to you, you got 3-4 options available to you now, or you can just ponder upon it until the XP box finally dies on you, then you will still have at least 3 of the 4 options still available to you. But do back up any pictures or such that you would consider worth the effort to restore if you lost them to a worm attack. Put them on a thumb drive and stick it in a drawer and don't use it again. They are custom hot house growing them XP end of life worms to some really gigantic proportions you know. http://geekoutlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Worm.png Them nasty worm masters want to kill off fully 1/3 of the Windows machines just as quickly as they can, so MS can go make a new sawbuck off of you again. Sad thing is it won't be MS that gets the resulting flood of new machine orders -- they have put a bullet in their own feet by doing this dirty trick right now. Look to see Apple take another up-tick in the USA as folks are getting plumb tired of MS's rotten shenanigans. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Art Webb on 04/01/14 at 16:20:29 I just thought of something, can you run a Tablet off your mobileweb service? like teather it to your smartphone and run it through that? oh, how secure would the Tablet be? Android is sorta linnux based, yes? |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by old_rider on 04/01/14 at 16:23:57 If your phone is capable of being a "hot spot", then yes you can use your tablet with it, it should recognize the network connection. But...you have to remember, you are going to be limited to how much data you can store and your phone plan should reflect how many bits of data you use per month. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 04/01/14 at 16:24:51 Android is Linux. You can tether a tablet off of a smart phone, most good smart phones do have that feature but the true unlimited data plans are so pricey not many folks are doing what you are talking about. And the speed isn't always wonderful when you get into a weak or dead zone. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Art Webb on 04/01/14 at 16:27:25 my phone is Straight Talk LG L38C, unlimited data talk and text for 45 bux a month, just not sure about tethering it, as in how to do it, and if it can do it if it can, I could use my mobileweb and turn off regular internet entirely |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 04/01/14 at 16:42:02 Be careful tethering on Straight Talk. I use a family plan with Verizon and we have to be careful to only do movies on Wifi connect or else we get a pinged with a nasty message about 2 minutes into the movie about "excessive data usage". Then they pound you with messages about "opportunities to increase your service plan level" then they bust your chops with ads for the next half a year since apparently you do really need a better plan. "Actually they can tell if you are tethering or not, there is a diagnostic code on your phone that they can dial into and see where the data is going if it is going through wifi or just the phone. Verizon has busted people for this very issue. But from what I understand Straight Talk does not take kindly to tethering, a buddy of mine was cut off after using only 6GB on his for tethering, and my old ST phone when I had it was cut off after two movies on Netflix, BTW I wasn't tethering either, so I guess even though they have a way of telling, they just cut people off if they go over so much bandwidth, I also think it relates to your location too and how much bandwidth is being pulled in that area. " |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Art Webb on 04/01/14 at 17:40:11 ok so no tethering, dangit that leaves a chromebook, linux, or a tablet with wifi I think a lot of tablets will only run one tab at a time? if so that would be a problem, I keep multiple tabs open quite frequently, thou I'm pretty sure my phone does more than 1 tab at a time if needed |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by oldNslow on 04/01/14 at 18:40:04 Quote:
There is another alternative - You can still buy a new laptop with Win7 on it for $300 - $400. Of course a few years from now you'll find yourself in the same pickle. Win 7 isn't exactly like XP but it's close enough to not be that much of an adjustment. Wife's laptop has 7 on it and she switched from XP without any trouble. May not be a great investment long term though. I don't know how long 7 will be around. Wouldn't be my choice. Linux Mint is going to do me just fine I think, and I like not having to buy another computer as long as the hardware is chugging along. And it's hard to beat the price. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Art Webb on 04/01/14 at 19:21:58 that's true, I could be an MS slave and get win 7, but why? I've been using an andriod to do mobilewebb, and Chrome browser to browse, I should be able to adapt to chrom OS or Linnux fairly well, though it might take some time |
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Title: deciding on what to do Post by Oldfeller on 04/01/14 at 21:56:41 Have you ordered your Mint DVD yet? If so, you have a pathway that will give you several years to make up your mind about all these other options, plus the new options that will come available during that time. Your hardware is still fine, nothing is wrong with it. Your old XP operating system got slowed down by all the stuff MS added to it over the years, and with the basic structure of the hard drive stacking everything up to the front and having the file allocation table mess up and the Software Registry that kept getting crowded and screwed up as you installed and removed software -- the entire MS system literally worked itself into a state of decay over 3-4 years. And that required having MS come along with a service pack 1-2-3 simply to clean out the pipes and keep it going. Linux and Android don't require these things (they lack these built in flaws). You don't require defragmenting your hard drive because Linux evenly spreads their tiny files over the entire allocated drive space so there is LOTS OF ROOM between each file -- so they can grow and change right were they sat originally, lots of room to do so. The Linux Kernel is a monoblock of thoroughly and constantly checked code, refined by hundreds of skilled programmers over the last 30 years. Attacking the kernel would be very difficult to do, since a worm needs a flaw (inherent or accidental) to catch hold of. Ain't many cracks or flaws in the Linux Kernel to take advantage of. And as we know, MS built hooks into their system for lots of strange reasons, hooks that are now being discovered and exploited by worms and viruses. If you take the track that MS wants XP to die soon so they can sell you something else, then all they have to do is let a crucial hook or vulnerability become known in the hacker world and they can count on the evil boys to do all the rest for them. MS can leak the info, then make money selling "corrections" to commercial firms and industry. Ditto for all those hundreds of anti-virus firms out there, they want you to have a sick machine so they can peddle their snake oil at you. However, take that same hardware and put Linux Mint on it, and it runs quicker and has no flaws to exploit (the viruses and worms simply can't do anything). So far the folks putting on the suit haven't had any show stopper issues in doing so. I think the only real issue found so far is one person wanting to run his fancy monitor up at retina levels, and with the new Mint 17 he should be fine in doing that. So, you can talk about it all you want, just so you have a DVD winging its way to you through UPS. And while it is on the way, take a new thumb drive and back up all your pictures from when your kids were growing up, getting married, etc. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 04/01/14 at 22:15:21 Speaking of things that mangle up a Windows machine (and can affect a dual boot arrangement) is the infamous boot sector (or boot kit) attack. Microsoft does not like Linux and they try to kill off a dual boot arrangement "accidentally" every once and a while by installing new software updates that replace the boot loader with a bone stock MS version. There is a Linux tool for that, it is called the Boot Repair disk. If you run off CDs, it comes on a CD. If you run thumb drives, it comes on a thumb drive. The key thing is you need to have it already sitting in your software box when the need arises -- so go here, read up, burn you a copy on to your favorite bootable media and set it aside for when you need it. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair I have used this disk 3 times in my years of Linux use, once because MS screwed me up on purpose, once because I screwed myself up repairing Windows (ignorance, really) and once because of a boot kit attack virus. This disk is worth it -- trust me. As Microsoft gets more and more desperate, you can count on them "helpfully" replacing your boot loader for you at least once or twice to remove that "unauthorized access" to all that "illegal copies of software" that they just detected on your machine. It is all part of your journey to the point you finally throw MS off your machine as not really doing anything useful for you and for being just a plain bad citizen with all their arrogant behaviors. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Art Webb on 04/02/14 at 00:08:03 I've not yet ordered it, haven't gotten to a secure PC yet I'm NOT putting credit card info on the web via my PC, it's simply not secure IMO though I could do it on my android phone I guess, if I can remember my password to this site so I can get the web adress from this thread lol |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 04/02/14 at 08:24:20 Let's stroke the crystal ball again, since this one has come to pass we need to make a new set of big predictions to look forward to .... Desktop stuff is now going to start to evaporate and all the Linux distros and other FOSS stuff that want to survive into the future will begin to move themselves towards phones and tablets and Chromebooks and light laptop stuff. ARM processors will slowly begin to take over once they hit the true 64 bit levels later this year and the new 64 bit ARM standards will begin to be enforced by the marketplace. Saying it may happen and saying it is STARTING RIGHT NOW is somewhat different. 2014 is your tip year for these predictions with 2015 making them all solidly real. When you see Ubuntu (and Mint and the others with it) start to pay LESS and LESS attention to their desktop distros and suddenly begin to consolidate and bend their efforts more towards tablets and phones (with portable after market keyboards w/track pads, mice, etc) all working together through the new high speed longer range Bluetooth connections, then this prediction will have started to come true. When you see Firefox begin to slight the desktop in favor of tablets and phones, it will be just the beginning of the tip point. When you see Roku and Chrome dongles set up AS SHIPPED to run a full browser through a full sized Bluetooth keyboard/trackpad/mouse with the same browser based stuff all working on TV, tablet and phone (and Chromebook/box in the case of Google) then the tipping has hit the pivot point. When you can comfortably game on your 10" tablet and your TV using the same sort of stuff -- then acceptance will have arrived. Work stuff (word processing & spreadsheet) will come along naturally as you can do these more difficult gaming things on your mobile devices and TV. Last long big prediction -- Windows 9 will not reverse Microsoft's decline in overall market share. What Microsoft loses by killing off XP stays gone (and the ill will they generate for themselves on the desktop will remain forever). Apple will become the main top end player in the USA marketplace. Normal People will have tasted FOSS now and liked it. Apples remain crunchy juicy good stuff. Microsoft, not so much, that sour greedy aftertaste remains on the tongue long afterwards. Note, there will still be a desktop PC pie chart that shows Microsoft as a major player, but if you compared the relative size of the pies that makes up those charts the pie will be down in size relatively from a 9 inch pie to a snack sized tart by the end of 2015. Mobile will have grown to be HUMUNGOUSLY bigger and the desktop PC market will have actually shrunk in both real and relative size. FOSS major OS players will be Google, Firefox, Ubuntu/Mint. MS will still be in there, ranked no higher than 4th-6th place and still shrinking. Apple will be a lot bigger than MS. A not yet seen Chinese OS player will come up in the pack to be in the top 5. Intel will be still shipping up in the top end 25% of chipsets, but nothing much in the lower half of things. Nothing much will be x86 natural any more. ARM/Android will be the hardware standard of the day. The 20-16nm shift starts before July of this year, but in year 2015 14-10nm will be where Apple is headed with their latest full volume shipping 64 bit ARM chipset. These two year predictions will tend to happen quicker than you predicted. ;) |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by verslagen1 on 04/02/14 at 10:54:14 Quick survey of the software we use (business) (bysides the standard MegaSh!t Orfice) results in only 2 packages ready to go to Linux out of 4. and that would be red hat or suse. And that doesn't include the really high end stuff. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 04/02/14 at 18:56:53 Microsoft is attempting to disrupt their disruption by the Chromebook wave. Figures have just come out that 2.1 million Chromebooks sold last year, with most of them selling in the Christmas quarter. And the Chromebook/box figures have increased significantly each month since then. When last faced with this phenomena, Microsoft pulled XP out of retirement and gave it away to netbook makers for free to get them to stop using Linux. This was a successful ploy by Microsoft, so they are trying it again, this time giving away their current main operating system, yep, Win 8.? the one everybody loves to hate. Question becomes, is this seen as an inducement by the OEMs or another layer of fiscal punishment similar to the entirety of last year? Microsoft is still trying different mixes of fall back on various features trying to find a mix that makes Win 8.? "appealing" again. So far nothing has clicked. XP people who are at the verge of getting trashed are sure to really appreciate MS willingness to give away the OS to people buying $79 cheap plastic tablets, while these loyal users who paid thousands for their XP machine will be taking it in the neck starting next week with no upgrade rights to anything. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by verslagen1 on 04/02/14 at 20:45:45 0221292B282121283F4D0 wrote:
All they have to do is make win8 w/out MS and everyone will love it. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Art Webb on 04/02/14 at 23:43:24 I got a chromebook at WM today, the acer of course, tomorrow I'll see about getting it hooked up and try a test drive I hope I don't have to buy anything else to get it working (dunno what sort of connection my internet uses) OF is right, I think, I'm the perfect chromebook candidate, as I am leary of trying to do the whole Linnux rout at this time with the chromebook, if it works, I won't have to part of the reason for this decision was a friend of mine on another site said Linnux is basically unsupported (he's an IT guy, and no, not for MS) and any time there's a problem you gotta go to a forum to get it fixed I remember someone on the dual boot thread also mentioning you should be part of a Linnux support group before taking the plunge, so I decided to try the chromebook first if it works, my XP machine will live just fine with no internet connection for those few offline tasks I use it for (untill I find better ways to handle those at least) the future might indeed hold wifi and a tablet, too, as I see advantages to that setup, but one thing at a time |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 04/03/14 at 02:57:33 By unsupported, he means you have no paid person taking care of you, that you have to do it (whatever it is) yourself. Support in Linux comes from on-line community resources, just like what we do for the Savage motorcycle. And no, Linux is supported fairly well by their communities, it is the same people who write the distros after all. And yes, you are the perfect candidate for Chrome OS -- so we want to hear from you about how it does for you. Serowbot would hate chrome because it doesn't do it all where he can get his hands on it to tweek it. And Serowbot wants it all where he can see it and get to it, no remote processing for him, thank you very much. Chrome is fully supported (as your IT guy would think about it) -- it is supported by all the Google server farms out there in the world and it actually follows the thought pattern of a thin client machine. A good bit of the heavy duty processing power you use for doing difficult things in Chrome OS is provided by the Google Servers. Same tricks that work for my Galaxy S3 phone -- all the voice recognition typing I do actually takes place in a Google Server, not in my little bitty phone. Chrome OS is the ultimate no brainer just use it computer -- and a lot of folks are ready for that since dicking around with their PC is a large source of tension in their lives. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Art Webb on 04/03/14 at 03:28:54 Ran into one problem already the plug to my internet modem isn't right for the darn chromebook maybe i should just get a galaxy s3 and do all my browling by mobilenet |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 04/03/14 at 09:11:21 Art really is the quintessential Chromebook/box "perfect user". What is neat about Chrome and Google is that they won't lift your skirts all the time like MS did -- if they do, please tell us what you have to pay extra for. Art, I think you bought a Wifi only device there with that Acer unit. I'm not sure it even has a Cat5 connector. Justin, are you paying attention to this? Art is going down the Chrome pathway because he can't deal with all the complex shite that comes with computer ownership in the post-Microsoft era. He has intentionally picked the least complex pathway, realizing that computing pleasure is stuff that just plain works and computing pain is having to screw with stuff all the time. Serowbot can still deal with the complexity but he really really resents having to do so. Seeing MS give Win 8.? away for free to people buying cheap $79 tablets while MS won't give him an upgrade path at all from XP REALLY irritates him a lot, and eventually he will get around to telling us about it. I begin to see that way out in the future that a Chromebox might begin to look good to me too. ;) |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Art Webb on 04/03/14 at 11:59:29 for anyone who is considering the chromebook, be aware that it requires wifi fir initial setup, after which you can supposedly use wired internet cuss cuss fume fume |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Art Webb on 04/03/14 at 12:52:02 and the free wifi at the library don't work so couldn't get the chromebook set up, so much for that option |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 04/03/14 at 15:37:25 And Wally gets another Chromebook back because of user mis-expectations. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Art Webb on 04/03/14 at 16:39:35 I expected the thing to work I had wifi and it wouldn't recognise the connection, what was I supposed to do? it is suppossed to be able to run off ethernet, but you have to have wifi to set it up I went to where there was wifi and it still claimed there was no connection (after initialy connecting) if it won't work, it won't work, period the fault here is not mine imo |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 04/03/14 at 18:54:13 Does it have a Cat5 cable connection? |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Art Webb on 04/03/14 at 19:02:38 it had a usb connection, but it didn't matter, I called Acer when I was having problems and the tech there told me it could only be set up using wifi, no other connection would be recognized until initial setup was done, and initial setup could be done on wifi only I didn't just look at it and throw up my hands, I called the folks who make it I don't btw, know what a cat5 connection is |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 04/03/14 at 19:31:29 Cat5 is the standard LAN jack connection and cable structure that is used on all routers. And almost all laptops and desktops. And you are right, the unit you bought doesn't have one at all, it was apparently intended from the beginning to be supported through Wifi only. For example, the Asus Chromebox does have a Cat5 LAN cable connection. So the moral of the story for folks planning on going Chromebook/Chromebox is to check on the method you plan to use to hook it up to your home LAN network. Now, me, would I have assumed that any laptop had a Cat5 LAN cable connection? Yep, I surely would have. And I would have done the ASSuME trick to myself just like you did. Walmart will get quite a few of those units back because folks didn't get what they reasonably assumed they were going to get when they opened up the box. Art, how did you wind up with a no Wifi hard switch router for your home network hub? You have a router, but no Wifi, right? The reason your library's router's Wifi won't work is that it is a locked down commercial unit that will not allow itself to be identified as your "home base". |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Art Webb on 04/03/14 at 19:53:29 I don't have a router, i have a cable modem, Roadrunner high speed internet through time warner cable the modem will accept ethernet (looks like a phone jack to me) or USB the existing connection is ethernet because that's what my tower uses, it is OLD The Chromebook has a USB2.0 (I think) port for ethernet, but according to Acer the program required that the initial setup be done on wi fi, I have no idea why, seems to me if it has a physical connection it shouldn't have been a prob to program it to allow setup via ethernet re the libraries wi fi, it did allow connecton, but soon after the connection was lost, I would guess for the reason you gave still tempted to do the s3 phone an only have mobilewebb, but even a 5 inch screen is pretty small for reading / posting on forums, and also my current smartphone (LG Optimus dynamic) seems to have a slight issue with savage forums the header, where it lets you click on forum, search, store, CPanel, etc, floats around on the page this is my phone(cost me a lot more than that though)http://www.walmart.com/ip/Straight-Talk-L38G-LG-Optimus-Dynamic/22217225 |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 04/04/14 at 07:19:28 So, if you liked the idea of your Chromebook, all you need to do is buy a $50 wifi router from Walmart and use your Roadrunner connection to go into the input connection of the router. I have the same Roadrunner service, and I bought a Belkin N300 router on sale from Wally a while back and I have Wifi and four cable out connections off the Belkin N300 router that I actually found a use for three out of the four Cat5 connections. My wife loves her various computer junk stuff, she does. If you had a Wifi Router, you could use your wifi based Chromebook anywhere in the house. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Art Webb on 04/04/14 at 11:14:30 that is true, but an extra $50 was not in the budget on top of 200 dollars for the chromebook, and I've had bad experiences with wi fi before, even with a password |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 04/06/14 at 06:22:57 http://liliputing.com/2014/04/asus-c200-chromebook-makes-surprise-appearance.html http://photos.pcpro.co.uk/images/front_picture_library_PC_Pro/dir_370/it_photo_185437_52.jpg $179 Asus C200 Chromebook makes a surprise appearance Asus is doing it again, this time in Chromebook format. This is the same machine as the S200 Windows device that should be running "free" Windows 8.1 should such a thing ever really appear. Look to see a pre-order $179 Chromebook with the same basic specs as the Asus Chromebox to hit Amazon, NewEgg and the others soon. What is notable here is that the track pad on the notebook is VERY LARGE as touch and gesture control can be done more easily that way. You can reach the trackpad very easily and do all the gesture type controls on the pad instead of reaching across your desk to get to the screen itself. Asus is showing a Chrome future that is making more sense than previous tries by other manufacturers. Asus also understands power, and puts enough grunt into their units. They also are the first ones to really get the PRICE portion of things right. Completely customized for Chrome at a $179 price point. =================== So far the only things folks really want added to the Asus Chromebox is a hybernate/sleep button (or keystroke combination for a standard keyboard). They don't like signing in all the time unnecessarily, they would prefer to hybernate/sleep the machine instead and come back to the same session with a button push like a Chromebook does. When Asus has the exact same unit out in "free" Windows and Chrome OS folks will get to compare/contrast the two systems head to head on the same platform. This will be interesting to watch unfold. One dares to say that Microsoft isn't really pleased with Asus at the moment since the "free Windows thing" was supposed to preclude the existence of a Chromebook by that vendor. However, this would be Microsoft "taking actions in restraint of trade" and MS does not need that on their plate at the moment since they are currently not well loved by computerdom at the moment for their killing off XP and putting a robber's knife to the throats of all the XP people by not having any XP upgrade pricing. Besides, MS's whole premise was that Win 8.1 would kick Chrome's butt because it is so much better, right ??? Time to see. Will be fun to see what the S200 (Windows) costs at retail vs the C200 (Chrome) version. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 04/06/14 at 06:55:04 In case you haven't looked lately, the world is RAPIDLY becoming Wifi and Bluetooth connected. Cables of any sort are getting downright passe` lately. Your printers all have Wifi networking built into them now. They will network and print off your tablet and your phone just as easily as your old Wifi laptop. The Wireless N standard has evolved up into N300-N600 levels which is 100 times faster than Time Warner will actually supply the data to you through cable. You don't even notice a delay when printing something wirelessly any more. Times, they are a changin' .... |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 04/06/14 at 07:33:19 Having had the Chrome vs Windows 8.1 thought, I went looking. Turns out Toshiba has same same 13" units and someone has already done the comparison on the $300-400 Toshiba matching units. It's elephants vs donkeys again -- this time with a young lady discovering what she really uses a laptop for. http://www.theverge.com/2014/3/20/5505468/toshiba-chromebook-satelite-nb15t-review-chrome-os-windows-8 Google vs. Microsoft: a cheap laptop showdown The short of it was that Chrome won -- for what the lady or her mother actually did with the machines they liked the Chromebook better. ======================= Adding insult to injury, Chrome 32 is available to load on any Windows laptop or desktop now days, it starts like any program, executes, and vola !!! you are actually running Chrome OS now and you Windows is being hibernated for a while. Seeing your hardware run quick and clean and getting ALL the ChromeOS advantages makes you able to try Chrome out on your own on your very own machine. And a gentle point is made by the folks putting it out -- if your Windows machine gets sick on you as long as your Windows will boot at all you can still get to Chrome OS and keep on trucking. And that brings up another pathway for the soon to die XP people --- go Chrome 32 instead of Mint Linux. Once you are in Chrome 32 you are wearing the big red suit temporarily .... but if you step in something out on the net and it goes BANG you can sorta expect it to find your Windows laying there hibernated up underneath your Chrome 32 and to go munching on its familiar MS food source. http://www.techrepublic.com/article/chrome-32-takes-windows-81-way-beyond-any-windows-8-app/ http://tr1.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2013/12/04/ba50a6fa-0b1a-4210-ad34-bcca6d02dff7/resize/620x485/6b413792e3505baaf359e74c23a427af/1_chrome_frame_hands.jpg "If you use Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 and are a Google fanatic, you're going to love the latest version of Chrome. It's a standard browser for the desktop; it's a browser app for the Start Screen; it's the Chrome OS; it's an oddity and much more, all in a neat little package. You really have to see it to believe it. I'll describe how to download, install, and use Google Chrome 32 in Windows 8.1. Get Chrome 32 You don't have to go to the Windows Store to get the new Chrome. To get started, launch your current browser and go to the Google Chrome page. On the Chrome site, click the Download Chrome button (Figure A)." Wow, Google has just made it possible for you to temporarily leave MS because you are pissed off at them, without really leaving at all. Plus they have just given XP people a way to get on the web that is much more secure than Windows. Is this the easy upgrade path to XP that everybody has been looking for? If it isn't already, I suspect some smart programmer person is going to figure out how to do it and post a bootloader mod for Chrome 32 so you can pick it at boot time just like a Linux distro. Now, wouldn't that stick a finger in MS's eye right smartly? They were planning to rob the XP people for some money and now the XP folks all go Google Chrome on them instead? And if what the young lady says is true, a lot of disgruntled Win 8.0 and 8.1 folks might just jump ship as well. The psychology is right, people wanted Windows because they were afraid of change, but now Chrome 32 is here and it works better, so they can have both things with no conflict. What MS is going to hate is folks are going to learn that Chrome OS really is better, and you can get to it painlessly. People will soon get past the extensive FUD campaign that MS put out with the pawnshop actors and all -- people can try it out themselves now and judge for themselves. Justin, you got your ears on? You can do this. Art can do this. You can do this right now and try it out for a while and see if you like it. ..... and you can jest chuckle a bit while you do it, because it is obvious you are jest putting some lit bamboo slivers up under MS fingernails when you go to doing it --- you can jest feel them squealing up underneath it all in an impotent fury when you leave their MS Explorer control. Hee hee, and all them warnings and notices when you come back to Windows pointedly tell you that you are now returning to being under MS Explorer's control. They hates it bad, they do. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by old_rider on 04/06/14 at 08:23:26 I have a couple of OLD pc's that are probably running xp or vista, I will jump on google and see if chrome can be downloaded to it. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Steve H on 04/06/14 at 08:45:42 If you could figure out the parameters to pass, and Chrome doesn't need any of the underlying Windows, I bet GRUB could do it. If so, it won't be long. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 04/06/14 at 08:52:35 Yup, it is all open source code and someone will have it sussed out before the week is out, I suspect. Google didn't do it because they are Switzerland, above the fray and everything. Impressively nobly impartial and all. Still, you gotta admit -- there is a whole lot of Chromebook/Chromebox/Chrome32 buzz going on right now and folks are going to want to try it themselves just to see how big their elephant really is in their day to day life and just how handy their ass can be and what all it can really carry. Something MS did that will be to their detriment was they put Office On-line out there on the web for free -- bet they chop that off right quick when folks running on Chrome32 begin accessing it instead of buying Office 360. ;) Neat thing is your old XP hardware is WAY WAY WAY more powerful than what is required to run Chrome OS -- it should run like a scalded dawg on your old XP box or laptop. This may indeed be the path for the XP folks to try out. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by old_rider on 04/06/14 at 09:28:54 Stuck google chrome on an old Compac Presario.... 2.4 ghz Pentium system has XP on it. Its just a browser, might have built in anti-spyware stuff, not sure, seems a tad faster. It automatically hooks up with my chrome+ stuff (I am bill+) and touts saving your settings for all your devices (backrounds, apps, and favorites), including phone, tablets and pc/laptops. Stores any files you edit in the "one cloud" or what ever its called. Not really an OS but a good browser replacement if it actually has antivirus included. You still have your windows operating system intact, just a new browser if you select the "chrome" over IE. I've got like 70 gig left open on this system...and it said before it would not run mint 15, I might try 11 and see if that will work on it before I totally destroy windows xp on it. :) ;D |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 04/06/14 at 09:43:37 Another voice of sanity in the world of frantic choices .... http://www.techrepublic.com/article/deciding-to-ditch-windows-xp-here-are-your-options/ Does security matter to you? Ditch Windows XP for one of these upgrade options Realize that Chrome 32 came out a week or two after this article was wrtten or I think he would have covered it in the article. Plus the direct boot option doesn't exist just yet, but give it a week or two. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 04/06/14 at 09:52:08 Oh my Goodness !!!! Somebody went and followed Microsoft's XP upgrade recommendations to the letter and has posted the journey for you to read. Please read this if you think MS has your "best interest" position at heart --- PLEASE get yourself educated before you go there ..... http://www.zdnet.com/8-lessons-learned-from-upgrading-a-dog-slow-xp-machine-to-windows-8_p3-7000021125/ Summary: ZDNet's David Gewirtz decides to upgrade a "dog-slow" Atom-based PC from the nearly dearly departed Windows XP to Windows 8. In the process, he learns a lot and shares some of those lessons with you in this article.it Oooooooh -- MS are you just full of it or what? No wonder everybody hates you if you would do stuff like that to them ..... Also, remember he paid $40 as part of a packaged 5 pack deal for this wonderful experience. Guys, check me on this --- Linux Mint Mate 16 and 17 found all the necessary drivers that were needed as part of the standard automatic installation without you doing anything -- Mint Mate runs quick as a bunny and was painless to do as a normal install. Now Serowbot might tell you he had to go look for stuff, but that was because he wanted different stuff from the standard install, and accordingly he had to go look for different stuff to get exactly what he wanted. But also note Serowbot didn't have to bleed near as much as the article writer had to bleed just to get Win 8 running at all. And, also check me on this -- Chrome 32 didn't even require much of an install per se. It was just a program you downloaded and clicked on when it was done downloading. You did have to give it some choices so it could configure itself to suit what you wanted it to be. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 04/06/14 at 12:05:16 http://chromeos.hexxeh.net/ Who is Hexxeh? Hexxeh is the dude who ported everything over to RaspberryPi, he's the one who help start Cyanogen mod back when it was just an unlocked open source Android project, and he has begun him a new project just recently. Vanilla Hexxeh has taken the open source Chrome OS project and packaged it like a distro off off of a bootable USB thumb drive media. THIS IS NOT GOOGLE CHROME, IT IS AN OPEN SOURCE PROJECT WRITTEN FROM WHAT GOOGLE PERIODICALLY TURNS BACK TO OPEN SOURCE (as is required by the Linux FOSS license). So it isn't totally totally current like the Google page stuff is. but it is packaged and tweeked with all the stuff an independent OS needs. It is packaged completely though and it can run independent of whatever. It isn't the official Google stuff[/u], not yet. IT LACKS Flash, and any other licensed codex packages. If folks are asking for a Chromium based XP replacement, this comes closer to being that than what Google currently provides. Hexxeh would also listen to requests if XP folks were to ask him for a rescue upgrade package for XP. But, since he works for Google as an intern on Chrome OS right now he may not be allowed to release a full featured XP rescue package by his bosses. Hexxeh has a history of excellence in coding and he listens to folks who post him stuff. Think of him as the Zorro of the computing masses .... who happens to currently work for Google on Chrome OS right now. =============================== But, be aware that Zorro thinks you know a good bit of stuff (more than you likely do know). Here are Hexxeh's instructions on how to do Vanilla. 1 Use WinRAR or 7zip to extract IMG file from the downloaded archive. 2 Use Windows Image Writer, then select the IMG file and select the USB device from the menu. 3 Click on "Write". 4 Boot from the newly created Chromium OS USB stick! ===================== According to another knowledgeable hacker, once you have Hexxeh's Vanilla running on your device its possible to upgrade from chromium os to the real Chrome OS just follow these steps. 1.press ctrl+alt+f2 and login as chronos the password is facepunch if you use hexxeh's build 2.type sudo touch /mnt/stateful_partition/.developer_mode (if you want to get rid of developer mode) 3.type the password 4.type wget http://goo.gl/4suhf; sudo bash 4suhf 5.select an image file, wait, reboot 6.enjoy your free chromebook Now, to really do all this requires you to be somewhat of a programmer, but the thought of fixing up Chrome OS to be a real hard drive bootable OS is really being kicked about on the net. The rub being that drivers for all the assorted stuff out there do not exist for Chrome OS since Chrome is only ever been supported on certain hardware devices (and the divers were worked out before the actual device shipped). Still, folks in open source are both clever and resourceful. One path would be to take a current fully driver supported mini-distro as the bootable base and have it go automatically directly to Chrome OS as the only item on it. Where there is a will, there is a way. ===================== But Google isn't going to do anything to kill off Microsoft -- that isn't something they are willing to do. Nor will they try to expand Chrome OS beyond their current closely matched hardware/driver pairings. And Hexxeh will have to pay attention to what Google wants, because he currently is working for them as an intern. (smart young guy, he needs a job). |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by oldNslow on 04/06/14 at 16:32:15 oldfeller wrote: Quote:
Yup. Found my printers, browser worked right off the bat. I didn't have to configure/tweak anything. Everything worked right from the first boot. Only thing I did was move my files over using a flash drive. Done. (Mint Mate 16 32bit) |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 04/07/14 at 08:12:30 http://liliputing.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/chromebook-2-11_05.jpg Samsung Chromebook 2 up for pre-order for $320 These devices are supposed to be over twice as strong as the previous Samsung offerings (kicking up at or better than any current released unit). Price is less than a weaker Toshiba unit and more than the entire low end of the pack. Wait for the Asus 13" unit which will cost over $100 less for similar features and power. This unit is intended to be the top end of the full production pack for Chromebook appearance and comfort features (not counting Google's limited edition Pixel, of course). Samsung Chromebook 2 11.6 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display 1.9 GHz Samsung Exynos 5 Octa 5420 processor 4GB RAM 16GB storage 1 USB 3.0, 1 USB 2.0 port 1 microSD card slot 802.11ac WiFi Bluetooth 4.0 30Whr, 4080mAh battery (up to 8 hours) 11.4[ch8243] x 8.1[ch8243] x 0.66[ch8243] 2.4 pounds Samsung Chromebook 2 13.3 13.3 inch, 1920 x 1080 pixel display 2 GHz Samsung Exynos 5 Octa 5800 processor 4GB RAM 16GB storage 1 USB 3.0, 1 USB 2.0 port 1 microSD card slot 802.11ac WiFi (2×2 antenna) Bluetooth 4.0 35 Whr, 4700mAH battery (up to 8.5 hours) 12.7[ch8243] x 8.8[ch8243] x 0.65[ch8243] 3.1 pounds |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 04/13/14 at 10:05:10 http://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-chromebox-2gb-memory-16gb-solid-state-drive/5467029.p?id=1219132169492&skuId=5467029&ref=06&loc=01&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=5467029&extensionType=pla:g&s_kwcid=PTC!pla!!!42057919639!g!!44398555759&kpid=5467029&k_clickid=034279ab-0aef-f169-8a74-00007c5e7f9d http://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/5467/5467029_sa.jpg;canvasHeight=500;canvasWidth=500 Asus Chromebox round #3 is now on pre-order at Best Buy. Price is $175 which is slightly better than before. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-chromebox-2gb-memory-16gb-solid-state-drive/5467029.p?id=1219132169492&skuId=5467029&ref=06&loc=01&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=5467029&extensionType=pla:g&s_kwcid=PTC!pla!!!42057919639!g!!44398555759&kpid=5467029&k_clickid=034279ab-0aef-f169-8a74-00007c5e7f9d This is the 3rd full on production run that has been snapped up before they were actually produced. For those who want to manually tweek and control the hibernate, there is an app for that. It is called Keep Awake and it is in the Chrome Store. BTW, the Asus Chromebox draws 15 watts of power pretty much constantly ongoing, which is less than 5 cents worth of power a day. Your current PC draws more than that just to run the power supply & the power supply fan itself going .... much less for the CPU and CPU fan which runs constantly too. 15 watts won't even keep a large hard drive's 4 to 6 platters spinning. News about the Hibernate thing. If you don't like having the constant logging in after a hibernate, use Keep Awake to turn off the hibernate and hit the "stay logged in" radio button. Now just shut your monitor off when you get ready to leave. Power consumption stays the same at 15 watts .... Look for new models to come out soon with more and bigger and extra this and that -- still, for the cost of an extra stick of DDR3 memory this original Asus Chrome Box has still got to be the best new desktop computing value out there. ::) Note: the current reigning champ for "Overall Best Cheap Linux Machine" is still got to be the off-lease Dell business machine I bought for $80 shipped to my house last Black Friday. A Core 2 Duo 3.0 ghz processor with 6 megs per core of pipe-line buffer RAM and 4 gigs of systems memory and a 80 gig hard drive and a DVD reader optical drive and a little brick floppy drive too. This 5-7 year old moldy goldie jest plain rocks with Linux Mint Mate. Far far far more machine than any Chromebox out there and at less than half the price to boot. :D |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 04/13/14 at 15:06:10 http://liliputing.com/2014/04/rockchip-rk3288-demo-chromium-os-tv-box-android-tablets-with-8-second-boot.html Thar she blows, Boss, the Great White Whale has done been seen out there in the wild !!!! http://liliputing.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/rk3288-board.jpg This is what it the Great White Whale she looks like. click on it, the Media player isn't working in YaBB at the moment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kR4qVB3_cnc#t=216 We are talking Chromium OS devices (non-Google Chromium OS TV box) and tablets booting in 8 seconds on a Rockchip RK3288 chip. Running Apple Retina level displays. Coming from the Chinese Cheapie guys. Coming to competitively priced Chromeboxes and Chromebooks directly shipped from China suppliers for cheap really really really soon. (next month soon) Twice as good (opening 30 tabs) as what Samsung or HP are currently supplying for relatively big bucks. We said the tipping point would be HP shipping chrome boxes and chrome books -- and this has already happened. Then Asus has lowered the price point to $175 and now Asus can't make them fast enough .... (Asus has gone through 3 full production runs now and has sold them all on-line before they even hit the warehouses) We waited for the final stage ..... since the demand and the price point were now proven as super hot hot hot. We said full acceptance would be the Chinese Cheapie guys shipping standardized Chrome OS boxes and books (Cheapie guys actually actually honoring a Google enforced Chromium International Standard) at a Chinese Cheapie price level. What you see in the video is the very cheapest piece of stuff that will be prevalent next year -- everything else will be better than this going forward. De White Whale, Boss, De White Whale !!! She blows, right now in front of us she blows !!! Get the harpoon gun Boss, she is out there right now !!!! Shoot Boss !!! Shoot !!!! Reel in de line !!! Reel in de line !!! Aww Boss, all you got stuck on dis heer harpoon is a couple of little bitty somebody's future type thingies. Somebody name Intel and somebody else named Microsoft, little bitty flappy thingies with sucker mouths and poison fangs, Boss. Not worth saving, jes scrape them off the harpoon and let them fall into the wake as we sail on away into the future .... |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 04/23/14 at 03:30:59 http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=asus+chromebox&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=40758384888&hvpos=1o3&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2224815468239996558&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_2nfmin40s3_b This is the 2 day sell through of the 4th full production run of Asus Chromeboxes -- at the time the link was posted Amazon had only 4 units left and all the other vendors are already "pre-selling" their next allocations and have sold them all (and the next batch's allocations too). Asus still can't make the units fast enough ..... Something to note is that the Asus Chromebox is the #1 desktop on Amazon any time they actually have any to sell. NewEgg has begun price gouging on the units, and are still selling their allocations out at $199.99 So far Microsoft's offer of free Win 8.1 to "anyone making a device under $250" hasn't resulted in a competitive product to go up against the Asus Chromebox. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 04/23/14 at 03:46:17 Financial folks are reacting to the Asus Chromebox by shorting Microsoft and now APPLE ...... calling the Asus Chromebox "the little box of destruction". http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/03/15/the-box-that-could-hurt-microsoft-and-squash-apple.aspx The Box That Could Hurt Microsoft and Squash Apple’s Hobby "The bottom line is, the Chromebox is a $179 weapon of destruction that Microsoft, HP, and Apple all need to be ready to respond to. If this product succeeds, Google may be able to box out its competition from the PC and the streaming media player industry at the same time." |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 05/05/14 at 07:22:45 Asus Chromebox with Core i3 Haswell now available for preorder for $397 http://liliputing.com/2014/05/asus-chromebox-core-i3-haswell-now-available.html http://cdn.liliputing.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/asus-chromebox_01.jpg This is for pre-orders for the power-up version with the full bore Core i3 Haswell quad core processor and 4-8 gigs of memory AND the free wireless keyboard and mouse. http://www.provantage.com/asus-chromebox-m075u~7ASUD00C.htm Also note that ProVantage, the lowest cost master distributor, is offering special deals on lots sizes of 50 each, for schools, IT departments and Ebay hawkers who will be snatching up these first preorder shipments intending to resell them on Ebone for a quick turn profit. Supply on the original $179 unit still isn't caught up yet, and the supply on this upgrade version is likely to lag way way way behind too. Suspiciously, this unit is really a fully memory populated Intel NUC with a free cordless keyboard and mouse, selling for what the bare bones Intel NUCs sell for. You will still have to plug in a USB 3.0 one terabyte hard drive, but that isn't but $79 right now (if you don't already have one). People aren't stupid you know .... Asus will sell the shite out of these "power up" ChromeBox units as Ubuntu machines and when MS plucks their thumb from their butt and actually offers Win 9 at a "please please let us play too" price this unit will be able to support that action completely as well. Pundits are questioning why people think they really need a Core i3 processor, especially since it is an oldstyle energy hog main PC processor due to be replaced with an energy efficient BayTrail/Atom in just a few months (or whenever the vapor solidifies that is). Do they think they will ever leave open more than 50 web pages at the same time and just leave them open ongoing? Why? ::) "Unlike the cheaper model, the Asus Chromebox-M075U should ship with a wireless keyboard and mouse, so you won’t have to supply your own. The new system has a higher clock speed, more cache, support for hyperthreading, and should generally run circles around the original Asus Chromebox in CPU benchmarks. Seeing as the cheaper model is already fast enough to handle most web browsing, web app, and online video tasks, the extra power you get from the Core i3 CPU may be overkill for some users… but it’d probably come in handy if you want to convert your Chromebox into a Linux box." |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 05/21/14 at 09:29:51 http://liliputing.com/2014/05/rockchip-rk3288-powered-chrome-os-devices-way.html http://cdn.liliputing.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/rk3288.jpg We mentioned that the white whale was sighted and good ol' Cap't Ahab shot a couple of harpoons at it, but nobody has seen the big white whale floating up on top of the water just yet. Still, there are some bubbles rising here and there and the waters are churning some. There are active message boards being created on the Google Chrome OS site and there are cryptic activities going on on those boards concerning a chipset with the code name Veyron (which suspiciously shares all the specs of the RK3288 chipset). Google is busily setting up a new chipset with all the Chrome OS necessities for being a full Chrome OS citizen. They don't do that without a manufacturing partner that is going to make something in full on production mode ..... and once the chipset is set up it becomes easy for various people to get new devices approved using the same chipset leap-frogging off of what is already been done. I have said several times I always watch the bottom end, because that says what sort of affordable products are going to be produced in the next year or so. RK3288 is the current generations bottom end chipset nowadays. And you can do a WHOLE LOT with it !!! It is a better, more powerful chipset than over half the existing stuff that is out there in mobile land. It is more powerful than any of the chipsets used in the current crop of HP Chrome OS products. It is more powerful than most of the current actually real & shipping right now generation of Intel Bay whatsit chipsets. Look Boss !! The water !! The water !! The water, she bubbles and churns --- something beeg is coming up !!! |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 06/07/14 at 14:35:58 http://liliputing.com/2014/06/rockchip-shows-chromebook-rk3288-cpu.html ;D Boy, did I pick the right metaphor for the Rockchip RK3288 Chromebook --- fish tales !!! http://cdn.liliputing.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/rk3288-chrome.jpg Those of us who remember old systems tests remember the fish tank test -- just how many fish your new rig up could manage to animate at the same time WAS the entirety of the test. I can remember when two dozen fish brought the best AMD system in the world to its knees and Intel couldn't even swing that many at that point in time. Well, the fish tank test can't defeat the Rockchip RK3288, it can animate 1,000 fish at the same time and the fish tank test jest doesn't go any higher. (it is an old test, after all) While animating 1,000 fish on one tab it can still go cruise the internet at normal speeds on a couple of other tabs. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D So yes, a Chromebook can do more on line than your old heavy MS OS laptop (that you don't actually use any more) can do. And it can do it a lot faster, too. Well, the white whale is up on the surface now, and it is all ready to be skinned, blubbered and boiled for oil. If HP had a brain, they would replace the dual core Samsung chip Chromebooks that they are peddling now with this one. But hey, it's HP, they can't move that fast .... but there are others out there can. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7tnUqi6MQM Remember, Intel, this is the shallow end of the current generation ARM chip kiddie pool ..... This is what you have to beat if you are to play at all next year. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 06/10/14 at 13:06:42 Speaking of HP being somewhat slow and somewhat behind, here they come, swinging their very first chrome BOX ..... using an out of date (now discontinued) Intel chipset. http://liliputing.com/2014/06/hp-chromebox-now-available-179.html http://cdn.liliputing.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/hp-chromebox_001.jpg :D ..... And just how slow is HP? Rockchip has enough time to debut a new A-17 chipset, build it and then coax a chrome book through Google & the setting up all the drivers for Chrome OS using that new A-17 chipset and THEN show off actual working models of the finished product before HP can span the "HP slow time" between an actual product ANNOUNCEMENT and the actual shipping of products (using a now discontinued chipset no less). Too too slow, HP |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 06/10/14 at 13:21:42 http://bgr.com/2013/07/10/google-chromebook-market-share-2013/ Google’s Chromebooks are now the fastest growing PC market segment http://boygeniusreport.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/chromebook.jpg?w=625&h=416&crop=1 "According to data from market research firm NPD Group, the low-cost computers have captured between 20% and 25% of the sub-$300 laptop market in U.S. in the past eight months. The firm noted that Chromebooks are now the fastest growing segment of the PC market based on price, Bloomberg reported. NPD analyst Stephen Baker explained that Google will likely continue to benefit from the growth of the sub-$300 PC market, which is expected to increase more than 10% in 2013. By comparison, the PC industry as a whole is forecasted to see negative growth of -7.8% this year." PC as a group (laptops included) is still shrinking. Chromebooks and boxes selling 2-3X better than low end laptops, driven mostly by the better price and increased functionality they show. Schools are a great success story for Chromebooks, with students simply picking one up off the charger rack and logging in to start their lessons. Also note that HP is also selling their Chromebox through their business computer side, apparently intending to sell them into companies for the worker bees to use (running them off of secure company intra-nets). Look for Dell to start doing the same sub-$300 business just as soon as purchasing departments start putting out quotes for Chromebooks/boxes specifically at the $279 price point. Free Win 8.1 (with permanent Bing ad bars) still isn't making much of a noise in the low end laptop segment -- but then again how would you know? Folks are so used to seeing so much crapware on all new Windows machines how would they even know it was any different? ;) |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 06/10/14 at 16:35:03 Chromebooks and Chromeboxes double, then quadruple market share inside first 6 months of 2014. http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/2014-will-great-year-chrome-os/#!Xcmio http://www.digitaltrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/chromebooksales.jpg ...... and it seems the younger the folks are the more likely they are NOT to buy a Windows solution to their computing needs ..... |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 06/11/14 at 17:23:25 Intel, still struggling to get into tablets, still locked out of phones, grabs on to Chromebooks as their next "big thing" .... Intel now is aiming their quad core 14nm chipsets not at tablets any more, but at Chromebooks. Two reasons for this -- first, a tablet doesn't need the uber-powerful quad core 64 bit chipset Intel has designed (doesn't need 64 bit memory registers or over 4 gigs of systems memory) and a tablet really doesn't need the very large calculation capacity inherent in the Intel designs. And a tablet DOES need good economy in power consumption, something Intel's quad cores really do lack compared to ARM tablet designs. Intel, realizing they were going to stub their toes yet again in tablet land, looked around and found some of their newest chips slated to go into CHROMEBOOKS and CHROMEBOXES by the various Chrome device makers. A Chromebook can use 4 or more gigs of systems memory, and it can sometimes use a lot of calculation capacity (big spreadsheets, database crunching, etc). But only if the Chromebook is used in a very serious business fashion, which is beginning to happen, BTW. And so now, as of last month, Chromebooks/boxes are HOT HOT HOT -- wiping up in the low end laptop PC arena at nearly 89% of units moved in the less than $300 bracket. Intel was expecting MS's free Windows efforts to work out a lot better, but no -- the Chromebook is taking off instead. But only in the sub $300 device portion of laptop land. This, however, is the exact area where all the current sales are moving. So, Intel wants to re-purpose themselves to aim at something they might actually succeed at against ARM -- Intel has asked Google to take Chrome OS to the 64 bit level ASAP and to add even more internet independent functionality to the OS as they sense that ARM is lagging in moving to 64 bit and so Intel could have part of a year all by themselves in a burgeoning marketplace if they played their cards just right. What Google does next sort of determines if ARM controls the immediate future of Chromestuff or if Intel does. Intel is desperate and wants to win at something (i.e. make a real profit again) even if it has to put Microsoft under the bus to do it. Google likes to play Switzerland, and they will not drive anybody down into the mud by any direct action of theirs. So Google will move in a way and at a timing that can be done reasonably by all parties. Intel has three major problems with this wish of theirs. 1) Rockchip's RK3288 is out in Chromebooks as we speak (32 bit low end Chromespace is spoken for, and at a level that raises that low end bar a lot). Folks haven't thought much about it, but the "32 bit" A-17 can answer 64 bit calls from an upstream big/LITTLE paring, so in a sense 64 bit support is already built in to this low end "32 bit" ARM chipset. Bringing this 64 bit functionality out is Google Chrome OS's job, the hardware requirements are in the chip already and the drivers are in the Linaro store already. And Google is already working on doing it. 2) Allwinner, Mediatek and two others already have VERY STRONG octacore ARM processors that can threaten Intel in athe Middle to UPPER level 32 bit Chromespace, easily outperforming any "current production energy efficient" Intel dual or quad core chipset. But not at 64 bits. 3) HOWEVER, if Intel pushes hard for this soon to be emphasized "64 bit OS" hole, ARM will have to MOVE SOME to fill the hole up with new 64 bit designs before Intel can get in there and set up shop all by their lonesome. Samsung and Qualcomm are 64 bit ready now, with Mediatek and Allwinner and Rockchip coming close behind. So is Apple, with their already in production A9 64 bit chipset (and yes look at the chart, Apple could possibly play in these same low end areas). ARM could answer this need simply with a "software based update" that allows the existing 28 nm 32 bit processors to answer 64 bit system calls, or they could continue to force their ARM based crew to actually update to the A57 generation by not releasing any more old A15 stuff in any 14mn downsized designs. So far ARM has wanted the crew to upgrade to A57 designs and ARM has only released the one (1) A-17 "interim" design for 28nm. And that was done to slam block Intel's last move into tablets. http://www.digitaltrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/chromebooksales.jpg But hey, Intel is due for a win sooner or later. Since Chromebooks getting all hot all of a sudden is sorta unexpected and this opportunity sort of falls right into Intel's lap so to speak, now maybe is Intel's win that they are due. :-/ The one who is losing really big in this whole thing is Microsoft, who can't effectively even GIVE their software away right now because nobody really wants the current versions. Look to see Apple come out VERY SOON with their 64 bit quad core A9 in a very thin, very light laptop right off the bat later on this summer. Aimed at the upper edges of Chromebook space no less. But with mebbe too high of a price tag to really ring that bell. Look to see Microsoft to perhaps have to pull more of Win 7's interface design back out of retirement as a desperation move to staunch the blood flowing from the low end Chrome bleeding. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 06/13/14 at 02:50:11 Intel and Google Intel has a surprise coming when they approach Google while attempting to lock down a market (even a small growing one like Chromebooks/boxes). Google will not act to destroy anybody nor will they help you destroy anybody. But Google will act in order to let you compete (if there is a barrier in their software anywhere that is stopping you in any fashion). Google will not sue anybody nor will they restrict anybody. Nor will they give you an advantage over anybody. Google will give it away for free if it means more people are on line (and viewing Google ads and using free Google services that are laced with discrete ads in side bars, etc). Google could hand Chromebooks/boxes over to Intel, or they could allow free competition and make Intel earn that market by being BETTER at it than anybody else. Guess which is going to happen? ==================================== Google does have a bit of a long term quandary. Their server farms really do hold up the computing power end of the current crop of tiny "insufficient processor" Chromebook/boxes and as "Chromebooks as a class" get numerically more popular that will place more of a load on Google's server farm system. Microsoft is falling down on the OS job lately, and MS is now making some noises like they are perhaps going to depart the main OS market completely and just sell pay me yearly "services" like Office 360. Some of this is the whole processor world (including Intel) slowly revolving out from beneath them, literally not even considering their "x86 needs" for very much any more at all (and this includes Intel). So, Google may wind up supplying a WHOLE LOT MORE of their computing OS products out in the future. This presents a potential "growth, too much" problem for Google, way out there in the future. Google ChromeOS products are supported by Google owned net-based server farm hardware, ChromeOS won't work without it. Right now Google caps the life of a Chrome OS product at 5 years, beyond that they say technological change in the web itself will make the older ChromeOS products less useful and harder to support. Plus, since the original product was $200-$300 and cheaply constructed so folks could tend to think of it as "disposable" at the end of 5 years. Google certainly seems to think so. They back this thought by the current average service life of a MS laptop being 3-4 years, on average. Next item to consider long term is that Google is slowly losing its predominant position as "King of Ads" world-wide. Badu has now taken over the orient, and other, more local ad services are making inroads into Google's profitability apart from the USA. None of these guys is supporting anything, much less for free. So, Chromebooks/boxes are riding on top of Google's web server farms world wide for free right now, but can this continue forever? Yes, for just as long as using the built in Google services very gently results in enough additional ad revenue for Google to pay for it. The Chromebook business use model and the Chromebook educational model become more dubious revenue-wise, since worker bees don't do much with their viewed ads nor do the school children, actually. So, eventually you may have to load a replacement OS on your ChromeOS machine's hardware, so please do make sure you have enough processor and systems memory and make provisions for some sort in-device or add-on storage and get good I/O ports and such when you go to buy your Chromebook or box. Trusting wifi and bluetooth to do everything might not work for you way out into the future. If it is spec'd so it won't directly support Ubuntu, then don't buy it. Right now, this "replacement OS on down the road" planning would lead you to prefer an Intel processor in your Chromebook over an ARM processor. And it would lead you to want a LAN jack and a few USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 ports on the device (specifically, the sorts that can attach to a USB hub device). ;) Hey, it is just one of them facts ..... sorry. ::) Look to see Tizen OS coming into play on low end laptops as well, as being pushed on laptops by Samsung and Intel (yup, it's out there right now at the big shows already in development laptops from both Intel and Samsung). Windowing multi-user Android (oriental versions) will show up soon as well. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 08/09/14 at 21:54:46 http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=chromebox&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=31945898730&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=5086227068669439705&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_6iqialtq Chrome box prices go down to $150, supply becomes ample. http://content.etilize.com/Large/1027792573.jpg you can buy the entire kit shown here for $179 Chromebooks and boxes are fully accepted now by the Education world, the Business world and the American consumer. http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=chromebox&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=31945898730&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=5086227068669439705&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_6iqialtq HP is selling the "standard mix" Chromebox in 3 colors on Amazon for only $149.99. This is the second generation HP Chromebox, the one that is the same as the Asus design using the Intel processor. The first generation HP unit copied the 3 year old Samsung dual core Exynos board design and it got blasted for being "noncompetitive -- out of date out of the gate" when it first shipped 4 months ago. It only took HP 6 months to upgrade their design to this year's latest greatest Google reference design and it is worth noting that HP sold all the dual core Exynos machines instead of having to scrap them. Microsoft should do so good on all their dry fires of late. HP will now sell a fully modern Chromebox and a wireless mouse and a dedicated Chrome keyboard for the same $179.99 as Asus will sell their base Chromebox. This real competitive price drop indicates that Chromeboxes have reached production stability finally and finally are in good supply ..... and that Google Chrome Standards are in effect and are holding as both machines are actually the exact same modern Google development standards board that is being made by two different companies. Upgrades to the machines should be similar, but YouTube upgrade videos on the new generation HP unit have not been posted yet. ====================================== The $149.99 HP Chromebox can plug into existing keyboards and monitors and it can offer a low cost drop in Google environment replacement for an old Windows machine that is being taken out of service by Microsoft's screwing around with dropping old OS's or killing an Explorer, etc. Chrome is now picking up full Android app use and with Android L coming on board the Chrome/Android divide will be over and Google will be in essence offering a full general purpose OS system at last. Yes, Android apps will run in 100% off line mode so you got what you have been wanting for off line in Chrome finally. This whole Chromebox thing has been building really really quick --- the first post in this thread was on 02/19/14 and in six short months the Chromebox has blossomed into a real 31% market share holding force in computing. And it is going to get a lot bigger ..... So much so that Microsoft is struggling right now to put together a price supported "Bing box" device to try to compete directly against the Chromebox, cannibalizing their own low end PC market share to do so. Chromebooks/boxes now sit at +31% market share in all laptops while MS Windows machines have dipped -6% to -8% depending on whose figures you use. MS has to do something, anything -- they are getting plumb wiped out by the big Chrome wave. ::) ...... change, she comes. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 08/10/14 at 07:37:03 http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=194362 Linux - Asus/HP ChromeBox EZ Setup Since both the original Asus unit and the very newest HP Chromebox both directly use the Google reference board design and have the same software set up they can use the same instructions for how to load Ubuntu or other Linux operating systems. Since Google enforces STANDARDS in the Chrome world, you get stability and ease of migration down the road if/when you need to migrate to open source for whatever reason. Also note: When Google releases Android L and the Chrome devices pick up the ability to run all of Android apps inside Chrome windows, then you will get an automatic Google update to your machine that will include this new functionality. With being inside a Google Chrome Window begin being the desired place to be, expect Ubuntu (or Libre Office & various Linux softwares) to shortly be able to run inside one of those Chrome windows. Within 2-3 years, a grumpy reluctant MS Office will have to be there as well, or else MS will be agreeing to fade away into obscurity by their own choices. Since Office now runs on Apple iOS on both laptops and tablets it seems that MS Office can make itself subsidiary to other OS systems when they really want to. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 08/11/14 at 09:50:34 http://liliputing.com/2014/08/acer-launches-tegra-k1-powered-chromebook-13-for-280-and-up.html Acer launches Tegra K1-powered Chromebook 13 for $280 and up http://cdn.liliputing.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/acer-chromebook-13-cb5.jpg "Acer will offer 4 different configurations, priced from $280 to $380: 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and a 1366 x 768 pixel display for $280 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and a 1920 x 1080 pixel display for $300 4GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and a 1366 x 768 pixel display for $330 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and a 1920 x 1080 pixel display for $380 The $330 model is aimed at the education market while all of the other models should be available for pre-order at Amazon and/or Best Buy shortly. Acer says you should get up to 13 hours of battery life with models featuring a 1366 x 768 pixel display or up to 11 hours of run time from the full HD models. Both versions of the laptop measure about 0.7 inches thick, weigh about 3.3 pounds, and feature NVIDIA’s quad-core ARM Cortex-A15 processor with 192-core Kepler graphics. They also pack 802.11ac WiFi, USB 3.0 and HDMI output." Why is this important? Intel has been crowing that they own ChromeSpace and that no ARM chip unit can compete with them. Surprise, not only can ARM compete, but they can BEAT --- and they can have TWICE THE RUN TIME that your Intel processor units currently have. The upper level display Tegra K1 units are only exceeded graphics wise by the Google Pixel (which costs $1,400 more). ;) Intel just lost the only win that they had going on in mobile space, and that wasn't really even in mobile space it -- was in laptop space (Chrome Space). |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 08/16/14 at 17:16:38 Samsung builds specific Octacore chipsets just for Chromebooks Samsung is uncorking two specific chipsets solely built to go into a Chromebook/chromebox for this Christmas. Exynos 5480 is the first of the pair, an Octacore A7/A15 variant that is tuned specifically for the Chromebook space. Clock speeds are maximized, memory space is fast bus 3 gig min, 8 gig max and it uses the newest fastest memory style. On chip I/0 has been tweeked a bit to specifically include the most modern USB C version 3.1 connector, a standard LAN jack and to have increased range most excellent wifi and blue tooth connectivity. Left off the chip will be the cell phone radio components, the GPS and other cell phone type items. The second of the pair will be an unnamed 20nm Exynos 5433 Octacore 64 bit A53/A57 variant, not yet branded, with the same Chromebook optimized tweeks as the Exynos 5480. Probably call it the Exynos 5483 .... who knows? It is Samsung, they will call it something Samsungish and it will likely outperform Intel and their current Chrome chipsets as well. What does this all really mean? Samsung sees Chromebooks as a rapidly growing worldwide market that is going to catch some really nice, well integrated Google Android App tricks soon, opening it up to be an even larger general purpose competitor to MS's Windows OS systems and Apple's iOS systems. Samsung sees a new Samsung phone tying into this new Android app happy "internet of things" computing world, so you can get all your phone notifications right on your Samsung Chromebook (along with a few other neat Googlish/Samsungish tricks). Getting within 3 feet of you Chromebook with your Samsung phone will unlock it, give it your password and get it all warmed up and ready for you before you even finish sitting down. Schools have accepted Chromebooks completely now, greatly curtailing the sales of iOS and Windows machines into the education sector. Business and Consumer acceptance of Chromebooks and Chromeboxes are burgeoning, currently at the 6x level to last year (5.2 million sold so far this year) with an even greater higher peak point predicted to come at the end of this Christmas season. Tegra K1 and Samsung Octacore are taking Chromebooks very seriously right now and are offering chipsets with greatly increased run time and faster throughput (at better graphics levels) than the current crop of generic Intel processors can do. Intel is expected to eventually respond with more optimized, "improved" Intel Chromebook chipsets, just as soon as they are able to pluck thumb from butt and go do it. Right now they are being distracted by Microsoft who is trying desperately to put together a Bingbook and a Bingbox device so as to not be drown out totally in the tsunami wave of Chromebooks breaking over the top of their head this Christmas season. "Wintel" is desperately calling on the special red bat-phone and Intel must answer the call ..... Intel may turn around when done from the Wintel distractions and find themselves no longer in the Chromebook leadership position that unexpectedly fell into their lap this summer. Chrome space is going to evolve and move quickly, as it is being interlinked with Android space by Google and we all know the rapid rate at which that evolves. Tegra K1 and Exynos 5433/5480/5483? actively optimizing chipsets for Chromespace (all done at the 20nm changeover point) is ominous for Intel -- since Intel hasn't been able to do anything of late except re-label their existing 22nm chipsets for the entire last two calender years ..... Intel's current crop of stuff isn't very good as mobile chipsets go, so they had gone after the Chromebooks as something they could succeed at with what they had on hand. Now the big phone boys have decided to go actively play in Chromespace too ..... and they play harder and much quicker than Intel has been able to handle to date. ;) Watch out Intel, the phone boys are swinging strong performing 64 bit ARM Chromespace chipsets at you that are Chromebook optimized and far more energy efficient than your very best mobile or laptop chipsets. Remember, your Core i3 and Core i5 chipsets are currently in play in Chromespace at this time, so new ARM developments there will involve all your lower end laptop chipsets too. :o :o :o Jest guess what can mebbe happen next ???????? Windows 9 is coming out soon and it will supposedly run on these exact same new ARM chipsets. The ARM based Chromespace vendors will already have ARM laptop lines set up and running that could be "windowized" very quickly if Win 9 turns out to actually be something that is actually customer desirable. Or you guys at Wintel could mebbe try to close ranks again and try to go all x86 proprietary on us again --- which will be even more Chromebook food and may prompt even more rapid changes to ARM based Chrome/Android integration. Or mebbe your buddy MS will simply screw it all up badly again -- Lord knows they know how to do that too. :) PS Intel did answer the red bat-phone and Intel said "I'm busy right now making Chromebooks and Chromeboxes and my energy efficient chipsets are all optimized for Android calls right now -- hey, MS, weren't you supposed to be able to run on an ARM chipset by now anyway? |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 08/16/14 at 18:00:46 Apple, where are you? :-? We know the worldwide 14nm production delay debacle has you all tangled up right now, what with having to come out with a 20nm A8 chipset for Christmas instead of your 14nm A9 chipset that you wanted to have done by Christmas ..... but this endless endless silence is going to kill you if Samsung and Tegra K1 start building up real momentum in Chromespace that begins to erode away your existing laptop market share. Folks who get attracted to them new Chromebooks swinging all them nifty free Android Apps are going to tend to want to match it with an Android phone next time they buy a new phone ..... this could be a bad thing for you. Silence does not serve you well at this point in time, Apple. We know you will talk to us September 6th a little bit when you push out the iPhone 6 with a 2 ghz dual core A57 64 bit chipset at 20nm. (Samsung and TSCM are both building chips for you as fast as they can) However, this will not be an exclusive speed range or 20mm lithography level as Qualcomm and Samsung are already shipping at those levels. Since you are copying Samsung's format and size and about 6 of Google Android's features, on a lithography level that is already shipping from two Android big phone vendors you may be seen as being a wee bit late to the party. But you do need to get over this total big silence thing about your laptops "until you have the entire planned run's components built up". No, you have no compelling fallback high efficiency chipset from Intel that is worth using at all in your eyes. Everyone agrees with this, btw. But you could get a quantity of your early and ongoing production of 14nm quad core A9's put together in enough volume to at least roll out a limited run of just one of your upper upper end laptops so everyone could drool over it for the next 8 months or so. A very very small volume of Chrome Pixels got Google a whole whole lot of very good PR mileage -- it is a trick you might want to try. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 08/17/14 at 07:38:38 Unexpected consequence of the Chromebox tsunami surge -- Chromeboxes are killing off all demand for ARM demo boards as they all now all fall inside the same price range. Why mess with a demo board when you can just AMAZON direct ship the whole thing to you completely pre-digested ??? Folks like Odroid are discontinuing all production and frantically selling off their existing stocks as the big phone guys are now getting into the Chromebox business using the same chips that Odroid has been building their demo boards with. The difference in what you can now get for your money means nobody is going to buy an Odroid demo board any more, ever again. http://dn.odroid.com/homebackup/201307301650559803.jpg $179, but you have to pay more for a flash drive and a power supply and for the OS simm card. or http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/810dxPUtTCL._SL1500_.jpg $179 and it is a complete mouse and keyboard kit with all memory and power supply and OS included. :) ....duh, i think I'll pick the one I have to put everything together myself and program it and tweek just about everything just to get it to work and do anything at all ...... |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by 1st2know on 08/17/14 at 14:59:15 HP is attacking this market very well, they're doing a good job of filling the gaps left open by Acer, ASUS and Samsung. For instance - this Chromebox has support for DP and HDMI, and can handle dual displays, like a real computer :-) I recently picked up their 14" Chromebook, and man, it's a pleasure to use: Big, bright display, good keyboard, a responsive and predictable track pad. It has 8+ hours of battery life..., it goes in to a power miser mode when I close the lid...several times I've forgotten where I left the power adapter because I only need to charge it once every few days. I use for work and personal computing. Thanks for tracking this market space, this is looking pretty interesting. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 08/17/14 at 17:35:22 Glad you like it, here is the link for purchasing the $179 white all in one kit. http://www.amazon.com/HP-Chromebox-Desktop-Bundle-White/dp/B00LB11JYS Now, since the Chromebook is taking off good to the point chipsets are being customized just for that particular use, expect some even mightier ARM processors to become available that offer superior battery life. Expect Intel to eventually drop a new one for the Chromebox that is more powerful (but not as careful with battery life since it runs off a cord all the time anyway). Remember, you can buy the Chromebox by itself right now for $149.99 if you have your own keyboard and mouse that you like. You get to pick your color on the separate box by itself. http://www.amazon.com/HP-Chromebox-CB1-014-Desktop-White/dp/B00KD5RUPA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1408321969&sr=8-2&keywords=chromebox Please be aware that the actual price of components for these units are being subsidized by Intel as part of their grand "loss leader price support" plan -- when the subsidy dies off the price will jump $60 or more a unit overnight. Get them while Intel is still being stupid, in other words ..... For a laptop style Chromebook, the Acer 13 Tegra K1 unit looks very very good right now -- similar price to the Intel based units gets you double the run life between battery charges. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 08/18/14 at 09:56:35 http://liliputing.com/2014/08/hp-stream-14-inch-notebook-coming-soon-199.html http://cdn.liliputing.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/hp-stream_02.jpg HP Stream 14 inch notebook coming soon for $199 "The notebook features a 14 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display, an AMD A4 Micro-6400T “Mullins” processor which is a 4.5W quad-core processor with Radeon R3 graphics, 2GB of RAM, and either 32GB or 64GB of eMMC solid state storage. The HP Stream features 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, HDMI output, and it has an SDXC card reader, 1 USB 3.0 ports, 2 USB 2.0 ports, four speakers with Beats audio, and a 720p webcam. HP includes a 32Whr battery and the notebook runs Windows 8.1 software and comes with 100GB of cloud storage for 2 years, courtesy of Microsoft’s OneDrive." Stream is interesting, it is a totally Microsoft price supported 14" laptop that will tell us pretty much if Microsoft has a future any more in the low end of things. When it comes out and is competitively tested we will see if AMD's new Mullens Radon 3 SOC stuff is any good AND if Windows has managed to get lean and mean and lite and fast enough -- finally. http://techreport.com/r.x/mullins-firstlook/mullins-die-il.jpg AMD Mullens is AMD's second attempt at a fully integrated tablet SOC chipset (and indeed the motherboard inside the 14" laptop case looks to actually be an AMD tablet reference design that is rattling around inside the big 'ol 14" laptop case. Lots of room for some additional battery, in other words, should you decide to go there. The whole question behind the Stream unit is the "BingOS" and its suitability and functionality (should MS actually be stupid enough to actually use the cut down OS in this product) or with it being HP's Microsoft Saving New Product Class Flagship can HP get the full Win 8.1 OS or something better out of MS. Especially since this is the flagship of a new "chromebook killing" product line that has MS's future riding on it. First question becomes, should MS wait until they have Win 9 ready to go (or should Stream's OS actually be Windows 9 lite in other words). In short, go throw it out there in a hurry with Win 8.1 full or the Bing'd version and IT WILL FLOP ON YOU just as sure as the sun rises. People HATE Win 8.x totally and with a passion. Win 9 might be a different story altogether, providing you have actually managed to make the new OS desirable again. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 08/19/14 at 07:12:07 Why the AMD Mullens chipset? FACT: all of Intel's current low energy chipsets are currently somewhat optimized for ARM style system calls and Android now, not Microsoft or "pure" x86. MS was on board with this done deal Intel processor change way back when it happened, but MS internal has kinda forgot again about their promise "to program Win 8.1 to run well on ARM". Optimized to run well on ARM is a lot different than "can run on ARM" -- optimization means it runs as fast or faster, as good or better on ARM than x86 ..... Mebbe it was slated internally for "doing ARM really well" in Win 9 ..... or did you really just quietly decide internally right along to be right proper proprietary x86 assholes all over again, MS, and leave it totally optimized for x86? Appears so, anyway. If so, we hope you like them AMD chipsets, MS, because that "Intel totally tuned for x86 on any low end stuff" ship sailed quite a while ago. So, Intel is really busy right now building up a whole lot of Chromebooks and Chromeboxes with their "energy efficient chipsets" and so Intel didn't choose to give any of them to MS for free to go into your Microsoft low end wonder machine. Intel also didn't want to take part in any "fall flat on your face trying to compete against Chrome with Win 8.1" episode as Intel understands the Chrome World pretty well by now and they sense what the probable outcome of that would be already. Intel also makes some money putting their chipsets into Chromebooks and Chromeboxes ...... and Intel needs to make some money out of something right now. (Intel stockholders are getting really really pissed at Intel management again for throwing their money away by the dump truck load on Mobile) AMD however was willing to play "loss leader" this time in this extreme low cost MS PR space and they have got this new Mullens SOC sitting around that hasn't been burning up the world lately. As a matter of fact Mullens first foray in a HP Pavilion 10" netbook looking thingie got 100% reviewer panned for very poor battery life (which had more to do with HP's dumb choices to use a small battery size and an energy eating constantly spinning platter hard drive to go along with with the Mullens SOC). This 14" HP Steam Machine is going to be swinging an energy eating 14" screen and a sub-normal sized battery, so look to see "sub-average" battery life out of the $199 Steam Machine as it is currently configured. Microsoft should listen to AMD and put a decent sized battery in the device -- the egg on face warning has been given already by AMD. The Mullens SOC got good reviews for graphics and above average for CPU performance. Mullins has a nifty turbo mode that will 1.8x the CPU speed during heavy demand use and a temp sensor that will cut it all back when things heat up past skin warm as temperature measured on the outside of the case. A simplistic form of the Intel energy nanny chip in other words. The AMD Mullins SOC itself is rather hardy and rigorous device, it can heat up to 220+oF during turbo mode and stay right on up there temperature-wise without taking any harm, and believe me that superspeed turbo mode will run it right on up there if you start doing something really demanding on a long term basis. Hey, you go say "it is a PC" and folks will go do PC things with it, you know ..... like play PC games on it. The Mullins SOC can take the heat, but the operator holding it on his lap likely cannot. (neither can the battery life, really -- it takes lots of power to make all that heat you know) Thus the operator's skin sensibilities becomes the limiting factor in this turbo speed game -- so the Mullins system has a "skin sensor" mounted on the case itself that actually controls the turbo mode on these AMD Mullins units. Folks will likely be quite pleased with the unit's CPU/GPU performance, if HP will just put enough battery in the case to drive it for a long enough use life. And remember to put you a right goodly sized large aluminum heat spreader sheet metal plate between the motherboard and the user's lap for good operator comfort ..... lots of vent slots in the bottom of the case will help cool the plate off too. What? You had planned on just re-using the existing HP 14 Chromebook's super thin case? For a full on PC gaming experience with a turbo style heat'm up chipset ??? ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) So, after fixing all these little niggles --- success finally depends on the base OS functionality. Is the OS energy efficient? Is it quick and responsive? Is it easy and intuitive to use? Microsoft needs to spend the money to get enough battery into the Stream Machine to at least get "average" battery life and they need to REALLY AVOID any unpleasant OS experience right out of the box. No banner ads or other Bingish bullshite. This is it -- Microsoft's big comeback play is happening soon. This is also AMD's big comeback play as well. Both have a lot riding on the Stream Machine as both are underdogs trying to stage a comeback. Direct comparisons to Intel and ChromeOS will be forthcoming instantly, since HP currently makes an identical 14" Chromebook (which is desirable enough to command an extra $100 in price point right now). A User Test Group of HP, Microsoft and AMD people need to sit down with their prototype Mullens machine and the Chromebook 14 that is already shipping and figure out exactly what they have to do to make the Stream machine BETTER than the Chromebook right out of the gate. Since MS and AMD are blowing money out their butts for a comeback, they should blow a little more money and time to make sure they REALLY REALLY GET that big comeback. Using Win 8.1 isn't an option, it is a no-show from the get-go -- don't bother even thinking about it. You were stupid to even mention it in the Steam Machine release promo materials posted on the HP product page. You have Win 9 prototype software that you could polish up and use. You could even call it StreamOS and tout it as an improvement ..... MS .... if Win 9 can't be polished and tweeked to make up a real win on the Stream Machine, then you are dead in the water anyway .... MS ;) Or you can go be all Microsoft The Stupid again and go build a fall on your face flop again, just like that little 8" tablet thingie that you just went and built 20,000 of them, then you looked at them, then you realized MS Office wouldn't fit at all on the 8" screen and so you had to go scrap all 20,000 of them the week before the big introduction foo-rah, all this taking place just a few months ago ..... =============================== PS The HP Stream Machine product page just got yanked right off the web after being up for over a week ..... there is apparently some Streaming rethink going on at MS/AMD/HP. Finally got that Stream Machine prototype run built, huh? Sorta sucked compared to that exact same 14 model of Chromebook, didn't it? ;D Try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try again ...... |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 08/20/14 at 10:16:14 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883280512&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3640101&SID=skim32X105Xcde79e6289257c87abef24b043978242 http://cdn.liliputing.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/hp-chromebox-black.jpg New low price on HP Chromebox from New Egg $160 less a $20 gift card $140 net |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 08/21/14 at 04:40:29 Intel has been funding the entry of their chipsets into the mobile world for over 3 years now. They have actually gotten some traction finally, in the Chrome world. They have lost BILLIONS and tens of BILLIONS of dollars of money earned off of other products so they could bribe, bully and buy their way into the mobile industry where their processors really do not fit very well at all. For the last 2 years these processors really haven't changed very much either (but the energy nanny chipsets have been improved greatly). In Chrome, they finally have something their processors do fairly well at. Now they are proposing General American Programming STANDARDS based off their semi-ARM, semi-x86 not integrated at all style of Intel BS -- you can remember when I predicted this classic Intel behavior would eventually occur. Because there currently are no published applications programming standards in Chrome or in mobile, Intel is getting listened to more than they should be. Remember, an Intel general standard leads to Intel "owning" that market and eventually that intellectual property down the road a piece. It is a trick they learned from Bill Gates and MS. Google needs to squash any Intel attempts at pushing a Intel processor based set of programming standards for the Chrome world -- and Google needs to actively expedite some ARM competition into that realm or else they will quite possibly lose control of what they have created to Intel. ARM needs to bring forth their next generation of ARM processors, the ones that can compete with Intel at laptop and desktop levels. ARM needs to back up these chipset designs with Linaro I/O interface and VERY FIRM PROGRAMMING STANDARDS that keep all the orientals from going batshit crazy all over the place doing it every strange which way (something that has somewhat crippled ARM's upstream advancement so far) .... Sad thing is the orientals won't pay any attention to these standards, except to break them if it is any form of market advantage for them to do so. ============================ The digital divide between the producing countries that make and buy all the goodies and the USA who now buys the wee little minority of these goodies is becoming VERY pronounced right now. What is made in S. Korea and China for local use is VERY different from what HP or Asus or Acer or Lenovo sells through Amazon or Best Buy or Wally. The newest & best stuff varies the most, as the Far East really gives a flip about American standards any more. Google, MS and Intel are currently politically "greatly frowned upon" in China by the Chinese government -- and Chinese natural stuff is becoming more and more available here in the USA. Expect it to be different -- it is. Stuff costs a whole quantum leap less money bought direct from China and in many cases if you want to buy the raw state of the art you have to buy Chinese directly as they sell it in their home market first and only export it once demand is totally satisfied or else the new one has just come out. When Xiaomi hits the US market, expect it to be Xiaomi all the way -- it works well, it has very similar features but it isn't Google at all. It costs less than half as much, too. Expect Samsung to become more different over time as well. Samsung sells world-wide and the majority of their customers live in the Far East. Change, she comes ...... |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 08/21/14 at 19:39:03 http://wikibon.org/wiki/v/Intel_Nightmare_Worsens_with_Wearable_Devices_and_64-Bit_ARM_Processors Intel Nightmare Worsens with Wearable Devices and 64-Bit ARM Processors http://wikibon.org/w/images/thumb/9/9d/ARMInetelProjections2022byDeviceV2.png/500px-ARMInetelProjections2022byDeviceV2.png What is bad is when you look at this chart realize it is done to real scale, showing the current relative market share of x86 and ARM of the various types. Realize also that the predictions of years past have actually come true now to a large degree and Intel is down to #7 position as a chipbuilder and they are getting lapped now by Allwinner and Mediatek and what used to the the "smaller folks" like that. Hint: they ain't the little guys any more, not by a long shot. Intel is the little guy now, the little guy with the arterial "loss leader" money spray coming from his neck. Next summer will see Intel making up an integrated ARM chipset with somebody else as the lead design partner (with Intel being just the bankroll and fab to the other guy's ARM based designs). Intel will get them yet another management change about then as well, as they will really really need some skilled management that comes from an integrated ARM background. Microsoft admitting they are the OS system for only 14% of all devices isn't a shocker when you look at this chart, you can see a clear prediction that they will be less than 10% pretty soon. Look sharp for Microsoft's last hurrah attempt at making an x86 OS "become relevant" to take place and peter out by this upcoming New Years Eve. Look to see Win 9 be refined for ARM twice in 2015 - 2016. AMD and INVIDIA are both proposing 20nm 4-8 core chipsets composed of 4-8 A57 "big" cores that will be sold as laptop / PC / server chipsets. These chipsets are not really intended to run off of batteries per se (but they can do a battery powered laptop as at 20nm and below ARM will be that much more energy efficient compared to the old Intel tech of the past). Samsung already has one of these 4/8 core A57 SOCs in production at 20nm right now as we speak. Apple is already working on an A9 big 'um (4 A57 cores) for their own personal use, Intel has already been formally notified that if they cannot get "green" to match Apple's idea of a green computing machine that they are going to be gone model by model starting sometimes late next year. Just look at the chart and read the news as it comes rolling in -- x86 will be practically gone within 2 years and unless MS gets serious about programming a really fast trim light OS that runs really really well on ARM (look at Apple's iOS for a current example) then MS is toast as well. Industry pundits have seen the future coming, and it is ARM all the way ...... ARM will march down 20nm, 16nm, 14nm and 10nm within about 6-8 years. (or quicker) ARM still needs that good general purpose fast light OS though, and that is still an open switch at this time. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 08/22/14 at 10:19:24 ARM needs a good fast light general purpose OS at this point in time. Here are some facts that apply to this need. PC desktops are aging out and are not being replaced 100% with new same style PC desktop units. Linux distros are a small subset of the PC desktop and Linux distros (yeah, Ubuntu) is going away numerically more quickly at this point in time as old machines (their natural turf) are being replaced by the other more modern sorts of computing types. Ubuntu took a big uptick number-wise when China contracted with Ubuntu to build them a secure PC operating system, but now that that is all last year type stuff the Ubuntu trend goes back to its natural decline and continues declining. Ubuntu as a business lost 21 million dollars this year, this is twice the amount of money that it was funded with originally. Ubuntu is losing more money on each of its extended forays into business, save one (1) profitable effort which is Ubuntu network stack software. Because of patterning itself somewhat after Windows 8.0, Ubuntu took a huge popularity hit on its Unity Desktop Interface with the common man, Joe Linux. Ubuntu has never recovered from this mistake. So, desktop is slowly declining and it is taking most of Linux distros with it. So, what does that leave for an ARM based light fast general purpose OS system? Android, Chrome and Microsoft The new 45% smaller Microsoft has got to finish divesting all the old OS systems and Explorer versions that it can no longer afford to support -- then it has to refocus on the task before it, which will be ARM and Intel. By then it should be becoming clear what processor type will be the winner in that race. Google, I am afraid, isn't focused enough on what they are doing in the software OS arena. They make voluntary progress by little fits and starts and Google's attention wanders off into the weeds periodically. The Linaro model, where software is purposefully created by a consortium of hardware vendors who fund the programmers and keep them focused directly on the tasks at hand seems to be the best model for a future light fast general ARM OS. Android, Tizen, Sailfish, Memo, Reactos, Linux --- all of these FOSS code bases already exist to be tapped by a Linaro style FOSS programming consortium. Microsoft or a Linaro type Consortium, with Google Chrome as a disorganized outside chance. Somebody will eventually write what is needed, a fully featured ARM fast light general purpose OS. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 08/23/14 at 00:53:48 $199 HP Stream Machine news OK, HP yanked all the product spec stuff off the web and hid it from the public, but the service arm of the HP company has indeed posted a PDF of the service manual for the completed unit as it is concepted as of now. It tells you all there is to know about the unit, complete with part numbers. It also tells you there is WIDE LATTITUDE in parts which can be sold in different marketplaces -- this is not a monolithic same-same product by any means. It can be changed on the fly if needed improvement parts already exist. http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c04400176.pdf Got some last minute refinements to the design showing up here, example the big arsed heat sink is bigger and is now made of copper for better thermal conductivity. The copper heat sink is now as big as the entire motherboard. :o The entirety of the SOC heat produced total thermal heat flow exits the machine straight up, through the left hand upper half of the keyboard. The other side of that flow hits the bottom of the case and then the operator's lap in a more concentrated fashion since it has no heat spreader or thermal packing on that side. One assumes the case mounted Mullins sensor is located right there which will see that concentrated heat and dial things back too quickly. The bottom of the case and the user's lap will catch the short term concentrated radiated heat of the turbo'd processor against a small patch of case/lap with no intentional spreading effect ..... not good if that part of the case is resting directly on skin at the time. Adding another large very thin heat sink over the bottom inside of the case might be a smart thing to help with any adverse user heat impressions by spreading that heat out over a large area. This would also perhaps allow the unit to use the Mullins SOC turbo function more effectively for much longer durations without cutting it off prematurely. Such ongoing structural tweeks would show some pretesting of finished units is going on, changes are being made and real production is imminent. It does not reflect all the final changes, some of which will come from purchaser feedback and early failure analysis. ======================= Why is this unit worth following? Microsoft "lives or dies" by this unit as their "ability to be desirable" will be reflected by the performance of this unit. It goes head to head with the Chromebooks with same exact model made by same vendor in both ChromeOS and Windows versions. It is a perfect review case of the good vs the bad for both system types. By choking off all spec info, Microsoft and HP has tried to make the pre-Christmas debut a marketing event not based upon any prior facts, actually trying to get "emotional purchasing factors" to control the impulse purchasing of the machines as they apparently perceive "knowing all the facts" could be getting in the way of sales at this time. By losing track of the PDF Service Manual, HP has now let all them wayward kitty cats out of the sack accidentally. Heat and Battery Life will be the issues of the day with the Stream Machine (and moderate new efforts to minimize these issues already show up in the HP Service Manual). Battery now lists in the component listing as a 32watt/hour battery (battery size was increased considerably, from 24 up to 29 up to 32 watt/hour). New bigger copper heat sink on the processor itself tries to put all the heat out under the keyboard proper, keeping it away from the new much larger battery by and large. Good thing to know they thought about these things and tried to fix these issues (somewhat) ahead of time, this is a good thing for HP to have done. Issue remains that it still has only 32 or 64 gigs of soldered in place eMMC memory for the local storage "hard drive" (but it does allow you to plug in a SIMM card for up to 128 gig of slower additional storage, so this isn't really a deal killer). "Includes 32-GB of eMMC for use in models without the Windows operating system" is something new, that mebbe hints at a Mullins SOC based Chromebook is to come later, or perhaps an Ubuntu based machine is in the works for Europe/Far East. Windows OS and MS Office will eat up a good bit of this faster standard 32 gig hard drive space, which could be dodged a bit by making Office Online the default operating Office. HP looks to sell an upgraded unit with double the systems memory but since the eMMC is soldered-in-place NON-replaceable eMMC look to see users upgrading memory with cheaper SIMM memory cards on down the road, purchased on sale for far far less money than HP wants for the "bought at a premium" eMMC upgrade Stream units. We shall see ..... Go guys, put you together a really really good loss leader Chromebook killer and I hope you really really make a good showing with it. Competition is good, and you will make all them Chromebooks respond by getting better in return. Google responds fairly well to direct challenges, which they need so they too will get better faster. Trust me, users and reviewers will compare the units and offer up their comments on YouTube to both camps -- both of which should listen and make the necessary changes ASAP. Verslagen may be buying 2-3 of these thingies ASAP at $199 for his college kiddies if the reviews are really good and they actually really do provide the full Windows experience in a light weight inexpensive unit. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 08/23/14 at 18:56:09 Proposed user based tweeks to the Steam Machine for increased performance and comfort. If the warranty period is a good long one and you can open the case bottom without voiding a over-the-screw warranty sticker we got you some easy do tweeks to let the Mullens SOC run in turbo longer (for better performance) especially when run static off of your power supply. Pop the bottom, locate the mullins case mounted heat sensor (not shown in the Service Manual) and move it over to the side away from the SOC. Go to a craft store and buy some sheet copper and make up a bottom of case heat sink. Positively space it away from the motherboard using rubber washers & glue to keep it from shorting out anything. Goal is to partially defeat the mullins sensor so turbo mode can run longer on a stationary desk unit, while giving better heat dissipation to both sides of the mother board. They make fan sets that go under a laptop to do this exact same sort of thing -- if you are boosting your Stream Machine intentionally for gaming purposes you may want to get one of these. ;) At $199 totally price supported, lots & lots of tweekers are going to buy one of these to take apart and play with as it is actually in the same price range as their current "completed" hobby board rig ups. Raspberry Pi has made an entire new ecosystem of tweekers out there, as well as all the Linux geeks that were already pre-existing. Linux geeks will like this machine ---- a whole lot. Me, I will catch one refurbed on NewEgg or WOOT for $100 or there abouts if I decide I want one ..... refurbs will be in abundance on this one after a couple of months as lots of MS lovers will knee jerk buy one expecting a real laptop and be all "disappointed" at it. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Serowbot on 08/23/14 at 20:12:54 Using my own personal speedreading technique, to scan the previous article,... Post #137... I came up with... "European Muslims are cooking radioactive muffins on their keyboards using aluminum foil, to kill... ...it's spreading internationally... but it takes longer than cutting off heads"... :-?... So frightening,... I had to reread it at normal speed... Whew!... we're all safe... ;D... |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 08/23/14 at 20:52:47 The link leads to this HP Stream Notebook PC Maintenance and Service Guide IMPORTANT! This document is intended for HP authorized service providers only If you went to Muslim muffin killers, Inc. you got hacked. :) and yes, just for you, Serowbot I will post the pictures of people cooking an egg in a little folded tin foil square tray right over the affected section of the keyboard .... |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 08/23/14 at 21:03:39 The Chrome community is reacting to the HP Streambook news by scratching their heads and saying ..... "Hmmmm, can the $199 14" HP Chromebook 3 model using that better performing, cheaper AMD Mullins SOC be very far behind?" "Hmmmm, can I stick that big arsed 32 watt/hour battery into my original first generation puny assed dual core black HP 14" Pavillion Chromebook?" .... Nope, you'd be better off to steal the 50 watt/hour battery from the brand new thinner neater HP 14" Intel based Chromebook 2 that comes in the 3 new colors -- MUCH bigger battery. "Hmmmm, can the $199 14" HP Chromebook actually boot up Win 8.1 into run memory and still hold open a dozen web pages and actually do a spreadsheet recalculation all while trying to run on only two gigs of soldered in non-upgradable systems memory?" "Our Chromebooks automatically offload processor intensive tasks to Google's Cloud Servers so our Chromebooks never slows down much due to processor or memory constraints. I thought Win 8.1 had to run pretty much locally on the laptop's natural hardware?" ;D They also wonder about boot speed, updates, antivirus, sandboxed protection against the unfortunate but commonplace malicious websites, etc. etc. etc. They understand what the Google Processor Farm cloud support means for their Chrome machines, and they like it. They don't act worried at all. This is because they already use Chromebooks and Chromeboxes and they understand them just fine -- and they remember MS "freestanding" OS products entirely too well, and they understand the cost of MS 360 and MS On Line Store purchases also. Much of the Chrome store is free, remember. Some plans are being speculated about putting Ubuntu on the machine, but expectations are fairly low right now because as a MS loss leader funded device it will be locked down on the OS six ways from Sunday. MS will require it. Still, when it goes to refurb or sell off, by then they will know a way to get around that lock down ..... ========================= The very large very open public debate this will promote over Win vs Chrome may actually be detrimental to MS as they fumble their way on into Win 9. Certainly, it will muddy the water a bit for any planned real Win 9 improvements that are planned to come out next month. Them Chromebooks didn't become popular by accident, they actually do better for the facebook/sudoko crowd than a MS laptop can do. Chromebooks are growing primarily among women based upon word of mouth from friends and relatives. Women hate feeling stupid, and Windows OS products did that big-time. MS will get an earful to incorporate into Win 9 though -- if they listen, that is. Not really so good at that listening thing however, 'ol MS ..... Intel is going to lose part of their Chromebook market share if they don't watch out. To AMD, which just gripes them to no end ..... and AMD will make money doing it using standard cheap plentiful ARM 28nm lithography, which gripes Intel even further. AMD already has a fully integrated SOC that runs on low cost dirt cheap plentiful ARM standard 28nm lithography, something Intel is wishing/hoping that Rockchip will purty please do for them by late next summer .... next summer when AMD goes down to 20nm with everybody else in ARM land. ;) Example: the Streambook's integrated AMD Mullins SOC motherboard is half the size of an Intel based motherboard. |
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Title: Re: Chromebox predictions coming true very quickly Post by Oldfeller on 08/24/14 at 15:36:52 http://wikibon.org/vault/Special:FilePath/ARMInetelProjections2022byDevice100%25.png This was an old projection chart that actually came true one year earlier than expected. Much of this percent based chart is driven by the radical growth in total computing, the overall pie chart is getting much much bigger so non-growing sectors show up as "shrinking" on this area chart. Move the years scale to the left by one year to line up the chart up with the current reality. |
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