Google changes things up a little bit. This one is a poke at APPLE and the very biggest and highest end laptop displays possible at this time from anybody.
http://liliputing.com/2013/02/google-introduces-chromebook-pixel-premium-1299...OK, what are the take aways beyond APPLE isn't the only one to put a really BIG Retina display out there in a gorilla glass touchscreen product, with a good built in keypad no less?
APPLE's big laptop product costs a lot more but you can argue I OS is a better system than Chrome ..... what? Chrome can open and change and save Microsoft Office files now !!!!
What the freak ????!!! It runs MS Office files natively !!!!Yup, Google bought QuickOffice as a company last month and is incorporating QuickOffice into Chrome OS Pixel. For free
Uh Oh, woopsie-do Mr. Ballmer. All of a sudden Chrome OS isn't ball-less any more, it can do real productivity style work instead of just entertain.
How can a Chromebook become relevant in the world of business? When it can work with MS Office natively and when it has a TERABYTE of hard drive space (Google Drive) that comes with every single one of them.
Really, it will be when the IT department geeks realize they don't have to take care of a Chromebook at all, and they can give you a new one from a stack of them if yours gets broken and EVERYTHING JUST WORKS for you from the boot up from your point of view.
I look forward to the much cheaper Asus and Austek and Samsung and LG products that are sure to come out now swinging this new MS Office compatible feature-set.
I also betcha the new MS Office that comes out next tries to block this compatibility somehow because a DELUXE retina screen 1 Terabyte notebook for only $200 more than a MS pro tablet has got to offer some real choices to folks.
And when the Chromebook price drops down towards the $249 Asus level there ain't much choice there at all.Plus, if Chrome OS Pixel is open source, then guess what code just hit every distro out there .....
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http://liliputing.com/2013/02/the-chromebook-pixel-can-run-ubuntu-linux-mint-...We keep hinting that Google and the other open source systems cooperate with each other instead of sideswiping each other. Google has also included Sea Bios
SeaChange in with the Chrome Pixel machine's normal setup, this means you can multi-boot Chrome, Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Fedora
or any combination of the FOSS OS's at the same time any time you want to, several at a time if you want them.
Open source is kinda nice that way.
So, not only does the new Google Chrome Pixel have Microsoft Office ability, it has Ubuntu muscle, Mint grace and Fedora industrial strength all at will. Some distros do some things better than others, and this machine can cherry pick what you like the best for each task and run that.
Them is one Terabyte sized great BIG hairy balls on that there laptop ..... just remember the balls you see on this machine are acting as big as a Google data center's ball size.
(heck, they actually ARE a Google Data Center's big 'ol hairy balls, jest a dangling down from the cloud)