This might be old news for some (OK most people here) but I was pleasantly surprised
the other day when ventured into the PC World near Birmingham.
First off there is a big sign outside pointing out the availability of the Chromebooks inside.
Then the second surprise was when I came across the Google booth with probably a dozen of Chromebooks set up and running.
Although there was no sign anywhere which would be linking the Chrome OS to linux, but to the credit of the staff there,
they were quick to point out its relationship to it and at the same time managed to
describe it in the context of being secure and not requiring a virus checker.
According to the them they were set up in November and had quite a good turnover since then.
Judging that while I was there this booth had more interested people than the MAC and the Windows section did.
Nope … it was news to me they are on sale … after initial interest when they were announced, I’d kind of forgotten about them (it obviously took them far too long from announcement → market) :o
I’ll probably nip down to PCWorld when I get the chance, just out of interest.
BUT …
From a quick Google (no pun intended), I see the spec is:- 12.1" Screen, Intel Atom N570 1.66GHz CPU, 2GB RAM, and 16GB flash storage.
That puts it dangerously close to the price of a cheap i3 based laptop … which has a better spec
and
More than a netbook with a similar spec.
When you consider the original UK pricing was “supposed” to be £349 for the Wifi model, and £399 for the 3G model … retailers seem to be discounting them already which can’t be good news for Google, but unless/until they discount them some more, it’s not really good for the buyer either.
I’m somewhat surprised at the price point for what is effectively a Linux netbook, and which I would have expected Google to have heavily discounted (to the point of loss-leading), to peak market interest.
ChromeOS will live or die by how many machines they can get in houses … they need to be cheaper than anything else (Like the Acer Aspire One was, when it became an ideal christmas present), otherwise people will stick with what they know, Windows.
Although from reading peoples opinions of Windows 8 … Microsoft just may be doing Google/ChromeOS (and Linux) a big favour soon
Yeah, the spec is not fantastic, but performance wise it felt right.
As I have not had much time to spend there perhaps did not test it enough.
But my main point is that it was surprising to see it there and that the staff were
both knowledgeable and they discussed the linux aspect freely (without being embarrassed by it)
Which is a stark contrast to when they (PC World) brought the linux netbooks out.
I'll probably nip down to PCWorld when I get the chance, just out of interest.
You might want to check for the Chrome Zone before you set off, as there appears to be only four outlets in the UK.
Thanks for that … PCWorld is 20+ miles from here, so you may have saved me some wasted time
Though it’s nice to see them not being “ashamed” of Linux … and I get your point about the contrast with early netbooks … I’d still expect their “knowledge” of Linux to have been a half hour “sales pitch” lesson … we are talking about PCWorld
It remains to be seen if ChromeOS will reflect well on “Linux” though (specially at that price point) … we can but hope
Did they mention “Linux” unprompted, or did you drag it out of them ?
Though it's nice to see them not being "ashamed" of Linux .. and I get your point about the contrast with early netbooks .. I'd still expect their "knowledge" of Linux to have been a half hour "sales pitch" lesson .. we are talking about PCWorld ;)
They were wearing Google T-Shirts. So I expect they were trained to be more than the run of the mill sales assistants. ;D
It reminds me of when Dell were saying “Ubuntu is safer than Microsoft Windows” … then promptly changed the wording of their site … then even worse, stopped selling PC’s with Ubuntu pre-installed.
Google have no reason to bow to the same pressure
See the attached .pdf of (part of) the original Dell web page … if you haven’t seen it before.
With the way Microsoft are marketing Windows 8, this might just be the perfect situation where Linux finally gets it’s gap in the desktop market to really put a stamp on it and say “HEY LOOK! I’M HERE! COME BUY ME!”
Google have no reason to bow to the same pressure ;)
Not Google but PC World might. It is a gamble for them:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/8907767/Google-Chromebooks-one-in-10-computer-sales-in-a-years-time.html
Now, if Google would be retailing in their own shops then this would be a different story.
