Chrome OS to run Linux Apps
Well, I derided Google and Apple for promoting systems which were self destructive. Pushing iOS as a desktop replacement on Apple's part and not playing well at all with Microsoft on Google's part.
And the reason was simple. You can't write an iOS App on an iPad (not even a Pro one), nor can you write an Android app on an Android phone, or historically, a Chromebook.
In simplest terms, if Apple and Google's rhetoric had been an overnight success and everyone had gone and thrown out their laptops and desktops and replace them with iPads and Android tablets... their App stores would come screeching to a halt.
Amusingly, what I think is triggering this for Google is a feeling of some measure of success against Windows. As people move to Android and Apple devices for their daily computing, developers are increasingly using Macs with no real totally Android friendly dev environment. Yes, I know you can build Android apps on a Mac.
But, if you're a developer and you just spent more money than you apparently have brain cells on a Mac... you probably bought an iPhone too. And, if you're going to build apps for a platform... you're probably going to choose Apple.
Frankly, I see a HUGE problem in this strategy though. Chromebooks come in two flavors. Cheap, busted pieces of garbage and things that actually work but cost as much as an Apple product without even meeting Apple's overpriced build cost to price ratio.
I've also never found the dev tools to be all that robust in the first place. Which makes me wonder just how well they will actually run on Chrome OS. My experiences with Linux are simple... every app is a myriad of dependencies and those dependencies work with varying degrees of success on different Linux variants and on various hardware. I don't hold high expectations for early iterations of this work.
But, also considering the hardware demands for ChromeOS... I won't be able to take anything they do seriously until the premium devices come down in price by about 50%. High end Chrome OS devices are basically RAM and a monitor attached to a decent battery. They add in decent sized storage, but that is cheap. The processors aren't anywhere near top of the line and they don't use discrete GPUs.
I expect CPU and GPU to drive costs up. But, the CPUs in use, while not bad, aren't high end chips and the lack of a discrete GPU, while totally logical for a Chromebook still means that the cost should be WAY down there.
The problem is a simple one though. They want to charge ass loads of money for these things. But, the specs are at a point where you can't even justify bumping them up on paper. It is SUPPOSED to be a light OS.
Of course, I see yet another problem. They'll need to start worrying about discrete GPUs. There are two types of apps bolstering ecosystems like iOS and Android. Social platforms and games. Social platforms you can't really engineer. They either succeed or they don't. Games is a huge industry though. And while demands are nowhere near console or desktop graphics, they dabble in that area and 3D modeling and the likes definitely benefits from beefier hardware.
Anyway... I am, at the least, encouraged to see SOME sort of move in the right direction. Though, it is still ponderous to me. Android is FAR more popular than Chrome OS.
And the reason was simple. You can't write an iOS App on an iPad (not even a Pro one), nor can you write an Android app on an Android phone, or historically, a Chromebook.
In simplest terms, if Apple and Google's rhetoric had been an overnight success and everyone had gone and thrown out their laptops and desktops and replace them with iPads and Android tablets... their App stores would come screeching to a halt.
Amusingly, what I think is triggering this for Google is a feeling of some measure of success against Windows. As people move to Android and Apple devices for their daily computing, developers are increasingly using Macs with no real totally Android friendly dev environment. Yes, I know you can build Android apps on a Mac.
But, if you're a developer and you just spent more money than you apparently have brain cells on a Mac... you probably bought an iPhone too. And, if you're going to build apps for a platform... you're probably going to choose Apple.
Frankly, I see a HUGE problem in this strategy though. Chromebooks come in two flavors. Cheap, busted pieces of garbage and things that actually work but cost as much as an Apple product without even meeting Apple's overpriced build cost to price ratio.
I've also never found the dev tools to be all that robust in the first place. Which makes me wonder just how well they will actually run on Chrome OS. My experiences with Linux are simple... every app is a myriad of dependencies and those dependencies work with varying degrees of success on different Linux variants and on various hardware. I don't hold high expectations for early iterations of this work.
But, also considering the hardware demands for ChromeOS... I won't be able to take anything they do seriously until the premium devices come down in price by about 50%. High end Chrome OS devices are basically RAM and a monitor attached to a decent battery. They add in decent sized storage, but that is cheap. The processors aren't anywhere near top of the line and they don't use discrete GPUs.
I expect CPU and GPU to drive costs up. But, the CPUs in use, while not bad, aren't high end chips and the lack of a discrete GPU, while totally logical for a Chromebook still means that the cost should be WAY down there.
The problem is a simple one though. They want to charge ass loads of money for these things. But, the specs are at a point where you can't even justify bumping them up on paper. It is SUPPOSED to be a light OS.
Of course, I see yet another problem. They'll need to start worrying about discrete GPUs. There are two types of apps bolstering ecosystems like iOS and Android. Social platforms and games. Social platforms you can't really engineer. They either succeed or they don't. Games is a huge industry though. And while demands are nowhere near console or desktop graphics, they dabble in that area and 3D modeling and the likes definitely benefits from beefier hardware.
Anyway... I am, at the least, encouraged to see SOME sort of move in the right direction. Though, it is still ponderous to me. Android is FAR more popular than Chrome OS.
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