Google to Significantly Scale Down Notebook and Tablet Development

[btarunr]

Google has reportedly laid off a big chunk of its hardware workforce behind notebook and tablet products. These were teams behind the development of Pixelbook and Pixel Slate, which are premium notebooks and convertible-tablets, respectively, based on Google's Chrome OS platform. With this move, Google concedes that Chrome OS cannot replace Windows in the mainstream personal computing space, and will only relegate it to low-cost devices such as Chromebooks, Chromeboxes, and Chromebases. The Business Insider report talking about these workforce cuts also mentions roadmap cuts and a paring down of Google's hardware product portfolio down to profitable ones such as Chromecast, Google Home IoT products, and Nest; with Chrome OS devices being largely handled by OEMs.



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[Thimblewad]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[medi01]

Why would anyone buy a "premium notebook" with Chrome OS on it?

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Why would anyone buy a "premium notebook" with Chrome OS on it?

why would anyone use a browser or OS made by a company that gathers and sells personal information for profit?

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

why would anyone use a browser or OS made by a company that gathers and sells personal information for profit?

Because they work properly, and are coherent, unlike FOSS with its million forks and commands that read like ancient Greek?

I mean, if you are all worried about "muh data" then why are you on the Web? Newsflash, your ISP can track you if it wants to, websites track and sell data on you, every account you have is tied to you by google, facebook, ece even if they are not accounts associated with either of those companies. Your personal information is being gathered on linux with firefox too, because you are using the WEB.

Oh, and dont you dare ever use a credit or debit card, or use direct deposit, or write a check, or pull money from your bank.

 

[INSTG8R]

why would anyone use a browser or OS made by a company that gathers and sells personal information for profit?

Right? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[medi01]

why would anyone use a browser or OS made by a company that gathers and sells personal information for profit?

Because it's a company PC and I can't install Opera.

 

[n-ster]

Why would anyone buy a "premium notebook" with Chrome OS on it?

Honestly, if it officially supported dual booting, I know a lot of people who would have gotten premium Chrome OS notebooks.

 

[medi01]

Honestly, if it officially supported dual booting, I know a lot of people who would have gotten premium Chrome OS notebooks.

But dual booting removes "Chrome OS" from "Chrome OS notebook", doesn't it?

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Because it's a company PC and I can't install Opera.

FEELSBADMAN

Because they work properly, and are coherent, unlike FOSS with its million forks and commands that read like ancient Greek?

I mean, if you are all worried about "muh data" then why are you on the Web? Newsflash, your ISP can track you if it wants to, websites track and sell data on you, every account you have is tied to you by google, facebook, ece even if they are not accounts associated with either of those companies. Your personal information is being gathered on linux with firefox too, because you are using the WEB.

Oh, and dont you dare ever use a credit or debit card, or use direct deposit, or write a check, or pull money from your bank.

you absolutely right, however, it comes down to choices, obvious choices. Minimize the tracking by making a conscious choice. No idea what 'ece' is, but if you sit back and do nothing vs actively taking a role to obstruct what is being collect about you, you become the sheep for the slaughter. Take and active role and you send a message those that track you, that you're not stupid.

There is a war on privacy and personal information, so please continue to sit back and play the idontcare card so they will leave me alone, thanks for being a sheep.

 

[ryun]

Because they work properly, and are coherent, unlike FOSS with its million forks and commands that read like ancient Greek?

I mean, if you are all worried about "muh data" then why are you on the Web? Newsflash, your ISP can track you if it wants to, websites track and sell data on you, every account you have is tied to you by google, facebook, ece even if they are not accounts associated with either of those companies. Your personal information is being gathered on linux with firefox too, because you are using the WEB.

Oh, and dont you dare ever use a credit or debit card, or use direct deposit, or write a check, or pull money from your bank.

As an example: Firefox, DuckDuckGo, AdBlock, NoScript, and a VPN can get you pretty much untrackable on the Web.

If you were really worried about someone tracking your credit card, I guess you could buy those prepaid cards in cash. Not 100% sure on that one though.

 

[Fx]

why would anyone use a browser or OS made by a company that gathers and sells personal information for profit?

It is indeed kind of disturbing when you break it down to the fundamental level. What equally sucks is Windows has evolved into the same type of beast with thier OS service model. Granted, they dont have any where near the amount of information harvested as Google.

 

[mdm-adph]

As an example: Firefox, DuckDuckGo, AdBlock, NoScript, and a VPN can get you pretty much untrackable on the Web.

If you were really worried about someone tracking your credit card, I guess you could buy those prepaid cards in cash. Not 100% sure on that one though.

Nope -- that just makes you trackable by the VPN only. And god knows who they're selling your tracking info to.

 

[INSTG8R]

As an example: Firefox, DuckDuckGo, AdBlock, NoScript, and a VPN can get you pretty much untrackable on the Web.

If you were really worried about someone tracking your credit card, I guess you could buy those prepaid cards in cash. Not 100% sure on that one though.

Add Ghostery to that and that’s my current setup.(well I don’t use a VPN) All things Google are marked untrusted.

 

[Mamya3084]

Nothing wrong with a Chromebook....that's not from Google.

With all that private data they collected, you'd think they would have been able to craft decent hardware at a decent price point.

 

[R-T-B]

Honestly, if it officially supported dual booting, I know a lot of people who would have gotten premium Chrome OS notebooks.

They pretty much do. You can replace the firmware with mainline coreboot and do exactly that.

 

[n-ster]

They pretty much do. You can replace the firmware with mainline coreboot and do exactly that.

Chloe is shopping at BestBuy and doesn't know that and doesn't understand those words, for her, dual booting doesn't exist.

 

[R-T-B]

Chloe is shopping at BestBuy and doesn't know that and doesn't understand those words, for her, dual booting doesn't exist.

True.