Google to Significantly Scale Down Notebook and Tablet Development

btarunr · Mar 14, 2019

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 · Mar 14, 2019

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

medi01 · Mar 14, 2019

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

DeathtoGnomes · Mar 14, 2019

medi01 said:
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 · Mar 14, 2019

DeathtoGnomes said:
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 · Mar 14, 2019

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

Right? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

medi01 · Mar 14, 2019

DeathtoGnomes said:
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 · Mar 14, 2019

medi01 said:
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 · Mar 14, 2019

n-ster said:
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 · Mar 14, 2019

medi01 said:
Because it's a company PC and I can't install Opera.

FEELSBADMAN

TheinsanegamerN said:
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 · Mar 14, 2019

TheinsanegamerN said:
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 · Mar 14, 2019

DeathtoGnomes said:
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 · Mar 14, 2019

ryun said:
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. :laugh:

INSTG8R · Mar 14, 2019

ryun said:
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 · Mar 14, 2019

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 · Mar 15, 2019

n-ster said:
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 · Mar 15, 2019

R-T-B said:
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 · Mar 15, 2019

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

True.

System Name	RBMK-1000
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
Motherboard	ASUS ROG Strix B450-E Gaming
Cooling	DeepCool Gammax L240 V2
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Storage	Western Digital Black NVMe 512GB
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Case	Corsair Carbide 100R
Audio Device(s)	ASUS SupremeFX S1220A
Power Supply	Cooler Master MWE Gold 650W
Mouse	ASUS ROG Strix Impact
Keyboard	Gamdias Hermes E2
Software	Windows 11 Pro

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Processor	AMD Ryzen 5 5800X3D @ 4.60 GHz
Motherboard	Gigabyte B550 Aorus Elite V2
Cooling	Thermalright Peerless Assassin
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Video Card(s)	XFX 319 Merc 6800 XT
Storage	Kingston 256GB SSD \| Kingston 240GB NVMe \| Samsung 1TB NVMe \| Samsung F3 1TB HDD \| Barracuda 2TB HDD
Display(s)	34" ultrawide LG 34GL750B 144hz 1ms \| 55" LG UR91 4k@60Hz
Case	Phanteks Eclipse P400
Audio Device(s)	ALC 1220 120dB SNR HD Audio
Power Supply	Thermaltake GF1 850 W - 80 Plus Gold
Mouse	Logitech G502 HERO Lightspeed
Keyboard	Asus TUF Gaming K3
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Motherboard	NA
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Storage	500GB SSD
Display(s)	14" OLED screen of the laptop
Software	Windows 10
Benchmark Scores	3050 scores good 15-20% lower than average, despite ASUS's claims that it has uber cooling.

System Name	Dumbass
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7800X3D
Motherboard	ASUS TUF gaming B650
Cooling	Artic Liquid Freezer 2 - 420mm
Memory	G.Skill Sniper 32gb DDR5 6000
Video Card(s)	GreenTeam 4070 ti super 16gb
Storage	Samsung EVO 500gb & 1Tb, 2tb HDD, 500gb WD Black
Display(s)	1x Nixeus NX_EDG27, 2x Dell S2440L (16:9)
Case	Phanteks Enthoo Primo w/8 140mm SP Fans
Audio Device(s)	onboard (realtek?) - SPKRS:Logitech Z623 200w 2.1
Power Supply	Corsair HX1000i
Mouse	Steeseries Esports Wireless
Keyboard	Corsair K100
Software	windows 10 H
Benchmark Scores	https://i.imgur.com/aoz3vWY.jpg?2

System Name	Skunkworks
Processor	5800x3d
Motherboard	x570 unify
Cooling	Noctua NH-U12A
Memory	32GB 3600 mhz
Video Card(s)	asrock 6800xt challenger D
Storage	Sabarent rocket 4.0 2TB, MX 500 2TB
Display(s)	Asus 1440p144 27"
Case	Old arse cooler master 932
Power Supply	Corsair 1200w platinum
Mouse	squeak
Keyboard	Some old office thing
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Google to Significantly Scale Down Notebook and Tablet Development

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator

Thimblewad

medi01

DeathtoGnomes

TheinsanegamerN

INSTG8R

Vanguard Beta Tester

medi01

n-ster

medi01

DeathtoGnomes

ryun

Fx

mdm-adph

INSTG8R

Vanguard Beta Tester

Mamya3084

R-T-B

n-ster

R-T-B

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Memory	2x16GB Gskill Trident Neo Z 3600 CL16
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Keyboard	G19s
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Motherboard	Asus ProArt x570 Creator \| AsRock X399 fatal1ty gaming
Cooling	Silent Loop 2 280mm \| Dark Rock Pro TR4
Memory	128GB (4x32gb) DDR4 3600Mhz \| 128GB (8x16GB) DDR4 2933Mhz
Video Card(s)	EVGA RTX 3080 \| ASUS Strix GTX 970
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Mouse	Razer Viper Ultimate (still has buttons on the right side, crucial as I'm a southpaw)
Keyboard	Razer Huntsman Elite, Pro Type \| Logitech G915 TKL

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Cooling	Noctua
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Video Card(s)	EVGA 980ti FTW
Storage	(OS)Samsung 950 Pro (512GB), (Data) WD Reds
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Audio Device(s)	Sennheiser GAME ONE
Power Supply	EVGA SuperNOVA 650 P2
Mouse	Mionix Castor
Keyboard	Deck Hassium Pro
Software	Windows 10 Pro x64

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Processor	Intel i3-6100
Motherboard	H170I-PLUS D3
Cooling	Stock
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Video Card(s)	EVGA GTX 1050ti
Storage	512GB Corsair SSD
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Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	Corsair 450W
Mouse	Logitech Trackball
Keyboard	Custom bamboo job
Software	Win 10 Pro
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Memory	64GB (4x 16GB) G.Skill Flare X5 @ DDR5-6000 CL30
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