[rodan01]

Hard drives are so slow. With SSD PCs start faster, apps run faster, the battery last longer, there is less heat and noise.
I'd like to see PCs with SSD at lower prices, maybe something like Chromebooks but running Windows 8:

13-inch touchscreen
2gb ram
32gb storage
CPU Celeron
7 hours battery life.
$300

[Jack Janik]

To quote Deus Ex: Human Revolution, "I'd like a 200x Mustang and a *******, but I ain't getting it".. Google makes massive money from being the defacto search engine. They don't have to have any sustainable business model for the near future as they can just reap massive profits from advertising. Microsoft isn't in the same position. They aren't seen as the "cool" company, like Google, and people aren't flocking to Windows the same way they are to iDevices and Google Stuff. They can't just grab the low end market, that's what is happening with the Lumia 520, and while the low end market is nice, but there's little profit involved. I agree, such a move would be beneficial, but Microsoft has already disappointed shareholders with it's 800 million dollar Surface write off, they can't make a drastic move so soon. I'd like to restate that I do agree though, but there's too much bureaucracy in the way..

[anon(8150199)]

LOL, chromebooks use sluggish hardware and (in most cases) 16GB of storage(!), you're not gonna run Windows 8 well on it

[rodan01]

Jack, Microsoft is already changing their business model. They have a new Windows 8 sku for just $15, but OEMs can't change the default search engine from Bing. Microsoft will make money from advertising in Bing and selling services like OneDrive, Music, Video, Office 365, the app store, etc.

pookyjoralyn, Chromebooks with the Celeron CPU perform well, Windows 8 also performs well with that CPU, in fact Windows is running in much lower specs in tablets. There are Chromebooks with 32gb of storage, although Windows 8.1 update 1 officially supports 16gb of storage.

This Windows 8 laptop has a CPU AMD A4-1200 (much slower than the Celeron). Even with that modest CPU and a slow hard drive the reviews are good.

Amazon.com: HP Pavilion 10-e010nr 10.1-Inch Touchscreen Laptop (Sparkling Black): Electronics

[Jack Janik]

LOL, chromebooks use sluggish hardware and (in most cases) 16GB of storage(!), you're not gonna run Windows 8 well on it

My brother has a Chromebook and it runs beautifully.. Thank you for regurgitating Microsoft's "Scroogled" campaign though. Glad to see it's sticking..

[Jack Janik]

Jack, Microsoft is already changing their business model..

I know, but I just don't see them doing something so drastically so soon..

[anon(8150199)]

My brother has a Chromebook and it runs beautifully.. Thank you for regurgitating Microsoft's "Scroogled" campaign though. Glad to see it's sticking..

II'm talking about running Windows 8, not Chrome OS on that hardware.

[Michael Alan Goff]

My brother has a Chromebook and it runs beautifully.. Thank you for regurgitating Microsoft's "Scroogled" campaign though. Glad to see it's sticking..

I haven't had a good experience on a chromebook.

[Jack Janik]

II'm talking about running Windows 8, not Chrome OS on that hardware.

With Windows RT I could see it working.

[xandros9]

Hard drives are so slow. With SSD PCs start faster, apps run faster, the battery last longer, there is less heat and noise.
I'd like to see PCs with SSD at lower prices, maybe something like Chromebooks but running Windows 8:

13-inch touchscreen
2gb ram
32gb storage
CPU Celeron
7 hours battery life.
$300

there are tablets and laptop hybrids that practically fit that bill already. (maybe not the 13" though, im probably wrong)
My Dell Venue 8 Pro fits or exceeds all those except for size.
Heck, going last generation will snag you those.

[rodan01]

That's right, there are many Windows 8 devices running well in even lower specs, of course those devices aren't designed to run heavy desktop apps.

I'm a huge fan of the Modern UI, I use IE in Modern UI and many apps from the store. Windowed apps annoys me, I don't think there is much value in controlling so precisely the size of a Window, I can't stand the chrome in the desktop IE. I'd really like to see a laptop without desktop interface, maybe this new OS that merges Windows RT and WP could make it possible, Microsoft is talking of Modern UI 2.0, I can't wait to see it.

But.. I understand many people is attached to the desktop, to windowed apps, or depends on desktop apps, so a chromebook running Windows 8 would be a really good product. In general laptops should add some features of tablets and smartphones:

Instant wake up
Always connected
Notifications on sleep state
Long battery life
Thin and light
Touch interface and voice control
Personal assistant and proactive search (Google Now)
Workflows in cooperation with tablets and smartphones
Low cost

[Cleavitt76]

Just an FYI to the original poster. All solid state storage is not created equal. There is a massive performance difference between the SATA SSD drives that are in high end Windows desktops/laptops/tablets (Surface Pro for example) and the eMMC solid state storage used in devices like Chromebooks, Android tablets, iPads, and mobile phones. Both of the technologies are based on storing data in NAND memory chips, but other than that they have almost nothing in common.

eMMC is basically the same technology as an SD card or USB flash drive, but it is soldered to the motherboard instead of being removable. There is usually only a single NAND chip and no controller, cache, etc. Max speeds are usually a couple dozen MB/s or less which is much slower than modern magnetic hard drives.

SATA SSD drives have their own embedded controllers (processors), cache, and they stripe data across multiple NAND chips to achieve much faster speeds. Max speeds are often well over 500MB/s which is 20+ times faster than typical eMMC storage.

Mobile OSes run well on eMMC technology because they are simple and they don't do very much. The same concept applies to ARM vs. x86 processors, slow mobile RAM vs. much faster multi-channel laptop RAM, etc. A full multi-purpose OS like Windows will be noticeably slower on the weak hardware than is in a Chromebook. There is a reason why Chomebooks (which are basically using upsized phone hardware) cost so little compared to high end laptops. The bottom line is you get what you pay for.

[rodan01]

Windows 8 tablets and hybrids use eMMC and the performance is good for normal usage: office, web surfing, store apps.

Chromebooks are using x86 CPUs and DDR. For example:

13-inch display
1.4 GHz Celeron 2955U => supports dual channel
2gb DDR3 SDRAM
16gb Solid State
9 hours battery life
$280

$20 extra for a touchscreen and you have a WinBook.

Amazon.com: Toshiba CB35-A3120 13.3-Inch Chromebook: Computers & Accessories

[badplanet]

I hate google and have no use for a chrome book but I do see one situation where I would buy one. If I could run MS Remote Desktop perfectly and it was light and cheap. If I could spend about $150 and allow me to run anything on my desktop workhorse like Visual Studio and Photoshop from any where in my house or on the deck that would be awesome!

[A895]

Similar and Relevant:
http://mobile.theverge.com/2014/3/8/...-an-officebook

Sent from my XT1060 using Mobile Nations mobile app

[CHIP72]

Hard drives are so slow. With SSD PCs start faster, apps run faster, the battery last longer, there is less heat and noise.
I'd like to see PCs with SSD at lower prices, maybe something like Chromebooks but running Windows 8:

13-inch touchscreen
2gb ram
32gb storage
CPU Celeron
7 hours battery life.
$300

Chrome OS is a much, much lighter/thinner OS than Windows 8 is. Most of the power in Chrome OS devices is on remote servers; Chrome OS is a browser/cloud-based operating system. (By contrast, Windows 8, WP8, and for that matter most other current operating systems, including MacOS, iOS, and Android, are device-based operating systems.) The minimal device requirements are why chromebooks can have such low specs and still run very well.

To be honest, among my laptops and tablets (and I have a few of each), my chromebook is my favorite to use device. The only devices I use more than my chromebook are my smartphones and possibly my desktop computer.

[rodan01]

A Browser is a really complicated piece of software like an OS running on top of another OS. Modern web pages like Gmail or Google docs also run in the client, but they use interpreted code which is slower. I think any mobile OS is faster than a browser OS in the same hardware. Just compare Firefox OS with Android.

Why do you like the chromebook so much?

[A895]

A Browser is a really complicated piece of software like an OS running on top of another OS. Modern web pages like Gmail or Google docs also run in the client, but they use interpreted code which is slower. I think any mobile OS is faster than a browser OS in the same hardware. Just compare Firefox OS with Android.

Why do you like the chromebook so much?

Chromebooks go for as low as $199 that's what so attractive about them.

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