On June 15th 2011 Google will begin to offer the Chromebook starting at $20 a month for students and teachers, and $28 a month for businesses. These will be available at both Best Buy and Amazon. Apparently, you can also buy the computers outright from Samsung ($429 with wi-fi, $499 with 3G) and from Acer ($349). According to Google, any hardware updates would mean free laptop replacements.
Google is changing the game once again by putting low cost internet laptops into the hands of most anyone now at a controlled price most all people could afford.
But how will this affect Ubuntu? Positively? Negatively? How will this dent Mark Shuttleworths plan of obtaining 200 million Ubuntu users in just a few years? How will Chromebook users handle games? Do you trust all of your data in the cloud and not on your own computer? Are these computers really YOUR computers anymore if you are basically just renting them? Lots of unanswered questions.
While I'd love to test one of these computers out, I'll stick with Ubuntu as I believe it will be a bastion of privacy in a world that is increasingly becoming an open book (an open Chromebook) to a "police state" like world. Viva freedom and privacy!
Read more about the Chromebook here:
http://blogs.forbes.com/quentinhardy/2011/05/10/google-to-announce-chrome-laptops-20month/
and here:
http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20110511/google-uncrates-the-chromebook/
0 comments:
Post a Comment