Linus Torvalds really likes Google's Chromebook Pixel
Summary: Torvalds may have come to terms with the Linux GNOME interface, but what he really, really likes is his new Google Chromebook Pixel's display.
Linus Torvalds, Linux's primary creator, may have come to terms, reluctantly, with GNOME 3 for his Linux desktop, but what he really likes is his "new Google 'Pixel' laptops (aka Chromebooks)."
To be exact, he likes being one of the "cool kids" with a Chromebook Pixel because It has "a beautiful screen." I can't argue with that. It's what I love about the Chromebook Pixel too.
Torvalds added that the display is so nice that "suspect I'll make this my primary laptop. I tend to like my laptops slightly smaller, but I think I can lug around this 1.5kg monster despite feeling fairly strongly that a laptop should weigh 1kg or less." Why compromise on weight? "Because the screen really is that nice."
It's not just the screen; he also likes "the form factor. I despise wide-screen displays, but I had gotten resigned to them. Until now. 3:2, baby!"
For the time being, he's also going to be "running Chrome OS on this thing, which is good enough for testing out some of my normal work habits (i.e. reading and writing email)." Torvalds has long liked Chrome OS's interface.
Eventually, though, he expects "to install a real distro on this ... For a laptop to be useful to me, I need to not just read and write email, I need to be able to do compiles, have my own git repositories etc.." It's been possible to install Linux in place of Chrome OS on Chromebooks or to set it up to dual-boot a mainstream Linux distribution, such as Ubuntu, with Chrome OS for over a year now.
Torvalds concluded: "One thing that the Chromebook Pixel really brings home is how crap normal laptops have become. Why do PC manufacturers even bother any more? No wonder the PC business isn't doing well, when they stick to just churning out more crappy stuff and think that "full HD" (aka 1080p) is somehow the epitome of greatness."
High price-tag and all, it's clear that at least one top developer has decided that the Chromebook Pixel is exactly the laptop he needs. I wonder how many others -- especially considering the included free terabyte of Google Drive cloud storage -- will decide that $1,299 isn't too much for a top-of-the-line laptop, especially one that doesn't come with Windows 8 Secure Boot impairing its functionality.
Related Stories:
- Chromebook Pixel: Does this device herald Android and Chrome OS's wedding?
- Chromebook wars: Pixel vs. Samsung Series 5 550
- Amazon's top selling laptop doesn't run Windows or Mac OS, it runs Linux
- Linus Torvalds switches back to Gnome 3.x desktop
- Linus Torvalds likes the Google Chrome OS Linux desktop
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Talkback
who the hell is linus
Who says it?!
your posts talks volumes about your 'back'ground
You're limiting yourself
I was referring to Linux on desktop.
Exactly!
>_>
According to Steam
It's time to put the stupid .01% thing behind you. That was last true in 1996.
Gartner puts Linux so low because Gartner follows the Microsoft line that all PCs wind up running only Windows. That hasn't been true for many years now. Even Microsoft is now moving it's Office to a form that is Linux compatible.
Now, I don't expect Microsoft to slip below around 60% of the PC market, but, that's where it's going to settle. Most Linux users on PCs are still dual booting, but that percentage is dropping slowly but surely. The fall for Microsoft will come when some big PC vender refuses to pay Microsoft the Windows fee for every PC shipped because the Linux PC's will make up enough of the margin to matter.
We aren't there yet on laptops, but, servers that happened with almost a decade ago.
You think Linus build just Linux Desktop?
What?!
Just the most used OS
Linux has in some 20 years captured the following markets:
- supercomputing: Linux powers some 95% of the world's most powerful computers;
- webservers: about 80% of the internet is served up by Linux systems;
- routers and networking: all advanced and even some home equipment powered by Linux;
- smartphones: Linux powers over 75% of phones now sold;
- personal computers: Chromebooks being most sold laptops on Amazon;
- others as integrated systems, scientific and industrial computing;
Combine these figures and see that Linux devices easily outsell Windows.
Linux owns super computer, mobile, embedded devices...
It’s so fun to watch you guys
Linus enjoy the Chromebook.
It's a nice piece of hardware.
That is big news
Then you don't know much about Linus Torvalds.
He praises the hardware mostly
Yes he speaks his mind -
Note the comment about a Real Distro.
Apparently he doesn't consider Chrome a real distrl
But I have to agree with him that
The problem is they cost more to make. He misses the point in regards to his comment about "what crap normal laptops have become. Why do PC manufacturers even bother any more"
Not everyone is worth $150 million like he is. Sure he can buy a Chromebook with Pixel disply and put his prefered brand of Linux on it and never notice the drop in his bank account, but $1200 for someone making $21,000 a year is close to a month's pay. (The rich tend to forget things like that)
$399 for the cheap PC is only a week's pay, and so they sell. And if they sell, they keep making them.
Of course going forward as costs drop, we'll see better displays in alot more low to mid range laptops.
Sharper screens can be had today in the $400 U.S. price range
A Nexus 10 with a 10.1-inch display (resolution of 2560x1600 and 300 ppi) can be had from Google for $399 U.S. And one can now run Ubuntu, a "real distro", on the Nexus 10.
Tablets are PCs (I don't subscribe Apple's post-PC RDF nonsense). Microsoft Office? No. iWork and/or QuickOffice? Yes.
Tablets aren't PC's
What good is an iPad if i can't load my Office 2003 on it? Why dump all my familiar software to fit the "computer", shouldn't the "computer" fit what I have?
I know quite a few that have gone with low end laptops as that's what they can afford, while still using the software they already own.