Hummmm.....Mac makes very good stuff. Give Google , ohh, 3-years. A linux notebook will still need an App-Verse, and android apps won't do. Mac has widgets that are fun and useful, and desktop Apps that save us from old-arsed boxed-software, from MicroSnot. Linux will need an iTunes, or a variant. This Google laptop does not win on price, so it has to win on services; ummm, better search experience, more GPU's I can program to when I release my game, and give me real cutting edge sound. Interface is still trackpad-ish, or external mouse, but can you drive my 52 inch display? Have a driver/codec for TV download or good content straight from Youtube. How about chat over youtube just like through Gmail?
No, I see some good competition coming down the road. But if Apple takes some of it's excessively excess cash and buys TV (NFL, NBA, GOLF, etc.) ...GAME OVER BABY!

word to ya muthas

Libreoffice and KDE offer a full office suite. For specialized productivity apps install a virtual windose machine with free Virtualbox. Kubuntu works well with Virgin wireless broadband so I can be on the Internet anytime

Now winblows is reduced to a candy interface, trying to look like an underpowered cellphone. Pathetic. Soon a full Ubuntu cellphone will be selling with the Ubuntu desktop. Mr Gates should continue giving away all his hoarded billions. That's his true calling

If you are just going to browse the web, then yes you might find value in a chrome book, but certainly it costs more than lighter weight tablets like the iPad. If you really use the features of OS-X such as iPhoto, iMovie, iCal, and many other productivity apps, then chrome book has not real value.

The point of this product is to cater to professionals that develop software. Even low end devices will have similar power to this device at the end of a large development cycle. They are just spinning it that they might be aiming it at others as well.

Within three months, Google will release Quickoffice software for handling documents and spreadsheets after complaints by Chrome notebook users over difficulties when trying to work with Microsoft's widely used Word or Excel software, according to Pichai.

That's the major problem: Google is offering people a Baby's First Operating System (tm) with its closed ecosystem designed to run "apps" instead of an open software market with proper software suites from third party vendors.

Why the hell would anyone pay so much money for something that only runs "document writer lite" and a bunch of fart apps?

For specialized productivity apps install a virtual windose machine with free Virtualbox.

I hear you can run x86 programs directly on a WindowsRT machine by a translation service that passes the API calls to the operating system while translating the x86 binary to ARM on the fly. That way you don't have to rely on what Microsoft wants you to run on your machine.

It seems that Google wants to own the cloud. That terabyte of free space will eventually drive the point home, and Google may have found a good marketing ploy to get people into sitting back and having a good think about the cloud. That's where the applications are going to reside, after all, and Google should give us some very powerful software to help us manage our business and our lives.

That being said, this is a science site, so I am disappointed that the article was not more specification-specific. Science fans want details, not promotional marketing articles.

That terabyte of free space will eventually drive the point home

The only point it drives home is that it would take 5000 hours to upload or download that much data over the average 3G network. Transferring just a DVD's worth of data probably takes more time than you have battery life in that laptop.

Hence why an SD card in hand is better than ten terabytes in the cloud.

Good luck, Google's interface design is an insult to humankind.

No one seems to care that Google is in bed with the Obama regime?

"And every time you use Google or Gmail you could be contributing just a little bit more of your behavioral data to the left."
http://www.redsta...-agency/

But you all have nothing to hide, right?