PIER78: November 2013

What is a Chromebook? Should I get one? Its made by Google! It must be great right? I mean, look at the success of Android and all the other products that has popped out of the Google factory. I think conceptually the Chromebook is a very good idea. I mean majority of the internet users are only using Facebook and YouTube right? So why not make a cheap laptop that only does that! And...out plopped the Chromebook. While seemingly great at first it is effectively a browser only laptop. Though seemingly targeting the computer illiterate with its low prices, it appears to only be usable by those who have a decent understanding of both Windows and Linux or people who are actually willing to learn *gasp*.

Off-topic side Story:
When Windows Vista (the fail successor to Windows XP) first came out, my dad while on vacation with a new laptop made a phone call to my mom asking how to turn off his computer. She told him find the start menu and to click "Turn Off Computer," but he complained he could not find either of them. She threw a fit calling him an idiot and told him to just unplug the computer and hung up the phone. Her second suggestion wouldn't have worked since it was a laptop with a battery and her instructions were technically wrong since Vista replaced the start menu with a windows logo and the "Turn Off Computer" button was replaced with a power symbol. Seemingly trivial tasks on the computer can be like learning a new language to those who are computer illiterate!

If you are absolutely dead serious on getting a Chromebook, please don't be this guy.

Google on the other hand does have high end Chromebooks being produced. Although the new Chromebook Pixel appears quite snazzy with its high resolution display, I really wonder who is going to drop $1200-$1400 for a browser only laptop?

I don't hate the Chromebook, in fact I like my Acer C7 Chromebook quite a bit. On the other hand, I'm seriously hard pressed to recommend it to ANYONE since to get it to fit my needs, I've had to dabble with settings I think the average Joe should never have to touch. I want to be able to recommend it to people who are computer illiterate since they don't really have to deal with malware and viruses but the lack (stock) versatility of ChromeOS compared to regular Linux, OSX or Windows makes me feel like I would be giving bad advice if I don't warn them about these limitations.

Can my parents use it? Sure. I replaced their browsers from Chrome near the time Chrome was released. Nevertheless, even if they are used to Chrome, the idea of not being able to use software outside of it would make them feel like they are using something less than a computer--maybe even less than a smart phone.

As a College Student with a Chromebook

Unlike quite a few of the people who purchased Chromebooks like the user whose posts I linked above, I did my research before buying (a key thing everyone should do for everything they buy). I was aware that the Chromebook would be browser only, and I accepted that fact.

I was hoping that by the time I purchased it, maybe ChromeOS would gain enough traction to have somewhat of an App Store like the Google Playstore for Android. However everything that you can install on ChromeOS is pretty much just a Chrome Extension. The quality of the extensions rely solely on the team who coded it. Although this applies to all software, I feel like the level of quality is somewhat shifty for majority of the extensions I've stumbled upon.

On the other hand, some really high quality ones were great, such as the Secure Shell Extension. I thought this extension was quite nifty. For example in object oriented programming class, instead of using an IDE (Integrated development environment), we would program with VIM using SSH, connecting to a server on the school network. The Secure Shell extension allowed me to do the the work I needed without the necessity for applications like PuTTy or access to a terminal.

For a couple of classes that required a bit of writing, Google Docs was able to fit my most of my needs, so no biggie here. On the other hand for things like Lab Reports which required strict formatting with margins, page numbering in footers, etc. I had no choice to switch back to Micro$oft Office on my desktop. Other things like creating PowerPoints and what not are fine though Google Docs, but if you want to give it a ZING you'd probably want to use Micro$oft PowerPoint. If Google Docs eventually matches Microsoft Office in features, that'd be pretty awesome.

The biggest thing that irked me from a student perspective was the fact that I couldn't just PRINT from the Chromebook. I was hoping Google would allow Printing via SAMBA like on Ubuntu that would allow me to print wirelessly through a homegroup that is sharing a printer. Unfortunately this was not the case and Google instead employs "Cloud Print". Although it is an interesting service, it simply did not work for me and produced a generic error.

The 100GB from getting a Chromebook for 2 years is great. However with my pesky 1 mbps upload speed, I'm hard pressed to find any use from it, even though I could use some extra storage on my desktop. Google Fiber please spread across all the states!

Wanting More

Of course eventually I got bored of what it could do in ChromeOS, so I started looking for ways to get around its limitations. At first I used ChrUbuntu, but it was quite annoying to switch between ChromeOS and Ubuntu.

For a couple of months I hosted a 5-7 player Minecraft Server. The little Acer C7 processor (1.1 GHz Dual Core Celeron + 2GB Ram) was able to handle the load pretty well. There was pretty bad lag once a player mass bred sheeps (70+ in a small location), but overall worked pretty well.

But now Instead of ChrUbuntu, there's an even easier method to get more out of your Chromebook through CROUTON: https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton

Haha! No longer holding me back now are you ChromeOS?

You can read more about Crouton on the github webpage. Thanks to Crouton I pretty much have full blown Linux while still on ChromeOS, but with a different environment. That being said, you can do what most normal operating systems can do including things like Minecraft:

Setting Minecraft for the Acer C7 Chromebook:

If you haven't already, switch your Chromebook to DEV Mode

This is unavoidable unfortunately, if you want more from your Chromebook you will have to do this
This will result in a "unverified OS" screen every time you boot your Chromebook. You can wait the 30 seconds and hear an annoying beeping noise, or you can press CTRL+D to skip the screen.

Get Crouton, there are many guides how to use it

In particular, reading the instructions on its GitHub page is pretty easy to follow

Use Crouton to setup another Linux distro to run on your Chromebook

Once you have ChrUbuntu, or w/e Linux Distro you were able to get running alongside Chrome:

-Uninstall OpenJDK and install proprietary ORACLE Java.

There's no getting around this, OpenJDK doesn't work with Minecraft

-Install both the JDK [Java Development Kit] AND JRE [Java Runtime Environment]

There are a bajillion different ways to install JDK and JRE

Personally I found this way was easiest:

http://www.webupd8.org/2012/01/install-oracle-java-jdk-7-in-ubuntu-via.html

I'm actually unsure if you need both JRE (Java Runtime Environment) and JDK (Java Development Kit) but I installed both just in case. Generally you should only need one to run MC since JDK should include JRE

- Grab MC from the Minecraft site

Default Settings

Max Framerate: 30

Average Framerate: 18

Minimum Framerate: 4

It works, but only somewhat playable? It's not too much trouble playing at this framerate, but it certainly isn't as enjoyable as playing at 60fps. There are pretty harsh framerate drops.

Lowest Settings Possible

Max Framerate: 61

Average Framerate: 45

Minimum Framerate: 28

Pretty playable, however there are hard stutters occasionally when moving and the game is loading chunks. Maybe OPTIFINE will smooth out playability?

CPU-G for Computer Specs (ACER C7 CHROMEBOOK)

Usability

So overall I feel the Chromebook is quite usable if you are willing to work with it. Just like any new kind of electronic device, there is a learning curve--to some its non-existent because it is essentially just a browser but to others it may not be worth the trouble.

I feel that the Chromebook is in a seriously niche position--in particularm one that might not be really needed. It's seriously cheap (the low end ones at least) and its a lot more comfortable using than a phone with a 5 inch screen for basic internet. However this brings up the whether it would be a better investment to just get a tablet and call it a night?

Perhaps. Ipads, Android Tablets have access to the same Play Store, App Store as their mobile counter parts. With a plethora of apps to use, it doesn't have the same "closedness" as ChromeOS does.

However a simple solution to the "closedness" of ChromeOS would be services like OnLive (now dead) or Gaikai. These services stream games to computers. This was particularly interesting to me as this eliminated the necessity to have high end hardware on a local level. Chromebooks could seriously benefit from this as they would be able to run software that would otherwise be impossible due to hardware limitations. In addition this, if you stream an application then essentially the software would not be run locally and thus the operating system would no longer be a road block.

These services run the application on computers in the cloud and streams the display of the application to your own computer. Your own computer sends inputs from your keyboard and mouse to the cloud allowing you to interact with the application as if it was running on your own computer.

However cloud based services like these do have issues such as latency and bandwidth bottlenecks.

In terms of bandwidth, to retrieve an image of say resolution 1920x1080, you would need to send data that can represent 2,073,600 pixels. Average monitors can only show up to 1.677 million colors (which can be represented by 24 bits per pixel, 8 bits per color red, blue, green). Doing the math, 24bits for 2,073,600 million pixels is about 49,766,400 bits total is about 47.4609 megabits. However you don't just send one "image" or frame, you send about 30 every second to create a smooth animation. So you would send 1423.827 megabits or 177.978 megabytes every second. Of course no one has this kind of bandwidth (even Google Fiber 1000 megabits = 125 megabytes per second). To get around this, these services compress the frames to a more reasonable size using techniques like changing from representing colors with RGB to YUV, representing similar pixels with the same color, sending only data for changed pixels, merging repeating frames etc. Compression works for the most part but result in issues like color loss and possible artifacts. While completely acceptable for most users, professionals like graphics designers would loathe the hit in quality.

In addition to bandwidth, latency is of the largest concern in my opinion. I have personally only tried OnLive when it was still around. The service worked surprising well without any major issues. However the latency from my inputs to the servers was very obvious. My mouse cursor being streamed to my own computer would lag behind. Although the latency wasn't bad to the point where it was unusable (it worked really well) I would not use a service where latency is actually noticeable if given the choice.

Although these services focus on games, I feel like if all kinds applications could be streamed, this could complete change the Chromebook dilemma. In fact maybe even basic computer usage itself. Perhaps technology will transition to an age where people no longer use desktops and everything will be done through the cloud.

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