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Google and Dell Team Up To Take on Microsoft with Chromebook Enterprise Laptops (theverge.com) 76

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
Google is launching new Chromebook Enterprise devices that it hopes will draw more businesses away from Windows-powered laptops. From a report: Microsoft has dominated enterprise computing for years, but as businesses increasingly look to modernize their fleet of devices, there's an opportunity for competitors to challenge Windows. Google is teaming up with one of Microsoft's biggest partners, Dell, to help push new Chromebook Enterprise laptops into businesses. Dell is launching Chrome OS on a pair of its popular business-focused Latitude laptops, offering both a regular clamshell design and a 2-in-1 option. While it might sound like just two existing Windows laptops repurposed for Chrome OS, Google and Dell have been working together for more than a year to ensure these new Chromebook Enterprise devices are ready for IT needs. That includes bundling a range of Dell's cloud-based support services that allow admins to have greater control over how these Chromebooks are rolled out inside businesses.

It means IT admins can more easily integrate these Chromebooks into existing Windows environments and manage them through tools like VMware Workspace One. Microsoft and its partners have offered a range of admin tools for years, making it easy to customize and control Windows-based devices. Google has also tweaked its Chrome Admin console to improve load times, add search on every page, and overhaul it with material design elements. Businesses will be able to choose from Dell's 14-inch Latitude 5400 ($699) or the 13-inch Latitude 5300 2-in-1 ($819). Both can be configured with up to Intel's 8th Gen Core i7 processors, up to 32GB of RAM, and even up to 1TB of SSD storage.
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Google and Dell Team Up To Take on Microsoft with Chromebook Enterprise Laptops More

Google and Dell Team Up To Take on Microsoft with Chromebook Enterprise Laptops

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  • The Chromebooks are just as expensive as Windows laptops. The Chromebooks are less capable. Google is even more evil than Microsoft.

    • Crostini (Score:4, Informative)

      by tepples ( 727027 ) <.tepples. .at. .gmail.com.> on Monday August 26, 2019 @10:05AM (#59125706) Homepage Journal

      The Chromebooks are less capable.

      This is true of pre-Crostini Chromebooks, not true of the latest Chromebooks. A modern Chromebook can run web applications, Android applications, and X11/Linux applications. Those with an x86-64 CPU (not an ARMv8 CPU) can also run Win32 applications compatible with Wine [reddit.com]. True, Windows can run a few applications that Wine can't, such as iTunes, but a Chromebook can also run Android applications from Google Play Store, which Windows can't (legally).

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Kagetsuki ( 1620613 )

        I almost exclusively use Linux and not even I'm buying that one. Windows with WSL offers way more than a crippled Linux distro with web apps (that can run on Windows anyway...) and Android Apps on the desktop (can't imagine a single Android app I would find appealing as a desktop app...).

        Sorry, if your only "advantage" is being able to run Android apps but you also have to deal with a crippled Linux experience how is that more appealing than getting a Windows notebook and installing a decent Linux distro on

        • Any series of chrome books has an operations system support lifetime of 6 years. But since models are often sold several years past their inception date, one can easily buy a chrome book that reaches end of life after s few years. It's one thing for a company to have a policy of turning over their computers every 3 years but it's another when you have to be strict on that.

          Google will need to shoulder the hard and money losing work of maintaining older laptops like Microsoft and Apple do.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by mspohr ( 589790 )

            Businesses replace their enterprise laptops every 2-3 years. Only old geezers like me use old laptops.
            (MacBook Air 2010, Asus Chromebook 2012... my daily driver, a few odd Linux laptops)

            • I work for a Fortune 100 company. We have a policy of 4 years minimum. The only exception is if the unit hardware fails past the 3 year warranty and repair will cost more than 30% of a replacement unit. Several people tried switching to iPads but corporate MDM has them locked down so tight you can barely get email on them. I suspect a Chromebook would suffer from the same draconian security issues and be nigh unusable as well.

            • Businesses replace their enterprise laptops every 2-3 years.

              /me sighs theatrically, and flops face-down as if dead on the keyboard of my workstation from 2010

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by Merk42 ( 1906718 )
          Have you used the Linux apps on a Chromebook and compared them to running the same Linux apps in WSL?

      • The Chromebooks are less capable.

        This is true of pre-Crostini Chromebooks, not true of the latest Chromebooks. A modern Chromebook can run web applications, Android applications, and X11/Linux applications. Those with an x86-64 CPU (not an ARMv8 CPU) can also run Win32 applications compatible with Wine [reddit.com]. True, Windows can run a few applications that Wine can't, such as iTunes, but a Chromebook can also run Android applications from Google Play Store, which Windows can't (legally).

        Here's the kicker: Can it produce Office compatible documents that are 100% the same on a Win machine? Not "some fonts may change" or "formatting is a bit different" "can't run that macro" but completely transparent? If not, then I see headaches for companies that try to make a switch.

        • Re:Crostini (Score:5, Informative)

          by mspohr ( 589790 ) on Monday August 26, 2019 @10:57AM (#59126008)

          I've had much better luck in producing documents which are the same on LibreOffice/OpenOffice than on MS Word which munges things up a lot with different versions (and sometime fails to render completely).

          • But you should know how it goes. There is going to be that one feature in LibreOffice that doesn't work as well as office. Because of this slight inconvenience it will be justification for the company to dump the product and go all with MS office, even though it may have far more problems, but it is the business standard, and follows "Best Practices"
             

          • Word is easy. Excel is harder. Excel users expect macro-driven workbooks to just work, such as the product feed prevalidation workbook that Amazon offers to sellers on its platform.

            • Chrome OS does have Microsoft Office available. It works more less well and Gsuite is way easier to work with than Windows In-Tune.

              That said, ChromeOS has the same problem as Apple in that is doesn't like to play well with others. Browser something as simple as file shares on a server with ChromeOS is more difficult as it is geared far more towards cloud storage.

              Policies apply so much quicker with Gsuite, it makes me hate GPOs which often require rebooting to take full effect.

              As someone currently working

              • File shares work well for me?

                From the FAQ:

                Since Chrome 71, SMB is now natively supported by Chrome OS and this Chrome extension/app is deprecated. The new implementation is an order magnitude or two faster and much more reliable.

                On Chrome 71 or higher you can:

                Open the files app
                Click the "three dot menu" in the top right
                Choose "Add New Service"
                Choose "SMB file share"

                • Yes, functionality has much improved. I don't see a way yet at least to make automated home drives pointed at file shares. I am however only dealing with GSuite in the education sector so there may very well be new features. I welcome new additions if they support existing enterprise standards.

        • Can it produce Office compatible documents that are 100% the same on a Win machine?

          The short answer is "no".

          Even on a Windows PC just switching between the various desktop versions of Word and the hideous online cancer of O365 won't produce fully-compatible documents.

          Spaces come and go, formatting may look the same but it's not, bulleting is still a mess after 30 years, TOCs mysteriously get mangled, document tracking is shaky and suspect, and some really spooky 'hidden' formatting issues will appear (or stubbornly hide, as the case may be).

          Remember the 'character that can't be deleted' b

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by msevior ( 145103 )

          OpenOffice still sucks for Maths. Word is much better. This is a killer for me. I have to write Physics exams and share them with my colleagues. OO is not good enough.

          • Ever tried LaTeX for your formula-heavy documents? It's not just for GLoVeS anymore.

            • I really like LaTeX, and I use it for a lot of stuff that I do.

              The only real downside is that many other people don't want to use it, which clearly makes collaboration more difficult. And the lack of convenient track changes. I've tried Overleaf (which requires payment to track changes for longer than a day or so, in addition to storing my documents on someone else's server); I've tried pasting into a .doc file. Both work, but are not terribly user-friendly.

              But for nice-looking documents, references, for

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by tepples ( 727027 )

                Any Git remote can track changes to LaTeX files or any other text file. TRWTF is the lack of willingness among many in the field to learn tools for the job that respect their freedom.

        • Office is getting less and less relevant these days. Excel is the big one that still matters the most.

      • True, Windows can run a few applications that Wine can't, such as iTunes,

        In this case it's a feature, not a bug!

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by mspohr ( 589790 )

          Of course, don't forget all of the Windows vulnerabilities causing crippling outages... they seem to run quite well and lots of different Windows versions.

        • Say someone owns an iPhone SE and buys a Chromebook to replace a laptop running Windows 7 once extended support for Windows 7 ends this January. She wants to continue to add music in MP3 and/or M4A formats to her phone. Some of this music is not available on an Apple Music subscription, such as a recording of a relative's piano performance. I was told that playing music not added through iTunes using a player app from the App Store instead of the built-in Music app. If so, which app is any good?

          • The problem is buying an iPhone in the first place. About just any non-Apple phone or music player doesn't need a specific application to transfer music to and from.

            When you get an iPhone, assume the consequences of the walled garden.

            But that being said, I guess there must be Linux applications to handle the iPhone, isn't it?

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by tepples ( 727027 )

              The problem is buying an iPhone in the first place.

              She received it as a gift.

              I guess there must be Linux applications to handle the iPhone, isn't it?

              I was under the impression that these worked only with older iOS versions, as newer versions obfuscate the music database.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Targon ( 17348 )

        Web applications....yea, and that's the problem. Not everyone wants to be tied to being online, especially in areas where Internet connectivity isn't very reliable. Linux is a good choice for those who are technical enough to handle problems(and have another device to go online to get answers), but again, the whole idea of your OS being a glorified web browser doesn't appeal to everyone. If you need to hack the OS to be able to run full Android apps, or to install WINE, that is also a problem for tryi

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Bert64 ( 520050 )

      For corporate use, they are more secure and being less capable doesn't matter so long as they can satisfy the usage requirements of the corporation. In many cases, just having a recent web browser is sufficient for a corporate user.

    • Maybe the performance of Chromebooks will improve [elinfor.com].

  • The best of BOTH worlds! (Score:5, Funny)

    by mandark1967 ( 630856 ) on Monday August 26, 2019 @10:04AM (#59125692) Homepage Journal
    Chromebook slow-ass performance + 3000 Bloatware applications installed!

  • Why not a Linux version of this? (Score:3)

    by rklrkl ( 554527 ) on Monday August 26, 2019 @10:06AM (#59125714) Homepage

    It seems a wasted opportunity not to do an actual Linux version of this - Dell only do high end/expensive XPS Linux models and seem to aim them strictly at developers.

    I would love to get an affordable Dell laptop or desktop with Linux pre-installed - if it needed to be aimed at businesses, then put an LTS distro on it (Ubuntu, CentOS, openSUSE). I guess you wouldn't have the might of Google to support it though (but it would be great if Google did help out in some way).

    If Dell is reading this, at least put your ChromeOS models on the same page as the Windows equivalents and not tucked away somewhere else like your XPS Linux models are!

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by bjwest ( 14070 )

      I would love to get an affordable Dell laptop or desktop with Linux pre-installed...

      Why must it be pre-installed with Linux? It's trivial these days to install Linux, and in most cases can be less intense than the initial setup of Windows. If you spend as little as fifteen minutes researching laptops or desktops to get one that has Linux friendly hardware, you will be just fine. Most distributions are pretty much boot-and-go installs these days -- you just have to choose a username, password, computer name and, if you're connecting via WiFi, choose that and enter the correct password an

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by rklrkl ( 554527 )

        Having Linux pre-installed means the company will actually support that Linux install, includimg making sure that drivers for all the hardware works. This might not be too important for home users, but it's pretty crucial for businesses.

        At the very least (if rhey don't pre-install), Dell should test their desktop/laptop hardware with a couple of (different families of) Linux distros and cerify that the hardware works with Linux - I feel a penguin certification logo coming on. Bonus points for adjusting comp

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by bjwest ( 14070 )
          Sounds reasonable. I was thinking of home users in my comment, and I don't see why Dell doesn't certify their systems as Linux compatible, unless they use different hardware in the same models for some reason. It seems like something that would be trivial, and cost less than an hours time per model.
          • If they tested the Linux install as completely as they test a Win10 image it would take a few weeks, more if problems surface. They should still do it, the cost isn't that much.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Bert64 ( 520050 )

            unless they use different hardware in the same models for some reason

            This is exactly what happens, at least in consumer models.. They specify a base level functionality but the actual chipset used can vary - eg wifi cards, they will specify an 802.11ac card but you might get intel, atheros, broadcom etc chipset depending on which was cheapest at the time of manufacture. Some of these chipsets work well with linux, some do not.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

          Having Linux pre-installed means the company will actually support that Linux install, includimg making sure that drivers for all the hardware works. This might not be too important for home users, but it's pretty crucial for businesses.

          At the very least (if rhey don't pre-install), Dell should test their desktop/laptop hardware with a couple of (different families of) Linux distros and cerify that the hardware works with Linux - I feel a penguin certification logo coming on. Bonus points for adjusting comp

    • Yeah they might sell *tens* of preinstalled Linux Chromebooks.

      • One reason your prediction is probably correct is that due to the way the consumer PC business works, the Windows version will likely cost less, oddly enough. All the shovelware that comes on a typical PC actually helps pay for the hardware.
    • I haven't encountered a Dell computer that doesn't work perfectly with Linux.
  • Is there any way to make any of these run photoshop? What I need is a laptop the size of a Chromebook but that can run Photoshop which means it needs 16 gigs comfortably. Anyone know of anything?
      • Uh, the last time I saw a Chrome it was $299. The cheapest laptop I see in this search is $599! You're out of touch my friend. I'm looking for something less than $400.

        • So you'll pay for Photoshop but not some decent hardware to take advantage of?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by bjwest ( 14070 )
          Do you want cheep or do you want to run Photoshop on a laptop? I don't think you can have both and do the latter efficiently, especially on a sub $400 laptop. If you need it for your work/studies then don't skimp out. Buy what you need to do the job. It will pay off in the long run.
      • And you don't think I did this very google search? Seriously..

    • Is there any way to make any of these run photoshop?

      Are you actually paying for Photoshop? Didn't think so.

    • Is there any way to make any of these run photoshop? What I need is a laptop the size of a Chromebook but that can run Photoshop which means it needs 16 gigs comfortably. Anyone know of anything?

      I've moved on. Affinity Photo. Buy it once. It's yours to use. It's an easy decision to invest a little time in order to stop giving Adobe $50/month.

      • I have kids who want to work in the industry some day. They need to learn to use photoshop. And this is for hand drawing, not photo editing.

  • Office? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by chill ( 34294 ) on Monday August 26, 2019 @10:17AM (#59125750) Journal

    If a company has standardized on Office 365 and not Google Docs, then this isn't going to help. The problem is the web versions of Word, Excel, and Power Point are almost, but not quite totally useless. Compared to Google's versions, they're a joke. To do any real work you'll need to open the desktop applications -- which aren't available for Chromebooks.

    Microsoft does this on purpose. If their web office suite was good enough for anything really useful, people would be able to just use that and Chromebooks would be very viable in an Office environment, and there wouldn't be any need for Windows in business environments.

    • Microsoft does this on purpose. If their web office suite was good enough for anything really useful, people would be able to just use that and Chromebooks would be very viable in an Office environment, and there wouldn't be any need for Windows in business environments.

      They alongside IBM, were doing this back in the DOS days as well. "You'll never be fired for buying IBM, and buying a non IBM/DOS machine means you won't be able to bring home work from the office, even if you don't work in an office. So stop buying Amigas and Atari ST's!"

    • This product line is really targeted at enterprises on the G Suite train already. There are tons of corporate drones (like me, I guess) who use a business laptop to send/receive length emails that would be hard to type on a phone, browse the web (to do legal research, like me), and do word processing (like me). Maybe I'll chat.

      From an enterprise standpoint, it's a PITA to maintain and update Windows laptops. Chromebooks automatically update their OS and apps. You can lock down apps to prevent stupid viruses

  • Is that companies will be forced to update their old IE-only webpages, but there is a risk that they will become Chrome only pages. Too bad Mozilla has told the enterprise they are not a priority [slashdot.org]. A Firefox equivalent of the Chromebook is really needed.
    • Six months later, they started doing ESR releases (Jan 2012). The sentiment described in the article mostly regards the move to a rapid release schedule (Apr 2011, FF5 came out in June).
      • They also provide policy templates for administration via GPO, which is a relatively recent development (2018)
  • I used to be, if not a supporter, at least neutral about Google. These days they have nothing much to envy MS when it comes to being obnoxious and evil.

  • 2020 perhaps?

    Google really need to have a good long think about EOL'ing hardware after 2-3 years especially if they want to compete against the debacle that is Windows 10. Comnpanies want to get 4+ years out of their IT putchases. If Google (and other chromebook makers) can't support their kit for 5 or 6 years then they might as well give up now.
     

    • The end of life will probably be sometime in 2024-2025 if they used one of the newer hardware platforms.

      https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/6220366?hl=en [google.com]

      "Google provides each new hardware platform with 6.5 years of Auto Update support. Multiple devices can share the same hardware platform. The 6.5 years starts when the first device on the platform is released."

  • What the heck can you run on a Chromebook that would require/take advantage of an i7? My experience with CBs is pretty limited, but web apps don't really care what proc you have, and I can't imagine Android apps need that kind of horsepower. The 5400's a nice laptop, but just seems like expensive overkill for this application.

    I assume the whole point of getting Chromebooks in the enterprise is to save money, why aren't they using a $300-400 laptop?
    • Normally, for an enterprise scale customer they need something that's manageable and reliable. They don't just buy hardware and hand it out like you'd find in a Best Buy. It's imaged to a specific corporate image, joined to a DC, and so on. Maybe the enterprise Chromebooks are built with this in mind.
      • Sure, but manageability doesn't require high-end, or even middle-tier, hardware. I've worked in enterprise IT for a couple decades, there's no reason they couldn't design a fairly cheap, manageable laptop. To be fair, it looks like the Chrome 5400 is significantly cheaper than the Windows version, so they are seeing some savings. Still, $700 for a chromebook seems kinda nuts.

      • "enterprise scale customer"
        WTF does that even mean? What does that require a i7 for? Email, O365?

  • These laptops may suck but they won't be as obnoxious and limiting as a Chromebook.

    I looked at a friend's Chromebook recently and was amazed at all the stuff it couldn't do. It looks like a laptop, but it ain't a laptop.

    A low price is the only saving grace of a Chromebook but the tradeoffs are significant.

    Chromebooks: "Welcome to the Chromebook experience, where you can have it our way. The end, period, now shut the fuck up and give us all your data."

  • Google can't even make the Android version of Google Earth feature-comparable with the actual desktop version.

    You think anything else the Chromebook is going to run is going to be Enterprise-grade?

    Does Linux on a Chromebook have GPU acceleration yet?

    Dell is smoking crack. Google doubly-so.

  • Repeat after me: no one wants Chromebooks. Even basic tasks are infuriating at best on one. The end.

  • I'm IT manager in my office and an older guy who is not very IT savvy asked me to setup a new laptop for his wife. When I saw it was a Chromebook, I explained that it does not have Windows on it and the applications are all hosted on Google and you need internet to access them. He was shocked and returned it. It was $72.

  • You know, the spyware they call Windows 10.

    You can't use it unless it phones home. And you can trust Microsoft to be honest and above board and not do anything that would compromise your privacy. So Chromebooks infected by Microsoft will be just as safe and secure.

    I have a friend who is a Nigerian Prince. Would you like to meet him?

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