Tablets vs Chromebooks: an unexpected year

I'm a non-programmer, but I hear you on the keyboard issue and you're right - laptop keyboards are a recipe for RSI problems. My HP Chromebook 14 has chiclet keys - easily the worst keyboard style ever. It's better than my HP laptop at work though, which is a very similar build but with slippery, flat, smooth keys. It's like, does anyone at HP actually use these machines to see if they're nice to use?

If you want to plug in peripherals and don't care about portability, there are Chromebox desktops too - I think Acer make them and I recall Bryan saying he had bought one. They look cool to me.

I bought my Chromebook to run Bodhilinux on, since my netbook gave up the ghost (sniff, sniff, loved that machine). But ChromeOS is working basically well enough that I've never gotten around to it. Maybe I should give it a try this weekend - doesn't seem that hard, and the hardware itself is pretty darned good.

I really doubt most users are installing windows or a more traditional linux distro. School districts near me are buying them. Cheap, easy to manage internet portals with google docs.

I wouldn't call laptop keyboards "great". Ever. Anybody ever found one that isn't terrible for programming?

The keyboard I prefer to use on my desktop is smaller than many laptop keyboards:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0036WTWX0/89-Key-Mini-Keyboard

Only thing I really regret is that it only has one CTRL key, but altwin:ctrl_win takes care of that under X11 just fine.

But it would be necessary for the wrist-wrest to be 0.5" lower than the keyboard, which I haven't seen any laptop ever do. That might make the difference between comfortable easy typing, and horrible laptop keyboards...

I also prefer a trackball for faster pointing, which is a similarly good fit for laptops, though sadly haven't seen them on portables since the 486 days. Their pointless and unnecessary demise makes it clear that whatever laptop manufacturers are looking for, it isn't good input devices.

I'm not sure about the technical feasibility of this, but someone really needs to find a way to make a laptop with a mechanical keyboard.

Once you go cherryMX, you never go back...MX.

Case in point. Those silly autocorrect typos don't happen when I have a real KB available.

And yet manufacturers are too stupid yo give it to them

As slim as the margins were, and as high as the return rate was, I'm not so sure it's stupid at all. If they have to price them so they only just barely turn a profit on the line, then it's not worth it for them to make the products you want.

One can't get a tablet or phone with a real keyboard, except maybe those overpriced or crippled MS things.

Most Blackberry phones still have real keyboards, and now they can run Android apps, too. I admit, looking for Android slider phones is depressing and unrewarding.

But I suppose keeping my old phone is for the best, as Google just keeps making it harder and harder to make a phone call on Android. Several additional unintuitive steps needed to add a recent number to the contact list, much more difficult to switch between recent calls, the dialer, and your contacts, and absolutely NO WAY to EDIT your contacts from the dialer... You can create one there, but if you make a mistake, you must switch to a different program entirely. This is a complete regression. [/rant]

I don't get it. The entire market is being handed to Google.

Actually, at least Acer's Chromebooks are just older models of cheap Windows laptops they previously sold. Maybe the Windows tax makes a huge difference in low-end hardware, or maybe Google's mega advertising for a tiny number of products gets them exposure they wouldn't have as low-end Windows laptops.