Chrome OS to start running Android Apps

honestly I don't see the point, sure its cool, but i don't have a need to run phone apps on my laptop or desktop
 
That's actually good news. It could make convertible Chrome OS tablets more appealing.

I don't want a Chrome OS laptop, but it seems many people do. I have an Android tablet (and BT keyboard), but it would be nicer if it were running a version of Chrome OS capable of running Android apps.
 
fss69 said:
Microsoft has made some changes to make Windows cheaper for OEMs like "Windows with Bing" and and free licenses for tablets under 9 inches. But this is going to light even more of a fire underneath them.
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What interesting about this is this how much supposedly everyone hates Windows 8 and the concept of adding mobile apps to a keyboard and mouse driven machine and flat design. And yet the ideas are being copied by others. I agree with it the idea wholeheartedly though even though I think ChromeOS is kind of useless.

I do agree with you though, it does put some more pressure on Microsoft to get the hybrid design cleaned up. It will be interesting to see how well this turns out. There are some Android desktop devices out now and they all have some serious issues with a lot of apps that don't play nicely with keyboard and mice and landscape only mode. But plenty do, even when running on a Windows desktop with something like BlueStacks.
 
In the keynote, they stated they "ported" the app to run on chrome. Does that mean each specific app would need to be modified or you'll literally be able to dump an apk over to a chrome os machine?
 
heatlesssun said:
What interesting about this is this how much supposedly everyone hates Windows 8 and the concept of adding mobile apps to a keyboard and mouse driven machine and flat design. And yet the ideas are being copied by others. I agree with it the idea wholeheartedly though even though I think ChromeOS is kind of useless.
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Well, no. The biggest criticism of 8 isn't that you can run mobile apps on it, rather it's the interface MS chose to implement. Of course, you know this.

That said, ChromeOS is largely useless...for folks like you and me. However, I'm seeing it more and more in schools; cheap laptops that have access to basic word processing / presentation / spreadsheets + web stuff is attractive to those trying to get connected, and who have grant moneys. This is a pretty easy sale right now with Common Core rolling out. It's also starting to show up with my elderly customers, which I found a bit surprising.

I might even consider it if they ever get a decent RDP client that can handled RemoteApps.
 
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XOR != OR said:
Well, no. The biggest criticism of 8 isn't that you can run mobile apps on it, rather it's the interface MS chose to implement. Of course, you know this.
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There has been more than one person who has decried running mobile apps on a desktop with the argument that the functionally of these apps tends to be limited compared to desktop apps. And many have made the argument that no matter how a hybrid UI is implemented, the very essence of combing touch and mouse and keyboard driven elements compromises both. I do agree that Microsoft execution has much to do with Windows 8 acceptance problems however. But even as user complaints and issues have been addressed, 8.1 Update 1 is generally consider more keyboard and mouse friendly than 8.0 RTM, many still don't think that hybrid UI OSes are viable.

XOR != OR said:
That said, ChromeOS is largely useless...for folks like you and me. However, I'm seeing it more and more in schools; cheap laptops that have access to basic word processing / presentation / spreadsheets + web stuff is attractive to those trying to get connected, and who have grant moneys. This is a pretty easy sale right now with Common Core rolling out. It's also starting to show up with my elderly customers, which I found a bit surprising.

I might even consider it if they ever get a decent RDP client that can handled RemoteApps.
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While I know that Chromebooks are being adopted, to date I would hardly call them successful. As was, Chromebooks just weren't gaining any kind of real traction and the addition of Android Apps certainly was in part to address this. We'll see how this implementation stacks up to Windows 8/9.
 
heatlesssun said:
There has been more than one person who has decried running mobile apps on a desktop with the argument that the functionally of these apps tends to be limited compared to desktop apps. And many have made the argument that no matter how a hybrid UI is implemented, the very essence of combing touch and mouse and keyboard driven elements compromises both. I do agree that Microsoft execution has much to do with Windows 8 acceptance problems however. But even as user complaints and issues have been addressed, 8.1 Update 1 is generally consider more keyboard and mouse friendly than 8.0 RTM, many still don't think that hybrid UI OSes are viable.
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Oh? "More than one" does not equate to "everyone". I'm sure there are folks out there that will bust MS's balls for anything they do, but most folks just wants to get on with what they're doing. Far and away, the largest criticism of 8 has been the UI choices that MS tried to ram down everyone's throats, not the decision to include the capability to run mobile software. Additional features are always a "Good Thing™", assuming they're treated as optional and not requirements ( which is where the backlash against the UI comes from ).

While I know that Chromebooks are being adopted, to date I would hardly call them successful. As was, Chromebooks just weren't gaining any kind of real traction and the addition of Android Apps certainly was in part to address this. We'll see how this implementation stacks up to Windows 8/9.
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Success is in the eyes of the beholder. You, for instance, consider any windows OS that beats desktop linux installs a "success".

I don't know google's short term goals for ChromeOS, but I'd say roping in the education market is a huge first step: http://gigaom.com/2013/10/03/1-in-5-u-s-school-districts-now-using-chromebooks-says-google-vp/.
 
XOR != OR said:
Oh? "More than one" does not equate to "everyone". I'm sure there are folks out there that will bust MS's balls for anything they do, but most folks just wants to get on with what they're doing. Far and away, the largest criticism of 8 has been the UI choices that MS tried to ram down everyone's throats, not the decision to include the capability to run mobile software. Additional features are always a "Good Thing™", assuming they're treated as optional and not requirements ( which is where the backlash against the UI comes from ).
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But those that most harshly criticize the Windows 8.x UI seem to be the ones that most discount running mobile apps on a desktop/laptop. I readily admit issues with the UI especially with familiarity. However in it's current state in 8.1 Update, it's considerably better than when released. Indeed I'm about to retire my last personal Windows 7 machine, my sig rig as with this latest update, I think it works better with multiple independent monitors than 7.

XOR != OR said:
Success is in the eyes of the beholder. You, for instance, consider any windows OS that beats desktop linux installs a "success".
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Well how does one define the success or failure of a version of Windows? Compared to 7, sure one can call Windows 8 a failure. However 8.x now has about 50% more market share than all other desktop OSes combined, including ChromeOS, not called Windows. That's a failure that most could live with, considering all of the changes that were made in 8 and where the issues will probably get worked out as they have in prior major changes to Windows.

XOR != OR said:
I don't know google's short term goals for ChromeOS, but I'd say roping in the education market is a huge first step: http://gigaom.com/2013/10/03/1-in-5-u-s-school-districts-now-using-chromebooks-says-google-vp/.
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Chromebooks have had a cost advantage, however since this article was written there have been some major cost reductions with Windows and it's hardware.
 
doctah said:
In the keynote, they stated they "ported" the app to run on chrome. Does that mean each specific app would need to be modified or you'll literally be able to dump an apk over to a chrome os machine?
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I think that they might have to tweak an app to make it work on chrome os. The amount of effort needed to port an application will depend on type of application, how it was designed and implemented. There are most likely more factors than I envision now.

That being said, there might be an app that does not require code changes to be ported to Chrome OS and there might be an app very difficult to port. In such cases, source code probably must be branched to make it work on Chrome OS.

There were many platforms implemented that promised multiplatform compatibility and the results were not 100%.

That is my opinion though.
 
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heatlesssun said:
But those that most harshly criticize the Windows 8.x UI seem to be the ones that most discount running mobile apps on a desktop/laptop.
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Really? Can you give me some links that show this? I've only seen a handful of complaints about that functionality in windows.

Of course, the cynic in me can't help but wonder why you are trying to falsely associate two otherwise distinct and separate issues.
 
XOR != OR said:
Really? Can you give me some links that show this? I've only seen a handful of complaints about that functionality in windows.

Of course, the cynic in me can't help but wonder why you are trying to falsely associate two otherwise distinct and separate issues.
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I've lost count of the number of times I've seen people complain about default programs. Windows 8 didn't do it right b default, modern apps were always set as the defaults regards of the form factor. 8.1 fixed that issue for the most part in that the classic desktop apps are set as the defaults when a installed on a device with a mouse and keyboard and modern apps on a device with only touch.

Understand that I agree that the UI relative to desktop users is the biggest issue for 8.x and indeed it's pretty obvious that Microsoft agrees as well. However, there were still a lot of complaints for people saying that tablet apps didn't belong on a desktop but never made mention that default programs in Windows have always been user selectable. On a Windows desktop one can use only desktop apps and on a Windows tablet one can use only modern apps. This is unique to Windows 8.x and it's not particularly well understood even now. The way it works in 8.1 is how it should have worked from the beginning no doubt. But understand that what a lot of what people have called force is merely a simple option that they simply didn't know about.
 
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