Chromebook Shipments Up 67%
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@Carnival-Boy said:
I think Chromebooks for business are great because they are low maintenance and the lack of features and applications can actually be a positive - particularly in terms of security. Whereas at home, it's nice to have access to dodgy software and games.
I agree, it is business where they are most impressive. It is mostly video game support that keeps them out of homes.
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@thanksaj said:
Yes, but I don't believe you can join a Chromebook to a domain. You obviously can't roll out GPO for it. In an SMB, it might work. However, it would never work in an enterprise.
No you can't. They are completely different types of devices. A domain doesn't make sense in their context. It works fine in an enterprise. AD and GPO are great tools but only necessary when you run Windows. There is no point for them with other products.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
You can't join an iPad to a domain either, yet they're widely used in the enterprise.
And you can still centrally manage them too.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@thanksaj said:
Yes, but I don't believe you can join a Chromebook to a domain. You obviously can't roll out GPO for it. In an SMB, it might work. However, it would never work in an enterprise.
No you can't. They are completely different types of devices. A domain doesn't make sense in their context. It works fine in an enterprise. AD and GPO are great tools but only necessary when you run Windows. There is no point for them with other products.
What about various compliance standards? Restrictions in terms of web browsing, etc.
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@thanksaj said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@thanksaj said:
Yes, but I don't believe you can join a Chromebook to a domain. You obviously can't roll out GPO for it. In an SMB, it might work. However, it would never work in an enterprise.
No you can't. They are completely different types of devices. A domain doesn't make sense in their context. It works fine in an enterprise. AD and GPO are great tools but only necessary when you run Windows. There is no point for them with other products.
What about various compliance standards? Restrictions in terms of web browsing, etc.
Granted, most companies that do that have proxies or filters in place that have nothing to do with the computer, but still...
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@thanksaj said:
What about various compliance standards? Restrictions in terms of web browsing, etc.
You have all that. Why do you associate control of an environment with Windows' tools for controlling Windows? Windows can be restricted and managed separately from those tools. UNIX has always been managed with its own tools. Chromebooks are no different. You use the Google management console to control them.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@thanksaj said:
What about various compliance standards? Restrictions in terms of web browsing, etc.
You have all that. Why do you associate control of an environment with Windows' tools for controlling Windows? Windows can be restricted and managed separately from those tools. UNIX has always been managed with its own tools. Chromebooks are no different. You use the Google management console to control them.
I have never even heard of Google management console. o.O
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@thanksaj said:
Granted, most companies that do that have proxies or filters in place that have nothing to do with the computer, but still...
You are missing the point. AD and GPO are the Windows way to do that and only one way with Windows. They are not the only tool for that and lacking them doesn't imply lacking any capability.
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@thanksaj said:
I have never even heard of Google management console. o.O
It's the Chromebook equivalent of AD. It's how companies manage Chromebooks.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@thanksaj said:
Granted, most companies that do that have proxies or filters in place that have nothing to do with the computer, but still...
You are missing the point. AD and GPO are the Windows way to do that and only one way with Windows. They are not the only tool for that and lacking them doesn't imply lacking any capability.
I was just thinking a lot of businesses would avoid them because that means you now have these other machines you have to manage completely separately and differently than your Windows and Macs. Linux is its own thing and people are fine with that. I just saw having yet another standalone system as inhibiting growth in the business world.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@thanksaj said:
I have never even heard of Google management console. o.O
It's the Chromebook equivalent of AD. It's how companies manage Chromebooks.
Interesting.
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The biggest issues we see with Chromebooks is unless the business is fully chormebook they are a nightmare! Most companies have Windows environments (not all but most) where their files are stored etc. Chromebooks make it difficult to access any of that.
Chromebooks can't print in a way that isn't a huge pain and causes bottlenecks with their cloud print software when you try to print more than 10 pages in the course of a half hour.
For a sales team that never has to print things and does everything online. Doesn't need to have things in a MS Office environment and can do everything via Google docs. Would be fine.
For anything else in business I just don't see how it would work unless they were fully on Chromebooks
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@Minion-Queen, yeah, if a business uses Google Apps, I could see this working really well. However, I could see there being a lot of compatibility issues with a multitude of programs.
Just out of curiosity, are you able to do things like open zip files (extract and open contained files) on a Chromebook?
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Yes you can but it is really convoluted and you have to know what you are doing ie the average user can't do it.
I have only done it once and it took me like 10 minutes to figure it out. When you double click on a zipped file it mounts it. Then you can browse the files and move them to the download folder. Don't try to ever open it in the google drive that gave me a million errors.
The best way I found it to get a 3rd party app in the google play store.
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@Minion-Queen that's why Chromebooks are huge in greenfield projects, but PCs are still big in brownfield ones.
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@thanksaj said:
@Minion-Queen, yeah, if a business uses Google Apps, I could see this working really well. However, I could see there being a lot of compatibility issues with a multitude of programs.
Just out of curiosity, are you able to do things like open zip files (extract and open contained files) on a Chromebook?
Google Apps isn't really the issue at all. It is legacy "non web" apps that are the issue. Google Apps is not actually a factor.
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@thanksaj said:
Just out of curiosity, are you able to do things like open zip files (extract and open contained files) on a Chromebook?
You don't have to, doing so means you are introducing legacy concepts. You don't work with local files on Chromebooks, you do that all on the servers. It's a web browser, you have to rethink end user computing and not carry Windows idioms and challenges over looking for answers. It answers that by changing how you work.
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I wonder how many Chromebook sales are into schools, where low cost is a bigger factor that usability and the user requirements of a 6 year old is a little lower than a 40 year old office worker.
I use them at work, but as an additional device for a specific purpose and not as a replacement to a PC. And I sometimes use them to RDP onto a PC, but that's just using them as a thin-client, which isn't their intended purpose.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
I wonder how many Chromebook sales are into schools...
Rumor is is that that is huge.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
And I sometimes use them to RDP onto a PC, but that's just using them as a thin-client, which isn't their intended purpose.
No but they are great for it. I know big companies looking to use them for their thin client remote use fleets. They can be very practical.
