• Landless2029@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Since the huge push to SaaS I’ve seen plenty of companies that essentially run thin clients.

    The local workstations are just thier access to login to X website that host thier apps and data.

    Zero reason for them to switch to win11 or buy new hardware due to “incompatibility”.

    These end users can be trained to use mint or Ubuntu and be just as productive at work.

      • Acters@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Funnily enough, this is what a chromebook was made to do. A computer that was only a browser. Unfortunately, the hardware was severely underpowered, and the custom software wasn’t as flexible as a simple Linux desktop is capable of. (Almost no software support outside of Google)

        • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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          8 months ago

          I saw a “gaming Chromebook” for $649 (USD) at the big box electronics and appliance store today.

          At first I was astounded, but it did have a high refresh rate display and some type of GeForce iGPU. Apparently designed around cloud gaming. Which is na interesting use case.

          • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Those gaming Chromebooks are so wild. I saw them for $1000!

            The ones I saw a year ago was bragging about playing mobile games and Google Stadia.

            But like… Why! Why spend that much when the alternatives are so much better?

            • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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              8 months ago

              For the price the specs aren’t terrible.

              Depending on need they can be a very effective device. Keep in mind they can also easily run a lot of android packages and Linux. Some come in tablet form factor with a keyboard folio case…I was looking at the Lenovo Duet for a while but ended up buying a OnePlus Pad recently.

          • kwedd@feddit.nl
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            8 months ago

            If I remember correctly, those actually have Steam with Proton built in.

            • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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              8 months ago

              Stadia has been abandoned for long enough I don’t think it’d be used in marketing.

              This was the description:

              Acer - Chromebook 516 GE Cloud Gaming Laptop - 16" 2560x1600 120Hz - Intel Core i5-1240P - 8GB RAM - 256GB SSD

              Looks like it comes with 3 months of GeForce Now and Amazon Luna.

              I was mistaken about the GeForce iGPU - that placard must’ve been for GeForce Now. It has an Iris Xe.

              I think I saw Xbox Game pass in the marketing too.

              Still, pretty cool idea.

        • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
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          8 months ago

          You can get reasonable Chromebooks and boxes. They just aren’t cheap so they are less popular.

    • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      When web apps took off a decade ago, I was secretly rooting for this.

      OSes shouldnt matter anymore. Everything should funnel through a browser. WASM is already bringing traditional desktop apps to the web. Microsoft and Apple can die in a fire.

      But with the migration, now the fight is to stop Google from owning browsers.