Retrospect on this entire thread's run time .....I got interested in Chromebooks as they were the best real challenger to MS's dominance of PC laptop space that has come along in a real while now.
Linux, although "better" was never going to do the job because it was too fragmented and would disrupt itself like clockwork every 6 years or so when the community got a case of the shits over something relatively minor. Yeah, pissy boys, but they write good software.
At the start of this thread the Far East wasn't being any help since the hockey stick boys couldn't pull anything much more that a dual core ARM stick out of their butts and even that wasn't supported past the point of sale in any real fashion whatsoever.
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So, what transpired inside two years? Google was amazingly consistent in improving Chrome OS while making zero fuss over doing so. The software now runs off line, runs mainstream MS programs (including MS Office) and has crouton'd all of Linux and all of Android into its envelope.
Meanwhile, MS has floundered its way into releasing Win 10 as a partial "PC only" release. Got lots & lots of promises from MS, but during the progression MS has let their yearly fee thing out of the bag and has gotten (and lost) several various partners along the way.
Intel, taking their 14nm short sword firmly in hand, has committed honorable ritual sepuku with it and is now simply waiting in Data Center Land to finish bleeding out at this time. Or else waiting to heal up and then to pounce yet again -- we shall all see in good time, I suspect.
ARM is in PC space now, firmly entrenched in laptops. Chromebooks were the entry point, but now next year the Win 10 expansion begins as MS Win 10 natively supports various ARM chipsets starting with Qualcomm's 820.
Mediatek is the up and coming one to watch now, as low cost very good products will flow out of Mediatek's focus on low cost and high performance.
Samsung and IBM and Global Foundry and Apple are acting to replace Intel's old spot as technological guru to the computing world.
Samsung is currently building 14nm chipsets for Apple, Qualcomm and themselves. Samsung has a working 10nm line and is working with IBM on the 7nm stuff now as well. I think of Samsung now as a foundry that builds laptops, phones and tablets, just like Intel used to do.
All new products are released in China now, and only come to the USA after a 1 year wait.ARM's next family of products is being developed right along with the lithography/design to make it happen, just like in years past. Since the next lithography isn't cooked yet, ARM is sitting on the chipsets until baking of the lithography/design is completed, run off, sampled and tested.
Google, ARM and LENARO did a beautiful job of taking ARM processors from 32 bit to 64 bit, as there was no fuss or bobbles anywhere in the progression. ARM processors can now support as much memory as needed, and currently there are some 3 and 4 gig systems out there right now. It really isn't needed yet, but it is out there for when the ARM laptops need it starting next year .....
This thread needs to end and a new one needs to be invented, as Chromebooks grew and MS shrank and Win 10's roll out is really a different, separate story -- Win 10 vs MS Classic perhaps ???
The orient now knows how to use an Intel processor, but Intel is tired of giving them away and Intel wants to charge some "profitable" money for them, so that old story is about over as well.
Intel has Chinese business partners that now that have rights to manufacture certain Intel chipsets --- question still becomes are there any Intel Franken-monsters that actually work any better than the lower cost ARM equivalent products that the oriental guys are already building?
(hint: your $$$$ tech dollar fat cat bonanzas $$$$ are all over boys, so go get back to work)
Since all OS products now support all processor types, what really constitutes the best chip/product mix now days ????
And with the advent of the phone/PC what does that do to change the entire environment around the question ???
...... rather completely, huh. TOTALLY no less.
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