Schools Are Turning Old PCs Into Speedy Chromebooks

[Megalith]

Chromebooks have been a great success in the education sector. Startups like Neverware, which offer software that allows Chromium to work on old PCs, have made Google’s OS more practical than ever for classrooms.

…Davenport’s repository consisted of eight- to 10-year-old Dell desktops and laptops he had robbed of RAM and other components to help speed up or repair machines used by teachers. "We are left with these mismatched parts." And yet, when he set the machines up to run Neverware’s Cloud Ready version of Chromium, they outperformed newer Windows machines the school was using. "If you are comparing what we used to run, Chrome and Neverware is a better experience for the end user."

 

[westrock2000]

Neverware’s early partners praised the service, but the rapid rise of Chromebooks undercut its offering. True, schools were embracing Neverware’s approach — lightweight machines supported mostly through the cloud — but the startup was no match for the pricing and support Google could offer, much less its suite of educational apps and management tools. "We knew we had to adapt or die," says Hefter. And so the team changed its strategy. It still focused on taking old machines and refurbishing them as cloud-connected computers, but it would put Google’s Chrome operating system at the center of its business.

Google and its hardware partners like Lenovo, Acer, and Intel, are the only companies authorized to sell official "Chromebooks." But Google maintains an open-source version of its operating system called Chromium, that it encourages developers to build on. Neverware spent 10 months developing a version of Chromium that could handle Google’s newest apps, but would run on drivers from dozens of older, commonly used Windows PCs.

The result was CloudReady, software which Neverware now sells to schools, charging $59 for a lifetime license or $25 per year for schools not ready to commit. Hefter says Neverware has deployments at 250 school districts so far, with hundreds more currently trialling the software. The machines may not technically be "Chromebooks™," but for schools, they function just like them, and the educators and IT staff all used that name.

I like the pictures in the article of a shitload of a Acer C720P's.....the workhorse of Chromebooks. It's not pretty, but mine is a trooper.

 

[Yakk]

While I hate the idea of having Google in all the classrooms, the Chromebooks do work well with schools. Apple is going to regret pulling out of schools in a decade's time...

 

[heatlesssun]

While I hate the idea of having Google in all the classrooms, the Chromebooks do work well with schools. Apple is going to regret pulling out of schools in a decade's time...

Apple made a conscious decision to pull out of schools? I think this is just a matter of economics and Chromebooks are cheap.

 

[Exavior]

If anyone is gong to regret anything it is probably Microsoft for not trying to stop this. In the long run they are the ones that are going to hurt the most from this. This could very well kill off Office in another 5 - 10 years. One thing that really helped there was that kids coming out of school used Office so they knew office. Now if everyone coming out of school only knows Google's OS and only knows Google's Office product, that is what they are going to want to use and be the best at using. So the office environment is going to shift away from Microsoft products to Google to accommodate the newer work force coming in.

 

[heatlesssun]

If anyone is gong to regret anything it is probably Microsoft for not trying to stop this. In the long run they are the ones that are going to hurt the most from this. This could very well kill off Office in another 5 - 10 years. One thing that really helped there was that kids coming out of school used Office so they knew office. Now if everyone coming out of school only knows Google's OS and only knows Google's Office product, that is what they are going to want to use and be the best at using. So the office environment is going to shift away from Microsoft products to Google to accommodate the newer work force coming in.

There's a web version of Office that's as good or even better than Google Docs. Microsoft makes its mistakes but its been very smart about Office. And we're talking about basically reviving ancient hardware that's good for some things but that lacks much of what todays is all about. Mobile, touch, etc. Windows 10 at least in modern terms runs well on cheap and lower powered hardware. Not to the extent that Chrome OS does but if Chrome OS does become a real threat, and right now it really only appears to be a threat at the lowest of the low end, there are options. Like a web browser only OS, that's something that Microsoft could deliver if it had to.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

It would seem to me that a full features Linux install would still be speedy on older rigs, and work well for education without limiting them to a ChromeOS machine...

 

[Yakk]

Apple made a conscious decision to pull out of schools? I think this is just a matter of economics and Chromebooks are cheap.

Apple could've continued their push into schools with "Education" versions of their hardware and software to schools at a reduced rate easily to solidify their future sales. Similar to what they did decades ago and have been reaping the massive benefits for the last few years as those kids grew up wanting to buy what they used. They chose not to renew thier working with schools and will have to live with the fallout of that.

 

[DeathFromBelow]

Apple could've continued their push into schools with "Education" versions of their hardware and software to schools at a reduced rate easily to solidify their future sales. Similar to what they did decades ago and have been reaping the massive benefits for the last few years as those kids grew up wanting to buy what they used. They chose not to renew thier working with schools and will have to live with the fallout of that.

I don't think it has that much impact. Home computers have been widespread since the 90s, kids aren't going to grow up wanting Apple machines from playing Oregon Trail a few times at school.

 

[Exavior]

There's a web version of Office that's as good or even better than Google Docs. Microsoft makes its mistakes but its been very smart about Office. And we're talking about basically reviving ancient hardware that's good for some things but that lacks much of what todays is all about. Mobile, touch, etc. Windows 10 at least in modern terms runs well on cheap and lower powered hardware. Not to the extent that Chrome OS does but if Chrome OS does become a real threat, and right now it really only appears to be a threat at the lowest of the low end, there are options. Like a web browser only OS, that's something that Microsoft could deliver if it had to.

I don't disagree about the web version of office. My comment was just that all schools going in this direction of using Google for everything can hurt Microsoft more that it can hurt Apple. I bought a year subscription to Office 365 so that I could have a copy for myself and then give my sister and nephews copies for all their devices thinking they could use it for school work. However they are forced into using Google Docs for school work which the entire school district is which means that I wasted money buying them Office as they will never be able to use it period. So from grades K up to 12 they are only allowed to use Google docs and will only use google docs, with the previous classes that taught you how to use Microsoft Office better now teaching how to use Google Docs. Teachers have to use Google docs to assign homework and do lectures on snow days for kids to go and do work from home so that they don't have to make up snow days any more (same would apply for fog, cold or any other reason they would cancel school). So right there is the school using only Google and dropping Microsoft Office completely. They aren't the only place doing this, this is becoming more and more wide spread. Now after 13 years of using google docs only these kinds won't care if Microsoft Office is better. They will have been brought up on Google and just be use to it. Which means that when they get to college who knows how many of those will have switched over to a similar system since that is what students are use to. Then you have these people getting into the work force, they have already been working in Google docs their entire life and are use to how it works and have their files there so will try to keep with the software. Which companies won't care if they don't use any special function in Office as why spend money if your employee wants to use free software.

I know that is a bit of a the sky is falling case, however if looking at who directly could be hurt by schools switching over to Google everything my point is just that it is Microsoft not Apple. Sure Apple might be kicking themselves for not having been the one they moved to. But that is only loss possible income. Where as that is taking shares away from Microsoft who would be directly losing money then. So this choice is going to chip away at Microsoft Office's dominance over the next 5 - 10 year if this trend of moving away from office is kept up in schools to that point that there could be a major shift in what is used in businesses compared to what is used now.

 

[DPI]

It would seem to me that a full features Linux install would still be speedy on older rigs, and work well for education without limiting them to a ChromeOS machine...

Except more management headache with a Linux install. Chrome OS is dead simple to manage.

 

[rat]

I like the pictures in the article of a shitload of a Acer C720P's.....the workhorse of Chromebooks. It's not pretty, but mine is a trooper.

Mine's the 710. Served me well for 3 years. I'd still be using it if I didn't find a good deal on a fanless quadcore netbook.

 

[heatlesssun]

So this choice is going to chip away at Microsoft Office's dominance over the next 5 - 10 year if this trend of moving away from office is kept up in schools to that point that there could be a major shift in what is used in businesses compared to what is used now.

Chip away at the low end sure. But Office still dominates business and has a ton of capability that Docs lacks. Like OneNote. Microsoft has been pushing OneNote hard in the education space with a number of collaborative functions focused on education. Anything is possible but Office is well positioned at every front, from the web to mobile to desktop and has tons of extensibility capabilities that are also well positioned from web to the desktop. Google Docs is going to need a LOT more capability before it's more than the thing one uses because it's cheap.

 

[grtitan]

Awesome work, the next couple of generations will indeed be ready with Google Docs.

Its time to finally get rid of the damn microcrap monopoly, regardless of the established shills they have placed here on 24 hours watch.

 

[Sp33dFr33k]

Not familiar at all with Chromium OS but it would be nice if this could be done without the third party software. I'd run it on old systems if you could just buy it from Google.

 

[heatlesssun]

Awesome work, the next couple of generations will indeed be ready with Google Docs.

Its time to finally get rid of the damn microcrap monopoly, regardless of the established shills they have placed here on 24 hours watch.

Office is an extremely powerful platform. And the argument goes that most people don't need all of that functionally. Which is a fair statement until you do. Goggle Docs can handle low end needs fine. Such options have long existed in open source alternatives. And they simply aren't as good as Office overall. Call whomever you want a shill, that doesn't change the reality. Office might be the best thing Microsoft does. It's top notch, feature packed and ubiquitous especially in business. To effectively compete with it requires a great deal more than what Google Docs or anyone else currently offers.