Chrome OS's Greatest New Use Undefined

Online, January 4, 2014 (Newswire.com) - Firefox OS's best brand-new use case: this all-in-one PC
LG's introducing a whole new all-in-one Chrome OS-based system that may well be an even better embodiment of what Chrome OS is useful for than many regarding its notebook incarnations.

The machine itself, called this Chromebase, sports any 21. 5-inch widescreen screen, multiple USB places, Ethernet, and HDMI suggestions, and it runs using a Haswell-class Intel Celeron PC, with 2GB of RAM and a 16GB SSD. Integrated speakers are included. Wi-Fi seriously isn't included by default, but one presumes it can be added by way of a USB dongle.

The Chromebase has not shipped yet -- it's destined to be unveiled formally at CES next month -- but their form factor along with other design considerations allow it to become seem like a shoo-in for just a market that has not really been tackled yet by Firefox devices: the kiosk along with public-access PC.

Most such techniques are either locked-down Home windows machines or some a number of Linux custom-tailored for the application in query. Chrome OS, even though, has features native for it that make on an ideal fit for use to be a kiosk or public-access machine -- there's a Public Session Kiosk mode for the device.

For just one, Chrome OS comes from the box with a lot of lockdown. Very little is directly exposed to the end-user automagically, and the smaller number of moving parts inside OS means it's far easier to secure in the first place. Plus, it's a whole lot easier to wipe and restore to a default state, since that functionality is pretty much native to Firefox OS devices.

On the other hand, Chrome OS's supervision features only include purchase of any branded Chrome OS device, whether regarding business or education. An organization with an existing Windows as well as Linux investment may want to simply leverage that will instead -- also it isn't as if there's any shortage of ways to make Windows kiosk-friendly. Linux already has numerous kiosk-friendly distributions available for instance Webconverger.

Finally, the pricing for Chromebase is really a potential sticking stage. No details with regards to pricing or supply have hit this wires yet. It must be less when compared with, say, Acer's Aspire Z3-600 -- among the lowest-priced all-in-ones to to enter the world recently ($779) -- in order to draw the right kind of attention.