Google offers incentives to bring XP business users to Chromebooks

Chromebook is far far away from a computer... :)

I don't like Chromebooks either, but if you say it's fine if the guy commits suicide, that's sad.

I don't think he meant literal. Think career suicide.

Dude, I have a feeling that you do not understand what I was saying. :)

I guess I didn't. My bad. Just I hear a lot of comments on the internet who say to people "Go kill yourself".

A chromebook is a dumb terminal not a computer.

One major problem with google and business is their lack of accountability, inflexability and support.  I've seen companies go down with google for days without anyone to turn to except some generic email address. On top of that you have to trust them to continue support of their services.  However, I'd love some google fiber to my home. :)

Is chrome OS any good?

No , !!

Chromebooks can never replace Windows,even RT has better functionality than Chrome OS.

Ditto. RT is kind of an underestimated juggernaut. While you can read bunches of articles that are piggybacking off old information about how the Windows Store lacks apps, it's growth rate is higher than the App Store or Play Store was in the equivalent timeframe and it's developed accordingly... and when I challenge my customers to find parts of their everyday life that can't be done on Windows RT based tablets, the grand majority of the time we find that they can do most anything even when restricted to the confines of Windows RT ChromeOS, on the other hand... the moment any OS has to emulate Windows to become meritable, it proves that it isn't worthy (that goes for Linux and MacOS too).

Thank you! Nice to see a balanced opinion on RT. I love it and very rarely find it lacking. iPad and Android users look at me in evny when I rock out multiple monitors via HDMI, read from USB sticks, open desktop office, switch accounts, etc ...

Put it this way: switching from XP to ChromeOS is still a downgrade.

Omg so true!!

Well Said, VERY well said

Better to stick with XP and the possibility of a security infraction.

Get a virus checker. Every moment using Chrome is a security infraction.

Or upgrade to 7... or 8.

Considering how Microsoft is shitting its pants over it, I'd say it's more than good.

No, they just being proactive. Remember iphone and ipad. They were late then, now they have to be on it, despise the fact that more than twice the amount of surface were sold than chromebooks. Posted via the WPC App for Android!

the original android was shit, but was able to gain traction because it was cheap. MS wants to make sure this forsn't happen again.

Noooooo..... Chromebooks are the worst thing I've ever seen, Besides android..

Hahaha!

Being realistic, Chromebooks are complete shit compared to even Android.    

Indeed. Android is even much, much better when compared to Chrome OS...

It's just that Android is shit and I can confirm that. But I haven't used ChromeOS. But I guess compared to windows XP it's shit.... :P  Besides I'm not sure if ChromeOS is that bad at optimization as Android now ,is it?

lol, no

Its better than windows 95 perhaps. Look at the positive side of things people !
Hahaha

I will concede that chrome is perhaps better than Atari's GEM OS, only because it can connect to the internet, but it falls short in every other way. I hope google crash and burn with chrome OS.

They dont seem to be doing anything else, atleast in India. 99% (not an exaggeration, 1% of 1 billion is 10 million) people here wont even know what a chromebook is.
Funnily enough, the wordflpw keyboard on WP autocorrects "ipad" to "iPad", but it doesn't even know what a chromebook is ! :-P

You can experience chrome OS on win8 by opening chrome and asking it to open in windows 8 mode (yes, that's exactly like the chrome OS). You wont ever think of buying a chromebook after that !

Exactly. Horrible experience...

The people who re-discovered the Lomo LC-A and founded the Lomographic Society were from Vienna (Austria), not from Vietnam, as stated in your article 

No. It's like a Mobile OS on a desktop.. And NOT in a Microsoft type of way.

Don't Chromebooks need internet to do anything? This would be terrible for anyone who wants to work on the go. Internet required PCs. And people thought internet required gaming consoles would be bad.

This is not the forum to ask that question, and expect to get an impartial answer from anyone...

Lol that's what I was thinking. Wrong place to ask that question.
I will say this... My friend that is a big android /google guy doesn't use chrome books...

Just watch the ad Microsoft did with Pawn Stars. Tells it like it is.

I personally like Chromebooks (I own 2).. Many may disagree, but I think they've come a long way and actually fit the needs of many people. Definitely not for everyone though, especially he power user.. Which I'm sure most people in here are -- I look at them the same way some look at Windows phone. -- the under dog, the OS with potential that many people over look. Just my opinion guys.

I've never used a Chromebook. But what I think you're saying is: 1.Chromebooks are not good for power users. 2.Chromebooks are not better than Windows PC/Laptop/Tablets, even when they are connected to the internet. 3.There is no cost savings over a Windows device. (Ok, you didn't say this one, but I did some research, and this is what I found) I think I missed your "up side" point. Can you explain why you still bought two of them, even though I can't seem to find an up side? What am I missing? What I really want someone to tell me is: What can a Chromebook do that a Windows device can't? ... and don't say mine my data to benefit Google's bottom line. Contrary to popular belief, that's NOT an up side. ... and why would an enterprise what one of these over a Windows device?

Or over a windows phone device ;)
IMO windows phone is much more powerful than chromebooks. Takers ?

Replace 'chrome' with 'browser', you get a browser OS.  It will be awesome system for companies that employees only like to surf web or facebook ... ;) ..

I don't even think Chromebooks are a bad idea, they definitely make sense in certain situations, but they would be nothing but $200 paperweights for businesses.

No they dont make sense, win8 RT is better than that, and costs almost that much only.

Well, WinRT are no use for business neither.

For absolutely every situation that a Chromebook or a mobile OS is suitable, RT is preferred. There is no point in RT if in fact full Windows 8 is an option, I agree, but if you want the closest possible thing to full Windows in a cheap and light package, you can go for RT (in theory).   It's got Office and great peripheral support. Hell, I connected a Samsung printer to my Surface RT through its full USB port and the thing got installed instantly and printed out the receipt I was trying to print, to the amazement of my colleagues.

But what you have just described is no use for enterprises if they want to run their legacy apps on it. These are just prerequisites to even consider it as a possible variant. But we are talking about XPs, so we are talking about desktops. What the hell they would be doing with the RT tablets in offices, where they are using their PCs right now, even if they were capable to run their apps? :D

I didn't mean RT is suitable as XP replacement. I was saying if someone thinks a Chromebook can do the trick, it's idiotic to not choose something like RT over Chrome. You can be sure that RT handles business MUCH better than Chrome.

Well, same question as to why should businesses should use an iPad? It does not run OSX apps. If a business can find a way of using an iPad for business, which has less features than Windows 8 or Windows RT, then they can easily find the use for RT products.

Well I would say they're two fairly equal OS's, and choosing between either would depend on the user. On Chrome OS, Chrome is the only available browser. On Windows RT, Internet Explorer is the only available browser. Seeing as how these devices are probably used around 90% of the time for internet browsing, it depends on whether you prefer IE or Chrome. Personally, as a Chrome user on Windows 8, I would probably pick the Chromebook seeing as how Chrome is the browser that I'm most accustomed to.

Lol. One OS has a browser, the other OS _IS_ a browser. So they are in fact completely different. Of course if you reduce a complete OS to its browser, than i can understand your argument. However i am using the Surface 2 for much more than just web browsing as it is a full featured Windows System.

Google has succeeded here in a very weird way indeed. The thing connecting the broswer to the OS is the name. You assume Chrome OS is a full fledged OS that plays nicely with the browser, and since you use the Chrome browser so it must be a nice combination. We say imagine your PC is taken away, and you have just your browser to work with (more or less). Would you still go for the browser, or Windows RT, as a real OS that comes with Microsoft Office preinstalled and a whole list of drivers, real Windows offline storage, same store apps as Windows 8, etc.? RT is a mobile OS that beats the crap out of iOS and Android in productivity scenarios. Chrome 'OS' is practically a portal to Google's online services, that ANY device can access. There isn't one thing Chrome can do, that ANY other device - desktop or mobile - can't.

I will pick Dell Venue 8 for the same price, install chrome browser and that's it....PC is PC, PC can run browser...but otherway

Best way ! ^^

The vultures are circling the last remaining XP users. If they still insist on using XP after a decade and refuse to move to a newer version of Windows, I'm not sure they would be tempted to move to an entirely different ecosystem, regardless of the price incentives.

I guess you are totally right! I don't see it coming either.

Cosider why corporations are not moving away from Windows XP: they have infrastructure based on Windows XP that even Windows 7 can't replace - despite being the closest good thing you can get - AND, the fact that users are familiar with XP. Now. What idiot IT guy would say "hey, here is a browser. Let's ditch all those reasons we held off the switch to 7 for, and pay for this good-for-nothing, new 'OS'!" I mean, why not Linux?! It's WAY more mature compared to Chrome OS, is a proper operating system, and still hasn't managed to attract corporations. Now Chrome?! It's a really bad joke.

"they have infrastructure based on Windows XP that even Windows 7 can't replace - despite being"   Ummmm..... Really?  We just used XPMode within Win7 and carried on plus Windows 8 has HyperV Lazy admins are LAZY
 

In some situations, you can't really switch out from XP. There are some core applications at my previous employer office that can only in XP. Even Win7 with XP compatibility mode still can't run it well (there are some glitches here and there which hamper productivity). So in order to upgrade, they need to redevelop that core apps so it will compatible with newer OS, which will need another budgets just to redevelop an app that run perfectly fine on 'died' XP. And you should now that the upper echelons always look for a way to minimize cost (according to their reasoning). That's why most of my colleague who work at IT departments on enterprises are either ignorant type (just pay me and I'll do anything while preparing a scapegoat-type), accept this unwillingly (agree to do anything requested but complaining all the time), or just resign and find another job and say a good riddance.

yeah, I agree with you.  Can' think of a single thing win7 can't do that we are using xp for.  in our case, it's an IT group that has too much on its plate to have ANY kind of desktop strategy.

Doesn't Windows 7 Pro have XP mode?

I agree. Linux is a great free operating system, but I'm gonna get pissed if everyone uses it instead of Windows.

Linux is great - for me at least. But it can never replace Windows, because of Visual Studio. I don't game much and VS is the sweetest thing that keeps me sticking to Windows forever.

Nice chromebooks advert WPcentral! Way to go

Well.. Wp Central always telling news related to our beloved company... Even if it's bad news

Bad news? Chromebook is non existant for most of people and WPCentral shouldn't advertise it like that And how in the hell people would switch from XP OS to chrome browser? It can't handle legacy apps, which is a game breaker for ALL enterprises

It's a dumb move then

Not dumb, it's just retarded No self respecting enterprise would choose chromebook over Windows OS, however chromebook may be viable for "normal" users(the ones which doesn't care about gaming or any other legacy apps)

Not an ad. Posted via the WPC App for Android!

Is it secure to use chromebooks for business? What are the compromise....

Absolutely, as long as you don't mind Google "getting right up to the creepy line" with all your business' info. ;)

Personally, never ever trust Google for the obvious reason. Besides that, how can they run their business apps and productivity apps?

Are you okay ? You cant do ANYTHING on a chromebook except web browser stuff, and a little bit of office docs editing on the useless google docs.

Lol Google, your OS is a joke.

Very

How is this related to WIndows Phone?

Official news to mobile nations.

Long story short.. We hate google, this is an article which gives you the comment section to show how much we hate google.

I like this comment. I stayed out of this and was just laughing but here goes, Screw you Scroogle!

Good, good,  let the hate flow through you.

Lol I hate them so much I switched to Bing. I actually like Bing better!

Yeah Bing's nice and everything, but at times the search results aren't exactly that gud. And Bing doesn't have all it's features in India But still Bing is my default search engine.

Google haters time.

Nice of you to make articles like this for the Chromebook fans among us on Windows Phone Central. If any. =)

You might be the only one,,,

I'm not one though. Hence 'if any' ;)

I wonder if anybody can do real work on Chrome OS...

F*** off Google!

a browser and the  google apps are not enough for businesses obviously   and i highly doubt that they are willing to replace their hardware

The retraining costs of staff would be prohibative unless Chrome was so hidden behind xenapp that the users would never actually see the Chrome interface.

Don't get Scroogled

I would trust Google with my sensitive business information as much as I would a crack addict with my savings.

You're obviously not from Toronto

There are trustworthy crack addicts in Toronto?

The current mayor is/was a crack addict. They may not trust their savings with him, but will let him run the city. LOL!

Chrome OS is useless! , why would a person consider using it .!

This was an expected move from Google. Desperation! Buwahahaha!!

Did you think the same when MS offered incentives for iPad owners to switch?

Nop ,, cause in that case it was an upgrade

When Windows 8 came out I've heard comments that people would switch to OSX or Linux, both are as ridiculous as moving to Chrome. If you're not willing to adjust to a new start screen with the rest of the functionality being pretty much the same, you would just stay with Win7. Moving to a different platform would require learning that whole platform. For businesses, the cost of migrating all of their software to the new platform would be too high. Chrome OS requires an online connecttion, Citrix and the like would require a good connection to run the legacy apps. Those two costs (better network and the citrix cost) aren't worth it. If businesses are worried about moving to Win8, they'll just move to Win7 instead. That's the only OS that can compete with Win8 over these customers. 

Exactly.

What a joke Google

Loooool

Hahaha they'll never succeed...

Thanks for today's LOL story.

What's a Chrome Books....????

its naby notebook

Are they freaking serious  

What sort of an idiot would switch from Windows to Chromebook? I can do more with Windows 95 than a chromebook. If my IT manager even thought of something that stupid, he would be out of the job is a heart beat.  

Yeah, I know a multi national company in a deep serious mess after they converted to Mac.. How much more if one goes for a Chromebook.. That could become a huge disaster for any company.

We clean so many pc's from google's entrenchment because end users bring thier home computing tendencies into the workplace. The chrome browser can F up the tcp/ip stack in windows as quick as a cat covers up its own doo doo. We have ended up hacking the Registry up with machete like sharpness more times than I can count to return the PC to usefulness because of Chrome.

How about google Ultron? That's what NASA uses.

Oh man, I feel your pain.  I ended forcing the deletion of Chrome from all our PC's in our enviornment and blocking the execution of the Chrome executable as well as the Chrome installers because people kept installing it and then it f'ed up a bunch of other stuff.  Thank you Group Policy!

Scrooogle

Just pretend you work for a UK government department - XP support for a while yet (at UK tax payers expense ;) )

Businesses wouldn't just buy Chromebooks, they'd buy into Google's entire enterprise offering, e.g. their desktop as service, that Hangouts Box, etc. Microsoft would have to offer a comparable package, especially price wise.

If the IT manager has an ounce of security in his thought process, he wouldn't finish reading this article.

You're assuming people are logical....IT could also be staffed by Microsoft haters.

We have a client that has 2 in house IT guys that are just that, MS haters.

say get f***k out 
xp for MC only

April fools is over. Hahaha! Good joke!!

Chrome OS might be "ok" for new and newish little businesses with workers of ~20, but definitely not for old factories with 150 workers, like where I work.

In the last decade businesses didn't upgrade XP due to the costs involved. How they would move away to a completely new OS specially when it is actually nothing more than a web browser? WalMart's whole till system runs on XP, their management software also runs on XP. Chrome OS is not in anyway near XP to handle such systems.

Hahahaha lol

Chrome book is a joke..but still millions people buy it those no curiosity about operating systems.

Well, Google Does love to Play Pranks and April Fools. HAHAHA, good one google.

Chrome Os is very useless, this is the dirty way to Improve the market share!

Well if the IT department of any business is worth their salt they will never go for this.

I fail to see how a Chromebook could replace an office workstation. Keep dreaming, Google.

So let me get this straight... Google wants you to replace the world's longest running and most functionally diverse OS with the least functional OS? No thanks!

Lol

Go home google. You're drunk

Unsupported XP is better than ChromeOS Posted via the WPC App for Android!

Wow did not know there was this much blind hate here. Posted via the WPC App for Android!

how are they blind? chromebooks are a 200 dollar chrome browser?  

Its a laptop with all the extras which a good portion of the population does not use. Posted via the WPC App for Android!

Like what? Tell me 1 google service I cant download for free.

I read all comments here, and i must say, that You all are (unfortunately) wrong. Most corporations allready has citrix farms running tens and even hundrets of tousands of XP instances. I worked for a big company fo ra few months, and i worked on so called "thin client" which was not more than a terminal used just to connect to remote desktop. What google wants here is to make corporations to buy their chromebooks, they dont care how corporations will use them, even if the would be used as such thin clients. For user there is no difference, because only the login screen would be different, and after loging in they will find their familiar XP or 7 desktop. So yes, google could gain some users for their chromebooks, no matter how useless they are as a stand alone product

So, they're trying to downgrade us?

This is laughable but these organizations may not even know better. If these organizations are still on XP, they may not have the funds to move onto a newer Windows platform.

Can't run major institutions like hospitals on Chromebook. Google should just give up already.

Google tried to push their garbage on our local large hospital system, but they were rejected quickly due to issues with HIPAA compliance.  Google responded that they would take any hits from leaked information and that they were completely reliable to store all data off prem.  I think they were hoping to data mine the hospitals and sell targeted ads to pharmaceutical companies.    The hospital system did what many will do or have done - they upgraded to Windows 7.  Those uncomfortable with 8 with just move to 7 - and they likely will move to 9 in the future with the Start Menu back.  It'd be nice if they brought back the Sidebar for Live Tiles on the right hand side of the desktop and launching of Modern apps. 

Here's an incentive not to use it - it sucks.

hahaha I don't know why but i laughed so hard at that, lol.

Glad I could make someone laugh. :P

I wanna see Google support ChromeOs for 12 years without upgrade like Microsoft did. I wanna run my AutoCAD in Chrome also.. lol

Excellent point!

If Google doesn't mind running Windows under virtualization on their Chromebooks I wonder why they have issues with OEMs manufacturing dual-boot Android/Windows devices. What a bunch of hypocrites.

Oh and if Google is not supporting Windows RT / Phone because "it has not reached critical mass" then why would anyone support Chromebooks? Google should eat some of the same shit they dish out.

I had the first Samsung chromebook and yes for $250....its a good deal...well at the time it was. However, for business use, no way!!!!! I wouldn't touch google drive with a 10 foot poll! I have used it in grad school, its ok, but again internet!!! Chromebooks can do some work offline but not much! Any real business would never consider this!

Just what I need.  My bank info into a chrome browser built by an advertising agency. No conflict of interest there.

I also deal with HIPPA and no way we would ever touch a chromebook! We actually just got some new think pads! Problem with chromebooks is like android phones imo they slow down drastically in a short period of time, say 6 months?? I sold my chromebook within two weeks. Better off buying a subpar $500 laptop that does everything you need.

And it's sad because the uneducated will listen and buy it. I had people recommend one to me. It's sad. You can't even put any icons on your desktop. Fail.

If they're so deseperate to have a familiar interface, they can even run VMWare and Citrix on Windows 8 devices and have Windows 7 virtualized. But it doesn't make any sense to run two similar OS at one time. All of their employees have home laptops/desktops with Win7 on it because they upgrade their old devices with their own money after some years unlike businesses and they should already be familiar with it. How about getting Windows 8.1 to work? Set boot to desktop, install something like Start8 (Which will be made redundant once the next W8.1 update comes out with metro start menu.) Besides the start menu, I don't see what those businesses are complaining about when all the work they do is in Desktop. Besides that, I think MS should make Windows 8.1 free for every user that already has previous version of Windows installed, be it Win7 or Vista now that they're going to monetize with services and ads. This will give people no reason not to upgrade and push even more users to the Modern UI which is the future.

I'd burst out of laugh if my IT guy come to me with this idea. C'mon. Chrome OS?

LOL. "Hey businesses, you know all those applications that only ran under XP, and were the reason you kept XP around? Well, they for sure won't run in ChromeOS, but you can surf the web on it! Wanna buy?"

XP more useful and has more features than a chromebook, no business would go for a chromebook. I would rather have Vista than a chromebook, I would still use XP than a chromebook!

I would rather use Windows ME than ChromeOS

+ Windows 98

What companies let Google scan their emails??

Using XP after its left behind would still be more useful for business then a Chrome book... Literally there only good for FaceBook, even then they lack...

(paraphrasing) "make XP users move to Windows 7 at least" lol Windows Vista flopped

Perfect way to get scroogled.

The entire reason that so many businesses haven't moved on from XP is because their antiquated LOB applications are not compatible with newer versions of Windows. Moving to Chromebooks does not solve this, if these businesses had already migrated these applications to run as published apps using VDI then they would not be still running XP, some apps just don't run in a VDI environment unless they are rewritten. They may be able to pick up a few consumers who have been holding on to XP as basic systems to write word documents, but chasing the Enterprise over this is pretty optimistic. Any CTO/CIO or IT Manager would be insane to consider this as their first step towards upgrading from XP.

Apparently Google wants to bring a knife to a gun fight...