ABOMINATION

Let’s get one thing straight here. I like Windows, okay

I mean, I’m a nice guy. Like if I saw a Chrome book shivering in the cold as it sat abandoned on a best buy demo rack, I’d feel bad for it. But given that there are Windows laptops and MacBook’s that can do everything a Chrome book can do and more I just haven’t seen any reason why.

It’s got a Core i7, with 16 gigs of RAM, a nice high-res 3:2 display

Yep, that is a complete Windows 10 installation running inside Chrome OS. Absolutely perfect. I like Chrome books now. They’re great. And so is our sponsor. This is the Acer Spin 713. It’s a Chrome book for big kids.

But really the big boy pants that it wears to the party is that it runs Chrome Enterprise, a suite of business focused extra features like advanced security protections and device management. That’s because this unnatural union is actually a result of a partnership between Google and Parallels, the company that’s best known for running operating systems inside other ones using virtual machines.

And what better way than a sweet, targeted exclusivity deal. Options already exist for doing just that. The best one is Crossover which lets you run individual Windows apps through the WINE compatibility layer for Linux. But the apps that we wanted to install using Crossover weren’t in their official list and the installation got stuck every time.

When you compare that to this, well, right off the bat, Parallels gets points for just running. And if you never bump the screen edges with your mouse you might just be able to delude yourself into thinking this is just a regular Windows laptop, if it wasn’t for the confusing keyboard layout and the really low screen refresh rate.

Microsoft’s own ARM-based Surface Pro X.

As strange as it is to say though, once you get used to that choppiness overall performance is actually not bad. The Windows 10 version of Geek bench delivered only a slightly worse score than the Android version using the same hardware here. And Photoshop was a lot more usable than it was on Microsoft’s own ARM-based Surface Pro X.

Parallels also offers cross OS integrations that sweeten the experience. Shared folders are set up by default. So you can easily access any file from either operating system. Chrome OS printers are automatically accessible in Windows.

You can even set Chrome OS as the default browser in Windows so links will open a new tab outside of Parallels.

While there’s clearly some optimization that still needs to happen, the fact that a Chrome book is running a full fat installation of Windows 10 at all is a big deal.

Parallels owes its Chrome book venture to the fact that newer Chrome books are coming with specs that would have been absolutely unheard of in the early days. They are for serious business too. It’s come a long way since the start.

I mean, you can even install Linux versions of Firefox, Vivaldi, or Brave, and not even use the Chrome browser at all on a Chrome book. That’s a hilarious prank to play on our old friend, Google.

As for the support that is there, again, it’s kind of jank. Like our Chrome Enterprise installation just refused to connect to our servers for file sharing here at the office.

I mean, don’t get me wrong. The simplicity of Chrome books is perfect for people who isn’t got time for that. But it’s definitely not for the Linus’s of the world. So having Windows on your Chrome book is an imperfect way then to fill in some of those holes in Chrome OSs functionality, at least for now.

But they’re certainly trying. In an interview with The Verge a Google rep likened Chrome OS to a state-of-the-art home theater setup and Windows to the dusty VCR that you keep around to play those old home videos. I believe this is what the Zoomers refer to as a Bruh moment. Anyway though, Google, if your plans for the future still involve this wacky keyboard layout you can count me out.

Honestly, I need to talk about this for a second. Chrome books have a search key which fulfills sort of a similar role to the Windows key, or the Command key on a Mac.

I mean, sure, you can press alt search and activate caps lock, and alt backspace to forward delete, since the delete key is also missing. But, uh oh, neither of these shortcuts work in Windows 10 because pressing alt highlights the menus.

I meant to convey that I was mad about this, and that I was yelling, but there’s no caps lock, Google. I don’t want a line graph. Also, Acer, this track pad, unusable. It just doesn’t register small movements and can even move the cursor backwards sometimes. Like I love all the ports, the keyboard, the screen, just get rid of this part.

While Windows laptops saw some growth in 2020, probably due to that pandemic thing, that growth was absolutely dwarfed by the increase in sales of Chrome books, which already dominate the education market. And I’m going to make a similar point to the one that I made in our Pixel book Go review.

They’ll be laying the groundwork for a future where kids, who have used Chrome books their whole life in school, grow up, enter the workforce, and choose the laptop they’re more familiar with. So there we go, I guess. That’s the reason.

Surface Pro X running Windows on ARM and the MacBook Pro running Apples M1 SOC which is also AARM.

Windows isn’t available on non-enterprise Chrome books. There’s a plan here, man. Things are in motion. Are you awake? Awake to hear this message from our sponsor, Nice Hash?

No registration is needed. And Nice Hash is also an exchange so you can trade your coins into other crypto currencies. Also they have a hash-power brokerage that you can simply rent out your machines so that other eager miners can take advantage of the power.

You’ll even get paid in Bit coin. between the Surface Pro X running Windows on ARM and the MacBook Pro running Apples M1 SOC which is also AARM. Who will win? Spoiler alert, the Mac, but still interesting..

ABOMINATION

Apple Keyboard Evolution 1983-2015

I don’t have a Lisa Keyboard, and they’re quite rare and expensive. But here’s what it looked like, it was quite large and clunky. Although not really any wider than a modern Apple keyboard . So, this is the original Macintosh keyboard. It’s kind of tall, and notice that it has no arrow keys, no function keys and no number pad. Apparently, Steve Jobs believed that everybody would use the mouse for everything, except typing. It uses an RJ-11 type connector, similar to a phone cord. The mouse actually had its own separate connector, and did not connect to the keyboard at all. This is about as basic as it gets. I can plug my telephone into it, for some reason. So, one thing I noticed about this is that there are no indicators on where to put your fingers. I’ve never heard a keyboard echo before. It’s not real springy or anything. It does have… …metallic kind of noise to it. But, DAVID: This is the Apple Desktop Bus keyboard. As the name suggests, this was the first keyboard to use the new

The AdLib Gold Experience

Greetings folks, and today on LGR I am proud to present the fabled AdLib Gold 1000 Stereo Sound Adapter. An IBM PC-compatible sound card which, after multiple delays, launched at a suggested price of $299 in the US sometime in late 1992. More or less, its release is a bit complicated but we’ll get to that. For now lemme just go ahead and say how much I’m freak in’ out with excitement recording this footage. Cuz dude, seeing an AdLib Gold in person, still in the box, unused? Among retro PC enthusiasts, that’s like finding a golden unicorn that craps diamonds, it’s just not a thing. Yet here it is, looking’ spiffy! And it’s all thanks to Trixter, aka Jim Leonard of The Old-school PC, Check out his YouTube channel if you’re into this kind of thing too, the man’s a fountain of knowledge and some of the items in his collection are literally one of a kind. Not the least of which being this pristine AdLib Gold 1000, a card that I’ve been wondering about ever since I was eight years old lookin

IBM 8516 Touchscreen CRT Monitor

Greetings and welcome to LGR Oddware where were taking a look at hardware and software that is odd, forgotten, and obsolete! And today it is the IBM 8516 CRT touchscreen from the beginning of the 1990s. And yeah you can touch and draw and do all kinds of things that you would normally do with a mouse or light pen or whatever else -- just with your fingers! And so let’s see what this thing is and what it can do. All right so this is the IBM PS/2 Model 8516 13-inch CRT touchscreen monitor first introduced in June of 1991 for a suggested retail price of $1695 US dollars, holy crap. That would be almost $3,100 at the time of this recording, not a cheap price for a 13-inch VGA monitor back then. It was built by IBM to be compatible with PCs running DOS, Windows 3 -- and IBM OS/2 of course, because they were still pushing it rather hard when this came out. And as advanced and awesome as it was for its time it was not the first of its kind as far as touchscreen CRTs, not by a long shot. For

The Advantech I.Q. Unlimited with BASIC and a Z80 CPU.

Hello, and welcome back to the 8-Bit Guy. In this episode, I want to show you this bizarre little computer known as the IQ Unlimited by Advantech. Now, you might be wondering “What is this company Advantech?” Well, if you turn the computer over you’ll see it was actually produced by Video Technology Electronics, otherwise known as V-Tech.” Yes, that’s the same V-Tech that has produced tons of cordless telephones, kids learning computers, baby monitors, and a variety of other things. They are also the ones that built the Laser 128, which was an Apple II clone, along with the matching Laser XT which was a PC clone. They also produced the laser line of portable computers, and even a series of proprietary desktop computers that carried the laser brand name. So, needless to say V-Tech is no stranger to making computers. But, I think this may be the strangest one they ever made. The front of the box claims it to be complete, powerful, simple, and affordable. They are also those that built th

Words of Krom Ngoy

Words of Kram Ngoy This Brahma song is translated to tell Khmer men and women To be mindful should be diligent. Do not be lazy, do not be too stupid, try to learn numbers, learn the alphabet Learn all the virtues, supernatural wisdom combined with ideas. Born to see through, even from afar Really good at thinking about everything. Fools do not wake up like blind people on both sides There is no image of a cheap sinner born ignorant. The human race, though high and low, descended from the Pao clan. Evil, good, black and white, cut off descendants like ancestors. Ignorant people are not venerated as a religion The monks know the Dharma, the students study hard. The ignorant breed is not very wise, the crooked breed is not very gentle Straight seed until the true seed does not disappear. Innocent parents do not want their children to be ignorant Cursing for the children to know. Ignorant father sees his son never angry

The best gaming laptop for MS-DOS games

The other day, I used to be reading this old Computes Gazette magazine from 1983. and that I saw this card you'll send off for more information. happen if I filled it out and sent it off? Well, stick around till the top and I'll show you the result. Most of the time, stepping into Retro Gaming are often quite challenge. Even the old Atari 2600 her, for instance, it are often very challenging to seek out a contemporary TV or monitor that you simply. On the brilliant side, the games are pretty easy to affect. All you've got to try to to is locate them online, or thrift shop, or whatever and you purchase the sport, and you recognize, But, things get even harder once you start watching old computers. For instance, the Commodore 64 uses a disk format that's essentially foreign today. It's no means to attach to the web, and albeit you've got a pile of blank disks, getting the games copied over to them from the web could be a nightmare. Now, if you fast forward just a

Strangest Computer Designs of the '80s

OMG Mr. LGR!!! You made my day showing the Seiko computer watch series. I collect these things and Have almost the entire lineup up including the weird UC-2200. The only one I'm missing is the "wrist mac" which was essentially a Seiko RC4400 but marketed and sold for Apple. It could be considered the first apple watch! That design for the Elwro-800 actually seems pretty good and I wish I had it for the C64 back in the day. That wire holder could have been used for holding a computer magazine with a user made program which they always had in the magazines back in the day. Even now it would be good for data input from a written copy, or even writers who like to get their pre-writing done on paper. They were the machines we were taught Turing language on -- and compiling even a tiny Turing program on them was unbelievably slow. I really liked the GUI on them though, but we never really used the GUI much; all the programming we did was in a text file run through a compiler

Will Kill Your Computer

Hey guys, this is Austin, and this is the USB Killer. Now, it might not look like much, however this will straight up kill your computer. So, this is a device that’s used to test hardware, so while it looks like an ordinary USB device, instead, there’s a series of capacitors inside. So, if you plug it into a computer, it will charge those capacitors up, and once they’re full it turns around and releases all of that power at 240 volts straight back into the computer, in theory killing it. It doesn’t take much to be able to pop this thing open. Now, before we proceed: Do not try this at home. Seriously. Not only is it very possible for this thing to kill electronics, but it’s also. And by being careful, I mean don’t try this at home. We have an Asus Chrome book. Now, USB Killer claims that this is going to work on around 95 percent of computers, and the reason for that is that while some computers have properly capped USB ports, most have completely unprotected ports, which means that i

Lost Colony of Roanoke

The broken anchor is pretty sketch. Sounds like the colony might have been wiped out and Smith not wanting to return to England and say "my bad they all died" was able to save face by saying "We have proof they are safe and moved location. Near the end of the 16th century, a man by the name of John White embarked on a transatlantic voyage. His destination was the island of Roanoke along the southeastern coast of North America. On this island, White had established an English colony some three years before and he was now returning to resume his position as Governor. After a long and difficult journey, White finally reached the site of the colony only to find the more than one hundred men, women, and children had left behind had disappeared. Before White had a chance to conduct a more extensive search, the ship returned to England and in its wake, it left a mystery. Raleigh was soon thereafter knighted by Queen Elizabeth I and the new land was to be named Virginia in ho

BootSkin XP - A Boot Screen Customization Tool for Windows XP

Hello everybody and welcome back . We’re going to be taking a look at a pretty cool little piece of software for Windows XP, and there’s also a version for Windows Vista, called BootSkin. And this is a little bit of an older program. This was released, I want to say, somewhere in the mid-2000s. This is actually a piece of software that I used on a couple of my Windows XP , and even some my Windows Vista machines like over 10 years ago. It’s been a while since I’ve used this piece of software. But what this software allows you to do is, as you can probably tell by the name, it allows you to skin and customize your Windows boot screen, add a little bit more personality to your system and make your boot screen look more unique so, you know it’s gonna be much different than everybody else’s which just says Windows XP when it boots up. And this is made by a company called StarDock and I’ve used a couple of different StarDock programs before there’s another one of my favorite programs from

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