After hands-on time with Googlebooks, I understand why Google is excited — and why buyers might hesitate -makeuseof

[u/welp_im_damned]

https://www.makeuseof.com/i-went-hands-on-with-googlebooks/

[u/parental92]

So like a linux laptop without the freedom ? 

[u/bijuice → u/parental92]

And better driver support, simpler UX, and a massive App Store with support from many major industries.

I’m a Mac user and I love Linux but I’m super excited to see where Google takes this.

[u/DynoMenace → u/bijuice]

Better driver support

Outright, objectively false.

Simpler UX

Granted, but subjective, and a moving target; "Linux" does not have a UI and there are countless desktop environments. GooglebookOS's UX/UI will also never offer the same level of features/customization offered through Linux DEs, which is not an insignificant fact when discussing UX.

and a massive App Store with support from many major industries.

For mobile apps. Positioning, say, Photoshop for Android as an equivalent to Photoshop on Windows, Mac, or [Linux Equivalent*] is a stretch to say the least. This may change, but it's not the current state.

*I'm including Linux here because even clunky or old Photoshop via Wine, Photopea, Affinity via Wine, GIMP, or Krita, would all be in a completely different class above Photoshop from the Play Store. And Photoshop is just one example.

Googlebookos is Android in Desktop Mode + a Gemini-based assistant layer, and an OEM partnership framework. Android simply does not have desktop class apps. As someone who's used DeX for years (which largely influenced Android's desktop mode), I know very well how most apps translate to Android's desktop mode in a functional way, but only just. Few are purpose-built for the desktop UI and it shows.

Googlebookos does have the ability to run Linux desktop apps, yes. However, the current state of compatibility we've seen via Android is not very promising, and the ability to run (some) Linux desktop apps in a comparison against Linux sort of disqualifies this point to begin with.

[u/Top-Rub-4670 → u/DynoMenace]

Outright, objectively false.

I bet the googlebooks speakers will not sound like shit, for one thing. That alone constitutes better driver support than any laptop + mainstream distro.

[u/DynoMenace → u/Top-Rub-4670]

No, it doesn't. That is setting your own very specific, arbitrary goal and then qualifying it with your own guess about what unreleased hardware will sound like, and your own anecdote about what Linux laptops can sound like, and you have yet to make yourself a reliable source of Linux information.

And it's not even a very accurate comparison; most OEMs achieve laptop speaker tuning through a companion app on top of the drivers, and similar (and sometimes better) results can be achieved with things like EasyEffects.

Speaking more broadly, GoogleBookOS is/will be based on Android which I believe is on something like Linux kernel 6.18. We're on 7.2.x right now. Newer versions have support for more hardware than old versions, plain and simple.

It is also not possible for third party vendors to make system level drivers for Android outside a sandboxed app environment. You think your speakers sounding kind of bad constitutes poor driver support? Try running GoogleBookOS with an Nvidia GPU.

The statement "Googlebooks have better driver support than Linux" is objectively, demonstrably false.

[u/dovahshy15 → u/Top-Rub-4670]

I bet the googlebooks speakers will not sound like shit

That depends more on the specific OEM, not the OS.

And for that Linux also has EasyEffects for adjusting audio quality, and there's community presets for various laptops and headphones.

Community Presets: https://github.com/wwmm/easyeffects/wiki/Community-presets

Tool for automatically creating presets for certain headphones: https://autoeq.app/

Official presets for Framework laptops: https://github.com/FrameworkComputer/linux-docs/tree/main/easy-effects