Chromebook Shipments Up 67%
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@Carnival-Boy said:
You need a Google account to access a Chromebook, and the management console will not work with free Google accounts, so I wonder, do you need Google Apps? How does user level management work without it?
User management is ONLY with the $150 Google Management Console. Only. No other way. No amount of Google Apps or any other web application manages the device users at all. There is only the one method.
You don't need Google Apps at all. I've worked with several Chromebooks and don't use Google Apps on any. Adding it doesn't add user management.
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Just like in Windows. If you do Windows Home, no matter if you use Office 365 or not, you get no user management at the OS level.
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@scottalanmiller said:
User management is ONLY with the $150 Google Management Console.
That's what I'm asking. How do you do user management? How do you create a user in Google Management Console that isn't a Google Apps user? I use a number of Google services, and they require that each user has at least a Google Apps account. If the management console doesn't, how does it work? What user account does the user logon to the Chromebook with, if it isn't a Google Apps account?
I'm not doubting you, I'm just interested.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
@scottalanmiller said:
User management is ONLY with the $150 Google Management Console.
That's what I'm asking. How do you do user management? How do you create a user in Google Management Console that isn't a Google Apps user? I use a number of Google services, and they require that each user has at least a Google Apps account. If the management console doesn't, how does it work? What user account does the user logon to the Chromebook with, if it isn't a Google Apps account?
I'm not doubting you, I'm just interested.
Oh, they are tied together, if that is the question. It's a Google account at the end of the day. But my Google account, for example, does not have Google Apps. That's an additional product that you have to buy. But it is a single directory services system tying all accounts together at the end of the day. THink one massive, global AD system.
Same as Office 365, it uses AD behind the scenes. Just in a way that you can't access or use.
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SAM is right: . They already are. They are a major force in new deployments. We have 9 people in our sales group, all running an HP chromebox, with Google apps. Totally Windows-free environment, with everything in the cloud.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
I agree that BB machines suck - but how does sorta forcing businesses/users to buy better equipment help th ecosystem?
Teaches them to talk to IT pros rather than bypassing IT for purchasing and just making them work with whatever they buy. As someone who has run IT for business that do this over and over, I actually appreciate the incredibly slap that Microsoft gives them. Without it, they would never, ever learn. With it, they still struggle. They think that every purchase will somehow be "different than last time."
They certainly do think that!
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@scottalanmiller said:
Oh, they are tied together, if that is the question. It's a Google account at the end of the day. But my Google account, for example, does not have Google Apps. That's an additional product that you have to buy. But it is a single directory services system tying all accounts together at the end of the day. THink one massive, global AD system.
And you use the management console? How do you associate your Google account to your domain in order to manage the account through the console? The only way I've been able to control users is by creating Google Apps accounts for them (not for Chromebooks but for other Google services). I guess the management console works differently but I don't see how this is a stupid question.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
And you use the management console? How do you associate your Google account to your domain in order to manage the account through the console? The only way I've been able to control users is by creating Google Apps accounts for them (not for Chromebooks but for other Google services). I guess the management console works differently but I don't see how this is a stupid question.
No, I don't have a Chromebook fleet in that way and that's why I didn't know the cost offhand.
I'm not aware of a way to sync Google Accounts to AD.
You use "control users" in a completely different way that people normally use that phrase. You are controlling users exclusively for one application online, not for systems, correct? That's a huge distinction. Normally when people refer to managing users, they mean on the systems, not for arbitrary online services. Both are important, but the generic phrase "managing users" it is assumed applies to the systems for which Google Apps does not apply.
The Management Console managers the users that apply to Chromebooks. Google Apps and Chromebooks are two separate things.
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Google Apps, separately, from Chromebooks does have a nice AD sync. But that, TTBOMK, is exclusively for Google Apps management and will not work for other features as far as I am aware.
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When I say domain, I'm not talking about an AD domain. To use a Chromebook you have to log in to a domain (other than guest access). That domain can be a Google domain (eg [email protected]) or a company domain (eg [email protected]). There are no local accounts you can log in with.
The management console has to be associated with a company domain (eg mycompany.com). How do you create free user accounts and associate them with that domain. Can you use Google domain accounts (eg gmail accounts)? And if so, why do you need a company domain in the first place?
It's a simple question. I don't see how this is like Flickr at all. I wish I hadn't asked, I was only mildly curious.
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Without actually knowing - I'm sure @scottalanmiller is right - the 'account' name matches exactly the same as it would to a Google Apps account name.
so you are acme.com and you register acme.com with Google Management (because you've never used Google Apps before).
Now, if, in the future you want to add Google Apps, I'd be willing to bet they simply glob onto your existing Google Management accounts, and you'd be done.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
When I say domain, I'm not talking about an AD domain. To use a Chromebook you have to log in to a domain (other than guest access). That domain can be a Google domain (eg [email protected]) or a company domain (eg [email protected]). There are no local accounts you can log in with.
Ah ha, okay, now I see what you are saying. My apologies. I was not aware that they used the domain terminology for that. My experience with Chromebooks has never exposed them using that. That makes sense, though, and I know that there are no local accounts.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
The management console has to be associated with a company domain (eg mycompany.com). How do you create free user accounts and associate them with that domain. Can you use Google domain accounts (eg gmail accounts)? And if so, why do you need a company domain in the first place?
Now I understand what you are saying, I think. You are basically asking if the Chrome Management Console is able to create accounts that are not tied to a Google Apps instance?
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@Carnival-Boy said:
It's a simple question. I don't see how this is like Flickr at all. I wish I hadn't asked, I was only mildly curious.
My point with Flickr is that it is a web application that has user accounts but is not tied at the system level to accounts. It lives separately from the system that you run on.
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It looks like you have the choice of a free Google account or the Google Apps accounts when setting up users on devices:
https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/1289314?hl=en
It's not super clear, but makes sense that the Chromebook management can be tied to Google Apps or can be used with normal Google accounts.
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You're right, it's not super clear, but it looks that way. I did some Googling and came up with pretty much nothing, which I suspect is because you could count on one hand the number of organisations who are using the Management Console but aren't Google Apps users. Especially as for education (the main users of Chromebooks), Google Apps is completely free.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Carnival-Boy said:
@scottalanmiller said:
$30 per device. Cheaper by far than anything Windows has.
That's the education licence. It's $150 for business. That's not particularly cheap.
Ah, that's confusing. Still super cheap compared to Windows Pro, AD, running your own server, etc.
Is it?
How much does a Windows setup cost? Windows has fixed costs, but let's say for a standard 100 user SMB, how much does it cost per device to buy the hardware, server licence, client licence (Windows Pro) and CALs? I wouldn't have thought it's much over $150? Of course, administration costs are going to be much higher.
I wonder how many companies pay $150 anyway. I've seen a few case studies pushed by Google of organisations rolling out Chromebooks, but they're all large companies. All of them use Google Apps. I seriously doubt that these large companies are paying anywhere near $150. I suspect they're paying nothing.
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OK, I phoned Google and asked them. I really don't know why I'm wasting my time on this. I think there was something about your incredulous reply to my original question that wound me up for some reason!
They initially told me that you can create and manage Gmail users within the Management Console, so as you said @scottalanmiller, you are not tied to Google Apps in anyway.
However, they've just phoned me back and said they were mistaken! They are now saying, quite clearly, that you need a Google Apps account for every user that is managed with the Management Console. So if we had 100 users using 100 Chromebooks we would need to purchase 100 Google Apps accounts.
That is straight from the horses mouth!
Nothing like Flickr!
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@scottalanmiller said:
Keep in mind that Chromebooks can't make zip files either. So if you have a full Chromium shop, zip files won't exist.
Chromebooks most definitely can make zip files.
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@scottalanmiller said:
You don't work with local files on Chromebooks, you do that all on the servers. It's a web browser, you have to rethink end user computing and not carry Windows idioms and challenges over looking for answers. It answers that by changing how you work.
Google now make a big thing about working with offline (local) files. As they should, laptop users don't always have internet access. In that regards, they're not really any different from Windows laptops.
