Googlebook launches without Adobe's apps or the Linux support ChromeOS had

A Googlebook user opens Telegram, types a reply and presses enter. The message stays put. On Googlebook the Android app does not send on the enter key, according to 9to5Google's reviewer, who has used one for the better part of a week ^[8][4]. The Play Store had already tagged that app "Better on the website," but the web version is no clean escape. The reviewer frequently saw it misbehave or crash ^[9].

The gaps people expected are there. Adobe's suite is absent, with no easy replacement ^[2]. Windows and macOS have decades of niche programs that an Android-based machine was never going to match at launch ^[14][1]. Google also dropped the Linux support ChromeOS had, and the reviewer wrote that "stripping away the Linux support ChromeOS did have isn't exactly helping matters" ^[3].

Here's what teams tell themselves users do: hit the missing-software list once, then treat whatever is in the Play Store as covered. The Play Store is the main way to get apps on Googlebook, and Android apps are the preferred route ^[5]. Here's what users actually do: sit in a chat client all day. The reviewer called Slack "a daily source of frustration" and wrote, "This is not some niche or trivial app, it's something that millions rely on for daily work on their laptops." ^[13]

Google's stopgap for uneven apps is the label, and the reviewer called the five-label scheme "wildly confusing for the end user" ^[17]. The store steers people away from weak Android apps without linking to the web versions it prefers ^[7]. The labels can also overstate. The reviewer thought "Optimized" was the wrong word for Spotify and that "Compatible" fit better ^[18].

Then there is price. Most Googlebooks cost more than a MacBook Air ^[12], and the case for paying that premium rests on Android phone integration. The reviewer wrote that those integrations "don't even work with my phone yet" ^[16]. 9to5Google has separately reported that they won't work with Samsung phones at launch ^[15].

The app findings come from one reviewer's first week on launch software, and individual developers can fix their own apps. The absence of Adobe's suite and of Linux is a property of the platform as it shipped ^[2][3].

For a team deciding on Monday, two questions sort the staff. The first is whether the job depends on software Googlebook lacks at launch ^[2][3][14]. A yes keeps that person on their current Windows or Mac machine, and no label update fixes a missing app. The second applies to everyone else. List the apps each person opens daily, then run the one action they do most in each on a Googlebook, such as sending a message with the enter key. Mark pass or fail and ignore the Play Store label.

I'd pilot Googlebooks only with people who pass on every app, and price that pilot against a $1,099 MacBook Air ^[12]. The tradeoff is time. Anyone with one failing app and no working web version waits on that app's developer, and the phone features meant to justify the premium don't yet reach Samsung owners ^[15].