Windows 8 maybe will have a bigger heavy by OEM corporations with the new UEFI SYSTEM (it's new here) - And the default OS for the most computer companies that use the Win7 today..... With the 1155 evolution, and an lower cost, it possible in a few months (or years)...
All that would do is confirm (to the tablet customer base - not the existing hardware base), that Microsoft has basically written them off. Look at the iPad and iPad 2, for example - neither runs OS X, but iOS, instead. Basically, they are deliberately underpowered and lack full-fledged applications so as to be no threat to even the lowest-priced MacBooks. The Series 7 is a serious step up from the majority of (underpowered and lacking) tablets - especially any tablet running iOS or Android, because it can run not just productivity applications, but any application that any PC can run. That does, in fact, put the Series 7 above the majority of announced or even planned - let alone shipping - Ultrabooks - let alone the majority of the existing/planned tablet/slate competition - either x86 or ARM. And that is with Windows 7 (what is standard on said Series 7) today. And I didn't say (in fact, I've never said) that the choice should not be part of the installation. In fact, I agree - it should be part of the final stages of Setup (as part of Personalization), if for no other reason than because UI choice is exactly that - personal. (Yes - it sounds like an HP ad - doesn't stop it from making sense.) As to tablets and slates themselves, one reason I've never bought one (so far, only the Series 7 makes the cut among tablets and slates) is because of one *feature* common (and, in fact, usually necessary) to tablets, slates, and most smartphones (especially Android smartphones) virtual-keyboards. So far, I haven't found so much as ONE virtual keyboard - regardless of operating system - that I could tolerate, even a little. (Android, Linux distributions, iOS, even OS X and Windows - all are equally awful IMHO.) For precisely that reason, I have never - and won't ever - recommend even an Android smartphone that lacks a physical keyboard. Nor would I buiy a tablet or slate without the option of such a keyboard (preferably, enough USB ports so I can connect my own). That is, in fact, why the SAMSUNG Series 7 stands alone - not the built-in wireless-N (which certainly doesn't hurt) or built-in Bluetooth (ditto) but enough USB ports so I can connect my own USB keyboard (wired or wireless) *and* USB mouse (same thing).
Hardware-upgrade costs are not the reason why enterprises lag (by a sizable margin) the SMB, let alone consumer, PC markets in adopting the current Microsoft operating system; I'd know - I used to work in one. I mentioned (earlier in this thread) a planned migration in the enterprise where I was employed at the time - said migration did NOT involve new hardware. This was a straight OS change on the existing hardware - all of which was compatible with the new OS. It stuck out because Windows 8 does not have higher hardware requirements than Windows 7 - the closest to that in recent memory was the NT4WS->Windows 2000 Professional migration for enterprises - which was the case in the migration I referenced above. The issue was a single DLL in a custom line-of-business application (one that I was, in fact, in training on at the time, so it certainly did impact me personally) - and it stalled the transition for six months. I called that "the BOHICA factor" - and it's still a major issue in corporate OS migration - in fact, it's the biggest issue. Windows 8, unfortunately, can't change that.
From the content of your message it is obvious you meant "contempt". And it is true for all of the companies you mentioned, plus most other companies one can think of, especially corporations (see the film by the same title!!!), run by sociopaths, starting from Rupert Mierdoch onwards, for instance, bitching about Google, while he stated he would be cool in having a monopoly himself, bitching about hackers while spending a great deal of money hacking the living daylights out of his competitors (and using hackers as tools for his own goals in the process) or indeed (hacking phones, for instance, of) anybody who can help him make money, by making up a story about them etc. etc. As for Android and the company behind them: when I see a free-of-BS OS I will be happily using it then and only then. At the moment, like you, I am using it with many features (sometimes forcefully [by non-Google apps]) switched off, for reasons mentioned before by you and others. It would be great to see MDL section for "Hacking the living daylights out of Android's corporate BS". The same principles, as in m$ case, apply, of course... Please, feel free to add to that! I woud LOVE to see an OS for smartphones FREE of horror corporate BS. Pretty please! Anyone who can... And since it is allegedly open-souurce, this ought to be easier than m$, non?!? Sadly, I know of no such movement. But I have to first check the link posted by a user here, re. CyanogenMod Community... Indeed, this is the very core of Modernity!!! Sorry, incorrect. The most "leaky" OS was by far Android. For many it was surprising. Not to me. Not so, just more informed about the isuses and obviously he cares more on the issues than most, that's all... That is not the issue - properly controlled by the judiciary, of course, in all the decent countries, independent from the executive side of the Gov... OK. But, as you mentioned, too - not the issue here... There is a huge facility in the UK, used to spy on its allies (their corporations) and passing the info - in "strategic national interest" - to the US corporations... Not funny! Capital, as a relation, not as a [dead] thing, actually... Our "friend" worshiping "capitalism", in this thread, is off his head completly... I pity him. Again, I urge all of you who can to hack the corporate BS out of it and give it to the community at large, please... PRETTY PLEASE! Back then XP was considered bloated, slowing things down, forcing people to buy new, stronger HW. Vista was even worse. W8 shouldn't differ. New HW on its way... They all profit... Indeed, such corporations do not care about us in any way. Open source community, on the other hand, just might... Which is why pity our aforementioned poor little "friend"... Stay well!
Well you are very well informed about the different windows versions. And you are probably right when speaking of XP TabletPC Edition. Lol, I guess when you post you got where I am coming from I assume you mean my interests regarding windows, which are mainly viewed from the corporate 'side'. But I don't get why it should be a bad idea to ditch metro from the corporate version such as enterprise and professional as I have mentioned. You have said it can be disabled by group policy and yes this exactly I guess will happen. I have left it an open choice what should be about the other x86 / x64 versions. But I still think to provide it as an add on option would be the best. At ARM version it can be included. M$ ideas are exactly the same when they have missed the importance of the internet. They had been too late and other browsers such as netscape became popular. So what did they do? They simply embedded their IE into the OS. It's just like to count on the laziness of the user..well a few will try it if available I am sure. The EU had to force them to make it unistallable to remain free market choice. Exactly the same happens with the apps, they are again too late and embed their metro into the OS. The same idea all behind that: The user will just click on it, it's there. To install it separately would mean too much effort --> less of profit. The major idea to develop w8 is to announce the missed app age. Since they are a monopolist they can enforce it.
I didn't say that it *shouldn't* be ditched from the corporate/enterprise side - however, you don't need to remove it from the OS altogether to do so - Group Policy Editor should suffice. And when the EU did that, customers voted with their feet (and their wallets) - exactly how much uptake was there of the EU-unique N editions? (I'm talking about compared to the non-N Editions - which were, in fact, still available within the EU). My issue with the N Editions (and I'm in the US) has more to do with the fact that *the government knows best* often tends to be an even bigger mistake then letting the markets decide - in other words, the *cure* is worse than the *disease*. (My benchmark for that is NOT United States v. Microsoft - but United States vs. American Telephone and Telegraph Corporation, an even earlier *antitrust victory* that we as a nation are still reeling from the effects thereof.) Besides, despite the failure of the N Editions, the market DID punish Microsoft for getting lazy with regards to IE (just as Netscape had been punished for the same thing) - with loss of both marketshare and mindshare. In other words, the marketplace's "punishment" was far more effective than that of the EU and US combined.
I respectfully disagree. Apple has the midrange tablet market locked down - for now. However, there remains a market for tablets (and slates, for that matter) that run real honest-to-goodness productivity applications (such as Microsoft Office) and even some games that aren't *apps* - neither of which are in the iDevice bailiwick. They are, naturally, costlier than the iPad2, which is, undoubtedly, part of the iPad2's appeal; however, such a tablet or slate should cost less than a notebook (which the SAMSUNG Series 7, for example, does). As long as tablets and slates fit between the iPad2 and notebooks, they will do just fine. If the high-end slates and tablets even encroach into notebook territory, they can still survive. However, the higher-priced such tablets and slates go, the more they will run into issues competing not with the iPad2, but those self-same notebooks (and any x86-based Ultrabooks at that price-point).
I am sorry but this superficial "free market" mythology nonsense just must be addressed. I will try to do it without the jargon of my profession, hoping that in return IT geeks will do the same... You are missing the wood for the trees. Gov doesn't know best, it doesn't need to know best. All it needs to know/recognise is what is monopolistic behaviour and have the muscle to stop it/prevent it/prepare conditions for a more level playing field. Remember the end of XIX/beginning of XX century and the big crash (not to mention a more recent crash they caused, paid by the little guy's money, via the state, trying to remedy what various industries have fooked up)? Capitalism is NOT rational, markets weren't/aren't and will never be rational, they can never be "free" of state intervention, under capitalist conditions. MYTHS must be addressed! Purposeful intervention by a clever/"even-handed" state is what markets must have, if they are to continue beyond mere here and now and not cause world wars and general misery in their pursuit of profit! In fact, all corporations presume and have the state on their side, i.e. on the side of Capital, in all conflicts of substance. Especially Americans ought to know that little fact! So, sorry, you must learn a lot more about the very core of our era, abandoning its myths in the process... How so? EU coming together to prevent markets creating conditions for yet another (world) war? Start with the steel industry, in your short political economy studies, please... There's lots there to change your mind, from a single branch of industry... In all of those cases, for instance the EU zip industry lately, the cure is to understand the conditions, then address those, so monopolies are impossible to achieve and maintain, plus heavily fine those trying to establish and maintain a monopoly. That is to say, if the "state" in case is any good at its job, i.e. showing the limits to a corporation [or even a whole industry], in order to maintain Capitalism, i.e. relatively safe conditions of production, free of wars and manipulating supply and demand side of things. Remember the XIX/early XX century "clever" and "rational" markets destroying huge quantities of goods in order to artificially maintain prices, which led to huge imbalances in the world, wasteful attitude towards worlds resources, not to mention suffering on a large scale, in a "perfectly legal and even 'natural' [as they would have us belive]" pursuit of profit? Silly question, if you do not see it as a rhetorical Q only, of course, since you obviousy do not know anything about it, hence writing all that baseless but "ideologically pure" stuff about "free" markets... The purposeful intervention into markets by state is but a minimal prevention of short-term garbage "strategy" that any industry must welcome, since all corporations tend to do just that (trying to establish monopolies). Just look at Mierdoch, for instance... And I am not even gonna try to mention the little guy, in all this, for obvious reasons - at least to anyone not so ideologically blinkered as you... This is NOT automatically to worship the state. Trying to pretend this is so, one does at one's own peril... State, as stated, is but one function of Capital, under Western developed Capitalism conditions. They lost because their "philosophy" is strictly "business/profit-making" oriented and "the little guy" was simply not in their focus. Mozilla, for instance, wasn't seeing things in that direction. I so wish we see a betterment of Ubuntu to the level of rivalling m$ as a viable OS (but REALLY) for non-geeks, including the support by the wider industry, in terms of writing drivers for at least that branch of Linux - on a grand, equal to m$ support level... As Yen said, we REALLY need a capable new OS on the market. State can also do something about it, if it looks into it carefully, by preferring that particular OS, in variety of ways, say procurement of PCs with Ubuntu in schools, state organisations/agencies, tax breaks for companies making an effort in that direction etc. - for the overall benefit of the industry as such and all the users... m$ must not complain, if they are to be believed/taken seriously at their own word, i.e. if they are so much better (the users "will just turn to them", then...) and with an already established monopoly, with phenomenal advantage they already have, from the starting blocks of such a possible "competition" with them, the "market leaders"... But I suspect they will cry foul anyway, if the market imbalance is to be addressed by a state, like they always do, invoking "free market" but really twisting everybody's arm or bribing everybody who can be bought off etc. Really, can't you smell a rat when you see one?!? Even if you forget they stole most of "their innovations" and ridiculous prices they charge the little guy, for their "great SW"...
My issue with the EU decision is that the effect on the market itself was largely zero - as EU *customers* stayed away from the N Editions in droves. (Notice that Microsoft DID get their comeuppance - but it came from customers choosing a better - to them - browser, and had exactly nothing to do with the EU decision in and of itself - it's why I referred to the market - not the EU decision - being the more effective *punishment*. Also, you can, in fact, largely *credit* Microsoft's action - as law-violating as it was - for driving the customer cost of web browsers down to zero - regardless of OS platform. The same applies to media-playback software (other than DVD playback software). The only reason it has NOT taken effect in terms of DVD playback software is that the ogliopoly keeping prices elevated there had then, and has now, far greater influence, especially politically, then even Microsoft today - and Microsoft had far LESS influence then.) The customers - even those outside the scope of the EU - punished Microsoft not for bundling a browser - but for bundling a poor, relatively speaking, browser. (All the EU action did was feed the bureaucracy, due to that record fine - the effect on Microsoft otherwise was zero.) Correct in terms of case law; however, it didn't do what it was supposed to. The letter of the law, vs. the spirit of the law, can sometimes (not in every case) be better served in its breach than in its adherence.
In the case of a Linux distribution - any such distribution - this is, in fact, being done - consider the distributions being backed, in whole or in part, by national or regional governments. Still, even in those markets, Microsoft is still the majority operating system - in a sense, despite the desires of those sponsoring government entities, Microsoft not only survives, but even thrives - despite a horrendous cost disadvantage. (And that discounts software piracy in those markets.) I did not say that antitrust regulation doesn't have a place - however, a government has to recognize when to act - and when NOT to act. There are indeed times when it's best to do nothing, as an ineffective action can be worse than inaction.
Yeah, they did not in the Mierdoch case, with the same "reasoning", when they were "allowing stabilisation of the Sat TV market" and look what happened... Your qualifications are welcome, of course, if a bit late, so I can't withdraw some of what I wrote. Partly it was directed at our little-big total Capitalist apologist "friend", of course... But at the end of the day, the judgement call you refer to is with our Govs. Sometimes they fail (Mierdoch, mortgages) and sometimes they nail (m$)...
Clarify re. Ubuntu, please... And if you can draw parallels with just how much m$ s**te is paid for by various publicly funded institutions... From whatever I saw, as anecdotal as it might be, m$ is light years ahead, when it comes to opening a public purse, sadly....
Indeed, Yen. Btw, which Vu+? Duo, Uno, Ultimo or...? It's similar in sat TV hobbyof mine: m$ = DMM and real alternative is what you have, ET9x00 or Ferrari/SIM2, hehe...
OT reply: [OT] Vu+ duo, the ultimo wasn't available when I had to choose one. I love it. A media server with some 'extras' I use it as backup system in my home network and media library. It's so much fun. I never thought how 'free' you actually can be with a Enigma (Linux) PVR. Streaming HD video, recording web radio streams, playing m2ts container (blu-ray), DVD ISOs, music, pictures, sharing files......no restrictions at all. Most of the windows only user can't even imagine what's possible... Enjoy as I do. [/OT]
I do, for a very long time... In Linux terms only: SS2, DBox2, AZbox HD Elite, Ferrari500 HD... Indeed, multimedia centres... a thing of beauty...