Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 6th Feb 2013 11:23 UTC
Thread beginning with comment 551610
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Member since:2006-01-06
The problem is tha MS knows that windows phone is a bust with little or no hope of breaking open the mobile market. That's why they chose to do windows 8 the way they did. They risked their stagnant desktop monopoly to try to leverage themselves into high growth mobile. We'll see how this plays out, so far not looking good but that desktop monopoly is hard to break.
Edited 2013-02-06 13:40 UTC
RE[2]: Comment by ephracis
by ephracis on Wed 6th Feb 2013 14:09
in reply to "RE: Comment by ephracis"
Member since:2007-09-23
I would argue that it doesn't matter if Windows Phone is not popular among smartphones. It still has more apps than Windows RT and besides, the bet that people would enjoy their x86 apps on tablets through Windows 8 seems to not work very well when you consider battery life, heat, device size and price.
It seems that consumer don't consider these trades to be worth the ability to use their usual programs on a tablet. I bet it's because the vast amount of apps available on both tablets and phones. There is no big need for the usual x86 apps on tablets.
RE[2]: Comment by ephracis
by bert64 on Thu 7th Feb 2013 15:59
in reply to "RE: Comment by ephracis"
Member since:2007-04-23
Member since:2011-08-08
I really hope Windows 8 flops big time so Microsoft will learn not to abandon the desktop. That way I can remain optimistic about Windows 9.
I'm optimistic for Windows 9 because no matter how I look at it, I just can't see Windows 8 being that successful. I don't claim to have a crystal ball but I don't believe Windows 8 is going to be successful enough to keep it moving forward. I do believe MS will be doing some backtracking.
But the flop has to be really, really big for MS to abandon Metro on the old Windows. I fear they will just keep the desktop a few more versions but still consider it "legacy" and slowly move focus away from it.
The first mistake is thinking tablets or smartphones are a replacement for desktops. They are not and never will be. The second mistake is thinking desktops are legacy. They are not. If the desktop vanished tomorrow, it would be crippling. There is no shortage of tasks that only make sense and can only be done efficiently using desktops. For that reason alone I have no fear desktops are going to disappear any time soon.
RE[2]: Comment by ephracis
by ze_jerkface on Wed 6th Feb 2013 19:33
in reply to "RE: Comment by ephracis"
Member since:2012-06-22
The first mistake was ignoring/censoring feedback from Windows developers, MCSEs, retail partners, and just about everyone else but the me-like-sparkly suckers that bought into Sinofsky's bullshit.
The early Windows 8 pre-release polls were showing widespread rejection but Ballmer and Sinofsky went ahead with the plan anyways.
Hopefully Ballmer will get his NBA team and lose interest in tech so he can stop damaging the company and also give Microsoft apologists a break from having to defend his continued incompetence. They are really having to put a lot of extra time in defending all these flops.
RE[2]: Comment by ephracis
by Delgarde on Thu 7th Feb 2013 01:44
in reply to "RE: Comment by ephracis"
Member since:2008-08-19
The first mistake is thinking tablets or smartphones are a replacement for desktops.
Not quite. Tablets and smartphones *are* replacements for desktops, for a certain range of activities. I've done a fair amount of travel over the past few years, and while I've previously carried a laptop with me, I'm unlikely to do so again in future - on the most recent trip, a smartphone was adequate for almost all circumstances, and a lightweight tablet would easily cover the rest.
So yeah - I agree that phones/tablets can't replace desktops for *all* use cases, but they do cover enough of them that a lot of users (particularly students and home users) no longer need a desktop. Desktops/laptops won't disappear completely, but they *will* become a great deal less common as tablets become more and more capable.
RE: Comment by ephracis
by miguelholandes on Fri 8th Feb 2013 14:11
in reply to "Comment by ephracis"
Member since:2013-02-07
Member since:2008-03-17
microsoft did not abandon the desktop with windows 8.... who gave you that idea? It is all still there...
The fact that one has to deal with the start screen indicates that the desktop is definitely playing second fiddle...
that is exactly why windows 8 is nothing short of brilliant, two completely different operating sytems in one....
Yeah, because two of anything is always better. Much like we consider multiple personality syndrome a plus...
RE[2]: Comment by ephracis
by ephracis on Sat 9th Feb 2013 10:42
in reply to "RE: Comment by ephracis"
Member since:2007-09-23
It is called "legacy" for a reason. It is there now, but it has been abandon in the sense that it will not receiving the attention and focus that it deserves. The desktop is being removed slowly.
As an analogy I could argue that DOS is still there in the form of the command line. But how much new features are brought to the command line versus the Windows GUI? Microsoft doesn't have an infinite number of personnel and can't focus on everything. It seems they are moving the desktop down the priority list very fast.
That's what gave me the idea that the desktop has been abandoned. Not removed, but abandoned.
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 21:06 UTC
"At the end of a week in which Electronic Arts confirmed it wasn't developing a thing for the Wii U, one of the software engineers in EA Sports' Canada studio, in a series of since-deleted tweets, disparaged the console as 'crap' and suggested Nintendo should give up on hardware altogether. 'The Wii U is crap. Less powerful than an Xbox 360. Poor online/store. Weird tablet', tweeted Bob Summerwill, listed as a senior software engineer at EA Canada, in a reply to a tweet posting a link about EA's no-Wii U news. 'Nintendo are walking dead at this point'." The Wii U is turning into the 21st century's Virtual Boy.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 7:37 UTC
"In NixOS, the entire operating system - the kernel, applications, system packages, configuration files, and so on - is built by the Nix package manager from a description in a purely functional build language. The fact that it's purely functional essentially means that building a new configuration cannot overwrite previous configurations. Most of the other features follow from this." Interesting approach. A Linux distribution, sure, but with some very refreshing ideas about system configuration.
Linked by fran on 05/18/13 1:38 UTC
Appfour added, among other features, C/C++ support to its new version of AIDE. From Android-IDE, "Now you can write parts of your app or your whole app in C/C++ on your device. AIDE supports the Standard Android NDK toolchain (GCC 4.6 + Bionic, STL, ...). No changes are necessary if you want to build an app developed on a PC with Eclipse. C/C++ development is fully integrated: Build errors appear in the error list and files can easily be navigated to with Go to file. The editor supports C/C++ syntax highlighting."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/17/13 23:35 UTC, submitted by kragil
Ars nails it: "The answer is that Google did announce what amounts to a fairly substantial Android update yesterday. They simply did it without adding to the update fragmentation problems that continue to plague the platform. By focusing on these changes and not the apparently-waiting-in-the-wings update to the core software, Google is showing us one of the ways in which it's trying to fix the update problem."
Linked by MOS6510 on 05/17/13 22:22 UTC
"It is good for programmers to understand what goes on inside a processor. The CPU is at the heart of our career. What goes on inside the CPU? How long does it take for one instruction to run? What does it mean when a new CPU has a 12-stage pipeline, or 18-stage pipeline, or even a 'deep' 31-stage pipeline? Programs generally treat the CPU as a black box. Instructions go into the box in order, instructions come out of the box in order, and some processing magic happens inside. As a programmer, it is useful to learn what happens inside the box. This is especially true if you will be working on tasks like program optimization. If you don't know what is going on inside the CPU, how can you optimize for it? This article is about what goes on inside the x86 processor's deep pipeline."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/17/13 22:15 UTC, submitted by Tom
"It was the only moment I heard regret slip into Otellini's voice during the several hours of conversations I had with him. 'The lesson I took away from that was, while we like to speak with data around here, so many times in my career I've ended up making decisions with my gut, and I should have followed my gut,' he said. 'My gut told me to say yes.'" The world would've been a much different place - Apple would have been less dependant on Samsung for its chips, which probably would've meant less money for Samsung to develop its Galaxy business.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 21:41 UTC
Glass is getting some love at Google I/O as well. New applications have been released - Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, Elle, Tumblr, and CNN. Perhaps more interesting: the newly announced Google Glass Developer Kit will allow offline applications and direct hardware access - great for hacking and expanding Glass' potential. This kit will really allow hackers to put Glass through its paces.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 17:04 UTC
"But Beck and Merrill decided that simply banning toxic players wasn't an acceptable solution for their game. Riot Games began experimenting with more constructive modes of player management through a formal player behavior initiative that actually conducts controlled experiments on its player base to see what helps reduce bad behavior. The results of that initiative have been shared at a lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and on panels at the Penny Arcade Expo East and the Game Developers Conference." Absolutely fascinating stuff. I'm a League of Legends player, and to be honest, the community isn't nearly as bad as some make it out to be. I'm happy Riot games has the guts to employ science to address the issue.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 13:17 UTC
"Android and iOS, the number one and number two ranked smartphone operating systems worldwide, combined for 92.3% of all smartphone shipments during the first quarter of 2013 as Windows Phone crept past BlackBerry for 3rd place. According to the International Data Corporation Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, Android smartphone vendors and Apple shipped a total of 199.5 million units worldwide during 1Q13, up 59.1% from the 125.4 million units shipped during 1Q12." Windows Phone doubles from a few to twice few, iOS loser market share as its growth is slower than that of the overall market. BlackBerry continues slide into irrelevance.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 12:06 UTC
"According to the latest research from our Wireless Smartphone Strategies service, global Android smartphone profits reached US$5 billion in total during the first quarter of 2013. Samsung dominated and captured an impressive 95 percent share of all Android smartphone profits." Wow.More News »
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Member since:
2007-09-23
I really hope Windows 8 flops big time so Microsoft will learn not to abandon the desktop. That way I can remain optimistic about Windows 9.
I completely agree with TFA: Use Windows Phone for phones/tablets and keep the old Windows ("Windows Desktop") as an OS with a single identity: desktop. Then by all means integrate those two along with the Xbox as much as you want and create great services to move data between them all. But keep the UX separated!
But the flop has to be really, really big for MS to abandon Metro on the old Windows. I fear they will just keep the desktop a few more versions but still consider it "legacy" and slowly move focus away from it.