First computers that cannot boot anything but Microsoft Windows due?

[Prometheus]

Wait, there's still netbooks without windows? I though the StallmanBook whas the only alternative left

The... StallmanBook...? :blink:

It's worth noting that the netbook was originally envisioned and marketed as what the tablet is currently doing. It was a tiny computer with a simple interface to get a couple of things done without much power. The fact that it is laptop shaped lead people to assume it should be a laptop, and it slowly evolved into being just a smaller laptop that needs to be able to run WoW or it isn't really a computer. :rolleyes:


Second, you should notice that on a freshly purchased computer with Windows pre-installed, it also comes bundled with a LOT of trial applications, hereafter referred to as garbage . Some people actually pay for this garbage when the trial period ends. The companies that produce this garbage pay manufacturers to pre-install their trial software knowing that some people will pay for it. The amount that these companies pay to have their garbage pre-installed on your OS is approximately the same as the cost of Windows. So when you buy a new computer, you aren't actually paying anything for the license, all that trial software gets you a "free" copy of Windows. Many years ago, I believe it was HP that did the Linux laptop experiment: instead of Windows, you could get a laptop with a branded version of Ubuntu pre-installed. Unfortunately, no one has paid software for Linux that would be worth a pre-installed trial edition, so there was no companies to subsidize the cost, thus the Linux laptop cost the same as the Windows laptop. A little bit more as I recall, actually. The reviews for the Linux Laptop were full of "don't buy this, buy the Windows version and install Ubuntu on it. It's cheaper and you get a free copy of Windows you can dual boot into if you need it". And then the Linux Laptop was dropped.

Except in cases where there isn't a bunch of crapware pre-installed, it seems. :lol:

 

[gadgetoid]

The fact that it is laptop shaped lead people to assume it should be a laptop

That, and the fact we'd had netbooks for 10 years before they suddenly became cheap and shitty, and those were all laptops, running normal laptop operating systems.


Look familiar?...

Edit: Also, the Vaio C1XN has a nipple-mouse. A freakin' nipple mouse! Most modern netbooks just have inadequately small and impossible to use trackpads... ick! How the hell did we manage to regress so much!?

 

[WizardStan]

That, and the fact we'd had netbooks for 10 years before they suddenly became cheap and shitty, and those were all laptops, running normal laptop operating systems.

They weren't branded as netbooks nor marketed the same way though. As I understand it they were marketed as tiny computers and the expectation really was there that they be tiny computers. The netbook trend was marketed as a cheap gadget that was good for doing some web browsing and email, playing some simple games, quickly editing some documents on the go, the kinds of things that the tablet is currently being marketed as. It got "netbooks" into the hands of people that previously hadn't considered a need for such a device, and once it was there they started drawing parallels between their netbook and laptops and expectations began to grow. Now the tablet is the quick web browsing, email reading, simple task computer and the netbook is the mini-computers of old but with more mass market appeal for some reason.

 

[Mr Rob]

Lemme weigh in.


I think the biggest concern is having one company take over way too much of the market share, and the whole industry stagnating because the big player has no incentive to move or innovate. Look at the web browser wars. For the longest time, Internet Explorer was pretty much the only web browser in town, and nothing really changed for many years. It was only until a competitor (Mozilla Firefox) came up and offered something different that Microsoft really needed to get back on its game. And of late, Microsoft has been doing many things right in Internet Explorer. But they had to, or they would be pushed out of the game.


Adobe Flash... continue speech.


The desktop/laptop market has been suffering the same thing for a long time. We can point the finger at Microsoft, but it was because they had the market share and control. If Apple/Canonical/Red Hat had 90% of the desktop/laptop market, I'd bet the same would happen. And it's natural. When you're the big dog, innovation can hurt (I'm looking at you, Vista). They're more interested in holding their market than making innovations.


I'm waiting for computers to fall into line with other industries. In the US, General Motors has the highest market share, at 18.8%. Next is Ford at 16.8%. That's how capitalism should work.

 

[craigix]

Android to overtake windows this year:


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2087928/Why-PC-soon-piece-history-Android-projected-eclipse-PC-sales-THIS-YEAR.html

 

[Binky]

That is in terms of Sales, not numbers in use. The vast majority of people buying android devices also own a Windows PC, its just that their 'latest tech' budget is being redirected to smartphones.


I can, however see a future where desktop computers as we know them are restricted to the minority who do real work on a computer.

 

[slaeshjag]

Wait, there's still netbooks without windows? I though the StallmanBook whas the only alternative left

The... StallmanBook...? :blink:

Also known as the Yeelong, it's the only computer out there without any closed source firmware blobs, and thus is the only computer Richard Stallman finds acceptable to use

 

[Exophase]

Also known as the Yeelong, it's the only computer out there without any closed source firmware blobs, and thus is the only computer Richard Stallman finds acceptable to use

"2) High performance. Tests show that our platform is among the best performance for 9"-10.1"ultra mobile laptops."


Ahahahaha.. yeah..


http://bokesan.blogspot.com/2011/05/lemote-yeelong-benchmarks.html

 

[WizardStan]

Android to overtake windows this year:


http://www.dailymail...-THIS-YEAR.html

This is not surprising and also greatly disturbing that it is making news. It doesn't necessarily mean that Android is "beating" Windows any more than the fact that most houses have one stove and multiple televisions means that Sony "beats" GE (Sony being a popular TV manufacturer and GE being a popular stove manufacturer); they're two different things with only a casual relationship. It's an incredibly complex issue and raw numbers like this only confuse it by trying to relate two things directly.


One day the PC market will likely shrink as the average person moves to smartphones and tablets because that is all they need, but that's not Microsoft "losing", that's the needs of the people shifting from large desktop to smaller, simpler devices and not replacing their desktop. When Microsoft fails to make a dent in the tablet market, that will be Windows losing to Android (or iOS).

 

[gadgetoid]

This is not surprising and also greatly disturbing that it is making news. It doesn't necessarily mean that Android is "beating" Windows any more than the fact that most houses have one stove and multiple televisions means that Sony "beats" GE

Not surprising in the least. I suspect that more or less everyone has a smartphone, but many households may have only one computer. Smartphones are definitely the thin end of the wedge for the computing-as-an-appliance movement, and we see more and more people using them to do surprisingly involved online things (shopping on sites which are most certainly not mobile optimised).


It's easier to pick up a smartphone (it's probably in your pocket) and hit a website than it is to open up and boot a laptop (most people turn their laptops off religiously) and people realise that this same logic applies to tablets.


Windows is going to die a slow and painful death simply because Microsoft will fail to produce a decent software platform that unites Windows Phone and their Tablet strategies. They're delivering Windows 8 for tablets, and WP7 for Phones with seemingly no cross compatibility. Unlike iOS/Android where you can buy an App that runs on both their tablet and smartphone platforms.


They're also alienating users; with drastic UI changes from Windows 7 to Windows 8- eliminating familiarity and thus the incentive to go for Windows versus anything else. Most people avoided Linux on Netbooks because it wasn't windows. Similarly people will avoid Windows 8 because it's just too different.


This is probably why Metro has found its way onto the Xbox 360 already; it's their only chance of getting people comfortable with their UI before it rolls out on desktops, tablets and laptops. Windows Phone utterly failed to do that.


We're witnessing the death throes of an increasingly more irrelevant company. So I really don't see what harm they can do by locking down computers to their OS only... apart from alienating and pissing off a whole host of technical users.


I don't see Microsoft exiting the business/professional market in a hurry, though... Dotnet / SQL Server and whatnot are immovable giants. But their presence in business is doing them no more favours in the consumer market... rather the contrary, in fact, one of the main reasons I took so quickly to OSX was that I was sick and tired of using Windows at work ( essential to my job, then, as a DotNet developer ). I hear this from a lot of developers, so I'd like to imagine this feeling is common; people are happy to cast aside Windows in favour of a simple platform which is psychologically detached from their "work" environment.


.. right I'm not even quite sure what I'm talking about now, so I'll shut up before I ramble everyone into a coma!

 

[milkshake]

Actually its almost guarenteed that windows phone apps will work on windows 8 http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/windows-8-will-run-windows-phone-x-apps-says-nvidia-2011097/

 

[craigix]

HTML5 would solve everything

 

[milkshake]

Yes it would and that's that's idea palm had, its a shame that failed.

 

[gadgetoid]

Actually its almost guarenteed that windows phone apps will work on windows 8 http://www.geek.com/...nvidia-2011097/

I'd like to see how this actually pans out. There are so many variables. Microsoft are going to be playing catch-up from the outset, and existing Windows applications which are ported to Windows 8 will probably have neither a tablet friendly UI, nor a mobile equivalent. It seems destined to become one big clusterfuck of confusion for customers.


Yes, you can't buy a Mac desktop application and expect that to magically have a mobile version you can install on your tablet/phone, but the lines are pretty clear between OSX and iOS... Windows 8 blurring the boundaries between tablet and desktop can only spell disaster along the lines of the "expectation management" failure that contributed to Netbooks' demise.


I must add; I hate Metro. Windows Phone 7 is a disaster, and the new Xbox UI is annoying and confusing. The stupid little "panes" that make up the Metro UI very often have conflicting messages, with the text saying one thing and the image conveying another. I use the Xbox infrequently enough ( for netflix/lovefilm mostly ) that these same inconsistencies catch me out every time.


Then again, I'm used to hitting command+space and getting to what I want in a couple of keypresses without having to visually scrub retarded user interfaces. This sort of thing seems to be happening more and more in Linux UIs lately, too.


To their credit, Microsoft have added "Bing" to the Xbox, so you can often skirt the UI disaster that is Metro and just ask your console to find something for you. With Apple exploring similar concepts in the guide of Siri, perhaps we will soon be rid of stupid cluttered UIs and end up just asking our computers what we want.


And, thus ends another directionless and wildly tangental post. Thank you and good night!