Microsoft's Dell billions have Windows 8 strings attached
If you can't beat them, join them, or - if you're Microsoft - infiltrate them. Just be careful not to go in too deep. Microsoft has recently developed a clever approach to launching into markets where it has previously failed or is currently failing: rather than buy an existing name, Microsoft has become its partner. To boost …
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Touch is ok for
erm,.... not actually sure what its good for.
I hate touch phones, touch tablets and all this crap. I type words, you can't do that with these poncy 'on screen keyboards'
Give me a 'real' computer any day. And because windows 8 is designed for fondling it will suit only people that love to fondle by themselves... and there is a phrase for them.
Re: Touch is ok for
Dave 15,
You are not the whole computer market. Other people's tastes may differ from yours. It's possible, shocking I know, that you're actually in a minority - in which case company's catering to your tastes will make less cash than those which ignore you.
Re: Touch is ok for
No, but he represents MOST computer users. Remember, not everyone cares to go to technology news sites and post comments.
Most people that I know (and hundreds of average users make up my clientele)
Hate operating touch screen gadgets
Hate Windows 8 to the point that it's unusable to them.
Pay me to get rid of Windows 8 and install Windows 7 and/or Linux.
(I completely drop my hourly rate and do this for a nominal fee, because... I HATE WINDOWS 8 and I fight against what it stands for, at every turn. It's more than just a horrid user interface, to me. It's a power play that is not in the best interests of the computing industry, or users.)
It's a severe disconnect.
Microsoft desperately wants hardware manufacturers to churn out devices that either can't be downgraded or are impractical to do so.
Re: Touch is ok for
No, but he represents MOST computer users. Remember, not everyone cares to go to technology news sites and post comments.Most people that I know (and hundreds of average users make up my clientele)
Hate operating touch screen gadgets
Hmmm. Apple have sold about 100-200 million iPads. Probably double that in iPhones, and many iPod Touches. The touchscreen smartphone market is running at 400 million sales a year. There have probably been over 10 million Windows tablets over the years, and tens more millions of Android ones.
So do MOST of them secretly hate touchscreens, but go on buying them anyway?
I'm perfectly happy to agree that touchscreens are crap for typing. I read this comment last night on my iPad, while sitting on the sofa. I didn't reply. I saw it again this morning, and did, because I'm on a desktop. The iPad is for reading stuff and entertainment, the PC is for work. Although the iPad is far more convenient in meetings.
When you go out and get some survey evidence, then you can tell us that most people hate touchscreens. Until then, just stick to telling us that some people do. Which we already knew. I've not actually met a single person that hates touchscreens by the way (or at least that's told me they do) - but I'm fully aware they exist.
Microsoft desperately wants hardware manufacturers to churn out devices that either can't be downgraded or are impractical to do so.
Huh?!?! MS want people to produce touchscreen tablets using Win8, which is designed for touch - which obviously won't be as good with an OS not designed for the damned hardware. They also want to sell WinRT kit, which is the only one that's locked down, as an appliance, like an iPad on Android tab. Also both locked down. I'm sure it's very nice that you have launched a one man anti Win 8 crusade and charitable removal service - but let's keep things in perspective here.
"Also, The Reg was told, when consumers walked into shops expecting to see Windows 8 machines and didn't see any, they bought PCs running Windows 7 instead"
Hang on a minute. If consumers were going in planning to buy Windows 8 PCs and then, faced with none, ended up buying Windows 7 machines, how can that possibly be anything other than the OEM/Vendors fault? It would seem to suggest that the boys from Redmond might be onto something when they suggest OEMs just aren't producing the things people actually want to buy....
You've got a point there. The article was a bit confused. Not only did it say that about Win7/Win8, but it also said the OEMs had ignored Microsoft's strategy, and then that this strategy had failed. Well both can't be true. Either MS's strategy has been tried and failed, or it's not been tried - in which case we don't know if it'll subsequently fail or not.
No, MS simply wanted OEMs to *FORCE* us onto this pile of junk called W8...
...and, understandably, OEMs refused to do so and since W8 by itself is a stinking pile of sh** nobody's really buying it and MS is blaming everybody left and right for not forcing that half-baked crap down on our throat.
Well, I say FO to the Ballmerian gang and thank you for Dell, Sony, HP, Acer, Lenovo etc for not signing up for the angry, fat, bald beancounter's 'protection racket' and letting me choose what I buy.
didn't see any
> to see Windows 8 machines and didn't see any,
I find that _very_ hard to believe. Around here they were wall to wall.
I think that the _actual_ explanation is that they _did_ see Windows 8 and bought Windows 7 instead. In fact they probably bought Windows 7 before it was too late and they were forced onto 8.
Dell going private - good move imo.
Letting MS in on the party - bad, very bad.
The assumption is that the investment is for hardware, Dell own Quest Software, which develop a HUGE stack of enterprise supporting software and services business.
This could be a way to integrate some of the Quest toolsets into the core server OS better, akin to taking on IBM rather than Apple, as enterprise is where the money margins still are, not consumer kit. Ask Larry how many tablets he's sold this week...
As a Dell employee, I think all the internal emails about the XPS 10 that we're getting sum up how well this Microsoft deal will go.
XPS 10 is Dell's version of the Surface RT. Pretty much as soon as this launched we've been getting emails about a "great offer" to own one, with a far, far bigger staff discount that the (terrible) discount we normally get. This is something that never happens - Its cheaper to buy a Dell from PC World(!!!) than using the staff discount and buying direct, and the response from senior management has been "well then, go to PC world"
The volume and frequency of these literally begging emails to buy this RT indicates theres a warehouse in China stuffed to the gunnels with this piece of junk that Microsoft dictated and nobody wants.
They can try and blame OEM's, but this is one OEM that rolled over and did exactly what Balmer requested. Net result is Michael Dells next purchase is going to be a excavator, to dig a gargantuan hole to bury all these unwanted and unsold units.
Icing on the cake was our Windows 2012 training, with course materials provided directly by Microsoft. The first four or five slides were all about why a touch interface is a good idea on a server - First time I've ever heard a whole classroom howl with laughter at an operating system training slide deck!
THX for this story - it clearly shows the level of incompetency and arrogance at Ballmer's MSFT
"The first four or five slides were all about why a touch interface is a good idea on a server - First time I've ever heard a whole classroom howl with laughter at an operating system training slide deck!"
This. No further comment is necessary, it literally sums up everything you have to know about Ballmer's utterly clueless management, just how broken this company is..
If you are MSFT and you cannot beat them because you are incompetent and clueless...
...like the fat, bald, chair-throwing beancounter CEO then you will waste money on stupid things like Skype etc.
You might establish some presence but surely people will take notice and will know that you are utterly incompetent, stock remains in the tank etc so eventually you will get fired. The question is: WHEN WILL BALLMER et al BE BOOTED?
3 is 10% of 20?
How sad to think back on the golden days when El Reg was a truly technical site hoping to achieve official recognition for its own set of units.
Oh wait, perhaps this is one of the new units?
When will M$ sort the ASLR out?
http://kingcope.wordpress.com/2013/01/24/attacking-the-windows-78-address-space-randomization/
Addition to the script
Now when consumers call in, if they are not running that latest Windows OS they will offer a paid upgrade for the consumer to buy.
Marriage made in hell
Microsoft acquiring interest in Dell would be a disaster. Steve Ballmer and his lackeys could not manage their way out of a wet paper bag.
In other words, Dell will the the next Nokia
Once market leader becomes another struggling OEM bitch of Microsoft.
Michael Dell had better watch his back amidst the infiltration.
Microsoft can never, ever, ever be trusted.
$499? Feh.
$499? Feh. Just put like $800 of hardware into it and mark it up to an even $2000. Look at THAT margin! But seriously, Microsoft has lost their mind; blaming OEMs for Windows 8's failure is a fail in and of itself. The fact is, the makers know what is selling, and it is the lower end machines. Why? They have enough power to do what most people want, and they'd rather keep those extra $100s in their pocket (or, to spend on food, electricity, and rent.) I got a netbook, and since I kept Windows far from it (it has Ubuntu 12.04), even the 1.3ghz one is fast enough.
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