Re: really!
I have to check but at least Solaris has similar lifecycles. S8 is from 2000 and end of support was 2012.
1326 publicly visible posts • joined 31 Jan 2013
Not the problem of MS. They offer alternatives AND the end of support does not come as a surprise. If you don't like the alternatives - buy a Mac, pay for the support or live with the problems.
And let's face it - a lot of those XPs still "out there" won't survive contact with WGA testing so for them nothing changes with the end of support - they don't get any now.
Even the office will see the hybrids entering. They offer a good compromise between the typical "low end" office PC and the mobility needed if you take it to the meeting.
Techs are slowly moving towards convertibles. The price difference between a top line "mobile workstation" and the convertible is not that big. The added features are useful.
ARM getting closer? Where? Even the brand new A15 is not able to compete with the aging CTrail series Atom if both are using same gen compilers/JavaScript engines. AND it does consume equal amounts of power at "full speed". And the CTrails are on the way out (and outdated), BayTrail is smaller, faster and less power hungry.
And there is another RISC family - Motorola/IBM PPC. The one that Apple (one of it's creators!) dropped in favour of - Intel. IBM is quite happily investing in it and using it. Nice CPU, cheap, powerful, lots of OS run on it. And nobody in the mainstream cares.
MS and Intel "fading away" might happen. But I doubt I am still around WHEN it happens. The death of both has been called at least half a dozend times. Some of those calling where actually as good as or better. None managed because they all dropped the ball. And we will see that again.
Just the penables:
Asus EP121 (core i5 ULV, 4GB Ram)
Samsung Ativ 700 (core i5 ULV, 4GB Ram)
Fujitsu T902 (core i7, 16GB Ram)
Lenovo Helix (it's just out, core i5/i7 ULV, up to 8GB Ram)
...
Quite decent notebooks and in the case of the Fujitsu with the full power CPU (non ULV) quite decend workstations. And they all have the extra capabilities of a WACOM inductiv digitizer that allows to do MORE than a notebook alone can do
Tablets are more than the iThingy/Fragmentdroid/RT castrates and toy breeds!
Actually a tablet pc IS a swiss army knive that offers more capabilities than a netbook/notebook. Some can even rival the average workstation AND offer more capabilities. Killing the "three computer zoo" (Smartphone, tablet, pc) with a hybrid tablet pc and (maybe) a featurephone.
And I am not sure if I need a mobile phone any more. 95+ percent of communication is Email/Twitter/Skype/Facebook these days or if I phone a stationary (wired) phone. "Always reachable by phone" is not going to happen in my privat life. Send me a mail or speak to my mailbox and I (may) call back. In my job I will carry (and react to) a company phone when with the customer. Still prefer a mail.
So what? Who needs ARM on a tablet? Cheap tablets / hybrids with Atom CPU can do the majority of jobs. Software development and complex image manipulation are (currently) the exception due to the 2GB memory restriction.
More costly tablets/hybrids/convertibles with ULV or full powered core-i can do everything except high end egoshooters. Tablet PC are old, established technology in the Intel-sector.
Nope, the "stupid admin" and "IT guy whio does not know how to teach the users" exclusions since a guy named Tom38 obviously is both. The really old PIV/Win XP box my dad uses since 2008 does NOT have the problems. Locked down nicely and with proper software instead of McAffee. Still runs and will do so until March 2014 when it gets switched for a HP Pavillon with Win8 (and I get a new box AND a decend Solaris system in the ole Dell Dimension)
Maybe you should learn a bit about Windows. Or stop installing that "cheap copy of x"...
Windows boxes getting slower over time is a non-issue since XP (and was a non-issue for the NT-line before that).
As for software quality - some of the crap delivered by Samsungs Android devices makes Win3.11 look like "best of breed"
My prediction is that a year from now we will see quite a number of hybrids replacing notebooks and the older "toy tablets", mainly the Android units (Apple has the "hip" factor). Android (or whatever Samsung sells cheaply then) will be back to phones and Intels Atom and core-i chips will be the choice for most tablet devices again.
Win8 will be on most of this new units in the privat space. It may not be the best tablet os nor the best desktop os but is does a fine work in both jobs and for hybrids that IS a mayor factor. The fact that it has tons of software that people know will help as well.
RT will be dead unless MS unlocks it, than it might have a small market for embedded/kiosk devices. Not worth the money compared to an Atom-based unit IMHO
The penable will have returned, sadly often burdened with a fingerprint-generator add-on (and glossy screens) but maybe some big companies will again offer a "no touch" option and matt displays.
Actually the game is changing again - back to where MS based tablets have been for a decade. Stuff like the (expensive and low-capabel) JotPro for iThingy or the Note series show that the pen makes a comeback. And then the question quickly is - why not a similar priced yet more powerful/flexible Atom tablet? Endurance of ARM and Atom is similar, weight is similar but in all other areas even the aging CTrail Atom currently used and Windows (your choice of 7 or 8) runs rings around the competition.
Daylight usability could be easily achived - drop the fingerprint interface, use the pen only again
Battery life is a "how much computing power do you need" thing. Atoms can do 10+ hours in a lightweight package good for most jobs and Baytrail will improve that. If you need more you get either reduced time (4-5h at 800-1000g) or a lot more weight (8-10h at 1600-2100g)
Yes, MS has a mighty fine ecosystem all the way from low powered/long duration (Atom) to mid-level (core-i ULV) to full-powered (core-i desktop) tablet/convertible units available. Add in mature software for using pens (that are coming back strong - see stuff like JotPro for iThingy or the Note series) and stuff like speech recognition that does not need the GMail man / Grandpa Jobs listening in (And works even on the Atoms) and mid-term they have the best package. They've been doing tablet pc for more than a decade.
Even more so since the same stuff also works on desktop maschines so the handwritten document from MS-Journal can be watched and edited on say a Dell desktop (Try that with SNote!) and vice versa. Add (one of) the biggest pools of pen-useable software (Every MS desktop software works with a pen), near-perfect printer support and good central management software for the companie use as well as an open platform(1) unlike iOS/Android
It will only have limited effects on iPads since they are bought for the "cool/hip" factor. But the more basic Android tablets will suffer. Even more so since they can not deliver certain features like multiple accounts(2), long term update/patch guarantees (Necessary for a notebook replacement) or just good printer support(3)
(1) Modern needs special setup for a companie or the MS-store for privat use but Desktop is "just install"
(2) No support until 4.2 (That is not out on a non-Google tablet yet) and limited / badly implemented on 4.2
(3) A Samsung ML2010 works fine for my Windows and Solaris boxes using a 25€ printserver. Even the Samsung printer app does not support it under Android 4.x
Actually a tablet/hybrid for BOTH uses would make even more sense. Why own/carry/sync a whole zoo of units when one (maybe with a dock) can do it all? A nice long duration Atom with dock can replace Smartphone, iThingy/Fragmentdroid AND the typical "non gamer" home PC easily. Just add a "7 days between recharging" featurephone and you are good.
Tablet pc work fine in all roles. The new "hybrid" breed like the Helix might work even better than the elder "external BT keyboard" units like the Samsung Slate or the Asus EP121. At around 800g the tablet unit is light enough and with the KB-dock it can do all the jobs a common desktop / notebook can do.
If you need more power - Convertibles. A Fujitsu T90x is the equivalent of a full powered workstation in all but the high-end graphics (performance wise). Since "notebooks" are more and more common as development maschines (allowing easy home office and customer demonstrations) the setup (often with dock) gets more common. Why not add "tablet/convertible" to the list
Granted, neither unit will replace Olivia Officeworkers desktop. But Danny Developer could easily live with them (and maybe a dock for convenience). Olivia meanwhile is weill on the way to a "thin client" anyway and that might well be a Atom based hybrid like the Ativ500, Latitute 10 or TPT2. Sitting in a dock with monitor for "office" use and as a penable for conference room notetaking.
And those same Atom penables can replace quite a few household pc being both an "iPad" (out of dock) and a "notebook/desktop" (in dock + external monitor) for actually less money than both units combined. And new features like Miracast in the next gen tablet pc makes them even more interesting. Take the tablet and a small receiver and show your photos to Aunt Annie
That leaves gamers as the final "privat PC user" and even there not all of them since the integrated graphic units of the Intel chips can run quite a few games these days.
Wasn't he in Sweden because he wanted to become a RESIDENT of that country? So back then it was safe there and suddenly it is not? The US did not need him acused of a crime in Sweden to ask for extradiction - a crime in the US is enough for that. Wether Sweden grants it is then up to swedisch laws. Laws that where fine for Assange until he was acused of breaking them.
My take on it is that he either
a) Commited the crime and don't want to do the time
b) Actually has a nice STD and want's to skip the testing a court might / will order
c) Did nothing, saw it as an opportunity to make himself "important" and "in the media" and now has no way out
c) is the "nicest" option for the US. Imagin:
Assange gets to a Swedish court. Short quesitioning where he "pleads the fifth" (or the Swedish equivalent), After 10min it's all over. Upon leaving the court he is delivered a note making him "persona non grata", escorted to the next SAS plane to Australia. 18+ hours later the plane lands in Sidney and Assange is thrown out by two sturdy swedish stewards (if he is lucky they wait for the boarding steps) and told "never to come back to Sweden or we show you the bogs". THAT would make him a paranoid laughing stock all over the world.
Welcome to the 0.2 percent group. I am well aware that the processor had some interesting features and the PS3 was used for engineering/scientific tasks because of that, But as said
>Not that it really mattered. 99.8 percent of the users that ran "OtherOS" as the feature was correctly called did >not use the PS3 as a game platform and never upgraded
Those users did not care. They never needed/used the Sony upgrade anyway. The crossover-group was extremly small. Loud but small
It disables the PFY that runs around trying to convice anybody to "use Linux", often by installing it on other peoples systems by using the Fosstard special argument "It's free!". Switch it on, set a password to the BIOS and no more urgent calls "I have this new OS on my system from <enter PFY name> and now <enter beloved software> does not run any more. You must come here (only 200+km and I had other plans for the weekend) to fix it". Okay, the PFY might try to run amok in frustration but out here in rural germany we are still nicely armed so that is not a problem either.
Three percent of WPhone? Wow - double the share Linux has on the desktop. So 2013 will be the year of WP8!
As for Win8 - we will see. Out since late Oktober, tablet pc with it are actually selling decently even without much advertisement. Companies do not pick it up (yet) since many have either just done the XP->W7 translation or are doing it this year. And for a company that is not a "long weekend" operation more a "long year" one.
Modern works. For everyone that does not wear blinds and instead actually TRIES the Win8 interface for an hour or two it works well, depending on usage better than Win7. Spend this week testing it with my elderly parents that will get new boxes(either Notebooks or Tablet-PC) in 2013. They liked it better than Win7 for their uses since they do not have to search in menues or dig out the desktop
Office365 is a "if you like it" - I don't. So when I upgraded to 2013 I got the standard office. I can see some uses and I can see some legal problems (Safe Harbour vs. Patriot act). If the legal probles are "solved" than companies that do not run their own IT department can get rid of the PFY "admin" and switch to O365 nicely. Say the estate agent or the local carpenter (German small/medium business use a "cloud" solution called DATEV for taxes/bookkeeping since the 1970s so more would not be too strange for them)
Command Economy? where? I can write and market whatever software I want under whatever license through whatever channel on Win/ 86. Even GPL stuff would "run" if one likes that restricted license. GPL based stuff OTOH is locked into the" one and only true way" as dictated by the great leader
Even the aging Ctrail ATOM has more computing power than an A15 if both are using the same gen JavaScript engine. And the endurance of the current Atom tablets from Dell and Lenovo is around 10-11h - about equal to the top line current gen 10.1'' ARM units. Even the Samsung units get 7-8h of real world use. Intel has been doing low powered CPU for some time.
And there is not ARM Win8 - there is Win8 and Win/RT. And the RT does not even TRY to simulate x86 nor could they (see above). Even a A15 at "full power" (and more power consumption than an Atom) is not as fast as the slowest dual core Atom. And you need more power than the target cpu for a simulation (PPC could emulate an 68k in early PowerMacs IIRC)
I tested Dragon Natural 10 on a Lenovo S10-3 with similar performance. It worked but needed quit a bit of memory so it was "one other application only" (the unit had 2GB/Win7). Win8 is a tad smaller and the SR-engine is IIRC smaller then DN10 so it should work better.
If you have a W7 or W8 unit around - test the engine on that, it is part of Win7 H/P and better and off W8/Pro at least (don't have a W8 without pro around) and see how it behaves. Maybe asking in a "Staples" if you can use it on say an ATIV 500 (similar performance to the TPT2) is an option
The Lenovo TPT2 with 3G is 830€ / 703 GBP in the official Lenovo shop. So it is actually quite close even without shopping around. And the Lenovos have decend to good 2nd hand prices when you sell them. Given that you get more (Wacom induktive digitizer, SD-card slot) it actually is a "better buy"
Depends on your use / needs. This is an ATOM so it will likely have less power than your Thinkpad (assuming a resonably current unit) and it has a smaller screen.
If the mobile use of your system is mostly:
+ Note taking / notepad replacement
+ Reading documents and mail
+ Minor fixes to Powerpoint / Doing simple PPs
+ Checking documents for errors / making short corrections (or just notes for the original author)
+ Time management with Outlook/Notes
+ Running some Windows applications like SAP clients or other "thin/rich client" stuff
+ Some tools like "MindMappers" or "Initial Sketching to show the customer ideas"
then this and similar units are great. Forget keyboard etc and key a bookcase. Carry all day (endurance is 10+h "in the wild" according to users and a "slow but useable" car charger exists as well) and use free standing.
If your mobile use is
+ Programming (small editing/config tasks work)
+ Writing long Word documents/Exel Sheets
+ Watching tons of movies
+ Need more than 2GB memory / 64+64GB storage
then this is not the "right stuff". You'll need at least the keyboard (There is IIRC a bookcase with integral keyboard available in the US) and maybe a mouse loosing the "transportable as a legal pad" benefit. Screen size get's more important as well. Maybe a convertible like the Duo 11 (Heavier, costlier but very powerful) or a plain notebook is better - depends on useage.
If you want "user maintainable parts" (or even quick/hot swap batteries) the TPT2 isn't for you either - look at the DELL Latitude 10 or some (high priced) Fujitsu units (Q572 IIRC)
Check if you need the 3G unit or can do with a WLAN unit and tethering through a smartphone or MiFi - IIRC the european units do not have LTE so the latter may be the more interesting option and saves over 100€
Me - I wait for the Helix, will check it out and then will likely buy a T902 selling off all other computer stuff and the smartphone :)
Hours? Try minutes. Ask yourself honestly how many programs do you use regularly. Less than 80 most likely including games. And those fit nicely on the Modern start screen. The "rarely used" are quickly launched through the very powerful search.
As for the "multiple windows" - where is the problem? Your "workflow" will use classic applications and those work like they did in Win7. The "multi windows" only applies to Modern apps
And those 144 folders all end up in your "start" menu? Wow - talk about unusable/deep structure. IIRC the "last used" popup is a Win7 (maybe Vista) feature.
My start menu never had more than the programs in it (< 72) and the rest was done through them. If I really need documents - I pin them on the desktop. Easier now than ever since my programs are pinned on the seperat Modern screen.
Before the year ends I will likely pay 2000€ for a convertible with 16 GB and a good dock. Why? One box for all. Tablet mode for "on the move", notebook for editing and ducked for serious programming with 2-3 monitors. 166B because good IDE and the appserver/db for local testing likes memory and because it is cheap. High cost because I want a user serviceable system AND because I want long running times on batteries. So basically LenovoX2x0 series, Fujitsu 90x or maybe a "Duo13
Fujitsu is costly and not in the "big stores" around germany, limiting their visibility. But sturdy, long lived and one of the few that is basically fully "user serviceable" and even designed that way in fine details (i.e air filters). When it comes to upper end notebooks and mobile workstations they are still the best
Actually older (1st gen) core-i units have almost as much processing power as the current ivy bridge. The integrated GPU is slower, the consume a tad more power and support (if at all) only older versions of WIDI (and maybe some hybernate modes).
All more important in mobile devices where the extra GPU speed is useful (okay post AERO this has gotten better) and the new WIDI (and Miracast) options can be very useful in presentations. Depending on what they deliver from the promisses the next gen core-i (Haswell) might be a good enough reason to upgrade mobile units (That and Baytrail are the reasons I am currently not buying a new unit - let's wait for what those offer)
Actually the needs existed (as did tablet pc) for a decade before iPads. The technology is only now reaching the needed capabilities in processing power, battery duration and sturdy, fast data storage. Not to mention mobile data networks - less than a decade ago mobile data was slow and costly.
This has kept those units "specialist maschines" and costly. Having HP, IBM and FSC as the only manufacturers and Wacom as the only digitizer did not help.
The iOS/Android units are an intermediat step between those older units and the "new breed" of Atom (Baytrail) and core-i (Haswell) units we will see later this/early next year that can do "all the jobs" (desktop, notebook, tablet) on one device (Convertible or likely Hybrids). No matter what OS as long it is "one for all uses of the device"