Windows 8: A soaraway Kinect? Or is it Red Ink Friday for Microsoft? Can Windows 8 and Windows RT slabs bring the Kinect effect to Microsoft? That’s the question as US shoppers and retailers begin a four-week shopping frenzy in the run up to Christmas. It was just over two years ago Microsoft launched its hands-free game controller Kinect for the Xbox to wild and unexpected success. This was …
Affordability.
I got mine for a new (clean) notebook for 29 Eur. That's for the professional version, downloaded directly from MS. Took about 1 hour from opening Google to up-and-running (including the burning of the evaluation version, which was required to start the proper download). I was quite impressed: the jump from winXP to win8 was much less painful than expected.
Now I hope to have some 10 years of quiet before I have to switch again :).
That does show that Microsoft could have skipped spending all that money to develop a phone interface for the desktop, released the kernel improvements as a Win7 service pack AND dropped the price, and still made a shitload of money out of it. After all, it's not like most people are going to buy or otherwise use any OS except Windows when they buy a computer. Microsoft could release a great steaming turd and people will buy it because buying anything else means saying goodbye to the vast majority of all software written for PCs.
In fact, I do believe that's what Microsoft has just done with TIFKAM.
You can imagine the kids losing sleep homing that the parents put a Kinect under the Christmas tree to enliven their XBox experience. And parents would like the kids to get some exercise while they play games.
How many kids are going to lose sleep hoping there's a Win8 DVD under the tree?
Indeed. According to PCMag.com, Microsoft's first hardware products were released in 1980, and they were expansion cards for the Apple II line...
http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow/story/300240/the-secret-history-of-microsoft-hardware/1
What I need here is the ability to put two icons on my post: a thumbs-up for Kubla and a red-fail for the article. I'll settle for the thumbs-up because Kubla already did the red-fail.
Were you not at all suspicious why Engadget constantly posted articles about Kinect hacks? It will all become apparent when you see it's official use, as everything on Xbox Kinect was embarrassingly bad.
It was an elaborate smokescreen by Microsoft and it's pals in the press to make you feel better about your purchase of overpriced junk.
What percentage would buy XP with SP4 proper File Explorer and choice of skins with all spurious services off by default and no "crapware" pre-installed and NT4.0 Enterprise's support for 16G RAM?
It would boot faster than Win7 or Win8
More Software runs on it.
More memory is free for applications
Maybe MS lost sight of what users actually need and want (not the same) about 10 years ago?
How much "success" has each version of Windows because there is no choice and it's pre-installed?
Have to admit my completely virgin Win8 64bit does boot faster than the crusty, decade old XP 32bit install it dual boots the same hardware.
A 45s vs 60s difference. And just like XP it's actually ready to accept *and respond to* input a fair while after that.
Frankly I expected more improvement just from jumping 32-64bit and the clean file system advantage. Like previous smoke and mirrors it feels like it starts much faster but it's really just putting the screens up while it finishes loading.
The Kinect is open enough to allow people to connect it to what they want, hack away at it and do cool new things that MS never thought of. All this brings press coverage for the Kinect and is, in effect, free PR. (I'm ignoring the legal threats MS issued to the first hackers.)
Win8, on the other hand, is locked down tight and so is the hardware. No hacking, no cool new ideas, nothing. So all MS get is the bad press about how shit Win8 is (and it is shit).
The poor quality of the Surface.
Oh, and the bad press about blocking the Linux Foundation's attempts to get their own bootloader signed.
And the other bad press about dodgy firmware that only accepts the MS boot label.
And the...you get the idea.
And there is the problem in a nutshell. Every different flavour of unix/linux. Fracturing all over the place yet again. Except of course with Android you have to pay for the Apple and Microsoft patent licensing or risk the legal big guns being turned on you. Just ask HTC.
So why don't you go and hack those then? Why do want to install Linux on a Windows tablet? Hardware no good?
"Why do want to install Linux on a Windows tablet?"
Why should MS be allowed to dictate to me what I can do with my own property?
Would you be happy with Ford telling you which company's fuel you can use? Or what clothes you have to wear when driving?
It's the principle. My device, my choice. And yes, before you start, Apple are equally guilty (but they're not a convicted monopolist yet and are not restricting choice on other company's products like MS are).
you keep saying that, as if MS were convicted of having a monopoly when you KNOW because I and other have told you, this is not the case. There is nothing illegal about a monopoly or about trying to get one.
They were accused of trying to leverage an OS monopoly into a browser monopoly at a time when the other browser (Netscape Navigator) wanted money for their product and MS didn't. They gave it away for free with the OS. You could still install Netscape Navigator easily enough; IE never blocked Navigator from working.
These days, anyone who cares can use the browser ballot to install whatever they like. For free. Do you think browsers would be free if not for MS? Because I have to say, I doubt it.
"convicted monopolist" again and again and again. You don't even know what you're typing. I reckon it's a reflex.
"There is nothing illegal about a monopoly or about trying to get one."
There is about abusing it. Here, let me help you with some basic comprehension:
Were (are) MS a monopoly? Yes.
Were they convicted for abuse? Yes.
Ergo "convicted monopolist".
"These days, anyone who cares can use the browser ballot to install whatever they like."
Where's the "Uninstall IE option"? Ah yes, you can never remove it. How cute. And of course MS is now blocking the install of alternative OSs on to most OEM hardware (and yes, I know about MS's terms surrounding SecureBoot and whilst they are not blocking as stated fact but the effect is to block any alternative. I for one hope to see the regulators move on that - certainly given MS's ineptitude with the Linux Foundation boot-shim and the requirement to use an MS OS to proceed with the key-signing).
"Do you think browsers would be free if not for MS?"
Yes. Just like operating systems can be free (in terms of beer and speech), and office applications, and drawing programs, and CAD applications and...
"You don't even know what you're typing. I reckon it's a reflex."
Well hello there Mr. Pot, how is Mr. Kettle these days?
"If you use something other than IE and it never touches the 'net, why the hell do you make such a big deal about uninstalling it? Are those 3MB so crucial to you?"
Well, for starters baking it deeply into the OS in such a manner that it can't be removed was deemed to be abuse of a monopoly position which led to MS becoming a convicted monopolist.
Secondly, despite not ever wanting to use IE it keeps popping up. Want to open an XML file? Oh look, there's fucking IE. One used to be able to deal with that relatively quickly by altering the file associations, which is a bloody PITA on Windows 7.
And thirdly, it is much bigger than 3mb. So why should I keep code for an application I don't want hanging around as a security risk? Oh, I have to because some wing-nut decided to integrate said security risk deeply into the OS.
"You're a linux evangelist anyway so you couldn't use IE if you tried, you hypocrite."
I don't think you understand you meaning of the word "hypocrite", so I'll help you with some basic comprehension again. hypocrite, adjective: Person portraying false virtue; or Person who acts in contradiction to their own statements. So I'd only really be a hypocrite if I said "Don't use IE" whilst in fact using it. So I can't be a hypocrite on my GNU/Linux systems as they don't run IE (IE6 could be run in WINE I guess). I could be a hypocrite on my Windows system, but I've gone to great pains to avoid IE altogether because is it so bloody god-awful.
As for being a "linux evangelist" (which would be quite a compliment if it came from someone with any clue as to what they were talking about), if attempting in some small way to defend freedom and foster competition is offensive to you, then I strongly advise to reassess your values; defending oppression does seem like a nice lifestyle. Or maybe you have Stockholm Syndrome, there are people who can help with that.
> Do you think browsers would be free if not for MS?
Before IE there were several web browsers available for various systems.
Mosaic was free, and there was a Windows port. """While often described as the first graphical web browser, Mosaic was preceded by WorldWideWeb and the lesser-known Erwise[5] and ViolaWWW.""" these were also free.
Netscape's browser was free for non-commercial use but commercial users were expected to purchase Netscape's web server on which the business was based.
IE was written by Spyglass on the basis that they would be paid $5 for every copy sold. By giving it away for free they avoided giving money to Spyglass, though later court action had MS have to give some anyway.
The basis for free was to drive Netscape to bankruptcy. Netscape had announced that the web could support web based applications that would replace desktop computers. These would run Java and Javascript and would bring back centralised computing. By killing Netscape MS managed to hold back computing for 15 years (1995 - 2010) and the industry is only now realising what Netscape intended.
But, of course, IE is not free at all. It is simply a part of what you pay for when you _buy_ Windows.
To add to Richard's excellent response, there is the PengPod and the Vivaldi Tablet, plus any number of "odd ball" things coming out of China. Oh and the WebOS unit that HP dropped during it's most recent schizophrenic fit. Need I go on?
If you hate Linux, good luck in using your fridge, PVR, eReader, car and router; all of which are probably running a Linux in one form or another.
The technology, two Apple i4Chumps, at great cost. And then 5 Androids.
I would have bought Microsoft, but I said time and time again, I hate the Ribbon, I hate Metro, and I hate the lack of an up key. Their loss. I would have bought five boxes, but they can go f*ck themselves.
I'm still a fan of SQL Server, c#4, and Linq. But they are wandering down a path, where they employ thousands of people under the guises of project manager, business analyst, and marketing consultant, all considerably less intelligent than me, (and much less intelligent than their techies,) and they want to tell me, what it is I am to find useful. They want me to spend 10 minutes a day, searching round the screen for a place to click that will move me to the parent directory, when the computer could do it in a second.
Well I'm not going to. They can sod off. I'm happy to go back to Unix system programming. Windows 7 will last me a decade. I've bought 5 Android tablets just to avoid buying Microsoft.
I will not be pushed by some thick style over content tosser, who thinks that because all they do all day is Powerpoint from one location, that that's all I need to do.
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