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Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
WallsRSolid writes "Microsoft just finished a week-long series of lectures and demos at my university, and the product that really stole the show was the Tablet PC. I was in a room with probably 150 hardcore linux users, and it seemed to me that the demonstration just floored them (the entire lecture hall CHEERED a Microsoft product). I believe that Microsoft's own online hype literature is insufficient in describing just how powerful their Tablet concept is. A July preview, Acer's propaganda, a press release about their initial success, and a behind-the-scenes account (good article) of the enabling technology. Oh, and the input stylus is electromagnetic, not pressure-sensing, ANY document (not just MS) can be annotated, and the journal software is AMAZING in its power and flexibility."
...is their desktop OS monopoly, not than their applications. If they've done something cool, power to 'em.
./ who quietly use Windows to be productive. Maybe it is because hardcore programmers only care about tech specs and standards compliance (which is of course important). But if we don't start to produce VERY NEAT applications and user interfaces we will all be living in DRM Town very soon!
And that's exactly where the problems begin. It's just my personal opinion but most of the absolutely neat software features I see invariably come from Microsoft. It's not just that they are able to throw huge amounts of money into development (others do that too) it's that they almost always come up with definetely visionary stuff in consumer software (currently only topped by Apple). In contrast to KDE and Gnome, MS and Apple applications convey a look and feel that is fun to use.
So where is Desktop Linux, where is Tablet Linux? (Insert my usual usablility rant here) Even if it probably is only an OS for geeks, it's quite clear that geeks love neat stuff, too. Or otherwise there wouldn't be so many Linux-to-OSX converts and there wouldn't be so many Linux zealots here on
I know this is OT -- but your description of the Xbox was about the best I have heard yet. If you visit the demo centers usually the PS2's and Gamecubes are running strong, and then you have the Xbox's sitting their with the "blank screen of death". The fact that they die on demo in so many places is one feature that has reminded me not to pick one up.
(+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
IBM just used it ala mouse-input. Microsoft is allowing people to use digital ink as a first class citizen in the computing world. It's a whole new way of looking at computing.
I don't speak marketing weaselese, so I don't know what "digital ink" is, but IBM had a little application that let you write with the stylus in say, a text entry box, and it would convert it to text on the fly. I'm also pretty sure Apple Newton did the same thing, and before that a research group in Stanford was developing similar principles. A whole new way of looking at computing? I think not.
Bush Lies Watch
Don't believe it! Its a big conspiracy... CmdrTaco has been bought. WallsRSolid works for Acer. Those 150 "hardcore linux users" were M$ employees with borrowed penguin T-shirts!!! I _knew_ they'd start something like this the moment Linus left for his cruise... This is MS FUD at its best!! I'd rather believe that RMS is cheering for Bitkeeper. Chant with me: "This is a Conspiracy, this is a conspiracy, this is a conspiracy ..."