Vendors Rally While Windows Sleeps

Anti-Globalism sends along a PCWorld article outlining two technologies from Intel and Dell that do an end run around Windows. "Dell, Intel and their partners announced last week new technologies that represent major leaps forward for mobility. The companies seem to have discovered the secret to making such bold leaps: Cut Microsoft out of the deal. One technology involves enabling users to gain instant access to a laptop's e-mail, browser and other basic functionality — without booting Windows at all. The second technology enables an Internet-based message to wake a Windows PC from sleep mode. These new technologies are perfect metaphors for what's happening in the industry... Windows is asleep while Microsoft's own partners give users what they really want."

Comments

Here's a strategy for Microsoft

[bogaboga]

One strategy for Microsoft in order to counter this trend is to modify its Windows OS license in a way that specifically prohibits this kind of set-up.

This way, a laptop will have to run a non Windows OS in order to be participant in DELL's "DELL Latitude On" or INTEL's "Intel Remote Wake."

I know this is not illegal.

Re:Here's a strategy for Microsoft

[bendodge]

Well yeah, but I'm sure Dell wouldn't just open wide and swallow that. And a licensing clause like that sounds like a good target for more anti-trust lawsuits, which the EU seems to relish.

Re:Here's a strategy for Microsoft

[node 3]

I know this is not illegal.

This is the exact type of behavior MS was convicted of a decade ago.

Three Cheers for Appliance Based Computing

[Proudrooster]

Having the computer work just like a TV, toaster, or microwave is very appealing to many. I don't know MS can't come up with refinements to make the computer "just work", but most of the time email and web are all I need. If someone can make that work at the push of a button, I'll probably use it a lot and so will my parents and grandparents.

Re:Three Cheers for Appliance Based Computing

[pz]

A long time ago, and by internet standards, I mean in pre-historic times, there was a computer called the Lisp Machine, designed and built at MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. We're talking mid-1980s here. That's more than TWO DECADES AGO. Your cell phone would run circles around a LispM.

One of the amazing things about LispMs is that they came up really, really quickly, despite having very large and slow disk drives. They did this by essentially performing a full boot and then saving that precise memory image (including all peripheral state) to a special part of the disk called a band. This is not unlike the modern laptops' suspend-to-disk feature, except that bands were pretty static. The intent was that you set up your machine just so, and then wrote what you felt was the canonical startup state to the band. Then, every time the machine started, the band loaded in from disk, and POOF! was ready to go.

It was a radical departure, and one that, unfortunately, was not learned by the industry. I would *love* to have my laptop use bands. Save-to-disk is nice and all, but since laptop hardware (and Linux support for it) is so f-ing flaky, it's far better to have a feature to boot quickly to a known-good state.

What's the relevance here? LispMs were as fast to boot as you'd expect for a computational appliance. OMFG if I have to boot my current Linux desktop or Windows laptop it takes eons to come up, and that's with hardware that's probably three orders of magnitude faster. Our modern machines should be in a known, operable state in under a second, and the only reason they aren't is poor engineering / pressure from Microsoft.

Re:Great...

[glitch23]

Anything that's not implemented correctly is a major security issue...

Even when implemented correctly it can still be a major security issue, it just becomes an even bigger one when not done correctly. Some ideas (ActiveX?) should just not ever be implemented and implementing them poorly is just asking for trouble.

Re:It's the BIOS, not windows

[jackchance]

It doesn't matter if it's in the BIOS, or uses a second processor.

It does matter that it uses a 2nd processor that is very power efficient. I haven't used a windows laptop in a while, but if you just wake your computer from sleep how long does it really take?

I think the real advantage of this is battery savings from running on an ARM processor.

From the article:

If you use only the Latitude ON system, battery life lasts not hours but days, according to Dell.

Re:They're missing out on a great opportunity

[Anonymous Coward]

We'll get the next version of Windows a year early!

There was a delay in the release of Vista... and look how buggy it is. Now you want them to release it much earlier? I say, let them take all the time they need!

Re:Sensationlist much?

[ozmanjusri]

This is retarded and sensational.

No, this is just another example of how a monopoly impedes progress.

The fact that industry is having to work around Microsoft's stranglehold instead of simply shifting to another vendor is a sad indictment of governments' handling of an abusive monopolist.

Microsoft should have been split at the original DoJ antitrust case. It still should.

Sounds like Asus ExpressGate

[gsarnold]

My new Asus P5Q Pro has a feature called ExpressGate that lets you boot a thin BIOS OS (Linux?) with Firefox, Email, etc. The installer runs from Windows, and it may or may not use data from the hard disk, but you enable/disable the feature in the BIOS.

Re:They're missing out on a great opportunity

[BronsCon]

Oh, come on. It was PERFECT on the original release date; they took those extra years to add all the bugs they could think of! OF COURSE we want the next version early!

"...give users what they really want"?

[Lazy Jones]

I don't think users would like their PCs to be accessible from the 'net while they have switched them off. That's just what all the law enforcement / domestic surveillance agencies want, a perfect way to spy on people ...

Similar technology is already used on mobile phones, they can be remotely reprogrammed to pretend that they're switched off while they're recording and transmitting your conversation.

We don't live in a 1984 world yet, but the usual greedy Megacorps are trying to patent the required technology already...

Re:Sensationlist much?

[ozmanjusri]

If Microsoft were adding features to Windows, like when they added an internet browser and media player, would you be happier?

Yep, provided they were:

1. Easily replaceable by OEMs
2. Easily replaceable by my own choices
3. Coded to follow open standards
4. Costed separately from the core OS (So I could save $10 by deselecting IE or WMP, for example.)

Those constraints would allow fair competition. If Microsoft were then able to produce better browsers and media players than the competition, they'd deserve my money.

New Technology

[DragonWriter]

One technology involves enabling users to gain instant access to a laptop's e-mail, browser and other basic functionality -- without booting Windows at all.

Uh, my laptop already uses technology that allows this, and it allows more than "basic functionality". This stunning new technology is called "Linux".

Re:Sensationlist much?

[JasterBobaMereel]

More popular does not equal better
More popular does not equal easier
More popular does not equal simpler
More popular does not equal more advanced

A monopoly helps no-one except the company who is the monopoly

People use windows because most people use windows and no other reason!