Slashdot Mirror
Bill Gates: the Traditional PC Is Changing
Billly Gates writes "Bill Gates, in an interview with Charlie Rose last night, defended the move to Metro-ize Windows 8 and focus solely on the tablet experience (here's the video — tablet talk starts around 28 minutes in). When asked how traditional PC users will react, he explained that the world is moving into tablets, and a new PC needs to have both experiences integrated together. Also, he defended the move to build the Surface while charging his competitors a bundle for Windows 8. He says users have access to both experiences, whether it is a signature Microsoft one, or from an OEM. Is the a sign the desktop is dead or dying?"
Gates stopped short of saying the traditional PC is dead, but dodged direct questions about its future. This is a big change to the stance he has advocated in years past.
Mobile computing is the future -- just ignore the battery life.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Bill is right, the traditional pc is changing... But is it too late for ms to figure it out, or has apple already sucked out all the oxygen? It sucks to be late to the party...
I don't see Apple shoving a grand unified UI down the throats of its tablet, laptop, and desktop users. And I don't see Apple users complaining or getting confused by tablet gestures vs keyboard/mouse operations.
How about we just standardize on the iPod? Put one wheel on the front of everything and be done with it.
Have gnu, will travel.
No, it's a sign that /. needs editors.
Slashdot's editors are actually AIs that battle each other deep inside the Gibson. The stories are chosen by the one that survives 17 rounds of gruelling competition. If you listen carefully, you can almost hear the crunch of cheetos and the pounding techno music as hot girls in glowing costumes introduce the contenders. Malda didn't retire, he just returned to userspace.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Yeah, running a massive charity that helps eradicate disease around the world and improve education? What a selfish jerk.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
The vast majority of people who used a Windows PC because it was the only way to do basic things like web, email and simple word processing or data entry never really needed one. Those people will now move to something else, since at long last there actually IS something else other than a Mac that cost about twice as much as was still almost as complicated.
But there are those who DO need a PC. As they realize that Windows 8 isn't a PC operating system anymore they have a choice to make. Suck it up and try to keep using it because of the legacy app problem, move to a Mac or try Linux. (For the people I'm talking about it is probably, try Linux.... again.)
Linux blew the opportunity offered by the Vista fiasco by having most popular distros all but unusable during that period due to the PulseAudio debacle. And now when we get a redo every major distro is as deeply into "Tablet Madness" as Microsoft. We just can't win. Only consolation is Apple is ALSO terrifying their own user base with the increasing iOS creep into OS X. Option #4 anyone? What would it be though?
Democrat delenda est
Some people browse the web on iPads now. This is approximately the only piece of evidence I've seen that the PC is "dying".
We all still have a PC in our office to do real work. People write code, write papers, design things, run simulations, SSH into servers, work with complicated spreadsheets and databases, run custom software applications, etc. When there's any sign at all that most of that work is moving onto tablets, then it'll be reasonable to start saying the PC is dying.
It's uneducated morons like you who are condemning society to hell. Always thinking that you're correct, everyone else is wrong, basing all your decisions on your newspaper headline educated attitude.
You are a moron (had to say it twice)
Hah that's about right. The traditional PC isn't going to be going anywhere, at least not until quantum computing becomes the norm, or wetware exists. Until then there will always be a need for some type of box that's connected with low latency, and always available power, with plenty of processing and graphics power.
And with the rumored consoles coming out, and them being as bad in terms of graphics as the previous generation, I can't see why people would keep buying them.
Om, nomnomnom...
This guy makes a strong argument that tablets will pass traditional form factor PCs (desktop/laptop/notebook) by Q3 2013. It isn't very far out to forecast.
My anecdotal data bears this out. Among buddies buying new systems when old machines die or are given away, very few replace a PC with a PC. They replace them with tablets at least 80% of the time.
The world is changing, and it's an interesting inflection point, very much like when PCs took over from workstations as the main "go to" computer for most tasks. People didn't believe it then either - had all kinds of reasons it could never happen - but happen it did. Just like then, there is a crowd now that doesn't believe it, but the sales numbers don't lie. Tablets are growing 100% year over year, and PCs sales are flat (declining in the developed world, slight increase in the developing world).
It's like that time in the 1990s when Bill Gates discovered the Internet several years later than everyone else...
But it's Bill Gates, so some people listen and think he's said something profound!
#DeleteChrome
If the PC is dead, what are the developers writing dinky little games and apps for your shiny new tablets going to use? Have you tried designing a gui with gestures? Typing 150,000 lines of code on a touchscreen? Sure, you can attach a bluetooth keyboard and mouse ... as long as the batteries hold out.
In addition to that, if PC gamers wanted a braindead machine they'd get a handheld or a console. The sort of games I enjoy need a mouse, keyboard and very large screen. Tablets have their place but they're no substitute for a real computer.
Hal Spacejock: Science Fiction with Nuts
they pry the last one from my cold, dead fingers.
Or nuke me in my bunker. Same diff.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Money is symbolic only, simply moving it from one place to another does not accomplish anything real. But if you find someone with a lot of money to be particularly disagreeable, you can refuse to accept their money. Money's only real value to the individual is their ability to spend it, and if no one will accept it, it becomes worthless.
Yeah, running a massive charity that helps eradicate disease around the world and improve education? What a selfish jerk.
Yeah, running A strongarm for big pharma that pretends to eradicate disease without being able to get into every country where it is an issue because of regressive IP policies and attempt to shape education in a way that results in more sales for Microsoft, using money that he effectively stole from the entire computing industry by illegally abusing a monopoly position in such a way that it held the computing industry back at least half a decade, and probably a whole one? I call that a selfish jerk, but I guess that's just because I own a dictionary.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I guess "life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness" are just empty words to you?
Are you aware that the original words were "life, liberty, and the pursuit of profit"?
Methinks the Founding Fathers felt a need to be less crass about what we stood for. Though maybe we should reinstate the original words, for the post-1980 era when greed is considered the highest civic virtue.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
When I'm designing stuff (mechanical, schematic, PCB layout), I need a desktop computer: good optical mouse, comfortable chair, big monitor, full-sized keyboard, fast/loaded computer. I have tried to do that on a tablet or notebook, it's not even close. I agree with Spacejock, there is no replacement when you need real development.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Albert Einstein
Why change interfaces we're accustomed to (Win9x shell) for metro? Why change menus for ribbons in other apps??
People are telling you they do NOT want them (despite your "research groups" saying otherwise).
Sir - a basic marketing rule: You cannot sell people what they don't want.
Signed,
Disgruntled and Frustrated PC user
The traditional PC won't go away as long as we have PC games.
Yeah, Company of Heroes 2 just won't be the same on a hand-held.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Why, as a society, can't we take what we need from Bill Gates to fund projects we desperately need as a society?
Except for perhaps not facing Reagan-era like tax levels, Bill is already voluntarily contributing large amounts to a number of very worth causes.
Perhaps you should look down the list of richest people in the U.S. to numbers 3 and 4, and see what the Koch brothers are doing with their money. Look up some of the groups funded.
from the WP:
"David and Charles have funded conservative and libertarian policy and advocacy groups in the United States.[7] Since the 1980s the Koch foundations have given more than $100 million to such organizations, among these think tanks like the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute, as well as more recently Americans for Prosperity.[8] Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks are Koch-linked organizations that have been linked to the Tea Party movement."
The premise that Metro is a forgone conclusion for the way a tablet/phone experience succeeds is a poor one. The market has not shown that to be true. I figure Win8 is their move to try to force the issue and gain some traction by effectively throwing the desktop market under the bus, since they don't have to worry about losing those to competitors by and large (Vista proved that in relatively modern history).
I've always hated hot corners, and Windows 8 demands they be used a lot. Both in the annoying 'mouse happened to go to a corner of a screen, do something without user 'clicking' anything' and the somewhat more forgiveable hidden UI element to click on and do things. The hotcorners aren't as bad as the 'activities' hot corner of Gnome 3, but I find it a questionable choice, *particularly* in the context of touch interfaces where hot corners don't even have their 'auto-find' aspect that people like so much.
The jarring difference between 'Metro UI' and Desktop applications is unfortunate. It's especially bad where you have two 'Internet Explorers" that behave very differently. OSX full-screen really did this right, the full-screen app management pretty much let's the apps be the same in windowed and fullscreen mode, and just tweak the navigation/task switching.
The search feature is 'hidden' (a common theme in the Metro interface) as there is no visual indication of it's availability. For a keyboard user, I consider this minor, but wonder how it plays in a tablet UI, where typically a text field is a cue for virtual keyboard. More annoying is that the search by default hides all but 'Apps' results, meaning you have to note the non-Apps categories count when searching. Worse yet, that summary will auto-hide, leading you with no UI indication of actual results that you actually want.
All that said, conceptually there is one thing I think is nice about Metro and Gnome 3, the general concept that when you do 'Start' or 'Activities', that the entire screen real estate is dedicated to the action. I kind of prefer Gnome 3's view over the Metro start (the former giving better consideration for task switching rather than just launching).
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
You need a keyboard, monitor, mouse... not a desktop computer. All those things will be able to connect wirelessly to your tablet.
For the few uses that really NEED a desktop, they'll still exist, but will be a niche market and more expensive. They won't die entirely, just like mainframes haven't died entirely. There's still a mainframe market and business. Neither will desktops die, but they won't be used by the masses any more, so the price will rise accordingly as it becomes more and more niche.
For atom-based businesses, the tablet will replace the clipboard and the PC. For bit-based businesses, larger and multiple screens will replace the single-screen PC, but they will still be keyboard/mouse based.
Metro will work just fine on both. Windows, even in this day and age, still has app lock-in. I tried bringing up one of my PowerPoints in Impress on Ubuntu, and my text boxes were all incorrectly word-wrapped because the fonts were different. So annoying. I've also been doing some C++ on Eclipse. Had a linker error but all Eclipse would report is "make failed". I had to hunt down and manually run the make file to find my linker error.
So Gates is wrong in his prognistications of the future, but he can rest assured that Windows will continue to sell nonetheless.
I wanted to post in the story, but didn't want to appear off topic is how similar this is when Gui's in Mac/Windows were competing against Dos/Unix in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The IPhone is almost 5 years old and parallels to 1989 when the Mac just turned 5 years and Windows 3.0 was in beta with the same too companies today.
Is this new trend similar to the gui vs CLI wars? X was hated and used in the UNIX community too back in the late 1980s similar to Gnome-Shell/Unity today as well. Ironically it was the Macintosh that brought the gui and professional IT staff and programmers HATED it! Hipsters or those who could afford one loved it, but many preferred Unix or Dos if you could not afford a $30,000 workstation.
Is the Tablet UI the new gui and a new age in computing? It seems professionals love the old way better.
http://saveie6.com/
For one, the parent was a troll. Get real. Your eagerness to see a socialist around every corner tricked your mind into ignoring the little details that make the troll nature obvious. Secondly, you don't believe in taxation at all, then? There really is not much socialist rhetoric out there in the mainstream press right now...there is just argument about the degree of regulation and tax rates. Again, get real.
The federal government would spend all of Bill Gates money in like a week.
What's your plan for week two?
By the way, Bill Gates doesn't actually have all of that money. He has ASSETS which are worth all of that money.
Guess what? In order to confiscate all of his wealth, you have to confiscate those assets. Except those assets aren’t money, who are you going to sell the assets to? Who’s going to buy the assets if they know that the government could just confiscate them?
I get it now. He says the PC is changing. Because he (well, Microsoft) is going to MAKE it change. Change to a locked down environment that can only run Microsoft approved OSes. And do things the Microsoft way. And you are going to like it because they will spend bazillions in marketing dollars making everyone think it is the best thing since sliced bread.
Count me out.
Tablets may be great to consume media and apps on, but I don't know what he thinks we're going to use to write this stuff with, and I mean either multimedia authoring or programming. Can any of you really see running a programming IDE in a Metro based environment while referring to some documentation at the same time? I didn't think so.
Through it all we persevered. A few of us were preaching separating "GUI from kernel" "event driven code from procedural code". And we pulled extra hours to practice what we preached. Fellow developers from MS world randomly included afxwin.h deep inside non graphical kernel library code to add a one line debug statement, broke the linux builds and threw tantrums when called to fix the offending code, "it is working in Windows, so it can't be my problem. You fix it in Linux". We suffered all these indignities and got our product to build and run in Linux all the time. We no longer have a 3 month delay in releasing linux version.
Now this. Good riddance. Let the windows and its market dominance and its subsidizing the computing platform go chasing the tablets or whatever. Before Wintel monopoly we had 90% revenue fro unix sales, it dropped to 10% at the height, now linux is back up to 40%. If they cram the win-8 interface down the throat or make our software to be sold through appstore or something, our windows version sales will have no place to go but down. Finally sanity will return. We will separate content from presentation. We will separate gui code from non-graphical code. We will separate event driven code from procedure libraries. Vindication at last.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Dear Apple :
Microsoft believes that the PC is dead.
Would you please go ahead and release your OS for generic hardware?
Or simply release a mid-tower box. Good enough for me.
Signed : A Lover of PCs
Windows 7 will soldier on until MS replaces 8 with a useful PC OS. Just like XP did when Vista bombed and MS needed a couple of years to replace it.
"that the world is moving into tablets" actually means "we want to move the world into tablets".
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
I can see file-based user interfaces becoming a niche, 99% of the world doesn't need to learn how to manage a file structure! Why does this program want to install to C Drive? What's C Drive? The common user has all their computing needs in their pocket these days with a task/action based UI that's far easier to understand and near impossible for them to delete that "windows" folder or format that drive.
I've seen a huge decrease in people needing my help in the last five years to fix their desktop and an increase of people asking me to make them an app. This is because the common user is better able to understand their computer (phone or tablet) because functions and actions aren't hidden behind a complex layer of little folder pictures.
We have heard that promise before, time and again. Time for show and tell.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
The very near future beings shirt-pocket computing more powerful than Star Trek tricorders and communicators. It frees us all from being bound to one spot in order to compute and game and browse.
One thing I don't see very often on shirt-pocket computers is a keyboard for entering large amounts of text or a gamepad for controlling a video game character. A completely flat touch screen is no substitute, as Intellivision II owners learned in 1983.
This means the games people play will work just fine on tablets, and will be designed for that kind of input control.
Which leaves fans of genres that don't work well on tablets out in the cold. Based on comments to previous Slashdot stories about the phone vs. 3DS/PS Vita battle, these genres include at least platformers and fighting games. Or are tablet gamers expected to buy a Bluetooth gamepad?
It's changing right now, in ways you don't know about. Both malware and non-malware alike is having a field day with your system configuration.
Soon you will be "solving" the problem by buying a new PC and migrating whatever files you're still able to salvage.
We all know that the desktop computer is not dying. It's large screen, superior processing and graphics power, peripherals, connectivity options, and multitude of input devices are irreplaceable in the world of content and product creation.
What Bill is talking about is that *tablet devices* (thin, portable, touchscreen computers with crippled OSes) have such quick consumer turn-over, that they are the future of big-freakin-PROFIT.
The computer workstation is here to stay with those who need to do more than consume digital media, type out emails, or draw things with their fingertips. In fact, most people with tablets have a laptop or a PC. The difference is that people are more likely to buy new tablets when new ones come out because end-users cannot upgrade components. No adding RAM. No swapping processors. No getting a new USB dongle for the newest Wi-Fi standard. Just buy new!
They're the future... of profit.
Desktop computers for document processing, number crunching etc will remain what they are, with most users benefiting from 2 or more screens and not the focused app space Windows 8 wants to deliver.
Targeted consumer applications including media delivery is not something the desktop is optimized for.
Like the internet Microsoft is again late to the game and does not appear to fully understand it. Multifaceted small scale application delivery is a different beast from desktop applications.
We have to put out our own tablet, because our OEMs can't build a competitor to the Kindle Fire and sell it for 199.00 if 80.00 dollars out of that 199.00 is for our OS.
Microsoft can't release a 700.00 tablet. Anyone going to spend that much money would go for an Apple product. The logical entry point to sell a lot of them is on the low end, and guess what...the OEMs can't meet the low end price point and use Windows 8.
This may not be the year of Linux, but it could be the year it backed MS into a corner.
Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, religion destroys spirituality
because people should be able to keep the property they've earned? socialism just ensures that we all live in squalor. Just look at the ex-soviet state lifestyle.. look, I'm no bill gates fan, but the socialist rhetoric spewing forth lately scares me... you don't have a right to another's property without his permission.
Hey, I am a socialist. I don't want your stuff and I kinda like capitalism.
Admit nothing. Deny Everything. Make Counter-accusations.
Assets, including the source code to EDLIN, DOS 4.0, Bob, Windows ME, and Vista. Knock yourself out.
If the PC is dead, what are the developers writing dinky little games and apps for your shiny new tablets going to use?
You'll [develop software] with, as you say, a wireless keyboard and monitor.
But how would you compile it and digitally sign it in order to test it?
The real interesting part about that is you can continue your work on the bus. On the airplane. Anywhere you are.
Which I can already do with my 10" laptop. I don't see how a tablet improves things, especially with the everything-is-maximized window management policy that most tablet operating systems enforce and the centralized code signing policy that everything but Android enforces.
The only thing he can do is keep monopolies going that fell into his lap. For all else: Clueless and incompetent. Tablets and phones are nice as terminals, but personal _computing_ will not go away. Just takes a while until people realize the cloud is a dead end for many things.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Good luck finding affordable hardware on which to run X11/Linux after the economies of scale leave the PC market.
Where the hell is everyone going that the personal computer has to suddenly become "mobile computing"? I move around more than most people and despite my best efforts, I still can't find anything so freaking important that requires a computer while I'm going from point A to point B. I mean, I really want to justify the price of these tablets, but besides playing a few not-so-good games and watching some movies, it's just shopping and reading. Are any of those things so crucial that the entire world of personal computing has to be transformed into "mobile computing"? The reading thing is nice, but how "mobile" can you be when your battery doesn't even last half a day?
I hear a lot about how "mobile computing is the future" but I still don't understand the "I'm always on the move" part and I need that computer while I'm moving" part. I mean, I understand it, but not enough that the entire world of personal computing has to change.
I think what Mr Gates really means is "computers are for shopping, instead of making". I have yet to meet someone who has produced anything meaningful on a smartphone or tablet.
And does it matter to Mr Gates and the Zombie Steve Jobs that there are still a lot of us who actually want to make things with our computers and would actually like a nice powerful machine with a big screen and full-size keyboard? Maybe a couple of cool interfaces and controllers? A desk full of control surfaces, a variety of interface devices, good sound reproduction and display technology?
Why is it that whenever one of the god-kings makes a pronouncement like this I seldom feel that the actual desires and needs of consumers are being taken into consideration? It's all about what they want for us - what they think we should have.
Remember how we were all going to have netbooks? How tablets are the new black? Well, couple years have gone by and they're still just shopping interfaces and metered toys.
You are welcome on my lawn.
yea go fire up solidworks and make something and watch it drag a dell precision with an i7 down pretty quickly, you thing your little pussyfoot P3 era powered tablet is going to get anywhere close to that?
Yes because that configuration is so incredibly popular these days. Seriously, do you ever leave the basement?
-1 overrated isn't the same thing as "I disagree".
Well I think there will always be a market for a computer that can fit under an office desk and not in your pocket, for those that need a bit of extra data storage or more processing power than the average pocket can contain.
There will always be a market, but I fear that it will become a market to which only established companies have practical access. For example, imagine all Macs being priced like a Mac Pro, and everything else in Apple's product line running locked down iOS.
Oh wait you were talking about... what exactly?
How about "home computers capable of running a compiler are dying"?
Only on a slashdot discussion of bill gates would you find someone finding fault with curing diseases.
socialism just ensures that we all live in squalor. Just look at the ex-soviet state lifestyle
Choosing the USSR as an example of socialisim is like choosing Somalia as an example of capitalisim. The scandanavian countries are more socialist than most and they are definitely not "living in squalor". Thing is when you tie yourself to one ideology you automatically throw out all the good ideas from other ideologies which is why US citizens currently pay top dollar for a second rate health system.
The US system is ideologically afraid that someone will get "something for nothing", so afraid that they spend most of that extra money on an army of accountants that do nothing but try and work out who pays for what and how. In other words it's costing the average US citizen more to exclude each other from health care than it would to bite the bullet and implement a sane system (almost 10X more for a single-breadwinner family of four when compared to Australia's 'solialist' system).
you don't have a right to another's property without his permission
Of course not, but there are different definitions of what is and isn't private property. For example it's virtually impossible to amass billions in private property in a Scandanavian country due to the tax regime, meaning it's impossible for the bulk of the nations weallth to be concentrated into a few hands as it is in the US. This doesn't mean you can't be rich in a Scandanavian country, it just means you can't be filthy rich. And lets face it, most people become filthy rich via luck or hereditry, they DO NOT work any harder than the guy who cleans their corporate bathroom.
I'm no bill gates fan
I'm a big fan of his philanthropic activities, the guy has put his money where his mouth is and (along with Warren Buffet) has encoraged many other billionaires to make similar pledges. Did he (or any other multi-billionaire) do anything to "deserve" that level of property and power in the first place? - Definitely not.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
It's not the architecture as much as the input device. A video game controlled by on-screen buttons on a completely flat multitouch screen gives the player no way to find the buttons by sense of feel. This is true whether the CPU behind the touch screen is x86, ARM, or a freaking 6502 for all that matters. Did device makers learn nothing from the Intellivision II's flat keypad? What would surprise me is if more makers of tablets and smartphones were to introduce gaming models including physical buttons. The only one I can think of right now is Xperia Play by Sony.
No, he said CAD so he really does need 3 huge monitors. There's a wifi attach that turns the Raspberry Pi into a monitor for your Android tablet now, so multi monitor support next year is not unreasonable. Maybe by then VDI solutions will be up to snuff for him too. Then he still needs the computer, but it doesn't have to be in the way - or even anywhere in particular. Then he can take his CAD workstation tablet workspace anywhere he needs to go.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
And with the rumored consoles coming out, and them being as bad in terms of graphics as the previous generation, I can't see why people would keep buying them.
Ultimately, it's because of two things: 1. consoles have exclusive games, and 2. the majority of non-geek users have a misconception that a PC cannot be used with a TV monitor.
I DON'T WANT A TABLET
I DON'T WANT A TABLET
I DON'T WANT ANYTHING LIKE A TABLET
I don't care if the marketoids think it's the future
I DON'T WANT A TABLET
Have I made myself clear?
Most [iPad] users aren't creating dissertations of 30 page Excel spreadsheets, but they are creating something.
The problem comes when someone owns an iPad and no PC, realizes he wants to do something creative that would be far more difficult on an iPad if not impossible, but has no money for a PC. Ideally, he should have bought a PC in the first place. For example, I often run into needing to do some scripting to analyze various data so that I can incorporate the analysis into a document. An iPad in a keyboard case wouldn't work for that because of Apple's policies. So I carry a 10" laptop instead.
Windows 8 is a hell of a gamble. It wouldn't surprise me if it ended up like OS X 10.0: shows promise, is ultimately too flawed to use. But when Windows 8 OSR 2 (or whatever) comes out with a few tweaks, it might work quite well.
Likewise, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 was enjoyable, but Windows Vista RTM had already tarnished the Windows Vista brand that Microsoft needed to rebrand SP1 as "Mojave".
I guess "life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness" are just empty words to you?
Are you aware that the original words were "life, liberty, and the pursuit of profit"?
Methinks the Founding Fathers felt a need to be less crass about what we stood for. Though maybe we should reinstate the original words, for the post-1980 era when greed is considered the highest civic virtue.
Strawman much?
Where the fuck do you get "greed is considered the highest civic virtue" from words about liberty, privacy, and preventing government appropriation of private property?
I don't get it from those words: I get it from watching how our society has worked for the past 32 years.
And you used the word "methinks". But the evidence says you don't.
'Methinks' doesn't mean what you think it means.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
I dont think its that outlandish, our laptops at work have power bricks the size of a lunch box and they still jitter around in serious applications, while running like little ovens.
Think you can take it from him, tough guy?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
That's great and all, but it's clearly an edge case that a very small percent of people want/need.
-1 overrated isn't the same thing as "I disagree".
Indeed. The desktop PC is not the reason to have a desk(top) in the first place. A lot of work requires a desk, and the PC today just comes with it. Tables cannot fill that space today and will not be able to for the foreseeable future. Their interface is too bad. They are too slow. They do have battery issues. They inter-operate badly with infrastructure. Basically, a tables is a nice supplement, but they cannot even replace a piece of paper too well today. Of course, all those with huge stakes and money in it want to make you believe differently, but that is just the usual marketing BS.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Gates isn't saying that we'll all be using tablets, but that for the vast majority of users, convergent devices are more convenient and suitable.
Workstations will become niche as per servers, but they will remain. The trend started half a decade ago when notebooks started outselling desktop PCs.
POKE 36879,8
PCs will never be able to run the software we need. They'll never be powerful enough to replace this room sized machine. Etc. Yet, it happened.
The argument back then was that PCs are incapable of running heavy workloads. The argument now is that tablets are not permitted to run certain kinds of workload because of manufacturers' policies on what they'll allow in the device's only application repository.
But how is Microsoft going to get around "You make a grown man cry" this time?
They won't go away as long a businesses need to input data which is easier with keyboards and mice, and run apps that require screen real estate, etc.
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
in the mid-80s. Microsoft gained its dominance through economies of scale in the HW market. It will happen again if MS goes down that path.
In the mid-1980s, there was nothing in the PC market comparable to the Secure Boot with no custom mode and no disable that Microsoft is requiring on ARM tablets.
Let me get this right..... a software company (MS) is producing hardware, a hardware company (Apple) is producing software ( iOS X?). WTF? ;)
The computer industry: more important than not dying of deadly diseases. Who knew?
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
Yeah, get back to us when you have saved 10s of thousands of lives.
I think this is what you call a figure of speech. It encapsulates in a few words what will probably take a paragraph or more of explanation. Perhaps it's better phrased as "the PC is dying" or more prosaically: "The phenomenal growth in the market for personal computers is levelling off and is expected to go down. It's even possible that the total number of PCs will go down in the near future."
So is the PC dying? What we have are a few indisputable trends. There are now more cellphones in the planet than there are PCs. The percentage of cellphones that can somehow connect to the Net are increasing. Smartphones today are more powerful than the typical desktop from the Windows 95 era, arguably the turning point when the PC migrated from the office to colonize the home market.
The only thing missing for the smartphone to replace the PC is the consistent ability to connect to input-output devices that are taken for granted in the PC world. Support for keyboards and external pointing devices is iffy at best. Support for printers and large monitors is even more dismal. But these issues are being addressed (some of the pricier smartphones now have HDMI output).
Developers and hardcore gamers don't count in the post-PC world. Developers weren't a large breed to begin with. For them the PC will become a niche product, just like mainframes. Hardcore gamers will always have their consoles.
Yes, the tablet is no substitute for a real PC. But superior technology don't always win out. Microsoft should know this better than any other gigantic tech company.
Swype
From this page: "Currently Windows Phone does not support Swype. Currently iOS does not support Swype." And from this page it appears that Android users have to return to swype.com every few months.
Sony has a phone with a slide out gamepad.
What manufacturer other than Sony makes something similar? If not, what developer not owned by Sony will limit its market to only Xperia Play owners?
There is also one company (Tactus) that produced a touchscreen that is able to change its surface in order to produce buttons.
Vapor until it becomes a standard feature on several manufacturers' devices.
I save lives one at a time, because I'm not rich. If I had as much money as Gates, I'd save more lives. Want to prove me wrong? Give me $100,000,000,000 and come back in 5 years to check on my progress.
Learn to love Alaska
What, like that really bad Windows disease?
The invention of the term "dictatorship of the proletariat" is perhaps the biggest mistake committed by socialists of whatever stripe. Radical socialists of the Communist variety have taken what was intended to be a political figure of speech (perhaps equivalent to "war on poverty" if not "war on terror") to mean a literal dictatorship (or at most an oligarchy) that tolerates no dissent. Maybe the 20th century would be a vastly different place if Marx (or is it Engels?) used the term "democracy of the proletariat".
there are different definitions of what is and isn't private property
And you didn't even touch on "permission" as the theory is that voluntarily living in the US is implicit permission to tax. If you don't like it, you can move and renounce citizenship. It's part of the "social contract" where the libertarians agree to be taxed, then complain that they didn't have to sign anything to agree, so it's all theft at gunpoint.
Learn to love Alaska
Or you could do just like the Swedish owner of IKEA. You create a non-profit corporation in the Netherlands and funnel all the profits of your Swedish enterprises towards it.
*sigh* Another "IS THE PC DEAD?!?!?!" headline, another dollar. People who try to view tablets as "desktop replacements" are consistently missing the fact that tablets are not PCs, are not intended to be PCs, and aren't going to replace PCs.
For many people, they may even totally replace the need to have a typical computer at home. If anything, it is only for this group of people that the PC will be "dead".
But for anyone wishing to do serious work, so long as the PC remains exponentially more powerful, expandable and capable than tablets, it won't be going anywhere. Go try using Photoshop Express on the iPad, then use CS6 on the desktop. Use any of the multitude of word processors for tablets, then go use Word. Use a mobile browser, then use Firefox or Chrome. Play the popular games on a tablet, then play the popular games on a PC. Do you see where I'm going with this?
Tablets have created, and filled, an entirely new niche in computing, and done so very well, but they aren't PCs.
As opposed to all those countries that have no tax?
It always seemed odd to me that those who have the most radical ideas about changing their country are the ones who've spent the least time outside of it.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
Can you write a tablet app on a tablet? No? Then the PC is not dead.
> a new PC needs to have both experiences integrated together.
Microsoft recently said that Metro will soon become "the most familiar UI" and when people have used it they will demand it on the phones and tablets. And thus is revealed Microsoft's strategy to unseat Apple and Android: force Metro down the user's throats until they like it or die.
What MS failed to notice is that releasing Windows 8 doesn't automatically make Metro appear on every existing PC. What they will need to do is release critical, unavoidable, automatic updates for XP and Windows 7 that replaces the 'Start' button and menu with Metro. Vista is already hated so no need to bork that.
I see Microsoft today, and I see a company that has no idea what it's doing. Well, I don't claim to know what is best to do, but I'd at least aim for consistency.
I'd thought about making an Ask Slashdot based on this premise, but I probably will never actually do it. So here's what *I* would do if I ran Microsoft.
Windows. Still a good product, at least on the desktop, but the brand keeps getting diluted, and attempts to "re-imagine" it or "re-invent" it simply will not work. On the desktop side, you really don't NEED to change much. Just keep focusing on making the existing experience incrementally better. Try to get boot times down to under a second, make it more stable, little improvements like that.
Windows Server? Can it. Windows Server is so far behind *technically* that it's not even funny. The only reason it's used is because a) it's far easier than Linux, and b) Microsoft. (B) won't last forever, so you know what? Give up. Give up a bit of control. Make the next Windows Server a Linux distro.
BUT
Don't do it like every other Linux distro.
The theme should be "it all works together seamlessly". Port Active Directory, port Exchange, port Microsoft SQL, port ASP.NET and everything (make sure it runs as Apache or nginx modules, though. IIS itself is a "maybe"). Wrap it all up in a GUI that makes things easy to figure out - your goal should be that you don't even need a manual. But don't ignore the command line and config files. Make the best damn Linux distro you can, and *sell* it.
Yes, sell. Obviously, anything open-source should stay open-source. Maybe even open-source the stuff that lets others integrate with you - AD stuff, .NET, and so on. But the big stuff? Keep it proprietary, and sell it. And not ridiculously overpriced, either.
In fact, hedge your bets on the desktop side as well. Port the Windows desktop environment over to Linux, because trust me, KDE and GNOME are fucking things up right now, and the Windows desktop experience is actually *better*. You don't even have to make it natively X11, just include an X11 library so all the old apps still work (like how OS X does it). And release for free tools that make Linux integrate well with Windows, stuff to EASILY integrate with AD and such. Yes, open-source stuff can do most of this already, but those are both a pain, and not supported by Microsoft.
Windows Phone? Drop it. You aren't going to win unless you have the apps. And WP7 does not have the apps. It does have some good ideas, though, some very good things. So you know what you should do? Take Android, and mod the shit out of it. Put Office on it. Make it integrate with Active Directory and Exchange and all that shit, so businesses will love it. Make it work with the Xbox and whatever else you've got. And license it out to whoever wants it. Make it "Android, but with ___, ____ and ___". Still compatible with the millions of Android apps, but it has several that, at best, you'd have to buy on the marketplace; at worst, simply not available.
The Xbox is one of the few things Microsoft's not just doing well, but is recognized as doing well. This is your new Big Brand. Make a new Xbox, price target $400-$500. It should be a powerful core-gamer machine. Let Nintendo have the low-end market with the Wii U. And make it more than a game console - you're doing well already, having Netflix and all that on there. Keep that up. Make it work with your WinDroid phone systems, both as a Wii U-like display for the console, and as a remote for Netflix and such. This way, you aren't just fighting Sony - you're also fighting Apple TV and whatever that Google thing is called. Keep backwards compatibility, maybe add a Blu-Ray drive (even if the movies aren't selling so well, it is good for games). But don't do anything crazy. Just... incremental improvements. Make one device that does the task of many others, well enough that it isn't a compromise, and cheaply enough that it's an option if you only actually want one part of it. Yes, that's
As opposed to all those countries that have no tax?
There are a few land masses which residency wouldn't be strictly challenged. You could always find an unhabited corner of Antarctica to curl up on. But I don't understand how your comment relates to mine. You pick where is best for you. If you don't like where you are, then find a place more appropriate for you, and move there. If there's no place on the planet you find acceptable, then you might want to consider the thought that it's you, and not the rest of the planet, that's off.
It always seemed odd to me that those who have the most radical ideas about changing their country are the ones who've spent the least time outside of it.
You are talking about yourself, right?
Learn to love Alaska
The problem isn't capitalism or socialism. Both are like unicorns in that people who claim to have seen real instances thereof say they are quite wonderful, and no solid evidence for their existence is recorded. The problem is the culture in the U.S. You could ban guns and our murder rate would not go down. You could punish white collar crime with drawing and quartering, but nepotism, corruption, and greed wouldn't even pause. These symptoms are indicative of a sick culture that no amount of regulation (or deregulation) can ever fix. The only workable solution is for you to be a better person.
refactor the law, its bloated, confusing and unmaintainable.
You (and I) are an edge case. You really need to think about the millions of people for whom Excel is the most complicated program. That's really 99% of the user base. I'm worried about the future when the PC I want is not available for a reasonable price since most people are getting one of 6 models of mass-produced tablets.
Imagine a beowulf cluster of those!
It's terrible for businesses that need clean interfaces. And I don't like the idea for home use either.
To me it's a sign MS is trying to save money by developing 2 OS models into one. I think it will do poorly, and MS will have to make up with it on Windows 9. I can promise you my company will not be buying one Windows 8 box.
Half a decade is being conservative. The foundation is a way to control wealth under a tax-free structure. It is a strategic move to establish his long-term glory past the grave. Great really, because you have people who will now defend him for locking down his wealth in a tax-free trust.
I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
of course.....now we turn to Google bashing.
I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
Although that AC does have a point - it is immoral to not attempt to help eradicate disease but it is also not ideal to increase our population growth. Something needs to curb its growth, that can either be 1) leave it to nature (disease, famine, etc) or 2) change human behavior (lower birth rates, or increase death rates).
Please don't get me wrong, I am in support of helping the needy and that includes curing disease and I think Bill Gates is doing more than most in his position - but it doesn't mean it's the best strategy for the long term existence of our race, perhaps that's ok - we're not going to survive for ever, our demise will come eventually.
I don't think we have much chance of doing 2, this may happen by its self, but I expect that will be too late for human existence to remain sustainable like we perceive it today (although in reality, it is already not sustainable).
Remember, population growth is exponential - this get nasty and out of hand very quickly.
A great example is: http://www.worldpopulationbalance.org/bacteria_exponential_growth
The solution to this problem is - we either decrease our growth or the planet will do it for us (anarchy, war, disease, starvation, etc).
Let's put this in context. If we continue to grow at just 1% a year we only have 780 years until there is about 1 square meter of dry land per person on this planet, see: http://www.albartlett.org/presentations/arithmetic_population_energy_transcript_english.html That's a ridiculously short period of time when put in context of human existence. Obviously this is not going to happen, something will have to change well before we get there. I expect it will be anarchy, war, disease, starvation, etc.
Having said this though, recent evidence does suggest that population growth is starting to slow - this could be our savior and could make all my points above moot. But we should keep an open mind and try to factor in the outcome of our actions regardless of how far into the future those outcome have their effect.
Never happened. True story.
I dunno, those dell precisions and alienwares sure do sell well, its not the majority ill give you that, but anyone in design does want huge amounts of power, the closest we have are laptops that are damn near luggables, so while those people exist, along with the gamers, then tablets wont take over.
> Their efforts to change the user interface to suit the tablet
> continued with the introduction of the Ribbon in Office 2007.
Everybody agrees that the universal desktop UI absolutely sucks on tablets/smartphones. What annoys me is all the idiots who want to ram a tablet/samrtphone UI down my throat that absolutely sucks on a desktop. It's not just MS either. The idiots writing GNOME and KDE are doing the same on linux. I'm sticking with ICEWM.
I'm not repeating myself
I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
The AC would have a point (it would still be a terrible one btw, relieving human suffering is noble regardless) if it weren't for the family planning work that they're doing. As it is, it's a clear bias against a man who has committed the majority of his wealth to philanthropy.
that you don't have an IKEA?
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Microsoft's new device is a laptop with a flimsy keyboard and a touch screen, and most of the other "tablets" have add on keyboards.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
I wasn't disagreeing with you - I was pointing out that it is not a black and white situation, both you and the AC make valid points that are not mutually exclusive. My choice would be to help relieve human suffering and I think Gates is trying to do good.
But it would be foolish to simply ignore any unintended consequences. As a race we've done that too many times and it often causes more harm and suffering to humans (and nature). If you've explored for and considered the unintended consequences and you still think it's a good idea, well so be it, sometimes that might be the right decision. But to not consider them is foolish in its own right.
A good lot of our current problems (if not all) are caused by solutions to past/other problems, regardless of how noble they may have been/are.
Never happened. True story.
Again, different use-cases demand different hardware....
I own several Macs but I've never bothered to buy a Magic Trackpad, and don't think I want one. Why? Well, have you ever tried to play a game like Team Fortress 2 with one instead of a mouse? Yeah, not really happening ....
And really, from what I've used of it so far in stores and on friend's Macs who own it, I found it's not only poor for image work like Photoshop, but really for anything requiring a lot of precision.
It is great, like you say, for browsing content where you need to do a lot of moving back and forth through pages.
I don't believe that buying a yacht is better than building a road. But that's not the point. What I mean trying to raise money by eliminating the rich is misguided. If you look at countries that have tried it, you notice that they don't have as much more to apply to infrastructure as you'd expect. That's because the wealth being saught is largely illusionary. 5 million dollars in yachts does not translate into five million dollars of roads. In the end, eliminating luxury goods is discourages work in many cases and it makes for a less productive society overall.
Yes, I have really got to insert this fact into my next comment on this subject. This one has fared better than others so far, so I guess I'm on the right track. It never ceases to amaze me how a group of people who are in a position to have experienced the man's history are in such denial about his present.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Bill Gates also thought he did the right thing when he wiggled his butt for network television.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
640 seconds should be enough for everyone.
Let us know when a smartphone gets 640k seconds - just over a week - of real operation[*] out of one battery charge. It would be an enormous improvement over today, whether or not people would agree that it would be enough.
[*] Not just the fictional standby-only time, but with a couple of hours per day spent making calls, accessing internet, taking photos, watching video, and so forth.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
I guess a cluster of RaspberryPis is going to be the desktop computer in the not too distant future.
...stop trying to be a visionary - you aren't. Your record on future predictions equals that of the world cup animal oracles.
Sure the PC will change - it always does. But the world isn't "moving to" tablets, it is adopting tablets. Most tablet owners also own a PC and for that reason alone don't want the two to be identical. One tool for the one job, another tool for a different job. Some people are happy with just one of the two, that's fine, too. Yes, some people now use a tablet instead of a PC because what they used to use the PC for is better done by a tablet, there just weren't any.
MS more than anyone should know this. Their second cash cow is MS Office, after all - something that nobody really wants on a tablet for any serious work. Sure, the iPad office apps (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) are bestsellers - because people want to read and update their documents on the road. But it is not only my own opinion that serious office work doesn't get done on a tablet. And if you need business numbers, look at the sales figures for notebooks and netbooks. Not exactly dead in the waters, are they? So even in the mobile computing market, there's still an interest in real computers in addition to tablets.
MS is missing the boat - again - because they are so out of touch with what the users want. That's the true secret of the Apple success - the give people something they want, sometimes something they didn't even know they wanted. Sure, it's a "our way or the highway" offering, but MS still thinks they dominate computing so much that they can get people to follow them anywhere - and that hasn't been true for a decade.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
You're turning to Apple for a solution?!!!!!!!!
An SQL query goes to a bar, walks up to a table and asks, "Mind if I join you?"
fuck that nigga main windows and shit but hos n trix
Typical Linux user.
An SQL query goes to a bar, walks up to a table and asks, "Mind if I join you?"
If the technology was adopted in a form respecting the privacy of people, I would agree with you. But it is not the case and the more those devices can, the more private and public entities attempt to track us. Contrary to US slashdotter I don't mind public tracking, because we effectively limit it by law and (unless it is police stuff) we can check what we are tracked for and correct data (Privacy law and right to correction in EU). Heck they might be people spying onto us, but they are our LOCAL thug obey a modicum of respect of the law. Whereas private entity in mobile device, are often in another country not respecting the privacy of people in the slightiest bit (USA), meaning if that data go there , your control on it is GONE forever in the hand of some foreign governement and private thug your own law has no effect on.
So yes, I see that progress as a sort of 1984 in worst : not only the telescreen is portable, but the data is sent to private entity you cannot even do a bloody revolution against. At least in 1984 even if revolution was unlikely, the dictature and spying was governemental.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
"Fuck me up - Ballmer fucked me up (he'll never stop)..."
I don't see myself working on a tablet when I do such tasks as programming, audio or videoediting or just doing my own household tasks. This is yet another example of the industry telling the consumer what he should do, thereby having the excuse of doing what they say the consumer wants.
It's the same for 1290x1080 computerscreens (no sane person would choose that above 1920x1200) and will probably also be true for that hideous 21:9 TV format.
Riiight, because I'm sure the Bioshock series, Max Payne series, CoD and MoH series, massive RTS and RPGs will ALL work great on a fricking tablet with nothing but touch. BTW since its obvious those devs are taking a trip to Fantasy Island could you have them pick me up an Alyson Hannigan Sexbot and a flying car? Thanks.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Only on a slashdot discussion of bill gates would you find someone finding fault with curing diseases.
I take it you don't hang around many biological warfare sites, do you?
I am anarch of all I survey.
Sure, it's good that you can take it everywhere. But the problems are:
* Small screen is hard to see.
* Input is difficult for large amounts of text, and there isn't the precision for doing things like graphics & photo editing.
* Poor battery life.
The solution would be to mount good quality peripherals to some kind of frame or harness that you leave at home or the office (maybe have one at each) and you plug your tiny portable into it. It'd be almost like a proper computer!
If you think of the portable as like a ship sailing from port to port, then the harness could be called a "mooring terminal" or something like that.
Nah, it'll never catch on.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
You (and I) are an edge case. You really need to think about the millions of people for whom Excel is the most complicated program. That's really 99% of the user base.
A majority? Maybe. 99%? No way. There are a lot more of these "edge cases" out there than you think. Anyone who does serious work in Photoshop won't be satisfied with a tablet, even if it does have a keyboard/mouse/monitor hooked up. Too slow, not enough RAM. Anyone who's at all serious about PC gaming won't be satisfied with a tablet; 3D graphics aren't nearly up to par. Anyone who does programming won't be satisfied with a tablet (hint: compile times will absolutely suck). And there are literally hundreds of other specific applications that need real PCs, each of which may have "only" thousands or tens of thousands of users, but that adds up.
There has to be a real desktop OS and real PC hardware. The "average" (lowest common denominator) home user may ditch their PC for a tablet, but people who do real work can't.
The reason our health care costs so much is a complex issue, but most of it stems from government interference in the marketplace, and the extreme gyrations the industry does around the government regulations.
Single payer could probably work cheaper than our current system because of all these market deformities, but there's also free market approaches that would work, too.
If you look at American health care costs back when it was much more laissez faire, costs were much much lower than today, even after adjusting for inflation and new technologies.
BG was a visionary
Yes., he saw what others were doing, and copied it.
He is tired of games, tired of typing text, tired of developing, tired of Microsoft, and tired of life.
Sure, just go on and make everything mobile and cloudy. I'll be here on my linux box with KDE if you need me. -- When MS or Apple comes out with something new and interesting, I'll give it a try. When Bill Gates tells me to replace my desktop with a tablet, I just roll my eyes and post on slashdot, like this. Only problem is that parts for my desktop will become more expensive, but thankfully they last a long time. Also, there are many others like me, so there will be a market for computer parts unless someone invents something better than a desktop.
Yes, because he is doing it with other people's money dishonestly obtained. A little of that money was mine, and even if I had wanted to give it away I would not necessarily have wanted to give it to the charities that he does. In fact I certainly would not.
Guess what, I have some pet causes too. I'd love to con you all of billions of your money and give to those causes, keeping a few billion for myself too. Just like Gates has.
The computer industry: more important than not dying of deadly diseases. Who knew?
What is more important is not the issue. It is whether he had obtained that money properly.
Tell me next time you are on a jury, and I will burgle some rich guy's house and tell you at my trial that the stuff I took is more important to me than it was to them.
I know very few people write code in the first place, but I've never seen a workable system for entering a computer program through dictation. I searched Google for programming language dictation, and the impression I got from pages like this (disclaimer: decade old) was that it's not there yet. If it were there yet, there'd be a HOWTO or something in the first ten results. That's why when I work on personal programming projects on the bus commute to and from work, I do it on a 10" laptop.
What you want is Ubuntu for Android. We had a story on that four months ago.
.net does not cut it on the efficiency and user-experience front. Imagine a .net game which freezes for GC in the second you want to lie down to dodge a handgrenade. When the GC is done, the handgrenade fragments will have killed you. So, .net is an amateur tool and it was designed to fend off Java. Java of course suffers the same systematic weaknesses.
The following applies to all managed platforms, including .NET and Java:
If the GC is causing a freeze, then you're not managing your resources properly. Just because there's a garbage collector, doesn't mean you shouldn't minimise the amount of garbage you produce.
No colour or religion ever stopped the bullet from a gun
Developers have been shifting heavily back to the PC the last two years.
Even things like fighting games? Mortal Kombat 2011 was not ported to the PC. In fact, the only recent fighting game I can think of that was ported to the PC was Street Fighter IV. As for Smash Bros. and other Nintendo first-party franchises, those will still be console-exclusive for a long time.
The second is more because they simply don't know, but that's because idiots in the stores telling them don't know.
It's a catch-22. One Best Buy sales associate was aware that TVs take VGA and HDMI in, but he encouraged me to buy a console instead of a media PC because the games that work well in the console environment aren't ported to the PC. (See above.) And games aren't ported to the PC because statistically nobody already owns a media PC. See previous comments by FunkSoulBrother and CronoCloud. People like hawguy, Endo13, and ratbag symbolize what I perceive to be the general public's attitude toward media PCs: "No PC in my living room, thanks". So it appears HTPCs are only for diehard geeks.
Then again, most video cards that have been in the "already built" PC's haven't had HDMI out until the last couple of years.
There are often really easy workarounds involving appropriate cables. If they have DVI-D out, there's a cable from that to HDMI, and one of the HDMI ports on my TV has audio inputs next to it. If they have VGA out, a lot of TVs take that too, at least here in the United States. I'm told VGA input is less popular on European TVs because they have to make room for the SCART input.
Wealthier, healthier populations tend to have less children anyway. Once we are in a position where we can comfortably grow our populations without hardship, we will also not be growing our populations
That sounds great - but I can't see that working out in the long run. I'm not overly well versed in economics, demographics and the like but I'm of the feeling that our 'wealthier, healthier populations' are at the cost of others'. We in our western world see our populations becoming wealthier and healthier (although that is debatable) but this wealth and health doesn't come for free.
This planet has finite resources, these resources must 'go around' and I'm pretty sure that we all have less to share as the population increases - we can't get more of our finite resources hence we can only get/have less each. Yes we are artificially getting more at-the-moment but that can't go on for long, we're getting far more than our share and depleting our resources at an ever increasing pace. As such we can't all become wealthier and healthier at the same time and there will be more and more non-wealthy and non-healthy as time goes on, unless something phenomenally revolutionary happens.
So as our global population increases we will as a whole become less wealthy with respect to disposable resources. So while a few less populated and wealthier nations may be decreasing our population growth, this is unlikely to impact the global population much at all.
This is without taking into consideration that a good lot (if not most) of western wealth is in fact based on debt (trillions of dollars of debt) which is in essence a claim on future resources that we don't even have yet - this will unfold one day and may already be unfolding now as we watch our financial systems melt down under the weight of this debt. But I'm digressing even further off topic now - sorry.
What I'm really trying to say is that it is possible that the population decreases we are seeing now from wealthier nations are a side effect of our current situation that I don't see lasting long enough to make any difference to our global population growth situation due to the factors that described above.
Never happened. True story.
Yes. Because grownups never have to worry about performance, or precise timing, or increase costs because you are doing things in the least efficient manner possible. [/sarc]
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
I'm told VGA input is less popular on European TVs because they have to make room for the SCART input.
Dunno where you heard that but it's not been my experiance in the UK. Every HDTV i've been involved in setting up has had one VGA input, one component input, 1-2 HDMI inputs, scart socket, 1-2 other SD inputs (an extra scart socket and/or a group of seperate connectors for composite/s-video) and an aerial input for the PAL and DVB-T tuners. Sometimes there is also a slot for a conditional access module for receiving encrypted DVB-T services.
It's very noticeable that HDTVs have a LOT more inputs than SDTVs did.
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
Thanks for the interesting video link of someone trying Windows 8 for the first time. First, it seems obvious that Windows 8 has picked a default style that hides context (like a hierarchy of system states), which makes it hard to discover things, which is especially important for novices. "Tune defaults for the novice." I see the same issue with "LCARS" Star Trek like displays that look beautiful on TV or the movies, but in practice might be hard to use if you only had one screen and needed to make it do a bunch of things (including at once). To do multitasking, you need to manage system state and you need to display context.
With that said, when personal computers first came out, unless you were a very technical person, it was often expected that you would need training in how to use them. In addition, it was expected that you would have to read one or more manuals, and you would need to ask your friends, family, and coworkers for help. So, more than anything, what that video shows me (in context of how it was made and what it is probably trying to show) is how much our expectations have changed over the last thirty years about "ease of use" for novices with computing devices.
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
Yeah, running a massive charity that helps eradicate disease around the world and improve education? What a selfish jerk.
When he shouldn't have a penny of that money except by illegally crushing other people's life work? No, this man should be in either a prison getting ass fucked by Bubba, or else in a psych ward with the rest of the sociopaths. Giving a few pennies to charities later in life does not make up for the evils of youth.
The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican.
Then, why on EARTH did Linux copy these things from it:
1.) SMP, & thus, ENTERPRISE READY SERVERS for Linux couldn't happen until things very like:
[lots of stuff]
Yes, something that started as a hobbyist OS wasn't ready for enterprise-grade service from version one. Oh, the scandal and outrage.
Of course Linux would copy those features. Those are features any server-grade OS needs. But it's not at all fair to say that Linux copied them from Windows (after all, how many other server-grade OSes have these features? I'd venture to say all of them).
But guess what? Now Linux *has* all these features (and generally far more stably than Windows, IMO). And it's taking the lead with things like BTRFS, FUSE, etc.
Oh, and it runs on damn near everything. Can I install Windows on an UltraSPARC? What about a POWER chip? What about those oft-theorized "hundreds of ARM cores" processors? Right now, all Windows Server runs on is x86 and Itanium, shortly to be just x86.
* Hmmm? (Care to tell us another line of utter bullshit?)
Yes.
Look at the TOP500 lists. The top five hundred supercomputers in the world.
You would think that if Windows were truly a superior product, it would dominate this list. I mean, even the price difference is negligible when the hardware costs this much, so Linux doesn't even have that going for it.
And yet, I see only two systems on this entire list that run Windows HPC, one of which dual-boots Linux as well.
Huh. How about that.
P.S.=> You "Pro-Linux" Penguins are FUD spreaders, bigtime - I'd like to see you explain your way out of this one... apk
And you come to Slashdot? Have you seen this place?
But how would you compile it and digitally sign it in order to test it?
There's nothing about the /hardware/ that prevents this.
Except the fact that most people aren't willing to solder in a modchip to circumvent verification of the signature chain.
What an idiot. You give me a keyboard and mouse and I'll perform any task faster than 10 tablet users pounding away with their fingers. Give my PC a complex task, it'll finish processing it 10x faster. Give me a DVD and I'll um...put it into my computer lol. Touchscreen typing makes you borderline disabled from a computer use standpoint and every single person who owns a tablet says it's downright painful to try to type a simple facebook post on it. I type around 95WPM so yeah, not a big tablet fan.
I have the opportunity to look over the shoulders of younger computer users (younger than me) pretty often. Most of the time, they are shopping online, playing simple games, and hunting down on Youtube that fat girl doing the splits called "Splat". While there are a massive amount of PC's in homes, most people are doing similar stuff on them. They are shopping, enjoying media, and doing online tasks. They used PC's for this, because (up to now) this is what they had to work with. Viable mobile computing has changed this. Except for the occasional task of creating something, only a small portion of the population actually use PC's for something a table or smart phone couldn't do just as easily. For most PC users, mobile devices is a better way to go. This is not lost on those in the computing retail market.
People involved in developing operating system interfaces, like Apple, Microsoft, and Ubuntu (Linux in general) are keenly aware and some are trying to get a solid hold on the computing uses of the masses. The PC and traditional desktop isn't going away. It will be a player in a niche market of computer users that do something besides casual computing.
The other half is the business environment. Casual computing interfaces isn't always the best to use for that. Right now operating system developers are trying to straddle the fence between casual and business uses of a computer. They are not doing both very well and are struggling for a good middle ground. In the mean time, we will have to put up with the crap until they figure this whole thing out. Sooner or later, the right combination of hardware and operating system is going to make that "straddle that fence" regimen (or not) and things will settle down.
In the long run, the interest accumulated on that 99% is worth more than the initial 99%. Most of that money is invested and they use the returns to keep funding projects.
This tablet vs "legacy" debate is quite amusing.
You take a computer, shrink it into a device that fits in your pocket and it is a smartphone.
You take a computer shrink it to the length and width of a sheet of paper, throw out the keyboard and it is a tablet.
You take a computer shrink it to about the same size as the tablet but a little thicker and keep the keyboard and it is a notebook.
You take a computer and don't shrink it at all and it is a desktop.
Who the fuck cares it is all for the most part the same guts and shit. People should have the choice to use whatever form factor they are most comfortable with. The UI and underlying operating system should help accomodate the users choice.
If I want I should be able to hook up a full sized keyboard to my smartphone, tablet or notebook.
If I want to I should be able to hook up a full sized monitor and keyboard to my smartphone, tablet or notebook.
This is the problem with Windows 8 it does not properly accomodate people who decide a keyboard and mouse is their preferred input method. Neither does it accomodate the avaliability of large displays. Two apps max on screen at once is the definition of epic fail. I looked it up.
The problem with Windows 8 is not pandering to users who prefer tablet form factor. The issue is militiant instance users who prefer other form factors conform to the tablet perspective or pay the price with a nonsensical jarring UX that does not help the paying customer.
Microsoft could have very easily made different choices to respect ALL classes of users and preferences yet they decided not to.
From the looks of things (lack of Interest in win8 beta and overhemlingly negative reaction) they will pay for their insolence with a market hit to their bottom line and further erosion of market share.
And lets face it, most people become filthy rich via luck or hereditry, they DO NOT work any harder than the guy who cleans their corporate bathroom.
This is the issue. You would not believe the sense of entitlement that the rich in the US have. And they enforce that by isolating themselves from the rest of the populace. It's a vicious cycle.
Really, I know what I'm doing...Ohhhh, look at the shiny buttons!
Tablets are not replacing PCs. They are replacing that empty space that used to be between your hands when stretched on a sofa watching TV. Consumer's appetites are moving towards tablets, and the market is growing because more people are buying them for the fist time. As a business, this is the next opportunity.
PCs are incredibly useful and practical, and are never going away. Same with mobile computing, and now tablets.
Who said we had to choose? They are all staying, and the experience is evolving as they all complement one another. This is not to be confused with "replace".
You already are carrying a keyboard around if you have a laptop, you're just carrying it around with the display.
And I prefer it that way. A 10" laptop means I don't have to charge the keyboard separately or worry about losing it. The form factor has also traditionally been associated with freedom to run whatever software I feel is best for doing a given job.
Yeah, when I want to play a game like that, I plug a real mouse in.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
reread the gp.. it reads like a cpusa flyer..
Again, different use-cases demand different hardware.....
THIS! a thousand time this!
You bring the subject back home with this simple statement. A Tablet is not a desktop is not a laptop is not a smartphone.
I have a real desire to have what I feel is the best appliance for the job at hand. That's why I have all the above except for the smartphone, which I find similar to an old Chevy El Camino - they do stuff, but they don't do anything well.
A mouse would seem to be a monoculture device. But with different mice doing different things well, I have multiple mice. They are cheap enough, so why not use what works best? The magic mouse is great for browsing and after you use a tablet, you'll move back and forth seamlessly between tablet and MM.
On the other hand, it is a nuisance for programs such as Photoshop, and especially Illustrator, where I was constantly accidentally moving my artwork into never never land. So I have a hub, and a second mouse plugged into it
If people have to have a one size fits all approach, they will have to appreciate that some of the fits are not going to be all that good.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
It only costs me the $99 developer license.
And all your apps stop working at the end of the year when the developer license expires.
Maybe a stylus is more appropriate, because I'm sketching, not typing.
I thought a capacitive touch screen like that of the iPad, iPad 2, and new iPad didn't allow use of a stylus.
but it's more important to be open minded
Hence why I phrased my post as a question.
i wonder, what's the price on a 25inch tablet pc these days ? The 3d performance , how many fps can crysis or battlefield get on a machine like that? Why would you need a windows pc other than to play games anyway? I think i'm just gonna dig in here in my nice dark cave full of cables and open cases and noisy fans
Free speech was meant to be free for all... how can anyone grow up in a nanny state ?