Slashdot Mirror
Major UK Retailers Mislabel Windows RT As Windows 8
Barence writes "Major British retailers such as Argos and Tesco are mis-selling Windows RT devices as Windows 8 PCs, PC Pro has discovered. The confusion over Microsoft's ARM-based version of Windows could lead to consumers buying the wrong machines, and the wrong software to go with them. Argos, for example, recommends Norton Mobile Security as an add-on for its mis-labelled Windows 8 machine, despite that product only working on Android and iOS."
They are buying the wrong machines.
They both suck. I loaded Win 8 in a VM yesterday and it is still the nightmare it was during the preview. Soon it will be be one icon that says "Do something (but most likely not what I want)" :)
In an effort to avoid confusion, MS should consider renaming it to "Window RT"
The Internet King? I wonder if he could provide faster nudity.
I suspect Norton Mobile Security will not perform any worse on RT or 8 as it does on iOS or Android.
Linux has the same confusion. Ubuntu to Android, all labeled as Linux.
Who didn't see this coming? Hands up, anyone? No?
In the spoon, there is no Soviet Russia!
This is news?
So big box retailers aren't good places to go for computer advice?
I'd be shocked if I haven't heard so many blatant falsehoods coming out of the mouths of people in these stores -- they're often clueless about the products, and more worried about up-selling you to Monster Cable or something.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
No confusion whatsoever, one is GNU/Linux, the other barely Linux.
Stallman was right AGAIN.
---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
MSFT should have made the OS look different enough that there wouldn't be this confusion on the tablet side and rejection on the desktop side.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
Argos, for example, recommends Norton Mobile Security as an add-on for its mis-labelled Windows 8 machine, despite that product only working on Android and iOS
The mislabeling of the Windows machine has nothing to do with this "example" of how the mislabeling is a problem. If it only runs on Android and iOS, the RT/8 label makes no difference as the software doesn't run on anything that says "Windows" in the name.
I'd love to jump on the bandwagon of merchant-bashing since they don't know an RT from their asshole, but that's a tough sell when the article lambasting them makes examples that don't benefit their case at all, but instead make the argument that whoever wrote this can't grasp the idea of simple examples any more than UK retailers can grasp that RT and 8 are different operating systems/
If you can give the Brits one thing it is the ability to do it wrong !!
Linux has the same confusion. Ubuntu to Android, all labeled as Linux.
I'm assuming that you simply accidentally forgot to link to some point at which a major retailer was selling an Android phone as "Linux", or some point at which any major phone manufacturer is using the word "Linux" to describe their Android phones, or any point other than development documentation where Google is conflating "Android" with "Linux"?
I mean, I made this assumption under what I consider to be very reasonable circumstances, in that you made a bold statement like you did, one that can, in fact, be easily backed up with even the most basic of evidence. I would be very disappointed if you failed to do so and made me look a bit foolish for putting such trust in you.
They want a similar look and feel to get people to start thinking of windows as being the same thing regardless of platform. They desperately want to embrace Apple's app store market, get rid of legacy software and get people to stop thinking of windows as only being for 'computers'.
The means to achieve this end is to make the different versions of windows look and feel the same to the 'average' person on the street - not the tech types. The result is that you have devices that for all intents and purposes look just like actual Windows 8 devices. The net result is that the store, which has average people and not technical people working in it, got confused.
It's a little bit like having two display cases of oranges, both look like oranges, both feel like oranges and both are labeled 'orange'. It's only if you pay careful attention, /and/ know enough to know better that you realize the difference between "Orange 8" and "Orange RT". The lay person doesn't pay that much attention or know enough to know better and Microsoft damn well knows it.
Using Windows 8 for few months now and it is ok. I do not like the extra steps to get to places and the goofy live tile screen and missing start. But the rest of it is good in my opinion.
Like many have suggested that the "Metro" should have on/off switch, since it really has no use for desktop use.
This will not be deliberate.
This is normally down to employing people who just plain don't know the difference themselves.
Just saying.
XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
Personally, I'd want to open the desktop to third party developers and just call it Win8 for ARM, just like what NT for Alpha was called.
I happen to like Windows 8 on the surface, but it is absurd that a premium tablet does not support gestures.
Newegg labeled their invoices for Win8, windows 8 RT. But according to them the RT was for the "ReTail" version. Created a lot of confusion.
Wuddooeyeno? IITYWYBMAD? Like nuts? eclecticallyincorrect.com
That's like labling horse meat as hamburger! Oh wait...
Argos, for example, recommends Norton Mobile Security as an add-on for its mis-labelled Windows 8 machine, despite that product only working on Android and iOS
Well, some would say that being unable to install Norton is probably a good thing...
However a quick check (http://us.norton.com/norton-mobile-security) reveals that 'Mobile Security' for 'Android & iOS' rather unsurprisingly does not work on *any* version of Windows. Well, no shit.
Now, one could perhaps forgive the people at Argos making this kind of dumb mistake, but the Slashdot Eds?
Perhaps a car analogy next time, guys...
These tablets are being offered for sale at £549 (US $834.32) and £634 (US $963) respectively. The Kindle Fire HD costs from £159, the Google Nexus 10 costs from £319, while the Apple iPad costs from £399. Even if there were nothing else wrong with Windows RT, trying to sell tablets for between 150% and 350% of the price of the comparable market leaders was never going to work.
As it is, if you actually want a Windows RT tablet for some reason, you've got to know that there's going to be a huge fire-sale of these things, and soon. Why would anyone pay those prices?
I'm old enough to remember when discussions on Slashdot were well informed.
Win 8 and Win RT both look like the same fisher price toys to me...both clumsy and colourful.
but the EU and others will not like the app store lock in and app store censorship
And it's not ups, or "my bad" - it's done deliberately, because people avoid Windows RT like a fire. Otherwise they would not simply sell.
user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
If the author is going to piss and moan about this after when the copy clearly states that it Windows RT applications, they might as well complain that it doesn't say that your existing Linux, Android, OS X or iOS software won't run on it either.
"Well gee, Timmy, it doesn't say that it won't run Gobe Productive, so it should be safe to assume that it will."
Duh.
but the EU and others will not like the app store lock in and app store censorship
Which would explain why they've slammed Apple (whose tablet marketshare is many times that of MS) for doing just that.
Oh, wait...
No colour or religion ever stopped the bullet from a gun