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Android On the Desktop
puddingebola writes "John Morris at CNET offers a brief review of PC Android devices, many of them hybrids running Windows 8 and Android. From the article, 'Microsoft has spent a lot of time and effort trying to get Windows onto smartphones and tablets — so far without a whole lot to show for it. Now several PC companies are trying the opposite approach, taking the Android operating system and porting it to PCs.' The article reviews the recent releases from HP, Acer, Asus, and Samsung. Does Android creeping onto desktop or 'traditional' PC devices have any kind of possible long term consequences? Could this be a way for Android and Google to develop a larger presence in corporate IT, or could Android ever really supplant the Windows foothold?"
Android has some good ideas in it, but is primarily designed for small handheld computers that comes with modems. Gnome 3 is at least designed for the desktop.
I have been seeing and reading about Android computers the size of a USB flash drive which can clip on a LCD monitor, and gets power from a USB cable.
I think in China and a lot of other countries, Android is a desktop OS, but other than a few models winding up on this side of the pond, I've not seen that many of these Android devices.
Android will be a good alternative for customer service call centers where you only want to use a browser and possibly one or two additional applications.
I can imagine a lot of thin client type applications that will have similar requirements.
It will save a fortune on licensing and hardware requirements.
"To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
I'd like to see Android on the PC become commercially available. We have a touchscreen laptop running Win8. Currently I'm planning to find a friend of my daughter's that needs a laptop and gift it. (Downgrading to Win7 is pointless because it has a touchscreen and Win7 touchscreen support is pretty much useless.) But I might reconsider if there were a native Android that would run on it. Assuming reasonable hardware support, and that there was a reasonable selection of Android apps that run on Intel architecture.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
This is the final barrier to switching to it as a desktop, or laptop on the sofa. Major games. Which requires mainline hardware adoption.
When fps and mmos with big iron 3D run on this (sorry Pocket Legends, you're cool but it's the pockets bit that doesn't cut it long term!) then it's time to buy the moving van from Windows, as I did from Mac long ago. The trifecta will be on Android -- surfing, office apps, and big games. Then only price remains...and the Big Mo of cachet.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Android has basically become, like most tablets are, the modern equivalent of a thin client for the internet. And frankly, that's all a lot of users care about. It may not be the ideal of most people on /. for daily use, but I know a lot of teenage kids would be quite satisfied with that.
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
When I first started to switch to mac I thought the dual boot would be a great introduction. Within a week I cleared out my windows partition and moved it to a VM. Months later I found I was only going to windows for to see that all was still working in IE and to run the occasional windows only application.
So having an Android/Windows combo may very well have the same results for many. They will think that they can have the best of both worlds and find that Android serves many of their needs quite nicely and instead of "rejecting" windows discover they just aren't using it. So instead of it being a religious conversion it will be more of a migration.
This has got to be a nightmare scenario for MS in that they know that for most people almost any OS will do. Does it have a browser, check (that will be the limit of most people's lists) does it have an easy way to watch Youtube, does it have any good games, does it boot really fast, does it have a good battery life.
You will notice I didn't put office applications in that list as most people only use those at work.
Plus the needs of us techie types are way way off most people's lists.
The history of computing is that winners emerge from the bottom up. DOS was a toy that came to destroy the mighty mainframe. Sun despised consumer level hardware, and now it has vanished, consumed by cheaper Linux and Windows boxes. Android isn't exactly ready as a desktop OS, but its mad ascent in cheap mobile devices means it should be feared.
I for one welcome our new Desktop Droid Overlords!
Gnome is aweful, they took away one of the biggest and most useful things for Desktop computing - minimizing. Until people stop kidding themselves that people don't need minimize Gnome 3's Shell will never gain true adoption.
Gnome 3 is great...Gnome Shell is awful(and some of the changes but not all to files). For Normal desktop use.
I would love a hybrid(kill for) Gnome/Android Desktop with a decent touch screen monitor(4X) on MicroITX ARM motherboard. Somewhere there is a balance between touchscreen use and desktop use, and Maybe as part of that Gnome Shell maybe better...but I doubt it.
I am tired of Company X getting out of the Desktop game(Samsung this week) chasing Apples shrinking margins, rather than reinventing the Desktop Market with something new, and Gnandroid would be my choice (or Kandroid or Xfandroid as a push).
For those who say 'I can't run GNU/Linux, I don't know anything about computers', I reply, 'If you use Android, or any embedded devices, you already have. It's not that difficult.' Android as an OS will hopefully lead the migration to GNU/Linux OS where the user has control. Right now, if you have an Android based device, you cannot even upgrade your version without the blessing of the service provider. Giving control back to the user is key. Rooting your Android device ought to be a right, not some massive struggle where you potentially void your device warranty. PC manufacturers like HP used to void warranties when clients installed GNU/LInux, not anymore. Because HP (and the like) are freaking HARDWARE manufacturers, not software, unless we're talking bios. Power to the user.
"SO we bide our time, waiting for a purer kick to bloom and the future is still bleak, uncertain and beautiful" -GSYBE
If it had an actual window manager, maybe.
Samsung made attempts to add windowing support which is quite neat, but it is still only for supported apps, aka, theirs.
Why they haven't added an option to try force it on an app is another question. Possibly tried it and it was too messy so never pushed it through that update.
Without windowing, it is still pretty much a toy OS on desktops. Or to develop on, or instant-boot OS for doing light crap on instead of booting full OS to play games and not do work on.
Seems like a stumbling block right there for desktops.
Android has basically become, like most tablets are, the modern equivalent of a thin client for the internet. And frankly, that's all a lot of users care about. It may not be the ideal of most people on /. for daily use, but I know a lot of teenage kids would be quite satisfied with that.
Ironically with Metro, and Secure boot, Microsoft Lets get in on the software Store, Windows look like a poor mobile device...with all the markup that comes with Intel and Microsoft walking home with a 70% Gross Margin. This is about helping to sell those failing to compete because of Price, by offering Android as an incentive...and its a good one, as Unlike Windows people want and Desire Android.
For the right price ( $500), I'd be more than happy with a lightweight Android "netbook" sans Windows. I can keep my Windows and Linux systems at the office in our VMWare cloud for software development and use an Android based VNC/RDP or Chrome Remote Desktop to access them. For everything else I typically do, "there's an app for that". To me, having a keyboard on Android would be big plus.
When I first started to switch to mac
I reinstalled it with a friendly open Linux Distribution, I still cry in shower holding my knees tight and rocking trying to forget OS X. Fortunately they have managed to make their quality computing if overpriced computer products into glorified electronics devices, causing a drop in sales of 22% and 2%(more sane) higher than the rest of the PC market, fortunately there is devices like Pixel from Google to replace Apples offerings.
Without windowing, it is still pretty much a toy OS on desktops
Ironically your describing Windows 8
I still use my laptop for "srs bizness" but recently, when I did some server upgrades where I would normally log in via the laptop intermittently to perform admin functions, I found myself using my folding bluetooth keyboard and my Android phone instead.
It was surprisingly productive and, being much smaller, was actually far more convenient than pulling out what felt like "big iron" to do a simple shell task.
My Android 4.1 phone (Moto Razr Maxx HD and I love it!) is already my go-to device for casual browsing.
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
... I would like to have a version of Eclipse or Netbeans that I can run ON AN ANDROID. I have an Asus Transformer tablet and keyboard. I'd like the option of writing code for the Android on an Android.
To have Android as a desktop OS only proves Microsoft right about many of Windows 8's design choices. I'm not saying it does not have its niche, but Android is not going to replace Windows, OS X or your favorite Linux distro.
Android, as is, has the reputation of being a resource hog. I do not have enough experience to wholeheartedly agree, but I understand the reputation (Emphasis on interpreted code over natively compiled executables, some experiences with high-end phone hardware lagging - even my very short use of a GS4 in a store display left me unimpressed, etc.). If it's going to acquire fundamental desktop OS traits (satisfactory driver support comes to mind), it'll just get worse.
Android's reputation security-wise also leaves much to be desired. A (reputed) poor evaluation of Google Play apps is unacceptable for most traditional desktop environments. The OS' resistance to attacks is also unproven at best, broken at worst, depending on whom you ask. Sure, some environments won't need this, but I don't see Android gaining any traction there, which leads me back to the beginning - design choices.
Android's interface is tailored for mobile devices. It does not work with a keyboard and mouse, at least not nearly as well as it has to. Windows 8 gets a lot of flak for Metro, despite having the desktop available, even on crippled RT (which still allows IE and Office, and possibly select third-party software in the future, besides all native OS functions).
Sure, Android can get a desktop-oriented interface - but why should it? There are plenty of alternatives (Windows, OS X to a lesser extent, Ubuntu and co., Debian, BSD stuff...) that are already more capable than Android will be in the next few years, if ever. They are ready to be deployed now, on existing or easily acquired hardware, with varying degrees of familiar interfaces.
Android's sole theoretical advantage is its app store(s) - nearly endless apps ranging from "absolutely useless" to "decent enough", with a detour through "potentially dangerous". This is a good as useless, as most (I won't say all) apps are designed exclusively for touchscreens, with, at most, imporvised keyboard and mouse controls.
What's my point, you might be asking yourself. Windows 8 has been nearly universally criticized for trying to move to mobile neglecting desktop users. Android is even more oriented towards mobile than Windows 8. Windows 8 seems to be improving, and there are many free, open source, even, alternatives to Windows.
A broad move to Android would just serve to worsen the trend Windows 8 may have started without any benefits for the vast majority of users. As such, I believe such a move would be widely rejected.
Besides Android's merits (or lack thereof), there's the issue of a certain company named Google, who has been occasionally showing signs of, ironically, being evil, at least according to some interpretations. I wouldn't go that far, but I see it as likely enough to cause fear, uncertainty and doubt. Not good traits for a product to have, like Microsoft has been showing us lately, between the mess that is Windows 8, their slowness in dealing with certain aspects of Windows Phone (notably the merger of Windows Phone and regular Windows, at least from a developer's viewpoint) and the Xbox One unveiling.
tl;dr Look at what happened to Windows 8. Android on desktop is not happening.
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/6/prweb10796698.htm Estimates that the Games Industry is worth....$66Billion Revenue, but only $20Billion of that was from the PC gaming...Microsoft earned that in just one quarter http://www.microsoft.com/Investor/EarningsAndFinancials/Earnings/FinancialStatements/FY13/Q3/IncomeStatements.aspx. If you want to know why computers cost so much compared to tablets...$16Billion of that $20Billion was Gross profits...Bill Gates the humanitarian says they shouldn't pay tax on it though.
One of my most needed feature is quick multi-tasking ala alt-tab.
Are these versions of android having some support for that? Do they have a custom launcher that shows something like a taskbar? Or is it more like the gnome shell mess?
I was thinking about swapping out my civic engine and replacing it with a V6 Evenrude.
'Cuase it's like, more portable.
oh and way cool.
I think MS has a better chance of killing android than the other way around. But why should they? They make a killing off it.
>Android, as is, has the reputation of being a resource hog
No it kind of doesn't it runs on on very basic hardware..the first phone it sold on was the HTC dream. it 528 MHz Qualcomm MSM7201A ARM11 processor, 256 MB ROM, 192 MB RAM and 320 x 480 px, 3.2 in (81 mm). Lets face it it will run well on these Windows 8 hybrid devices, Which are vastly overpowered for Android.
I was going to refute every (lie) point but this is my favourite "To have Android as a desktop OS only proves Microsoft right about many of Windows 8's design choices", and can't help but find it hilarious that your advocating turning that $600 Desktop machine into A Poor Low Resolution Tablet $100 Tablet for $160.
In what way is Android on a laptop any preferable to ChromeOS?
If your assertion were true then Android would have supplanted Windows a long time ago, it is available on such a broad and diverse range of devices that are generally a lot cheaper than the ones Windows is on. With its malware, security, inconsistency and performance problems it is no better than Windows, the OS most people desire is OSX.
I know you like to think that people want OS X, but the fact is People are aware of OSX and are not just not buying it...they are in fact buying it less 22% last quarter 2% this, and well Windows has been dropping sales...is it 5 quarters now or 6 with more doom and gloom on the horizon...yet Ironically Android is set to eclipse Windows installation this year Yeah! For those who still care Linux has been grabbing a little market share too. high fives all around.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to post than information.
I think it's awesome that you're using a highly customized $47 Android device to base your opinion about Android on, comparing it's performance and use to $600 iOS devices. Guess what - they aren't equals. This says a lot less about Android than it says about your reasoning capabilities.
At 1 AM, "please, nooooooo" is all you're going to get out of me. But I do make my living developing for my Android ... :)
Google will stand behind a desktop version of Android soon, but exactly when isn't clear. Of course, current Android can function as a desktop OS, with third party shells and 'windows' library systems, bur developers need a 'standard' desktop environment to allow Android to (gradually) replace all versions of Microsoft Windows from XP onwards.
What is Google waiting for?
A cost point- unlikely given how cheap extremely powerful ARM devices can be had from Chinese suppliers like Rockchip, Allwinner and Amlogic.
Mains powered ARM chips- possible, but there is little (of importance to most customers) that a mains part will do versus the current mobile parts designed for battery powered use.
Better graphics? Unlikely, given that the best ARM SoC parts have inbuilt GPUs that thrash graphics solutions that were available with early versions of Windows XP.
ARM's new 64-bit architecture? Now this is a likely factor. ARM's current parts can be (somewhat unfairly) compared to the 8086/186/286 from the early days of the PC. ARM's coming v8 architecture would be the leap represented by the 386/486. And yes, I'm aware the PC side of this comparison represented a move from 16-bit to 32-bit, whereas the ARM side is the rather different 32-bit to 64-bit, but in both cases the new architecture is a much better base for full strength desktop OS use.
Of course, Google may be simply sitting back allowing Microsoft to ruin its own desktop market, before stepping in an offering customers the 'original coke' they crave. The world needs an ongoing standard for straightforward multi-window desktop computing. Gimmicks that make a desktop 'whizzy' should be applications sitting on the OS, and never hard-hacks in the OS itself. The high fashion junk that is here today and gone tomorrow belongs in the browser pane.
If Google gives Android for desktops a modern clean practical layer handling the multi-windows stuff, it should be able to take most of Microsoft's traditional market in a very short period of time.
In a Slashdot comment, "nobody cares" is likely to mean "not enough people care to create economies of scale." Small budget laptops running GNU/Linux, for example, were a commercial failure because the supermajority of users turned out to expect Windows. (That and the fact that a lot of these netbooks shipped with launchers even more horrible than some people make Ubuntu Unity or GNOME Shell out to be.)
With a docking station a Galaxy Note 2 is more than powerful enough for web browsing / MS Office / email type stuff.
Since when is Microsoft Office ported to Android? I thought mobile Microsoft Office was exclusive to Windows Phone and Windows RT, just as Halo 3 is exclusive to Xbox 360. Even the port of LibreOffice can't be released yet because it's too big for Google Play Store.
I think MS has a better chance of killing android than the other way around. But why should they? They make a killing off it.
"Think" is not good enough, Android right now is the most dominant OS for both Tablet and Smartphone, Markets that Microsoft(and Apple) have been in for forever (Androids first device was in 2008). Right now the chances are your Android devices outnumber your Windows Devices...and this year Android is set to overtake windows as the Dominant OS.
Before Windows 8 (And Surface) I too may have scoffed at the idea of Microsofts Desktop Monopoly been threatened by lets face it a phone OS. Ironically now PC's come with Windows 8 a Phone OS as standard the fact that it includes a better (more popular) Phone OS and massive Application Library...and Apparently its being put on Windows devices to help sell them!? If only GNU/Linux had the same advantages.
As for your comment of Microsoft making money of Android....it makes money (in reality for windows licenses we suspect) of Windows companies now making Android devices for patents to interact with...windows using fat32 and exchange. The things stripped from stock android(into the cloud), its looking short term...and it looks like Microsoft has lost control.
unfortunately much like DOS, Android has been built completely devoid of a solid multi user security and management system.
...on a phone.
In what way is Android on a laptop any preferable to ChromeOS?
For running applications that are ported to Android but not ported to Chrome Web Store. Or is there an automated way to make such ports by now?
'nuf said.
Whenever a player quits EVE to go play WoW, the Average IQ of both games increase.
PC manufacturers like HP used to void warranties when clients installed GNU/LInux, not anymore.
Just a year or so ago I bought my wife an HP laptop specifically for a sysadmin class where she'd be installing Linux on it. Got it home, had a question for HP about it, and discovered in the process (from the phone support) that installing Linux would void their warranty. Checked the paperwork: Yep! So we returned it to Staples for a full refund and went with something else.
When did HP change this policy?
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
No, on a tablet.
My pet peeve is when one of my kids borrows my tablet and it comes back cluttered with all his/her stuff.
http://developer.android.com/about/versions/android-4.2.html "Multiple Users
Android now allows multiple user spaces on shareable devices such as tablets. Each user on a device has his or her own set of accounts, apps, system settings, files, and any other user-associated data.
As an app developer, there’s nothing different you need to do in order for your app to work properly with multiple users on a single device. Regardless of how many users may exist on a device, the data your app saves for a given user is kept separate from the data your app saves for other users. The system keeps track of which user data belongs to the user process in which your app is running and provides your app access to only that user’s data and does not allow access to other users’ data."
Although you can get similar functionality from running any number of Apps/Third Party Roms :). My pet peeve is people too last to Google :).
"Desktops arent workstations.. they dont need multiple users."
No they didn't. In fact I hadn't heard the term workstation for years until Microsoft Apologist are using it as an excuse for the failing desktop market (Apple Apologists use post pc). They are the same.
I'd like the option of writing code for the Android on an Android.
Here's a link to AIDE you: Eclipse clone for Android
>Android, as is, has the reputation of being a resource hog
No it kind of doesn't it runs on on very basic hardware..the first phone it sold on was the HTC dream.
The HTC Dream ran Android 1. Is Android 4 as lean as Android 1?
One of my most needed feature is quick multi-tasking ala alt-tab.
My Nexus 7 tablet running Android 4.2 has an on-screen button to the right of "Home" to bring up screenshots of the five most recently used applications, and the list scrolls. A similar menu shows if I pair a ZAGGkeys Flex keyboard, hold the Alt/Option key, and press the Tab key a few times.
Remember Logitech Revue? This device had an Intel x86 Atom processor, USB 2.0, Honeycomb and Google Market. It was a great product, but was a commercial flop, not because it was flakey as hell... but because nearly all the apps you wanted to run only ran on ARM processors.
The second issue is that Android, and iOS, are really only suitable for unitasking, which is really only workable for content consumption.
The third issue is that if I have a device capable of running something more demanding then Android, It would have the resources to run a traditional operating system, such as Linux.
All that said, the deciding factor will always come down to application support... at the end of the day they're just systems for running applications.
Well said. ++
As the other commenter says, you're really comparing apples to ..well, sticks here. A tiny, slow device with hard power limitations is going to be fairly jerky and stuttery for many tasks. But as you also say, that doesn't mean they're not useful for a lot of stuff.
A modern Android phone or tablet is a completely different beast from your neat USB stick. Of course, the price and power requirements are completely different too. We have both Android and Apple devices aplenty at home, so I've had plenty of opportunity to compare. Overall, there's no longer much of a usability difference between them; what matters for ease of use is mostly what you're used to already.
But of course, for some tasks and some situations the openness of Android does make some things much easier on that platform.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
Why do you insist on seeing things in terms of dollars? What I'm using has better specifications in terms of CPU speed, amount of RAM, and GPU power, than the $600 iOS device you are implying that I own. (What I own in terms of iOS actually cost less than $600 when I bought it some years ago, and it has less RAM than the MK808B).
i can't see where his/her ios device was mentioned? how do you know what op is comparing with?
I think the comparison of the two mobile operating systems on this basis is a lot fairer than claimed: my iOS device is an iPhone 4, which runs a Cortex-A8 (a lesser performer than the A9) clocked at about 800 MHz (about 65% of the Android stick's freq.), has 512 MB RAM compared to 1 GB of RAM in the Android stick, and a GPU which is also clocked slower - though I am not familiar with more detailed performance differences between the PowerVR and Mali400 GPUs.
I think it would be neat if you could run Android applications on a vanilla Linux distribution. Remember Microsoft's 16-bit WOW (Windows on Windows)? Why can't we do something just like that to run Android applications on a stock Linux system?
Though you're driving a larger screen. And I suspect a lot of the performance difference lies in things such as the memory and storage speeds. That's where a lot of the price tag difference comes from, I suspect.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
For me, the only application holding back Android (or Linux) for primary work computing is MS Office. I have been an MSO power user for two decades and have grown to hate it. I would much prefer LibreOffice frankly but neither the world nor markets operate rationally. One can always hope: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/LibreOffice_on_Android
This said, I believe that smartphones are becoming the user's center of personal computing, and PCs and tablets will increasingly function as accessories to a user relationship that is centered on the device that is always at hand. MSFT is steadily and dramatically becoming simply a legacy vendor.
AMEN!!
Android is gaining marketshare primarily by virtue of it being free and stuffed onto every cheap lowend piece of chinese crap
Your getting confused, iOS is stuffed into cheap hardware, Android is stuffed into great value hardware at all price ranges, and had majority market-share worldwide.
Our small retail company (23 employees) is currently getting rid of most of our desktops and replacing them with phones, tablets and googleTV sticks. The mobile software allows our salesmen in the field to take orders on the go on their phones for commission sales (backs up to dropbox), while our sales counter can use full sized monitors keyboards and mice and print straight to bluetooth printers.
Everything backs up to dropbox and Gmail where it gets automatically backed up, sorted and stored.
As a plus, they can use their phones as remote SIP connections to our main PBX, the cameras to store pdf files, the GPS to route to customers and compute local taxes, a xmpp client (w/txt to speech) for communications, etc.
I guess thin client sounds better than dumb terminal but same difference. The original BOFH (Bastard Operator From Hell for you younger cats) was born from this genetic cesspool just read some of the earlier stuff and you can easily see the ups and downs of this in a hilariously entertaining way. When and if these SaaS hybrid rigs aren't quite up to snuff it WILL illicit a skype call, email or something to get access. Inevitably end lusers most likely will lock themselves out of their favorite productivity cloud app or make it cause a kernel panic in a loop. On a PC? Just reinstall, reboot, and presto back to where the magic happens. BOFH would tell this luser to back out into linux and just type "rm -f /*" problem solved. So what would happen if Android thin client was the desktop OS? Interference between the keyboard and the chair.
Because $ is an indication of how much work was put into it.
But what about the state of drivers? You didn't even seem to consider that. Just by looking at other Android devices out there, you should be able to see that Android is a serious competitor to iOS, and not the hokey joke you claim it is.
There is so much wrong with windows 8 why do you morons insist on astroturfing with obvious falsehoods?
Sorry you seem confused. Microsoft is currently pushing an Agenda towards a heavily touch interface, constant across all devices. They are heavily pushing the word "ecosystem" and "classic" for what was the Desktop using real astroturfing, Using Visual Studio to push developers towards producing Metro Style Applications. Its currently locking down its (not your) devices to their web service with wrapping its whole OS in a massive overarching privacy breach, while locking the hardware down to Its OS to Its store...on its hardware. The potential profits are unimaginable. They are even being subtle about it.
There is two solutions. Suck it up!its the future, or Move now to Linux...because the WIMP interface is not part of Microsoft's Future in fact you can go down to the store and buy part of it, you don't even have to queue up.
...is the next obvious development and I can't believe it's taken this long for people to start talking about it.
stop being such a rampant ass-hat fanboy. he praises android, not ridiculing it. did you even read the full post?
People like you and other overly defensive Android Fanboys who responded to this make me sick. The person is putting Android on a pedestal in terms of its usefulness while at the same time being honest about its lack of shine and UI efficiency and all you can do is spew gall over it because an unflattering truth about Android was brought forward. Find yourself rejected and cornered in real life over differences in opinion much?
Until the power that be get it though their heads that using a finger alone with a touch screen vs a keyboard and a mouse need two different types of UIs then no, fuck no, you will never see me accept any sort of Android/Win8/iOS/whatever on the desktop.
This is not Iron Man 3, this is not some James Cameron film where we replace quick keyboard/mouse movements with wide hand signals, no, this is none of that. Sure it looks good on film and in Iron Man 1 there was a moment where I thought that they got it right.
They showed how a interactive system could aid in 3d modeling. But that is it. There is at no point in my use of computers that I want to lift up my arms to do something I could have done on my keyboard to swipe on my monitor. It just is not practical.
Really, I know what I'm doing...Ohhhh, look at the shiny buttons!
I consider the drivers for embedded products like these an integral part of the product; part of the product's quality as a whole. Why on earth would anyone consider differently? What would Android be without the drivers supplied by the vendors of the GPUs used in these SoCs? What would iOS be without ditto?
I never claimed Android was, nor do I see it as a "hokey joke". You're just upset that I pointed out that its UI is a drag, and trying to brush it off by rationalizing about GPU drivers doesn't help any of us customers.
Already, using Windows 8 feels a lot like running VMware on a Linux box did 10 years ago. Win8 Start is the new Ctrl-Alt-F8. It feels like two systems in one. Adding Android as a 3rd option would be a logical step.
:-)
Then I believe there will be virtual Android apps on the PC desktop, virtual iPhone apps on Android phones, and eventually, even virtual Win8 tiles on the Windows desktop
And at that time, everybod will have access to all apps, and nobydy knows which OS is running in the bottom of it all.
Borge
My kids would love it. They will soon be able to play angry birds on the PC while leaving my nexus 7 alone.
Could this be a way for Android and Google to develop a larger presence in corporate IT, or could Android ever really supplant the Windows foothold?"
Not really, the way I see it is they are installing Android to take care of the social / media / content or the fun side of the internet and installing Windows for the business / corporate side of the internet. These OEMs don't care who is leading they just want a bigger piece of the pie.
My 0.02
Even if it was $300, it would still be more than 6 times as expensive... the dollars come in here to show it is an absolute budget device, and as somebody else stated, how much effort went into the device.
These budget sticks usually have very slow RAM and flash (storage), with constant I/O stalling going on. This is a major part in the constant jerking and freezing. Especially noticeable the first few minutes after boot, but you'll pretty much notice it all over the place.
There's often kernel issues as well, as these budget OEMs often don't put in the time, effort and money to fix issues and/or optimize it. That's not a generic Android problem, it's an end-product problem.
The point is, what you're seeing is representative for the MK808B, not for Android. These things differ greatly per-device and their components. As such, "sluggish, jerky, freezing, ungainly and wonky" may not (or may) apply to other devices. There are many Android devices out there with lower specs than the MK808B that have much smoother performance ...
I'm not saying Android isn't slower, more jerky, more sluggish, etc than iOS would be on identical hardware, that might well be so - it just doesn't make sense to reach that conclusion based on your experience with the MK808B vs your iPhone4, as the specs aren't the same, and the numbers you are looking at do not represent fluidity - you've left out some major components to that equation.
As far as I can see, Android is more than a decade behind Windows in areas that require real horse power. Android can't even burn a CD, can't burn a DVD to mkv let alone batch this process. In some areas Android does less than windows 3.1. I don't think Google has aspirations to replace windows but its probably happy to make them less profitable.
There are many applications that run better on windows due to the year of a company developing for windows and year of Microsoft developing to accomadate for the needs of these companies. In the near future I don't see companies storing large databases on android powered desktops, or creating the second Hobbit film CGI on and android server, this is no where even on the horizon.
It seems the MK808 doesn't include a remote. Does it include BlueTooth?
Also, is there a way to move the "pointer" around with a remote?
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
HP is a big company with a lot of people WHO DO NOT READ THE MEMO's. So yes, the warranty is NOT voided if you install GNU/Linux. A lot of staff STILL do not know this. This issue occurs with A LOT of big companies. You need to speak with HP's Opensource division. This is for hardware issue, not software. If you have a software issue with GNU/Linux, hit the forums, IRC, etc, not HP. If you are paranoid about your GNU/Linux powered laptop with a hardware issue getting picked up by someone who DOES NOT READ THE MEMO, simply send in your machine without the hard drive and cite 'proprietary data' as your reason. Trust me, the techies at HP have hard drives around for testing. HP has an opensource division, get to know them. HP also has machines with a version of Linux, like Suse installed. So about the paper work voiding the warranty, can you scan, post, and show me the link? Thanks
"SO we bide our time, waiting for a purer kick to bloom and the future is still bleak, uncertain and beautiful" -GSYBE