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Sony Selling Off VAIO Computer Business

Posted by timothy on from the turns-out-it-wasn't-vaioable dept.

Kensai7 writes "Confirming reports from earlier in the week, Sony has announced plans to sell off its VAIO computer division to a Japanese investment fund. Japan Industrial Partners (JIP) will take control of the operation for an undisclosed fee, and Sony will 'cease planning, design and development of PC products.' For a variety of reasons 'including the drastic changes in the global PC industry,' Sony says 'the optimal solution is to concentrate its mobile product lineup on smartphones and tablets and to transfer its PC business to a new company.'" I have some nostalgia for the tiny old VAIO laptops; I wish more companies incorporated the swiveling camera that they came with.

11 of 204 comments (clear)

  1. Sad news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    i am on my 3rd sony vaio product - have been using them for the past decade pretty much. OMG. Sony's vaio design team is awesome!!! Very sad news.

    1. Re:Sad news by Scutter · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Because only a tiny percentage of PC users want to use (or have even heard of) Linux. Like it or not, we are in the minority.

      --

      "Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
    2. Re:Sad news by jedidiah · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You think it's absurd but I actually remember when the Microsoft hegemony started. It wasn't with Windows 95. It was long before.

      People like to pretend that something other than the biggest turd available won the market. It hurts their brains to contemplate it.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    3. Re:Sad news by maynard · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Most of the arguments against linux are entirely bogus and have been proven untrue.

      Here is the problem with Linux. And *BSD as well.

      It doesn't run the commercial software I need to successfully fulfill my objectives.

      We can point our fingers at Adobe, Microsoft, and other commercial players who limit access of their apps to expand their own markets at the expense of Linux. But the model that open source would engender network effects and overtake commercial players who would shoot their own feet by refusing to develop on the platform...well, that turned out to be false.

      The open source community beat commercial players on a limited playing field in server space. And then the commercial players changed the game. Ironically, Linux has become even more irrelevant as a populist movement because of its backend success.

      The Linux desktop lost for valid reasons. It's been out there long enough to catch hold and it hasn't. It's long past time to look inward on that front. It's popular failure is entirely self-inflicted.

    4. Re:Sad news by ElectricTurtle · · Score: 3, Insightful

      So you're saying it's about developers? Developers, developers, developers?

      --
      I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
    5. Re:Sad news by tooslickvan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No one wants to use Linux or Windows. Have you tried to use an operating system? All you can do is copy files and set the time. It's fun the first few times, but it becomes boring really fast. No, people do not want to use an operating system; they want send email, browser the web, check stock quotes, send goofy pictures to their friends. That's what they want.

  2. Congratulations Slashdot! Beta SUCKS by TheNastyInThePasty · · Score: 4, Insightful

    My advice to the peons working on Slashdot: find another job. The veracity with which this "upgrade" is being pushed displays a stubborness that can only be attributed to MBAs with no idea of what Slashdot is about. The fact that the commenting system is such an afterthought in the Beta is as much evidence as I need that the people pushing this redesign never use this site.

    I know you don't get to decide whether or not the Beta moves forward or which design gets used, but believe this: You WILL be blamed when it fails. You work for a corporation now and the higher ups with undoubtedly throw you under the bus when they have to explain to their bosses or shareholders why the website redesign failed. This failure is going to be associated with you and your teammates and it will set back any hopes you have of being promoted within the company. Take the advice of me and my fellow Slashdotters: Get out now.

    --
    The best thing about UDP jokes is I don't care if you get them or not
  3. Re:Fuck Beta by plasticsquirrel · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Indeed, a company that neglects the views of a site's user community is truly clueless. Slashdot has its own traditions, and Slashdotters like the fact that it has an older and faster design that allows more content on the page. That's part of what makes this site special. If Dice doesn't understand some of these very basic matters, then I don't trust them with the future of Slashdot.

    The new design is really ugly Web 3.0 crap, by the way. Just a bunch of huge pictures, excessive whitespace, and fade effects -- treating a technical website like a picture book for Joe Sixpack! Part of the greatness of Slashdot was always its special moderation system, also, which controlled discussions in a positive way (not just +1 or -1 for dumb-dumbs). Talk about not understanding your demographic...

    --
    Systemd: the PulseAudio of init systems
  4. Re:Nostalgia? by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So far I've seen Beta only once - the /. page showed up all messed up, and asked me if I wanted to try it out, to which I quickly said no - and since then I haven't been bothered.

    But I must say, if Beta truly is as atrocious as I've once seen it, I won't be visiting this here site much in the future.

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  5. This just in... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    beta.slashdot is so bad that Sony had to sell its computer business.

  6. Re:Fuck Beta by jones_supa · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Indeed, a company that neglects the views of a site's user community is truly clueless.

    Not only clueless, but it's sheer stupidity. They release a turd site and ask feedback to improve it. Then they take none of that feedback into consideration and begin rolling that same site into live. A site which no one likes. Then no one comes here anymore. What else is this than pure stupidity?

    All right. I will calmly watch this show to the end and see what the final result is. But if it resembles anything like what they are cooking now, I am left with no other options than to leave this website.