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Google and Microsoft Both Want To Stop Dual-Boot Windows/Android Device

Posted by Soulskill on from the partners-in-nope dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The laptop has undergone many changes over the past decade. At various times, netbooks, ultrabooks, and Chromebooks have been en vogue. Over the past several months, we've seen signs of the next step in the laptop's evolution: Android/Windows dual-boot laptops. Several companies have built these machines already, including Asus and its upcoming Transformer Book Duet TD300. However, neither Google nor Microsoft seem to want such an unholy marriage of operating systems, and they've both pressured Asus to kill off the dual-boot product lines. Asus has now complied. 'Google has little incentive to approve dual-OS models, since that could help Microsoft move into mobile devices where Android is dominant. ... Microsoft has its own reasons for not wanting to share space on computers with Google, particularly on business-oriented desktop and laptop PCs that could give the Internet giant an entry point into a Microsoft stronghold. Computer makers that make dual-OS machines risk jeopardizing a flow of marketing funds from Microsoft that are an important economic force in the low-margin PC business.'"

24 of 153 comments (clear)

  1. Forget the customer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So neither perspective or any reason has the customers interests in mind.

    1. Re:Forget the customer by Njovich · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Quite the contrary, if the customer didn't want this, they wouldn't care about it.

    2. Re:Forget the customer by roc97007 · · Score: 4, Funny

      I dunno, I see it as a toaster meatloaf peeler combo. In an environment where your job required a meatloaf peeler (although you don't see the use) and what you personally really need is to toast some bread.

      Ok, that sounded better in my head.

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    3. Re:Forget the customer by s.petry · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Whether it's a niche market or not makes no difference. Many of us dual boot systems because our jobs require us to have knowledge of numerous operating systems, and to stay abreast dual booting has been a cheap way of using hardware I purchased to learn and grow in knowledge. I know many people who use dual boot for the same reason. Whether it's a phone or a PC makes no difference. It's "my" hardware that "I" purchased with "my" money. In my case, my company also purchases hardware and dual boots for the same reason that I do.

      Neither Google or Microsoft give away the hardware, so they should not be able to force customers to use their operating system. Obviously they should not be at risk of a device gets bricked by someone setting up dual boot or a 2nd OS, but that's not the same thing.

      --

      -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    4. Re:Forget the customer by Skuld-Chan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I really don't care about dual booting - in my experience the machine spends most of its time in one environment, and the one time you do switch its got a months worth of patches to install.

    5. Re:Forget the customer by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 4, Funny

      If these guys had customers in mind, they wouldn't make a half baked half assed hybrid between windows and android.

      Androws!

      no no no, wait...

      Windroid!

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
    6. Re:Forget the customer by nurb432 · · Score: 2

      As long as you dont have alternatives, the customer's interests come last. There is a line you dont want to cross when you start to lose customers, but that point hasn't been reached.

      --
      ---- Booth was a patriot ----
    7. Re:Forget the customer by Penguinisto · · Score: 3, Informative

      What kind of job do you do that requires a meatloaf peeler?

      Among others, Oracle ASM disk management.

      ...next question?

      --
      Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
    8. Re:Forget the customer by mikael · · Score: 2

      I'm thinking more of a dish washer with a built in spin dryer.

      --
      Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
    9. Re:Forget the customer by Dcnjoe60 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      How is it "an otherwise legal use of the product"? The Windows operating system and the Google Play Store application are copyrighted.

      ASUS wasn't installing illegal copies of the product, they had licenses for both. As such, unless the license states you can't install on a system with any other OS, which it does not, then how was it illegal? I can buy an ASUS with Windows 8 and I can buy one with Android. Evidently, I can't buy one that lets me choose Windows 8 or Android at boot time.

      ASUS conceded, not because of legality, but because of business relationships with the two software giants. If they were dual booting debian and fedora and were told to stop, they would have flipped them a bird because debian and fedora don't heavily influence their bottom line. Microsoft and Google, however, do, and used their vast market power to force ASUS into submission or face the consequences. It's bad enough for one company too big to fail to do it, but for two of them to gang up and do it, seems like the US Justice department should be investigating what happened. Oh, wait, Microsoft and Google already control the USJ department.

    10. Re:Forget the customer by jc42 · · Score: 2

      What kind of job do you do that requires a meatloaf peeler? ... I've eaten a lot of meatloaf in my day and I've never had to peel it first.

      You obviously don't work for the company that I do. The meatloaf-peeler vendors have persuaded our management that meatloaf peeling is an important capability these days, and any company that hasn't adopted this new approach to meatloaf consumption is doomed to quick obsolescence. So, whether our jobs need it or not, we are all being supplied with the top-selling meatloaf peeler, and other brands are banned from our desks.

      But don't worry, your bosses will see the light soon, and a new MS meatloaf peeler will be installed on your desk, too.

      --
      Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
    11. Re:Forget the customer by dryeo · · Score: 2

      MS has a history of breaking dual booting systems. I had OS/2 which included the IBM Bootmanager to allow dual booting. Installed Win95 (and same with Win98, never tried ME) and at the end of the install it informed the user that the OS/2 partition was no more. No warning to back up your data or anything. I was knowledgeable enough to use fdisk to set the active partition to the Bootmanager partition and was back in business as the OS/2 partition was still there. How many people didn't know the fix and lost everything? And people wonder why some of us hate Microsoft.
      Win2k had a different problem which killed Bootmanager and was harder to fix, involving hex editing the boot sector if I remember (perhaps a different sector) and may have been just lack of testing, though hard to believe, by Win2k service pack 2, the first I tried, it actually did tell the user how to re-enable the Bootmanager.
      I did like that about IBM, OS/2 came with 2 methods of dual booting and could be installed on any partition though had to be installed on C: for one type of dual booting with DOS.
      There are also numerous reports of MS overwriting the boot sector therefore breaking Linux, especially in the LILO days.

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
  2. Okay, now I can say it. And be happy. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Fuck Google AND Microsoft.

  3. Re:Okay, now I can say it. And be happy. by jedidiah · · Score: 4, Funny

    Always TWO Sith there are...

    --
    A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
  4. All at your expense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Don't make any mistake about it anymore. Google has been falling into the old footsteps of 1990s Microsoft for some time. They're moving to close source anything of value, they're moving to prevent anyone who isn't on board with Google from making decent Android devices, and they're moving to prevent multi-boot.

    Welcome to 1999. Google is evil.

    1. Re:All at your expense by tlhIngan · · Score: 3, Informative

      And in the meantime, Apple had Boot Camp since early versions of OS X and are also providing the Windows drivers for their own computers.

      Welcome to 2014. Apple are the good guys.

      And having installed Macs using Boot Camp, it's one of the slickest ways to install Windows. The tool basically creates a boot (DVD/USB/etc) with the drivers slipstreamed in and everything, so you install Windows and everything just works.

      Previous versions of Boot Camp did require you to install the drivers after Windows, but modern versions slipstream them in, so after installing, everything is loaded. No need to hunt through Windows Update and websites downloading and installing drivers.

      And no crapware, either. Only Apple can make installing Windows easy.

  5. Confederacy of Dunces by mfwitten · · Score: 2

    "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him." —Jonathan Swift

  6. But... but... but... by sootman · · Score: 2

    Open! Right?

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  7. Re:nothing new... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Then why not spend the 100ms that it takes to press Shift key at the beginning of a sentence?

  8. Eh..... by mfwitten · · Score: 3, Informative

    * Apple has Boot Camp because they have to allow Dual Booting in order to lure in the majority of computer users—Windows users. They sure as hell aren't helping Linux users out.

    * Apple introduced Boot Camp when they were still user-friendly—before they started constructing their walled guarden (located at 1984 Infinite Loop).

    * Of course Apple provides the Windows drivers for Apple's own machines; every vendor that supports Windows has always had to do so.

    1. Re:Eh..... by sunderland56 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      * Apple has Boot Camp because they have to allow Dual Booting in order to lure in the majority of computer users

      Most users who want to use Windows software on a Mac will use some virtual solution like Parallels; then they can run Windows and MacOSX software at the same time, without waiting 5 minutes for a reboot.

      Really, I think someone deep inside Apple did it as a prank. It is great fun to hang out at Starbucks, and watch the reaction of all the other MacBook users when they suddenly realize that you are running Windows.... on a MacBook.... heads have been known to explode.

      * Of course Apple provides the Windows drivers for Apple's own machines; every vendor that supports Windows has always had to do so.

      There are enough drivers built in to a standard Windows distribution to allow most common hardware to just run, no special vendor drivers needed.

  9. Re:Okay, now I can say it. And be happy. by MightyMartian · · Score: 2

    Where do Zuckerberg and Ellison fit into this Lucasian demonology?

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  10. Re:I can't freely switch between Android and Windo by Kremmy · · Score: 2

    Which would be totally true, if all those services you're relying on to make all those devices useful weren't running on racks of Linux servers.

  11. Re:Okay, now I can say it. And be happy. by mindwhip · · Score: 2

    Where do Zuckerberg and Ellison fit into this Lucasian demonology?

    One is from Naboo and the other from the forest moon of Endor. I'll let you decide which is which...

    --
    [The Universe] has gone offline.