Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Now Has the Best Device Lineup in the Industry (char.gd)
An anonymous reader shares commentary on the new devices Microsoft unveiled Tuesday: At a low-key event held in a New York City warehouse, Microsoft unveiled its next iterations in the Surface lineup. Sitting in the audience, I saw the most coherent device strategy in the industry, from a company that's slowly built a hardware business from the ground up. The company took just an hour to unveil sweeping updates to its existing hardware, and what's clear after the dust has settled is that Microsoft's hardware division is a force to be reckoned with. Apple's dominance on the high-end laptop space looks shakier than ever, because Microsoft's story is incredibly compelling. Rather than building out a confusing, incompatible array of devices, Microsoft has taken the time to build a consistent, clear portfolio that has something to fit everyone across the board.
[...] What's interesting about this is the Surface hardware is now incredibly consistent across the board, making it dead simple for consumers to choose a device they like. Each device offers high quality industrial design, with consistent input methods regardless of form factor, and a tight software story to boot. That matters. Every single one of these machines has a touchscreen, supports a high-quality stylus, and current generation chipsets. The only question is which device fits your lifestyle, and whether or not you want the faster model. The peripherals work across every machine, and Microsoft has clearly gone to lengths with Timeline and Your Phone to make the software as seamless as you'd expect in 2018. Microsoft, it seems, has removed all of the barriers to remaining in your 'flow.' Surface is designed to adapt to the mode you want to be in, and just let you do it well. Getting shit done doesn't require switching device or changing mode, you can just pull off the keyboard, or grab your pen and the very same machine adapts to you. It took years to get here, but Microsoft has nailed it. By comparison, the competition is flailing around arguing about whether or not touchscreens have a place on laptops. The answer? Just let people choose.
[...] What's interesting about this is the Surface hardware is now incredibly consistent across the board, making it dead simple for consumers to choose a device they like. Each device offers high quality industrial design, with consistent input methods regardless of form factor, and a tight software story to boot. That matters. Every single one of these machines has a touchscreen, supports a high-quality stylus, and current generation chipsets. The only question is which device fits your lifestyle, and whether or not you want the faster model. The peripherals work across every machine, and Microsoft has clearly gone to lengths with Timeline and Your Phone to make the software as seamless as you'd expect in 2018. Microsoft, it seems, has removed all of the barriers to remaining in your 'flow.' Surface is designed to adapt to the mode you want to be in, and just let you do it well. Getting shit done doesn't require switching device or changing mode, you can just pull off the keyboard, or grab your pen and the very same machine adapts to you. It took years to get here, but Microsoft has nailed it. By comparison, the competition is flailing around arguing about whether or not touchscreens have a place on laptops. The answer? Just let people choose.
Does not seem legit.
What a hilarious headline. Microsoft isn't selling any of the Surface stuff. They are shipping it, but it isn't selling. They keep coming out with new model lines and price points, but it isn't working. How desperate are they to convince us? Really pathetic.
Define "best" -- it's hardly the most rugged, repairable, or upgradeable hardware. It's designed to become e-waste when the glued-in internal battery dies, while I'm typing this on a 6 year old laptop that's modular.
Stop using weight as an argument -- you're talking maybe 0.5lb difference between a glued-shut Surface with keyboard and a relative modular Thinkpad or Dell ultralight.
...kind of marketing drivel is this?
My wife's Surface Pro has a weird screen ghosting issue that is apparently hardware-related and M$ has written off everyone with this issue. Give them 5 more years in the hardware industry (and a couple products that are actually bug-free) before giving them your money.
... or have I just been asleep at the wheel while it changed slowly?
This kind of BS seems like the norm nowadays. Yawn.
I am not in their target audience, and I'll say why.
First, the layout of windows 10 / windows server 12 (and newer) is, IMHO, a total disjointed eye-gouging mess. It borders on unusable. The interface consistently gets in my way when I want to do things that were very simple in earlier versions of windows (for example starting a command prompt). The default color scheme is so awful it could well be a violation of the Geneva Convention.
Second, their obsession with touchscreens is great for people who don't actually do any real work. Oddly enough I do actual work with my computers, and I find touchscreens to be maddening devices. Why do I want fingerprint smears all over my screen? On top of that a touchscreen is more an impediment to actual work than a tool for it; this mirrors well with my observations that when people are using touchscreens on a laptop they almost without exception are goofing off; they go back to an actual pointing device for actual work.
Third, touchpads are garbage. The Apple touchpad is almost a valid pointing device but only just. Microsoft doesn't want to sell anything with a useful pointing device; users respond by buying mice to use with their Microsoft laptops and tablets.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Don't all of these devices run Windows?
Unless I have some sort of weird sole-source agreement from a vendor, if the various devices all run the same operating system, why does it really matter which vendor the hardware comes from? Wasn't that in large part why Windows became such a domineering player in the personal computer market in the first place?
If Microsoft or any other commodity-OS vendor had some sort of peripheral expansion system that was unique and cross-compatible across the entire line but incompatible with other manufacturers then I could possibly see having such a wide lineup being useful, but we appear to be well past the era of ubiquitous proprietary docking stations or port/peripheral expansion modules. Even when we were in that era though, it's not like a given vendor had all of their devices use that dock, usually only a fairly small subset in a given series used a particular dock, so different laptop lines would have different docks even with one vendor.
I've seen the headaches associated with repairing particular models of Lenovo like the Thinkpad Helix lineup, no way would I go with a single hardware vendor as a lock-in beyond the particular model for a particular contract. Especially when apparently the Surface series are now even worse than those Helixes are to repair.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
It's turning into a real MS fanboi site.
Regardless of how well put together the line up is, I refuse to surrender to Windows 10 - I don't like how Microsoft is moving everything to a monthly pay model and I'm very uncomfortable with them having access to my systems.
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
Surfaces are great... for the first 3 months until some of the hardware randomly decides to stop working.
Thanks, Trump! Dx
But no thanks
Will $CURRENT_YEAR be the year of the Linux Desktop?
Obvious paid ad aside, the writeup is self-contradictory.
"Every single one of these machines has a touchscreen..."
"By comparison, the competition is flailing around arguing about whether or not touchscreens have a place on laptops. The answer? Just let people choose."
So with the Slashdot/Microsoft laptops, do I get to choose whether I want a touchscreen? Sure sounds like I don't.
Mod parent down, please.
This isn't anonymous. This is transparently scarcely-rewrapped ad copy. It's even loaded with buzzwords and talking points. Won't interrupt your "flow", whatever it is, touch screen or mouse? Competition is flailing around. "Compelling", etc.
Just as Microsoft did to IBM, so it has been having done to it by Apple and Google. It is still fat, relying on market dominance in Windows to play me too in all the latest hit products like smart phones.
People want touch screens for surfing at home and starting Netflix, and a keyboard and mouse for business use. Which doesn't need a touch screen for surfing and starting Netflix.
Hence the confused ad copy in the posting.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Yes! With systemd and everything!
Sitting in the audience, I saw the most coherent device strategy in the industry, from a company that's slowly built a hardware business from the ground up.
Anonymous Marketer can't be talking about viewing Microsoft's offerings then. The writer has a clear misunderstanding of the internals of computers/phone/tablets/etc. if they think Microsoft has done anything hardware related "from the ground up".
The peripherals work across every machine, and Microsoft has clearly gone to lengths with Timeline and Your Phone to make the software as seamless as you'd expect in 2018.
I'd say that's setting the bar really low in 2018. Since they've done this slowly, they've had ample time and opportunity to ensure that peripherals software work seamlessly with existing Microsoft kit, and does it work for migrating from competing kit? *sample bias sensing tingling* Those of us who still recall the likes of Microsoft Works, Millennium Edition, Vista, and the Windows Phone (list cut short due to dead horse being beaten yet again) take a bit more convincing that anything "seamless" is occurring.
Inheritance is the sincerest form of nepotism.
Even if you limit yourself to Windows, these are not the best devices.
We've got a number of users in our department who have purchased Microsoft devices - Surfaces, Surface Books, etc. The recent ones do look sleek, I'll give them that - but they seem to frequently run into lots of nagging problems.
#DeleteChrome
lololol
Nothing user serviceable, everything glued together, good luck with a battery swap in two years, ..! Also the N-trig touch screens are know for phantom touches and dead zones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... I got the Pro 2 and 3 and will not buy another one. Also the kickstand tablet form factor does not work the best for me, not in air planes, nor in an armchair.
No, thank you.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
MS does seem to be making some decent hardware. However, it's still running Windows 10, which is still shit. I hope the likes of HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer, etc. realise they're being screwed over by MS, and start to fully support and promote alternative operating systems.
return 0; }
That is not objective but subjective.
In terms of hardware compatibility and software availability (Managing hardware and running software is a key OS task) Then Windows is still top OS.
In terms of performance, stability... I havn't seen any problem with Windows from Windows XP SP2 and onward. My system is set to duel boot, and Windows for most of my apps actually seems to run a bit faster in Windows then with Linux.
Now all that said. In terms of what I can do with the raw OS Linux is the most useful (hence why I actually duel boot into Linux vs just use Windows Subsystem for LInux) Linux has a much more robust set of command line applications that can be scripted and automated to a much better degree, without being stuck to a single shell. Using Apt for updates keeps updating all my components much easier and quicker. And having better control on what the system is doing is a big benefit.
However Windows isn't Bad, it just isn't best suited for my needs.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I wondered if the industry's most notorious pro-Microsoft shill was at it again, but the byline is for an "Owen Williams."
Could still be Enderle, but hey: Microsoft is a rich company. They can hire lots of shills...
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
None of them have thunderbolt. They're high quality products but they're full of non-upgradeable glue. Don't get me wrong, I love the Surface lineup and own multiple of them, but to call them the best is utterly laughable.
I checked "disable ads", and yet this article still appears. /vertisement
...it's funny how you never actually see one of those around, anywhere.
I work for a large corporation, and people carry basically either all or 2 of 4 things:
- Their Apple or PC laptop.
- An Apple or Android phone.
I don't ever recall seeing even ONE of those surface laptop/table thingies anywhere, and I service most of the people's hardware, I don't even remember ONE single event when one of the coworkers came in with a surface, nor do I even see them in cafeterias, recreation rooms, workplaces, on the bus, train or anywhere.
I do however remember when I visited the PC store how sexy they always look, very sleek, well designed (don't like the fluffy looking keyboards that resemble the padding of a car door), but other than that - I always eyeball them, thinking....mmm i7...oooh in such a small package nice, errr..what sort of mobile version is that? And then I see the price tag (walks away, fast!) It's usually far up there in the clouds.
You gotta price these things so average people can afford them or even high-end users WANT to spend that kind of money on them. Because High-end users are usually very tech savvy and will think "hmm...for 4000 bucks I can get a super multimedia computer that I can do everything with", but with this thing...that basically is super thin and look great, will get me nowhere, but empty my wallet.
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
YEP REAL Reliable!
That is about $50,000 wasted just for broken toys.
Back to the Dell laptops they went. There are maybe 8-10 of the things still working after two years.
I am a scientist and programmer and for the last 3 years I've used an i5-based SP4 as my main system. MS has done a pretty good job of integrating Windows 10 with the tablet / pen / touchscreen/ keyboard setup. The linux subsystem is great and seems to keep getting better. The machine is very portable and still powerful enough to do almost any day-to-day tasks and even light gaming. My only complaint is that there are number of parts that still haven't been perfected which fail rapidly under regular use, and Microsoft's hardware customer service leaves something to be desired. After only 3 years of use, although I still have no trouble running software, my SP4 hardware has become quite flaky. Based on all that, although I'd love to buy a new Surface product, the customer experience was just so horrible last time I'm really disinclined to do so.
It may be coherent, but it's not complete. I don't understand why a Company that markets to businesses doesn't offer a desktop workstation, and a pre-configured server might be nice, if it wouldn't directly compete with Azure. I also question why MS leans so heavily on Android, when they killed their own more secure mobile solution...
Now suppose it wasn't an ad and redmond really does have "the best device lineup in the industry".
None of those devices I'd want to buy, or even be given free. What does that say about the industry?
Captcha: obituary. Goes for industry, redmond, slashdot, and editors, I think.
Regarding this summary, it seems to me that acceptance of casual profanity in public places is linked to the degradation of our culture. Whether it is a cause or effect cannot easily be determined; perhaps it is both. Where does it end? I will attempt to do my part by neither partaking nor supporting those who do.
"Microsoft now has the best device lineup in the industry"
Too bad those devices come with the worst operating system in the industry.
#DeleteFacebook
"MS sucks."
Posted from Safari on Mac OS X*.
* yes, Mac OS X and not macOS. Still running an old version here.
#DeleteFacebook
Uh, what reason do you have to throw away your "tech"?
Manufacturer no longer making replacement battery packs for a device powered by a rechargeable battery is one reason. That's why I replaced a Dell laptop after about 7 years: its included battery, the first replacement battery, and the second replacement battery could no longer hold a charge. Or should end users be expected to learn how to replace the individual cells in a laptop's lithium battery pack?
You jumped the shark with this one. Only someone vested in a company (or working for an advertising company contracted by said company) would say something like this...
Apple's dominance on the high-end laptop space looks shakier than ever, because Microsoft's story is incredibly compelling.
Real people don't talk about market "spaces", describe the totally dominant competition as "shaky", or describe some pieces of hardware as an "incredibly compelling" "story".
Better known as 318230.
I find touchscreens to be maddening devices.
You think touchscreens are maddening? Back when Windows 8 first came out, I was obliged to deal with it, and decided that some degree of touch capability would make it easier to navigate. Lacking a touchscreen, I opted to try a couple of mice with touch - one from Microsoft, and one from Logitech. It was simply infuriating to be halfway through filling out a form or posting something online, only to have the mouse interpret some imperceptible movement of your thumb as a "back" gesture.
They are right.
Good thing cars are held to a higher standard and aren't run by Surface devices. You just wanna hate cause hate. You do it in every thread regardless of topic.
Man sometimes people on here are like not in the real world.
After all these years, Slashdot can't bring itself to use a legit Windows logo --- and I half expect Slashdot to expire before the Windows OS. Posts about new hardware always read like adds and Linux systems are not exempt. Complaints that the mass market PC ships with Windows is about as productive as complaining that grass is green and the sky is blue.
My 2009-vintage 3 GHz, 12/24 core, 6-display, 64 GB Mac Pro, likewise. Just dropped a new set of four 1 TB SATA SSDs in it, too. The machine itself is a long way from needing to be replaced (and a good thing, as Apple has nothing currently on offer I'd consider an adequate replacement.)
Of course, Apple, in their "wisdom", won't let the OS upgrade past 10.12.6 with this machine, but that can be tolerated - I don't actually need anything that requires 10.13+, I have not been taken in by the "subscription" nonsense or entered into a dependence upon any software that requires constant interaction with some kind of validating server, which I consider to be just as evil as the subscription malfuckery Adobe and others are now engaging in.
And you know, should this machine suffer a serious hardware failure at some point in the future, there's always EBay if Apple never produces a worthy Mac Pro again. If they do, it's still a tossup if it'd be my choice. The new machines tend to be pretty costly, and justifying the purchase would be difficult. I really don't need anything more than I have.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.