But there is one CRUCIAL difference, in that since nearly all software on Linux has source available all it takes is one guy to compile it for whatever arch and then everybody has it, whereas the majority of Windows software is closed source and therefor you simply can't run any of that X86 software unless the owner of said software recompiles (and most likely charges you again) for that arch.
This is why Windows on ARM is stupid. With Apple people use Apple software on Apple devices so as long as Apple supports their own stuff? you're good to go. Other than MS Office frankly nobody uses much of anything made by MSFT on Windows so they are just SOL when it comes to apps. Considering the momentum that Google and Apple have, along with them burning mobile devs twice, first with WinCE and then with WinPhone 7? Frankly I wouldn't touch a Win 8 ARM device for at least a year to see if the ecosystem builds around it or if the devs will just ignore it like most did WinPhone.
But nobody is talking about the elephant in the room that seriously threatens Google's mobile plans...the ISPs and network carriers. The days of unlimited Internet are quickly drawing to a close and the carriers seem to get nastier with data plans and prices every time you turn around.
For Chrome OS this is practically a death sentence as who is gonna want an OS that is constantly blowing through bandwidth and is worthless without it when their ISPs are being stingy? And as an analyst I saw today said when it comes to smartphones "Google makes their bread and butter from ads but I don't click on an ad with my smartphone unless by accident because that bandwidth costs me money"
So I just don't see how Google's plans work out long term unless they want to get into the ISP and carrier business, because without bandwidth Google is screwed and the ISPs and carriers have no desire to give more bandwidth without price hikes. This is especially bad with Chrome OS as its worthless without bandwidth and why would you pay the same price as a netbook for something that is gonna cost you MORE money on top of that when you hit your cap?
What pisses off the fanbois is I ALWAYS call it like I see it, Linux is too unstable, Apple is too much of a PITA with their walled gardens and overpriced hardware, Win 7 was REALLY good but Win 8 is a fucking trainwreck of an OS, its this horrible Frankenstein's monster that can't decide if its a desktop or a cellphone and frankly sucks at both.
And as far the future of MSFT? Think IBM. Sure their big iron don't sell in the numbers that it used to but they make damned good money selling that iron along with services and business support, and that is where i figure MSFT will end up. Frankly the desktop will NEVER go away, there is just too many limitations with ARM tablets to make them true content creation devices. Windows will own the desktop, both Intel and AMD will put out more powerful and low powered chips to cover pretty much any niche, and MSFT will still make good money selling desktop, server, and business software.
Just look at how Google has recently had to lower their earnings forecast, they are finding out its damned hard to get people to click on ads when they are paying by the Mb. Apple will always have their niche because their fanbois are frankly rabid and will buy Apple no matter what but again there are limits to what you can really do on an iPad. Valve has DOUBLED their profits every year for 7 years straight, that shows that not only is PC gaming not dead but there is serious money to be made, and there are still hundreds of millions of desktops, laptops, and servers sold yearly.
In the end there is just no way to leverage the Windows name on ARM, as Windows and X86 are too wedded to each other in the minds of the public, so the best bet would be to spin off mobile, call it "Metro OS" or something and have their only connection to Windows be ease of connection with Windows devices. because as it is now they are being jack of all trades and master of none, and that kind of half ass frankenstein bolted on approach just isn't gonna cut it. it doesn't appeal to mobile users, who can get more apps and better resale from an iPad or Galaxy, it certainly doesn't appeal to desktop users as all that social tweeting twitting FB shitting crap just ties a boat anchor to productivity, in the end no matter which way they go the current strategy? it just doesn't work.
Look it up, Alex Jones (which I'll be the first to admit is a nutter but broken clocks twice a day and all that) has the full video on his site. its VERY obvious that the vote was damned close, close enough they should have done a show of hands, yet the teleprompter already had the answer and the speaker just read the teleprompter and ignored the actual vote.
And if it happened at the dems too? wouldn't surprise me, its all kayfabe now by the special interests, the MIC and Israel and the banksters and a have a dozen other high lobbyist groups set up the platform and their congress critters are paid to parrot what they say. In the end its nothing but pro wrestling, they pretend to have differences and hate each other and when the cameras quit rolling their lobbyists take both sides to the same top resort to hammer out their platforms...its a scam, its a game of 3 card monty played every 4 years to make the rubes think they have a say, nothing more.
Uhhh...never heard of RomneyCare? Its not like universal healthcare is strictly a left or right issue, one of the biggest voting blocks for the right is the red southern states where healthcare consistently ranks high on the list of issues they care about.
In fact I'd argue what congress passed was more in line with RomneyCare than ObamaCare as Obama had a single payer option that congress squashed. If you want to give him credit for it that's fine, but honestly I think no matter who's butt would have been in the seat SOMETHING would have passed, it was too hot button an issue to ignore like they did with Clinton in the 90s.
I have a better question...why would anybody want to pay $250+ for a thin client when you can get a dual core Atom and run a full OS for the same money, or spend a little more and get a Bobcat with a full OS and 1080P over HDMI?
The only real niche I can see for this is schools, no OS means no admins and no hassles, but for everybody else? There is still too much of the country where Internet is spotty and without a net connection this thing is pretty much useless.
If all you want is web surfing your better off with a Kindle or Galaxy tab, if you need a really portable laptop you're better off with a netbook so you can run any OS you want...I really just don't see much of a market for these things. Nice to see they have gotten a little more sane with the pricing, the first Chromebooks were over $500 which was just nuts. But you can buy a netbook for $250-$350 and have more space, a better CPU, and more options...maybe if they had these in the $100-$150 range I could see it, but with tablets running ICS at less than $200 I just don't see where a thin client laptop fits in the landscape.
It all depends on what you want to do. If someone wanted to build an app that needs an office backend? I'd say Apache OO would be the way to go as you can actually sell your program, unlike GPLed LO thanks to the redistribute cause, whereas if you are just gonna be opening some Word docs at home then LO would be the way to go.
But the problem is they fired anybody in retail that actually could make the analogy, all they have now is glorified stock boys that just read the cards and don't know what they mean anymore than the user does. i have been in the big box stores and actually had to step in and say 'That's wrong, that won't work" because the clueless salesguy was giving wrong info just pulled out of his ass rather than admit to the customer he doesn't know.
This is why you are gonna see Win 8/RT be a giant clusterfuck, all these people are just gonna look at the pics and running device and when they ask for help the kid will read the card and say "Well it says here it runs Windows RT...uhhh...I guess that stands for really terrific?" and the people are gonna get it home, get burned, and take it back followed by telling ALL their friends and family avoid anything that even remotely looks like Windows 8. Again I saw the same thing with WinCE tablets, the sales kid didn't know what "Compact Edition" meant and it does look like XP soooo...I guess its XP?
To give an analogy this would be like Coke putting out a new "Bitter Coke" with a nasty sour aftertaste yet its in the exact same can, the ONLY difference is in the fourth line on the ingredients list...how many would know WTF the ingredients of the one that they want were? How many would just look at the can and see its red and says Coke and naturally assume that is what it is? I swear this is the kind of Mickey mouse shit you see new startups get wrong, not a 30 year old billion dollar company. it just shows you Forbes was right, Ballmer is the worst CEO.
Man when those that are actually using Win 8 day to day are asked and they choose Win 7 by a 60%+ margin? You're royally fucked. I've had a Win 8 machine set up in the shop for people to play with since the DP, and its not shabby on specs, dual core Athlon, 3Gb of RAM, HD4350 GPU, yet I have not had a SINGLE ONE ask to buy the unit, not one. Hell I have yet to even have anybody say anything good about the thing, most look confused and say something along the lines of "Why would I want my computer to act like a cellphone?"
But while Ballmer may have cashed out the board sure as hell haven't and seeing him piss through another billion or two while wearing a trollface? Not gonna be put up with. I have no doubt Ballmer and Sinofsky has been telling them 'Oh no, Win 8 will be a hit and get us into mobile!" which is why they are holding off yet as you note their strategy is even worse than with WinPhone 7, the devices are too high, the walled garden and history of burning mobile platforms like Zune and Sidekick and WinPhone 7 will keep the devs away if the crazy restrictions don't, and it doesn't even support legacy or have the gaming companies like valve on board so who they gonna sell it to? hell it has less enterprise support than Apple does, its completely pointless!
So I'm telling everyone that buys from me not to panic, Win 7 is supported until 2020 and Ballmer's fat ass will be out of the big chair long before then. I predict 7 will be the new XP, with OEMs and guys like me selling it and ignoring Win 8, Ballmer will be punt kicked like a 30 yard field return, and the guy they bring in will give us Windows 9 which will be Win 7 with the few nice under the hood changes of Win 8 like hybrid boot and on demand services. People will then buy Win 9 just as they did 7, he'll spin off mobile to let them sink or swim on their own, and things will return to normal.
They pretty much don't have any choice in the matter as if they continue trying to be an overpriced ersatz Apple they might as well close the doors, its just not gonna fly. Why would anybody pay Apple money for a badly supported buggy Windows that won't actually run Windows software? hell at least Apple has the apps and good resale value, good look getting shit for that Surface pad in a year when Win 8 craters, mark my words it'll end up abandoned like WinMo and WinPhone and be sold on Woot! for $99 with keyboard. Its just a complete failure in the making.
Can you believe some here call be a MSFT shill? yeah because i'm sure they are gonna pay for someone to say their CEO is a retard and their mobile strategy is failure incarnate. But I call it like I see it and after a month of fighting Win 8 I wouldn't take that piece of shit on a bet, it sucks!
Well we both call it as we see it so sometimes we won't agree but that is kinda the point of a good forum, to hear differing opinions and learn something new, not just hear a massive groupthink wank off.
But as far as another great depression? i think frankly it'll make the last depression look like a bad weekend, we may even see the collapse of the USD and the USA default on its debts. I urge you to watch and share this video which lays out the facts better than I ever could. Check out the charts, especially those involving the GDP starting at 4.03, look at how insanely high the numbers begin to spike starting around 1983 when Reagan set up the 401Ks and 403Bs. Why this will be so much worse is your have the retirement plans of virtually every non wealthy person in this nation now tied to the stock market and with a bubble blown so large the pop is gonna be a mega-disaster.
But remember before the great depression many poo pooed the idea of being prepared, before the first shot was fired Hoover warned FDR that Stalin would take advantage and it would be a disaster, not even 7 years ago you had analysts claiming real estate would never go down, only up. this country has a history of not seeing the train headed for it until it gets run down and this time will be no different, and again that's not even counting the problems you mentioned like a border where human and drug and weapon trafficking are daily occurrences, the 1% hiring H1-Bs and illegals to drive down already stagnant wages while the fed prints away any value the USD had, I truly believe there is no way to turn back now, its far too late. A crash that makes 29 look like a bad weekend is inevitable, all you can do is grab as much as you can for you and yours and be ready for the collapse.
Have a buddy who was a county cop and said the same, he wouldn't let any of his family anywhere near a vehicle with the electronic traction control as he said 9 times out of 10 it would kick in at exactly the wrong time and cause an accident instead of avoid one.
I think the problem is they test this stuff on tracks where everything is rigidly controlled when IRL we all know its nothing like that, ice can be patchy, same with slick spots and gravel slung across the road, and these things have an "all or nothing" approach that goes too far in compensating. I know I wouldn't want my family in one, not after hearing some of my friend's stories on accidents he's worked where that crap was involved.
Well I'd argue this is why you shouldn't allow JavaScript in your application, there are too many ways to hijack JavaScript and one page filled with JavaScript malware and its all she wrote, there have even been multiplatform JavaScript malware pages looking for common attack vectors like Java and Flash.
Frankly what we need is somebody, maybe Google since they seem to be doing a lot of research lately, to come up with a replacement for JavaScript. It was never designed for security and they just keep bolting on more and more features which makes it more and more risky. In the end with JavaScript you are trusting third party code from multiple sources to not be malicious and that's just a bad assumption when the stakes can be so high.
What we need is a new language designed to run with absolute least permissions and to have as little info as possible about the system its running on. I mean look at how much info you can get through JavaScript now? The simple fact is you remove JavaScript support from a system and its ability to get pwned drops right off the chart, that tells me this is a problem that needs to be dealt with instead of simply building more bling on top of JavaScript.
Look up "Jon Stewart Ron Paul" to see how badly the thing is rigged, he has clip after clip of reporters going out of their way to name people scoring MUCH worse than Paul was while being careful not to mention Paul at all. At the end of the clip one of the street reporters even says "We are talking more about Palin and Christie who aren't even running than about paul who is" and the news desk guy gets a douchebag smirk and says 'if you get any footage of Palin or Christie let us know, keep the Paul stuff".
That is why I've been saying for years grab as much as you possibly can from the government and be ready for the collapse, because the whole thing is tilted soo much in favor of the corporate cock blowers that they will destroy the economy and currency to give the 1% every dime they can. look up the numbers, when we had the 29 crash, which we didn't crawl out of until 1953 BTW, we had 120% of GDP in the market thanks to the gov blowing the banks. Know how much is in there now? Over 430% and climbing so at this point a collapse is unavoidable and inevitable, its too late to pull back. So grab what you can and have a plan in place for when it collapses because its gonna get ugly REAL fast when it happens.
The same way people get broke, by spending more than they are taking in? China and India got broke the same way the USA got broke, crazy defense spending, I don't know about the others.
Sadly Bill Hicks has been gone for more than 20 years yet his words still hold true "Well I believe the puppet on the right shares MY beliefs! Well I think the puppet on the left has MY interests at heart...hey wait a minute, there's one guy working both puppets!"
If you think elections are anything more than pro wrestling kayfabe set up by the ruling elite to keep the masses thinking they have a say I have some magic beans to sell you. I urge everyone to watch this video about voting that says it better than I ever could. in the end one simply cannot change a corrupted system by following the rules of said corrupted system, because the rules will simply be changed to ensure that you lose and they win. its like saying if you play 3 card monty long enough you'll find the lady, not gonna happen. For just one example look at how the RNC had a voice vote to change the rules to keep the Paul people from speaking, the teleprompter had the resul;ts of the vote before the vote was had thus showing it was just a sham, just like our elections.
I agree with everything you said except one...Win 7 only has 3 versions, and most people will only ever run into 2 which frankly they can't tell the difference between. The ONLY units you see coming with Basic anymore is the teeny tiny niche of bargain basement Intel netbooks, the AMD netbooks coming with Home, and pretty much everything else is Home or Pro, that's it. And as far as Joe average is concerned there is NO difference between the 2 as the two main limitations of Home, no AD and RAM limit of 16gb, is something they just won't run into.
As far as everything else? DEAD ON, Ballmer has tried to be an ersatz Apple for at least the past half a dozen years and all he has to show for it is a bunch of money shat down the drain. Zune, Kin, Sidekick, the billion on WinPhone 7, its been one money sink after another and I think the board is giving him this one last shot to straight up or ship out.
so let us all hope Win 8 is the failwhale it deserves to be, or else we'll have nothing but Apple and ersatz Apple on X86 and that would truly suck.
This would be the perfect opportunity to do what Shuttleworth SHOULD have done, take the BSD codebase, build a proprietary UI designed for ease of use, ala Apple, but gear it more towards games and kiss Valve's ass, telling them they'll get to be the company to sell apps and games on the platform exclusively.
Although personally? I'm predicting Win 8 craters, Ballmer decides to "pursue other interests" which will be corporate speak for quitting before he gets fired after claiming Win 8 is a hit by claiming every Win 7 sale is a Win 8 sale just like he did with Vista, and then the board will bring in someone with a brain, maybe someone from the business division or maybe bring back Allchin or Ozzie.
Because lets be honest folks, there is really only THREE, count 'em three, major things that keep people buying Windows, and that is games, MS Office, and legacy apps. Ballmer is gonna fuck the games, is gonna REALLY fuck MS Office by trying to force it to be more of a metro mess, and of course with WinRT he's even trying to kill legacy support, and for what? To be an ersatz Apple? We've already got Apple, we don't need ersatz.
Mark my words, WinRT will finally make the Vista jokes go away, Win 8 X86 will take the place of WinME on the "WTF were they thinking?" lists, and Apple and Google will laugh all the way to the bank. Surely after Ballmer shits a couple more billions the board won't give a damn about him being Billy's little buddy, after Forbes called him out I bet this is sink or swim which is why we are seeing epic shilling across the web and commercials up the ass, Ballmer knows one more billion dollar dump and its time to hit the bricks.
Actually implied or not I believe THIS, this right here, is why Win 8 is truly fucked. I can tell you that the average user don't know ARM from leg and they are gonna see what looks like 2 machines running the same OS...what do YOU think they'll assume?
I saw the same thing happen here a couple of years back with a store selling WinCE tablets, people saw that the OEM had made WinCE look EXACTLY like WinXP, complete with Fisher Price wallpaper and UI scheme, people bought them and when they found they couldn't run Windows software on them? brought them back en masse.
Now why would that affect Win 8 X86? Think about it, the consumers find out that SOME Win 8 will run their stuff and SOME won't but they can't tell which will and which won't by looking at 'em but hey! Win 7 WILL run their stuff...which do you think they are gonna buy and will go elsewhere if you don't have? There have been endless studies about how too much choice can lead to less sales but this is even worse, this is playing 3 card monty where you don't know if the machine does what you want or not until after you pay for it. Can't even ask for help in the retail shops as frankly they have fired anybody with a brain and have glorified card readers, as in they'll just read what the display card says and parrot it back to you...does that actually help ANYBODY? Nope.
i gotta agree with that guy someone modded down, RT stands for ReTarded.
My gaming customers have the 128Gb OCZ and Intel and both are on their second thanks to controller failures. Don't ask me why but from what I've seen as well as what those on the forums have said it really comes down to either chips failing (which will usually give you some warning) or controller failure which does NOT give you any warning. But I doubt it has anything to do with heat as both gamers have those massive ATX cases with multiple front and rear 120MM fans, those things sound like an F15 taking off but they keep even their OCed CPUs cool.
Citation please? Because while I personally prefer X86 over ARM even I will be the first to note its nearly impossible to get ARM battery life on X86, just as its equally impossible to get the IPC of a CULV Intel or AMD chip out of an ARM CPU.
Uhhh...where have YOU been? Never heard of BYOD? Apple doesn't have to do shit because the users will do it for them by demanding they be able to use their iPads. A whole industry has sprouted around simply giving IT some tools to work with the iPad and NOW, now MSFT is gonna try to come in with a device with no GPO or AD support? Yeah...good luck with that. I predict I'll be getting me a surface for $99 on Woot! within a year since I missed out on the playbook and touchpad sales.
Bah they both sucked. When I was a kid I had a little store in town that got the cool stuff straight from Japan so while everybody else had Transformers and Gobots I had the Micronauts. That big ass battery powered robot they had that turned into a tank, complete with treads that were powered and this cool double cannon action, totally beat Transformers and Gobots.
No matter what we got in the states the Japanese always seemed to have it cooler. I had all the big Japanese robots, the cool monsters, and unlike in the states where they made them pussy out on launchers damned near everything coming from Japan had a launcher that could put your eye out! Man they don't make 'em like that anymore...sigh.
Get the Transformer dude, all the advantages, none of the downsides. You get 9+ hours in tablet mode, 16+ in laptop mode, and more importantly its got all the Android apps whereas after devs got burnt on WinPhone 7 I bet its gonna be hell to get anybody developing for WOA. Oh and yes I know its called WinRT now, but I thought WOA was a better name as in "WOA bro, what do they think they are doing?"
Hell if you get them a Surface I have a feeling in a year its gonna be just as dead as WinPhone 7. with MSFT's history of abandoning mobile platforms that don't become hits its foolish to be an early adopter of anything MS Mobile, so get the Transformer.
Dahamma did you click on his UID? I thought the same thing but spending a little more time and reading the posts...he's too "on message" for that. Fanbois will defend their positions but they do so with emotion, not by hammering a bullet point like this guy is, he just keeps yammering about the enterprise, while obviously knowing fuck all about the enterprise or he'd know the iPad is the hip toy for the PHBs, that it...well it smells like he's reading from a script. And considering how much cash MSFT is investing into this launch and how sites like/. hammered Vista before launch? I'd say erring on the side of caution would be wise.
Seriously dude, click his UID and read. He hammers MeeGo, Apple, Android, and its on and on about Lumia (which has already failed once which he refuses to acknowledge) and Surface, I mean there is ZERO variation, not a single post that isn't on message for Nokia or MSFT. Hell he even sings the praises of Windows on ARM which i have yet to find a real person that thinks calling an OS that won't run Windows x86 Windows is a great idea, but he thinks its perfect.....yeah something does stink here.
Dude its a failwhale. BYOD has already accepted the iPad, the PHBs like the iPad, the only way to get any buzz would be to get the consumers to buy it first and THEN bring it in, again like the iPad.
But what can we expect when we click on your UID and every single post you have made is either bashing Apple or kissing MSFT's behind. While many here would scream shill I'm smelling a fanboi myself, put away the crack pipe, take the poster of Gates down, and smell reality. Surface will be on Woot! in a year for $100, mark my words.
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But there is one CRUCIAL difference, in that since nearly all software on Linux has source available all it takes is one guy to compile it for whatever arch and then everybody has it, whereas the majority of Windows software is closed source and therefor you simply can't run any of that X86 software unless the owner of said software recompiles (and most likely charges you again) for that arch.
This is why Windows on ARM is stupid. With Apple people use Apple software on Apple devices so as long as Apple supports their own stuff? you're good to go. Other than MS Office frankly nobody uses much of anything made by MSFT on Windows so they are just SOL when it comes to apps. Considering the momentum that Google and Apple have, along with them burning mobile devs twice, first with WinCE and then with WinPhone 7? Frankly I wouldn't touch a Win 8 ARM device for at least a year to see if the ecosystem builds around it or if the devs will just ignore it like most did WinPhone.
But nobody is talking about the elephant in the room that seriously threatens Google's mobile plans...the ISPs and network carriers. The days of unlimited Internet are quickly drawing to a close and the carriers seem to get nastier with data plans and prices every time you turn around.
For Chrome OS this is practically a death sentence as who is gonna want an OS that is constantly blowing through bandwidth and is worthless without it when their ISPs are being stingy? And as an analyst I saw today said when it comes to smartphones "Google makes their bread and butter from ads but I don't click on an ad with my smartphone unless by accident because that bandwidth costs me money"
So I just don't see how Google's plans work out long term unless they want to get into the ISP and carrier business, because without bandwidth Google is screwed and the ISPs and carriers have no desire to give more bandwidth without price hikes. This is especially bad with Chrome OS as its worthless without bandwidth and why would you pay the same price as a netbook for something that is gonna cost you MORE money on top of that when you hit your cap?
What pisses off the fanbois is I ALWAYS call it like I see it, Linux is too unstable, Apple is too much of a PITA with their walled gardens and overpriced hardware, Win 7 was REALLY good but Win 8 is a fucking trainwreck of an OS, its this horrible Frankenstein's monster that can't decide if its a desktop or a cellphone and frankly sucks at both.
And as far the future of MSFT? Think IBM. Sure their big iron don't sell in the numbers that it used to but they make damned good money selling that iron along with services and business support, and that is where i figure MSFT will end up. Frankly the desktop will NEVER go away, there is just too many limitations with ARM tablets to make them true content creation devices. Windows will own the desktop, both Intel and AMD will put out more powerful and low powered chips to cover pretty much any niche, and MSFT will still make good money selling desktop, server, and business software.
Just look at how Google has recently had to lower their earnings forecast, they are finding out its damned hard to get people to click on ads when they are paying by the Mb. Apple will always have their niche because their fanbois are frankly rabid and will buy Apple no matter what but again there are limits to what you can really do on an iPad. Valve has DOUBLED their profits every year for 7 years straight, that shows that not only is PC gaming not dead but there is serious money to be made, and there are still hundreds of millions of desktops, laptops, and servers sold yearly.
In the end there is just no way to leverage the Windows name on ARM, as Windows and X86 are too wedded to each other in the minds of the public, so the best bet would be to spin off mobile, call it "Metro OS" or something and have their only connection to Windows be ease of connection with Windows devices. because as it is now they are being jack of all trades and master of none, and that kind of half ass frankenstein bolted on approach just isn't gonna cut it. it doesn't appeal to mobile users, who can get more apps and better resale from an iPad or Galaxy, it certainly doesn't appeal to desktop users as all that social tweeting twitting FB shitting crap just ties a boat anchor to productivity, in the end no matter which way they go the current strategy? it just doesn't work.
Look it up, Alex Jones (which I'll be the first to admit is a nutter but broken clocks twice a day and all that) has the full video on his site. its VERY obvious that the vote was damned close, close enough they should have done a show of hands, yet the teleprompter already had the answer and the speaker just read the teleprompter and ignored the actual vote.
And if it happened at the dems too? wouldn't surprise me, its all kayfabe now by the special interests, the MIC and Israel and the banksters and a have a dozen other high lobbyist groups set up the platform and their congress critters are paid to parrot what they say. In the end its nothing but pro wrestling, they pretend to have differences and hate each other and when the cameras quit rolling their lobbyists take both sides to the same top resort to hammer out their platforms...its a scam, its a game of 3 card monty played every 4 years to make the rubes think they have a say, nothing more.
Uhhh...never heard of RomneyCare? Its not like universal healthcare is strictly a left or right issue, one of the biggest voting blocks for the right is the red southern states where healthcare consistently ranks high on the list of issues they care about.
In fact I'd argue what congress passed was more in line with RomneyCare than ObamaCare as Obama had a single payer option that congress squashed. If you want to give him credit for it that's fine, but honestly I think no matter who's butt would have been in the seat SOMETHING would have passed, it was too hot button an issue to ignore like they did with Clinton in the 90s.
I have a better question...why would anybody want to pay $250+ for a thin client when you can get a dual core Atom and run a full OS for the same money, or spend a little more and get a Bobcat with a full OS and 1080P over HDMI?
The only real niche I can see for this is schools, no OS means no admins and no hassles, but for everybody else? There is still too much of the country where Internet is spotty and without a net connection this thing is pretty much useless.
If all you want is web surfing your better off with a Kindle or Galaxy tab, if you need a really portable laptop you're better off with a netbook so you can run any OS you want...I really just don't see much of a market for these things. Nice to see they have gotten a little more sane with the pricing, the first Chromebooks were over $500 which was just nuts. But you can buy a netbook for $250-$350 and have more space, a better CPU, and more options...maybe if they had these in the $100-$150 range I could see it, but with tablets running ICS at less than $200 I just don't see where a thin client laptop fits in the landscape.
It all depends on what you want to do. If someone wanted to build an app that needs an office backend? I'd say Apache OO would be the way to go as you can actually sell your program, unlike GPLed LO thanks to the redistribute cause, whereas if you are just gonna be opening some Word docs at home then LO would be the way to go.
But the problem is they fired anybody in retail that actually could make the analogy, all they have now is glorified stock boys that just read the cards and don't know what they mean anymore than the user does. i have been in the big box stores and actually had to step in and say 'That's wrong, that won't work" because the clueless salesguy was giving wrong info just pulled out of his ass rather than admit to the customer he doesn't know.
This is why you are gonna see Win 8/RT be a giant clusterfuck, all these people are just gonna look at the pics and running device and when they ask for help the kid will read the card and say "Well it says here it runs Windows RT...uhhh...I guess that stands for really terrific?" and the people are gonna get it home, get burned, and take it back followed by telling ALL their friends and family avoid anything that even remotely looks like Windows 8. Again I saw the same thing with WinCE tablets, the sales kid didn't know what "Compact Edition" meant and it does look like XP soooo...I guess its XP?
To give an analogy this would be like Coke putting out a new "Bitter Coke" with a nasty sour aftertaste yet its in the exact same can, the ONLY difference is in the fourth line on the ingredients list...how many would know WTF the ingredients of the one that they want were? How many would just look at the can and see its red and says Coke and naturally assume that is what it is? I swear this is the kind of Mickey mouse shit you see new startups get wrong, not a 30 year old billion dollar company. it just shows you Forbes was right, Ballmer is the worst CEO.
Man when those that are actually using Win 8 day to day are asked and they choose Win 7 by a 60%+ margin? You're royally fucked. I've had a Win 8 machine set up in the shop for people to play with since the DP, and its not shabby on specs, dual core Athlon, 3Gb of RAM, HD4350 GPU, yet I have not had a SINGLE ONE ask to buy the unit, not one. Hell I have yet to even have anybody say anything good about the thing, most look confused and say something along the lines of "Why would I want my computer to act like a cellphone?"
But while Ballmer may have cashed out the board sure as hell haven't and seeing him piss through another billion or two while wearing a trollface? Not gonna be put up with. I have no doubt Ballmer and Sinofsky has been telling them 'Oh no, Win 8 will be a hit and get us into mobile!" which is why they are holding off yet as you note their strategy is even worse than with WinPhone 7, the devices are too high, the walled garden and history of burning mobile platforms like Zune and Sidekick and WinPhone 7 will keep the devs away if the crazy restrictions don't, and it doesn't even support legacy or have the gaming companies like valve on board so who they gonna sell it to? hell it has less enterprise support than Apple does, its completely pointless!
So I'm telling everyone that buys from me not to panic, Win 7 is supported until 2020 and Ballmer's fat ass will be out of the big chair long before then. I predict 7 will be the new XP, with OEMs and guys like me selling it and ignoring Win 8, Ballmer will be punt kicked like a 30 yard field return, and the guy they bring in will give us Windows 9 which will be Win 7 with the few nice under the hood changes of Win 8 like hybrid boot and on demand services. People will then buy Win 9 just as they did 7, he'll spin off mobile to let them sink or swim on their own, and things will return to normal.
They pretty much don't have any choice in the matter as if they continue trying to be an overpriced ersatz Apple they might as well close the doors, its just not gonna fly. Why would anybody pay Apple money for a badly supported buggy Windows that won't actually run Windows software? hell at least Apple has the apps and good resale value, good look getting shit for that Surface pad in a year when Win 8 craters, mark my words it'll end up abandoned like WinMo and WinPhone and be sold on Woot! for $99 with keyboard. Its just a complete failure in the making.
Can you believe some here call be a MSFT shill? yeah because i'm sure they are gonna pay for someone to say their CEO is a retard and their mobile strategy is failure incarnate. But I call it like I see it and after a month of fighting Win 8 I wouldn't take that piece of shit on a bet, it sucks!
Well we both call it as we see it so sometimes we won't agree but that is kinda the point of a good forum, to hear differing opinions and learn something new, not just hear a massive groupthink wank off.
But as far as another great depression? i think frankly it'll make the last depression look like a bad weekend, we may even see the collapse of the USD and the USA default on its debts. I urge you to watch and share this video which lays out the facts better than I ever could. Check out the charts, especially those involving the GDP starting at 4.03, look at how insanely high the numbers begin to spike starting around 1983 when Reagan set up the 401Ks and 403Bs. Why this will be so much worse is your have the retirement plans of virtually every non wealthy person in this nation now tied to the stock market and with a bubble blown so large the pop is gonna be a mega-disaster.
But remember before the great depression many poo pooed the idea of being prepared, before the first shot was fired Hoover warned FDR that Stalin would take advantage and it would be a disaster, not even 7 years ago you had analysts claiming real estate would never go down, only up. this country has a history of not seeing the train headed for it until it gets run down and this time will be no different, and again that's not even counting the problems you mentioned like a border where human and drug and weapon trafficking are daily occurrences, the 1% hiring H1-Bs and illegals to drive down already stagnant wages while the fed prints away any value the USD had, I truly believe there is no way to turn back now, its far too late. A crash that makes 29 look like a bad weekend is inevitable, all you can do is grab as much as you can for you and yours and be ready for the collapse.
Have a buddy who was a county cop and said the same, he wouldn't let any of his family anywhere near a vehicle with the electronic traction control as he said 9 times out of 10 it would kick in at exactly the wrong time and cause an accident instead of avoid one.
I think the problem is they test this stuff on tracks where everything is rigidly controlled when IRL we all know its nothing like that, ice can be patchy, same with slick spots and gravel slung across the road, and these things have an "all or nothing" approach that goes too far in compensating. I know I wouldn't want my family in one, not after hearing some of my friend's stories on accidents he's worked where that crap was involved.
Well I'd argue this is why you shouldn't allow JavaScript in your application, there are too many ways to hijack JavaScript and one page filled with JavaScript malware and its all she wrote, there have even been multiplatform JavaScript malware pages looking for common attack vectors like Java and Flash.
Frankly what we need is somebody, maybe Google since they seem to be doing a lot of research lately, to come up with a replacement for JavaScript. It was never designed for security and they just keep bolting on more and more features which makes it more and more risky. In the end with JavaScript you are trusting third party code from multiple sources to not be malicious and that's just a bad assumption when the stakes can be so high.
What we need is a new language designed to run with absolute least permissions and to have as little info as possible about the system its running on. I mean look at how much info you can get through JavaScript now? The simple fact is you remove JavaScript support from a system and its ability to get pwned drops right off the chart, that tells me this is a problem that needs to be dealt with instead of simply building more bling on top of JavaScript.
Look up "Jon Stewart Ron Paul" to see how badly the thing is rigged, he has clip after clip of reporters going out of their way to name people scoring MUCH worse than Paul was while being careful not to mention Paul at all. At the end of the clip one of the street reporters even says "We are talking more about Palin and Christie who aren't even running than about paul who is" and the news desk guy gets a douchebag smirk and says 'if you get any footage of Palin or Christie let us know, keep the Paul stuff".
That is why I've been saying for years grab as much as you possibly can from the government and be ready for the collapse, because the whole thing is tilted soo much in favor of the corporate cock blowers that they will destroy the economy and currency to give the 1% every dime they can. look up the numbers, when we had the 29 crash, which we didn't crawl out of until 1953 BTW, we had 120% of GDP in the market thanks to the gov blowing the banks. Know how much is in there now? Over 430% and climbing so at this point a collapse is unavoidable and inevitable, its too late to pull back. So grab what you can and have a plan in place for when it collapses because its gonna get ugly REAL fast when it happens.
The same way people get broke, by spending more than they are taking in? China and India got broke the same way the USA got broke, crazy defense spending, I don't know about the others.
Sadly Bill Hicks has been gone for more than 20 years yet his words still hold true "Well I believe the puppet on the right shares MY beliefs! Well I think the puppet on the left has MY interests at heart...hey wait a minute, there's one guy working both puppets!"
If you think elections are anything more than pro wrestling kayfabe set up by the ruling elite to keep the masses thinking they have a say I have some magic beans to sell you. I urge everyone to watch this video about voting that says it better than I ever could. in the end one simply cannot change a corrupted system by following the rules of said corrupted system, because the rules will simply be changed to ensure that you lose and they win. its like saying if you play 3 card monty long enough you'll find the lady, not gonna happen. For just one example look at how the RNC had a voice vote to change the rules to keep the Paul people from speaking, the teleprompter had the resul;ts of the vote before the vote was had thus showing it was just a sham, just like our elections.
I agree with everything you said except one...Win 7 only has 3 versions, and most people will only ever run into 2 which frankly they can't tell the difference between. The ONLY units you see coming with Basic anymore is the teeny tiny niche of bargain basement Intel netbooks, the AMD netbooks coming with Home, and pretty much everything else is Home or Pro, that's it. And as far as Joe average is concerned there is NO difference between the 2 as the two main limitations of Home, no AD and RAM limit of 16gb, is something they just won't run into.
As far as everything else? DEAD ON, Ballmer has tried to be an ersatz Apple for at least the past half a dozen years and all he has to show for it is a bunch of money shat down the drain. Zune, Kin, Sidekick, the billion on WinPhone 7, its been one money sink after another and I think the board is giving him this one last shot to straight up or ship out.
so let us all hope Win 8 is the failwhale it deserves to be, or else we'll have nothing but Apple and ersatz Apple on X86 and that would truly suck.
This would be the perfect opportunity to do what Shuttleworth SHOULD have done, take the BSD codebase, build a proprietary UI designed for ease of use, ala Apple, but gear it more towards games and kiss Valve's ass, telling them they'll get to be the company to sell apps and games on the platform exclusively.
Although personally? I'm predicting Win 8 craters, Ballmer decides to "pursue other interests" which will be corporate speak for quitting before he gets fired after claiming Win 8 is a hit by claiming every Win 7 sale is a Win 8 sale just like he did with Vista, and then the board will bring in someone with a brain, maybe someone from the business division or maybe bring back Allchin or Ozzie.
Because lets be honest folks, there is really only THREE, count 'em three, major things that keep people buying Windows, and that is games, MS Office, and legacy apps. Ballmer is gonna fuck the games, is gonna REALLY fuck MS Office by trying to force it to be more of a metro mess, and of course with WinRT he's even trying to kill legacy support, and for what? To be an ersatz Apple? We've already got Apple, we don't need ersatz.
Mark my words, WinRT will finally make the Vista jokes go away, Win 8 X86 will take the place of WinME on the "WTF were they thinking?" lists, and Apple and Google will laugh all the way to the bank. Surely after Ballmer shits a couple more billions the board won't give a damn about him being Billy's little buddy, after Forbes called him out I bet this is sink or swim which is why we are seeing epic shilling across the web and commercials up the ass, Ballmer knows one more billion dollar dump and its time to hit the bricks.
Actually implied or not I believe THIS, this right here, is why Win 8 is truly fucked. I can tell you that the average user don't know ARM from leg and they are gonna see what looks like 2 machines running the same OS...what do YOU think they'll assume?
I saw the same thing happen here a couple of years back with a store selling WinCE tablets, people saw that the OEM had made WinCE look EXACTLY like WinXP, complete with Fisher Price wallpaper and UI scheme, people bought them and when they found they couldn't run Windows software on them? brought them back en masse.
Now why would that affect Win 8 X86? Think about it, the consumers find out that SOME Win 8 will run their stuff and SOME won't but they can't tell which will and which won't by looking at 'em but hey! Win 7 WILL run their stuff...which do you think they are gonna buy and will go elsewhere if you don't have? There have been endless studies about how too much choice can lead to less sales but this is even worse, this is playing 3 card monty where you don't know if the machine does what you want or not until after you pay for it. Can't even ask for help in the retail shops as frankly they have fired anybody with a brain and have glorified card readers, as in they'll just read what the display card says and parrot it back to you...does that actually help ANYBODY? Nope.
i gotta agree with that guy someone modded down, RT stands for ReTarded.
My gaming customers have the 128Gb OCZ and Intel and both are on their second thanks to controller failures. Don't ask me why but from what I've seen as well as what those on the forums have said it really comes down to either chips failing (which will usually give you some warning) or controller failure which does NOT give you any warning. But I doubt it has anything to do with heat as both gamers have those massive ATX cases with multiple front and rear 120MM fans, those things sound like an F15 taking off but they keep even their OCed CPUs cool.
Citation please? Because while I personally prefer X86 over ARM even I will be the first to note its nearly impossible to get ARM battery life on X86, just as its equally impossible to get the IPC of a CULV Intel or AMD chip out of an ARM CPU.
Uhhh...where have YOU been? Never heard of BYOD? Apple doesn't have to do shit because the users will do it for them by demanding they be able to use their iPads. A whole industry has sprouted around simply giving IT some tools to work with the iPad and NOW, now MSFT is gonna try to come in with a device with no GPO or AD support? Yeah...good luck with that. I predict I'll be getting me a surface for $99 on Woot! within a year since I missed out on the playbook and touchpad sales.
Bah they both sucked. When I was a kid I had a little store in town that got the cool stuff straight from Japan so while everybody else had Transformers and Gobots I had the Micronauts. That big ass battery powered robot they had that turned into a tank, complete with treads that were powered and this cool double cannon action, totally beat Transformers and Gobots.
No matter what we got in the states the Japanese always seemed to have it cooler. I had all the big Japanese robots, the cool monsters, and unlike in the states where they made them pussy out on launchers damned near everything coming from Japan had a launcher that could put your eye out! Man they don't make 'em like that anymore...sigh.
Get the Transformer dude, all the advantages, none of the downsides. You get 9+ hours in tablet mode, 16+ in laptop mode, and more importantly its got all the Android apps whereas after devs got burnt on WinPhone 7 I bet its gonna be hell to get anybody developing for WOA. Oh and yes I know its called WinRT now, but I thought WOA was a better name as in "WOA bro, what do they think they are doing?"
Hell if you get them a Surface I have a feeling in a year its gonna be just as dead as WinPhone 7. with MSFT's history of abandoning mobile platforms that don't become hits its foolish to be an early adopter of anything MS Mobile, so get the Transformer.
Dahamma did you click on his UID? I thought the same thing but spending a little more time and reading the posts...he's too "on message" for that. Fanbois will defend their positions but they do so with emotion, not by hammering a bullet point like this guy is, he just keeps yammering about the enterprise, while obviously knowing fuck all about the enterprise or he'd know the iPad is the hip toy for the PHBs, that it...well it smells like he's reading from a script. And considering how much cash MSFT is investing into this launch and how sites like /. hammered Vista before launch? I'd say erring on the side of caution would be wise.
Seriously dude, click his UID and read. He hammers MeeGo, Apple, Android, and its on and on about Lumia (which has already failed once which he refuses to acknowledge) and Surface, I mean there is ZERO variation, not a single post that isn't on message for Nokia or MSFT. Hell he even sings the praises of Windows on ARM which i have yet to find a real person that thinks calling an OS that won't run Windows x86 Windows is a great idea, but he thinks its perfect.....yeah something does stink here.
Dude its a failwhale. BYOD has already accepted the iPad, the PHBs like the iPad, the only way to get any buzz would be to get the consumers to buy it first and THEN bring it in, again like the iPad.
But what can we expect when we click on your UID and every single post you have made is either bashing Apple or kissing MSFT's behind. While many here would scream shill I'm smelling a fanboi myself, put away the crack pipe, take the poster of Gates down, and smell reality. Surface will be on Woot! in a year for $100, mark my words.