Quote:
Originally Posted by denverd0n
That is the simple answer, it's true. But it begs the question, what's wrong with this picture?
Microsoft comes out with a "new and improved" user interface, which almost all of their existing customers hate, and almost immediately a cottage industry springs up providing a wrapper to hide their hideously bad interface from the user.
Do these guys NEVER learn!?! Of course, the good news is that Microsoft--almost single-handedly--has supplied all the fuel necessary to keep the Linux revolution going for years and years.
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Large companies make lots of
mistakes. Remember Apple's Newton? What a terrible idea! Who would ever want a tablet computer to hold in their hand? Oh wait a second, maybe that's not the best example....
My point is this - There are lots of
mistakes that are really mistakes. Then there are "mistakes" that are misunderstood, or are simply ahead of their time, perhaps because the
hardware technology is not ready to accommodate the software demands. The Newton was a flop. But the Newton team formed Palm, and the mobile handheld device was born. Then they made the Treo, one of the very first smartphones. Then Blackberry,
iPhone, Android,
iPad, etc.... But much of it is traceable to that one big flop.
It's too early to tell about Microsoft's move with Modern interface. I agree that eliminating the Start Menu was a mistake. But it is SO EASY TO FIX that there's really no reason to complain. At this point, I'd rather Microsoft
work on other enhancements and just let the 3rd party developers provide the Start Menu for those who want one. Why redo something that's been done perfectly fine already?
To desktop users the Modern interface may not make much sense. But to those with touchscreens, whether in a desktop, kiosk, laptop, or tablet form factor, it brings a more touch friendly
environment. And consolidating all of that down to a
single OS could be a great strategy.
Personally, I think that the ability to run legacy desktop programs and touch-opimized Modern apps side-by-side on the same
hardware is a powerful combination. I think that there's a good chance that Microsoft-powered devices (Surface Pro plus 3rd party tablets like those made by Lenovo, Asus, Dell, Toshiba, etc.) could grab a dominant share of the enterprise tablet market within the next year.
For me, I'm just thrilled that I can now run OpenCPN on a tablet, right out of the box. My Miix2 8" tablet is the perfect platform for that.
I'm also pleased that I was able to
purchase very low-cost Windows 8 desktop PCs for my wife and son a year ago. They aren't very tech-savvy, they just wanted faster machines than their 10-year-old XP machines. With Classic Shell on their machines, they have had no complaints and no compatibility issues. They
work fine for them, and they don't care about any of the stuff that people are complaining about.
As for fueling the "Linux revolution," I haven't heard much about Linux running on tablets. Desktops are dying, tablets and handheld devices are where it's at. A few dribbles here and there, but also heard a lot of
power management issues, etc. What fraction of tablets out there run Linux? I'd bet it's well under 1%. And Linux phones are non-existent. Not sure that's a revolution yet.
Suitability of Windows 8 for cruisers
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