Microsoft is a company very much used to the market changing around them rather than the other way around. As happens so often for companies in that position, their executives didn't realize they were out of step with the market until they saw a major competitor (Apple in this case) leading the market in another direction entirely. Like most companies finding themselves in that position ... [ read the full article ]
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Good article, saying many of the things that I've been fearing from MS...
Quote:The larger point is that Microsoft's own support is still limited to an outdated standard generally considered inadequate for ebooks and their own proprietary equivalent to that standard. And of course standard, but not industry-driven, standards for music and video like FLAC or Matroska aren't supported by Microsoft apps either. In regular Windows 8 you can still install third party software like the Media Foundation FLACCodec for Windows Media Player but don't expect it to help out in the Music app.
In the past, if MS was restricting you or if their apps sucked you simply got a new app.
It seems as if MS is moving away from that.
I think MS is trying too hard to become something they are not. Another way to look at it is too little too late to control/restrict the os. I fully believe MS is looking at the other company and seeing how much money they are worth and want a piece of it.
Also Google is a strong player that is making IE Chrome's little bit#$.
With Windows 8 Microsoft set out to create an OS which can be all things to all people. It's a desktop OS, a tablet OS, a hybrid tablet/desktop OS, and even a phone OS. What seems at first like a
I love the comment made by my favorite philosopher and it seems so appropriate here...
"When you try to become all things to all people, you quickly become nothing for everyone."
I'm thinking MS and windoze is going right down the path of irrelevancy, too bad most all my work is in this realm...
In electronics, you generally either do one thing very well or many things very poorly. Android is a great phone/tablet OS, but the x86 version is downright useless on a desktop. Windows 7 has finally delivered on many of the promises made back in the days of Windows 95...but it would make a terrible phone OS.
If Microsoft could actually integrate the two versions of Windows 8, at least to the level that the x86 and x64 versions of Windows 7 are integrated, then making a "single" OS might make sense. Since they cannot/will not do this, making a "single" OS is rather pointless. About all they could claim as being a benefit is that people would only have to learn one OS...but most people already know windows (and probably iOS or Android as well). Making them learn a new OS with a gui more complex than any phone OS (with less functionality than Android) and less user friendly than Windows 7 is hardly going to make things easier.
Anyway, the best part of windows is the 3rd party apps, if these didn't exist most IT guys would have been able to steer their companies towards Linux workstations long ago and people wouldn't mind using Linux at home since they would be used to it (plus OEMs would be offering more ready-to-go Linux PCs at places like Best Buy). Since RT won't support most of the existing apps, what is the point?
Actually the news here hasn't been good in washington state with windows 8 where microsoft is located it seems microsoft has ripped off the psvita's slide to unlock feature using it to switch between screens from the start menu to the desktop and worse still there rt version that is designed for tablets and laptop's doesn't run desktop windows software so world of warcraft is out of the question on laptops now great move micro dork
First, Windows 8 RT *ONLY* runs on ARM processors, which leaves out nearly all laptops. I suppose you might be able to get it to run on one of the ARM-powered Chromebooks, if you were masochistic. Nearly all laptops (and netbooks) will run standard Windows 8, which will run WoW, if you're so inclined.
Second, the "slide to unlock" method has been around since smartphones, themselves, have existed; it's not some PS Vita exclusive feature.
Having tried out Win8 (the standard version), I have to say I don't like it at all, but getting all breathless and silly about it isn't going to help.
