2Q 2011 saw shipments of 107 million smart phones and 13.5 million tablets. I would call that “compelling”, but IDC does not count them as “PCs”. Therefor, while consumers are clamoring for more, better and cheaper smart thingies, IDC sees a serious prolonged decline in “PC” markets. The whole of 2011 seems as though the “PC” market will be up only 2.8% and that is largely due to emerging markets taking far more PCs than mature markets. The emerging markets want small cheap computers too.
Magically, IDC sees 2012 and beyond “recovering” to 5-6% growth for PCs but PCs have seen 10% growth for a long time. This is a new regime. Small cheap computers are here to stay. Smart phones are high on consumers’ shopping lists and the choices of tablets available keeps growing. It appears IDC believe “8” will be more compelling but I don’t see it. Consumers have plenty of choices in small cheap computers and “8” will just be one of them and one that comes with lots of baggage. It will be interesting to see whether legacy malware runs on “8” if other legacy apps do not. If “8” carries the plague of malware that XP, Vista and “7” do then I cannot see “8” being compelling to consumers. If “8” does not carry malware, consumers may well prefer “8” on smart thingies rather than that other OS on x86-64. M$ will have a shrinking share of the real world of IT in any case.
IDC is at least posting the numbers for small cheap computers. I wonder how long it will take IDC to recognize them as PCs.
Certainly a lot of servers use Linux, #posgon, it is the 4th most popular platform for servers, behind only Windows, unix, and IBM mainframes in terms of annual server revenues. So what?
The topic was desktop usage. The odd ARM configuration for desktop use is immaterial to the idea that it is not very popular and seldom found in use. Ditto for a port of Android to x86. Why bother?
It is so tiresome that you try to speak for everyone… GNU/Linux is everywhere and ARM soon will be too. Android/Linux is also going on x86.
ARM is for phones and tablets. Nobody uses Debian binaries for phones or tablets. Maybe such a thing exists somewhere, but nobody really cares.
Debian makes binaries for all of its dozen or so architectures. They don’t make separate sources for each. It’s one source code built for all architectures. M$ makes code that cannot do that because they are such a mess.
Programmes written for GNU/Linux can and do run on ARM, routinely. C programmes are portable that way. If you code for M$ you get lock-in.
“GNU/Linux is modular and if it works on one system, it is very likely to work on another.”
The context of all this is the charge that Windows 8 will not run legacy apps. Now of course x86 binaries will not run on ARM, but neither will binaries that were created for Linux on x86 run on ARM.
So the issue, for you, seems to be to claim that programs designed to work with Linux on the desktop can be run on ARM simply by recompiling. I think that is not particularly true since the peripherals for the ARM devices are substantially different from those encounted in the desktop/laptop environment and consequently the operation of the apps is affected regardless of OS. The silly example in the YouTube video supports that notion, I think, and you yourself are obvously somewhat embarassed by the very ide.
The same is true for Android in that you have to design the application to suit the Android OS as well as fit the display and input devices available.
That gadget clearly has too little RAM, memory speed, and memory for the task. The point was that there is plenty of native GNU/Linux software that runs on ARM. The port of the OS gives the apps a comfortable environment. It’s not like that other OS where everything is tied together. GNU/Linux is modular and if it works on one system, it is very likely to work on another.
Contrarian from china there are many makers who will ship you phones with fully unlocked bootloaders that you can load up Debian GNU/Linux on and run OpenOffice.
Yes its just not possible to make those things work on stock android at the moment. Even the nexus phone with unlocked boot loaders you can load up the Debian GNU/Linux that was used on N900 if you don’t want to go custom ordering.
Answer for me is 100 percent yes I have taken a desktop application and run it on a phone.
Really the question was poorly defined. QT desktop applications to android done those as well. Tricky but do able.
Gtk applications to android forget it. HTML5 applications to android dead simple.
Really depends on the application if its doable or not. Tech from the Linux standard base to alter dynamic loading in particularly handy on android when working in android native code due to code bugs in the android c implementation.
Issue here Contrarian the game has changed. You can now deal straight with the hardware makers Nokia and other have been contracting workout to in china. Volume numbers are not that bad either if you don’t want a major unique design. Ie surface unique but shape and main-board matching another phone in production is not expensive.
Please don’t ask such a open question next time. Please place some limits on it so it at least tricky to meet. No OS limit where I can take a phone change it os and do what ever I please is just too simple. No limit on that the phone was in production for general sale was also too simple to meet that question. Email china order the configuration I want this even include clone N900’s.
Custom phones are getting easier every month that goes by. A long time ago it was a battle to find someone to make you a custom phone. Today its a walk in the park.
“Have you personally been able to take some existing Linux app and run it on that phone? Yes or no now”
Reply:
“Here’s Debian GNU/Linux starting OpenOffice.org on ARMed Nokia N900 ”
Is that a “No”?
If that is the way Nokia phones worked before they threw in with Microsoft, it is no wonder that they were losing the war.
Oldman Linux to Linux qemu kicks bochs emulator around the ball park.
Meego with quad core arm chips qemu usermode will run very decent. Most phones are still single or double with a core doing operations that override OS.
Duel core phones also pull of qemu usermode quite well as long as it not getting disrupted too much by sms messages and so on. Background operations disturbing things.
Qemu usermode is a different form of emulation oldman.
Reason Linux kernel syscalls are not emulated instead pasted to the Linux kernel under it. Same with device accesses and so on. Console based applications can be made work on Android using the qemu usermode.
Graphical fails at this stage due to Androids different graphical environment. There is on going talks between Google Android developers and Linux kernel maintainers developers about syncing this issue out.
Basically bochs you are doing emulation of hardware that as qemu usermode you are not.
Reality they almost have the horse power to pull off qemu usermode in phones. Outside phones where clock-speeds are not limited neither are cores arm chips pull it off very decently.
Yes arm would not lift bochs emulator running Linux the hardware emulation is the killer. Yes the hardware emulation consumes about 6 times as much as running the application using the user-mode only method.
Dalvik, in Android/Linux, is an emulator. It is a virtual machine translating byte code to equivalent steps on an ARM CPU. The performance that you see is pleasing to many in devices running Android/Linux is a step or two slower than what native GNU/Linux can do. If the 390 is anything like the 360 and 370 on which I used to code assembler and Fortran, emulating the instruction set should be trivial for ARM chips even with dual-core. Quad-core is imminent. My old 360 did the fast register to register instructions in 0.4 microsecond so the ARM is probably much faster. I no longer have any of my old 360 codes so I have no way of knowing.
“When arm chips in phones get faster qemu to run x86 linux binaries is possible. So if I did not care that the application run like a snail meego phone can turn over all the existing Linux applications without rebuilding.”
So what, Mr oiaohm. I am doing system 390 emulation on my x86 portable experimenting with a fully working ca. 1986 mainframe environment running IBM MVS 3.8.
I am also experimenting with bochs emulator, which seem to me at least far better than QEMU ever was.
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-bochs/?ca=drs-
The reality of all of this aside, the ARM chips do NOT ave the horsepower to support emulation, nor are they likely to do so any time soon, nor are vendors likely to ever offer such a capability for sale any time soon if ever. So to my talking about what can be done by geeking up a system is to me just as good as an admission that it cant be done.
lxer86
Its fully functional
Contrarian take a android phone that you can convert to meego and run the application you like on it.
Remember meego is fairly much stock Linux yet it run on phones. Only thing special is the windows manager.
When arm chips in phones get faster qemu to run x86 linux binaries is possible. So if I did not care that the application run like a snail meego phone can turn over all the existing Linux applications without rebuilding.
qemu userspace works under osx and linux. Microsoft could have spent some coin and ported that to windows so allowing windows x86 applications to work on arm. But Microsoft has decided against doing that.
There is qemu for android. The biggest issue why Linux userspace cannot be run this way is no x11 server or equal in android. qemu-usermode would have provided all the wrapping otherwise required. Just it built with the presume of X11 or equal.
So enough coin and you could run any Linux application you like on an android phone.
Qt for android works quite well migrating kde applications for Linux to android.
Lot of Linux compatible applications are distribution neutral. Out side the distribution supplies.
Here’s Debian GNU/Linux starting OpenOffice.org on ARMed Nokia N900 device on YouTube.
“GNU/Linux can run natively on ARM”
Can it? You said that you had come by an Android phone some time ago, IIRC. Have you personally been able to take some existing Linux app and run it on that phone? Yes or no now. Quit being so evasive.
Of course widows and orphans do not install Windows or recompile Windows applications. There is no need to do that, everything comes ready to run in the box. But that is not the case with Linux or with Linux compatible applications according to your claims.
Twit. Widows and orphans don’t compile or install that other OS either. My app was a script using a flat file as a database. No problem running on ARM. GNU/Linux can run natively on ARM. No need for the Android API at all.
“For a good laugh, read …”
For a good laugh, look at what Desktop Linux has accomplished in 20 years. Of course it’s only possible to laugh if you’re using “that other OS”. The greatest minds behind the open source “revolution” have predicted the fall of the “mighty Microsoft empire” times and times again. In fact Microsoft is always on the verge of collapse according to them. And yet it never happens. But the interesting thing is that the believers keep believing in their prophecy that someday a penguin, at least as big as Ghostbusters’ Marshmallow Man, will come along and smash Microsoft headquarters to pieces.
I believe sociologists are calling that “cognitive dissonance”. The prophecy fails in practice, but one doesn’t stop believing. Instead of admitting defeat one tries to reduce the dissonance by changing one’s own cognition. The prophecy is not wrong, one just misread it. And therefore the total and utter defeat of Microsoft gradually becomes less and less total and utter. Desktop computers? They don’t count anymore. We’re in the age of the portable internet device. Suddenly Android’s success becomes the defeat of Microsoft. Suddenly Linux’s modest success becomes the defeat of Microsoft. Propaganda parrots like Jim Zemlin are declaring that “Linux has won”, blissfully ignoring that there’s no single Linux-based company anywhere that is even only half as successful as Microsoft.
You people are simply delusional.
But you know what? I’d wish for Linux to be successful on the desktop. Because if that’d happen, if the big companies would start porting due to an unexploited market, you’d be shot from behind. You’d have a free platform … with the best tools being proprietary. I’d laugh about that.
“In GNU/Linux one cross-compiles.”
That should make it popular with the widows and orphans set, #pogson! When people learn to compile and configure their applications is when Linux will start to have a chance on the desktop, meaning never.
Is it possible for you to take your hangman app that you once described for Linux and drop it onto an Android tablet or phone? Even with a re-complile? Programming for Android seems to me at first glance to be a lot different from classic programming for Linux, commnd line apps or GUI apps. I don’t think that it is a simply re-compile at all and you are deluding yourself and that you have never tried to do it.
The problem becomes on of redesign of the user interaction to match the resources available with small screens and touch actions as well as altering the source code to work with the API functions provided by Android. In the same sense as that sort of action would allows and ISV to port their application to Windows 8, you can just as accurately state that “Android does not run any legacy Linux software”.
For a good laugh, read http://www.lessonsoffailure.com/uncategorized/dear-microsoft/
“Speaking of commitments, can you keep a platform alive for more than a few years? Let’s list the litany of technologies released and then abandoned by you in the past 15 years: ADO, Silverlight, DNA, BizApp, .NET, J#, XNA. With Windows 8, we’re now going to write everything in HTML5 and Javascript? Hello 1999, we were doing that ages ago, and with you leading the way. “
In GNU/Linux one cross-compiles. Same source code. Just tell the compiler to build for ARM. Debian GNU/Linux supports ARM amongst a dozen different architectures, one of the main reasons manufacturers love Linux.
See Debian running on ARM.
Commenters often tout the versatility of that other OS running folks’ pet applications. I think it is important to point out that “8” will not run all those apps. It looks like very few will run on ARM and I would bet there are some that will not run on x86 but I don’t know that for sure. I do know some apps quit working when XP SP2 rolled out. I had a scanner in a school which no longer worked after that rollout was forced on us. No kidding. In the middle of the night XP SP2 rolled over us even with “auto update” turned off. Where I worked last 1.5 years ago folks were still running XP SP1 when I arrived …
Perhaps you are hung up about semantics. Is “8” on ARM that other OS or not. The problem is M$’s not mine. The same apps that run on Debian GNU/Linux can run on ARM just fine, with a mouse. That won’t be the case with M$’s monstrosity. Ask them why.
“We’ve been very clear since the very first CES demos and forward that the ARM product won’t run any X86 applications,” Sinofsky said.
“Sinofsky claimed that the decision to not include support for legacy software dealt on Windows 8 on ARM lay with battery life and security. Legacy apps weren’t written to be “really great in the face of limited battery constraints,” a hallmark of the “Metro” tablet interface for Windows 8. Moreover, he added, there would be the risk that malware writers would port viruses over to the Windows 8-on-ARM platform, too.”
see Windows 8 on ARM Won’t Run Legacy Windows Apps
It changes there but is not “totally screwed up”. I could look at the code but, “Why bother?”, it’s still functional which is mostly what I care about. If it annoys you, it might be a feature, not a bug.
By the way, Pog, the layout in the comments section is totally screwed up after comment 15. Which happens to be your own comment. You can perhaps install WordPress, but you sure don’t understand it.
“Nope. See Sinofsky: No x86 legacy apps on Windows 8 for ARM”
Hey, Pog, you are actually not stupid, you are BEYOND stupid. Your FUD would be worthy of Germany’s finest tabloid, BILD. You said [1]:
“‘8’ does not run most legacy software …”
You even said it in the comments to this very post! Now you suddenly want to weasel your way out with the old bait-and-switch tactics:
1.) Bait: You state that Windows 8 DOES NOT RUN most legacy software without specifying which software that is, implying that this is true for ALL architectures.
2.) Switch: Oh! Now it’s suddenly only x86 legacy software that won’t run on ARM.
You need to go see: a neurologist and a psychiatrist ASAP. There’s something really wrong with you.
[1] http://mrpogson.com/2011/09/14/idc-pc-industry-has-struggled-to-come-up-with-compelling-features-to-keep-buyer-interest/#comment-55299
Posgon, that’s disappointing. Did you ever bother to study the results of the “search results for XP SP2 BREAKS”? You have a knowledgebase with affected programs, hardly more that a couple of dozen (keeping in mind you have hundred of thousands of Windows apps), most of them antivirus and firewall tools. Real disaster, indeed. Gosh, I wonder how users didn’t notice, and that didn’t ruin XP on desktop.
Sarcasm ends.
See Sinofsky: No x86 legacy apps on Windows 8 for ARM
Now I wonder why I need to comment on that. How do you expect native x86 code to run on ARM? That would be possible only via emulation – something ARM is really poor at. I fully understand why MS will not waste resources to make it possible for exsiting applications to run very poorly on tablets.
You miss the important points. First, .NET applications will run on ARM, as long as they do not use p/invoke to some x86 native library. Now, with Windows development continously shifting towards .NET, there is simply no problem for Microsoft.
Second, on x86 devices, old applications will run. I am able to install Netscape 4.0 on Windows 7 and run it without a glitch. Now, can you install Firefox 1 on Ubuntu 10? Please give it a try and let me know how it works for you.
FUD FUD FUD!
I am someone. I have used GNU/Linux desktops for a decade and have rarely been disappointed. Ditto, Largo FL, Munich, Peugeot, BRIC countries, etc.
Nope. See Sinofsky: No x86 legacy apps on Windows 8 for ARM
He’s wrong as usual. Pogson will attempt (rather weakly) to change the topic to something else and go on about how 6 years ago how he made all of his students happy by forcing them to use FOSS.
““8″ does not run most legacy software”
I’ve download and I am installing windows developer preview. It will be interesting to learn if you are correct Pog.
care to modify your statement before I report back?
I’ve actually seen the opposite from what you FOSStards are reporting: anyone who tried Linux on the desktop moved away from it because of the sheer lack of security, lack of performance, and lack of apps.
I’ve also seen several Linux servers hacked and yet I’ve not yet seen any Windows boxes hacked.
Seems most of the folk who’ve I’ve introduced to LINUX going on 30 to 35 individuals have stuck with it and have no desire to go back to Apple or MS. I think the quiet pragmatists are trickling over, despite the apparent chorus of may insist on staying on the garbage scow of SS Microsoft as it slowly slides beneath the waves.
And for eee’s now I’ve converted about 4-5 others over to UNR, it runs Matlab 2010 like a champ…a eee running WinXP trying to run Matlab 2010 chokes miserably.
“Nonsense. Last year I had a school full of people see the superiority of GNU/Linux both with respect to performance and malware.”
That’s nice. But you shouldn’t exaggerate. Talking to yourself doesn’t equal an audience.
Nonsense. Last year I had a school full of people see the superiority of GNU/Linux both with respect to performance and malware.
XP Offers a superior desktop experience especially when compared to even modern day Linux.
Linux never stood a chance in the desktop arena.
How about references to Linux netbooks from Dell? Oops, they realized that Linux doesn’t sell because people don’t want Linux, they want Microsoft Windows and so that’s what people buy.
Linux lost the desktop – not that it ever had it.
Get over it.
Check the column labelled, “XP”. It’s still out there, widely.
Need endless reboots? M$ has ’em. See XP SP3 cripples some PCs with endless reboots
Need to re-re-reboot for updating PCs? M$’s the one for you.
Conversely, I update my PC fairly often and have uptime of 42 days. I have 1900 software packages on it and I keep them all up to date with apt-get update;apt-get upgrade and carry on using my machine without interruption. Of course I have angst about that other OS. It wasted years of my life re-re-rebooting and fighting malware for nothing. Think of the hundreds of $millions spent annually by users of that other OS globally each year… It’s appalling.
People who ignore history are doomed to repeat it:
see search results for XP SP2 BREAKS
GNU/Linux netbooks are still being produced:
see ASUS eee PC X101
Specifications
Operating System MeeGo
Display 10.1″ LED Backlight WSVGA (1024×600) Screen
CPU Intel® Atom™ N435/N455 Processor
Memory DDR3, 1 x SO-DIMM, 1GB ( Maximum 2GB )
Storage 2.5″ SATA 8GB SSD
2 GB Dropbox Web Storage
Wireless Data Network WLAN 802.11 b/g/n@2.4GHz*1
Bluetooth V3.0*1
That looks like GNU/Linux is still thriving on netbooks.
Pogson, you can’t sing a different tune, can you? I don’t care what you’ve seen on netbooks. The plain, simple fact, proven by history is: Linux lost the netbook market to an old operating system – XP.
You legends about XP are really beaten to death. I would really like at least a reference to the “many” apps SP2 broke. Really.
Back to tablets.
You give me an example of certain sites, relying on Flash. Good for you. But people, buying iPads, still don’t care. iPads thrive.
Obviously you mistaken the usege of tablets. No one buys tablets to visit flash sites. A site here and there will not work, fine, who cares. With a tablet, you would check your e-mail, browse the web briefly like check the forecast, do some reading, watch a movie, play a game. Since all decent games out there are available as native iOS apps, games are no motivation for flash demand either.
Flash is disabled for a reason. It is CPU demanding, and hence battery killing. I want my tablet to work 8 hours, not 4. For that extra time, I sacrifice flash with a smile.
“Then there are the re-re-reboots…”
How is it that being such an enthusiastic user of Linux still results in your being continually frustrated with XP, #pogson? Are you just putting us on?
Regardless, most people haven’t had such terrible experiences as you relate and Windows has had a couple of releases since the XP days already and is on the verge of yet another. Whatever case you could have made vis-a-vis XP and Linux is just water under the bridge and hardly appropriate for a current discussion.
Contrarian wrote: Doesn’t that just boil down to an update for ,NET to the 4.5 version attributed to being in Win8? That would let new stuff run on Win7 and Vista, too.
That would depend on how Metro is implemented. I have no knowledge about that yet. If it is implemented in managed code, it will be indeed part of .NET 4.5 and will work on older versions.
However, I think it will be done deeper into the OS, and .NET 4.5 will only have a managed wrapper to it, which will not run on older versions of Windows.
The problem with making existing software Metro-compliant would be to redesign the UI to make it most of Metro. For large content-creation apps that would be a tough job…
I was once looking at http://www.vw.ca/en.html to shop for a diesel-powered car. I could not use the site because I was not Flash-enabled at the time. I sent them a strongly-worded e-mail explaining that their site excluded me as a customer because of their dependence on Flash. Several of the automobile-sellers use Flash heavily. I don’t know how many depend on it for their start page but many have 360 degree views and such and VW even had Flash for selecting and configuring models.
I have seen XP and GNU/Linux run on netbooks and GNU/Linux wins easily in performance.
I have used XP in my home and in schools. BSODs were frequent in the first year or so. SP2 broke many apps. SP3 does run more reliably but is still routinely failing due to malware in spite of anti-malware products in use. Then there are the re-re-reboots…
As an added thought, the low rate of detection of the phones and tablets by the internet stats keepers in spite of the huge population of internet access capable phones and tablets suggests that web sites are not the main target of these devices and connections to web services via apps would account for that since the traffic on these services is not counted by the stat services.
“XP made Ubuntu look like a sad joke on netbooks.”
IIRC, Ubuntu wasn’t on netbooks in the early days, rather it was some sort of simple minded UI on a Linux base. It didn’t fit user expectations very well, whatever it was.
“I am yet to see a web site, where the sole functionality is available as flash only.”
My feeling is that the app is the key anyway, not the browser. Certainly it is that way on phones where the browser app is usually rather clumsy. I haven’t used an iPad very much, but the grandkids seem to mostly play games on them and their parents use their iPhones for casual mail. With limited real estate and/or the touch screen environment, it behooves anyone who wants some serious attention to provided an app for whatever is to be done in order to create a good user experience.
“I am not sure that major ISVs will hurry to jump on the Metro wagon, because they will need to maintain their support for Vista and 7 for some long time”
Doesn’t that just boil down to an update for ,NET to the 4.5 version attributed to being in Win8? That would let new stuff run on Win7 and Vista, too.
I know that we updated .NET as part of our product install.
Pogson, obsolete or not, XP made Ubuntu look like a sad joke on netbooks. Fact. Period. And that didn’t happen in 2001, when XP came out. It happened quite some years later, when XP was even more “obsolete”, if I follow your own notion. That makes it even sadder for Linux.
Btw, in 2001 XP hate was fashion. I still recall all the claims that users would never touch that crap. Well, they did, and only recently 7, as successful as it is, dethroned XP on desktops. So, you were not really original back then.
Lack of Flash support on iPads seems to bother nobody of the million people who purchase iPads. And why should it? I am yet to see a web site, where the sole functionality is available as flash only. Games? All game developers, who do Flash, do their games for iOS, too. Just go to ArmorGames and take a peek. Video? People got iTunes, there.
People with iPads don’t quite care for Flash. As a matter of fact, I don’t quite either. 95% of flash I see on websites are ads. Good riddance.
One thought occurs to me is that all the major Windows app ISVs, such as Quicken, Adobe, etc., are going to be falling all over themselves, rushing to Metro-ize their current products.
I am not sure that major ISVs will hurry to jump on the Metro wagon, because they will need to maintain their support for Vista and 7 for some long time. But, in a couple of years after the release of 8, they will be there.
Games, however, will be the first to comply with Metro, to make their way to tablets and Windows Phones.
Wine still only kinda works sometimes. With WinRT, I see no way they are going to comply with it within next 10 years. Plus, most new apps will now be built in managed code. COnsider Wine gone for good. 🙂
Robert Pogson said:
I used both in those days. XP crashed and burned, often and GNU/Linux had a reputation for running like the Energizer Bunny.
Based on his original stateent:
XP was obsolete when it was released in 2001
Oh well then it must make your original statement true then right?
You are one person with an opinion. Show some stats to back up this statement and then you can call this a fact instead of some bitter old man who has the hate on Microsoft.
This is why everyone keeps throwing pokes at you Robert, you keep presenting your kooky opinions as fact. All you have to do is be clear and say “I think that XP was junk”, or “I didn’t care for XP back in the day”.
Learning yet?
“GNU/Linux had a reputation for running like the Energizer Bunny”
Don’t kid yourself, #pogson, Linux hs no reputation at all on the desktop. That is the essence of the problem for Linux and the reason why it is so rarely used and why it is just not available for mass market consumers.
I’ve written that XP was obsolete when released back in 2001. I used both in those days. XP crashed and burned, often and GNU/Linux had a reputation for running like the Energizer Bunny.
Apple put so many restrictions on iPad that many applications and protocols were not available. That may have legitimately been an attempt to ensure good performance but it required everyone to do everything Apple’s way:
So, not only was iPad some good tech, Apple was not content to compete on price/performance but insisted on total control of the platform to the extent of interfering with the whole world of IT. Apple’s iPad broke things, globally.
iPad breaks things all the time
Orly? References?
XP was obsolete when it was released in 2001
As appose to Linux in 2001? Again, references (i.e. references that state that XP was obsolete in 2001)?
You’re funny but completely lacking in validity or common sense.
“WinRT does not replace Win32.”
One thought occurs to me is that all the major Windows app ISVs, such as Quicken, Adobe, etc., are going to be falling all over themselves, rushing to Metro-ize their current products. Imagine the step input that the Wine bunch is going to get shortly thereafter! They will be ringing for years, I bet.
“Maybe you had a firewall when XP shipped without one by default. Maybe you never used SMB/CIFS or images. All have been vectors of malware with that other OS.”
Sure thing, Pog! Maybe my computer was shut down the whole time! No, wait … that would only have happened to me had I used GNU/Linux.
“Ending suypport for 16 bit win32 legacy API’s at this point is probably not a tragedy. ”
Actually that should read ending support for 16 bit legacy apps at this point is not a tragedy.
“Phenom There has been a major windows api clean up for Windows 8. So yes programs will not work.”
API cleanup may mean broken API’s, but as you know it really depends on what is broken. Ending suypport for 16 bit win32 legacy API’s at this point is probably not a tragedy.
I am curious, Mr. oiaohm, have you seen the beta developer doc or is this just wishful thinking on your part?
uhh, Flash? I have encountered many websites that depend on Flash on the front page. What is an iPad user to do? Apple deliberately chose to exclude Flash from their system. That breaks things.
“we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads”
see http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/
The reasons Apple provides for excluding Flash are all reasonable but they make browsing the web “a jarring experience”, to quote M$. Flash is a fact and it disrupts users when Apple arbitrarily excluded it.
Maybe you had a firewall when XP shipped without one by default. Maybe you never used SMB/CIFS or images. All have been vectors of malware with that other OS.
Ohio, do your homework, please. WinRT does not replace Win32. It is added next to WinRT for all new development.
http://www.pitorque.de/MisterGoodcat/image.axd?picture=windows+8+platform+and+tools.png
If you want to be taken seriously, I respectfully advise you not to make uninformed guesses.
Pogson, I am yet to see an application which requires only iPad 2 to work on. You go to App store, and buy an application for iPad, period. Let alone the fact that most apps actually work under iPhone, too. If you want to support your claim of incompatbility, you need to give some proof.
XP, old as it is, simply made a laugh of Linux when it comes to netbooks. Even machines, sold with Linux, end up formatted and reinstalled with Windows. It may took them a few months, but now netbooks are dominated by Windows. Fact.
OEMs try to sold as many units as possible, indeed. But, their readiness to ride the 8 train means only one thing – Android will be under some heavy competition there. And any other Linux but Android (which is not really Linux any more) is out of the question.
Phenom There has been a major windows api clean up for Windows 8. So yes programs will not work.
D-G yes Hyper-V will be required. Problem remains the same will video card drivers work proper with Hyper-V turned on. Or will they be paper weights.
“Wrong on all points. iPad breaks things all the time. ‘8’ does not run most legacy software, and Android 4.0 is ending the fragmentation except for OEM value added which consumers like.”
Three baseless claims. Where’s the proof, Pog?
And: Windows 8 doesn’t run legacy software? Well, there probably is a reason that Hyper-V is introduced into the client.
“If ‘8’ carries the plague of malware that XP, Vista and ‘7’ do then I cannot see ‘8’ being compelling to consumers.”
Pog, I never had malware. Not with XP, not with Vista, not with 7. Despite me using no anti-anything software of any kind. A little bit of common sense goes a long way.
Wrong on all points. iPad breaks things all the time. “8” does not run most legacy software, and Android 4.0 is ending the fragmentation except for OEM value added which consumers like. XP was obsolete when it was released in 2001 and it only displaced some of GNU/Linux on netbooks. GNU/Linux still has a decent share of netbooks. M$ still had monopoly power in those days. This is 2011 and the OEMs don’t dance to M$’s tune any longer. They’re just hedging their bets in case “8” catches on. XP had to catch up to GNU/Linux after a few months of lead. Android/Linux has years of lead on ARM.
Pogson, I am afraid that XP, with all its malware, blew Ubuntu and Linux in general out of the water on the netbook arena. An almost 10-year old operating system made a laugh of its more contemporary rival. Simple fact of life.
I would say you highly exaggerate malware as a factor. It is simply not such a plague, as you might wish it to be.
The most common way to get malware is to go to porn and torrent sites, and download things from there. You know, common people don’t do any of these.
The most important thing, however, is that you keep ignoring that Windows 8 works on ARM, and it does so pretty well. Care to watch Windows BUILD 2011 keynote? You will see a myriad of Windows 8 tablets. Look here: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4811/windows-8-tablets-running-on-ti-qualcomm-nvidia-amd-intel-silicon
Basically, every hardware vendor is already prepared. Now MS needs to smooth the sharp edges, give time developers to get their act, and leave some more time to hardware manufacturers to test and finish their drivers.
Now, look at the future. We are facing:
1. iPads with iOS, which maintains compatilibity and guarantees the long life of the investments in hardware and applications. You can choose to update your tablet, and keep your software, or simply go along and keep purchasing new apps for your reverent iPad 1.
2. Windows 8, which runs old Windows software, and provides a unified development platform with well-known tools for developers. It also runs well even on mediocre hardware. And, hardware vendors are standing ready.
3. Android, with its fragmentation, where you may only hope that the app you bought today would run on the next version of the OS. Heck, you need to hope it will run even on a different device running the same version of the OS.
Now, I give you three guesses who is the loser in long-term.