Microsoft Could One Day Potentially Open-Source Windows

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
  • board
    Phoronix Member
    • Dec 2013
    • 79

    #51
    Originally posted by macemoneta View Post
    Desktops are dying while Android, ChromeOS, and iOS are becoming the predominant end user computing devices..
    Lol, are you telling me Android or a toy OS like ChromeOS will replace Windows or Linux? Please give us a break and stop acting like a tool.

    Comment

    • rice_nine
      Phoronix Member
      • Apr 2014
      • 58

      #52
      Originally posted by wizard69 View Post
      The other part of this is that mechanics, electronics technician, plumbers or what ever doing try to do their job with just one tool. Instead they grab the best tool for the job, this concept seems to be something the computing world can't grasp. Why anybody would be so wrapped up in one solution to ignore the value in other solutions is beyond me. The fact that people can't see the iPads as perfectly valid solutions to many problems just demonstrates how closed minded they are.
      The fact that people can't see the difference between "solves my problem" and "solves every important problem" is fundamental to the entire myth of the dying desktop.

      The desktop is being reimagined in many cases. It certainly won't go anywhere but mobility is huge be it an "i" device or a more traditional laptop. I'd go so far as to say that apps for cell phones are just in their infancy as far as what they can do. The hardware will certainly improve to the point that there will be no real limits on what apps can do for people in need of productivity tools.
      Try using Blender without a keyboard.
      Last edited by rice_nine; 03 April 2015, 08:06 PM.

      Comment

      • belal1
        Junior Member
        • Jun 2013
        • 44

        #53
        Originally posted by gotwig View Post
        "what we need is a very CHEAP windows subscription." .

        Just Stop, wrong forum.
        relax your elitism. Windows IS and will be for quite some time to come, the most widely used platform. We can debate about how good or bad it is, but from a consumer's point of view (not all but many) it is the standard.

        Comment

        • macemoneta
          Senior Member
          • Nov 2008
          • 258

          #54
          Originally posted by board View Post
          Lol, are you telling me Android or a toy OS like ChromeOS will replace Windows or Linux? Please give us a break and stop acting like a tool.
          Android and ChromeOS are Linux. They just have a different userspace. As far as replacing Windows, that ship has sailed.





          According to Amazon, the top 3 best selling laptops are running ChromeOS.

          Chromebooks made up the top three best selling computers on Amazon over the holiday season, with the 11.6-inch Acer C720 coming out on top.

          Comment

          • DanLamb
            Senior Member
            • Feb 2013
            • 341

            #55
            Originally posted by belal1 View Post
            relax your elitism. Windows IS and will be for quite some time to come, the most widely used platform. We can debate about how good or bad it is, but from a consumer's point of view (not all but many) it is the standard.
            Ten years ago, I would have completely agreed with you. Today, on university campus, most students and professors are choosing Apple. Linux and Windows are both minority choices.

            In the software world, ten years ago, most jobs were overwhelmingly Microsoft oriented. .NET, ASP.NET, SQL Server and either C# or VB.NET were super dominant technologies. Today, they are not. I see way more JavaScript, Ruby, Python, R, Java, Scala, and Clojure. Linux seems more popular as a server technology, Amazon and Rackspace Cloud hosting is more popular, Hadoop and Spark distributed technology is more prevalent. And full time programmers are much more likely to use Macs than Windows.

            What do people even want from Windows? I know there are niches of people who are used to Windows, they are tied to Microsoft Office or Visual Studio, and just don't want anything else. Most other people, prefer Mac or LInux and don't want Windows.

            Comment

            • andyprough
              Senior Member
              • Feb 2012
              • 2457

              #56
              Originally posted by DanLamb View Post
              What do people even want from Windows? I know there are niches of people who are used to Windows, they are tied to Microsoft Office or Visual Studio, and just don't want anything else. Most other people, prefer Mac or LInux and don't want Windows.
              As an accountant, I can tell you most professional accounting software runs almost exclusively in a Windows environment, unless you are dealing with an enterprise-level package from a group like Oracle or SAP. But even then, the client programs usually run in a Windows environment.

              That's just one major profession out of many similar professions where nearly all of our end-user software tools are tied to Windows environments. Try document processing - do you have any idea how limited the tools are for someone who needs to process huge batches of PDF files every day? Medical billing, medical records, medical imaging - a lot of those systems are still completely tied to Windows.

              Face it - if you are working in a cubicle like hundreds of millions of corporate workers or government workers worldwide, you are still very likely to be using a Wintel box out of necessity. And that's not likely to change anytime in the near future.

              Comment

              • board
                Phoronix Member
                • Dec 2013
                • 79

                #57
                Originally posted by macemoneta View Post
                Android and ChromeOS are Linux. They just have a different userspace. As far as replacing Windows, that ship has sailed.



                Android is not comparable with desktop OSs for very obvious reasons. And when I said Linux, I was obviously talking about Ubuntu, Fedora, Linux Mint & company... They're not on the same market.

                ChromeOS in the other hand is a desktop OS, but is very minimalistic in comparison to Windows, Mac OS and other Linux distros. It's like having a tablet with a built-in keyboard.

                Originally posted by macemoneta View Post
                According to Amazon, the top 3 best selling laptops are running ChromeOS.

                http://www.omgchrome.com/chromebooks...g-amazon-xmas/
                It's obviously not because of ChromeOS being pre-installed but because they are dirt cheap. There is a huge demand for low-end laptops, and without OEMs having to pay for a Windows license per laptop they become even cheaper.

                It's not the OS that is attractive it's the price-tag. ChromeOS is a minimalistic and cheap desktop OS, and once you want to do anything more than what a tablet has to offer (emailing/browsing etc.) you will end up sacrificing it for a real desktop OS (Most likely Windows or Mac OS).
                Last edited by board; 04 April 2015, 02:39 AM.

                Comment

                • curaga
                  Senior Member
                  • Feb 2008
                  • 5924

                  #58
                  Originally posted by andyprough View Post
                  That's just one major profession out of many similar professions where nearly all of our end-user software tools are tied to Windows environments. Try document processing - do you have any idea how limited the tools are for someone who needs to process huge batches of PDF files every day? Medical billing, medical records, medical imaging - a lot of those systems are still completely tied to Windows.
                  Where I live, most serious accounting software has moved to the cloud, so as to be compatible with Macs, and Linux as a side effect (plus it can then draw more money, greedy subscription models).

                  I would also have said Windows is the platform you could never do proper batch-processing of PDF files on, but hey as a Linux dev what do I know :P

                  Comment

                  • moilami
                    Senior Member
                    • Aug 2012
                    • 871

                    #59
                    Originally posted by wizard69 View Post
                    People run their businesses off iPhones and iPads. The productivity that you can derive for a tablet (any tablet) depends upon how you realize your productivity.

                    Yet they do and frankly have benefited for thinking different.


                    The desktop is being reimagined in many cases. It certainly won't go anywhere but mobility is huge be it an "i" device or a more traditional laptop. I'd go so far as to say that apps for cell phones are just in their infancy as far as what they can do. The hardware will certainly improve to the point that there will be no real limits on what apps can do for people in need of productivity tools.
                    My kid's godfather bought a tablet for my kid. I was curious and tried it a few days, after that I haven't touched it.

                    It would be fun to say that, yes, if I were to use Windows I would rather use a tablet too

                    Comment

                    • MartinN
                      Official Linux/Wayland/systemd fanboy
                      • Nov 2010
                      • 531

                      #60
                      Microsoft, i.e. Satya currently, would be fools not to use Linux to their advantage to basically kill off OS X on the desktop. Yea yea, I know iPads and iPhones and whatever are the shiznit now, but this isn't really used for any serious work - you still need a keyboard + mouse, so desktop is still very much alive. Most programmers I know use Apple's laptops because of a workable desktop, not because OS X is superior to Linux in any way otherwise. One cannot deny the usability of the OSX desktop however....

                      If Satya had the cojones, he could slap a similar GUI shell on an already rock-solid OS like Linux, either by adopting Wayland as their underlying display server infrastructure, and developing their own renderer, etc. Once the Win32 API is fully exposed, Wine could become the de-facto Win32 emulator for all Windows apps, not just games.

                      What did Steve Jobs "invent" that people praise him for? Abso-freakin-lutely nothing! Dennis Richie put together C along with his AT&T pals, yet we don't have a Dennis Richie day, but we do have a Steve Jobs day in Cali. Why? Because Jobs could leach the best technologies that barely worked together, and integrate/transform them into something beautiful. THAT was his entrepreneurial spirit in action far more than any kind of "innovative" spirit.

                      Satya seems to have his brains attached in the right place - and if he can learn anything from the great Steve Jobs, it'd be to take what doesn't work, but is solid technology - i.e. Linux, Wayland, the Win32 API and cobble that into a nicely polished OS. In one fell swoop he'll have pulled off a coup on the old Windows legacy, give Linux the much needed desktop facelift it has needed over the last 20 years, and produce an OS that runs Windows apps natively and at the same time capture hearts of a load of developers and Linux fans world wide.

                      That's -the- future. I of course have no power to pull this kind of vision off, but if I could, I would make all 3 winners - Linux w/a brand new desktop, Win32 and a new beast born that will take over the world and ultimately commoditize the OS market... and set it free from anyone's reign, so we can focus on making useful apps. OS X will die within a year after a beast like this is born of course, and Apple can go do go whatever it wants, iPhone 100x by then or what not, no one will care.

                      Satya is definitely far more Linux inclined than any other CEO, and I am glad he's assertive about it, and has made moves to this effect.

                      Comment

                      Working...
                      X