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Microsoft Surface Studio

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221–230 of 576 posts

Re: Microsoft Surface Studio

#221
post #3

I have to say this is the first time in years when there's a feeling that MS has outpaced Apple. The product looks amazing.

As an Apple (Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, PowerBook, PowerMac G5) user for 15 years, of photo processing & inDesign layout, I agree. XCode & iOS development is going to keep me on Apple for now, though, but the Linux subsystem for Windows is really appealing. The BSD Unix environment is the whole reason I went with Apple in the first place. OS X is basically a Unix workstation & perfected anything the Linux desktop wanted t…

> the Linux subsystem for Windows is really appealing

In theory. To anyone who feels that way, please try it out for yourself before making a leap. I thought it would let me develop Ruby on Rails under Windows like I could do on Linux or macOS. I discovered a whole bunch of unimplemented features that prevented this. After a couple of months of commenting on bug reports and watching and trying, I gave up. I'll check back later. YMMV.

Re: Microsoft Surface Studio

#222
Apple release iPhone 7, which is then eclipsed somewhat by Google Pixel.

MS announce this immediately before the MacBook announcement.

Conclusions are that (a) Apple are leaky and (b) rather than _avoid_ Apple announcements, their competitors are now happy to compete with them. A bad sign for Apple.

Re: Microsoft Surface Studio

#223
post #71

I can't but feel sad that Microsoft somehow is dropping the ball on mobile despite them having been, briefly, in a prime position to succeed. They've executed well with their "One platform"-strategy. UWP is great and with the new composition API their finally moving into being able to compete in the modern software arena. Meanwhile on the hardware side Panos is basically doing what Apple should have been doing if the…

What is going to set Microsoft apart in mobile at this point? The fact that you probably can't answer that is why Microsoft is still at the drawing board. One day they will return to the mobile world, probably next spring; but for now launching a good smart phone, even a great smart phone, that lacks the eco-system of Apple and Google is DOA unless it has something else appealing about it. I suspect the "Surface Phon…

That's a good question, and the mobile market is cutthroat when even companies like HTC/Samsung/Lenovo etc is struggling to survive.

However I think Microsoft has a lot of synergy good both on the gaming side with Xbox and on the business side with Office/Sharepoint/Outlook etc, not to mention that Windows still is the most popular OS.

Now I tend to agree with Nadella's "be everywhere"-strategy but that doesn't mean they can put everything into Microsoft services and software being the best on their own devices. I think the fact they're doing xbox games that are free to use on PC's is a good example of such synergy.

In the end selling hardware is never going to be what they earn money on, but rather they need to be a hardware actor so that they profit off their app store/software/services.

Re: Microsoft Surface Studio

#224
post #46

They can do all the marketing they want, I just feel like this is gonna be the buggiest thing I ever used if I tried it.

How's that? I tried an surface pro a while ago and the touch screen worked fine. They had some issues to work around scaling, but iirc those are mostly sorted out. Frankly it looks amazing.

You didn't try the Surface Pro long enough. I have Pro 4 i5 and it's been quite buggy (while it's awesome enough when it works so I don't mind since it seems to work most of the time).

The biggest issue for me is the battery. After filling it with juice it's down to bare minimum in couple of hours.

The second biggest issue for me is the windows update policy - I put the machine to hibernation, and when I come back the windows update has rebooted the machine and shut down my development environment.

Re: Microsoft Surface Studio

#225
post #71

I can't but feel sad that Microsoft somehow is dropping the ball on mobile despite them having been, briefly, in a prime position to succeed. They've executed well with their "One platform"-strategy. UWP is great and with the new composition API their finally moving into being able to compete in the modern software arena. Meanwhile on the hardware side Panos is basically doing what Apple should have been doing if the…

I'm kind of sad that the top comment on HN is about a part of Microsoft that has nothing to do with this new and frankly exciting piece of technology =(

As for the "how can they", the answer is remarkably simple: it's hurting their bottom line and there's no indication that a better strategy exists in the markets they're active in. If you don't understand why they don't just pour resources into mobile: resources are finite, and Microsoft is not the powerhouse it once was. Budget is allocated based on return of investment, why invest in a segment that you can see failing year over year. The best call is to wind it down and make new and exciting things that people didn't even know they wanted instead.

This new Surface Studio is a remarkably good step in that direction.

Re: Microsoft Surface Studio

#226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have 2010 MBP, 2013 MBP, and Surface Book that I've had since Feb. I never use my MBP anymore. The hardware is great, it looks very sleek (in my opinion) and I am a big fan on Windows 10, which seems to run very well on it (no issues thus far). edit: if you asked me 5 years ago if I would ever be happy with Microsoft, I would have laughed.

FWIW, Windows 10 runs really fast on your two MBPs, if you can get past the keyboard layout while using Windows. This is highly subjective, but my experience running Windows on Mac hardware was that they felt snappier than OSX on the same machine.

Yeah, I have noticed this as well. In fact, I don't have OSX on my 2010 MBP pro at all. It only has Windows 7 on it.

Re: Microsoft Surface Studio

#227
post #206

$2,999 and the best GPU option is a last-gen mobile card? The default 965M is a crappy budget card (half the performance of the 980M), and if you want the 980M you have to pick the $4,199 configuration. And hybrid drives!? This thing starts at $2,199 and you can't even get a full SSD? I know 2D designers probably won't mind the GPU, but they could definitely benefit from a true SSD. Hell, the recently announced Razer…

The fact you're focusing on the hardware specs while completely dismissing the form factor tells me you're not the target market.

Sorry but unless this is a glorified exec office decoration, professionals care about the specs very much, especially at that resolution and price tag

Re: Microsoft Surface Studio

#228
post #206

$2,999 and the best GPU option is a last-gen mobile card? The default 965M is a crappy budget card (half the performance of the 980M), and if you want the 980M you have to pick the $4,199 configuration. And hybrid drives!? This thing starts at $2,199 and you can't even get a full SSD? I know 2D designers probably won't mind the GPU, but they could definitely benefit from a true SSD. Hell, the recently announced Razer…

The fact you're focusing on the hardware specs while completely dismissing the form factor tells me you're not the target market.

Sorry but unless this is a glorified exec office decoration, professionals care about the specs very much, especially at that resolution and price tag

Re: Microsoft Surface Studio

#229
post #220
post #71

I can't but feel sad that Microsoft somehow is dropping the ball on mobile despite them having been, briefly, in a prime position to succeed. They've executed well with their "One platform"-strategy. UWP is great and with the new composition API their finally moving into being able to compete in the modern software arena. Meanwhile on the hardware side Panos is basically doing what Apple should have been doing if the…

They can "do" mobile. For development purposes, I have equivalent priced 2016 devices ios / android and a 2015 Lumia 950. The 950 is by far the one I use for personal use (no it doesn't have pokemon go, no I do not care). I have a lengthy comparison of the three platforms typed into a txt file that I was thinking about sharing. Whether they can successfully get mind / market share for mobile is probably another matte…

Can you please share the comparison? It will be interesting to read and compare the experiences.

Re: Microsoft Surface Studio

#230
post #21

With its Subsystem for Linux aimed at developers and now this desktop PC for designers, it seems Microsoft is quickly catching up with Apple. Now if they could release a good alternative to the MacBook Pro that would be great.

MS is definitely taking the steps in the hardware department that Apple has been lagging behind on. But I still feel Windows itself is not a productive OS. I'm big on keyboard shortcuts but MS is very much mouse based. Being required to use my pinky to try and hit CTRL instead of my thumb to hit COMMAND to do simple things like copy and paste is HUGE to me. I didn't use a Windows machine for 3 years and when I did ne…

> I'm big on keyboard shortcuts but MS is very much mouse based.

I think the key you're looking for is the 'Alt' key. You'll find a lot of doors open up for you on Windows when you use it.

edit: just to clarify. If you see a menu or anything with a letter that is underlined, Alt + Letter will choose that target. In addition, pushing down Alt will sometimes show which menus have keyboard options.

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