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Microsoft is now a braver, more innovative company than Apple

mashable.com

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Re: Microsoft is now a braver, more innovative company than Apple

#121

Post by jagermo »

TACIXAT wrote: post #104
whytaka wrote: post #26

Microsoft is innovative because you can now purchase a dedicated hardware peripheral for some software feature the touchscreen was designed to replace. Let's completely forget that Microsoft 'upgrades' your OS without your permission, spies on you, embeds ads into the Start Menu, and their OEMs like Lenovo will listen in on everything you do at the hardware level. In my opinion, these are actual reasons a company sho…

I had a MBP a few years ago. I installed the Boot Camp beta. When it went out of beta it locked up with no ability to change the configuration or installed OSs. The solution was to upgrade (30$) to the latest version of OS X. Which meant I lost all the software that came with the laptop since I didn't want to pay for it again. I had an iPod touch. When I was using it on a certain network it couldn't hit the NTP serve…

I own a perfectly fine iPad 1 and can't use apps for it anymore because Apple said so. This really irks me, at least let me install the latest usable version.

The iPad is still working nicely, but the behavior by Apple just sucks.

Re: Microsoft is now a braver, more innovative company than Apple

#122

Post by staticelf »

whytaka wrote: post #26

Microsoft is innovative because you can now purchase a dedicated hardware peripheral for some software feature the touchscreen was designed to replace. Let's completely forget that Microsoft 'upgrades' your OS without your permission, spies on you, embeds ads into the Start Menu, and their OEMs like Lenovo will listen in on everything you do at the hardware level. In my opinion, these are actual reasons a company sho…

Buy windows 10 pro and shut down auto-updates? I've opted out of basically everything except auto-update because I want to latest release. The possibility of shutting down auto update is probably the biggest sellpoint of Pro and Enterprise editions nowadays, together with encryption.

Windows 10 don't really spy on me more than Apple or Google, but for those who complain there is always Linux that is the only real true alternative to opting out of being spied upon.

I run Windows 10 Pro and love it auto-updates is wonderful as a programmer also because I know people will get the latest version automatically.

Re: Microsoft is now a braver, more innovative company than Apple

#123

Post by curt15 »

simonh wrote: post #73

The central premise is that Apple isn't innovative anymore. Let's look at the technologies Apple has materially advanced over the last few years. * Custom screen technology leap-frogging 4K displays directly to 5K, at a full-system price below that of a 4K screen alone from competitors at the time. * wide colour gamut screen tech putting them several years ahead of the competition. * Brand new screen digitiser techno…

Are the 5k displays actually Apple's? It would be a strange move to exit the monitor business if they actually pioneered some new display technology.

Re: Microsoft is now a braver, more innovative company than Apple

#124

Post by MaulingMonkey »

whytaka wrote: post #26

Microsoft is innovative because you can now purchase a dedicated hardware peripheral for some software feature the touchscreen was designed to replace. Let's completely forget that Microsoft 'upgrades' your OS without your permission, spies on you, embeds ads into the Start Menu, and their OEMs like Lenovo will listen in on everything you do at the hardware level. In my opinion, these are actual reasons a company sho…

> You'll probably get the new MBP. If you really can't handle the dongles, get the 2nd to latest version. It'll last you more than 4 years easily. If you're the type to get a new model every year: either you work very closely with the MBP hardware itself or you need to re-examine your life.

I did try my hand at an apple machine for awhile. Bought one of their "high quality" laptops. Used it until multiple keys broke - the Since then, I've turned down a free MBP at work. I'd exhaust the max memory linking. I want a sane, tactile keyboard. They didn't splurge enough on the SSD to fit my projects on. The display isn't even 4K. I'll be forced to dual boot if I try to use it as a laptop. It's overpriced - and while an overpriced iPhone dongle for iOS development may be necessary, I'd much rather have a Mac mini and have the difference spent on more 4K monitors, more RAM, more SSD space, and more cores for my PC build.

I've finally gotten around to retiring my 2009 PC build this year. Admittedly, I replaced the motherboard once when it failed, and upgraded the RAM, but that's still doing better than a dead-out-of-the-gate MBP I'm afraid. Which is a shame - I'd like more competition for my money.

Re: Microsoft is now a braver, more innovative company than Apple

#125

Post by jhasse »

simonh wrote: post #73

The central premise is that Apple isn't innovative anymore. Let's look at the technologies Apple has materially advanced over the last few years. * Custom screen technology leap-frogging 4K displays directly to 5K, at a full-system price below that of a 4K screen alone from competitors at the time. * wide colour gamut screen tech putting them several years ahead of the competition. * Brand new screen digitiser techno…

> Brand new screen digitiser technology in the iPad Pros that also puts them several years ahead of any of their competitors.

What technology are you talking about?

> mobile processor designs putting them years ahead of any of their competitors in yet another technology category.

Are you talking about the A10 Fusion? It's the fastest single-core processor, but according to https://www.pcper.com/reviews/Mobile/Apple-iPhone-7-and-7-Pl... the Snapdragon 820 has a faster GPU and the Kirin 950 a better mutli-core score in Geekbench. So I wouldn't say that their mobile processor design is years ahead (it's more that iOS doesn't need more than two cores and therefore they can really optimize single-core performance).

> A new variant of iOS (Watch OS) that's now powering two completely different product categories.

How is this any different than Android Wear?

Re: Microsoft is now a braver, more innovative company than Apple

#126

Post by notalaser »

pjc50 wrote: post #108
notalaser wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been reading all these Mac-related posts lately because I'm very seriously considering getting one. Why, you ask? Precisely because this: > A linux laptop with flawless hardware support. is hardly cutting it for me anymore, and I've used Linux for a very long time (basically, since Be Inc. was still around and BeOS was still being sold, since we're dabbling in nostalgia). You can get a Linux laptop with flawless…

JWZ's comments about "cascade of attention-deficit teenagers development" look very apposite here, sadly. The "Linux desktop" that's succeeded is Android, which is also a mess in different ways. Everything other than bunch-of-xterms-and-a-browser will ultimately be updated into nonfunctionality.

It's completely spot-on; I remember the Gnome 1-to-2 transition and it was exactly like what we have today. Except that Gnome 2 was not as big as Gnome 3, so the transition took a little less time, and its interface wasn't so radically different from Gnome 1, so it didn't generate as much rage (it also helped that uttering the words "brand presence" on the mailing lists would usually get you flamed, but I digress).

Gnome 2 actually turned out to be a lot better than Gnome 1, but it took a long time, and the unpleasant thing is that when it finally became polished enough not to be annoying on a daily basis, it enjoyed about two years of quality life before the CADT wheel started spinning again. I'm sure Gnome 3 will eventually be a lot better than Gnome 2 (it already is, in a lot of ways, but it's hard to enjoy it when it keeps crashing and when you have to tweak it for days after every update).

At least on the GTK side, things are actually starting to look a little better (the GTK team has a long-term roadmap, for instance).

Re: Microsoft is now a braver, more innovative company than Apple

#127

Post by lmm »

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #110
lmm wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a happy Surface Book user, I don't see how the Surface Studio is niche? I don't use the touchscreen that often, but it's great to have it - why would you ever not want touch to work? And there are some things that are a lot better on a touchscreen. In 5 or 10 years every desktop computer will look like the Surface Studio. At the moment it's a premium product (but so is everything Apple makes).

> In 5 or 10 years every desktop computer will look like the Surface Studio. Disagree. Maybe a lot of 'home' desktops will, but there will still be a need for alternative form factors. In fact, I think desktop computers will look a lot more diverse than maybe they ever have in 10 years time. I think we'll have a bunch that look more or less like the Surface studio, for use by illustrators, graphic designers, etc. But…

But what illustrator/designer would choose to use a bad keyboard? And if we're already assuming a desk, I don't think any writer or developer would choose a small screen (and indeed today's "small" desktop screens are the same size as the "artist/designer-only large" screens of a decade ago). Nor do I think anyone would deliberately choose non-touch, since other things being equal touch sensitivity is purely an upgrade (and the surface book shows touch doesn't have to mean compromises on other aspects of the screen). At its current price point the Surface Studio only makes sense for those who really need its capabilities, but as a writer/developer I would absolutely use one if it were cheap enough.

Re: Microsoft is now a braver, more innovative company than Apple

#128

Post by notalaser »

jfoutz wrote: post #120
notalaser wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had (well, I still have it) a Mac Mini and used it between 2007 and 2009. I was pretty dissatisfied with its performance (then again, that was around the time when Tiger got obsolete and the Leopard moved in, and the Mini was already slow and old by that time) but, overall, I think it's the most productive platform I used, short of my old WindowMaker setup which has aged too much to be useful by now. So I know what…

The hardware is solid. I have zero complaints about build quality. You are not obligated to upgrade to the latest OS (but you probably should...). I feel really comfortable saying you can get 4 years out of a mbp. If you really need the out, just in case you need to install windows or linux, wait 2-3 months, just to make sure other people have done it reliably. There is always risk it's not the "optimal" choice, but…

Thanks! It's reassuring to hear this sort of things in the middle of the current zomg MPB bad rage.

Re: Microsoft is now a braver, more innovative company than Apple

#129

Post by tmat »

Windows as a software developer is not a fun experience. Until Windows improves my ability to build shit in something other than .net, C#, etc(video game dev not withstanding) and improves the command prompt to function more like a console, I have no interest in going back what so ever.

Re: Microsoft is now a braver, more innovative company than Apple

#130

Post by simonh »

curt15 wrote: post #123
simonh wrote: post #73

The central premise is that Apple isn't innovative anymore. Let's look at the technologies Apple has materially advanced over the last few years. * Custom screen technology leap-frogging 4K displays directly to 5K, at a full-system price below that of a 4K screen alone from competitors at the time. * wide colour gamut screen tech putting them several years ahead of the competition. * Brand new screen digitiser techno…

Are the 5k displays actually Apple's? It would be a strange move to exit the monitor business if they actually pioneered some new display technology.

None of the standard connector specs has the bandwidth to support a 5K signal at the same level of quality, so they can only do it in an all-in-one system until the public standard connector tech catches up.
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