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Introducing Surface Laptop

blogs.windows.com

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Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#121

Post by dkhenry »

valuearb wrote: post #114
marcus_holmes wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Handing them a laptop and having them go wild is exactly the way to do it. If they brick it, they have to work out how to fix it. As one of the kids who was lucky enough to get a BBC Micro, I had zero support. No-one else in my family even knew how to turn it on. No teacher at my school could support me because none of them knew how it worked either. If I broke it, I had to fix it. And no Stack Overflow, so no code t…

This would have been great for you and me, but 95% of students won't even try. My kids barely know how the TV works, and have zero interest in learning how computers work, despite my efforts.

your kids know how the TV works better then you do. If you don't realize this you're not paying attention. Just because they don't care to write web apps doesn't mean they don't know what they are doing.

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#122

Post by masklinn »

dstaley wrote: post #47
dangrossman wrote: post #27

They're now demoing the Surface Laptop. Thinner than a MacBook Air. Faster than a MacBook Pro. Longer battery life than either. The downside? "Windows 10 S", which only runs apps from the Windows Store. The upside over Windows RT from the Windows 8 era? You can port Win32 apps to the Store today, don't think you could back then. Edit: You can upgrade Windows 10 S to ordinary Windows 10 Pro for $50. Laptops that run W…

It's marginally faster than the dual-core 13in MacBook Pro on account of it being a 7th generation chip. They're still using U series chips, so it won't compete with the true quad-core HQ chips in the 15in MacBook Pro.

> They're still using U series chips

Note that in U-series now covers both 15W and 28W chips, so that leaves a fair amount of room.

Considering the iGP (620 and 640) they're using 15W parts, so it's comparable to an nTB 13".

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#123

Post by dkhenry »

cwyers wrote: post #69
rocky1138 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Given the target market (schools) I think not being able to install downloaded software is only a good thing. Except that giving kids unfettered access to their computers allows them to flourish. See: BBC Micro, Raspberry Pi, Apple ][, the list goes on.

It allows some of them to flourish. The rest of them just wreck the computer.

Right its important to protect them from anything bad that might happen to them.

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#124

Post by germinalphrase »

marcus_holmes wrote: post #108
tashoecraft wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that having each kid able to brick their computer leads to significant problems for IT in debugging everyone's computer. As well as letting them move away from educational material extremely easily. I agree that great things can happen when kids can truly explore their computer and take away the 'magic', but just handing all kids a laptop and having them go wild is not the way to do it. I don't what is, to be…

Handing them a laptop and having them go wild is exactly the way to do it. If they brick it, they have to work out how to fix it. As one of the kids who was lucky enough to get a BBC Micro, I had zero support. No-one else in my family even knew how to turn it on. No teacher at my school could support me because none of them knew how it worked either. If I broke it, I had to fix it. And no Stack Overflow, so no code t…

Which is all well and good until my students aren't able to - you know - do basic educational tasks because their computer 'is broken'.

If I - as a teacher - can do an immediate 'restore to neutral state' with core educational files and programs retained then by all means open them up.

Otherwise, I have to be curmudgeon and say that the existence of the computer in the classroom is to more effectively complete educational tasks. If having an open system gets in the way of that then the system should not be open.

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#125

Post by mikhailt »

kyriakos wrote: post #36
adam12 wrote: post #33

Is this really a Chromebook competitor with a price starting at $999?

I guess Microsoft never officially pitted Windows S against ChromeOS - the media did.

Microsoft specifically mentioned Chromebooks when they talked about one of the school districts switching away from it to Windows 10 S for simplification.

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#126

Post by eugeniub »

djsumdog wrote: post #86
captainmuon wrote: post #40

Windows S is completely backwards. If the Windows Store was actually any good, they should make a version without store apps (win32 only) and let customers pay a premium to use signed, vetted, store apps. (Only half kidding...) But this way around, store apps will always be viewed as the cheaper, less featured option.

No one uses the Apple app stop on MacOS because apparently it's terrible. I don't see going to a closed/walled garden system as being any type of meaningful advantage. You're trading off some security/sandboxing for reduced flexibility. If Microsoft wanted something competitive, they'd allow people to add other repositories to their stores, so manufactures could publish their own certs and people could chose to trust…

I use the Mac App Store for many of the apps I use because I trust it more than apps downloaded from random websites, and I like background updates. The problems with the App Store lie on the developer side — sandboxing, restrictive submission guidelines, large 30% revenue cuts, lack of alternative pricing models, etc.

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#128

Post by nezza-_- »

denzil_correa wrote: post #111
djsumdog wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one uses the Apple app stop on MacOS because apparently it's terrible. I don't see going to a closed/walled garden system as being any type of meaningful advantage. You're trading off some security/sandboxing for reduced flexibility. If Microsoft wanted something competitive, they'd allow people to add other repositories to their stores, so manufactures could publish their own certs and people could chose to trust…

> No one uses the Apple app stop on MacOS because apparently it's terrible AFAIK, most major apps are on the macOS app store.

Afaik quite some of the major apps were leaving it in the last years (Sketch comes to mind), but might just be my filter bubble.. Would be interesting to hear from some Mac OS devs

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#130

Post by skrebbel »

rkangel wrote: post #102
Flow5457 wrote: post #87

From the FAQ ( https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4020089/windows-10-... ) : > Are there any defaults that I cannot change on my Windows 10 S PC? > Yes, Microsoft Edge is the default web browser on Microsoft 10 S. You are able to download another browser that might be available from the Windows Store, but Microsoft Edge will remain the default if, for example, you open an .htm file. Additionally, the default se…

I'd imagine that Microsoft looked into that closely. I actually don't have a problem with it - you can install firefox through the store easily enough, and opening local html files is a niche case. It'll be mildly tedious if coding docs appear in Edge, but I'm probably not coding on Windows 10 S.

The FAQ is deceptive. AFAICT you can't make Firefox the default for opening links in other apps either.

That, together with "no changing search to google" is going to make many people hate Windows S, I bet.

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