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$600 Chromebooks are a dangerous development for Microsoft

arstechnica.com

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Re: $600 Chromebooks are a dangerous development for Microsoft

#291

Post by supernovae »

reaperducer wrote: post #288
supernovae wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't true at all. The ENTIRE industry had to re-invent itself MANY times - and MANY companies failed and have long since shutdown. Microsoft on the other hand has survived - and not only maintained backwards compatibility but embraced new technologies - and is doing so at a breakneck pace today. Microsoft research is a top notch research company. Microsoft is also a large, if not the largest, contributor to Lin…

Horror stories aren't unique to Microsoft So because other companies also did sucky things, Microsoft’s sucky things don’t count. Got it.

Never said that, it's just apparent you hold a grudge because of actions so long ago that even though they have changed, you won't.

You're ignoring a massive amount of history (and current actions) to keep your jaded worldview and that sucks.

Re: $600 Chromebooks are a dangerous development for Microsoft

#292

Post by thiagocsf »

jimmcslim wrote: post #259

> For now, Chrome OS's success seems limited and fairly US-centric. Availability of Chromebooks in Australia is still very spotty (can’t get the Pixel easily for example) so the Microsoft hegemony isn’t being threatened Down Under!

Australia has less than 10% of the US population. We get the scraps if and when our capitalist overlords are feeling generous.

Re: $600 Chromebooks are a dangerous development for Microsoft

#293

Post by danso »

nailer wrote: post #267
colordrops wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe 10 years ago that was true.

What do you think changed those people's minds? My feeling is that in the years post Jobs' death negative stories about his personality have been increasingly common. For the record: I believe Jobs definitely deserves the credit, I'm just observing the mud that has been slung his way.

Stories about his negative side are likely more common because people feel more free to talk about them, now that Jobs, being dead, can no longer respond or retaliate against people with grievances, such as the daughter he disavowed [0].

I perhaps unfairly read negative connotations in your use of "revisionist", but I see nothing wrong with adding Jobs' uglier side to the historical record. It doesn't change what he accomplished, and it's something we can learn from. I do question the idea that Woz has been irrationally overemphasized. By the time the iPod was dominant, and a year before the iPhone, Woz felt so left out of the historical record that he published his autobiography to set the record straight, particularly about the misconception that Jobs himself invented/built the Apple I and ][ machine. Even then, Woz gives clear credit to Jobs for having the entrepreneurial sense and vision to make Apple a company, whereas Woz was perfectly content to work at HP for all his days.

After the iPhone, Woz became even more a part of Apple's ancient, forgotten history. He was a bit character in the Jobs' movies came out, and AFAIK, no movie yet has been made about Woz's life.

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/global/2018/sep/01/daughter-stev...

Re: $600 Chromebooks are a dangerous development for Microsoft

#294

Post by 013a »

sarcasmic wrote: post #24

Any Chromebook more than $400 right now is just there to absorb even more disposable income from the market, because they ship with nicer finishes and faster processors, but they are anemic on memory and storage, making them subpar for intense multitasking, or getting certain types of work done. The situations in which they excel can be reliably hit by Chromebooks around a $400 price point, and even cheaper Chromeboo…

> Microsoft has tried various ways to fix this but it only tends to protect high-end models.

Try again. Microsoft is complicit in all of this. If you go buy an OEM version of Windows 10 today, even Pro, what you get is a ridiculous set of preloaded games and apps, like Candy Crush, Bubble Witch 3 Saga, Disney Magic Kingdoms, etc.

Its disgusting, and everyone who works at Microsoft should be ashamed of it.

Re: $600 Chromebooks are a dangerous development for Microsoft

#295

Post by krn »

xtrapolate wrote: post #213
lotsofpulp wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because after a day of work, most people just want to see funny pictures and check their email and login to a bank account to pay some bills. They're consumers, not producers.

> "Because after a day of work, most people just want to see funny pictures and check their email and login to a bank account to pay some bills. They're consumers, not producers." You're simply saying people want affordable technology. In that case, what is Chromebook's advantage over the competition? The market is flooded with cheap hardware, targeting those exact types of consumers.

> In that case, what is Chromebook's advantage over the competition?

Chromebooks are not about the price. There are plenty of affordable alternatives. They are about having to do zero maintenance.

Re: $600 Chromebooks are a dangerous development for Microsoft

#296

Post by satysin »

supernovae wrote: post #282
satysin wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My "signature edition" Surface Book 2 running Windows 10 Professional came with a bunch of crap on the start menu such as Candy Crush Saga, Twitter, some travel app, Minecraft, and advert for Office 365 and some other crap I can't remember. I had to right-click and uninstall them all manually but then a few days later a couple of them returned?! I ended up searching for a PowerShell script that actually removes them.…

Those aren't even installed and you can turn off app recommendations Settings->personalization->start-> make sure "Show suggestions occasionally in start" is off. Minecraft is awesome BTW :) My android phone came with a ton of crap, my amazon tablet had a bunch of amazon crap.. i don't really think showcasing the marketplace of the hardware you have selected is that evil - especially since its easy to customize if it…

> Those aren't even installed and you can turn off app recommendations

They installed the moment it saw a network connection which was before I even finished setup because it set that up during the OOBE.

> Settings->personalization->start-> make sure "Show suggestions occasionally in start" is off.

That setting does not seem to have any effect on Candy Crush, Twitter, etc. on a default install.

> Minecraft is awesome BTW :)

Yes it is but not on my £2500 business laptop. Unless I specifically install it to use.

>My android phone came with a ton of crap, my amazon tablet had a bunch of amazon crap.. i don't really think showcasing the marketplace of the hardware you have selected is that evil - especially since its easy to customize if it really bothers you.

I am not talking about Android or Amazon though am I?

But if you want to bring up Android - My Pixel 2 XL didn't come with a bunch of third party apps and/or adverts for their own, not free, software. Sure it came with some Google specific apps but that is why I didn't list OneNote, Edge, Groove Music or Photos in my list of Windows 10 apps as they are understandable to include even if I have no use for them.

And allow me to bring up my MacBook Pro which didn't come with any third party apps and/or adverts for their own, not free, software. In fact the only thing it comes with is macOS and the iWorks suite (free btw). And if you do a clean install of macOS yourself you don't even get iWorks pre-installed, you have to manually grab them again from the App Store.

The Windows experience is horrible out of the box even on a "signature edition" system. Yes you can go in and "fix" things with PowerShell scripts and changing a few options in Settings.appx but my point is that shouldn't be needed on a so called 'professional' operating system that comes on a £2000+ computer direct from Microsoft.

Re: $600 Chromebooks are a dangerous development for Microsoft

#297

Post by oculusthrift »

komali2 wrote: post #262

I'm pretty new to tech, and young in general, but I'm curious why what's happening between the different browsers regarding working together to identically implement JavaScript, thus allowing tons of modern applications to be universal across machines as long as you can install a modern browser, not happen before with other programming languages? Or did they? I don't know anything about desktop application developmen…

This is what Java was meant to be. You just compile for the JVM and run anywhere. Also slight nit but Powerpoint is on Mac as well and has been for decades. It actually was initially a mac program and was acquired by microsoft and has been released for both all this time. and most office products have also been on mac for decades

Re: $600 Chromebooks are a dangerous development for Microsoft

#298

Post by berti »

komali2 wrote: post #264
Fnoord wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends. For me this is about being future proof. Its more secure than X, but you can compartmentalise as well via VMs (Qubes does this) or Docker (Jessie Frazelle runs everything in Docker). Enlightenment [1] supports Wayland since E20. If you use i3 right now, you can use Sway [2] as drop-in replacement. That's my plan (since I use i3) if I might some time. SailfishOS [3] also already uses Wayland. Tizen apparen…

Ubuntu 18.04 gnome shipped with the option, but if you select there's a 50% of forming a black hole where your machine used to be. I'm joking, but it really is super beta.

Wayland (with Gnome) is fine as a daily driver on Arch (I've been using it for months, since AMD drivers were mainlined). I guess Ubuntu's packages are just too old.

Re: $600 Chromebooks are a dangerous development for Microsoft

#299

Post by fredley »

I want Chromebooks to dominate the consumer market, to be honest. Hopefully that will push Windows towards dropping bloated consumer-focussed features in lieu of a leaner OS aimed more squarely at the professional market. Currently installing Windows 10 Pro fresh installs an unimaginable quantity of crap. Why is Minecraft on a 'pro' install, and pinned to the Start Menu?

Re: $600 Chromebooks are a dangerous development for Microsoft

#300

Post by mixmastamyk »

mattkevan wrote: post #183
isostatic wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's a Zune? It's the think starlord got at the end of guardians of the galaxy 2. Still, at least it didn't suffer like the ipod -- it had No wireless and Less space than a Nomad. It was "Lame".

But you could ‘squirt’ songs from one Zune to another. The Zune was a litany of poor decisions, but that word choice must have been the worst.

From the company that brought you “wince.”
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