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Why Do Companies Still Use Microsoft Windows For Displays?

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Re: Why Do Companies Still Use Microsoft Windows For Displays?

#81

Post by [deleted] »

route66 wrote: post #54
terhechte wrote: post #21

I've worked for quite some time in the digital display industry, at a company which has a very feature rich, Mac OS X based digital signage solution [1] with high profile customers such as Mercedes-Benz, or Disney. Since the company is small, it is easy to be part of all steps of the process, including marketing and sales. I learned a lot about B2B buying behaviour while I worked for this company. We oftentimes ran i…

You frame the three points a bit derogatory and seem to have missed the point of your customers. > Windows was the OS that the company was also using for employee machines, so they knew it. They understand it, have an idea about the cost and amount of support necessary. "They knew it" seems to convey that they were essentially stupid or not adventurous enough to try something else. > The IT department only wanted Win…

[deleted]

Re: Why Do Companies Still Use Microsoft Windows For Displays?

#82

Post by romanovcode »

>Why Do Companies Still Use Microsoft Windows For Displays?

Because it's cheaper. All you talk about is license but what about actual work of setting it up and making it work?

Also, you really think that only WinOS kiosk systems are crashing? You really are so ignorant to think that LinuxOS kiosk systems never crash?

Re: Why Do Companies Still Use Microsoft Windows For Displays?

#83

Post by Someone »

jballanc wrote: post #16

A quick Google search of the phrase "build an animated display" with one of the following strings appended to the end reveals the answer, I should think: "raspberry pi" -- 1,060,000 results "linux" -- 4,890,000 results "os x" -- 6,910,000 results "windows" -- 32,800,000 results

Cause or effect? The question is not whether many people use Windows to drive an animated display, but why.

Re: Why Do Companies Still Use Microsoft Windows For Displays?

#84

Post by js2 »

smackfu wrote: post #71
UnoriginalGuy wrote: post #27

Last year I was on an aircraft watching the IFE, then it froze, I got a kernel panic, then it restarted, I was left looking at a Linux logo then the init output before being thrown back into the IFE interface. My point is that no general purpose OS is immune from fault. All you can really do is remove or disable things which aren't absolutely needed to get your work done. In this case they should have disabled Window…

I'm just surprised they don't hide the bootscreen given that the only troubleshooting the flight attendants can do is a power cycle.

I was on a United flight a couple weeks ago when the passenger next to me told the flight attendant that his headphone jack for his seatback IFE was not working. The flight attendant offered to reset the IFE. The passenger declined the offer. I'm still wondering whether the flight attendant was going to reset the IFE for everyone or somehow for just that passenger.

Re: Why Do Companies Still Use Microsoft Windows For Displays?

#85

Post by TheCondor »

terhechte wrote: post #21

I've worked for quite some time in the digital display industry, at a company which has a very feature rich, Mac OS X based digital signage solution [1] with high profile customers such as Mercedes-Benz, or Disney. Since the company is small, it is easy to be part of all steps of the process, including marketing and sales. I learned a lot about B2B buying behaviour while I worked for this company. We oftentimes ran i…

Are these solutions sold as devices or are they sols as software products that you bring your own hardware to?

Re: Why Do Companies Still Use Microsoft Windows For Displays?

#87

Post by Spearchucker »

krallin wrote: post #70
Spearchucker wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to detract from your points (you make good ones); web is probably not a good medium for such displays. Not always, at least. You'd want them to be reasonably functional without comms. Last I checked (I may be wrong), HTML 5 constrains local storage to 5Mb, which is precious little, if the display uses images/media.

I'm not an expert in embedded displays, but I assume you'd simply run a webserver on localhost.

Web server means additional complexity both to deploy and maintain. After 20+ years in the corporate world I can guarantee that an alone-standing native client it going to beat anything with a web server.

Re: Why Do Companies Still Use Microsoft Windows For Displays?

#88

Post by Spearchucker »

quarterto wrote: post #47
Spearchucker wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to detract from your points (you make good ones); web is probably not a good medium for such displays. Not always, at least. You'd want them to be reasonably functional without comms. Last I checked (I may be wrong), HTML 5 constrains local storage to 5Mb, which is precious little, if the display uses images/media.

localStorage isn't for resources, it's for data.

That's a very valid point.

Re: Why Do Companies Still Use Microsoft Windows For Displays?

#90

Post by JohnDotAwesome »

I worked with an IT department (all windows shop, but not afraid of Linux) who setup large screen high definition tv's around the facility for a request to support digital signage. The department wanted to save money, so they took on a DIY attitude instead of building it themselves.

Well, they know the windows platform and had windows machines lying around. They hooked up PC's to these TV's mounted high up on the wall, either mounted the PC on the TV or put it somewhere that couldn't be seen, and put powerpoint viewer on the PC's.

This might sound like a disaster, but the higher-ups loved it. And it worked quite nicely to my surprise. Windows can easily be configured to start the powerpoint file of your choice in fullscreen mode when the machine starts. Creating the material was as easy making a powerpoint.

So, in the end, the cost of materials and time was minimized because these guys used Windows + Powerpoint for their digital signage. And since they weren't using some buggy piece of custom software, it was fairly stable.

You may not like Windows, but it's a _fine_ computing platform. People get _work done_ with it. Personally, I'll stick with OSX.

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