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Windows 8 tablet freezes in Microsoft keynote demo

theregister.co.uk

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Re: Windows 8 tablet freezes in Microsoft keynote demo

#21

Post by dangrossman »

twargoth wrote: post #14
freehunter wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android never freezes or crashes. Come to think of it, neither does iOS or OSX, or Linux. Oh wait, almost all software crashes.

No iOS product would crap itself like that during a keynote demo. Sure, I've had them panic and reboot on me in real world use, but Apple takes the time to make sure the demo runs smoothly. When you can't or don't make your demo run smoothly during a high visibility presentation, it makes you look careless, either in the development of your product or of your demo. In either case, it reeks of incompetence. This might…

No iOS product comes close to the complexity of a Microsoft Dynamics product either, nor are developers at Apple expected to develop and demo such complex products on pre-beta operating systems created by a different group.

Re: Windows 8 tablet freezes in Microsoft keynote demo

#22

Post by nalsh »

freehunter wrote: post #4
firefoxman1 wrote: post #3

Has anyone figured out why exactly Microsoft makes such buggy software? Is it a company culture thing?

Massive company. Massive software projects. Massive amount of end users. Massive amount of use cases for their software. Time restrictions on their development. The wording you used makes it sound like they make buggy software on purpose, which makes no sense.

freehunter's right. Imagine if a company like Bethesda worked on a project with the scale of a Windows OS. I love Bethesda games, but they tend to be buggier. And so would a Bethesda OS. When you look at the numbers, I would argue that MS does a pretty good job.

Re: Windows 8 tablet freezes in Microsoft keynote demo

#23

Post by Zirro »

stevejabs wrote: post #15
firefoxman1 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, sorry. Yeah I meant why they end up producing buggy software when competitors like Apple have proven it's possible to both ship and make stable software. And Apple does both hardware and software.

I seem to recall an iOS presentation where people were told to turn off their wifi or Jobsy wouldn't continue...

Which had absolutely nothing to do with buggy software.

Re: Windows 8 tablet freezes in Microsoft keynote demo

#24

Post by josefresco »

firefoxman1 wrote: post #7
freehunter wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Massive company. Massive software projects. Massive amount of end users. Massive amount of use cases for their software. Time restrictions on their development. The wording you used makes it sound like they make buggy software on purpose, which makes no sense.

Oh, sorry. Yeah I meant why they end up producing buggy software when competitors like Apple have proven it's possible to both ship and make stable software. And Apple does both hardware and software.

Are you actually suggesting that iTunes is "stable software"? Please wake me up when your fantasy is over. Also, I've experienced more crashes within iOS on my iPad than I have in 15+ years of using Windows. Anecdotal evidence of course but it's not like you cited any actual data either.

Re: Windows 8 tablet freezes in Microsoft keynote demo

#25

Post by timothya »

twargoth wrote: post #14
freehunter wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android never freezes or crashes. Come to think of it, neither does iOS or OSX, or Linux. Oh wait, almost all software crashes.

No iOS product would crap itself like that during a keynote demo. Sure, I've had them panic and reboot on me in real world use, but Apple takes the time to make sure the demo runs smoothly. When you can't or don't make your demo run smoothly during a high visibility presentation, it makes you look careless, either in the development of your product or of your demo. In either case, it reeks of incompetence. This might…

Problems during the iPhone 4 keynote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qivCeSIaKA

Other Apple keynote bloopers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCZgqoQSGu4

Software is buggy sometimes, that's just life, and Apple is not immune to it. The best a company can do is have a backup system that they can quickly switch to so they can continue the demo.

Re: Windows 8 tablet freezes in Microsoft keynote demo

#26

Post by nkassis »

sigvef wrote: post #19

"Windows 8, which Microsoft touts as the first operating system to run across multiple devices" Doesn't Linux already do this? Or does it not count, as it is only a kernel?

I mean what about previous versions of windows? They ran on tablets and desktops. If you mean non-x86 than windows NT initially was going to target MIPS and later became a x86 first(I believe they still released the MIPS version too).

Re: Windows 8 tablet freezes in Microsoft keynote demo

#27

Post by nkassis »

twargoth wrote: post #14
freehunter wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android never freezes or crashes. Come to think of it, neither does iOS or OSX, or Linux. Oh wait, almost all software crashes.

No iOS product would crap itself like that during a keynote demo. Sure, I've had them panic and reboot on me in real world use, but Apple takes the time to make sure the demo runs smoothly. When you can't or don't make your demo run smoothly during a high visibility presentation, it makes you look careless, either in the development of your product or of your demo. In either case, it reeks of incompetence. This might…

Apple doesn't make a habit of demoing products still in development. In there case when things crash (as they've done in the past) they don't really have a good excuse when that code will get released in a few days.

Microsoft isn't done they have until October minus 1 month for manufacturing to go.

Re: Windows 8 tablet freezes in Microsoft keynote demo

#28

Post by rbanffy »

freehunter wrote: post #4
firefoxman1 wrote: post #3

Has anyone figured out why exactly Microsoft makes such buggy software? Is it a company culture thing?

Massive company. Massive software projects. Massive amount of end users. Massive amount of use cases for their software. Time restrictions on their development. The wording you used makes it sound like they make buggy software on purpose, which makes no sense.

> they make buggy software on purpose

Actually, they do. Microsoft could spend more time and resources debugging it, or limit the number of use cases it addresses, make it simpler, support less hardware...

Obviously, they chose more functionality for the end user, a broader selection of supported hardware and shorter time to market. That comes with a price.

It's always a compromise. "Done is better than perfect"

And, to be fair, it could also be a hardware problem. You know, hardware has bugs too.

Re: Windows 8 tablet freezes in Microsoft keynote demo

#29

Post by dagw »

firefoxman1 wrote: post #7
freehunter wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Massive company. Massive software projects. Massive amount of end users. Massive amount of use cases for their software. Time restrictions on their development. The wording you used makes it sound like they make buggy software on purpose, which makes no sense.

Oh, sorry. Yeah I meant why they end up producing buggy software when competitors like Apple have proven it's possible to both ship and make stable software. And Apple does both hardware and software.

Windows 7 crashes on me about as often as OS X (or Ubuntu for that matter). Visual studio on the whole seems less buggy than XCode. iTunes is bit of a monstrosity and seems to bug out on fairly regular occasions. And while I haven't had any problems myself, I know of several people who have had lots of trouble with wifi on their MBAs. Where you thinking of any specific examples?

Re: Windows 8 tablet freezes in Microsoft keynote demo

#30

Post by freehunter »

firefoxman1 wrote: post #7
freehunter wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Massive company. Massive software projects. Massive amount of end users. Massive amount of use cases for their software. Time restrictions on their development. The wording you used makes it sound like they make buggy software on purpose, which makes no sense.

Oh, sorry. Yeah I meant why they end up producing buggy software when competitors like Apple have proven it's possible to both ship and make stable software. And Apple does both hardware and software.

The difference with Apple is, Apple has one use case for their software. There is plenty of blogging on HN every week with someone complaining that OSX is unstable or unsuitable for a use case outside of what Apple had intended.

Apple controls the hardware, the software, and the user. This makes it a lot easier to appear bug-free.

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