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The Microsoft Surface Isn’t Rosy

chasingperfection.co.uk

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Re: The Microsoft Surface Isn’t Rosy

#21

Post by jiggy2011 »

bgilroy26 wrote: post #11
jiggy2011 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When the best way to defend your new OS is to say "You can do this and pretend it's just like the old one!" you're probably in for a hard time. The surface pro seems to be a weird use case. It's going to come in at a price point where you could get a mid range Windows 7 laptop and an ipad mini or Nexus 7 for the same price and the combination of these 2 devices is probably more useful.

>When the best way to defend your new OS is to say "You can do this and pretend it's just like the old one!" you're probably in for a hard time. Isn't this a best practice for UI overhauls? Whenever Google changes Gmail that's exactly how they handle it.

I think most gmail overhauls have been significantly less major than Windows->Metro. The complaints against Metro don't seem to be so much that people haven't warmed to it yet so much as that it doesn't gel with the way they want to work on a desktop/laptop computer at all.

Re: The Microsoft Surface Isn’t Rosy

#23

Post by [deleted] »

whatprojectnext wrote: post #17

I actually thick the Surface Pro, or something like it, will be the future of home computing. It is exactly what everyone with an iPad, including myself, wishes the iPad would actually do. It is a tablet form factor with a the guts of a true computer and support for multiple peripherals. Dock it wherever and have a real computer system or take it on the go like any other tablet.

[deleted]

Re: The Microsoft Surface Isn’t Rosy

#24

Post by nextparadigms »

whatprojectnext wrote: post #17

I actually thick the Surface Pro, or something like it, will be the future of home computing. It is exactly what everyone with an iPad, including myself, wishes the iPad would actually do. It is a tablet form factor with a the guts of a true computer and support for multiple peripherals. Dock it wherever and have a real computer system or take it on the go like any other tablet.

Then why didn't you buy a Windows 7 tablet from before? Just because it didn't have a touch oriented interface? The "OS" interface wasn't the main problem for Windows tablets. The millions of apps that are still made for a PC interface were (and still are) the problem.

So if that's the apps you say you wanted the iPad to have, then Windows 8 doesn't solve that problem at all. And if you actually care more about the "tablet" apps, then the iPad and even Android has a lot more of those, too.

iOS and Android have been rewritten from the ground up to work well on "low-end" hardware (relative to mainstream Intel/AMD CPU's) and for the touch paradigm. Windows 8 wasn't rewritten, and the bloat is being felt even on "high-end ARM chips", and the "legacy programs" feel like they are being dragged once again onto the tablet paradigm, where they never belonged.

Re: The Microsoft Surface Isn’t Rosy

#25

Post by [deleted] »

whatprojectnext wrote: post #17

I actually thick the Surface Pro, or something like it, will be the future of home computing. It is exactly what everyone with an iPad, including myself, wishes the iPad would actually do. It is a tablet form factor with a the guts of a true computer and support for multiple peripherals. Dock it wherever and have a real computer system or take it on the go like any other tablet.

[deleted]

Re: The Microsoft Surface Isn’t Rosy

#26

Post by bitdiffusion »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #4
bitdiffusion wrote: post #2

More FUD about the disk space issue... yes - there is a large recovery partition and yes - you can delete it to free up space. Any yes - perhaps MS would have been better off if they included a USB drive for recovery purposes (although I imagine trying to walk the average user through "booting from USB" to restore their partition would be a support nightmare). This is just like the "omg - the desktop is gone and all…

When the best way to defend your new OS is to say "You can do this and pretend it's just like the old one!" you're probably in for a hard time. The surface pro seems to be a weird use case. It's going to come in at a price point where you could get a mid range Windows 7 laptop and an ipad mini or Nexus 7 for the same price and the combination of these 2 devices is probably more useful.

It's not in defence of the OS - it's a rebuttal to the people who ignore all the other benefits of upgrading to a newer OS and cite the (often repeated) notion that the desktop as we know it is gone for good.

Re: The Microsoft Surface Isn’t Rosy

#27

Post by nextparadigms »

bitdiffusion wrote: post #2

More FUD about the disk space issue... yes - there is a large recovery partition and yes - you can delete it to free up space. Any yes - perhaps MS would have been better off if they included a USB drive for recovery purposes (although I imagine trying to walk the average user through "booting from USB" to restore their partition would be a support nightmare). This is just like the "omg - the desktop is gone and all…

FUD? So you're implying that Microsoft giving users a lot less space than they are promoting in commercials and on the label a lie?

Re: The Microsoft Surface Isn’t Rosy

#28

Post by Yhippa »

I actually own a Surface RT and I like it. I get the feeling that a lot of people try out Windows 8 or the Surface RT for a few minutes and pan it as crap. There's definitely a learning curve associated with it but the payout is that it's got advanced gestures that allow you to do more without a keyboard.

One thing that could be impacting sales is that you have to go to a Microsoft Store (brick-and-mortar) or online there to purchase it. There is no try-before-you-buy experience unless you're lucky to live close to one of those stores.

As for the storage space what I've noticed is that I need just enough space locally to have certain files available to me. So local storage for me is basically a cache where I keep most of my documents in the cloud.

Re: The Microsoft Surface Isn’t Rosy

#29

Post by bitdiffusion »

nextparadigms wrote: post #27
bitdiffusion wrote: post #2

More FUD about the disk space issue... yes - there is a large recovery partition and yes - you can delete it to free up space. Any yes - perhaps MS would have been better off if they included a USB drive for recovery purposes (although I imagine trying to walk the average user through "booting from USB" to restore their partition would be a support nightmare). This is just like the "omg - the desktop is gone and all…

FUD? So you're implying that Microsoft giving users a lot less space than they are promoting in commercials and on the label a lie?

They give you hardware that is capable of storing the advertised amount of data - they advertise it the same as any other vendor (nobody advertises "usable diskspace" unless there is a 59GB iPad out there).

When do you think hardware vendors should start specifying available disk space as part of their SKU? When it's less than 10%? 20%? Should this value include pre-installed applications?

Re: The Microsoft Surface Isn’t Rosy

#30

Post by nwh »

twoodfin wrote: post #15
username3 wrote: post #8

My 64GB iPad has 57.1GB free space. That's 89%. 57.1 - 32 - 16 = 9.1; 9.1 / 16 = 0.56875; 16GB iPad has 9.1GB free space? That's 56%. My 16GB iPhone 5 has 13.4GB free. That's 83%. 13.4 + 16 + 32 = 61.4; 61.4 / 64 = 0.959375; 64GB iPhone 5 has 61.4GB free space? That's 95%. Edit: These calculations are not accurate. Read replies.

Some quick web searching suggests that the 16GB iPad has closer to 13.5GB free. My guess is that iOS reserves more space on the larger devices for its own internal use.

The amount also varies by the version of iOS installed, and if delta updates have been applied (they take up a lot more room, though I'm not sure why).
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