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Microsoft announces the Surface Pro 3

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Re: Microsoft announces the Surface Pro 3

#231

Post by freehunter »

LaikaF wrote: post #190
freehunter wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still can't believe that a hung program means the Task Manager can hang as well. I don't know how many times I've had a game freeze and had to wait on the Task Manager. Ctrl+alt+del brings up the "lock, log off, task manager" screen pretty quick, then Task Manager doesn't load until I go make and finish eating dinner.

Ctrl- Shift - Esc It puts you straight into processes tab and can be done with one hand.

Does it still take minutes to load, though? My problem has never been the difficulty in launching Task Manager, it's been with getting task manager to respond in any amount of hurry.

Re: Microsoft announces the Surface Pro 3

#232

Post by teamonkey »

rubiquity wrote: post #19

> When you write notes using OneNote you can then click the top of the stylus again, just like an ordinary pen, and it will sync those notes up to the cloud instantly so they're available elsewhere. Elsewhere -- as in the laptop you will inevitably go crawling back to when it's time to get real work done. It's always humorous when an article about a device that is supposed to kill the laptop ends on a note like that.

I use my Surface to take notes in meetings. The notes are transparently synced to my main desktop machine, ready to be broken into tasks or emailed out. If I've taken notes with the pen, the desktop version is able to convert them into text. It's a workflow that is working out well for me.

Re: Microsoft announces the Surface Pro 3

#233

Post by freehunter »

nivla wrote: post #174
freehunter wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meanwhile there's not a Windows Phone version of Google anything.

I am fine with it. The are alternative for most Google products. Personally, the only thing I miss is Youtube, which ironically MS made best version out there (No ads, downloadable video and worked without crashing) before Google forced them to take it out. Interestingly, Google has all its products out for the desktop version on Windows 8.

I'd be fine with it too if Google didn't make MS take their apps down or worse yet block IE Mobile from getting to Google Maps completely [1].

Some might call it Microsoft reaping what they have sown for years and I've even heard people applaud Google for shutting out Microsoft, but when MS is putting tons of apps on the Android store and Google is blocking Microsoft from even getting to their website, from a user standpoint I have to be pissed at Google regardless of what Microsoft has done. It's petty, it's anti-consumer just like mid-90's Microsoft, and it's certainly not "do no evil".

[1] http://mashable.com/2013/01/05/google-maps-windows-phone/

Re: Microsoft announces the Surface Pro 3

#234

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

bcbrown wrote: post #130
bratsche wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know you're not being serious, but there are some other terminal apps that are better than the basic DOS prompt. Check out ConEmu, for example. Now, once you've got ConEmu or something like it that will resize nicely and do other things, you'll still be stuck on the crappy DOS-style prompt though. :)

I feel similarly, and seriously. It's not so much just the usability of the command prompt, but that it would be a symbol of a change in priorities towards adding functionality for developers, and welcoming non-Windows technical audiences. If I'm using a non-built-in terminal, and a non-built-in Unix compatibility layer, why am I using Windows?

See, this is why I like Linux and OS X. The built-in Terminal is practical. The built-in text editor (well, at least on Linux) is practical. On Windows, I have to replace both from the get-go to get anything done.

Re: Microsoft announces the Surface Pro 3

#235

Post by jitl »

chm wrote: post #138
rickyc091 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like the specs / pricing might be as follows. Core i3, 4GB RAM, 64GB storage - $799 Core i5, 4GB RAM, 128GB storage - $999 Core i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB storage - $1,299 Core i7, 8GB RAM, 256GB storage - $1,549 Core i7, 8GB RAM, 512GB storage - $1,949 http://www.zdnet.com/surface-pro-3-price-and-spec-leak-70000...

Why not let me choose how much of each component I want? I'd be interested in having 64GB storage, with 8GB+ RAM and at least an i5. I personally don't need so much disk space on a portable device.

Because all the components come soldered to the motherboard out of the factory, I suspect, the same way Apple has been shipping notebooks recently.

Re: Microsoft announces the Surface Pro 3

#236

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

jimmahoney wrote: post #202
bratsche wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know you're not being serious, but there are some other terminal apps that are better than the basic DOS prompt. Check out ConEmu, for example. Now, once you've got ConEmu or something like it that will resize nicely and do other things, you'll still be stuck on the crappy DOS-style prompt though. :)

Another is Git Bash ( http://git-scm.com/downloads ) which gives a reasonable terminal/shell on Windows including many of the standard utilities (e.g. ssh).

Git Bash is just cmd.exe

Re: Microsoft announces the Surface Pro 3

#237

Post by steele »

maguirre wrote: post #18
agscala wrote: post #8

This sure is a bummer for people who recently bought a Surface Pro 2 (like me). It's unreal that a 6-month old $1200 machine already is outdated

I wanted to buy a Surface Pro 2 but the model I wanted has been out of stock at the Microsoft Store for a few weeks now.

You may be in luck then as early adopters dump their 256Gb models on craigslist and ebay.

Re: Microsoft announces the Surface Pro 3

#238

Post by bunderbunder »

eropple wrote: post #227
LeafyGreenbriar wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had to run a Windows VM on a Mac because I needed to run SSMS, but if I were doing .NET development in Visual Studio and heavily using PowerShell on the command-line, I'd probably prefer to just have a Windows computer rather than having so much of my workflow inside a VM. Because I currently work mostly on the command-line, having a rich command-line environment with access to a powerful shell and great tools i…

I always thought I'd feel similarly, but I've been doing a bunch of .NET/Mono stuff in Windows 8 (instead of using Xamarin Studio), as a virtual machine in my Mac. Works pretty great, as long as I correctly train my fingers to hit the right shortcuts when in and out of the VM.

The only downside I've experienced is really one that I'll lay solely at the feet of Windows 8: If I go a long time without checking in on the Windows 8 VM, it will sometimes auto-install updates and then force a restart. This has rather horrifying results if I had also neglected to save a file I was working on.

Moving back and forth between working on the same codebase on both the Mac and Windows sides is also a little irritating; I find the best way to do this is pumping the data back and forth between them using Git. But that would be what I have to do if they were separate physical machines, too, so I'm not terribly prepared to whine about it.

Re: Microsoft announces the Surface Pro 3

#239

Post by evanmoran »

Notice in the video he didn't weigh an iPad, he weighed the MacBook Air. Microsoft is going after laptops – not tablets – with the Surface. This makes sense to me because when I'm working I need a keyboard (typing is just too important). When I'm in a meeting I want to jot notes down with a stylus (feels more personal then typing). This is a pretty impressive bridge between these ideals.

Re: Microsoft announces the Surface Pro 3

#240

Post by njharman »

rdrdss23 wrote: post #222
smrtinsert wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They should really just buy cygwin and make it the default shell keeping powershell as optional. It's time for MS to acknowledge they need to catch up and be a little bit more interoperable with power users from other oses. cygiwn is one of the first thing i install when I bring up a new windows box.

cygwin has a license problem b/c it's GPL. So it's a no-go. You can't bundle your proprietary software with it easily.

That is very untrue.

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#MereAggregation

You can even ship it with a proprietary installer.

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLCompatInstaller

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