Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Microsoft introduces Windows 10 X for dual-screen devices

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

281–290 of 301 posts

Re: Microsoft introduces Windows 10 X for dual-screen devices

#281

Post by knoke »

asenna wrote: post #72

For people saying dual screen is a gimmick, have you not wanted to replicate multi-screen setup on your laptop (while traveling or when not on your desktop)? Power users have always wanted more screen real estate! I've been eyeing the Asus Zenbook Pro Duo[1] ever since they've been announced (currently using a Macbook Pro 2015). I usually carry around an Asus portable second screen for my laptop in my backpack and th…

I started seeing the TB as a missed opportunity for a second screen but with the Golden Chaos touchbar replacement (a preset for Better Touch Tools) I see it as my computer's Apple Watch

The touchbar is totally under-utilized by Apple. Golden Chaos demonstrates that it just needs a new and appropriate sign language and immediately gets much more useful.

With Golden Chaos I use my touchbar to see my current email count, whats playing plus media controls, calender, time, weather, battery – and if I press a modifier key a whole universe of shortcuts opens up. My only addition - and the most heavily used function - is a button to push my current window to the other monitor. So my touchbar effectively is my tool to utilize my second screen more easily.

Re: Microsoft introduces Windows 10 X for dual-screen devices

#282

Post by keymone »

ascii_only wrote: post #117
mrep wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that sarcasm, because I had the first iphone and being able to use a browser anywhere was the killer feature, and it was amazing.

Is that sarcasm, because I had cheap Symbian 40 phone with Opera mobile way before iPhone was announced. Browser that i used everywhere. And this Symbian phones were majority of the market. Also Windows mobile phones that only geeks were using at the time also had browser and also way before iPhone.

Did you forget large touchscreen, no physical buttons and no need for stylus?

Of course other phones had browsers, they were just pain to use and iPhone was revolutionary device compared to even most feature rich flagship device. It’s an opinion you may disagree with, but you’re in minority.

Re: Microsoft introduces Windows 10 X for dual-screen devices

#283

Post by scarface74 »

mav3rick wrote: post #263
scarface74 wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you usually carry a laptop without a bag? How do you carry your laptop cord now? How snug is your laptop bag that you can’t put an iPad in it? Also, the iPad connects to your Macbook using WiFi. If you have an iPhone, you probably are already carrying a lightning cord - the same one that the non-pro iPads use.

Why stop at the 2nd screen ? Why don't you carry your processor, cables and monitors together everywhere.

How do you take your laptop with you without taking your “processor”? When you travel, you don’t take your power cord for your laptop and your phone?

Re: Microsoft introduces Windows 10 X for dual-screen devices

#285

Post by thawaway1837 »

puranjay wrote: post #274
augustl wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never been more happy with a desktop environment than when I used i3. The sloppy window management in macOS combined with the scarce selection of laptops (of which none are really good in my opinion) has led me to try win10 as my development environment. i3-like on Windows would have been great!

Windows management in macOS is downright awful and has been that way for years. It's come to a point where all serious productivity work I do is done on my Windows computer. I've also recently ventured into building my own PC and realized how much power you can get for peanuts with the right configuration. My last Ryzen 3700x build is faster than any Mac I've ever owned and costs 1/3rd. Between all this and the horri…

There was a substantial period of time in the 2000s when Apple had just released Expose, and neither Windows nor Linux had anything that was comparable and Windows management in OSX was better than Windows or major Linux distros.

Re: Microsoft introduces Windows 10 X for dual-screen devices

#286

Post by limomium »

aidenn0 wrote: post #177
limomium wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consider this: To gain any information from a screen, you must actually look at it. You can only look at one screen at a time. The entire functionality of a second screen can be replaced with a single button: While that button is pressed, the screen shows whatever else it needs to show. It is true that pressing a button is ever so slightly slower than moving your eyes. But considering all the benefits from saving a w…

This is not true for several reasons: 1) Software screen switching is not instantaneous 2) Moving your head is lower friction than pressing a button (and more likely a key chord) 3) Humans have very good spatial awareness and multiple screens have this affordance that a button would not.

Humans evolve. Computer systems aren't exactly "spatial", and virtually all attempts to model them as such have failed. We ought to strive for future vision.

Re: Microsoft introduces Windows 10 X for dual-screen devices

#287

Post by tvanantwerp »

com2kid wrote: post #58
tvanantwerp wrote: post #10

Meanwhile, I'm still dealing with random scaling bugs from connecting external monitors with lower pixel density to my high pixel density Surface Pro devices. Only thing that really "fixes" it is setting a custom scaling factor of 100% and reducing the Surface's resolution to make it still readable. (Then I end up with black bars along the edges, as the lower resolution options aren't the same 3:2 aspect ratio as the…

Do this daily, it should work fine. Are you cloning the display? That'll require scaling of some type. If you want to only use the external display that should work fine, if you "close" the Surface it should be smart enough to not go to sleep and instead to just route everything to the external screen. If you are extending, then Windows 10 has supported monitors with different DPI scaling factors for awhile as well.…

It's extending while still using the Surface screen, and it does automatically get the DPI correct. Used to have issues with specific programs, some bits comically large and some comically small. That seems to have stopped, but the latest bug I've been dealing with involves a white bar along the top of one of the external monitors (always the left one, oddly) about an inch thick that renders that part of the screen unusual. Custom DPI of 100% for all monitors is the only thing that makes that stop. Seen it for two or three users out of ~35 so far.

I'll say that the scaling problems have overall improved and most of the time it works. But it still breaks randomly and often enough that I notice.

Re: Microsoft introduces Windows 10 X for dual-screen devices

#288

Post by ascii_only »

keymone wrote: post #282
ascii_only wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that sarcasm, because I had cheap Symbian 40 phone with Opera mobile way before iPhone was announced. Browser that i used everywhere. And this Symbian phones were majority of the market. Also Windows mobile phones that only geeks were using at the time also had browser and also way before iPhone.

Did you forget large touchscreen, no physical buttons and no need for stylus? Of course other phones had browsers, they were just pain to use and iPhone was revolutionary device compared to even most feature rich flagship device. It’s an opinion you may disagree with, but you’re in minority.

I don't argue that iPhone was revolutionary although I think it was way less revolutionary than average consumer thinks. I argue with very specific claim. OP have claimed that "being able to use a browser anywhere was the killer feature" and it is just not true because most of the market could do it. All symbian, blackberry and Windows Mobile phones could do it.

>Did you forget large touchscreen, no physical buttons and no need for stylus?

iPhones did have physical home button and O2 XDA II from 2003 has the same touchscreens size as original iPhone. Also you are forgetting that first capacitive touchscreens were awful. Qwerty keyboard or resistive touchscreen were just nicer to use. And you didn't have to use stylus. Most people who I know used stylus in few very specific applications and they just use finger for most tasks but to be fair you had to be very precise.

Re: Microsoft introduces Windows 10 X for dual-screen devices

#289

Post by tinus_hn »

klohto wrote: post #88
kbumsik wrote: post #29

It reminds me how the first Surface Pro looked like. It was incomplete and useless device so it didn't go well. However, Microsoft didn't give up. After three iterations Microsoft finally made Surface Pro 3, which was the first useful Windows tablet with a cleverly designed keyboard and a great 3:2 ratio screen. The surface line finally took off and third-parties began to make "surface-like" products since then. Micr…

> Microsoft is not like Apple. They don't make perfect products at the beginning Oh man, try to remember how the first iPhone was. It was the most useless thing in the world. It didn’t have app store! The lesson is to iterate, iterate and iterate

The first iPhone was fantastic compared to every other phone that existed when it was released. If it was useless, so was every other phone.

Re: Microsoft introduces Windows 10 X for dual-screen devices

#290

Post by CrackerNews »

deckar01 wrote: post #143
zokier wrote: post #31

Considering that Windows has been supporting multiple displays for what, 20 years now, it feels bit odd to make that the headline feature

Windows multi-display functionality has regressed with packet based display protocols. Turning Display Port monitors off with their power button is a nightmare. All of your windows get squished down to so tiny size and moved over to one monitor. They won't fix it, because they consider it a power user use case that should be solved by leaving everything on or turning the entire computer off. There is an entire after…

Would Windows 10X fix these issues? Microsoft appears to be reserving it for dual display devices.
Post reply on HN