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Microsoft’s Hardware, Round 2: Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2

arstechnica.com

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Re: Microsoft’s Hardware, Round 2: Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2

#91

Post by widdershins »

alyx wrote: post #88
enko wrote: post #24

Dear Microsoft: Out of ARM and x86, choose one. Just choose one. For the love of god, choose ONE. Can you imagine Apple, or anyone else, deliberately releasing two different tablets, with the same name, which can not run each others' software? It is inconceivable, and for good reason. MS cannot make decisions. That's what will kill them, long term. Just choose one!!

Relax. They have clearly made some sort of a bet on ARM, if it doesn't pan out they will drop it soon enough.

In the meantime, it's terribly confusing to consumers and could well result in a lot of ill-will.

Re: Microsoft’s Hardware, Round 2: Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2

#92

Post by 33degrees »

tonydiv wrote: post #13

Better performance might help this sell, but the second I saw the "Surface Music Kit," I got excited. As a DJ, I need to carry around an expensive laptop to perform. The iPad does not have any impressive apps to DJ (at least not professionally), so I'd be VERY interested if they focused on the niche music market here. Surface 2 + Kinect/Leap + superb DJing app + Spotify-esque music supply = very happy musicians. Unfo…

I have a friend who is a dj and has been struggling to get his music apps to work properly on his Surface; he ended up having to disable to a bunch of stuff to get it to work glitch free. So I would definitely wait to see how other people get on with the new models before jumping in.

Also, Traktor DJ and a Kontrol S2 is definitely a pro level setup for iPad...

Re: Microsoft’s Hardware, Round 2: Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2

#93

Post by NDizzle »

untog wrote: post #54
NDizzle wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I forgot to mention vagrant as well. Map some directories and spend most of the work day in vagrant.

Yeah, Vagrant seems like one of the best options. But buying a computer that will require me to run everything inside of a VM feels a little messy. Although maybe it'll force me to compartmentalise my projects properly...

It may seem like it at first, and it may actually be depending on your role. I spend a lot of time working on Silly Business Shit and dealing with things in IE-land, in an industry filled with mostly Microsoft customers/users. It's nice to be able to work on both sides on the same machine.

Re: Microsoft’s Hardware, Round 2: Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2

#95

Post by philliphaydon »

IanDrake wrote: post #85
davidacoder wrote: post #68

Why, oh why is there no version with 3G/LTE? That is by far the biggest bummer, imho. For people that are on the road a lot that makes such a difference, and pretty much all other tablets offer that option, so it seems really lame to not have that. Also, if I spent $1800 for a Surface Pro in the best configuration, I really would expect it to have the same connectivity as a iPad mini... Other than that, this seems li…

1) The hardware would cost more 2) It would cost money to add the device to your Mobile account 3) You can just use the mobile hotspot feature on your phone and connect through that. Its easy on my Nokia 928. Hell, half the time I have my wife's iphone connected to my phone via WIFI because she has AT&T (for work reasons) and they suck most places we go.

I actually think 3g on tablets is rather silly now. With basically all mobile phones having the ability to share internet, why do you need to pay additional money for another mobile plan...

Re: Microsoft’s Hardware, Round 2: Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2

#96

Post by sliverstorm »

philliphaydon wrote: post #82
sliverstorm wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am going to bet "no". Sure, you will be able to get a driver working, but there are no OneNotes for Linux and the rest of the OS generally has zero concessions to touch. From my times playing with tablets, Linux trails Windows 5-10 years.

It is possible to run Ubuntu on a Surface Pro, so I don't see why you can't dual boot the Surface Pro 2 as well.

I'm not talking about whether or not the tablet can run Linux, but how useful the tablet input device (i.e. Wacom etc) is under Linux.

Re: Microsoft’s Hardware, Round 2: Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2

#97

Post by rbanffy »

CodeCube wrote: post #20
untog wrote: post #15

The Surface Pro 2 could make for a really interesting developer machine. Plug it into external keyboard/monitor when you're at your desk, then just pick it up and take it on the road when you want to. I'm tempted, but part of me can't shake the idea that I'd be replacing my laptop with a tablet, even know I know that's not quite true. Also: Windows. I used to use it, but I've been working in OS X exclusively for a fe…

powershell ... seriously, it's really good. And Cygwin if you really want that unix shell experience :)

Cygwin + MinTTY can make Windows bearable, but, if you have already moved to Mac, why bother? OSX combined to MacPorts makes for a very functional development environment. The only very specific downside is that it won't run Visual Studio.

BTW, can the Pro 2 run Linux?

Re: Microsoft’s Hardware, Round 2: Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2

#98

Post by akmiller »

shurcooL wrote: post #51

Why is there a photo of an external monitor with 3840x2160 and nothing is mentioned about it? Is it because it's just a hypothetical display that could be connected via the Mini DisplayPort, had it existed?

Because it supports external displays up to 3840x2160.

Edit: Sorry, misunderstood your question!

Re: Microsoft’s Hardware, Round 2: Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2

#99

Post by JonFish85 »

codeulike wrote: post #52

As it happens I bought a second hand Surface Pro from ebay and it arrived today. Moving to it from a laptop thats a couple of years old, the Surface Pro is absolutely blowing me away. Faster than my old laptop, also acts as a tablet, using desktop applications via touch actually works, the pen is brilliant. The 128gb will be fine for me, because I've got used to living within about 120Gb.

128GB minus whatever OS overhead there is... I know it's a nitpick, but definitely something to keep in mind.

Re: Microsoft’s Hardware, Round 2: Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2

#100

Post by rbanffy »

alyx wrote: post #88
enko wrote: post #24

Dear Microsoft: Out of ARM and x86, choose one. Just choose one. For the love of god, choose ONE. Can you imagine Apple, or anyone else, deliberately releasing two different tablets, with the same name, which can not run each others' software? It is inconceivable, and for good reason. MS cannot make decisions. That's what will kill them, long term. Just choose one!!

Relax. They have clearly made some sort of a bet on ARM, if it doesn't pan out they will drop it soon enough.

It's their way of telling Intel it's giving too much support to Linux and Android...

"We'll support your competitor if you support ours"

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