Microsoft not giving up: Windows Lite rumors surface
While Microsoft's Windows operating system is still going strong, the company is facing tough competition in the classroom and Universities. Google Chromebooks are doing well there thanks to a combination of cheap prices and ease of use; Chromebooks use cloud storage and syncing functionality that is built deeply into the operating system.
Microsoft launched two products in the past designed to compete in the low-end market: Windows RT and Windows 10 S. The main issue with both products was that they carried all the ballast of full versions of Windows without really offering anything that made devices running these versions of Windows attractive.
The devices did not offer better battery life, were excluded from the attractive software catalog and limited to Store apps, online services, and PWAs. Not many wanted to run a device with Windows that could not run Windows games or applications, most of them at least.
Third time's a charm, as rumors surfaced that Microsoft is working on yet another restricted version of Windows called Windows Lite. Whether that is just a more recent version of Windows Cloud, which leaked in 2017, remains to be seen.
Tero Alhonen spotted the new SKU Lite in Windows 10 SDK 18282 and Brad Sams suggested over on Petri.com that Microsoft will position it to target Chromebooks.
Windows 10 Lite will run UWP applications and PWAs only, according to Sams, who dug deep into builds and talked to "a couple insiders". What sets this apart from Windows RT or Windows 10 S is the fact that Microsoft removed parts that are not required to run PWAs or Universal Platform Applications.
Sam's calls it a "truly lightweight version of Windows" and suggests that it will not be sold openly but will be for OEMs exclusively. Devices could be powered by the next Qualcomm processor or Intel processors.
Closing Words
It is not clear if Lite will indeed be Microsoft's third attempt at establishing a low cost device in a market that Windows devices have not performed overly well in previously.
Lite may still feature a desktop interface that resembles Windows 10 and if Microsoft managed to throw a lot of components overboard, it could show in battery life and performance.
Windows Lite could be unveiled in 2019 officially.
Now You: What is your take on Windows Lite? Another Windows RT? Or something that could succeed?
@Jody Thornton is the same shit peddlers that said Nintendo was doomed, because of mobile games.
Stupid companies like Square lost a ton of money developing worthless mobile games due to this stupidity. Ultimately, Square was forced to return to Nintendo to make a profit with Bravely Default.
Alot of stupid parents bought iPads for their kids when they went to college, & were later forced to buy a laptop, because iPads were shit compared to PCs for actual work.
And Jody (hilariously the same name as the new “Doctor” that’s having it’s TV ratings dropping due to everyone hating social justice) says the young people are better than past generations, when everything important (the transistor, splitting the atom, computer software, etc.) was created by past generations. The younger generation has done squat. The legacy of the younger generation is voting for legalized marijuana, so they can become stoners in their parent’s basement.
Jody, people can own a phone AND a computer. One does NOT preclude the other.
TLDR – Nintendo is thriving w/ the Nintendo Switch, because the mobile phone didn’t destroy the mobile gaming market. PCs will alway florish, because PCs are better than phones in every single way. The only advantage a phone has is portability.
Microsoft is a software company, not a cloud company. There’s no way they can compete with AWS. Nadella is merely trying to maximize his bonuses, just like Marissa Meyer maximized her bonuses by destroying Yahoo.
@NotAnonymous:
I never said younger was better – I said “different”. I think you need to learn to read.
You’re like the person that said radio will never die. 8-track, records, home taping and TV all challenged it, so the Internet and Spotify won’t kill it.
Well that’s happening now.
By the way, you’re right. Tablets have sorta died off, and yes some have replaced their tablet with a notebook. But usually, that’s NOT the case. Phones are EVERYWHERE. If you refuse to see that, you’re in denial.
By the way, that’s not me peddling anything dumbass. I’ll give myself permission to call you one, since you felt it appropriate to call me a shit peddler – which just makes you sound like a grumpy old man anyway. Funny thing is, if you were right, your integrity is shot, because you can’t make your point without name-calling.
Win 10 Lite and Win 10 S is just another attempt by M$ to squeeze more ca$h out of consumers, ala Win 7 Starter/Home Basic/Home Premium/Pro/Ultimate.
Imagine GM doing the same for the operating engines of her new cars that are on sale: ……. Buick Lite/Starter = top speed of only 50mph; Buick Home = top speed of 70mph; Buick Pro = top speed of 100mph; Buick Ultimate = top speed of 150mph.
Micorsofts biggest mistake IMHO was providing a monolithic update every few years.
They should have recognised maybe 2 updates.
The core windows engine.
The UI.
That way the UI could have been an update or separate downloads that the Windows Engine can ‘use’. Similar to Linux and its Desktop Renderers / UI’s.
We could then have UI’s named Win7, Win8, Win10. They could then be switched at will.
Maybe only skins over the main OS ?
All they need is a version without junkware, something stable that only needs updates if the software/online universe undergoes major changes. For academic or business use, the required functionality isn’t terribly complicated as long as placating the junkapp world is ignored. Call it Windows NC for No Crap!
Desktops are indeed fading; except for gamers or those with considerable computational needs, laptops have essentially replaced them. We have one gaming desktop and four laptops; the desktop exists because gaming laptops that perform well on all games are gigantic and very expensive.
Our kids use chromebooks in school and don’t much like the middling displays, google docs, chrome, etc., but they’re reliable.
Some of their friends have ipads which have better displays and smoother apps but have to be docked to a keyboard to be any good for writing papers.
Both approaches work; I expect primarily because the devices are reliable. I don’t know of any local schools using Windows laptops. Can’t imagine a school’s IT support recommending something that may or may not work when MS pushes updates that may work fine for some kids and destroy other kids devices even though all of them were imaged identically.
Uh, yeah, phones will not wholesale replace laptops in business or academia. The business world had opportunity to do that long ago with Blackberries and the odd ball phones with slide out key boards. They’re too small. Both are still available, both work well but there’s no rush to move back.
I once worked with a sharp young engineer who, while stuck in a airport during a snowstorm, spent hours keying a report on a Blackberry. It came out great but her synopsis of the experience was “I’m NEVER doing that again; it took forever! I got a stiff neck, my vision went blurry and my fingers still don’t work well!”
Pick the right tool for the job.
As soon as the last security updates for Windows 7 have arrived, someone will make a true Windows Lite. It will be a barebones stripped-down Windows 7 which will be the fastest, and most likely safest, version of Windows ever. It will be glorious.
@ Bobo
Windows is proprietary software owned by M$. No one is allowed to fork Win 7 or Win XP or Win 95 into a lighter version and distribute it. Anyway, it cannot really be done because Windows is close-source.
I think Microsoft’s big mistake in the past when its tried to do this, a mistake it seems to be about to repeat, is calling their Chrome OS some variation on Windows.
Calling it Windows means some inevitable of customer confusion, a focus by customers on what it can’t do instead of what it can do (Even if they do understand what they are getting), a limit to how much they can optimize it because it still ultimately has to do have the Windows look and feel, the potential for a poor experience with this to reflect negatively on the brand in the eyes of some consumers, etc..
Call it something like Microsoft Overdrive and do a straight Chrome clone with it booting directly to a log-in screen and a browser with a desktop you can only view if you minimize things, only license it for SSD drives and machine configurations with fast boot times (But make the licensing cheap or free for OEMs), do the whole user interaction no-automatic reboots Chrome OS thing, the automatic restore from server if it gets a virus or malware, and have a very light OS that fits on small hard drives and has very few background services and APIs, built around the browser with an emphasis on the cloud.
Then you really get into competing with Chrome OS by building an OS that really lets you do it without negatively impacting your Windows business. Your selling point veruss Chrome could be that it comes with 2 free years of Microsoft Office 360 and all the appropriate icons pinned to the task bar- web apps- and mstch the free GDrive storage with free Onedrive storage.
That type of OS would not be for me except in a pinch, or for limited use only if it comes with the opportunity to get a machine for close to free, but it’d achieve Microsoft’s objectives with this far better than what they keep trying with their Chrome competitors. When its called Microsoft Windows, you have two competing pressures- to be the Windows the customer expects, and to be a Microsoft version of Chrome OS- and that gets you an OS that seems like a hybrid between a disappointingly gimped Windows that people feel tricked into buying or dejectedly pony up for because they have no other options from a financial perspective, or a really slow unoptimized version of ChromeOS licensed for hardware it shouldn’t be.
This is a marketing failure they keep repeating. Yes, the word Windows is a powerful brand, but I don’t think its beneficial to their objectives in this case. The word “Microsoft” is enough to convey that this is an operating system made by one of the big players (As well as prominent advertising of the two free years of MS Office 360 and OneDrive), but you need a new second word that doesn’t tie it to the existing expectations people have of Windows both positively and negatively for a machine with a more limited use case.
Then Windows remains the main OS for home and business customers that want a full powered OS that offers what Windows has traditionally offered on the hardware of their choosing. The hypothetical new Microsoft offering with a new name means the lighting fast zero upkeep thin client for people who live in the cloud and don’t want to do anything approaching power user or use extensive local file management and programs.
Windows RT, Windows Lite, etc. is really bad branding on a whole number of levels.
Well said @John. I bought a used Surface RT tablet, and for browsing an email, it”s great. I stick to the Metro environment on it, but here the desktop is out of place. Surface TR could have worked if it stuck to it’s mobile/metro platform.
@ Jody Thornton
For the majority of computer users, the ARM-based Surface RT did not work. That was why it was abandoned by M$.
It’s a pity you wasted some major dough on the Surface RT which mostly became a door-stop. Next time, listen to the majority “reviewers” and commenters, ie if you intend on buying Win 10 S or Win 10 Lite devices.
@AnorKnee Merce:
Sorry about that, the last message I meant to address to you, not John. )
My bad. Still $60 wasn’t bad just for messing around with.
:)
I spent $60 on it used @John. I think I did OK. Really. If I spent any more on it, I’d agree with you.
@ mike90000
MS should steal a clue from Linux
Actually they bought seat on the Linux board…..That is Sooo not funny..!!
@ Clairvaux
How about re-branding Windows 7 as Windows Lite.?
Yes I was thinking they should update & repair WinXP
that should just be screaming fast even on an old i3.
When did they finally stop doing security updates for it…maybe 8 months ago?
And is M$ giving up on Edge, going for a hromium-based browser?
https://www.askwoody.com/2018/zac-bowden-microsoft-is-throwing-in-the-towel-on-edge-replacing-it-with-a-new-browser-based-on-chromium/
Here is the full article:
https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-building-chromium-powered-web-browser-windows-10
Because collecting personal data on our children is profitable.
Yawn.
Windows 10 (especially the Home version) is overpriced, especially given its infuriating lack of customization and the ongoing Windows Update fiasco.
MS should steal a clue from Linux and offer a cheaper Windows Lite ‘net’ installer that lets one install a minimal, less disk, memory and power hungry version of Windows. Let Win32 be an add-on in case there isn’t a UWP application that meets your needs.
How about re-branding Windows 7 as Windows Lite, and giving it away for free ? With regular, non-ending security updates ? Those who would insist on being Microsoft slaves could keep their heavy-duty Windows 10. Sounds simple and neat to me.
@Clairvaux
lol. In fact,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7_editions#Derivatives
There is nothing compelling about Windows Lite that would make is superior to a Chromebook for use in schools. At home and work, no one that has an investment in existing programs that require full Windows will want this thing.
I thought Microsoft was focusing on the Enterprise, so that their OS, Office, and other programs would have a profitable future. Side projects like Windows Lite are a waste of resources that could be put to better use making Windows 10 a stable operating system that users would find a pleasure to use.
Microsoft should take the best parts of their OS:es released BEFORE Windows 8.0 and combine them. Make it stable and let people chose what the OS should be used as, like; office, gaming, music production, entertainment…and make it possible to use “legacy” software/hardware. They should kill crap like Cortana, Apps and Store + drop all telemetry.
@stefann:
So what you’re saying is that Microsoft should abandon the mobile-firendly, cloud market and just stick to perfecting classic Windows support. But what about when the PC/notebook world disappears? And make NO MISTAKE about it – the PC is dying. Yes there will always be hobbyists and XP fans and Windows 7 holdouts. But that’s not a market to build a long-term strategy on. Mobile-first is where it’s at, and Microsoft needs to get into that space.
So how do you suggest they do that, all the while sticking to Windows 7?
@ Jody Thornton
[“Mobile-first is where it’s at, and Microsoft needs to get into that space.”]
Then why did M$ abandoned Win 10 Mobile.?
Fyi, Win 10 is not a full-mobile OS, eg cannot directly make cell-phone calls or WhatsApp text messages. Can Win 10 compete against Android and iOS in the pure mobile market.?
In actual fact, M$ is enterprise-first, not mobile first.
Seems, M$ is suffering from schizophrenia with her Win 8.x/10 mongrel creation of a half-desktop+half-mobile OS.
I’ll be honest @AnorKnee Merce: I was surprised that they totally threw in the towel on Windows Phone. But they DID keep the Universal App environment alive, didn’t they.
Look, I never EVER said Microsoft will succeed on its mobile plans. But Microsoft shareholders will INSIST that they work in that space. Problems is, Google and Apple had already won that battle by the time Microsoft woke up and got into it. And now, even Apple is succumbing to the mighty Google (that is sad by the way)
@Jody Thornton: “So how do you suggest they do that, all the while sticking to Windows 7?”
By developing a mobile OS. Microsoft’s fundamental error is trying to build a “one OS to rule them all”. It’s impossible, as the form factors are so different that to accomplish a one-size-fits-all solution, you need to compromise, thus ensuring that the OS is going to suck on both mobile and desktop.
Or, they could adopt the Linux way: separate out the operating system from the desktop environment. Then they could have a “universal” OS, and swap out the desktop according to the needs of the platform.
But the method the actually chose is pretty close to the worst possible approach.
Jody Thornton,
I don’t believe PC is going anywhere. This rumour is based on the fact that PC sales are slowing down compared to smartphone sales – that was a few years ago. Well, people are not really buying a new PC every year, there is no reason to do that. There is no reason to do that with smartphones either, there never was, and that is reflected by the fact that smartphone sales are going down as well; yet no one is saying smartphones are goig out – most likely people have wisen up and realised you don’t need to buy a new damn phone every year. Both devices fit their segments.
You can’t do serious word on a tablet or — worse — on a phone. Both are all right for entertainment and communication. But there are still a few people left who use computers to get work done. That means businesses, large organisations, governments.
You cannot crunch numbers or design new products on a smartphone. You need a large screen. Much of the computing power and software intelligence is moving to the cloud, but you still need something computerish locally to deal with the cloud.
Whether portable computers are going to displace part of PCs is a matter for discussion. However, you don’t see many smartphones or iPads in military command centers, power plant control rooms, CAD departments, stock exchanges and the like.
Smartphones are certainly used by all those people, but they are an addition to their digital equipment. And no, “young people” have not invented ways to circumvent smartphones intrinsic limitations. Young people are just slightly less intelligent men. They don’t have three arms, birds’ eyes or anything else that might help them do accounting tasks on a pocket screen.
@Clairvux:
Google Docs and Spreadhseet, or Zoho Office Apps for example. We use them EVERY day. They work. Yes they’re in the cloud, but collaboration is the key. OK so you can’t print from a phone easily – WHO CARES! I only print once in a blue moon at work. I will still use a PC for that. But again, we’re using it for a legacy function.
So yes, quite a lot of productive work CAN be done on a phone or tablet. And the gap will get filled in.
Clairvaux – you said …..
“Smartphones are certainly used by all those people, but they are an addition to their digital equipment. And no, “young people†have not invented ways to circumvent smartphones intrinsic limitations. Young people are just slightly less intelligent men. They don’t have three arms, birds’ eyes or anything else that might help them do accounting tasks on a pocket screen.”
Holy Crap! Man, you really need to open your eyes. Millennials are some of the most aware and intelligent people out there. Yes there are young dumasses. But it’s even Ganeration Z (post 9/11 children and teens) that will define future functionality. You really have blinders on – less intelligent men? Wow!
@ Jody Thornton
Not sure what your point was when you said :
“Google Docs and Spreadhseet, or Zoho Office Apps for example. We use them EVERY day. They work. Yes they’re in the cloud, but collaboration is the key. OK so you can’t print from a phone easily – WHO CARES! I only print once in a blue moon at work. I will still use a PC for that. But again, we’re using it for a legacy function.”
Do you mean : many people use those online apps on smartphones generally ? You and your spouse personally ? The people at your company ?
And if the latter, could you elaborate what is it that your company is doing, and what it is doing with those office suites on smartphones ?
Also, is it the case that you don’t have PCs, or Macs, at your company, and all computing takes place on smartphones ?
I know you can use an office suite on a smartphone. What I’m just saying is that you can’t run a company out of a smartphone (or even many smartphones). Phones are very useful additions, extensions to a computing system. They are not a replacement for it.
As for young people : it seems I’ve committed a crime here against political correctness, since youngsters are demi-gods now, and you’re not allowed to say anything to the contrary.
What I said was : age is irrelevant, because phone’s limitations are physical. The size of the screen, the lack of a keyboard interfere with human anatomy and biology. However “aware” young people may be, they cannot change that.
Regarding young people being slightly less intelligent than older men, this does not have anything to do with “millenials”, or whatever is the latter fad for calling the last generation.
It’s bloody obvious. It’s always been the case since a few million years. One is rather silly when young, then one grows wiser with age and experience. That’s a basic human truth everybody used to be aware of (using the word appropriately). The way everybody is aware that rain is wet or knives cut.
It’s only our stupid era which made it fashionable to think otherwise. But this will come to an end some day. Half a century on a limited part of the globe is but a speck of dust in the history of humanity, if that. Sorry for rocking the PC boat (another sort of PC).
@Clairvaux:
@ Jody Thornton Not sure what your point was when you said :
“Google Docs and Spreadhseet, or Zoho Office Apps for example. We use them EVERY day. ….. “Do you mean : many people use those online apps on smartphones generally ? You and your spouse personally ? The people at your company ?
ANSWER: ====> Yes I meant at work. I didn’t communicate that clearly. Now we do use Google Docs for collaborative tasks at work, where we need to share and change documents live time. But our remote users access them on company phones and tablets. All are Android based.
—————————————————————————————————
@Clairvaux said ” ….. I know you can use an office suite on a smartphone. What I’m just saying is that you can’t run a company out of a smartphone (or even many smartphones). Phones are very useful additions, extensions to a computing system. They are not a replacement for it”
ANSWER: ====> We have older PCs to record audio (it’s a broadcasting content provider I work for). These are Windows 7 machines that have been there for more than seven or eight years. We’ll keep using them until Window 7 support runs out, but non-PC solutions are being considered already. Sure, we’ll use the PCs while they’re there, but they’re not a “progressive” part of the business.
As for mobile OS apps not being a replacement – why not? First off, you’re looking this from a present-day lens. Five years ago, I would have said the same thing you’re saying now. But look at what we can do on a tablet with a bluetooth keyboard, comfortably now. So even in a year, imagine what that will grow to. Google docs does what we all need to do with formatting of documents and spreadsheets, and that WILL improve. We have Office 2013 installed on the workstations, but NO ONE ever uses it. Dems the facts!
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@Clairvaux said …….” As for young people : it seems I’ve committed a crime here against political correctness, since youngsters are demi-gods now, and you’re not allowed to say anything to the contrary.”
Listen, I’m 48. I have a tube TV, a burner phone (look up “Samsung Gravity 2”), a turntable, along with 5,000 LPs, just sold my open-reel deck, and a nice Quad-Core Xeon HP workstation running Windows 8 Pro x64. If any one seems off the grid and vintage – IT’S ME !!!. Difference is, I don’t delude myself into imagining that the world is like that outside of these apartment walls. I know that CDs, digital players and now Spotify have all replaced my LP collection eight times over. I know that 4 K HDTVs have replaced my tube TV., and I certainly know that less people are computing with a workstation, and just using phones to access the Internet.
So, you’d think that I would take the same grouchy approach to millennials that you do – and guess what? I used to. Except I started to listen when they came up with ideas and viewpoints that were so open minded, I couldn’t help but feel I was being exposed to something in a new light. And I also found out that many millennials (and even Gen Z’s) appreciated and wanted to know more about my vintage ways. They would, in turn, show me how they edited video and audio on a tablet. They had no lineage to open-reel tape recording or the digital PC-based audio editors tyhat replaced them, so they came at everything in anew light.
That is NOT being politically correct @Clairvaux. That is growth and awareness at work.
I feel sorry for you that you feel otherwise. You try to say things in a way that makes it not sound age-discriminate, but it comes through in your language. Again, that’s not political correctness at work, it’s just a fair observation. This is not trying to obviate logic like water is wet – holy sheesh!
@ Jody Thornton
Thank you for clarifying. You don’t say what non-PC solutions your company is looking at. You don’t say what your company does its accounting on. Do they use smartphones for that ?
You work for a broadcasting content provider. Don’t you need a lot of redundant local storage for that ? Don’t you need plenty of backups ? Doesn’t that mean plenty of hard disks ? Can you afford to have all your computing power and data storage online, with nothing in-house ?
And if you add a mechanical keyboard to a phone, how is it still a phone ?
Let’s assume for a minute your company will, indeed, do its whole computing on smartphones two years from now, although I don’t understand how.
That’s your company. We’re speaking of the world in general. There were plenty of examples of real-world applications given on this thread which are not, and cannot be done on a smartphone. You don’t do CAD on a smartphone. Even if you’re very young and very brilliant. You don’t develop e-commerce websites on a smartphone. You don’t crush geographical data on a smartphone. You don’t (I think) publish gHacks out of a smartphone.
You’re telling us technology moves on, because people don’t use vinyls anymore to listen to music (actually, they’re back in fashion, but I’m not going to nitpick you on that). That’s just stating the bloody obvious.
That does not mean any new technology can replace any old one. That’s the crux of the debate. Just because smartphones are trendy and youngsters win Darwin Awards everyday, being run over by cars while peeping at their screens, doesn’t mean your friendly nuclear station next door will be run on an iPhone tomorrow.
Admittedly, nuclear stations are not as trendy and “aware” as “millenials” working in the broadcasting business, but such boring places are where much of the real work gets done.
Now for the political part of it, or, let’s say, philosophical. You’re telling me you’re not being politically correct. Of course you are. You’re an obvious victim and conduit of the PC doctrine.
You’re accusing me of being “grouchy” because I don’t receive the holy communion at the altar of the contemporary youth cult. Now that’s politically correct as hell.
You speak of “awareness”. That’s modern mumbo-jumbo at work.
You pretend to be “sorry for me” because I don’t feel like you. You’re not. You’re being hypocritical. That’s just another slogan straight out of the bag of politically correct tricks.
You say this incredibly absurd thing (not to mention offensive) :
“You try to say things in a way that makes it not sound age-discriminate, but it comes through in your language. Again, that’s not political correctness at work, it’s just a fair observation.”
Well, of course I don’t try to sound like I don’t discriminate according to age, because I do. Of course I discriminate according to age. And sex. And race. And origin. And religion. And “sex orientation”. And physical ability. And looks. And intelligence. And kindness. And wisdom. And a lot of other things.
As everybody does, and should do. Discrimination is a virtue. You’re so ensconsed in your PC ideology you don’t even realise you’ve just given yourself away.
Everybody discriminates in a way or another, every second of their lives. It’s only that people discriminate in different ways. It’s not that politically-correct do-gooders don’t discriminate. Indeed, they do it more than anyone else. They are the least tolerant species on earth. It’s just they are incredibly hypocritical about it.
You discriminate on age, too. You discriminate in a wrong and silly way, with this absurd belief that “millenials” are better than the previous generations at the same age. And better than their elders. That’s what young people think about themselves. Mature men should know better. Just because youngsters are in love with their smartphones and are nifty with them, doesn’t mean this specific piece of tech loses its intrinsic limitations.
One of them being security, by the way. Smartphones are significantly less secure than computers. Security will be a growing concern for all digital applications in the future.
Just one more proof that all that “feeling sorry for me” about age discrimination is a lot of humbug. One hundred percent of people discriminate on age when selecting their spouse. Most of them in the same way. Men choose a wife their age or slightly younger, and vice-versa. The age gap can be increased if the man is very rich.
I suppose we should ban this, too, and force people to marry at random in order to eradicate this evil “age discrimination”.
Sigh! So many words you put in my mouth @Clairvaux. You quote me but it’s as if you misunderstood. And I never said millennials were better. They do bring value to the table.
Youth can provide a fresh perspective that age and time tend to cloud over. Think of it this way, just as much as age can bring wisdom and knowledge, age and time can also make you set in your ways and less able to adapt. It can make you stubborn and blind to what’s out there.
So I thank you for demonstrating that to us.
@ Jody Thornton
“Youth can provide a fresh perspective that age and time tend to cloud over.”
Yes. And water is wet.
This does not entail that smartphones will replace computers.
“It can make you stubborn and blind to what’s out there. So I thank you for demonstrating that to us.”
What you have just demonstrated it that you have not demonstrated anything at all regarding the technical and business topic debated here.
I’m talking hard disks and local redundant storage to you, and you’re replying telling me youth is good and fresh and inventive. I’m asking you how your company does accounting, and you’re telling us that youngsters will take care of that. I’m asking you how on earth an engineer could do computer-aided design on a screen that fits in the pocket, and you’re telling me I’m an old fart. You’re a Lyssenkist.
What you have just demonstrated is that you’re a deluded leftist do-gooder, more intent on proving your moral superiority over those who do not defer to the Creed than having a rational discussion.
What you have just demonstrated is your ability to derail conversations with snarky personal attacks, because you can’t prove your point, and you’re throwing your toys out of your pram because the sacred tenets of your politically correct ideology are once again proven wrong.
@Clairvaux: +1
@Jody Thornton: mobile cannot push out the PC because it is simply impossible to do real work on those tiny screens. Even the biggest mobile phone today still has a tiny screen, and PC work consists of more than Whatsapping with a friend or shooting selfies.
@Klaas:
That argument always comes up. Yes PCs are still needed for non-consumptive, specialized tasks. But even more of that is accomplished on tablets and phones. There are mobile office platforms, audio and video editors and the like.
By the way, young people will be the driving force here, and because they’ve always had phones, their level of creativity with these devices can be mind-boggling. They know how to accomplish things in a way that is totally foreign and new to us. They will rarely need whatever superiority a PC/desktop gives them.
@Jody Thornton: “young people will be the driving force here, and because they’ve always had phones, their level of creativity with these devices can be mind-boggling”
Absolutely true — my daughter and her friends are in this group. But it’s interesting to note that all of them, without exception, also own laptops. And half of them own desktops (because they’re gamers). They don’t use their bigger machines for everything that us old farts do, but they do continue to use them and see value in them.
@Jody Thornton: we have to distinguish between desktop systems and laptops. Desktop systems seem a bit like dinosaurs, but they are still used extensively by engineers, product designers and such like. So, I am not so sure the “dinosaurs” will go like the dinosaurs.
As for laptops, I believe they are here to stay. Yes, tablets have become more ubiquitous, and maybe they can take over from laptops, but mobile phones will never be able to achieve that. And mobile phones cannot grow beyond a certain size because they will seize to be portable in one’s back-pocket, like most youngsters seem to do nowadays. And they, like the older generations, will always want to have a phone to carry around either in a pocket or in a handbag.
PC is dying? How delusional. I’ll believe that when pigs start spouting wings.
@D is obviously for “Duh”. The drops in PC sales year after year in this decade is colossal. And most PC now are used at work, or for work. Even there, many sales forces were being equipped with tablets, and those are being phased out with phones.
The desktop/notebook environment with a windowing-style OS is falling from mainstream. Oh by the way “D”, look up – there’s a pig.
Cannot stands when PC fans choose to ignore the slow demise of the desktop (which I am a PC fan by the way – but I chose to see reality)
@Jody Thornton:
I agree with you in the sense that the platform most people will be using will be mobile, not desktop. Perhaps most households won’t even have a desktop machine in them anymore.
However, I don’t agree with you that this means the demise of the desktop. It just means desktop will be #2 rather than #1 — and even at #2, it will remain a very large market. Not as large as in the recent past, but large nonetheless.
There are far too many things that people need to do that cannot be effectively done on mobile devices. This is inherent to the form factor, not a limitation of tech.
That reality is a lie. Obviously severely delusional.
I look around me @D an all I see are people using Samsung and iPhones. Most people I know stopped using XP four years ago, and just switched to Android. To them, Windows isn’t even a thing. You think it’s delusional because people in your space, community or maybe just imagination still use PCs.
This isn’t to say that people don’t really use Windows, but it’s no longer mainstream. Only devout PC users deny that.
I think that is true, but there will always be a market for laptops and desktops. I am a amateur photographer and there is no way I can ever edit my images properly with a cell phone.
you can one day attach the most sophisticated monitors maybe, but even then a cell phone is very cumbersome to use. And this is just one example.
Actually two people at work edited two photos on Thursday afternoon. Both were on an Samsung Galaxy models, and they cropped and combined three pictures together. Then they resized them.
It CAN be done. Not my cuppa tea either. I also prefer a full desktop windowing system, but it can be done on a mobile OS.
Microsoft has spread itself too thin trying to cover too many areas in the vast software market.
They are bleeding badly with Windows 10 issues.
Microsoft needs to get its priorities straight before going off in yet another direction.
Did you guys not have phones?
Rubbish!
MICROSOFT if your hearing this then pls do not give up!!! you are the future to windows computer and also i love you microsoft keep rising!!!
You’re correct you should try harder.