Windows 10 [2014 - 2017]

[liolio]

Well I agree to disagree, MSFT spent tenth of billions on winphones, the one OS approach doesn't solve the issue of creating intensive for editors to port Apps to MSFT ecosystem, or I shold say Windows.

They just did better thjis quarter, on the low end hardly profitable segment, a segment that doesn't care or buy apps. MSFT will never makes the money it invested (and worse if it continue to pump money into this). As time passes Google environment gets stronger.

It seems that you are extremely adverse to Android, I think the playstore is great, it has nothing in common with Microsoft from the look , to speed, to offering overall. The gap grows wider.
It is quite a bit of a "far west" but it just goes on showing how alive the platform is.

 

[Dave Baumann]

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jul/17/microsoft-killing-nokia-x-android-smartphones

This option was open to them following the Nokia acquisition as Nokia had recently launched a new line on Android Phones (and immediately flowing the acquisition MS were the second largest shipper on Android solutions). They clearly rejected it though and killed the line.

As for "gaps" from an OS point of view I don't see Win Phone and others with any significant gaps. There is a 3rd party app-gap, but pushing Win Phone into cheaper, higher volume solutions is a way of helping address that.

 

[Blazkowicz]

No Mozilla Firefox on Windows RT/8 and Phone. That's mainly due to Mozilla not having resources or will to spend them for support and all associated necessary work. Oh well, I'm reading that Windows Phone only allows the Microsoft rendering engine anyway, like iOS does.

I guess using Internet Explorer on the phone works. But I'll gladly accept that.. if somehow it can sync to a Mozilla account (not necessarily to have 200 tabs follow around from the desktop, that would be useless). It's a bit silly to expect interoperating things I know. I simply like that a Mozilla account does not give you mail, social media, media stores etc.

Mozilla has decided against Windows 8 because of the support expenses required etc. for too few users (right, not enough people use RT tablets and the Metro interface, which is something for people to swear at or to use passively and carelessly when it shows up). An application was otherwise developed. They're free to reconsider it later i.e. with Windows 10 launched on all platforms. With Windows Phone becoming "Windows" the apps ought to be allowed everything they can do on RT and "Modern" desktop?

 

[Blazkowicz]

I've said it before, will say it again. MS needs to push for convergence, they already have most of the technology needed.

A quad core Cherry Trail phone running a XB1 style hypervisor with phone baseband in one guest and a full blown Win 10 in another.

Docking would be as simple as putting your phone on a Qi charger pad, using Miracast for screen output and Bluetooth for keyboard+mouse.

Cheers

Even better would be to run a linux distro as a guest
Not outlandish : Microsoft sells Hyper-V as a way to run linux (because people will run it anyway for web servers and other cheap network apps) and even if they require the guest OS to be signed, the push for Secureboot made linux distros adopt it so it's possible to have a signed linux bootloader and kernel.

My concern would be limited memory : high end phones have 2GB to 4GB. a Windows + Windows set up could use memory deduplication, dynamic memory to help with that. Then perhaps stacked memory dies will allow 8GB and more on phones and small mobile devices.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

With Windows Phone becoming "Windows" the apps ought to be allowed everything they can do on RT and "Modern" desktop?

That's the theory with Universal Windows apps. They'll be able to run on Xbox, Phones, Tablets, Desktops, etc. With Windows (10?) meant to run on even phones, that should be even easier for them.

In some ways the closer to the metal approach of DX12 makes me wonder if the new management structure within Microsoft will also be pushing Windows to Xbox at some point in the future. After all they came to power in an environment where some investors are pushing MS to divest itself of the Xbox division or at the very least spin it off. If they made it a Windows device, albeit far more limited and focused than a traditional PC, then those cries may die down.

I'm not sure how many of the people remain that originally wanted Xbox to be a seperate OS from Windows.

Regards,
SB

 

[liolio]

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jul/17/microsoft-killing-nokia-x-android-smartphones

This option was open to them following the Nokia acquisition as Nokia had recently launched a new line on Android Phones (and immediately flowing the acquisition MS were the second largest shipper on Android solutions). They clearly rejected it though and killed the line.

As for "gaps" from an OS point of view I don't see Win Phone and others with any significant gaps. There is a 3rd party app-gap, but pushing Win Phone into cheaper, higher volume solutions is a way of helping address that.

Those thing should never have seen the light to begin with as they were quite a disgrace:
*sucky specs even for the price, they launch at the same period as the Moto E for example.
*no access to the playStore or its apps one way or another.
*ugly UI, there are better winphone style UI available on the playStore.

Overall if those phones are a proof of something it is that customers aren't fools either, a lot less than the guys at Nokia that pushed those "things" out most likely triggering (well deserved) losses.

 

[eastmen]

Whats a good cheap imaging software ? I want to back up my windows 8 install incase 10 messes up on me

 

[Grall]

There is a 3rd party app-gap, but pushing Win Phone into cheaper, higher volume solutions is a way of helping address that.

That assumes volumes will actually increase. Also, volume phones have quite poor profitability, so how is MS going to recoup their expenses after buying Nokia this way...? A dude I know sat on his large-screen Sony Xperia, and as a tide-over bought a budget Sony android handset. He paid the equivalent of maybe US$60-65 cash with no subsidy for a 4G phone with everything most people really need. No front-facing camera and a much smaller screen than the Xperia, but damn, for that price you can't complain too much...

 

[Malo]

Whats a good cheap imaging software ? I want to back up my windows 8 install incase 10 messes up on me

Acronis? What's "cheap"?

 

[eastmen]

thanks , $50 is a good price lol

 

[Mariner]

Plenty of open source Acronis equivalents around such as Clonezilla. Perhaps worth giving one of those a try.

 

[Babel-17]

Whats a good cheap imaging software ? I want to back up my windows 8 install incase 10 messes up on me

The one that comes with Windows 8 is limited but I think it's worth a look. It's semi-hidden, but it's there, if you're interested.

Edit: This looks interesting, and it's free. http://www.paragon-software.com/home/rk-free/registration.html

 

[Malo]

Acronis isn't free but it will take care of things like HDD to SSD conversion, partition scaling to lower sizes etc which generally free ones won't do.

 

[hoom]

If I listen to the pessimistic side of me I would word more like: MSFT needed to push convergence.

Well they already tried that & came up with Windows 8.
Which sucked.
And further alienated their core market.
And failed to pick up new market.

 

[Blazkowicz]

dd (either shortcut for "duplicate data" or "data destroyer") is as simple as it comes, copy a whole partition or drive to another partition or drive or into a file. Input is a file or block device or a pipe, output the same. Of course it's dumb (copy all free/empty space) and won't help you managing anything in any way.

 

[Albuquerque]

Tossed Win10 TP onto my HyperV host, worked right out of the gate. Also tried building a Win10ToGo key, but it seems they're doing a better job now of enforcing non-Enterprise versions of the OS being unable to boot from USB (Win8 you could still trick it to boot from USB without an Enterprise key.)

Looks about like what I expected, performance seems fine so far. I've got an older Lenovo Y460 (Core i5/540m + AMD 5650m) that's running Win7/64 that will probably get the Win10 treatment when it comes out.

 

[liolio]

That assumes volumes will actually increase. Also, volume phones have quite poor profitability, so how is MS going to recoup their expenses after buying Nokia this way...? A dude I know sat on his large-screen Sony Xperia, and as a tide-over bought a budget Sony android handset. He paid the equivalent of maybe US$60-65 cash with no subsidy for a 4G phone with everything most people really need. No front-facing camera and a much smaller screen than the Xperia, but damn, for that price you can't complain too much...

There are a bunch of "android One" wannabee smartphone that got release within the last couples of months, they all offer pretty outstanding value, I bought Huawei take on the matter 129EUros and there is a 30 euros rebate I've to claim.
Great phone, battery life is really good, sucky std camera but the selfy one is quite decent, I like the UI, I already sat on the idea of ever getting Android L but for the price how to complain anyway?

Back to MSFT, my bet is whereas customers liked the simple feel of winphone /nokia lumia, the same customers are more likely to follow Nokia in its new Android adventure than to stick with MSFT Lumia line. Whenever I discuss the topic with people it seems that Nokia as a brand still has quite some strength to it.

 

[liolio]

Well they already tried that & came up with Windows 8.
Which sucked.
And further alienated their core market.
And failed to pick up new market.

They made it the wrong way, I agree trying to bend windows into what it is not.
The terrible thing is that it seem that they double down on that approach though this time it seems that it is not the desktop environment that will suffer the most from the hybridation.

Anyway Google already own the personal computing realm, Apple managed to retain the challenger spot. I read some CEO comments back in time about Android and its impact, I feel that wrt to laptop and desktop we are here too, the writing is on the wall from everybody willing to see it, either ChromeOS or Android are about to gain dominance.
I would say that inner fight at Google between Android and ChromeOS is more relevant to our computer future than what MSFT is doing at this point.
MSft had a shot and missed it already, I think that Nadella knows it but he is still trying to rally more people inside the company (and possibly big shares owners) to his views.

 

[liolio]

Any streaming of the imminent event /unveilling?

 

[Scott_Arm]

Any streaming of the imminent event /unveilling?

There is an official stream from Microsoft