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Microsoft fresh out of pre-orders for Surface
By Thom Holwerda, submitted by lucas_maximus on 2012-10-18 11:58:12
"This may be a good sign for Microsoft: a little over a day after putting its new Surface RT tablet up for pre-order, the entry-level $499 version of the tablet has sold out. Its estimated shipping time has slipped from October 26, Windows 8's release date, to a more nebulous 'within three weeks'." We'll see. Wouldn't be the first time a company artificially keeps supply short to generate 'sold-out' hype.
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RE[2]: Maybe not this time.
By Alfman on 2012-10-18 17:05:24
DOSguy,

"the break with win32 on RT might prove to be a very good move in the long run. Devices where battery preservation is critical, are not served with lazily ported Windows applications."

Do you have evidence that battery preservation is a problem with win32s in the first place? It's a serious question since I've never seen anyone back this assertion with real data. At their core, win32 apps are event oriented, meaning that they generally only consume CPU when they're interacted with. Unless a developer has used a bad practice of polling, it's not at all clear to me how switching the API will help save the battery.

I might believe the possibility that bad practices are rampant on win32s, however even there I'd have to question this argument's validity since the win32 software I use rarely consumes CPUs in the background unless it's a daemon designed to do so.

If you're talking about foreground apps, there's nothing really preventing a metro app from wasting CPU.

If you're talking about background apps, there's no reason the OS could not have a policy to completely suspend or significantly reduce CPU to win32 apps in the background. Well behaved win32 GUI apps would not be affected during background suspension. I'd even expect the majority of "poorly" behaving win32 apps (like a ray tracer) to wake up and resume in the foreground without a hiccup.


My point is, I don't think there's any overwhelmingly strong technical reason a power policy for metro apps could not be applied towards win32 ones. And I've never seen any evidence to show that the new APIs are somehow more efficient. I don't want to assert that they are not, but I definitely need to see solid data before accepting that they are.
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RE[4]: Comment by Radio
By Thom_Holwerda on 2012-10-18 17:27:58
> incompatible forks of Android

They run Android applications just fine. They can run Android-proper just fine. How are they incompatible?

> Windows 8 is the only alternative.

Windows 8 is a clusterfcuk. Nobody is going to want to fcuk about with the desktop on a tablet.
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RE[4]: Comment by Radio
By glarepate on 2012-10-18 17:32:54
> I was speaking about the premium market.

...

Windows 8 is the only alternative.


WinCE (not W2k) XP, Vista, W7 tablet share combined: <1%. So, yeah, W8 will conquer.

Edited 2012-10-18 17:35 UTC
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RE[3]: Comment by Radio
By Tony Swash on 2012-10-18 18:05:47
> 40% market share for Android tablets.

I remember about a year or so ago you saying that there was absolutely no way the iPad would have dominant tablet market share a year hence. This was said in the context of an expectation and projection that Android tablets would overtake the iPad in market share.

So what went wrong?
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RE[3]: Comment by Radio
By malxau on 2012-10-18 18:26:17
> 40% market share for Android tablets.

Citation? I don't mean to be snarky, I'm genuinely curious.
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RE[5]: Comment by Radio
By lucas_maximus on 2012-10-18 18:34:05
> Windows 8 is a clusterfcuk. Nobody is going to want to fcuk about with the desktop on a tablet.

Been using it for a development environment for some times now Thom and it works perfectly fine.

I know you don't like it, but clusterf--k it is not.

Edited 2012-10-18 18:34 UTC
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RE: Just the beginning
By lucas_maximus on 2012-10-18 18:37:49
It still an encouraging start. Oh well, the haters are going to hate.
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RE: All 3 device sold...
By lucas_maximus on 2012-10-18 18:39:07
Why can't you Open source nutters stop infecting every bloody thread that mentions Microsoft?

*You ain't funny
*You ain't clever
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RE[4]: Comment by Radio
By Drumhellar on 2012-10-18 18:46:30
Technically, 40% isn't "dominant."

Of course, 60% isn't exactly dominant, either, if the other 40% belongs to one platform.
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Comment by lucas_maximus
By lucas_maximus on 2012-10-18 18:49:40
> Wouldn't be the first time a company artificially keeps supply short to generate 'sold-out' hype.

If the surface does well ... then everyone will be claiming that Microsoft abused their monopoly position.
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