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| Ars Technica on Surface RT |
| By Thom Holwerda on 2012-10-24 23:09:26 |
| "The Surface is a nice tablet. The design and aesthetic are pleasing, the feel in the hands, particularly of the kickstand and magnetic cover connection is excellent. But is it worth buying on the day of release?" After these three reviews, I still want a Surface RT. As much as I think Metro - and especially its applications - has a long way to go, I feel like I should reward the fact that Microsoft dares to be different. Too bad Microsoft doesn't want me to buy one. |
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| I'm not going to... |
| By thavith_osn on 2012-10-25 00:14:54 |
|
...reward MS for being daring, though I give them credit for it!!! I will reward MS if the product is a good one and is sustainable, does what I want and so forth... I rewarded Google earlier this year by buying a Nexus 7 (rewarding is such the wrong term, LOL). Now I have had the Nexus for a while, I wonder if I wasn't a bit too hasty with my praise, but it's a good tablet all the same. |
 - Score: 6 |
| I'm desiring one, too |
| By SJ87 on 2012-10-25 04:36:39 |
|
Although I am a devoted Linux / Unix lover, I'm still pondering about buying a Surface RT device. Just to see how well the Metro interface actually works on such a device. I'm just overly worried my new tech toy would end up on the shelf and be left there for the lack of any apps worthwhile using. Too bad they really are too expensive. |
| - Score: 4 |
| RE: I'm desiring one, too |
| By Alfman on 2012-10-25 05:57:18 |
|
SJ87, +1 I wouldn't mind having one myself to use metro as it was meant to be used, on a *real* tablet. But in the end I know I'd be frustrated by the restrictions imposed on my device and not being able to run the software I wrote and being able to distribute it to friends & colleagues without microsoft's approval. I really hate that a walled garden overshadows the platform, since otherwise I'd be able to get behind it as an alternative to the apple walled garden. They can paint it any color they want, but it's always going to stink. |
| - Score: 3 |
| RE[2]: I'm desiring one, too |
| By Nelson on 2012-10-25 07:21:16 |
|
I believe Acer has a Windows 8 tablet for $499 (same price as Surface) which can run traditional x86 applications and where the garden door is left open. And I am almost certain some enterprising hacker will make it so Windows RT tablets can run ARM compiled programs. At least, that's my hope. |
| - Score: 3 |
| RE: I'm desiring one, too |
| By Radio on 2012-10-25 07:23:23 |
| The bootloader is completely locked, isn't it? |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE: I'm not going to... |
| By kwan_e on 2012-10-25 07:41:14 |
|
> ...reward MS for being daring, though I give them credit for it!!! That's the difference between MS customers and Apple customers. Apple customers will more than happily reward Apple for being daring and will blatantly overlook any flaw that would be deal breaking for an MS/non-Apple product. |
| - Score: 4 |
| Comment by frood |
| By frood on 2012-10-25 08:35:21 |
|
What's holding me back is that I know there will be those little things that it can't do which will annoy the hell out of me. Like the inability to install browser plugins like Lastpass. Edited 2012-10-25 08:36 UTC |
| - Score: 2 |
| Reward MS for a walled garden? |
| By sluggy on 2012-10-25 08:51:55 |
|
Why would you want to reward MS for releasing something that can only run approved apps? Yes, it sounds paranoid, but this is the future of personal computing on the line. If Windows RT is successful, maybe this spreads to the desktop. If it works on the desktop, Apple might look at MS and ask themselves why they even bother with OS X being more open than Windows. And Gatekeeper gets turned on permanently. And soon, Linux might be the only OS left where you can do what you want. Like install a torrent client. If, by then, you can find hardware it is allowed to run on. |
| - Score: 4 |
| can't wait |
| By ezraz on 2012-10-25 14:03:30 |
|
can't wait to see the surface users out in the wild, bragging and showing off how amazing this new tablet thing is... how great it is to be portable... how the build quality is so nice... how people notice they have a nice device and not a piece of garbage. nothing like MS users with a pink device, could be scary. and the millions with iOS devices who have been saying this for years are all of a sudden the old crusty followers, not the modern trendsetter with the pink plastic keyboards. surface is looking like more than a 'yeah right' product but i'm still not convinced that thing works correctly in your hands, your bed, your couch, or while sitting on your toilet. my ipad has a kickstand on the case, and many i see have soft-touch keyboards, so we'll see if that's really a differentiator. in microsoft's world people might dance and click for giggles, but they have to sit down at a flat desk to "work". on a busy day i work from probably 20 places, including out of my pocket while walking/standing in line. all my apple devices are finally syncing everything properly, so i just move from device to device and keep working. sure my laptop is the only place i develop or complete large documents, but everything else needed for a modern worker just moves between my pad and phone and mac. I go wherever i need to be at that moment and 'keep working'. makes me crazy as a lifestyle, but being a consultant/entrepreneur type, you have to be nimble and mobile. surface seems clumsy and overpriced, but we'll have to see if anyone agrees with me. |
| - Score: 1 |
| RE[3]: I'm desiring one, too |
| By Alfman on 2012-10-25 14:49:07 |
|
Nelson, "I believe Acer has a Windows 8 tablet for $499 (same price as Surface) which can run traditional x86 applications and where the garden door is left open." That's only the case for desktop apps, but people are obviously buying a tablet in the first place because they want to use it as a *tablet*. Otherwise they would just get a laptop. Being able to do both with one device is a nice value-added feature, but it doesn't excuse the walled garden on tablet applications. And to be honest, I kind of want an ARM device anyways to be able to dual boot android and have one device running both, but we know MS is banning that as well. "And I am almost certain some enterprising hacker will make it so Windows RT tablets can run ARM compiled programs. At least, that's my hope." We've heard plenty of excuses for walled gardens coming from the other big camp, due we really need to have apologists repeating these for microsoft? Today maybe one's iphone can be rooted, but that's only because apple bugs exist in the various models. An unintentional privilege escalation vulnerability permits the owner to compromise the device's security on demand to gain root access, thereby overriding apple's mandatory app policies. Is this really the model of open computing that we want to stand behind? Do we really want to applaud these closed devices because they have security vulnerabilities? Microsoft's walled garden security may be stronger than apple's, probably in part because they learned from apple's mistakes. This is old news now, but microsoft made sure the UEFI firmware's secure boot feature was designed to enable them to lockout owners from the chain of trust. Microsoft even requires manufacturers to disable any override capability on ARM devices carrying windows. Even if a temporary root exploit is found, it won't be able to modify the system to remain rooted for long. I don't want to loose access to my unapproved sideload apps because I lost root when I rebooted my tablet on vacation, but with secure boot that's a very real possibility. I predicted this whole shenanigan, that secure boot was just a disguised way of protecting walled gardens from owner tampering rather than simply protecting owners from malware tampering. I wish I were wrong about it. |
| - Score: 3 |
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