Android really is the new Windows

[persia]

http://www.zdnet.com/android-really-is-the-new-windows-7000007450/?s_cid=e539

[Everblue]

Thing is, you cant install android on an x86 desktop (or at least I don't think you can)

[Nostalgiac]

Thing is, you cant install android on an x86 desktop (or at least I don't think you can)

actually you can:  http://www.android-x86.org/

but what makes me laugh really if that vendors abandon a hardware model almost instantly. I've been watching the market and what friends bought... the large majority of phones are not receiving upgrades. Buy a model, and that's the Android version you will be stuck with. Even for the Amiga you could at least buy the kickstart ROM when needed.

Tom UK

[ferrellsl]

Android x86 runs quite well on my Acer Iconia Tab W500.  Right now it dual boots Android and Windows 7, but Bluestacks is performing so well that I think I'll forgo the dual booting and just run my Android apps using the Bluestacks emulator under Windows.

The W500 is powered by an AMD C-50 processor with integrated Radeon™ HD 6250 graphics on the same die.

[azhoward]

actually you can:  http://www.android-x86.org/

but what makes me laugh really if that vendors abandon a hardware model almost instantly. I've been watching the market and what friends bought... the large majority of phones are not receiving upgrades. Buy a model, and that's the Android version you will be stuck with. Even for the Amiga you could at least buy the kickstart ROM when needed.

Tom UK

Yea, one would think that there was some generalized method of upgrading Android. I have a tablet that is stuck with 2.0 with no hope of upgrade unless I compile one myself. Since Android is really Linux, one would think it would follow a similar path. It's one reason I haven't bought a larger tablet, but instead went to a netbook for portable computing.

[commodorejohn]

Of course this is only true in the mobile market. Still, it's a good point made that they're winning by dint of exactly what Microsoft is throwing out in their attempt to cash in on the tablet boom: an open approach to software development and distribution. Congratulations, Microsoft, you completely missed the farkin' point, as per usual.

[Megamig]

Am I the only one that feels that Windows 8 is a lot like Windows ME? Lacking focus and direction (if I want stupid big icons I will buy a tablet not a PC). So what will Windows 9 have? A giant start jog wheel (like the iPod). Back to the topic - windows upgrade pricing is showing how bad MS is doing... When has MS ever been generous?

[CritAnime]

Am I the only one that feels that Windows 8 is a lot like Windows ME?

Funnily this is how I described it to my friend. It tries too much and lacks any sort of focus or direction. it's useless as desktop OS unless you have a trackpad or touchscreen computer. And the computers I have tried that have touchscreen funcionality it was still twitchy. And the whole desktop isn't really a desktop but an app to run "legacy" software is a ball ache.
 
Once valve work out the best way of getting games working in Linux then I can imagine lots of people dropping windows and making the switch. My Sabayon install is super speedy and rock solid stable. Same can't be said about Windows 8 in my experience with it.

[ferrellsl]

It's sounds as if you guys have never heard of CyanogenMod.  There are current versions of Android out there for nearly every Android device that's ever been made.  I even have JellyBean running on my first generation Nook Color and on my wife's Motorola Xoom.  It's great.

[CritAnime]

I have heard of that and I was using ICS on a samsung galaxy ace with it. Very handy. I think what was been mentioned was the lack of any kind of rolling release by the hardware vendors. Community led distributions will continue to thrive while hardware vendors, especially at the cheap end of the Android market, will dump their distributions wihtout a moments notice.

[NovaCoder]

Yep MS is in big trouble and Windows 8 will only make things worse I think.

I read the other day that their new Windows 8 surface thing (basically a laptop with a naff keyboard) doesn't actually run native Windows applications because it's ARM based.

How crazy is that, a Windows laptop that can't run Windows software?

[CritAnime]

Thats where their version of the app store kicks in. People will have to buy things through their store in order to get the functionality they need. It's called the Apple Cock Move. Basically they sell you a shiny device that they claim will do everything you need but in reality only does this once you spend hundreds of pounds on software you can get for free on a normal Windows 7, Linux PC.
 
Apple and Google have been doing this a while now. Microsoft have only just caught up. Thats the fuuny bit.

[commodorejohn]

How crazy is that, a Windows laptop that can't run Windows software?

But NovaCoder, if they just let people run the surfeit of quality Win32 software built up over its seventeen years as the most popular desktop API in the world, how would they ever get people to buy stuff from the Windows Store?

[takemehomegrandma]

if I want stupid big icons I will buy a tablet not a PC

Well, since 99% of the users probably uses only a handful (or two) applications during 99% of their computing time, you *could* argue that presenting those applications in the "Metro style" can make more sense than burying them deep down in some start menu hierarchy, even on a desktop system.

But I agree that those being only *icons* are kind of meaningless, but a metro field (is there a proper name that I have missed?) displaying information and providing direct links to certain features directly on the desktop makes more sense. Like an e-mail app that in its metro "icon" field shows how many new mails you have in the inbox, and the subject line (direct links) for, say, the 5 most recent ones. Or a facebook app browsing through the most recent stuff, and provides direct links to any new messages, any new friend requests, etc. Or MS Word providing a list to the 5 most recent documents you worked with. Same in Photoshop, Excel, etc. Your favorite news site, with headlines and direct links. Weather, with direct links to detailed hourly forecast, and 10-day forecast, etc. You get the point, not just some icon, but relevant, up-to-date, actual information presented to you directly on the "start screen", each having multiple ways into the app, for various features. Then I actually think this can make sense for many people. A start menu isn't very intuitive really, if you think about it. If you use only 3-10 applications regularly, it can make sense to have them easily accessible in the metro style.

The above doesn't mean I like the concept. I don't, I'm a traditionalist. And no doubt will people be unfamiliar with this approach. But I think that broad masses of common people can actually learn to like this much better than any start menu or traditional icon system.

We will see in time. Microsoft is putting a lot of weight on this one, and they put a lot at stake, a bit like win or lose, but maybe not that dramatic. I think they have "focus-grouped" a lot about this though.

We'll see...

[commodorejohn]

We will see in time. Microsoft is putting a lot of weight on this one, and they put a lot at stake, a bit like win or lose, but maybe not that dramatic. I think they have "focus-grouped" a lot about this though.

Yes, and so did Coca-Cola. Yet companies keep failing, again and again, to learn the lesson that New Coke taught us: all the focus grouping in the world won't help you if you screw around with what people are comfortable with and they don't like it.