Microsoft's Windows 8 Management Angers Manufacturers
Microsoft's Windows 8 Management Angers Manufacturers
Posted 06/02/2011 at 11:08am
| by Brad Chacos
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After Microsoft's unveiling of Windows 8 at the D9 conference yesterday, we were a little perplexed. One OS for both PCs and mobile devices? Don't manufacturers make hundreds of different variations with gajillions of different configurations for tablets and PCs? How's it going to work? Microsoft's answer: we'll rule the hardware manufacturers with an iron fist. Okay, that was a bit of a paraphrase, but not much of one if industry reports are any indication.
"From day one we've started engineering these systems with a much closer degree of hardware-software integration than ever, and that integration starts with manufacturing and continues all the way through to the final system configuration," ComputerWorld reports Michael Angiulo, the Microsoft vice president in charge of Windows planning, hardware and ecosystem, as saying yesterday.
Huh?
Acer's CEO, Jim Wong, sums it up differently. “They’re really controlling the whole thing, the whole process,” he told the crowds at Computex earlier this week, a day before the Wall Street Journal ran an article claiming that Microsoft told chip-makers Intel, AMD, Nvidia, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments to select one hardware manufacturer apiece to work with on Windows tablet development, in order to speed up the process.
"The industry does not belong to Microsoft, and it does not belong to Intel," Wong said. "It belongs to all participants. They cannot make the decision for all of us. That is the problem." Limiting development to certain manufacturers can give those manufacturers a big edge in the ultra-competitive PC market.
We don't know whether it's good for Microsoft to keep Windows 8 close to the chest. Closed development certainly works for Apple, after all, and to be fair, it is their operating system. We can say one thing for certain: Jim Wong's pissed.
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r1davis74
June 07, 2011 at 1:28pm
Wouldn't having a single OS make the user experience better or really...easier for the user?? I see the posts here and the MS haters are in full bloom. I myself am certified in Unix but I understand that MS is in more than gaming and enterprise....they are on most desktops that people buy period. The problem I see is Apple wants too much for their IOS which is based on a *NIX system (closed source) even though it runs on the same Intel equipment PC's do. Yes, Apple computers do come with software but the versions of Windows (Like Ultimate) do as well. Linux isn't going to take off as there is no united front on one distro that offers a single packager install method...(RPM, Packages, Portage, etc etc) I see Ubuntu and Chrome OS maybe offering a different solution but there are just too many programs that are natively written for MS and the small percentage that are not won't be used by consumers or business' as they more than likely already run Windows.Heck, look at how many Open Source programs are now being written to run on Windows....back in the day....who would have ever thought GIMP to run on MS??
Look at the tablets that are coming out....would you rather have a Windows based tablet that can search the Interwebs and download/install any program you want (and will soon run on ARM procs) and be fully funtional at work like joining a domain, using PGP encryption or using an IOS or Android tablet that is very limited and only has the "Market Place" to get anything useful other than toys.
Man, I sound like a MS lover but I think it's more about the facts than anything else. Hopefully Apple and Android will make their operating systems more flexible and not be limited by what you can and cannot download. I personally would rather have WWW than IOS Marketplace.....(side note) my buddy has an Apple iPad and was looking at my HP Slate. The first question was "where did you get the note taking app" and "can you download anything on that thing"...the answers were, its a native application and yes, yes I can download everything I need instead of using a laptop!
If you run Apple or Linux at home, that's great but MS isn't going anywhere anytime soon. That's a fact.
lindethier
June 02, 2011 at 11:27pm
I'm not sold on the new interface they have been showing. I just don't like the idea of having a single OS being designed as both a desktop OS and tablet OS.
Brad Chacos
June 02, 2011 at 7:45pm
So, if Windows 8 is successful, what do you folks think the future will bring? Apple's closed development has been rewarded by the free market; if Windows 8 proves successful too, at least during its rumored initial one-chip-to-one-manufacturer stage, what does that mean for the future of OS development and PCs in general? Will the traditional Microsoft model of "Here you go, hardware manufacturers, have fun with it *shrug*" ever appear again?
D00dlavy
June 03, 2011 at 8:53am
That's what I've always said, and one of the reasons I hate Apple.
The free market has chosen, and they have chosen poorly.
Blackmist
June 02, 2011 at 7:20pm
They are trying so hard to be Apple they seem to forget the fact that Apple can pull of the unification thing because they make everything themselves (not really but close): hardware, software, services, etc. Microsoft relies on a lot of 3rd parties, while Apple is all about itself. Trying to pretend that your partners somehow belong to you is just plain dumb.
RaptorJohnson
June 02, 2011 at 6:11pm
Damnit MS! Why are you becoming apple? Don't you make enough money being MS? Are your exec's McMansions not big enough?
If I wanted a mac-like computing experience I would damn well go to the apple store.
Stick to what you do best.
Terpfen
June 02, 2011 at 5:58pm
So far, I like the ideas they are trying. I have a Win7 phone and I'm very happy with the experience. So this new interface MAY be acceptable and as I understand it, you can turn it off or close it(like the sidebar?) to have a desktop that we are all used to.
With that said, no one likes change and I'm sure there is a curve to get used to and as a repair tech, that concerns me a bit but I guess we had to do it with the XP/Vista migration. Thank God for Beta releases to play with and get an early edge.
As for suggesting that hardeware manufactures stick to a certain vendor to team up with, I think this is a GREAT idea. Especially early on.
This will help MS to focus on makeing a better experience for there customers. If they can limit the number of "diffrent" devices they need to support to something like 30(6 manufactores w/ 5 PC's each?!?!) instead of a combination of hundreds, even thousands if you figure same PC's w/ diffrent CPU's/chipsets/RAM/etc.........
Should make it easier to write drivers, BIOS's and Win Updates for these machines. Software that will run with better reliability. Just look at the issues Win7 phone had with getting there updates out for just a few diffrent phones over multipe carriers. The updates were apparently finished for months but testing with the multiple carriers held them up.
I guess I'm just hopefull for a good product that performs well and can transition between X86 and ARM processors with out any complications. And by now, I think MS can cut ties to legacy products and focus on the future. XP is old and dated. Vista never had any real market share. 7 is the only backward compatibilty I think they should concider but I would understand if 8 was a fresh start and ignored everything previous.
reparris
June 02, 2011 at 5:21pm
Being Microsoft is like being the President of the US. When you are running/developing everyone loves you, once you are doing the job everyone hates you. When you are replaced everyone remembers you fondly. I'm OS agnostic but use Windows 7 at work because it is my job to do so. I've played with Linux before and found that I typically don't have enough time to fiddle around with it to get it working like I need it to and keep it working by digging through web forums for whatever error code de jour I'm dealing with. Mac OS isn't bad but would require a ton of work to be tightly integrated into our corporate network. Each OS has it’s place and each do something better than the others. Hating on one isn’t going to make the others better.
Frank N Beenes
June 02, 2011 at 4:19pm
Microsoft has been slowly failing at everything they do. Win 7 is a plodding mess. At this day and age Win7 should be so simple a child could run it and have integrated touchscreen capability. Instead its a patched up GUI swap on XP. It blows.
I have never been an Apple fan because of their elitest mentality and high prices, but it seems like their stuff works and its not cobbled crap from the past. More than I can say for Microsoft. The OS sucks. Their coding software sucks. They suck. Period.
Microsofts days are numbered and they are fully aware of it. In fact I think they have planned it that way all along. I am convinced that Microsofts people are buying Apple stock. There is no way they could suck this hard with the resources they have.
Engelsstaub
June 02, 2011 at 6:55pm
I think I'd have to concur with most of your thoughts here. I'm not too excited for Windows 8. It seems like MS is spending way too much time following the trends of others and not doing anything innovative enough to take anyone's interest away from giants like Apple or even upstarts like Google. They already know they can't sell a dumb tablet because they've tried long before the iPad. They should stick to what they do best and do it well.
I'm not going to say Win7 is a plodding mess, though. It's really pretty decent for what it is. I won't get into the things that make Windows less desirable than OSX or even Ubuntu to some (myself included.) I imagine OSX would have nearly as many problems as a Windows OS if it had to be run on all kinds of hardware from more than a few shitty manufacturers. THAT'S one of my biggest problems: too many PC manufacturers could give a crap about their customers after the sale.
ddimick
June 02, 2011 at 5:41pm
You do realize that everything you just said about Win7 could also be said about OSX, right? It wouldn't be valid, but then neither is what you wrote.
D00dlavy
June 02, 2011 at 4:47pm
"Win 7 is a plodding mess. At this day and age Win7 should be so simple a child could run it and have integrated touchscreen capability. Instead its a patched up GUI swap on XP. It blows."
This is the single most retarded comment I've read on the Internet this week.
"Microsofts days are numbered and they are fully aware of it. In fact I think they have planned it that way all along. I am convinced that Microsofts people are buying Apple stock."
Shit, scratch that. This is.
1st and 2nd place with the same post. Congrats man.
nHeroGo
June 02, 2011 at 2:53pm
Some say every second Microsoft OS is good and every second is bad. Windows 7 is good. Windows 9 will be good. Vista may have been too big of a leap forward from XP, and Windows 8 may be too big of a leap from 7. The solution is to code name it as Windows 8 but release it as Windows 9 - problem solved.
Kano
June 02, 2011 at 8:36pm
Interesting point. I say they should give incremental name suffixes to indicate whether it's just a polished version of what your last $200 got you or if it's something in a new direction. For instance, Win 9 should probably be "8.5" or "8 X" or "8 The Sequel: With a Vengance". Something like that...
Ry03
June 02, 2011 at 2:01pm
The manufacturers should just get mad at Microsoft over this, they are going on the path to the Dark side. I see no real use for a tablet for me for at least the next 10 years, they can't do anything useful yet. I really would hate to have to use a tablet OS on my gaming machine, if I can't revert the UI back to the current one, I am sticking with Windows 7
aarcane
June 02, 2011 at 1:28pm
I'd sooner buy an Android Desktop OS than I would a Windows Mobile Desktop OS.
Saying "It works for apple" is like saying it works for wile-e-koyote. sure, he went really fast out of the cannon, but he never managed to catch the road runner, and usually hurt himself in the process.
Dartht33bagger
June 02, 2011 at 1:22pm
Am integrated OS for both mobile devices and desktops is a terrible idea. If Microsoft is so set on making both of them, at least make two different versions of the OS. Making one for both is just stupid.
ddimick
June 02, 2011 at 1:31pm
An integrated OS for both isn't really a bad idea. An identical UI is, but I doubt that's what they'll wind up shipping.
I imagine they'll have different UI configurations by default depending on the deployment scenario. This would make a lot of sense in practice. Start your day on a smartphone, go to the office and use your PC, go to a meeting and use your tablet, all with similar interfaces optimized for whatever device you happen to have in front of you. It would be a powerful differentiator. Not even Apple is there yet.
ddimick
June 02, 2011 at 1:34pm
Forgot to add, there are implications around VDI in this scenario that are intriguing.
roninnder
June 02, 2011 at 12:43pm
Lets all not get too excited about this. Remember, no one buys windows phones or tablets and there's no reason to think that will change with Windows 8.
ilfipian
June 02, 2011 at 11:52am
It will kill the enthusiast market for Windows PCs and drive the enthusiast into the arms of Linux.
Alienating their techie base seems more like an Apple move.
ddimick
June 02, 2011 at 1:36pm
Microsoft doesn't have a "techie base", and they're hardly worried about pissing off an enthusiast market that, frankly, doesn't spend a lot on their OS whether they use it or not.
big_montana
June 02, 2011 at 12:08pm
Now you see why HP purchased Palm, and why they will be pre-loading WebOS on every computer they sell. Getting ready for life after MS.
BAMT
June 02, 2011 at 11:48am
The manufacturers should gang up on M$ and say 'no.' Then Microsoft would have to resort to making their own PCs that would blink red half the time you try to turn them on.
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