PC Makers Plan Rebellion Against Microsoft At CES

Velcroman1 writes "Fearing rapidly plummeting sales of traditional laptops and desktop computers — which fell by another 10 percent or so in 2013 — manufacturers are planning a revolt against Microsoft and the Windows operating system, analysts say. At the 2014 CES in Las Vegas, multiple computer makers will unveil systems that simultaneously run two different operating systems, both Windows and the Android OS that powers many of the world's tablets and smartphones, two different analysts said recently. The new devices will be called 'PC Plus' machines, explained analyst Tim Bajarin. 'A PC Plus machine will run Windows 8.1 but will also run Android apps as well,' Bajarin wrote. Another analyst put the threat to Windows bluntly: 'This should scare the heck out of Microsoft.'"

Re:Ugh

[Anonymous Coward]

To top it off, it's nothing new. Systems like this were released and failed miserably a few years ago. It's a stupid "feature", nobody used it.

I'm sure this really has Microsoft quaking in their booties. /sarcasm

Re:Ugh

[Anonymous Coward]

You're right, there's even less need for this feature now, since Windows 8 boots from cold faster than Vista and 7 and SSDs are much more affordable.

The initial push behind this idea was as a workaround to slow boot times in case you just needed to hop on and check your email, browse the web, etc. It's an idea whose time has come and gone, it won't gain any more traction the second time around.

A bunch of someones didn't do the required reading

[Chas]

Why the hell would this scare Microsoft?

Microsoft is ALREADY making billions off Android royalties [businessinsider.com].

Plus these vendors are already contractually obligated to pay the Microsoft tax REGARDLESS of what OS they load onto a system.

This would be a perfect trifecta for Redmond. Microsoft will just look at this and go "We'll get a royalty? WIN! We'll still get our OS tax? WIN! We don't have to support it? WIN!"

Re:MS won't allow this anyway

[mrchaotica]

What part of "multiple computer makers [are] planning a revolt" do you not understand? They're acting collectively, and if Microsoft refuses them then no Windows machines would be sold at all.

Re:Any movement away from Microsoft is good.

[Anonymous Coward]

Doesn't work. Microsoft doesn't allow the full support in Mono... Little things would work, but the more extensive support just isn't there.

And it is under constant thread from Microsoft for lawsuits.

It's simultaneous, not dual boot

[raymorris]

I take it you thought these devices are dual boot, Windows OR Android. They are not. Instead, the run BOTH simultaneously, so it runs Android and Windows applications on the same screen. I started to say the same desktop, but of course Microsoft has thrown out the desktop metaphor in a return to Windows 3.1 style single-tasking.

People!

[roc97007]

People people people! Read TFA! These laptops are running Windows and not anything but Windows. This "two OSs at once" crap is just that. They support the Android API, so (some) Android apps will run on Windows. That's all. There's a lot less here than meets the eye.

So there's no use saying they should have picked Chrome OS or Linux or some other OS to run in conjunction with the Windows OS, because they're not running anything but the Windows OS. Sorry to be a buzzkill.

Re:Any movement away from Microsoft is good.

[Joe Behymer]

http://xamarin.com/ [xamarin.com] Here's a good place to start: http://hanselminutes.com/362/ios-and-android-apps-with-xamarin-studio-20-and-miguel-de-icaza [hanselminutes.com] There are examples of games with of 95% code re-use across Windows Phone, iOS, and Android.

Re:Yeah right.

[redmid17]

Windows 8 lets you do all of those OOB except the miniature programs. I want to arrange icons in a meaningful way on a desktop, both programs and functions. - same as Win 7. You can lay them out how you want.

I want to extend the right click context menu - same as Win 7-zip managed to add itself to my context menu. I rarely add anything to it but it's clearly possible

I want to be able to have a variety of windows of various sizes open, not just full, 1/4, 3/4. - same as Win 7. You can manually resize windows. Using the snap feature obviously is going to change that, and the Metro app annoyingly default to full screen. I avoid that by not using them.

I'd like to be able to type the first X letters of a program, have a self-shrinking list of all executable on my computer narrow down as I type (the start menu functionality) - same as Win 7. Hit the windows key and start typing.

Maybe I was missing something but a lot of that list is unnecessary criticism. There are plenty of valid criticisms of Windows 8 and 8.1, but 95% of it can simply be bypassed by choosing "boot to desktop" or just hitting the desktop tile when you log in. It's dumb it came to that but should hardly be that much of a detriment to a Slashdotter.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Ugh

[Chalnoth]

Read the article. This is for devices that are convertible between tablet and laptop configurations with the help of a detachable keyboard. They also mention that they use an emulation layer for Android support. This is entirely believable, as Android has a Java-like interface, such that emulation essentially means building a Java-like virtual machine that has good performance. It's also not that big of a blow to MS, as MS still gets to sell the OS.

Re:Any movement away from Microsoft is good.

[Eravnrekaree]

Mono cannot allow an easy path to allow code written for .NET to run on Linux when it does not support major parts of .NET, the presentation foundation. This severely limits portability as well as functionality for developers. Few developers will care about Mono as a result.

Re:Ugh

[Paradigma11]

Probably won't be able to disable SecureBoot. That's what makes it better!

If it is a certified for Windows 8 x86 machine then it MUST be possible to disable SecureBoot. But you probably already knew that.