PC Plus Packs Windows and Android Into Same Machine 319
jones_supa writes "At the mammoth Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in early January, it is expected that multiple computer makers will unveil systems that simultaneously run two different operating systems, both Windows and Android, two different analysts said recently. The new devices will introduce a new marketing buzzword called PC Plus, explained Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies. 'A PC Plus machine will run Windows 8.1 but will also run Android apps as well', Bajarin wrote recently for Time. 'They are doing this through software emulation. I'm not sure what kind of performance you can expect, but this is their way to try and bring more touch-based apps to the Windows ecosystem.' Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, suggests that PC Plus could get millions of consumers more comfortable with Android on PCs. 'Just imagine for a second what happens when Android gets an improved large-screen experience. This should scare the heck out of Microsoft.'"
Re:I'm slightly confused (Score:4, Informative)
According to the more informative Time article [time.com], it's entirely software-based, and the whole shebang has Intel's backing.
davlik ported to windows? (Score:4, Informative)
Most Andriod apps are not native ARM apps, but Java / bytecode which run in a virtual machine called davlik. Port that to Windows / x64, and suddenly all the Android apps run in Windows. The Android environment itself could be emulated in Windows or tied to replacement functions like the Windows desktop in the new platform (instead of a phone/tablet interface).
Windows is POSIX compliant and supports Unix if they chose the route of emulating unix functions, or they could build their own environment like cygwin/etc. It doesn't need this, but some apps might need something like it if it exposed the underlying unix features. It depends on how they wanted to implment it, cause it could also just wrap over to the Windows environment..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalvik_(software) [wikipedia.org]
Re:Screen resolution for laptops? (Score:5, Informative)
The reason the business market is "dying" is that the hardware itself has been more than capable of dealing with business tasks for years. With central OS updates by the business, they're all running Windows 7, regardless of what was running on them when purchased. So those "old" machines are perfectly serviceable for the business, and the businesses are not upgrading and replacing them nearly as often as they used to.
The same issue is hitting the home consumer market. Just how much raw CPU do you think it requires to run Word, email, a browser, and watch a video? That's all most home users do. Very, very few of the machines sold are gaming machines, and even fewer are used for CPU intensive tasks like video processing or encoding.
Bottom line: People don't need new machines. So instead of buying a new PC, they're buying toys like tablets and the latest whizz-bang cell phones. If the old PC ever dies, then they'll replace it. And join the crowd in bitching about Windows 8.
Re:Dupe Plus Packs Two Articles into Same Subject (Score:5, Informative)
you got that backwards. the windows 8 system is the pc minus.
Better discussion available at ComputerWorld (Score:4, Informative)
This original source article includes a discussion of the architecture involved - and the person they interviewed admits he hasn't seen it in action, and has no idea how it works. He suggests it could be one of three approaches - dual boot, an Android API within Windows (somewhat akin to Bluestacks), or a VM running within Windows. I would add a fourth - a hypervisor, permitting both OSes to run concurrently as VMs - though that seems unlikely, as it would require the OEMs to license Windows differently, as I understand it.
Interesting times. I agree with the commenters who say MS should be afraid of this - Google has taken its sweet time maturing Android into a desktop-supporting experience, but it's close, and "Android PCs" are already in the pipeline to take advantage of it. Any familiarization for the "unwashed masses" with what it feels like to simply run Android as your laptop/desktop OS has to be viewed by MS as, well, "crossing the streams" bad.
Re:Dupe Plus Packs Two Articles into Same Subject (Score:5, Informative)
Buddy, years ago you used to be insightful, but these days, you've gone off the rails.
If you don't have root on an Android device, there's no way that you can install something that cannot be uninstalled, unless it came pre-installed in the ROM that was flashed onto the device. It's just *not* possible to block the uninstallation of something without root, or root-equivalent powers (to wit, getting baked into the ROM).
Moreover, that Linux "infection" link that you linked to has nothing to do with stock Android. Stock Android doesn't ship with gksu, doesn't know what to do with Gnome or KDE Launcher files, runs each app on the system as a separate user, and (in recent versions of Android) uses SELinux to further protect against privilege escalations). Also, can I point out the absurdity of their "Getting root" appendix? They're talking about malware that modifies a file in /usr/sbin/ in order to *get* root. /usr/sbin/ is *only* writeable by root in *every* mainstream distro. If you can write there... well, things get easy when you're on the soft and squishy side of the airtight hatchway, don't they? ;)