Vendors Rally While Windows Sleeps

Anti-Globalism sends along a PCWorld article outlining two technologies from Intel and Dell that do an end run around Windows. "Dell, Intel and their partners announced last week new technologies that represent major leaps forward for mobility. The companies seem to have discovered the secret to making such bold leaps: Cut Microsoft out of the deal. One technology involves enabling users to gain instant access to a laptop's e-mail, browser and other basic functionality — without booting Windows at all. The second technology enables an Internet-based message to wake a Windows PC from sleep mode. These new technologies are perfect metaphors for what's happening in the industry... Windows is asleep while Microsoft's own partners give users what they really want."

They're missing out on a great opportunity

Put microsoft's hand in warm water while they're at it. We'll get the next version of Windows a year early!

Re:They're missing out on a great opportunity

We'll get the next version of Windows a year early!

There was a delay in the release of Vista... and look how buggy it is. Now you want them to release it much earlier? I say, let them take all the time they need!

Vista just isn't good with normal laptops yet

It takes way too many resources. Maybe 3 years down the line, but Microsoft really dropped the ball by ignoring the reality of the fastest growing segment in computer sales.

Because of this, Apple is having great sales on the high/upper-mid-end with it's very nice line notebooks and Linux is getting a start on the lower end.

Without Vista, I don't think it would have been possible for Linux to get a foothold.

The year of Linux on the Desktop is distant, but thanks to Microsoft, the Year of Linux on the notebook looks like it's becoming reality sooner rather than later.

And the way a distro like Ubuntu evolves so quickly from year to year, I think it's a mistake that MS can't afford to do again.

In a few years, we'll see that MS was the one who dropped the ball to allow the competition the elbow room to come in.

It's also making things worse by having so many different versions and while it's debatable that Vista should have been wholly 64bit (definitely by Windows 7), MS doesn't even have the decency to provide 32/64bit on the same disc but is trying to grab every nickel it can from it's customers who chose one or the other (many discs don't qualify from alternative media).

Correction

Apple is having decent sales in the overpriced, zealot segment.

Re:Vista just isn't good with normal laptops yet

Depends what you mean by a normal laptop. For example, I've got a Toshiba Satellite Pro with a Core2Duo 1.66 GHz, 2 GB RAM and a 250 GB HDD. I'm run both Vista Business and Ubuntu 8.04 on this thing and noticed the following:

* Both systems support standby/hibernation properly, but Vista is quicker to resume from either mode. Ubuntu does hibernate quicker though.

* Vista actually lasts longer on battery than Ubuntu. I don't have values, merely observations based on the same kind of work (eg. browsing, email, etc). Probably helps that Vista fully supports multiple power-saving features that either aren't enabled in Ubuntu or aren't up to the same level of maturity as in Windows.

* Ubuntu suffers from a "bug" whereby many hard drives will spin down after several seconds of non-use, which kinda reduces the lifespan Vista doesn't have this issue, although it's hard to determine if that's only because the drive is always flashing every so often.

* Both systems are zippy enough when configured well, although Vista takes absolutely forever to start from a cold boot which is why standby/hibernation is a must with it.

Because I much prefer the software selection and functionality of most Windows software compared to Linux variants, I'm sticking with Vista as my primary on this machine, but Linux is certainly getting better for laptops.

Been done before...

On my old Alienware laptop there was a button you could press that loaded a minimal Linux distro to play DVDs and CDs without loading Windows.

"...give users what they really want"?

I don't think users would like their PCs to be accessible from the 'net while they have switched them off. That's just what all the law enforcement / domestic surveillance agencies want, a perfect way to spy on people ...

Similar technology is already used on mobile phones, they can be remotely reprogrammed to pretend that they're switched off while they're recording and transmitting your conversation.

We don't live in a 1984 world yet, but the usual greedy Megacorps are trying to patent the required technology already...

Re:WTF is this shit?

Fuck it, I'll reply to myself.

"Microsoft has been pushing Remote Desktop and its communications software for years. But apparently it never occurred to anyone in Redmond that people might want to leave their PCs in sleep mode, then have them turn on for remote access or VoIP calls."

Remote Desktop supports wake on LAN.
When you try to connect, it tries to wake the machine up. If the machine has wake on lan enabled, and you don't have any NAT issues, it'll work.

Re:It's the BIOS, not windows

You could at least read the article, it's an ARM SoC that serves as a separate UMPC inside the laptop. Kind of like having a N810 inside your laptop if you will.

Re:It's the BIOS, not windows

You both must be new here.

It doesn't matter if it's in the BIOS, or uses a second processor.

What matters is that it allows your laptop to "just work" rather than having to wait for the bloated monstrosity that is Windows to become usable (or as usable as it gets).

I was delighted to find that my old Compaq laptop allowed you to run on the CD player to listen to music without booting up the machine at all. This looks like an extension of that philosophy. I can imagine having a laptop that would never be fully booted except to run some "legacy" program. It only took us what, 20+ years to get here!

No, only I'm New Here

No, only I'm New Here

Re:No, only I'm New Here

What is the average amount of time in between times you can spring this joke?

-fragbait

Re:It's the BIOS, not windows

It doesn't matter if it's in the BIOS, or uses a second processor.

It does matter that it uses a 2nd processor that is very power efficient. I haven't used a windows laptop in a while, but if you just wake your computer from sleep how long does it really take?

I think the real advantage of this is battery savings from running on an ARM processor.

From the article:

If you use only the Latitude ON system, battery life lasts not hours but days, according to Dell.

Re:It's the BIOS, not windows

Dell is the only one who puts an extra CPU in there to run the Linux BIOS image so all that hardware you mentioned, except the hard drive, is fully used by the Linux image on the other systems.

It seems strange that Dell would put in a 2nd CPU but it does make it drop dead easy to design this way. There are tons of ARM based SoCs to pick from and pretty much all of them have Linux BSPs.

LoB

Re:It's the BIOS, not windows

You could at least read the article, it's an ARM SoC that serves as a separate UMPC inside the laptop. Kind of like having a N810 inside your laptop if you will.

Didn't you get the memo? We don't RTFA. We simply skim TFS for keywords, and then post with an authoritative tone, as though we had not only read TFA, but had actually authored it AND examined the subject in a PhD thesis.

You must be new here...

Re:It's the BIOS, not windows

No, New Here already posted...

http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=649601&cid=24653097 [slashdot.org]

Re:Three Cheers for Appliance Based Computing

Now it's "I just need web and email.".
Next month it'll be "Sound would be nice.".
Then you'll be bitching "Damn we need support for youtube and flickr up in this bitch.".
Then you'll say "Can we get a fucking IM client and some printer support? It's 2010!".

Ultra mobile / webtop / nettop / netbook / whatever is retarded.

Re:Three Cheers for Appliance Based Computing

If you want all of that in your long-life Windows laptop, then get yourself a $22 SDHC card and install Ubuntu on it with all the extras. I've tried it. Boots in 3 seconds. No moving parts. Snappy fast and low power if you set it up to turn off your HDD - or better yet, pull that out - you won't need it.

Re:Here's a strategy for Microsoft

Well yeah, but I'm sure Dell wouldn't just open wide and swallow that. And a licensing clause like that sounds like a good target for more anti-trust lawsuits, which the EU seems to relish.

Re:Here's a strategy for Microsoft

I know this is not illegal.

This is the exact type of behavior MS was convicted of a decade ago.

Re:New technologies

Yeah, because it runs of entirely separate hardware, i.e. not the same processor/RAM and doesn't use the hard drive. And the great thing is because it runs off a lower power ARM SoC and doesn't have to power any hard drive the thing can stay on for more than a day instead of a mere few hours. It's really two computers inside of one.

Re:Great...

we can wake Windows remotely. This seems like a major security issue if not implemented correctly.

No kidding. Waking Windows locally is already a big enough security issue as it is!

Re:Sensationlist much?

This is retarded and sensational.

No, this is just another example of how a monopoly impedes progress.

The fact that industry is having to work around Microsoft's stranglehold instead of simply shifting to another vendor is a sad indictment of governments' handling of an abusive monopolist.

Microsoft should have been split at the original DoJ antitrust case. It still should.

Re:Sensationlist much?

If Microsoft were adding features to Windows, like when they added an internet browser and media player, would you be happier?

Yep, provided they were:

1. Easily replaceable by OEMs
2. Easily replaceable by my own choices
3. Coded to follow open standards
4. Costed separately from the core OS (So I could save $10 by deselecting IE or WMP, for example.)

Those constraints would allow fair competition. If Microsoft were then able to produce better browsers and media players than the competition, they'd deserve my money.

Re:When did Microsoft become a hardware company?

Not really that odd, I think. This BIOS offshoot mini-OS is actually useful technology, and it's doing an end-around Microsoft by giving you a useful set of programs you can launch before you boot the full OS. I had a look at it just yesterday, from a reference I saw on Groklaw.

Basically it's an instant-boot into something and instant-on can give a laptop some credibility where it didn't before, i.e In A Hurry. (Stop gloating you non-Windows users, this isn't about you!) Drag that work laptop to the airport and check your mail via the web before it's time to show the security guy the holes in your socks. Sometimes the web is all you need, or Skype, and some companies issue laptops for their consultants but not Blackberries or other decent PDA.

This gives you a chance to do something with a company-approved laptop SOE that doesn't involve waking the slow, cranky and belligerant dragon that is Vista or XP Pro. This Is A Good Thing. Oh, and you can push a button on the screen that boots Windows if you need to read the boss' Powerpoint. If you have the time, that is. Takes a while to wake the dragon.

The reason why they can do this is they are a specific hardware company (ASUS the example I know) who don't have to cater to all forms of hardware -- just their own. Full-cut OS' can't be that inflexible. So it's a quick little trip from the BIOS to a v.fast PDA screentop. Most of what I need is on that little thing, for the rest you press your OS button and load your standard desktop.