I still think Microsoft will drop the ARM platform tablet, along with Windows RT. Just as they dropped PowerPC, Alpha, and Itanium versions of Windows.
I still think Microsoft will drop the ARM platform tablet, along with Windows RT. Just as they dropped PowerPC, Alpha, and Itanium versions of Windows.
Microsoft dropping ARM would probably the best thing to happen to its competitors.
I still think Microsoft will drop the ARM platform tablet, along with Windows RT. Just as they dropped PowerPC, Alpha, and Itanium versions of Windows.
PowerPC, Alpha and Itanium were dying platforms. ARM is huge and quickly becoming a serious threat to Intel. Windows RT was misguided but it would be silly for Microsoft to fully put all their eggs in the Intel basket. ARM may be nowhere near x86 performance yet, but given time even Intel's desktop dominance may be threatened.
PowerPC, Alpha and Itanium were dying platforms. ARM is huge and quickly becoming a serious threat to Intel. Windows RT was misguided but it would be silly for Microsoft to fully put all their eggs in the Intel basket. ARM may be nowhere near x86 performance yet, but given time even Intel's desktop dominance may be threatened.
Dying, Itanium and PowerPC are still very much alive and are used in enterprise solutions, specifically supercomputers. Though the Xeon processor is dominant in the server world, IBM, HP, NEC, Unisys, Hitachi still use these RISC processors in many of their larger solutions. Intel will actually start manufacturing 64BIT versions of the chip for ARM, Intel was also one of the first companies to produce an ARM CPU in very large volumes with the Xscale, though Intel has discontinued this product the second Intel feels their dominance threaten you will see Intel producing their own versions of the ARM processor once more.
PowerPC, Alpha and Itanium were dying platforms. ARM is huge and quickly becoming a serious threat to Intel. Windows RT was misguided but it would be silly for Microsoft to fully put all their eggs in the Intel basket. ARM may be nowhere near x86 performance yet, but given time even Intel's desktop dominance may be threatened.
Your have a valid point about ARM. But the flip side is that Intel is working (desperately) to keep x86 relevant in the new world of low-power devices that ARM currently dominates: phones and tablets. I interpret Microsoft's "dual CPU platform" strategy for Windows 8 to be a hedge against the future loser of the ARM vs x86 wars. Hence the "dual" tablets: Surface and Surface Pro.
My observation is that Intel is a survivor. They beat RISC chips back in the '90s with what is internally a modern RISC design decoding a CISC instruction set. So I'm bullish on their engineering ability to redesign x86 yet again to reach parity with ARM, even if it means finding a way to slap efficient x86 execution on top of an ARM architecture--not that I think they will do that exactly--but they'll do whatever it takes not to become a footnote in 20 years.
That means, I don't see two CPU and two Windows versions on two binary-incompatible tablets persisting without Microsoft keeping the weaker one alive through brute spending.
PowerPC, Alpha and Itanium were dying platforms. ARM is huge and quickly becoming a serious threat to Intel. Windows RT was misguided but it would be silly for Microsoft to fully put all their eggs in the Intel basket. ARM may be nowhere near x86 performance yet, but given time even Intel's desktop dominance may be threatened.
Um-m-m-m, no. Alpha and Itanium were not used in consumer computers. Microsoft dropped support for those two architectures years after it dropped support for the PowerPC. It dropped Windows NT PPC in 1997 when the extant version of NT was Windows NT 4.0. That was back in the 1990s when the PPC was definitely not dying. This was during reign of the Power Macintosh 9600 and siblings (aka PPC G2) and before the iMac, G3, G4, and G5. Contrary to your assertion, the PPC was in its ascendency. It was also a time when IA-32 was struggling with heat issues and getting floating point math just plain wrong.
Um-m-m-m, no. Alpha and Itanium were not used in consumer computers. Microsoft dropped support for those two architectures years after it dropped support for the PowerPC. It dropped Windows NT PPC in 1997 when the extant version of NT was Windows NT 4.0. That was back in the 1990s when the PPC was definitely not dying. This was during reign of the Power Macintosh 9600 and siblings (aka PPC G2) and before the iMac, G3, G4, and G5. Contrary to your assertion, the PPC was in its ascendency. It was also a time when IA-32 was struggling with heat issues and getting floating point math just plain wrong.
Thanks for the history, interesting about the Itanium bug, I had completely forgotten about that.
Thanks for the history, interesting about the Itanium bug, I had completely forgotten about that.
No, it was the Pentium that had the bug. At the time, there were a lot of jokes about it. Mac users got no end of pleasure from the situation. An example:
Microsoft ... the company based on Mac OS (ripped off by funny hair cut man Gates) and Steve Jobs' Office (which Microsoft was hired to develop, for the Mac, by Steve). In other words, the company that should not exist.
Looking that way, a lot of things shouldn't exist. Including US, Australia and New Zealand.
I still think Microsoft will drop the ARM platform tablet, along with Windows RT. Just as they dropped PowerPC, Alpha, and Itanium versions of Windows.
I cannot see a point of ARM Windows hardware when you can get comparable performance, size and battery life from latest Atoms, while keeping full x86 compatibility.
I wouldn't be surprised if MS switched Surface Mini from RT to x86 and is waiting for Intel's Broadwell parts to be available. Or they might be redesigning it for existing Intel parts.
No, it was the Pentium that had the bug. At the time, there were a lot of jokes about it. Mac users got no end of pleasure from the situation. An example:
Q: What is "Intel Inside"?
A: A warning.
Haha, I was never a big Intel person until I bought a MacBook with one. Prior to that though most of my machines have been RISC based. While everyone that I knew had PC's I always used either a SUN or SGI workstation and before that an Amiga and Commodore(okay smarty pants, yes I know the Motorola chips in the last two examples were CISC, gosh your always giving me a hard time about details). In fact I sold my first car to help purchase a SGI INDY but my parents paid for most of it. I was queen of the geeks for about 2 years because of that machine, all of my friends who wanted to edit video literally lined up to use it, I had so much free pot during this period it was surprising I even graduated. Anyway because it had a built in composite, S-Video and digital video input with a very powerful MIPS CPU it would eat the Apple Power PC's and older Quadro 840av's used by our universities graphic department for lunch. I used to take my Indy with me (came with an SGI carrying bag, so classy) to the computer lab because of their fast network (pre-Wifi guys)), set it up next to the other machines and just watched peoples expressions when I would edit and use real time effects before encoding a video, the software and hardware was just so far more advanced when compared to the PC's and Apple's at the time. Even the die hard PC geeks were just in awe, especially when I showed them that I could encode any video that I just finished cutting into a MP2 using the command line, then send it to the background and continue editing, something that would have rendered most computers impotent, even sending the video and audio signal out to a VCR worked flawlessly. After the INDY, I bought an O2 in '99 (didn't have it long as I thought it to be a little to underpowered for the price I paid for it. I then switched to Sun because the bank I was hired at used them, they gave me an Ultra 80 for work and one to take home (first machine I ever used that had more then 1GB of memory) not to mention that this thing was insanely fast for the time, I then sold my O2 and bought an Apple Cube G5 500 (I think it was May of 2000)(my mother asked me once why I had a toaster on my desk, pop tarts mom) which is when I absolutely felled head over heals for OSX. I love Unix but OSX had all of those cool apps that other OS's didn't have, not to mention that it was just so beautiful. I mean lets face it Irix, Solaris CME, HP-UX CME, yucky, friggen ugly, a face only a mother could love and OSX was BSD, true Unix baby. Apple PowerMac G4(great design, super fast but short lived because...), Apple PowerMac G5 2.0 DP (installed an off the shelf ATI 9800, worked flawlessly and cost a fraction of what Apple was trying to get out of their version also the coolest looking computer ever !!!!!, I really liked this machine), Sun Blade 2000 (I fought for this one, my employer wanted to replace our Ultra 80's with SunRay terminals, I prevailed in the end and got to take one home once again, even got a faster VPN fixed IP connection out of it, this thing was an absolute monster), bought a refurbished Tezro (to this date I'm not sure why I bought it I just new I had to have it, still have it and I even still use it occasionally for video editing and programming, it is by far the most incredible piece of tech I have ever bought and is still a very sexy machine, I don't know what it is about SGI machines but their almost magical, you can't stall these &^%$#'s if you tried. It's now been updated to it's max capacity, 8GB RAM, 4X R16,000 MIPS and a V12 graphics card. After the SGI I started to build my own workstations for a while but I eventually got tired of tinkering and settled on a HP Z800, which ironically I tinkered with that one too until I sold it to a friend of mine who begged me to have it. I will wait for the next PowerMac model so I could hopefully buy the current version at a discount. No rush though, I am still very much bed ridden for the time being, though I do manage to get into my little studio at least once a day. I'm currently making a techno song using nothing but my doggy's barks and a few of his farts thrown in there for you know bass.
I always had a Powerbook too (Powerbook 100, my first laptop, well it was my dads but I used it so much he let me have it after buying a PowerBook 170 for himself, I still have it, works and looks great), HP Omnibook 300 (I won this little guy after I filled out a customer suggestion card that was in the box of a HP DeskJet 310 my dad bought for the road. I used it for 3 years as a note taker while I was in class, it only had Word and Lotus 123 but it was really quick do to everything being installed in Flash storage, it took 4 double A batteries and lasted forever on them, unfortunately it was stolen my junior year. I was very sad for a very long time, it was like my doggy was stolen from me, that is until it was replaced with an Apple eMate 300. I received one temporally for testing by signing up for a pilot program with Apple through the university, all I had to do was use it for note taking in class and write a few reports on it, then turn in my thoughts and answer a few silly questions. After the program was finished it was announced that we were allowed to keep them, yyyaaaayyyy. Funny enough there were a couple of students who actually said no thank you and turned them back in, stupid pretentious hippies, little did they know that these things were later sold for like 800 bucks, stupid hippies indeed. Apple really didn't sell to many of them and ended up giving away a butt load for free to schools. I was probably among the few that really liked my eMate, it had a really nice keyboard and word processor and I was able to use my HP DeskJet 320 (my dad wouldn't give me his DeskJet 310 for school but I got a 320 for my birthday a few months later, really awesome printer). My eMate was short lived as I received a Apple Newton 2100 for Christmas with the optional keyboard, I loved and cherished this fantastic device for about three years until I forgot it at a airport security checkpoint in St. Thomas, aaaaahhhh, again I was really sad. That is until, you guessed it, replaced it with another beloved gadget, a PSION Netbook. Continuing with PowerBooks, 540c (this was also my dads but he gave it to me when I left for college, though don't tell him, because it was so friggen heavy to carry around I used my HP Omnibook 300 a lot more), 5500ce (worst fucking Apple laptop I have ever owned thank God Apple recovered quickly with the), 2400c (loved this notebook, I even modified it with a completely transparent body from Japan (no, not talking about Devon Aoki) and a G3 Vimage card in which my applied mathematics professor bought for me after I dressed up like a ballerina for him, what, I like tech and he was cute, okay I was a whore), Lambard G3 (also later modified to a Daystar G4 433Mhz daughter card, no sexy outfits were involved with this purchase), Titanium 500 (still have this one, replaced the hinges like 6 times but I still like him), Sony PictureBook with the Transmeta chip (though it came with Windows ME and was probably the slowest CPU ever created I still liked it do to the size and it forced me to start using Linux seriously. That and it's filming capabilities were pretty good for the time), iBook G3 (hated this one as well, not only was is it slow but it scratched if you looked at it funny) Titanium 1GHz (I wish I didn't sell this one), PowerBook 12" 1.25, 1.5 (great laptops and was really pissed when Apple discontinued them). Started using Linux a lot more so I bought an IBM ThinkPad X41 (after that I was never without a ThinkPad X series, luv'em to death), MacBook Black Polycarbonate (this was an okay notebook, fast enough but started to fall apart after 3 months, plastic strips around the body started to crack and fall off), ThinkPad X61T (still have this one too, great machine for testing OS's as everything runs on it)). MacBook 13" UniBody (though it wasn't really faster then the black MacBook, I really liked the look and durability of it). MacBook Air 11" (like the ThinkPad I will now always have one because their super awesome (still waiting for a Retina version though, eeeerrrrhhhh. I've had three versions of the 11" MacBook Air so far but my latest one with i7, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD is pretty gosh darn fantastically cool).
Here is a list of other notebooks that I've owned, Toshiba Libretto U105 ThinkPad x200, x220T (still have this one),General Dynamics TadPole TOPAZ, Panasonic CF-18 (we took the family to South Afrika and Kenya for a safari which of course was the perfect excuse to buy a ruggedized laptop, I bought two, got a great deal on both as they were refurbished. however turned out to be clunky and heavy and not worth the effort despite the fact that they were also super cool looking, sold them both when I got home, I actually got 600CHF more then I paid for the TOPAZ, ChromeBook Pixel and ChromeBook Samsung ARM (got both for free from a very close friend who works for Google Switzerland, the Samsung was a piece of junk but the Pixel is pretty nice and is the most beautiful laptop that I have ever seen, it really is. HP Folio 13 (husband bought this one but never used it so I stole it from him but then my daughter stole it form me, I think we still have it, anyway as far as Ultra-Books are concerned this one is a really solid machine, also very handsome looking). Toshiba Libretto W100 (this was one of those laptops that I had to have, bought it from an overstock site for 300 dollars, a far cry from the original price of 1,100. It's a funky little guy but Windows 7 just wasn't the OS for it so it sat in my drawer for a long period of time. almost a year. After getting my first Window's 8 tablet I decided to try it on the W105. Soooo glad I did, though It took a long while to get everything working on it especially the virtual keyboard, it runs like a dream as if Windows 8 was custom made for this device. It's so good that I think if Toshiba was to reintroduce it with updated specs and of course Window's 8 they just might have better luck with it this time around. Displaying two apps at a time on it's two screens is very cool, this was made for Window's 8. It's a really neat little guy and I would totally recommend it to anyone, that is if a good example was to found on eBay for less then 250.
Latest acquisition, Surface Pro 3, though this list doesn't contain any of the bazillion tablets that I've owned over the years I think this one falls under laptops as well. Just got it last night, finally after waiting like forever, it's the i7, 8GB, 256GB version and it's sweet, super duper sweet. I wanted it to for Ableton Live and FL Studio Touch as I'm trying to go all touch for my music creation. I wanted something I could use in bed along with iPad, until such time that Apple releases a touch version of their MacBook or my ultimate dream a tablet with a touch version of OSX (no not iOS), something I could run Logic on. My bed looks like a music store threw up all over it and I'm pretty sure my dog doesn't like being used as a keyboard stand but I kind of ran out of room, oh which reminds me my son has guinea pigs, they would be perfect to prop up my iPad and Surface Pro. Women was arrested to day on charges of animal cruelty, when she tried to use the family pets as studio furniture, when asked why she simply replied, "it made sense acoustically, fur absorbs sound right", was found mentally incompetent to stand trial. Actually I hate those little fur balls, my son is always letting them run around the house, place looks like a Pacman level.
Anyway, I really have no idea why I posted this, I guess it's because I'm alone most of the day except when the nurse comes in the after noon to check my IV and make me lunch, I guess it's kind soothing to talk to myself. I hope someone kind of enjoyed it, if not just yell at me for wasting your precious Internet time, ..... or call me naughty ...... maybe a little light spanking is in order ....... do you like swans, wait right there I want to see if something still fits.
...had a Powerbook, HP Omnibook 300, Apple eMate 300, Newton 2100, PSION Netbook, PowerBooks, 540c, 5500ce, 2400c, Lambard G3/Daystar G4 433Mhz, Titanium 500, Sony PictureBook, iBook G3, Titanium 1GHz, PowerBook 12", IBM ThinkPad X41, MacBook Black Polycarbonate, ThinkPad X61T, MacBook 13" UniBody, three versions of the 11" MacBook Air, Toshiba Libretto U105, ThinkPad x200, x220T,General Dynamics TadPole TOPAZ, Panasonic CF-18, ChromeBook Pixel and ChromeBook Samsung ARM, HP Folio 13, Toshiba Libretto W100, Window's 8 tablet, Surface Pro 3, iPad, Surface Pro.
Geez what a list! Unfreakingbelievable. Freezer-burn compared to cool.
... the family pets as studio furniture, when asked why she simply replied, "it made sense acoustically, fur absorbs sound right", was found mentally incompetent to stand trial.
Wait, what?
Actually I hate those little fur balls, my son is always letting them run around the house, place looks like a Pacman level.
LOL
..... or call me naughty ...... maybe a little light spanking is in order ....... do you like swans, wait right there I want to see if something still fits.
"Wait, I ain't into any of that baby!"
If any of your other (kinky) posts hadn't already made my day this one surely did. You always make me smile, be it a post on tech or anything other than that. For that I not only thank you, but I'm certain all your friends and loved ones love you immensely, wholeheartedly and, well, humongous, for lack of finding a better fitting word.
I love you reminiscing the past. Always a fun read; please keep doing that!
My guess is that Satya Nadella has been ordered by the Microsoft board to pick one of the following and kill it:
Windows 8.x (Surface Pro and legacy desktop)
Windows Phone
Windows RT
<span style="line-height:1.4em;">Should be an easy choice, no?</span>
I think we've known for just over a year that 2 of those are being merged into 1 os. So I doubt they've asked for anything like that, unless there telling him to stick to Balmers plan, which seems very unlikely.
General consensus I've read is that the mini wasn't different enough to other windows devices and the Surface line is meant to fill in gaps, not be the same as the competition.
The second reason is that Office as a Windows style app isn't out yet and they didn't want to launch the tablet without the app.
Comments
I still think Microsoft will drop the ARM platform tablet, along with Windows RT. Just as they dropped PowerPC, Alpha, and Itanium versions of Windows.
Microsoft dropping ARM would probably the best thing to happen to its competitors.
PowerPC, Alpha and Itanium were dying platforms. ARM is huge and quickly becoming a serious threat to Intel. Windows RT was misguided but it would be silly for Microsoft to fully put all their eggs in the Intel basket. ARM may be nowhere near x86 performance yet, but given time even Intel's desktop dominance may be threatened.
PowerPC, Alpha and Itanium were dying platforms. ARM is huge and quickly becoming a serious threat to Intel. Windows RT was misguided but it would be silly for Microsoft to fully put all their eggs in the Intel basket. ARM may be nowhere near x86 performance yet, but given time even Intel's desktop dominance may be threatened.
Dying, Itanium and PowerPC are still very much alive and are used in enterprise solutions, specifically supercomputers. Though the Xeon processor is dominant in the server world, IBM, HP, NEC, Unisys, Hitachi still use these RISC processors in many of their larger solutions. Intel will actually start manufacturing 64BIT versions of the chip for ARM, Intel was also one of the first companies to produce an ARM CPU in very large volumes with the Xscale, though Intel has discontinued this product the second Intel feels their dominance threaten you will see Intel producing their own versions of the ARM processor once more.
PowerPC, Alpha and Itanium were dying platforms. ARM is huge and quickly becoming a serious threat to Intel. Windows RT was misguided but it would be silly for Microsoft to fully put all their eggs in the Intel basket. ARM may be nowhere near x86 performance yet, but given time even Intel's desktop dominance may be threatened.
Your have a valid point about ARM. But the flip side is that Intel is working (desperately) to keep x86 relevant in the new world of low-power devices that ARM currently dominates: phones and tablets. I interpret Microsoft's "dual CPU platform" strategy for Windows 8 to be a hedge against the future loser of the ARM vs x86 wars. Hence the "dual" tablets: Surface and Surface Pro.
My observation is that Intel is a survivor. They beat RISC chips back in the '90s with what is internally a modern RISC design decoding a CISC instruction set. So I'm bullish on their engineering ability to redesign x86 yet again to reach parity with ARM, even if it means finding a way to slap efficient x86 execution on top of an ARM architecture--not that I think they will do that exactly--but they'll do whatever it takes not to become a footnote in 20 years.
That means, I don't see two CPU and two Windows versions on two binary-incompatible tablets persisting without Microsoft keeping the weaker one alive through brute spending.
Um-m-m-m, no. Alpha and Itanium were not used in consumer computers. Microsoft dropped support for those two architectures years after it dropped support for the PowerPC. It dropped Windows NT PPC in 1997 when the extant version of NT was Windows NT 4.0. That was back in the 1990s when the PPC was definitely not dying. This was during reign of the Power Macintosh 9600 and siblings (aka PPC G2) and before the iMac, G3, G4, and G5. Contrary to your assertion, the PPC was in its ascendency. It was also a time when IA-32 was struggling with heat issues and getting floating point math just plain wrong.
Um-m-m-m, no. Alpha and Itanium were not used in consumer computers. Microsoft dropped support for those two architectures years after it dropped support for the PowerPC. It dropped Windows NT PPC in 1997 when the extant version of NT was Windows NT 4.0. That was back in the 1990s when the PPC was definitely not dying. This was during reign of the Power Macintosh 9600 and siblings (aka PPC G2) and before the iMac, G3, G4, and G5. Contrary to your assertion, the PPC was in its ascendency. It was also a time when IA-32 was struggling with heat issues and getting floating point math just plain wrong.
Thanks for the history, interesting about the Itanium bug, I had completely forgotten about that.
No, it was the Pentium that had the bug. At the time, there were a lot of jokes about it. Mac users got no end of pleasure from the situation. An example:
Q: What is "Intel Inside"?
A: A warning.
Looking that way, a lot of things shouldn't exist. Including US, Australia and New Zealand.
I cannot see a point of ARM Windows hardware when you can get comparable performance, size and battery life from latest Atoms, while keeping full x86 compatibility.
I wouldn't be surprised if MS switched Surface Mini from RT to x86 and is waiting for Intel's Broadwell parts to be available. Or they might be redesigning it for existing Intel parts.
No, it was the Pentium that had the bug. At the time, there were a lot of jokes about it. Mac users got no end of pleasure from the situation. An example:
Q: What is "Intel Inside"?
A: A warning.
Haha, I was never a big Intel person until I bought a MacBook with one. Prior to that though most of my machines have been RISC based. While everyone that I knew had PC's I always used either a SUN or SGI workstation and before that an Amiga and Commodore(okay smarty pants, yes I know the Motorola chips in the last two examples were CISC, gosh your always giving me a hard time about details
I always had a Powerbook too (Powerbook 100, my first laptop, well it was my dads but I used it so much he let me have it after buying a PowerBook 170 for himself, I still have it, works and looks great), HP Omnibook 300 (I won this little guy after I filled out a customer suggestion card that was in the box of a HP DeskJet 310 my dad bought for the road. I used it for 3 years as a note taker while I was in class, it only had Word and Lotus 123 but it was really quick do to everything being installed in Flash storage, it took 4 double A batteries and lasted forever on them, unfortunately it was stolen my junior year. I was very sad for a very long time, it was like my doggy was stolen from me, that is until it was replaced with an Apple eMate 300. I received one temporally for testing by signing up for a pilot program with Apple through the university, all I had to do was use it for note taking in class and write a few reports on it, then turn in my thoughts and answer a few silly questions. After the program was finished it was announced that we were allowed to keep them, yyyaaaayyyy. Funny enough there were a couple of students who actually said no thank you and turned them back in, stupid pretentious hippies, little did they know that these things were later sold for like 800 bucks, stupid hippies indeed. Apple really didn't sell to many of them and ended up giving away a butt load for free to schools. I was probably among the few that really liked my eMate, it had a really nice keyboard and word processor and I was able to use my HP DeskJet 320 (my dad wouldn't give me his DeskJet 310 for school but I got a 320 for my birthday a few months later, really awesome printer). My eMate was short lived as I received a Apple Newton 2100 for Christmas with the optional keyboard, I loved and cherished this fantastic device for about three years until I forgot it at a airport security checkpoint in St. Thomas, aaaaahhhh, again I was really sad. That is until, you guessed it, replaced it with another beloved gadget, a PSION Netbook. Continuing with PowerBooks, 540c (this was also my dads but he gave it to me when I left for college, though don't tell him, because it was so friggen heavy to carry around I used my HP Omnibook 300 a lot more), 5500ce (worst fucking Apple laptop I have ever owned thank God Apple recovered quickly with the), 2400c (loved this notebook, I even modified it with a completely transparent body from Japan (no, not talking about Devon Aoki) and a G3 Vimage card in which my applied mathematics professor bought for me after I dressed up like a ballerina for him, what, I like tech and he was cute, okay I was a whore), Lambard G3 (also later modified to a Daystar G4 433Mhz daughter card, no sexy outfits were involved with this purchase), Titanium 500 (still have this one, replaced the hinges like 6 times but I still like him), Sony PictureBook with the Transmeta chip (though it came with Windows ME and was probably the slowest CPU ever created I still liked it do to the size and it forced me to start using Linux seriously. That and it's filming capabilities were pretty good for the time), iBook G3 (hated this one as well, not only was is it slow but it scratched if you looked at it funny) Titanium 1GHz (I wish I didn't sell this one), PowerBook 12" 1.25, 1.5 (great laptops and was really pissed when Apple discontinued them). Started using Linux a lot more so I bought an IBM ThinkPad X41 (after that I was never without a ThinkPad X series, luv'em to death), MacBook Black Polycarbonate (this was an okay notebook, fast enough but started to fall apart after 3 months, plastic strips around the body started to crack and fall off), ThinkPad X61T (still have this one too, great machine for testing OS's as everything runs on it)). MacBook 13" UniBody (though it wasn't really faster then the black MacBook, I really liked the look and durability of it). MacBook Air 11" (like the ThinkPad I will now always have one because their super awesome (still waiting for a Retina version though, eeeerrrrhhhh. I've had three versions of the 11" MacBook Air so far but my latest one with i7, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD is pretty gosh darn fantastically cool).
Here is a list of other notebooks that I've owned, Toshiba Libretto U105 ThinkPad x200, x220T (still have this one),General Dynamics TadPole TOPAZ, Panasonic CF-18 (we took the family to South Afrika and Kenya for a safari which of course was the perfect excuse to buy a ruggedized laptop, I bought two, got a great deal on both as they were refurbished. however turned out to be clunky and heavy and not worth the effort despite the fact that they were also super cool looking, sold them both when I got home, I actually got 600CHF more then I paid for the TOPAZ, ChromeBook Pixel and ChromeBook Samsung ARM (got both for free from a very close friend who works for Google Switzerland, the Samsung was a piece of junk but the Pixel is pretty nice and is the most beautiful laptop that I have ever seen, it really is. HP Folio 13 (husband bought this one but never used it so I stole it from him but then my daughter stole it form me, I think we still have it, anyway as far as Ultra-Books are concerned this one is a really solid machine, also very handsome looking). Toshiba Libretto W100 (this was one of those laptops that I had to have, bought it from an overstock site for 300 dollars, a far cry from the original price of 1,100. It's a funky little guy but Windows 7 just wasn't the OS for it so it sat in my drawer for a long period of time. almost a year. After getting my first Window's 8 tablet I decided to try it on the W105. Soooo glad I did, though It took a long while to get everything working on it especially the virtual keyboard, it runs like a dream as if Windows 8 was custom made for this device. It's so good that I think if Toshiba was to reintroduce it with updated specs and of course Window's 8 they just might have better luck with it this time around. Displaying two apps at a time on it's two screens is very cool, this was made for Window's 8. It's a really neat little guy and I would totally recommend it to anyone, that is if a good example was to found on eBay for less then 250.
Latest acquisition, Surface Pro 3, though this list doesn't contain any of the bazillion tablets that I've owned over the years I think this one falls under laptops as well. Just got it last night, finally after waiting like forever, it's the i7, 8GB, 256GB version and it's sweet, super duper sweet. I wanted it to for Ableton Live and FL Studio Touch as I'm trying to go all touch for my music creation. I wanted something I could use in bed along with iPad, until such time that Apple releases a touch version of their MacBook or my ultimate dream a tablet with a touch version of OSX (no not iOS), something I could run Logic on. My bed looks like a music store threw up all over it and I'm pretty sure my dog doesn't like being used as a keyboard stand but I kind of ran out of room, oh which reminds me my son has guinea pigs, they would be perfect to prop up my iPad and Surface Pro. Women was arrested to day on charges of animal cruelty, when she tried to use the family pets as studio furniture, when asked why she simply replied, "it made sense acoustically, fur absorbs sound right", was found mentally incompetent to stand trial. Actually I hate those little fur balls, my son is always letting them run around the house, place looks like a Pacman level.
Anyway, I really have no idea why I posted this, I guess it's because I'm alone most of the day except when the nurse comes in the after noon to check my IV and make me lunch, I guess it's kind soothing to talk to myself. I hope someone kind of enjoyed it, if not just yell at me for wasting your precious Internet time, ..... or call me naughty ...... maybe a little light spanking is in order ....... do you like swans, wait right there I want to see if something still fits.
Geez what a list! Unfreakingbelievable. Freezer-burn compared to cool.
Wait, what?
LOL
"Wait, I ain't into any of that baby!"
If any of your other (kinky) posts hadn't already made my day this one surely did. You always make me smile, be it a post on tech or anything other than that. For that I not only thank you, but I'm certain all your friends and loved ones love you immensely, wholeheartedly and, well, humongous, for lack of finding a better fitting word.
I love you reminiscing the past. Always a fun read; please keep doing that!
General consensus I've read is that the mini wasn't different enough to other windows devices and the Surface line is meant to fill in gaps, not be the same as the competition.
The second reason is that Office as a Windows style app isn't out yet and they didn't want to launch the tablet without the app.