Now I get it, Microsoft are adopting a strategy of 'corporate dumping' of their touch devices, using their strength in corporate IT to fight Apple. I don't blame them, its probably their only hope to retain those important corporate customers as the desktop PC gradually declines in number. For many applications in house it won't matter that users are forced to use a suboptimal touch device, it will just irritate them.
Microsoft are fighting BYOD and mobile touch all at the same time. The rot has set in now, its probably too late to fix it, but they haven't really got an option its a question of survival as a cash cow rather than a question of innovation and growing market share.
BSODs were by and large caused by poorly written third-party hardware drivers running in XP and earlier. The 2008 opening ceremony used XP, and given the rampant windows piracy in China, who knows if it was supported by microsoft? At any rate, by designing the Surface in-house MS avoids the very problem of obscure third-party drivers.
But that's exactly what everyone said was so great about Windows during the 90s: commodity hardware! Cheap parts! Vendor drivers!
Now it's all about the advantages of Apple-style vertical integration between hardware and software.
Hmmpf. And there you are, giving Microsoft credit for finally doing what Apple has been doing since 1984.
I heard that all of the recent Delta/Microsoft decisions were the direct order of Delta's CEO, Richard Anderson. He and Ballmer have been friends for a long time. Both of them have strong ties to Detroit and frequently overlap at events like The National Summit. Look for an article in the April 2012 Sky magazine for some of their candid conversations.
Not true. The majority are Apple fanatics. The Delta team has *excellent* ties to Cupertino and the two companies collaborated heavily to get the FlyDelta app launched (note how frequently it shows up in marketing images when Apple needs to use an icon).
When Delta's technology committee was charged with a new point-of-sale method, they recommended Apple. With the tablet tests winding down, IT recommended keeping the iPads. There's speculation that neither report was read by Richard, as the Delta executive team had already been swayed by the insider deal Microsoft offered.
PS: The flight attendants hate the Lumias too, so it's not just the pilots who are disappointed.
Thank you for the, I suppose, first-hand information.
Your argument is bases off functions the iPad does not do, you realize that, yes? These devices replace the paper maps and charts, and some checklists. They DO NOT interact with the aircraft in any way. Also to your point, the ineptness of a pilot is not based on their device as you just gave example of a $80 million aircraft that the pilot mismanaged, and I am sure the FAA had very strict guidelines on.
Also, this has nothing to do with the app as it is not provided by Microsoft or Apple. Again, having to tap twice on a chart will not in any way make the flight unsafe.
I disagree. Somehow I feel more secure when knowing they care deeply about all equipments. It's easy to say that it's not related but airplane had been crashed with stranger thing before.
BSODs were by and large caused by poorly written third-party hardware drivers running in XP and earlier. The 2008 opening ceremony used XP, and given the rampant windows piracy in China, who knows if it was supported by microsoft? At any rate, by designing the Surface in-house MS avoids the very problem of obscure third-party drivers.
But that's exactly what everyone said was so great about Windows during the 90s: commodity hardware! Cheap parts! Vendor drivers!
Now it's all about the advantages of Apple-style vertical integration between hardware and software.
Hmmpf. And there you are, giving Microsoft credit for finally doing what Apple has been doing since 1984. :no:
Seriously,.. "given the rampant windows piracy in China"...So the Chinese government used pirated Microsoft software to run the biggest international event in their history, for billions of people to watch, including everybody at Microsoft? The excuses Windoze-apologists come up with are usually really tiresome, but this one makes me smile. I'm sure there weren't thousands of Microsoft people working on this setup for several years—of course not. And Steve Ballmer watched the games with its prominent display of Microsoft software and it never occurred to him to wonder why they never got in touch with Redmond.
I'm sure "poorly-written third-party drivers" explain why every PC I've been forced to use needed to be rebooted every five minutes, no matter how big the organization that set them up.
Yikes. My wife and I flew Delta regularly (about six intercontinental trips per year) because they took over the route of preferred airline and we had little other option.
It was fine in some ways, but I can't tell you how many times we got the blue screen of death on the back-of-seat movie screen... only to have to watch the verbose MS-DOS reboot sequence when we asked for assistance (often without that being enough of a fix, because often it required a full reboot of every screen on the plane to make the system work again).
If only, I can't count the number of times I said, they would just drive the movie system with OS X instead of Windows. On our current frequent airline, US Air, they use Linux. That seems to work better than Windows. Still, can't help but think OS X would be easier for the non IT types on the plane who have to administer to the system in transit.
And now this... Windows in the cockpit. It literally makes me more nervous to fly on a Delta plane, if that's the equipment they're using (and that the management thinks it's the best equipment to provide).
P.S. One hopes, of course, that no matter what the tablet device in the front of the plane... that they're "powering off all electronic devices during landing and takeoff"... right?
All right already you guys, I got it! Everyone makes a typing mistake sometimes. Quit the ad hominem attacks and relax a little, we're all grown-ups here aren't we?
;-)
On behalf of all normally adjusted forum readers, Sumergo, ye are forgiven. Quite a bit of over the top vitriol in those responses to your post. Would love to see a willing return to civility, even online.
Thank you for the, I suppose, first-hand information.
Wish I could go into more details but Delta has *extremely* restrictive rules that guide social media interactions. Were one to write a comment that makes the company look bad or even just questions company policy, it's grounds for termination.
I can say that the company pays a PR firm to troll the web for all mentions of Delta and airline news and report back on the daily press. It's highly likely that this AppleInsider story was linked to. Right now, the teams for leadership, marketing, and corporate communications are getting an email with snippet summaries of yesterday, so please blast away*.
*But it will fall on deaf ears. If Delta executives read reports, they wouldn't have ignored their own internal advice to go Apple all the way. ; )
But that's exactly what everyone said was so great about Windows during the 90s: commodity hardware! Cheap parts! Vendor drivers!
Now it's all about the advantages of Apple-style vertical integration between hardware and software.
Hmmpf. And there you are, giving Microsoft credit for finally doing what Apple has been doing since 1984. :no:
It's even more hypocritical than that. While saying how great it is that Microsoft provides the hardware and software together, they're still lambasting Apple for doing the same thing. Apparently, it's an evil closed system when Apple does it, but it's a marvel of efficiency and reliability when Microsoft does it.
I like that idea! I would definitely tune into the finale, if that were to happen." src="http://forums-files.appleinsider.com/images/smilies//lol.gif" />
With the way that the Surface tablets are selling (huge disastrous flop), you'd almost think that they were already under an impenetrable dome.
The dome was actually the reality distortion field created by such a massive concentration of Surface devices.
Keep in mind people M$ keeps lots of IT folks in a job, in Indian that is. We all know IT has always hated Apple since it just works and does not need masses of cheap labor unable to answer your questions when things do not work.
Face it M$ products are a job program for countries like Indian.
"We fought hard for iPad," a pilot working for the airline told AppleInsider.
Its possible *this* pilot felt strongly about using iPads instead of Surfaces but I doubt most pilots even care. If it works whats the issue? If the IT folks decide its a better solution because it fits their Microsoft centric ecosystem then deal with it. This specific use case is particularly locked down with only one or two apps are installed - there's no real advantage of using iPads instead. With Surfaces you'll get the benefits of proper device management for thousands of users. That's significant.
Standard corp. IT stupidity. Consider it an indicator of a company in decline. I can relate. Our company is moving headlong into the IT dept.'s "all Windows utopia" wet dream, while our competitors are embracing iDevices, Android stuff (whatever), Linux, and other modern technologies. The insanity attitude is starting to show in the long term viability dept.
It's a rather high-risk, high-visibility announcement.
Surface 2 has only just launched so there hasn't been any trial. And no-one knows for sure if it will be certified by FAA, or how long that will take. If it fails, Delta will be looking very stupid.
Even if the Delta folks wanted to do SUrface 2, it would have been prudent to do some testing first. But I bet that Microsoft pushed them *very* hard for the announcement to be made now, to help with Surface rollout.
It would not surprise me to find that the devices are free and that Microsoft writes off the cost as marketing expense. It would be a drop in the bucket compared to the write-off they just took on the original models.
I'm sure "poorly-written third-party drivers" explain why every PC I've been forced to use needed to be rebooted every five minutes, no matter how big the organization that set them up.
Sure, to Windows those third-party drivers are just binary blobs. When Windows encounters an infinite loop written by some sloppy driver programmer, what options does it have? OS X has to deal with this problem far less frequently because all of the components that go into Apple computers are carefully vetted by Apple to work flawlessly with their own OS.
What OEMs did those organizations purchase from? I'm guessing Dell? That seems to be quite popular with businesses. Those major OEMs aren't exactly known for using carefully selected, rigorously tested components. The frequency of BSODs testifies to that fact.
At any rate, BSODs are much less common these days because third-party drivers have better tools for testing their code (http://www.zdnet.com/why-the-blue-screen-of-death-no-longer-plagues-windows-users-7000021327/). Windows 7 is a rock-solid OS. In fact, my mac has crashed far more often than any windows 7 machine I've used (but I'm willing to accept the possibility that my mac might just be a lemon).
Comments
Microsoft are fighting BYOD and mobile touch all at the same time. The rot has set in now, its probably too late to fix it, but they haven't really got an option its a question of survival as a cash cow rather than a question of innovation and growing market share.
... I think I'll fly an airline where the pilots aren't ticked off at their own company.
Good luck finding one in the U.S. !
(USAirways is out. So's United and American... You've ruled out Delta... Virgin America pilots are a bit perturbed at management right now... )
I haven't spoken with pilots from Alaska Airines or Jet Blue recently... maybe they will work for you.
Of course, If you're flying domestically, then the odds are that you're actually flying on something like Skywest anyhow, which is AAA-ball at best.
BSODs were by and large caused by poorly written third-party hardware drivers running in XP and earlier. The 2008 opening ceremony used XP, and given the rampant windows piracy in China, who knows if it was supported by microsoft? At any rate, by designing the Surface in-house MS avoids the very problem of obscure third-party drivers.
But that's exactly what everyone said was so great about Windows during the 90s: commodity hardware! Cheap parts! Vendor drivers!
Now it's all about the advantages of Apple-style vertical integration between hardware and software.
Hmmpf. And there you are, giving Microsoft credit for finally doing what Apple has been doing since 1984.
I heard that all of the recent Delta/Microsoft decisions were the direct order of Delta's CEO, Richard Anderson. He and Ballmer have been friends for a long time. Both of them have strong ties to Detroit and frequently overlap at events like The National Summit. Look for an article in the April 2012 Sky magazine for some of their candid conversations.
Not true. The majority are Apple fanatics. The Delta team has *excellent* ties to Cupertino and the two companies collaborated heavily to get the FlyDelta app launched (note how frequently it shows up in marketing images when Apple needs to use an icon).
When Delta's technology committee was charged with a new point-of-sale method, they recommended Apple. With the tablet tests winding down, IT recommended keeping the iPads. There's speculation that neither report was read by Richard, as the Delta executive team had already been swayed by the insider deal Microsoft offered.
PS: The flight attendants hate the Lumias too, so it's not just the pilots who are disappointed.
Thank you for the, I suppose, first-hand information.
Your argument is bases off functions the iPad does not do, you realize that, yes? These devices replace the paper maps and charts, and some checklists. They DO NOT interact with the aircraft in any way. Also to your point, the ineptness of a pilot is not based on their device as you just gave example of a $80 million aircraft that the pilot mismanaged, and I am sure the FAA had very strict guidelines on.
Also, this has nothing to do with the app as it is not provided by Microsoft or Apple. Again, having to tap twice on a chart will not in any way make the flight unsafe.
I disagree. Somehow I feel more secure when knowing they care deeply about all equipments. It's easy to say that it's not related but airplane had been crashed with stranger thing before.
Seriously,.. "given the rampant windows piracy in China"...So the Chinese government used pirated Microsoft software to run the biggest international event in their history, for billions of people to watch, including everybody at Microsoft? The excuses Windoze-apologists come up with are usually really tiresome, but this one makes me smile. I'm sure there weren't thousands of Microsoft people working on this setup for several years—of course not. And Steve Ballmer watched the games with its prominent display of Microsoft software and it never occurred to him to wonder why they never got in touch with Redmond.
I'm sure "poorly-written third-party drivers" explain why every PC I've been forced to use needed to be rebooted every five minutes, no matter how big the organization that set them up.
This. You want to trust your and your family's lives to THIS?!
Yes, it's a Surface RT...and the Surface II will be soooo much more reliable. Because, you know, because...Windows!
It was fine in some ways, but I can't tell you how many times we got the blue screen of death on the back-of-seat movie screen... only to have to watch the verbose MS-DOS reboot sequence when we asked for assistance (often without that being enough of a fix, because often it required a full reboot of every screen on the plane to make the system work again).
If only, I can't count the number of times I said, they would just drive the movie system with OS X instead of Windows. On our current frequent airline, US Air, they use Linux. That seems to work better than Windows. Still, can't help but think OS X would be easier for the non IT types on the plane who have to administer to the system in transit.
And now this... Windows in the cockpit. It literally makes me more nervous to fly on a Delta plane, if that's the equipment they're using (and that the management thinks it's the best equipment to provide).
P.S. One hopes, of course, that no matter what the tablet device in the front of the plane... that they're "powering off all electronic devices during landing and takeoff"... right?
Sigh.
All right already you guys, I got it! Everyone makes a typing mistake sometimes. Quit the ad hominem attacks and relax a little, we're all grown-ups here aren't we?
;-)
On behalf of all normally adjusted forum readers, Sumergo, ye are forgiven. Quite a bit of over the top vitriol in those responses to your post. Would love to see a willing return to civility, even online.
Thank you for the, I suppose, first-hand information.
Wish I could go into more details but Delta has *extremely* restrictive rules that guide social media interactions. Were one to write a comment that makes the company look bad or even just questions company policy, it's grounds for termination.
I can say that the company pays a PR firm to troll the web for all mentions of Delta and airline news and report back on the daily press. It's highly likely that this AppleInsider story was linked to. Right now, the teams for leadership, marketing, and corporate communications are getting an email with snippet summaries of yesterday, so please blast away*.
*But it will fall on deaf ears. If Delta executives read reports, they wouldn't have ignored their own internal advice to go Apple all the way. ; )
It's even more hypocritical than that. While saying how great it is that Microsoft provides the hardware and software together, they're still lambasting Apple for doing the same thing. Apparently, it's an evil closed system when Apple does it, but it's a marvel of efficiency and reliability when Microsoft does it.
I like that idea! I would definitely tune into the finale, if that were to happen.
" src="http://forums-files.appleinsider.com/images/smilies//lol.gif" />
With the way that the Surface tablets are selling (huge disastrous flop), you'd almost think that they were already under an impenetrable dome.
The dome was actually the reality distortion field created by such a massive concentration of Surface devices.
Keep in mind people M$ keeps lots of IT folks in a job, in Indian that is. We all know IT has always hated Apple since it just works and does not need masses of cheap labor unable to answer your questions when things do not work.
Face it M$ products are a job program for countries like Indian.
Where is the country "Indian"??
But that's exactly what everyone said was so great about Windows during the 90s: commodity hardware! Cheap parts! Vendor drivers!
Now it's all about the advantages of Apple-style vertical integration between hardware and software.
Hmmpf. And there you are, giving Microsoft credit for finally doing what Apple has been doing since 1984.
Isn't it obvious that's what MS has been trying to do since the original surface? Haven't you heard of their new "devices and services" mantra?
Its possible *this* pilot felt strongly about using iPads instead of Surfaces but I doubt most pilots even care. If it works whats the issue? If the IT folks decide its a better solution because it fits their Microsoft centric ecosystem then deal with it. This specific use case is particularly locked down with only one or two apps are installed - there's no real advantage of using iPads instead. With Surfaces you'll get the benefits of proper device management for thousands of users. That's significant.
Standard corp. IT stupidity. Consider it an indicator of a company in decline. I can relate. Our company is moving headlong into the IT dept.'s "all Windows utopia" wet dream, while our competitors are embracing iDevices, Android stuff (whatever), Linux, and other modern technologies. The insanity attitude is starting to show in the long term viability dept.
Surface 2 has only just launched so there hasn't been any trial. And no-one knows for sure if it will be certified by FAA, or how long that will take. If it fails, Delta will be looking very stupid.
Even if the Delta folks wanted to do SUrface 2, it would have been prudent to do some testing first. But I bet that Microsoft pushed them *very* hard for the announcement to be made now, to help with Surface rollout.
It would not surprise me to find that the devices are free and that Microsoft writes off the cost as marketing expense. It would be a drop in the bucket compared to the write-off they just took on the original models.
I'm sure "poorly-written third-party drivers" explain why every PC I've been forced to use needed to be rebooted every five minutes, no matter how big the organization that set them up.
Sure, to Windows those third-party drivers are just binary blobs. When Windows encounters an infinite loop written by some sloppy driver programmer, what options does it have? OS X has to deal with this problem far less frequently because all of the components that go into Apple computers are carefully vetted by Apple to work flawlessly with their own OS.
What OEMs did those organizations purchase from? I'm guessing Dell? That seems to be quite popular with businesses. Those major OEMs aren't exactly known for using carefully selected, rigorously tested components. The frequency of BSODs testifies to that fact.
At any rate, BSODs are much less common these days because third-party drivers have better tools for testing their code (http://www.zdnet.com/why-the-blue-screen-of-death-no-longer-plagues-windows-users-7000021327/). Windows 7 is a rock-solid OS. In fact, my mac has crashed far more often than any windows 7 machine I've used (but I'm willing to accept the possibility that my mac might just be a lemon).