More Than 3 Out of 4 Enthusiasts Reject Windows 8
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I doubt I'll live long enough to see a tablet, let alone a smartphone, with a six core CPU, 32GB of RAM, and several TB of storage.
If you meant "the processing power of a six-core x86" this could happen within 5 years if not sooner (there are already quad-core processors in all major tablets, point is they can't compete with even a x86 dual core in processing power).
As far as RAM and storage, the main limitation is the power (and space) budget. And the fact most ARM processors are 32-bit.
But frankly at some point it would make no sense to put so much power in a device given to the average customer, whose most intensive activity will be watching HD videos and playing some Nintendo64-like games.
For Ubuntu Edge-like devices (that can double as desktop if connected to other peripherals) it would make sense to go further, and that's where ARM is headed with its new designs.
There are some semi-ARM devices in the works with massive multi-threading coprocessors, able to achieve 90 Gflops of processing power over 64 cores. As a comparison, an i7 3770k does 110-130 Gflops, and an i5 3570k does 120, here other processors.
Point is, the above device pulls this off with less than 10 watts total (and the latest prototypes claim 50 Gflops per watt), an affordable price and tiny size (can fit in a tablet). And the technology can scale upwards with more cores keeping a tablet-fitting size.
Intel is also shitting bricks because now everyone wants to build supercomputers and servers with ARM processors (even without the above). Just google it, tons of articles.
AMD is jumping the gun and plans to make the first server-grade 8 or 16 core 64-bit ARM SoC.
So yeah, ARM can and may very well wipe out x86 while still doing tiny stuff.
Point is, desktops as "big/multiple screen(s), a keyboard and an accurate pointing device put on a table" are not going to disappear, regardless of what is the most powerful device or architecture 5 or 10 years down the road. Unless they perfect thought-machine interfaces and retinal projectors, that is.
It's a matter of minimum screen size required and minimum ergonomics required to avoid back and arm pain after a few hours of use. Tech changes, humans don't.
Last edited by bobafetthotmail; 23 Aug 2013 at 06:17.
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CNN home page is reporting this:
"Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced Friday that he will retire within the next 12 months. No successor named. Stock surges."
Regarding an earlier Win 8 proponent poster that used numerous "*"'s and opined such as "If you don't like it, don't load it":
Mainstream consumers might disagree with this comment, having visited local stores and seeing Win 8 loaded on almost all new machines.
I'm guessing that posters here are considerably more PC-savvy than the average consumer so we'll have knowledge of alternatives that Joe/Jane Main Street may not be aware of, ie, building our own machines with Win 7 loaded or other alternatives.
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Steve had a lot of enthusiasm, unfortunately it did not transfer to Microsoft making great user products. Let's hope the next CEO will focus on an area that made Microsoft great - producing a desktop OS that most users will really appreciate!
The best of Steve Ballmer - YouTube
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CNN home page is reporting this:
"Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced Friday that he will retire within the next 12 months. No successor named. Stock surges."
Regarding an earlier Win 8 proponent poster that used numerous "*"'s and opined such as "If you don't like it, don't load it":
Since you seems to be building your own machine, what's wrong with that statement?
Mainstream consumers might disagree with this comment, having visited local stores and seeing Win 8 loaded on almost all new machines.
Really, you don't really get around much, do you? For your information, here's what Bestbuy has as of today for the Windows platform, the total number of desktops preloaded with a version of Windows is 1,425:
- Windows 7: 944
- Windows 8: 342
- Windows XP: 41
- Windows Embedded: 3
The first 15 of top sellers come preloaded with Windows 8, and that's just at Bestbuy. Again, what was your point about "seeing Win 8 loaded on almost all new machines"?
Source
Yes, Bestbuy sells Linux computers preloaded as well, the total number for Linux is two. You wouldn't know that in this Windows forum since it sounds like that the Linux platform is more popular than Windows 8. In case you have some doubt, it is not...
I'm guessing that posters here are considerably more PC-savvy than the average consumer so we'll have knowledge of alternatives that Joe/Jane Main Street may not be aware of, ie, building our own machines with Win 7 loaded or other alternatives.
So what if the quoted, but not named poster, build his/her own machine, prefer to install Windows 8, and getting tired of the minority group here beating up on MS/Windows 8 and advocating Linux? For people, who actually like Windows 8 such as myself, yeah, this is becoming tiresome...
Last edited by Cr00zng; 23 Aug 2013 at 15:16.
Reason: Spelling, what I could find....
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Windows 8 is a flop by any standard. It brought down the CEO and if they don't mitigate it seriously in the near future it may bring down the company.
Those who feel betrayed by Windows 8 here are by no means a "minority group" as much as you obviously frown on those, but esteemed members who've been with these forums since the earliest days and helped build it to the undisputed top tech forums on the web, with more traffic and better reputation than all others put together.
Most of the Win7 repair protocols which are now Best Practices were developed here with the lead of SIW2 who lives and works inside the OS, and is equal resident of EightForums. Documented here he has blown the whistle on both the technological and MS-business-plan-revamp miscalculation underlying Windows 8. I've never known him to be wrong about anything.
So we know some things, and one thing we know is that Windows 8 is a disaster worse than Vista. And as those who know it best, we also believe that like with Vista the cure for Windows 8 is Windows 7, MS's wildly successful OS. It needs a SP2 and eventually a worthy successor.
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Well said Greg
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I catch your drift