[!]

'PC Plus' machines being prepped for CES to run Android on Windows in retaliation against Microsoft.

How desperate are OEMs to make lemonade out of the Windows 8.1 RT lemon? They're going to be pushing something called a "PC Plus" initiative at CES this year, which in a nutshell is simply the ability for Windows tablets and laptops to run Android apps or dual-boot Windows and Android.

According to Tim Bajarin at Time, in one scenario this will be done through software emulation, wherein users will be able to run Android apps on top of Windows 8.1. Analyst Patrick Moorhead told ComputerWorld that other paradigms would include running Android in a virtual machine on top of Windows or else a straightforward dual-boot situation where users could switch between Windows and Android, perhaps with the simple tap of a button.

Regardless, the whole PC Plus effort, if it gains any traction at all, is a sad state of affairs for Windows RT.

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For one thing, it's a tacit indictment by OEMs of the latest mobile Windows operating system, and in particular its lack of apps. The Windows app store is growing, to be sure, but--and this is a contested point even among some of us at HH--it's still not up to snuff when you compare it to the number of available Android and iOS apps.

Put another way: There are so few apps available for Windows 8.1 that PC makers feel it necessary to emulate apps designed to run on an entirely different platform. Worse, they're in some cases going to be offering a different operating system altogether. Hopefully the emulations will be good ones, but in any case that's still just an ugly patch over a nagging problem.

BlueStacks already offers the ability to run Android apps on Windows and Mac OS X with its LayerCake technology, and there have been products that offer dual-booting capabilities before, but this PC Plus initiative looks to be more than just a neat option for consumers--if it materializes, it appears to be a desperate, concerted effort by OEMs to prop up sales of their Windows devices.

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PC makers are frustrated right now. At a time when traditional PC sales are being cannibalized by tablets, they needed Microsoft to deliver a compelling operating system that would boost interest in new Microsoft-driven device types, but instead they got an OS that's proven to be unpopular with consumers thus far (sometimes unfairly, sometimes not). At the same time, Microsoft started competing directly with them when it rolled out its own line of Surface tablets.

Whether or not there will be any PC Plus fallout from Microsoft remains to be seen, but in any case, if this all comes to fruition, Redmond will likely be rather embarrassed by the whole thing.

[MasterOne]

Wow...pretty ridiculous! I think people will just go out and buy an Android device if that's what they're after, rather than deal with "PC Plus", something that sounds really hokey. And who knows if it will even work right; probably not. "PC Plus" sounds like something that was bundled with Windows 3.1. I'm afraid that the industry's desperate attempts at product uptake is going to continue to fall on deaf ears. I think some commercials featuring hula girls with big tits would be way more successful. Consumers know to stay away from Windows 8.x -- nearly everybody I talk to knows that it's a dud. They say things like this: "Windows 8? I heard it sucks". When you base your business around one software title, and your success is contingent on that, it makes you start thinking about Linux's future as Microsoft's heydey is seemingly coming to a close whether you like it or not. That doesn't mean that Windows will instantaneously go away, but their once elephantine dominance on the desktop is slowly losing steam.

[!]

..."PC Plus" sounds like something that was bundled with Windows 3.1...

Haha so true and funny, how Windows 8 is almost worse than Windows 3.1.

...Consumers know to stay away from Windows 8.x -- nearly everybody I talk to knows that it's a dud. They say things like this: "Windows 8? I heard it sucks"...

I'm starting to think that Microsoft deliberately and on purpose made Windows 8.x user interface sucky to distract people from the real issue, Windows Store lock-in... AND...

...When you base your business around one software title...

...and also, I think they know that this would hurt OEMs. Why do it? Because they want to sell their own machines and hardware now! What a brilliant and sinister plan really. I mean, think about it, they are strong in the enterprise and they could survive a hit on one or two Windows versions being a dud but many many many OEMs will not survive it. I think this is the second stage of their plan. First distract the people from the Windows Store lock-in, second, start killing off as many OEMs as you can.

...That doesn't mean that Windows will instantaneously go away, but their once elephantine dominance on the desktop is slowly losing steam...

Once many OEMs go the way of the dodo, they start to "fix" Windows. By that time, many OEMs have died and now people who want a PC will buy Microsoft's own hardware.

Sure, we call them dumb and stupid but in reality, I don't think they (including Ballmer) are THAT stupid. These kinds of corporate snakes have always a plan and they never get to the position they are by being stupid or lucky.

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Some interesting quotes from Slashdot:

After MS started this whole MSDN certified shop philosophy they realized that they could trap people into their ecosystem. Nearly every product they have come up with since has not been a very good product but another attempt to lock people in. Sharepoint would be a near perfect example. It seems to be designed to be a MS glue that where you needed MS SQL, MS Server, MS Office, MS Outlook, MS Explorer, and MS Windows to make it work. Take any bit away and no more sharepoint. There would be no slowly migrating away from that one. MS probably looked at how they killed WordPerfect and Novell and said, "We won't let anyone get a thin edge of a wedge into our ecosystem like we did to them."

But they let things stagnate so much that when mobile came along all they could think about was protecting their eco system. So instead of coming up with a lightweight tablet they made the surface that integrates with their eco system.

So basically it seems that MS has become a company that is entirely based upon fooling people into making bad decisions.

But this might seem like a good idea to keep customers from leaking away. The problem is that when they do leave they leave entirely and are never coming back unless their new system sucks even more. Where this is real problem is that the MS system can really suck without losing too many customers due to inertia. But as history has repeatedly shown people don't leave one stagnant tradition for a slightly better one, they leave for something completely new and often quite different.

An interesting example from history was the end of whale oil; it was around $1900 per barrel (today's prices) while crude oil was around $90 a barrel. This put more and more pressure for people to figure out how to extract useful replacements from crude. When they did still people kept on with Whale oil but then suddenly "petroleum" products wiped out the whale oil industry almost overnight. Once the trend started there was nothing the whale industry could do; it was over.

I would say that MS is in a very bad place. Customers who switch to mobile are entirely eliminating MS from their minds. Not out of hate or revenge but simply they don't see an use for MS products in their lives. Of course some people are still using MS office to type a bit and Excel to add up a few numbers but the vast majority would be perfectly happy with Office 97.

So as I say MS has a business model based upon people making bad decisions. But now many people aren't even seeing MS as one of their options.

This is another lost opportunity for Linux operating systems. By Linux operating systems i do not mean OSs with a Linux kernel, which is not a real Linux OS, but one that has the full standard userland as well. I believe many of the main Linux developers have themselves to blame for the failure to capitalize on Microsoft's ineptness. This especially includes failing to realize that hardware support is the big thing that holds up Linux being a viable Windows replacement and the fact that accepting the fact we need to make it easy for users to use Binary drivers and provide a stable ABI for binary drivers. Instead Kernel developers lie through their teeth. One lie is that drivers in the kernel source tree are better than binary drivers. Yet there is a long list of binary drivers that perform much better than the ones in the kernel source tree. Another is that its reasonable to ask hardware vendors to provide open source drivers, when in fact many cannot because they license their driver source from third parties, furthermore, hardware companies cannot be expected to make huge concessions to Linux communities when the user share is still small. The fact is many hardware vendors will never open source and no amount of wishful thinking will change that. Linux people who think that somehow its a privelege for hardware vendors to develop drivers for Linux and will make huge concessions to do so are fooling themselves, if anything, they are doing us a favor and we would have to convince them to do so, including by having a well documented driver API.

The lack of a well documented driver API is a serious problem itself. Part of the problem is the fact Kernel developers practice what are generally regarded as poor habits by failing to document their code and properly document interfaces. Microsoft has better driver API documentation than Linux. I have looked into the documentation myself and it is extremely hard to find any. Most companies will just throw up their arms and not continue if they cannot find clear documentation. They are clearly not going to root around some kernel hackers source code to try to backengineer the API from the source code.

[Steven W]

I'm starting to think that Microsoft deliberately and on purpose made Windows 8.x user interface sucky to distract people from the real issue, Windows Store lock-in... AND...

I'd go so far as to say the whole damned thing is nothing more than a front-end for the store.

[Steven W]

http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2013/12 ... rchase-us/

Microsoft today announced a new deal for US consumers looking to buy a new PC or tablet. As long as your new computer is running Windows 8 or Windows 8.1, you'll also get a promotional $25 Windows Store gift card (for buying apps and games directly from the Windows Store, the Windows Phone Store, and select Xbox stores).

That's the future. Resistance is futile.

[!]

...That's the future. Resistance is futile.

To hell with them and their store.

[MasterOne]

I'm starting to think that Microsoft deliberately and on purpose made Windows 8.x user interface sucky to distract people from the real issue, Windows Store lock-in... AND...

I'm not at all into conspiracy theories besides enjoying the science fiction entertainment they provide; when people start believing in them, and then further start believing in more, you start to question why they believe in things which have less evidence associated with them. It's like someone getting cancer, and going to some quack to get treated and eventually succumbing to their illness because they decided that the snake oil treatment was the one to be trusted. The case of a potential conspiracy alleging that Microsoft deliberately made the Windows 8.x user interface bad to distract people from "Windows Store lock-in" wouldn't make sense to me, because the UI itself is what turned so many people off to Windows 8.x, and that resulted in the shunning by many of the idea of purchasing the product altogether. I think the UI is just indicative of what Microsoft's history shows us: they really don't have any taste. I think Sinofsky and Ballmer being let go kind of further proves the point that Microsoft isn't fucking around, and if you fuck the consumer division of the company up by designing and releasing atrociously crappy shit, you will be guaranteed to get eighty-sixed. If Microsoft wants to change people's opinions of Windows, then they better release something that doesn't have a known back door, doesn't have a bifurcated user interface, and is something that isn't designed for people with an IQ of 70. But what do I care; I prefer Linux as it's a better platform and has a superior kernel and native filesystem than what Microsoft offers.

...and also, I think they know that this would hurt OEMs. Why do it? Because they want to sell their own machines and hardware now! What a brilliant and sinister plan really. I mean, think about it, they are strong in the enterprise and they could survive a hit on one or two Windows versions being a dud but many many many OEMs will not survive it. I think this is the second stage of their plan. First distract the people from the Windows Store lock-in, second, start killing off as many OEMs as you can.

I have to disagree here. That conspiracy is just too out there and goes against exactly what made Microsoft what they are today. The irony over the corporate decisions MS made over Windows 8, is that MS's biggest market share is in desktop computing, yet they foisted a tablet OS on their most important consumer market. When MS's tablet and phone offerings are pretty much total failures, why would they purposely ruin Windows with the intent of eventually fixing it in hopes to garner future sales in two area which are already extremely volatile? We could say that part of the conspiratorial plan is that MS is predicting that in a technological sense, Linux has came so far along that Windows has no long-term future on the desktop, and by deliberately destroying and fixing Windows in the future, right around the time they kill off the OEMs, they will profit that much more by having a business model just like Apple's. The thing about that, is that Apple has a predominately esoteric customer base that's after a chic product, something Microsoft doesn't enjoy, and would, in my mind, be almost impossible to achieve at this point in history. Buying Nokia is an attempt at MS trying to gain more traction in the smartphone arena, as their smartphone market share percentage is currently dismal. I don't think MS is ever going to get big in mobile, but I could be wrong. Prove me wrong Microsoft, and release a phone OS that doesn't have a UI with a bunch of dumbass little squares all over the screen -- something a 9-year old developmentally disabled child may be attracted to. Could it be possible that Microsoft has a secret plan to kill OEMs off? Yeah, but if they wanted to, they could discontinue licensing their software to OEMs and only sell their own OS's on their own devices. OEMs help Microsoft's entire ecosystem, because those companies perform their own advertising, distribution, technical support, manufacturing, etc -- and, as I previously pointed out, consumers that aren't shopping for crapple want to see a variety, not to mention that competition lowers prices. And in the meantime, Microsoft can still be a competitor and sell their own offerings. Also, Microsoft has a long tradition of licensing to OEMs, and that makes them a lot of money. Why break precedent now?

Sure, we call them dumb and stupid but in reality, I don't think they (including Ballmer) are THAT stupid. These kinds of corporate snakes have always a plan and they never get to the position they are by being stupid or lucky.

Windows 8 was already too far down the pipeline after they realized what a piece of shit it was, so they had to go forward with their original plan. Blunders happen all the time in big business, and Windows 8 has gone down in history as a stupid and careless mistake. Steve Ballmer is only a business man, and obviously hired the wrong people. In that sense, yes, he's an idiot.

After MS started this whole MSDN certified shop philosophy they realized that they could trap people into their ecosystem. Nearly every product they have come up with since has not been a very good product but another attempt to lock people in. Sharepoint would be a near perfect example. It seems to be designed to be a MS glue that where you needed MS SQL, MS Server, MS Office, MS Outlook, MS Explorer, and MS Windows to make it work. Take any bit away and no more sharepoint. There would be no slowly migrating away from that one. MS probably looked at how they killed WordPerfect and Novell and said, "We won't let anyone get a thin edge of a wedge into our ecosystem like we did to them."

Last I checked MS didn't run a charity. Of course they're going to try to lock people into their ecosystem -- is this guy just on a role to write the obvious, like: "hey guys, the sky is blue!" If you don't like it, don't use it. Do I agree with the idea that the Windows Store is a good thing? No. But Microsoft can do whatever they want with their software, and if they piss users and developers off in the process, so be it -- that's on them. I'm neither a Microsoft lover or a Microsoft hater. I'm unbiased, and tell it as I see it, and I do use Windows.

But they let things stagnate so much that when mobile came along all they could think about was protecting their eco system. So instead of coming up with a lightweight tablet they made the surface that integrates with their eco system.

The Surface integrates with MS's eco system? Holy shit! Run for the hills people!

So basically it seems that MS has become a company that is entirely based upon fooling people into making bad decisions.

I think this guy is a potential candidate to be MS's next CEO.

But this might seem like a good idea to keep customers from leaking away. The problem is that when they do leave they leave entirely and are never coming back unless their new system sucks even more. Where this is real problem is that the MS system can really suck without losing too many customers due to inertia. But as history has repeatedly shown people don't leave one stagnant tradition for a slightly better one, they leave for something completely new and often quite different.

The sky is falling!

An interesting example from history was the end of whale oil; it was around $1900 per barrel (today's prices) while crude oil was around $90 a barrel. This put more and more pressure for people to figure out how to extract useful replacements from crude. When they did still people kept on with Whale oil but then suddenly "petroleum" products wiped out the whale oil industry almost overnight. Once the trend started there was nothing the whale industry could do; it was over.

Now we're talking about whale oil? This guy is a complete moron.

I would say that MS is in a very bad place. Customers who switch to mobile are entirely eliminating MS from their minds. Not out of hate or revenge but simply they don't see an use for MS products in their lives. Of course some people are still using MS office to type a bit and Excel to add up a few numbers but the vast majority would be perfectly happy with Office 97.

"They don't see a use for MS products in their lives"? What the fucking hell is this idiot even talking about? Office 365 is making a shit ton of cash currently, so this guy obviously needs his mother to pull the cable out of the wall and send him on his merry way back down to his basement.

So as I say MS has a business model based upon people making bad decisions. But now many people aren't even seeing MS as one of their options.

The chemtrails are killing us!

[!]

I don't know. I agree with a lot in your post but it's not always about conspiracy theories. I personally have been involved in a few corporations and I know for fact that they actually do think in a sinister way and all they see if money and how to kill their competition.

[!]

The beginning of the end...

Dual OS support in Intel processors confirmed.

At the Consumer Electronics Show 2014 in Las Vegas, Intel has confirmed support for running Windows and Android simultaneously on their processors...

14 companies will offer Steam Machines in 2014; many will dual boot Windows.

The list of those PC makers includes:

Alienware
Alternate
CyberPowerPC
Digital Storm
Falcon NW
GigaByte
iBuyPower
Maingear
Material.net
Next Spa
Origin PC
Scan
Webhallen
Zotac

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[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Evil_Ballmer.jpg

Nicely done!