If OEMs aren't committed to Windows 8, where are they to go?

Microsoft understands that building its own line of Surface tablets is going to upset the OEMs, but it's doing it anyway because there's not much the OEMs can do about it.

Read all about it here:

If OEMs aren't committed to Windows, where are they to go? | ZDNet

 

[Coke Robot]

I don't find that the Surface is a huge threat as it will only be sold online or at their physical Microsoft Stores. If, by chance, someone like best buy wants to sell them, they can.

And if it is threat to OEMs, well, they better make something better or on par for less. They will get slaughtered using android as their platform as some OEMs already have like ASUS, Samsung, and I think Dell and HP with their Linux variant of WebOS.

 

[SIW2]

That article is pretty much what I have been saying.

No point in trying to take on Apple at their own game.

The oem's are stuck in a hard place.

Worried win8 won't sell well enough to recoup their investment, and finding it hard to get in where the real action will be.

Their best move would have been to get in at the $200 area.

Nexus is a concern for them. How can they compete with that - I believe is Google selling them online at a loss.

They are incredible value - and android is geting better all the time.

We might see a split.

The big market at under $250 dominated by great value devices, running improved android.

A different market $ 500 and up - MS trying to wrest some share away from Apple.

Oem's have to be cautious trying to pitch in there - they don't think Win8 is going to fly - they don't know how to tackle the nexus situation.

 

[alphanumeric]

If I was going to buy an ARM based tablet I'd take Android over Windows RT any day of the week. Windows 8 with Metro is bad enough, but Windows RT with all of its limitations, give me a break. I don't think so Tim. IMHO why pay more for less? Microsoft is screwing the OEM's with the Surface, they know it, and could care less. When you are in a monopoly position you can basically do what you want, and they are doing it. I'm not pro Microsoft or anti Microsoft. I just want something that works for me.

IMHO, Microsoft started something, Metro, but didn't finish it. Windows 8 is a half backed OS. Its schizophrenic, it doesn't know if its a desktop OS or Tablet OS.

 

[Coke Robot]

What if Windows 8 is an OS for the PC regardless of form factor?.....

If forced to buy an ARM based tablet, I would either wait for Windows RT to have more apps available or just buy one right away and wait for more app selection. But there are some variables as I would use my desktop for the things the tablet can't run and use the tablet for pure mobility, like for Office, Interwebster Explorer 10, a few news apps, a few Xbox Live games, and access to my home PC for media streaming through SkyDrive. I vote Windows over android any day. Ugg. android is genuinely something built for little green robots, it has codenames of foods and treats that cause obesity and illness and looks and acts more robotic than something natural. Ew. I also vote Windows over android simply because of familiarity. The ICS tablets to me just don't feel right with me, as I choose something that even if I didn't know how to use Windows 8, I would at least know a good 50 percent of it which is far more than android.

 

[legacy7955]

Best bet for OEMs would be to use the excellent Linux Mint OS.

Especially those that cater to small businesses like HP, Lenovo and Dell.

 

[Coke Robot]

I don't know, this just hit me today about this subject. Theoretically, OEMs could switch to Linux or android if they wanted to, but what stops them is Windows. Think about this, when vista came out, people had issues with it and hated it and wanted to poo on it. Some did. But even though some OEMs were making PCs with vista that could barely run it, people still stuck to Windows. Granted, people just stuck with xp until the storm was over, then moved onto 7. Even though there was the angst against vista, people still used a Windows product.

But, as we live in different times with different factors, this may or may not turn out the same. The main thing is the Surface. Looking at it, it won't cause any main issues with the OEMs as Microsoft will only sell it in THEIR Microsoft Stores and I believe online. Not a huge market to broadcast it. There is also the hugely different UI with Windows 8, but I don't think that would be a matter as you CAN use it. There isn't a physical impediment to it unlike vista, where you sat there for minutes on end just to open a few programs at the same time.

 

[SIW2]

where you sat there for minutes on end just to open a few programs at the same time

That never happened to me running 64 bit Vista on a machine with 2gb ram. No oem bloatware , tho.

It always worked great - fabulous o/s - for me at least.

I could never really understand other peoples dislike of it.

Sounds like it is the same with you and Win8.

The difference is - I was willing to accept that others did not find it worked it for them - for a whole variety of reasons.

 

[Mike Lonewolf]

Sneaks on SIW2's Windows Vista box, and changes the O/S to Windows ME. Bahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!

 

[chev65]

From what I'm seeing I believe that Msoft expects the OEM's to simply go out of business while expecting everybody to purchase the surface tablet and for everyone else to just toss the old PC's into the trash.

Apparently with this new Op system it's Msoft's way or the highway.

 

[legacy7955]

From what I'm seeing I believe that Msoft expects the OEM's to simply go out of business while expecting everybody to purchase the surface tablet and for everyone else to just toss the old PC's into the trash.

Apparently with this new Op system it's Msoft's way or the highway.

I'm anxiously awaiting the firing of Steve Ballmer. This should be the straw, don't you think?

Hahaha....the PC is just going to go away. The arrogance of these people is stunning!

 

[Soundtweaker]

Some of them deserve to go out of business. Selling crappy hardware and bloatware for years eventually catches up to them.

 

[legacy7955]

Some of them deserve to go out of business. Selling crappy hardware and bloatware for years eventually catches up to them.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I agree that some OEMs have had some serious issues with bloatware and terrible quality hardware, but I think this has actually improved over the last 5 years or so. I think several are considering offering a clean Windows installation from their factories at a slight additional cost to the consumer, which is otherwise usually covered by the bloatware companies.

 

[Coke Robot]

where you sat there for minutes on end just to open a few programs at the same time

That never happened to me running 64 bit Vista on a machine with 2gb ram. No oem bloatware , tho.

It always worked great - fabulous o/s - for me at least.

I could never really understand other peoples dislike of it.

Sounds like it is the same with you and Win8.

The difference is - I was willing to accept that others did not find it worked it for them - for a whole variety of reasons.

It's so strange to find people that had a blast with vista, it's almost like an oxymoron. I've worked on some PCs that had vista on them, and WOW. Even AFTER uninstalling the bloatware, disabling some services, defragging, disabling startup items, and the latest Windows updates, there was STILL performance lags even on system with 4 gigs of RAM and 64 bit Windows. Strange conundrum, but 7 fixed those issues right up. And Windows 8 makes better use of the system resources than 7.

 

[Kat]

I still have the system I beta-tested Vista on (a P4 2.8Ghz), although it's been upgraded since then.

One of the OSes it currently runs is an unpatched, non-SP copy of Vista Ultimate.

The Vista setup doesn't get worked often, or hard, and is NOT connected to the net.

And I've never had a problem with it (touch wood!).

EDIT: - It also lurks in a VM on this machine.

 

[Mustang]

I recently upgraded my reserve machine on which I'm running Vista Ultimate 32bit OEM, with a SSD SATA3 hard drive and 8GB RAM. And truthfully I can hardly tell the diference between it and Win7 Ultimate 64bit running on same SSD on my main machine. Mind you the Vista disc was purchased from a retail computer shop, and installed by a friend who is a licenced system builder, so it was totally free of bloatware. And since then I have reinstalled a few times after doing an unconditional format of HD.

There are a lot of little simple things missing in Vista though, like if a USB stick is plugged in, when you safe remove, it IDs the drive letter, but not the name of the stick. Whereas Win7 will say Toshiba or Elements, etc. Not a major running issue, but just annoying inconveniences.

I have installed a virtual copy of XP on my Win7 machine using Brink's tutorial in W7Forum. How hard is it to do with Win8?

 

[Mike Lonewolf]

Mustang said:

I have installed a virtual copy of XP on my Win7 machine using Brink's tutorial in W7Forum. How hard is it to do with Win8?

No different actually. Just follow Brink's tutorial like with the XP to 7.

 

[raj11650]

so windows 8 RTM available in techent or somewhere else if not when ll it be available!!!

 

[Mustang]

Mustang said:

I have installed a virtual copy of XP on my Win7 machine using Brink's tutorial in W7Forum. How hard is it to do with Win8?

No different actually. Just follow Brink's tutorial like with the XP to 7.

Thanks Mike. In that tutorial he gave a link to download XP Virtual file + a KB download. Are similar Win8 Virtual + KB available?

Is there a similar tutorial in this forum for Win8 Virtual? I looked but couldn't see it in the tutorials.

 

[Mike Lonewolf]

Mustang, it would be in the tutorial section here. Brink's keeps it pretty well organized and in order.