Microsoft Surface

[DailyDi]

Final stats and pricing are out for the new Windows tablet. Anyone biting?

I ordered one to play with. Would be nice to have full windows/software access in bed or on the road, plus it has expandable storage and a usb port for accessories.

[gah!ghost]

I'm honestly more excited about Amazon's tablets mostly due to their amazing data plans.

[DailyDi]

Yeah, Amazon did get great data plans for theirs. These are wifi only, so no cellular data to worry about

[~*PrincessZozo*~]

you got one... just to play with? God I wish I had that kind of money. I wouldn't get the RT, I'd get the full blown x86 one. The price is too high though. Getting a Nexus 7 for x-mas.

[gah!ghost]

The low-end Fire is a good deal for what it is and I have heard good things from people that own them. If I was to get one though it would have to be the $500-600 one with the one time $50 payment for 4G LTE. I don't think anyone else has a plan anything even remotely close to that good.

I have an iPad right now and the only thing that sucks is the lack of 4G access since I only have the WiFi version and wouldn't pay for the plan even if I had the model with the 4G receiver.

[DailyDi]

you got one... just to play with? God I wish I had that kind of money. I wouldn't get the RT, I'd get the full blown x86 one. The price is too high though. Getting a Nexus 7 for x-mas.

Yeah, the high end ones look real nice, but way too much money. I say to play with as if I don't like it I'll turn it around quick enough that I don't loose money. And if I do like it, then its worth having

[AbriForm]

Except Surface doesn't have full Windows software. It has Windows RT. Remember Windows CE? Same Microsoft, different decade.

Which means you're only going to be able to run "Metro" apps. Anything that requires Windows 7 or earlier won't run on Surface. And, any Windows 8 apps that require the Desktop won't run (except for Office and Internet Explorer).

You really have to hope apps get ported to Metro. Considering how many nerds hate Metro and would rather use Mac/Linux, I don't have high hopes.

[DailyDi]

Yeah, the Pro will have full windows 8, but it'll cost a lot more I'm sure. Mainly interested in having Office/Outlook and flash on a tablet, but what apps they get will Likely decide if I keep it.

[gah!ghost]

You really have to hope apps get ported to Metro. Considering how many nerds hate Metro and would rather use Mac/Linux, I don't have high hopes.

I think a lot of people don't realize that since Mac switched to Unix nerds now have a mainstream OS to latch onto. Pretty much all the web programmers I know use Mac OS and those that don't use Linux. A lot of programming, Ruby in particular, is much harder to setup and use on Windows than on Linux/Unix. It's one of those things when I was younger I was just not aware of. I always felt like the comp-sci geeks love of Linux was more idealogical but really, at least now anyway, it's practical as well as idealogical.

That said, I personally don't want Microsoft to go away for the same reasons why I didn't want them to be 99% market share in the browser market. So I hope they garner success with these new tablets. With Microsoft gone it would fall to Amazon and Google to fight Apple and I don't think they're up to the task yet. Which is not to say I hate Apple, all my computers are Apple and I own both an iTouch and iPad but lack of competition is never a good thing. Just look at how in the above example lack of competition in the browser market essentially stopped the advance of all web-based technology for a decade.

There's plenty of room for more than one maker of product-x. As I often state about what I like in my diapers, I'm all for variety. More the merrier I say.

[battlemage]

Nope, not biting. It isn't that Microsoft has failed to impress me, but that I just don't like tablets in general. I'd rather have a real computer to work with than a tablet.

[Dubious]

Same, there is not a big difference between real laptops and tablets when it comes to size

But there is a huge difference when it comes to useability

[dogpiss]

I think a friend of mine put it best when I asked if he liked the new MS Tablets and the new Windows 8 UI:

"If I run out of vomit, can I borrow some of yours?"

[gah!ghost]

For me I've always been a desktop user. For any real work I do I need a large work area and a wacom tablet. So laptops to me have always been cumbersome difficult to use internet machines. Tablets to me are the perfect solution. They offer all the functionality I need out of a laptop but with better portability and ease of use. They have no bootup time, long battery life, are very easy to use while standing, etc.

It all depends on what you're using it for. Every programmer I know has a laptop as they're great for programming yet I find them useless for doing design work. The right tool for the right job an all that.