The Era Of The Windows Device Is Here?

I wasn’t able to keep up with my usual feeds and sources of news and gossip during the week with all the meetings I was attending, travel, presenting, and catching up in the office.  But one thing I noticed was the re-emergence of some Linux people moaning about secure boot, and more comments (positive, negative and speculation) about Windows 8 ARM tablets.

On ARM tablets, other than the fact that we’ve seen them at Build (behind glass cases) and that they will eventually appear on the market, we know nothing else.  There’s no end of pointless speculation.  We can’t criticise them because we don’t know what they are.  If you are knocking them then I’d love to learn about your hands on experience with these Windows 8 devices … mainly because the manufacturers haven’t put any on the market or released any specs yet.  So shut the frak up!

As for the Linux folks, I don’t always agree with him but Paul Thurrot got it right on.  When Apple make it easy for you to install Linux on an iPad or on an iPhone, then come talk to us.

The truth is that Windows devices are changing.  When I got in the business in the mid 90’s it was the norm for an IT person or an enthusiast to not buy a home PC.  Machines from Gateway 2000 (their abandoned factory in Dublin is still sitting there, with the alleged drug rehab clinic inside!) or Dell were so restrictive and overpriced.  Change was happening at incredible rates.  In Dublin we would have gone to a place like Peats to buy a case, motherboard, and all the other gubbins to build a machine to meet our requirements.  Later we’d order from Komplett.  But most gamers switched to the PS2 (and PS3) or Xbox (and Xbox 360) to get consistent and easy to access games.  Switching out graphics cards every year to be able to play the latest game was not cool.  In fact, I felt like the price of a custom build went up and way beyond the factory PC.

Customisation seems to be dying.  Take the slate PCs (the “flat laptop with a touch screen” precursor to the Windows tablet that) that are on the market now.  The one we got at Build 2011 has a small SSD.  I’ve love to upgrade it but I can’t.  The chassis is sealed.  There’s no obvious way to open it.  It’s probably a safe bet that if it was a retail model, even opening the chassis would void the warrantee.  The new ultrabook I got is similar.  It has tiny screws that require an Allen key that you’d find only in the best of PC toolkits (lucky I got one from MSFT a few years ago) or a jewellers.  But again, opening that chassis will probably void the warrantee. 

I think we are moving from the customisable Windows PC era to the era of the Windows device.  Most BSODs I have encountered have been caused by device drivers.  If Microsoft can dictate device specifications, as they do with Windows Phone, then they can improve the user’s experience of Windows stability.  That’s one of the things Apple gets praise for, but they can control the hardware, driver, and OS to guarantee a better experience.  Microsoft has to deal with an incredible breadth of internal devices and drivers, made of manufacturers of varying skills and professionalism. 

My desire to customise has reduced over the years.  Buying components by myself is expensive.  The likes of Asus or HP can bulk buy and sell on to me as a part of a machine at a much better price.  Maybe I’m alone in this but I like this change.  A simple, pick it up and just use it appliance is what I want.  And I really don’t care if it can’t dual boot Linux.  Let the penguin shaggers go buy Linux devices instead