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Next Windows release "Threshold", to unify operating systems

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Mainly because the Steam OS means better driver and code support for Linux in general.

yeah but it's irritating when people say things like "GABE WAS RIGHT"

Gabe owns a big fuck off walled garden and he LIKES IT.

So do I mind, but I don't have a problem with walled gardens, as long as there is you know, things outside them. Which is exactly what windows has and why it will continue be by a long shot, the best OS until they kill the desktop.
 
Why are people seeing this as a bad thing. Holy crap.
Take a tablet, attach a keyboard. Congratulations, that is your computer with unified OS. There is no sense in bringing them more close together unless you're talking about the look and terminology.
 
yeah but it's irritating when people say things like "GABE WAS RIGHT"

Gabe owns a big fuck off walled garden and he LIKES IT.

So do I mind, but I don't have a problem with walled gardens, as long as there is you know, things outside them. Which is exactly what windows has and why it will continue be by a long shot, the best OS until they kill the desktop.

You do understand the difference between the Steam store/software and SteamOS, right?
 
You do understand the difference between the Steam store/software and SteamOS, right?

Steam store is a big app store. Steam OS is Linux with (I am assuming) a more user friendly interface.

Exacta-fucking-ly like windows marketplace and windows 8.
 
Unifying is a good thing.

But if it just unified the name, and combine every other parts together to call it unified? MS, go home.

Btw, what I mean combining OSes is something like the current Metro+Desktop thing
 
Unification is a good thing when you combine things that make sense. A tablet operating system on a desktop doesn't.

Both mobile and desktop use the same web. No reason why apps can't do the same thing. From a development standpoint it makes a lot of sense to adjust the app UI for the capabilities of the device but underneath they all do the same thing and it shouldn't matter.
 
Steam store is a big app store. Steam OS is Linux with (I am assuming) a more user friendly interface.

Exacta-fucking-ly like windows marketplace and windows 8.

please inform me what programs are limited to certain functions on steam os unless they are bought on steam
 
please inform me what programs are limited to certain functions on steam os unless they are bought on steam

Most(if not all) steamworks functions require the game to be on steam, steam DRM and steam cloud come to mind right away. If that applies specifically to steam OS I can't tell you. Is it even out yet?
 
please inform me what programs are limited to certain functions on steam os unless they are bought on steam

AFAIK, to use Valve's servers for stuff like achievements and cloud saves you need to be tied to Steam. I don't think there is any local functionality that is locked, though. I can live with that.

I'm not really the biggest fan of Steamworks. It's better than GFWL, but I don't really like games locking themselves to a single distribution platform.
 
Microsoft won't dump Windows RT (or what they now call 'Windows'; with oldschool desktop-programs-compatible-windows referred-to as 'Windows 8 Pro'). In time that will become the normal Windows. For the vast majority of people (whom used to get-by with ÂŁ200-ÂŁ400 netbooks, and have now moved-onto smartphones and tablets for their basic computing needs) that will be enough, as they only use computers as Internet/Facebook/Email/MS Office machines. Especially as it is fast and snappy, and apparently can't have viruses written for it (or at least hasn't just yet).

Over on the 'Windows 8 Pro' side of things, I can say that the Microsoft Surface Pro tablet is wonderful. It's full Windows, but without 3rd party manufactorer bloat software and services pre-loaded onto the machine. It was those systems which gave Windows a bad name over the years, because even a cheap ÂŁ200-ÂŁ400 netbook could be fine back in the day, but they were infinately hampered and hindered by said bloatware.

If MS would remove their heads from their asses and lower the prices of Microsoft Surface devices I reckon they would sell like hotcakes. People want portable tablets. Most people want full Windows and Office compatability for all their files. But people won't pay those prices.
 
For power users they can't and won't get rid of admin-level access on PCs (though ideally a lot of applications should be subject to the same strong permissioning especially from foreign sources). There's too much that depends on it and you cannot develop software if you aren't allowed to run it yourself but the more consumer-centric you get the less you need to be running custom stuff on it.

The second that Microsoft allow individuals to freely sign their own applications for Windows RT and the Metro interface in Windows 8 that might even sound remotely plausible.

But they don't. So it isn't.
 
Most(if not all) steamworks functions require the game to be on steam, steam DRM and steam cloud come to mind right away. If that applies specifically to steam OS I can't tell you. Is it even out yet?
I like you.

Yeah we have no clue.

I really doubt it will be though.
Please tell me what functionality is being limited in the Win8 and WinRT model that is getting your jimmies all ruffled?

I assume he means things like information on the start screen tile, and systemwide notifications.
Ta da.

Granted it's shit that I don't care about or use, and it's not on apps I care about, but that's not the point. It's the precedent that's being set here.
AFAIK, to use Valve's servers for stuff like achievements and cloud saves you need to be tied to Steam. I don't think there is any local functionality that is locked, though. I can live with that.

I'm not really the biggest fan of Steamworks. It's better than GFWL, but I don't really like games locking themselves to a single distribution platform.
I can get that, but still that's steam. Not the steam os, or even linux as a whole.

Once a feature in the os is locked to programs bought through steam, then let the bitching begin.

At this point though most people just see the steam os as driving more attention to linux as a whole, so you you can just buy more games that support linux and play them on your ubuntu or whatever.
 
"We have the Windows Phone OS. We have Windows RT and we have full Windows. We're not going to have three. We do think there's a world where there is a more mobile operating system that doesn't have the risks to battery life, or the risks to security. But, it also comes at the cost of flexibility. So we believe in that vision and that direction and we're continuing down that path."

And the thought is that Windows Phone OS will be the basis of an Arm oriented OS, RT will disappear. The x86 OS will continue.
So two app stores, two OS's, and no more RT.

And at least according to one of my sources, it's more likely that the Windows Phone OS core is what Microsoft will use as the starting point, rather than Windows RT. If Microsoft is pursuing this path, there might just be full Windows and the new hybrid ARM-targeted variant of Windows in just over a year.

http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-we-arent-going-to-have-three-different-versions-of-windows-7000023593/
 
We know. The fear is that Microsoft will discontinue or marginalize the desktop in favor of the Metro platform.

technically, customers have marginalized desktops, by buying less desktop PCs, and more tablets and smartphones.

That said, that obviously doesn't mean the desktop has to disappear, which is why it'll likely be supported for years to come, since a market for it still exists. It's just no longer the dominant market in the consumer space.
 
GAF is pretty good at detecting flaws.

GAF is pretty fucking awful at detecting potential.

Hey, man, guess what? This is Microsoft. They literally have no clue what they are doing. If shunning the core gamer mid-way through the 360's life, Win8 garbage and the DRM BS of the XO (before the 180) doesn't clue you in, nothing will. The new MS is garbage, IMO.
 
The rampant content censorship?
Seeing as how you can get anything you want on Windows 8 without going through the app store, how is there rampant content censorship? As for Windows RT, that was never a desktop OS. It was a tablet OS and consumers have pretty much shown that they don't want an open OS for tablets.
 
technically, customers have marginalized desktops, by buying less desktop PCs, and more tablets and smartphones.

I would say that customers marginalized a specific form factor when it comes to casual use, not the desktop or its defining qualities. Android is hugely successful in the mobile space and it is much closer to Windows' original philosophy than Metro is.
 
Anyone with decent insight knew RT was dead on arrival.

Yeah, except Gabe wants to fuck us just as badly as people are afraid Microsoft might.

Wha?

Apple isn't attempting to have one OS for both computer and mobile though, at least not year.
THey're just adding features from both OSes. Which is something Microsoft has been doing for over a decade. So in this case Apple is following Microsoft's lead. Altough with how petite the OSX marketshare is I expect they will have a lot easier time if they ever attempt to move their computers purely to iOS

lol @ the bold, such nonsense.

MS has been doing it for a decade? Really? What Windows Mobile 1-6.5 features did they add to Windows that weren't already apart of Windows?
 
I'm assuming most of the people posting here are under 35 or 40?

I'm actually really shocked that people here honestly think Linux/Ubuntu is ever going to be anything other than a fraction of a percent of desktop market share. We have been hearing about linux on the desktop for 20 years now. Yet the needle never moves.....ever.....at all...even the slightest bit.

Same with OSX. The most successful tech company of the last ten years...yet there they sit. 7% market share. Never gaining.

The metro interface is what windows looks like now. End of story. It's not going to go back to 7, and 99.9% of you using 7, or XP now will eventually buy a version of Windows that looks and acts just like 8.1 does now.

This is an infinitely repeating thread on every message board going back 30 years now.
 
You do understand the difference between the Steam store/software and SteamOS, right?

yes. It's kind of exactly and entirely like windows 8 with windows 8 appstore. it's literally the exact same principle.

you know what's nice about steam? Being able to run my games on other devices like my laptop while travelling. If only Microsoft would try and do something........ wait a second!

please inform me what programs are limited to certain functions on steam os unless they are bought on steam
what?
I can use instagram outside the windows app store as long as I didn't buy it in the windows app store as well?
 
AFAIK, to use Valve's servers for stuff like achievements and cloud saves you need to be tied to Steam. I don't think there is any local functionality that is locked, though. I can live with that.

I'm not really the biggest fan of Steamworks. It's better than GFWL, but I don't really like games locking themselves to a single distribution platform.
Yeah, it fucking sucks that I need to be online in Steam in order to use certain game modes with EU IV and CK II.
 
Unifying platforms = big potential and convenience. It doesn't mean the desktops will be the same as the phones or the XB1 will be the same as as desktop layout. Apple's Apps can run on iOS and their Desktop stuff to my knowledge too. Unification can only bring benefits, no one will take away standard desktop functionality.

Being able to access my XB1 menu with a program in Windows 8 is great, recording gameclips and being able to access them on Skydrive from an OS level application is really convenient.
 
yeah but it's irritating when people say things like "GABE WAS RIGHT"

Gabe owns a big fuck off walled garden and he LIKES IT.

So do I mind, but I don't have a problem with walled gardens, as long as there is you know, things outside them. Which is exactly what windows has and why it will continue be by a long shot, the best OS until they kill the desktop.
Yet, when console manufacturers get exclusive games everyone says Sony/Nintendo/Microsoft is right...
 
MS just doesn't learn.

No one wants your shitty Metro UI on desktops and laptops MS.
 
Windows 7 or even Linux for my next PC. Fuck this mobile platform shit. It doesn't work on a PC. Stop dumbing down my experience Microsoft.
 
go out and play on the desktop then jesus. how else can they deliver cross platform stuff without having unification via something like an appstore?

everything has an appstore these days. decrying microsoft for it is just absurd, they didn't even invent the idea, apple and google have been doing this for years. Do you really think the desktop is going to disappear?

The Windows desktop will, it's just a matter of time. But the problem isn't the desktop disappearing, it's that releasing anything will have to go through Microsoft curation. Which means paying to have a place in the store, paying to apply patches, depending on Microsoft to even allow the software to even be there, censorship, etc. I don't mind having my software rebuilt to support RT platforms, as long as I can actually build it and use it without having to tell Microsoft about it. The problem is not the store, it's that everything has to go through it.

Canonical is pushing for uniformisation in a much more clever way in my opinion. The OS will be adaptative depending on the hardware (will look like a phone OS on a phone, a desktop OS on a desktop) and assuming the hardware is x86 everything should still work. Potentially awkwardly integrated, but still run. And ARM Linux is way ahead of RT.
 
I really don't get why people constantly hate so much on Windows 8. Having upgraded to it from Windows 7 recently, I am really not noticing any backward steps with it.

People think of Windows 8 and instantly see the tiled start menu. But behind that is a really solid OS, with good improvements from 7.

8 can do everything 7 could, it's faster and better thought out, and you can totally ignore the start menu if you hate it. You guys who are claiming they are going to stick with 7 forever, really should do themselves a favour and give 8 a shot.
 
I really don't get why people constantly hate so much on Windows 8. Having upgraded to it from Windows 7 recently, I am really not noticing any backward steps with it.

People think of Windows 8 and instantly see the tiled start menu. But behind that is a really solid OS, with good improvements from 7.

8 can do everything 7 could, it's faster and better thought out, and you can totally ignore the start menu if you hate it. You guys who are claiming they are going to stick with 7 forever, really should do themselves a favour and give 8 a shot.

Because MS is moving in a direction suggesting you wont be able to ignore the start menu eventually. They are trying to slowing push it down our throats and you are going to start seeing "Metro app only" applications from them. We do not want that future.

I like Windows 8 desktop aspects, it a better, faster 7. I hate the start menu. Right now I can just ignore it and im good. But that will not always be an option.
 
I really don't get why people constantly hate so much on Windows 8. Having upgraded to it from Windows 7 recently, I am really not noticing any backward steps with it.

People think of Windows 8 and instantly see the tiled start menu. But behind that is a really solid OS, with good improvements from 7.

8 can do everything 7 could, it's faster and better thought out, and you can totally ignore the start menu if you hate it. You guys who are claiming they are going to stick with 7 forever, really should do themselves a favour and give 8 a shot.

They haven't used it for more than 5 minutes at best buy, that's why.

Because MS is moving in a direction suggesting you wont be able to ignore the start menu eventually. They are trying to slowing push it down our throats and you are going to start seeing "Metro app only" applications from them. We do not want that future.

So everyone should just buckle down and stop trying to improve our computing experiences? This isn't how technology advances.
 
Because MS is moving in a direction suggesting you wont be able to ignore the start menu eventually. They are trying to slowing push it down our throats and you are going to start seeing "Metro app only" applications from them. We do not want that future.

I like Windows 8 desktop aspects, it a better, faster 7. I hate the start menu. Right now I can just ignore it and im good. But that will not always be an option.

What applications do you seriously think Microsoft are going to make 'Metro only'? I can't see this happening. To be honest the app store right now on Windows is terribly bad, so at least they're taking steps to correct it.

Also, right now you barely have to look at the start menu, just hit the Windows key...type what you want, and you're fine. It's really not that much of a negative to me.
 
So everyone should just buckle down and stop trying to improve our computing experiences? This isn't how technology advances.

Technology? You are just talking about the fucking UI. Fire whatever stupid fuck created this bullshit UI and the problem is solved. UI isn't technology, it is stupid trendism that alienates the existing user base to appear slick to starbuck drinking Seattle-ites.

Granted, the UI had nothing to do with why I didn't purchase Win8. If the OS had some huge actual technological improvements I would have purchased it and simply bitched about the UI. But it didn't have any large tech improvements. Just a new skin with a bunch of minor improvements that is not worth the money to me. I don't buy an OS to marvel at the UI like a god damn coffee shop blogger. I buy an OS to run my programs. MS needs to focus on efficiency and learnability rather than stupid ass UI bling.
 
They haven't used it for more than 5 minutes at best buy, that's why.



So everyone should just buckle down and stop trying to improve our computing experiences? This isn't how technology advances.

So everyone should just be happy with what is feed to us and not complain when we dislike the way ONE company says we should be going? It doesnt work that way, people will vote with there wallets and hopefully windows sales will continue to decline until either they make a massive change in direction or come out with a breakthrough that makes Metro more than a worthless POS.

What applications do you seriously think Microsoft are going to make 'Metro only'? I can't see this happening. To be honest the app store right now on Windows is terribly bad, so at least they're taking steps to correct it.

Also, right now you barely have to look at the start menu, just hit the Windows key...type what you want, and you're fine. It's really not that much of a negative to me.

They already took away skydrive and put it behind the MS account wall, took away the desktop application, anyone who now wants to use it like it was in 7 or 8 with a local account, has to do a backwards ass mapped network drive to the skydrive server, and it doesnt work all the time. The app is now only available as a metro app.
 
Seeing as how you can get anything you want on Windows 8 without going through the app store, how is there rampant content censorship? As for Windows RT, that was never a desktop OS. It was a tablet OS and consumers have pretty much shown that they don't want an open OS for tablets.

Can I?

So I can get a livetile updated with something that "glorifies swearing" then?

And last time I checked tablet marketshare has tipped overwhelmingly to the OS that enables non-signed apps.
 
Technology? You are just talking about the fucking UI. Fire whatever stupid fuck created this bullshit UI and the problem is solved. UI isn't technology, it is stupid trendism that alienates the existing user base to appear slick to starbuck drinking Seattle-ites.

Granted, the UI had nothing to do with why I didn't purchase Win8. If the OS had some huge actual technological improvements I would have purchased it and simply bitched about the UI. But it didn't have any large tech improvements. Just a new skin with a bunch of minor improvements that is not worth the money to me. I don't buy an OS to marvel at the UI like a god damn coffee shop blogger. I buy an OS to run my programs. MS needs to focus on efficiency and learnability rather than stupid ass UI bling.

If you can stomach getting rid of the start-menu itself, I see virtually no reason how 7 is a better OS than 8.1. The small things really really add up for me, and the syncing across multiple machines is godly. The OS is rock-solid, the once and a while crash of 7 is absent completely for me. I'm biased though, so take that into consideration.
 
Can I?

So I can get a livetile updated with something that "glorifies swearing" then?

And last time I checked tablet marketshare has tipped overwhelmingly to the OS that enables non-signed apps.

That's because Apple doesn't license iOS. Interestingly Google licenses the Play Store, not the OS but this is interesting because the number of Android devices without Play Store as the primary means of getting apps is low, and the hostility to Android devices that don't have the Play Store is high. The percentage of people sideloading apps is almost non-existent.

But the answer is yes. Live tiles have a html meta API so you could use it with a web app that can do pretty much whatever an RT app can.
 
If you can stomach getting rid of the start-menu itself, I see virtually no reason how 7 is a better OS than 8.1. The small things really really add up for me, and the syncing across multiple machines is godly. The OS is rock-solid, the once and a while crash of 7 is absent completely for me. I'm biased though, so take that into consideration.

I recognize that win8 has underlying technology improvements, but nothing major that is worth the money to me, like say a major DirectX update, or going from say 32-bit to 64-bit. It is just not worth the money + time cost of upgrading to win8 for me.

And for enterprise, they have to consider the cost of training all of their employees on the new UI. It is definitely not worth it to them.

If MS insists on continuing this metro nonsense (which I suspect they do in order to push ads), they need to segregate it into Pro with no metro and plebeian with metro in win9.
 
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