Page 1 of 1

Is the future of Windows uncertain?

Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 8:38 pm
by Jez2k
From what I've heard, HP are pulling out of the computer market to concentrate on tablets and other touch-screen devices. Windows 8 too will have more focus in that area.

Now call me old-fashioned, but touch-screens? No thanks. Difficult to keep clean and no sense of pressing anything (which is something touch-typists rely on).

There have been some rumours that the PC is on the way out in favour of touch-screen systems but I believe that there will always be a market for home-built computers, both at home and in the workplace. I seriously doubt sites like dabs, overclockers and ebuyer will stop selling hardware components. Maybe the computer is destined to once again become a hobbyist item, as it was in the 80's. How this will affect commercial PC games is anyone's guess right now, but the number of indie and freeware games has grown exponentially in recent years and have improved greatly. So they too are here to stay.

I still use XP and have never wanted to upgrade. Why? Simple, I still want to be able to play games I bought over the last 15 years. I don't want a fancy flashy interface, or wrestle with the XP-compatability mode of Windows 7, which does a poor job for games. My desktop theme is permanently set to classic.

If the team achieve their goal of near-complete compatability, ideally by the time support and updates for XP cease, then I will be the first to jump on board with ReactOS.

Re: Is the future of Windows uncertain?

Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 8:58 pm
by Haos
Belongs to offtopic.

Re: Is the future of Windows uncertain?

Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 9:35 pm
by zed260
even desktops will become touch capable in time i dont think it will replace the keyboard and mouse fully but will become part of it


the closest thing in past to describe it would probably be the move from msdos to explorer even today you can operate windows 7 using only your keyboard if you know how and cmd uses most of the same msdos commands


much the same way that msdos command can still be used in windows so to will the mouse and keyboard (in fact in server versions of windows i doubt your ever see touch capability be used)

Re: Is the future of Windows uncertain?

Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2011 5:05 am
by Murmur
I realllly don't understand the whole touch screen desktops. The reason why there are touch screen devices is because they don't have a mouse so if you put a touch screen on a computer that has a mouse it is a total waste of time and money.

Re: Is the future of Windows uncertain?

Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2011 12:44 pm
by Sof_T
Jez2k wrote:From what I've heard, HP are pulling out of the computer market to concentrate on tablets and other touch-screen devices. Windows 8 too will have more focus in that area.
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/ ... _off_plans. I thought HP was planning a split separating the tablet,PC part of the company from the rest so as not to be affected by the poor income generation of that side of the business.

I can't see the P.C. dying out in favour of tablets anytime soon, certainly not in the main office, education environments. There is a market for both but they don't fully overlap. A bit like game consoles were supposed to kill the P.C., they have certainly dented sales but are unable to fully replace it.
Jez2k wrote:Now call me old-fashioned, but touch-screens? No thanks. Difficult to keep clean and no sense of pressing anything (which is something touch-typists rely on).
The newest touch screen technology provides quite amazing feedback that fools the user into feeling like they are touching different surfaces, but I guess there is nothing like that satisfying click when you depress a real key on a real keyboard.

Re: Is the future of Windows uncertain?

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 2:33 pm
by Murmur
Tablets are a fad and I do hope their popularity dies off quickly.

Re: Is the future of Windows uncertain?

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 2:43 pm
by rembrandt
Murmur wrote:Tablets are a fad and I do hope their popularity dies off quickly.
The car was invented after the motorcycle. Both have their pro's and con's. Both are still around. I think that's a fair analogy to the PC/tablet market.

Re: Is the future of Windows uncertain?

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 4:10 pm
by PurpleGurl
Murmur wrote:Tablets are a fad and I do hope their popularity dies off quickly.
Sadly, not all fads do. I am not interested in smart phones, for instance. Just give me an older stick phone with larger keys and hardly any frills. I don't consider their web access to be usable for much. Sure, that is okay for phone-related stuff, but try going to a standard web page that has no text mode. I am sure a DOS browser had more functionality. The phones get smaller and smaller and do more, and I cannot understand how anyone can get any typing proficiency on them.

And to stay somewhat on topic, I saw some weird type of PC at the office store. It was basically a large LCD monitor with a laptop motherboard inside on its end. I didn't read about the drive capacity, but I imagine they used SSD, and it would not surprise me it that was on the motherboard. Why not? If there are no PCI/PCIe sockets, then that is plenty of room to put flash RAM and a controller chip. I don't know if it is touch screen too, but it had an IR sensor for both a wireless mouse and keyboard. The only ports were 2 USB and audio jacks. I am sure it would come in handy in space cramped situations, and neat freaks would like it since there is only the power cord, unless you get into peripherals or add USB hubs. I don't remember if it had a networking port or not, or if it had built-in Wi-Fi or required the USB port for that. That thing costs maybe $990 USD and weighs about as much as a traditional monitor and is only 3-4 inches (7.8-10.4 cm) thick. I think it came with Windows 7 on it.

Re: Is the future of Windows uncertain?

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 6:48 pm
by SomeGuy
Jez2k wrote:From what I've heard, HP are pulling out of the computer market to concentrate on tablets and other touch-screen devices. Windows 8 too will have more focus in that area.
From what I have heard it sounds more like HP is jumping off a cliff while their higher ups give themselves obscene bonuses. :shock:
Jez2k wrote:Now call me old-fashioned, but touch-screens? No thanks. Difficult to keep clean and no sense of pressing anything (which is something touch-typists rely on).
What could replace typical desktops eventually - if marketed right - is a tablet/desktop hybrid. You know those old antique slanted writing desks people used to use before typewriters? imagine something like that with a touch/stylus display. The computer could be built in like a tablet, or just a display with a PC attached.

Vertical touch screens have been around since at least the 80s and have been proven over and over and over to be a bad (and greasy), idea but people just won't quit marketing it.

And personally I like that I can replace my mouse or keyboard for only 5 dollars at the local computer store when they wear out. Can't do that with a touch screen - got to replace the entire thing. Oh, but the manufacturers love that.
PurpleGurl wrote:Sadly, not all fads do. I am not interested in smart phones, for instance. Just give me an older stick phone with larger keys and hardly any frills.
Unfortunately, this fad is almost religious. Since I am always at my desk I have no need for a cell phone at all. I also like the fact that I can talk to other people on my regular phone without them sounding like a robot fscking my ear and bitting out constantly. But when I mention this I get get weird looks, like they think there is something "wrong" with me. And then they go all nuts like I am stuck in the past or something when I mention I can also use it as a backup internet connection or even dial in to non-internet computers. (well *I* don't have to pay by the freaking megabyte!). :roll:

Touch screens: sensor endurance?

Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2011 12:52 pm
by steveh
Touch screens:

I think it depends on technology.
Regarding the technologies working with finger or stick mechanical pressing onto the screen,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistive_touchscreen

Which touchcreen technology is used most often?

i'm quite reluctant about material endurance.
Would screen spots which are statistically pressed very often, not become insenstive over time due to wear-out damage in the sensors, more precisely the electric resistance parameters of the sensor would be altered by mechanic wear-out and no longer be uniformous over the whole screen.
Example: the windows or reactos start button , or the recycle bin...

Regarding a small appliance which is manipulated with a stick instead of bare fingers, there is a worse problem:
The stick itself is not tactile and it physically works like a lever, therefore it can be unconsciously used with excessive amplitude on the screen, and the sensors wear out even more quickly?

consequences:
"insenstive spots" on the screen which must be pressed with more and more craft to acheive an effect in the touchscreen...?

Especially for ecological reasons, i do not belong to the group of people who consent to buy a new touchscreen or notebook or tablet every three years...

That's why i have not yet accomodated to this technology as long as i can not be sure about it's endurance.
But i experienced this problem on ATMs, railway ticket machines and so on... where some spots pressed far more often on the screens statistically wear out earlier than other segments...

Anybody can tell experience with endurance of touchscreen technology?