Windows [Almost] Everywhere...Kind of...Maybe

Check out this Microsoft advertisement:

I don't know why, but it took until tonight for me to see this ad. And I was absolutely disgusted by it. Windows is great. I use Windows everyday for work and for home. I also use various Linux distros. I've posted many times about a dream convergence device, and the Surface Pro has almost always been a part of that. This ad almost had me thinking Microsoft had the idea of "Your windows, everywhere" down part. They don't! Let me break down the ad, then how Microsoft "microshafted" us all out of a great UX.

The ad starts with explaining how IE10 is the first browser built for touch. And while I can't totally agree with this, I will give them it's the first desktop browser built from the ground up for touch. And yes, no matter how hard to say that IE10 in the "Metro" shell and IE10 on the desktop art two different things, IE10 for metro is still running on the desktop. IE10 is fantastic in every possible way. It's great on security and speed. Two things I'm a big fan of. I'm just so built into Chrome, but over the long run, I could move to IE.

Then onto Bing. I hear good things about Bing. Never really used it. Google is the default on almost any thing I use and like I said I'm built into Chrome and Google apps. Again, if Bing really does work, why not use it?

Office? Who can live without an office suit? I use Libre and Open Office extensively for work and home on my own computers and actually Microsoft Office for work. Occasionally I hit a compatibility snag. The real thing would be pretty nice.

Oh and One Note is absolutely fantastic! It'd replace Evernote and my drawing apps for me!

Skydrive, or whatever they'll be calling it soon, is great. But I'm trying to move away from cloud services.

I'm not big on gaming. I mainly play the occasional mobile game or online flash RPG. And even those on a very rare occasion.

50,000 apps. Holy crap! Fifty-thousand apps! That's it! I mean, WP has what? 140k? 150? But 50,00 apps... This is where Microsoft screwed the pooch. Let me explain.

Apple makes the iPhone-> Pretty sweet device, don't you think?-> Let's make a tablet-> Apple employee: I know, Steve, let's make a crappy half OSX and half iOS OS that barely functions and try and sell it as a modern marvel?-> Steve Jobs: Idiot! You're fired!-> Apple releases iPad and it's a MAJOR success.

Few years down the line:

Steve Ballmer: This mobile thing is really kicking it off, we should get into it-> Windows Mobile becomes the beautiful Windows Phone and gets a decent following and several really good apps.-> Microsoft employee: I know, Steve, let's make a crappy half Windows and half Windows Phone OS that barely functions and try and sell it as a modern marvel?-> Steve Ballmer: Brilliant! Let's put a lot of money into this and make developers develop their apps in the same style, that we'll call Metro and then take back, as their Windows Phone apps, but in a completely different architecture and code standard!-> Microsoft employee: *Takes money and runs before being fired for incompetence*->*Several months later* Ballmer: Fuck! Well, we put a ton of money into this, let's just try and run with it.

And thus, we arrive that present day Windows 8. Why couldn't they just build off of Windows Phone direct and allow you to boot into that to save battery life or something else? I don't know. Instead, developers have to develop three types of apps- Sorry, 4- One for WP8, one for Windows RT "Metro", Windows 8 Pro "Metro", and Windows 8 Pro desktop. When they could be building a scalable Windows Phone/Tablet 8 and a Windows 8 Pro Desktop. You see, only 2 apps. Then sell two tablets like they are know. A Windows Tablet 8 tablet, and a dual booting Windows Tablet 8 and Windows 8 Pro. (Or you know, just "Windows 8", no "Pro")

I'd like you to take a look at a post I saw a long time ago. Minimally Minimal - The Next Microsoft. by Andrew Kim. I want you to really look it over and cry yourself to sleep thinking of the Microsoft that never was. And they HIRED this guy! "Microshaft" hired him and he works in the XBox division. XBox! What the hell! Microsoft,  I swear, I think you put me, Andrew, and a few other of my fellow gadgeteers, maybe a few readers of this blog into a little committee and we will have new products, designs, and marketing schemes that will get you better sales and reputation than anything your current team is getting you. I mean "Windows RT"? Really?

I have that post in my BOOKMARKS BAR. I look at it almost once a week- this post and a few others about Ubuntu for Android/Ubuntu Touch and the like- They all keep me going in my never ending quest to find the perfect convergence platform. And Microsoft, you had, you really could've had it for a second. Then you announced Windows 8 and Windows RT. And FUCKED it UP! Give me a month. No, a week, and I'll fix Redmond's entire screw up!

"Douchingly" yours,

Keith

I have't. It is engender'd...

Now, Shakespeare isn't normally my thing. Actually it's never my thing. I despise the man, but that's not what this post is about. I've just discovered how I plan to design my convergence device: A phone, "convertible", and a ultimate desktop behemoth. And that discovery is: A BIOS. Yes! Why didn't I think of this before? Instead of trying to figure out how a tablet/ultrabook/convertible thing will take advantage of full blown desktop quality hardware in duality with it's already functioning hardware, why not just boot the desktop components from the device's storage?!

It's brilliant! It's a amazing! It's alive!! Alive, I say! Currently, I can only see this working with a full blown ultrabook or convertible device. So, until I do more research or experimentation, basic pads or phones, or padfones (Eh? See what I did there?...) are out of the equation. Anyway, here's the idea.

As before a large phablet is the main device for day-to-day work. A Galaxy Note 2 (or 3?) will run Android and Ubuntu for Android (UFA) or Ubuntu Touch and Ubuntu with a Smart Dock to book into the desktop function.

Then a Surface Pro, or similar device, is powered by similar OS specifications. Same as previous posts.

The clincher now is the at-home desktop design. Here, a modified Surface Pro is somehow tethered to a practically complete desktop except for a hard drive (or SDD/whatever.). Instead of this computer booting off of a internal drive like normal, it boots from the storage in the Surface Pro and... Bada bing! Bada boom! Perfect convergence! There's no syncing (Phone aside), no special software, no special modding of OS's work together as one computer on different computers- Yada yada.

It's the perfect idea. True, I have yet to figure out how to tether the convertible/ultrabook/tablet, but that will probably be solved soon enough. I'm thinking a split SATA cable with a modded port on the side of the device. As any idea of a thunderbolt, usb, or firewire would require a controller on the motherboard of the device. Maybe not? Sure. It will take experimentation.

Anyway, just wanted to update on my discovery. Maybe this discovery will never be put to place as a brand new thing arrives. I never know in the world of technology. So, thanks for following and I can't wait to share the next discovery or final product with you! But by God! This will happen even if

...Hell and night
Must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light!

-Keith