All right, prove your negative.
Macs can run all Windows software, All versions of DOS, UNIX, BE-OS, AmigaOS, AtariOS, C-64 Software, all variations of LINUX, Mac OS X, Mac OS, THE-OS, and several other more obscure operating systems that run under emulation or Virtualization. So what proof do you have that PCs can run more?
Ahh so for a mac to be usable it has to pretend to be a microsoft PC. My point is made.
Hi Sword,
One thing I’ve noticed on these threads is how much of the negative about Apple is dissing the users, not the product.
NEway, the upcoming HP Slate will be a good test of the visions of Apple & MS in their visions for implementation of the tablet interface. Long-term, I’m not sure either vision will be successful, but if either is, I suspect it will be the Apple iPad version. Rather than flame and try to make people mad, I will try to be objective in my analysis (Note, though, that I do have a preference for Apple products.)
The tablet computer has been a holy grail for the industry for years. There is an almost manic desire to kill the keyboard. Until reliable touch screens came out, though, there were no viable input alternatives.
The iPad, from my brief encounter with it, seems to be about 75% designed for media consumption, but is capable of light word processing, email, and other input. Apple used the strategy of taking a mobile OS and upscaling it. The biggest advantage of this is that the OS was designed for touch interface from the beginning.
With the HP Slate, the stated specifications are 2.2 lbs (a little over a half pound more than the iPad) and it runs full Windows 7. This will make it more powerful, but will result in greater power consumption. Windows 7 is also primarily a mouse driven architecture with some touch controls attached.
I can’t see the HP Slate being particularly successful, because the HP Slate truly is a laptop with the keyboard removed and some touch capability added. The question of “Why should I get this instead of a full laptop?” becomes a lot more acute with the Slate. The keyboard on the Slate is resizable and floats on the surface, but I suspect this will create a lot of problems with the keyboard covering the Window area where you’re trying to create input. To be functional, I suspect most users will take a keyboard and mouse with them, and something to prop up the screen. This is why I think the MS approach will not be successful. Although I have only seen videos, the Slate isn’t out, the interface is a full PC interface, and in demo videos I’ve seen, the user had difficulty getting Windows to close, etc., because of latency and the difficulty of accuracy in touching the proper place on the screen. As this was a beta product, this may be fixed by the time the Slate comes out. There are some things I don’t know about the Slate, such as accelerometer and compass support, screen orientation capabilities etc. When Balmer demoed the Slate, he played Frogger, rather than a game that required accelerometer support, so on those fronts, I don’t know.
With the iPad, there’s no question. If you need the full capabilities of a laptop, it’s not your product. Is there a niche for what it is? With the Kindle being enough of a success at a similar price point to be very profitable for Amazon, I think there is.
Simply a lie. I have several scientific and motion-control software packages that require direct hardware access. Something that you can still do in Windows, and something that you cannot do with virtualization. For one, an Imada force gauge. Serial port, works great under Windows and DOS, cannot work in a virtual PC - Windows or OSX based.