Posted on 06/04/2015 8:04:47 PM PDT by dayglored
Microsoft currently offers OEMs a low-cost version of Windows 8.1 called Windows 8.1 with Bing. The OS is like the proper version of Windows 8.1 but the OEM cannot change the default search engine and it is less expensive to licenses as well; the OS is designed for entry level machines.
The reason Microsoft has this SKU is so that it can have products at the low end of the market with prices that are competitive to Google's Chromebooks. Because Windows licensing fees are overhead to the purchase price, they can be restrictive to the floor the price of Windows devices can reach when you factor in that the vendor needs to leave a bit of room for their margin as well.
So, to give OEMs a hand in pushing down the entry level price for Windows devices, Windows 8.1 with Bing was created and that SKU will be coming to Windows 10 according to Intel.
The company has released a roadmap of their upcoming processors for its Compute Stick and when 'Falls City 2' arrives, it will be designed for Windows 10 with Bing. For clarification, Windows 10 with Bing (much like Windows 8.1 with Bing) will be limited to OEMs only, so the only way you can get your hands on this version of the OS is to buy hardware that has it pre-installed.
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(Excerpt) Read more at neowin.net ...
The revenue Microsoft loses by selling the OS cheap is more than made up by the fact that Bing search is tightly coupled with the product (although it is in theory possible to loosen that coupling after purchase, very few bother to do so). The result is a predictable large increase in the amount of user information that is gathered by Bing and sent back to Redmond for marketing purposes.
As with everything else these days, especially with folks like Google, Facebook, and so forth, it's all about selling your eyeballs to the highest bidder.
But in this situation, it also means that Windows 10 has a much expanded potential user base, which can help Microsoft meet its goal of a billion devices running Windows 10 in only a few years.
I’m interested in W10 for my teen daughter’s first computer/tablet. Will this Bing thing affect alternate browsers, too?
This is a good idea... if it was not possible to still use Google and to even set Google as default then I would say it was a bit unethical.
Bing is getting to be a pretty decent search engine.
Of course, IMO, Linux is a better choice of OS but I’m realistic enough to know it’s never going to get a big share of the market. I’m just glad Linux has a large enough base to keep going.
No, you will still be able to use Firefox or Chrome and do searches with Google. MS would not dare tread across that litigious minefield.
Windows 10 says that it won’t work well with my laptop graphics (Mobile Intel® HD graphics with shared graphics memory), is that something that might change, or is that a permanent problem.
My laptop came with 8.1.
Good article and responding post.
That would be quite unfortunate (if it didn't work, ever). Of course I can't foresee what MS has in mind longer term, but I'd be very surprised and disappointed if they don't eventually support something that recent and presumably common.
Now, it might be that it won't work "well", as opposed to won't work "at all". It might just be that they're warning you that the performance might be limited. That limitation is pretty common with the integrated graphics controllers with shared memory. Those designs are an optimization for low cost, not high performance.
I would hope that it will work; but I'd be prepared for it to not be blindingly fast.
I don't believe it will. It appears to me that while Bing is the default -- and the OEM cannot change that -- the end user CAN change it to anything they want.
I just noticed your tagline...reminds me of something Kate Upton would do, in one of those cel-phone game advertisements...
Agreed. Microsoft is wising up finally. :-)
> Bing is getting to be a pretty decent search engine.
It's not bad these days. I still prefer Google (despite its tendency to slurp up my private info) but Bing does the same thing, more or less...
> Of course, IMO, Linux is a better choice of OS but I’m realistic enough to know it’s never going to get a big share of the market. I’m just glad Linux has a large enough base to keep going.
Linux rocks. CentOS is my favorite operating system for getting work done, by far. But in practice I use everything under the sun at work, BSD, Linux, Windows, OS-X.... I generally use OS-X on my MacMini at home for personal stuff, but like right now I'm on the BootCamp partition of the MacMini, running Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate, because in another window I'm updating my Cygwin installation.
I'll never understand people who can't be comfortable shifting from one system to another. You get used to them with practice. I switch between literally half a dozen radically different systems all day and night long, and it hasn't cost me my sanity yet. :-)
If I could only have one hardware computer, I'd choose my MacMini -- because with OS-X and VMware Fusion I can then add Windows, Linux, BSD, .... and have it all!! BWAHAHAHAHA!!!
ANYTHING Kate Upton wants to do with my tagline, she is more than welcome to do... oh my......
Dang, now I have to go take a cold shower so I can keep my mind on my FReeping...
I switch between multiple versions of Windows and Windows NT on a regular basis—I’m typing this on the Windows 3.1 computer I use to test my Win32 universal apps.
If I had more computers, more storage, and more places to plug them all in, I would probably be using Linux more often—I have several distributions and versions of each—mostly from Red Hat—Fedora, original Red Hat Linux; but I also have a Slack-based Linux for security testing—ever heard of Kali?
(Yes, Windows 3.1 is a decent embedded platform—where 32-bit apps are concerned, it’s like a slightly crippled Windows 95.
Windows 9x and ME were literally Windows 3.x with Win32s permanently loaded, with the attendant problems that came with it (still required relocation tables, before AMD64 brought them back, for example), plus a bit of extra 32-bit glue logic just to truthfully market them as 32-bit OSes.
Besides, Windows had to go away simply because it could NEVER fully implement the Win32 API—not with the lowest-level kernel code being 16-bit.)
Two questions, did you just say that what they say today could change, because they can just change it at their end, with an update, or a new driver or something?
The second is, should I go ahead and download 10, assuming that things will work out?
I'm not sure if this is the absolute worst thing to do, but it certainly is somewhere close. Teens want a tablet that is small, light, and runs on a charge for a long time. A Win10 based tablet will be none of these things. I cannot even say who a Win10 tablet is good for - perhaps for some industrial environments that are dependent on compatible WinRT/PC Modern applications? Everyone else should use either an Android or an iOS tablet. They have all the software, they work, and every friend has them.
Windows 10 won’t be on anything I own.
Not exactly... :-) I said I thought it was unlikely that your graphics hardware would truly be totally unsupported forever, but rather (I would hope) it would be supported with lackluster performance, and maybe later with improved performance. Remember, you quoted them as:
"Windows 10 says that it won’t work well with my laptop graphics..."and I'm expressing the hope that we can take that literally as "won't work well" vs. "won't work at all". "Won't work well" might mean "slow", but it could also mean "unstable", which would be bad. I don't have a crystal ball, alas, so I can only guess what the outcome would be.
> The second is, should I go ahead and download 10, assuming that things will work out?
I would be extra cautious at this time, and NOT download it hoping for the best.
Rather, if it was me, I would do this:
Well, if you wish to run Windows-only applications, I'd bet that eventually you'll have -some- form of it simply because there won't be any other choice for Windows applications.
But if you mean you will have other operating systems like Mac OS-X or Linux, and run applications built for them, well, that's another discussion, and you can certainly do that.
No, I can stay with my current Windows jsut fine. If I think it’s too risky I just disable their internet access and I can still use them just fine.
If the hard drive goes I can reinstall.
I’ll be fine.
I’ve got other devices for internet connection.
Yep, that strategy will work. Limits your options a little, but like you say, if you can live within those limits, you’ll be fine.
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