That Didn't Last Long
I lasted about 2.5 months, give or take, on the experiment that was supposed to last 12.
As of this moment, I am typing this entry on my MacBook Air which replaces the Lenovo I had purchased for the experiment.
Now let me say here that I'm not dissing Lenovo in any way. The system was everything it was advertised to be, but it couldn't be what I needed it to be and when I upgraded to Windows 8.1, it failed. I honestly don't have the time to deal with attempting to fix issues, hunt down drivers and manually patch things up that seems to be par for the course with Windows Machines.
I'm retracting anything I said regarding Windows when I started out on this experiment, but I am going to provide some further insights I've had since my last post.
I went into this experiment because people hated Windows 8 with such a passion I wanted to see what all the hate was about. Jumping from Mac to Windows 8 wasn't that difficult in most regards. The interface found on Windows 8 was fairly intuitive and easy to use, but there were massive flaws.
When I started out on the Blog I didn't see much of an issue with the Windows 8 interface and the Desktop Interface existing on the same device. As things moved along, I began to see this as a glaring error on the part of Microsoft. I hadn't posted about it because i was still trying to get my head wrapped around the reasons for my distaste. I think it boils down to the fact that in order for Microsoft to provide one OS That's both Tablet and Desktop oriented, they had to cut corners on both. If they had simply released Windows RT with the Metro style interface and no desktop that would have been a winner and then done some serious updates with Windows 7 and that interface and called it Windows 8 there would be a whole different story here I suspect.
The point is, you can't put both things into one container without cutting corners so they both fit. Multi-tasking in in the Metro Interface is a joke, unless you have a massively gigantic display. Dragging in things in so you have small strips of apps just doesn't work well in the real world. Much better to leave the apps full screen and give an easy method of switching between them. I stopped even attempting to use the multitasking feature on Windows 8.
I had espoused on the benefits of "One Device For All Things" but I don't know how possible that really is at this point. Übuntu seems to have the best sense of things with their One OS for all things. Instead of having a different OS for every device, they'll have one OS that can conform to whatever that device happens to be - and they're keeping it lightweight and simple. If you haven't seen it, you need to check it out.
Apple continues to keep things more or less separate. Concentrate on one thing and do it better than anybody else. Instead of trying to create a Laptop/Tablet Hybrid, they keep them separate and do amazing things with them. Maybe they're not everything for everybody, but they are certainly powerful pieces of technology.
The hybrid idea looks good until you're trying to read a book on a 3 pound tablet while laying on your back at bedtime. I ended up just digging out my first generation Nook to read with instead, though having the light on was bothersome to my wife.
Tablets and laptops fill two different needs. Standing on a subway I'm not going to whip out my laptop to type a quick memo, but I might do that on my tablet. I might even work on a presentation or edit a coworker's document. It's much easier to do that with a one pound tablet over a three pound one. I was never able to comfortably hold the convertible in one hand, but the iPad and now the iPad Air are very easily held in one hand. The same can be said for some the Samsung and Asus full size tablets.
I don't agree with everything that Apple does. I think the iPad and iPhone should be allowed to have widgets running on their home screens for the purposes of productivity, but we can't have the perfect device unless we want to go write the code ourselves and build the device from scratch. I don't think Apple should have the right or the ability to censor content on their devices. As an example, I had a wonderful WW II app that delved into the history of the War and was a great piece of educational software. Then there was an update to the software so it would conform to the terms of service that removed all images of swastikas from the software. That seems a little crazy to me.
With Balmer stepping down it is my hope that Microsoft can become a contender again. I mentioned in a previous post about Design By Committee and that's how Microsoft has been doing things for so long they forgot how to be intuitive and creative in their design. I think Microsoft has the potential to correct many of it's wrongs and bring back a sense of pride in their software. They also have the opportunity to create great hardware to run their software on. If the Surfact Pro had been designed just a little better and had offered more than 128gb of Storage, I would have gone with that over the Lenovo, but I need a laptop that can sit on my lap and that has at least 256gb of storage.
I have learned quite a bit from this experiment and intend to keep blogging about tech in general.
It was a good experiment and taught me quite a bit. I love Adobe Lightroom because of this experiment and hope to find the money to add that into my photography workflow.
I don't hate Microsoft with the same vehemence that I once did. I do find myself beginning to feel sorry for them as they struggle with UI changes and faulty decision making, but I hope that a change in leadership will help put them on a new track.
As of this moment, I am typing this entry on my MacBook Air which replaces the Lenovo I had purchased for the experiment.
Now let me say here that I'm not dissing Lenovo in any way. The system was everything it was advertised to be, but it couldn't be what I needed it to be and when I upgraded to Windows 8.1, it failed. I honestly don't have the time to deal with attempting to fix issues, hunt down drivers and manually patch things up that seems to be par for the course with Windows Machines.
I'm retracting anything I said regarding Windows when I started out on this experiment, but I am going to provide some further insights I've had since my last post.
I went into this experiment because people hated Windows 8 with such a passion I wanted to see what all the hate was about. Jumping from Mac to Windows 8 wasn't that difficult in most regards. The interface found on Windows 8 was fairly intuitive and easy to use, but there were massive flaws.
When I started out on the Blog I didn't see much of an issue with the Windows 8 interface and the Desktop Interface existing on the same device. As things moved along, I began to see this as a glaring error on the part of Microsoft. I hadn't posted about it because i was still trying to get my head wrapped around the reasons for my distaste. I think it boils down to the fact that in order for Microsoft to provide one OS That's both Tablet and Desktop oriented, they had to cut corners on both. If they had simply released Windows RT with the Metro style interface and no desktop that would have been a winner and then done some serious updates with Windows 7 and that interface and called it Windows 8 there would be a whole different story here I suspect.
The point is, you can't put both things into one container without cutting corners so they both fit. Multi-tasking in in the Metro Interface is a joke, unless you have a massively gigantic display. Dragging in things in so you have small strips of apps just doesn't work well in the real world. Much better to leave the apps full screen and give an easy method of switching between them. I stopped even attempting to use the multitasking feature on Windows 8.
I had espoused on the benefits of "One Device For All Things" but I don't know how possible that really is at this point. Übuntu seems to have the best sense of things with their One OS for all things. Instead of having a different OS for every device, they'll have one OS that can conform to whatever that device happens to be - and they're keeping it lightweight and simple. If you haven't seen it, you need to check it out.
Apple continues to keep things more or less separate. Concentrate on one thing and do it better than anybody else. Instead of trying to create a Laptop/Tablet Hybrid, they keep them separate and do amazing things with them. Maybe they're not everything for everybody, but they are certainly powerful pieces of technology.
The hybrid idea looks good until you're trying to read a book on a 3 pound tablet while laying on your back at bedtime. I ended up just digging out my first generation Nook to read with instead, though having the light on was bothersome to my wife.
Tablets and laptops fill two different needs. Standing on a subway I'm not going to whip out my laptop to type a quick memo, but I might do that on my tablet. I might even work on a presentation or edit a coworker's document. It's much easier to do that with a one pound tablet over a three pound one. I was never able to comfortably hold the convertible in one hand, but the iPad and now the iPad Air are very easily held in one hand. The same can be said for some the Samsung and Asus full size tablets.
I don't agree with everything that Apple does. I think the iPad and iPhone should be allowed to have widgets running on their home screens for the purposes of productivity, but we can't have the perfect device unless we want to go write the code ourselves and build the device from scratch. I don't think Apple should have the right or the ability to censor content on their devices. As an example, I had a wonderful WW II app that delved into the history of the War and was a great piece of educational software. Then there was an update to the software so it would conform to the terms of service that removed all images of swastikas from the software. That seems a little crazy to me.
With Balmer stepping down it is my hope that Microsoft can become a contender again. I mentioned in a previous post about Design By Committee and that's how Microsoft has been doing things for so long they forgot how to be intuitive and creative in their design. I think Microsoft has the potential to correct many of it's wrongs and bring back a sense of pride in their software. They also have the opportunity to create great hardware to run their software on. If the Surfact Pro had been designed just a little better and had offered more than 128gb of Storage, I would have gone with that over the Lenovo, but I need a laptop that can sit on my lap and that has at least 256gb of storage.
I have learned quite a bit from this experiment and intend to keep blogging about tech in general.
It was a good experiment and taught me quite a bit. I love Adobe Lightroom because of this experiment and hope to find the money to add that into my photography workflow.
I don't hate Microsoft with the same vehemence that I once did. I do find myself beginning to feel sorry for them as they struggle with UI changes and faulty decision making, but I hope that a change in leadership will help put them on a new track.
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