4 ms·

>>This would cover the use cases of easily 95%+ of computer users (web+email+office). I suspect if that were the case then Windows RT wouldn’t have been canned

>>This would cover the use cases of easily 95%+ of computer users (web+email+office). I suspect if that were the case then Windows RT wouldn’t have been canned. I’m wondering what’s different now that makes this idea better. Marketing?

fredley 7y ago
The change in the landscape. When RT was released ChromeOS was very much in its infancy, and Edge was 3 years away. It was also Windows 8, which was a crock in its own right.
snaky 7y ago
Microsoft has a quite long history of inside power dynamics driven decisions.
thrower123 7y ago
As somebody who had one of those Windows RT Surfaces, and still drags it to meetings when I forget my real laptop at home, I think they were just too early, as Microsoft often is. Office 365 was in a much less usable state three or four years ago when they rolled out RT, and it coincided with the Windows 8 UI debacle. It didn't help that the machines themselves were really quite wimpy, and a lot of the work that has made cross-platform apps more viable in the ensuing years hadn't been done yet, so there was a dearth of software that you could actually use on them.
- WorldMaker 7y ago
  I think so much of it was also Microsoft realizing they need a really good answer for "why doesn't Win32 work on this Windows?" They may have thought they could do a transition like with the jump from Win16 to Win32 in the Win32 to (proto-) UWP jump in Windows 8, but they partly forgot how long they supported back compat for Win16 applications and they partly forgot that Win32's lifetime was more than triple Win16's and that means a lot more apps that people care about possibly losing. It took a concerted push in Windows 10 to remove most of the "seams" between UWP and Win32 (to the point where now you can even have UWP Islands inside of Win32 apps). We're also seeing years later the fruits of labor to better emulate Win32 on ARM in the latest Windows 10 on ARM builds. Though now with Chromebooks gaining popularity they are in danger of being too late again even though now they have an answer to "Can this Windows run Win32 applications, too?" because Chromebook and the increased market shares of iOS and Android have left an increasing number of people wondering what they need Win32 applications for. (The rumors that Microsoft might not even brand whatever this "Modern OS" project is as "Windows" and it may not even refer to current Windows on ARM efforts seems to maybe imply that Microsoft really is too late back to this market that they tried to enter earlier.)

fredley 7y ago

The change in the landscape. When RT was released ChromeOS was very much in its infancy, and Edge was 3 years away. It was also Windows 8, which was a crock in its own right.

snaky 7y ago

Microsoft has a quite long history of inside power dynamics driven decisions.

thrower123 7y ago

As somebody who had one of those Windows RT Surfaces, and still drags it to meetings when I forget my real laptop at home, I think they were just too early, as Microsoft often is. Office 365 was in a much less usable state three or four years ago when they rolled out RT, and it coincided with the Windows 8 UI debacle. It didn't help that the machines themselves were really quite wimpy, and a lot of the work that has made cross-platform apps more viable in the ensuing years hadn't been done yet, so there was a dearth of software that you could actually use on them.

WorldMaker 7y ago
I think so much of it was also Microsoft realizing they need a really good answer for "why doesn't Win32 work on this Windows?" They may have thought they could do a transition like with the jump from Win16 to Win32 in the Win32 to (proto-) UWP jump in Windows 8, but they partly forgot how long they supported back compat for Win16 applications and they partly forgot that Win32's lifetime was more than triple Win16's and that means a lot more apps that people care about possibly losing. It took a concerted push in Windows 10 to remove most of the "seams" between UWP and Win32 (to the point where now you can even have UWP Islands inside of Win32 apps). We're also seeing years later the fruits of labor to better emulate Win32 on ARM in the latest Windows 10 on ARM builds. Though now with Chromebooks gaining popularity they are in danger of being too late again even though now they have an answer to "Can this Windows run Win32 applications, too?" because Chromebook and the increased market shares of iOS and Android have left an increasing number of people wondering what they need Win32 applications for. (The rumors that Microsoft might not even brand whatever this "Modern OS" project is as "Windows" and it may not even refer to current Windows on ARM efforts seems to maybe imply that Microsoft really is too late back to this market that they tried to enter earlier.)