5 ms·

That doesn't mean it has 124GB available for users.

by cooldeal 14y ago

jiggy2011 14y ago
Minus some filesystem bookkeeping information and os , what else takes up the space?
- drivebyacct2 14y ago
  The difference here is pretty obvious to me. The Surface can stand alone, recover and reset itself, etc. The iPad, should something go wrong, is a useless brick without Apple's helpful malware called iTunes available on another PC.
  - WiseWeasel 14y ago
    Chances of a user messing up an iPad OS install are much slimmer than with a Win 8 device.
  - raganwald 14y ago
    There are lots of obvious differences. Both companies have compromised on the ideal of a light device that runs nearly forever ona single charge, has a high resolution screen, a powerful processor, plenty of memory, all the apps you need, &c. Each company has made different compromises. The question is, to whom are those choices/differences meaningful? Being able to use a Surface without access to a Mac or PC is meaningful to people who are buying a primary PC that happens to have a detachable screen. Being able to store all of your music or movies on it is meaningful to those who are buying a post-PC device. I don't know why you call iTunes "MalWare," but it sounds to me like you'd compute on an Abacus before you'd use an Apple device.
    - drivebyacct2 14y ago
      I've purchased 4 Macs in the last 4.5 years. Two Macbook Pros and two Macbook Airs. I'm both clumsy and impatient and a huge fan of them. I'd only consider something like the Thinkpad Carbon with a better screen over my Macbooks. That having been said, iTunes could greet me with a cup of coffee and sex in the morning and I would still scoff. My comments weren't meant to say anything about iPad or Surface. Personally, I think that Surface is a great start and I think people are being really short-sighted about it. Obviously the iPad is a different use case as you point out and isn't going anywhere, I think that's good as consumers define what they want/expect.
- cooldeal 14y ago
  The old 1 GB = 1000MB instead of 1024MB marketing trick reduces usable space to ~119GB even before you start subtracting the OS space.
  - ghshephard 14y ago
    It's not a trick. Giga = 10^9 for 100% of everything except memory. Bandwidth, Disk Space are measured in SI units.
    - lucian1900 14y ago
      Memory too. There's a difference between GiB (power of 2) and GB (power of 10).
      - RobAtticus 14y ago
        I believe his point is that memory manufacturers advertised 1GB of RAM which is actually 1GiB. So for advertised memory, 1GB = 1024MB.
      - ghshephard 14y ago
        Fair point, I agree that the proper terminology, it should be GiB to be explicit. I was just trying to point out, that the only time you should ever consider GB might mean 2^30 is with memory (and it usually does with memory). You should always assume that GB means 10^9 in all other scenarios. Bandwidth, Disk Space - GB always means 10^9.

That doesn't mean it has 124GB available for users.

jiggy2011 14y ago

Minus some filesystem bookkeeping information and os , what else takes up the space?

drivebyacct2 14y ago
The difference here is pretty obvious to me. The Surface can stand alone, recover and reset itself, etc. The iPad, should something go wrong, is a useless brick without Apple's helpful malware called iTunes available on another PC.
- WiseWeasel 14y ago
  Chances of a user messing up an iPad OS install are much slimmer than with a Win 8 device.
- raganwald 14y ago
  There are lots of obvious differences. Both companies have compromised on the ideal of a light device that runs nearly forever ona single charge, has a high resolution screen, a powerful processor, plenty of memory, all the apps you need, &c. Each company has made different compromises. The question is, to whom are those choices/differences meaningful? Being able to use a Surface without access to a Mac or PC is meaningful to people who are buying a primary PC that happens to have a detachable screen. Being able to store all of your music or movies on it is meaningful to those who are buying a post-PC device. I don't know why you call iTunes "MalWare," but it sounds to me like you'd compute on an Abacus before you'd use an Apple device.
  - drivebyacct2 14y ago
    I've purchased 4 Macs in the last 4.5 years. Two Macbook Pros and two Macbook Airs. I'm both clumsy and impatient and a huge fan of them. I'd only consider something like the Thinkpad Carbon with a better screen over my Macbooks. That having been said, iTunes could greet me with a cup of coffee and sex in the morning and I would still scoff. My comments weren't meant to say anything about iPad or Surface. Personally, I think that Surface is a great start and I think people are being really short-sighted about it. Obviously the iPad is a different use case as you point out and isn't going anywhere, I think that's good as consumers define what they want/expect.
cooldeal 14y ago
The old 1 GB = 1000MB instead of 1024MB marketing trick reduces usable space to ~119GB even before you start subtracting the OS space.
- ghshephard 14y ago
  It's not a trick. Giga = 10^9 for 100% of everything except memory. Bandwidth, Disk Space are measured in SI units.
  - lucian1900 14y ago
    Memory too. There's a difference between GiB (power of 2) and GB (power of 10).
    - RobAtticus 14y ago
      I believe his point is that memory manufacturers advertised 1GB of RAM which is actually 1GiB. So for advertised memory, 1GB = 1024MB.
    - ghshephard 14y ago
      Fair point, I agree that the proper terminology, it should be GiB to be explicit. I was just trying to point out, that the only time you should ever consider GB might mean 2^30 is with memory (and it usually does with memory). You should always assume that GB means 10^9 in all other scenarios. Bandwidth, Disk Space - GB always means 10^9.