5 ms·

Valuable legacy windows programs can run on a tablet. From my perspective that shows that MS cares. Programs written for the Mac can't run on iOS, I think.

• devx 13y ago
  Why would you need "legacy apps" on a tablet? The old Windows tablets had 4 main problems: 1) apps not optimized for touch 2) OS not optimized for touch 3) expensive hardware 4) inefficient hardware/small battery life It seems to me that with devices like Surface Pro, the 1) and 3) problems are still ported to the new devices. I don't see legacy apps that aren't optimized for touch and on a 10" screen, as an "advantage" for Windows tablets. For all practical purposes, they are not. Even if you want to do "work" with legacy apps when in "laptop mode" - are you sure you want to do that on a 10" screen? Because I'm telling you 10" is too small for productive work, and the keyboard is too crammed at that size.
  • barking 13y ago
    Because re-writing for a new platform isn't trivial. Because the customers want it. They're intelligent enough to know that a tablet isn't going to be as productive as a desktop/laptop. But they still want it.
    • threeseed 13y ago
      Customers generally do not want to run Windows apps on their tablet. If they did then Surface Pro would be the number one seller.
      • barking 13y ago
        Existing windows applications are by definition best suited to desktops and laptops. Our's would be such an application but even as it is there are certain aspects of its typical daily use that might/would be best served by a tablet. At those times it would be nice for a user to be able to switch from one device to the other and then back again. In fact, requests like this are becoming more frequent.
      • pmelendez 13y ago
        That's a very strong assumption... The only reason I have an Ipad rather than a Surface Pro, is because it didn't exists when bought my Ipad, sure thing that will be my future tablet in my next cycle, and I feel I am not alone. I think surface is not doing it better because it came into the game too late but it is a nice replacement for my heavy laptop and my Netflix viewer (namely Ipad)
    • bguthrie 13y ago
      If consumers want Windows tablets then they have a funny way of showing it.
    • devx 13y ago
      > Because re-writing for a new platform isn't trivial That's not the consumers' problem, is it? > Because the customers want it. That's not reflected in sales yet. If you're talking about the 100 Microsoft fans that upvote and comment all positive Microsoft stories on Reddit, HN and Verge - that doesn't count. We're talking about the market as a whole. Also, even Microsoft themselves barely even promote the "legacy app" thing in their commercials. All they are showing is Metro. But if they think Metro is their tablets' competitive advantage, then why wouldn't the consumer just get an iPad or Android tablet instead - and for a lot less?
• threeseed 13y ago
  Mac apps can't run on iOS because of the architecture difference. It's the same reason Windows apps can't run on Surface RT.
  • nwh 13y ago
    They could. Apple run PowerPC apps on Intel processors. The real answer is that they don't want them to.
    • jzzskijj 13y ago
      Apple ran PowerPC apps on Intel processors. The real answer is that they don't want them to. Rosetta is neither included nor supported in Mac OS X v10.7 "Lion" or later. Therefore, with Lion and later releases, the current Macintosh platform does not support PowerPC applications.
      • nwh 13y ago
        They don't need to. The transition is complete, any many apps had Universal binaries that ran seamlessly on both platforms.
  • chrissmeuk 13y ago
    Err, Windows Store apps can run on the Surface RT and do, regularly. Windows desktop apps could if: 1. RT didn't require signed binaries. 2. You cross compile them to ARM. Don't forget that Office RT is the same codebase as the desktop version.
• mbecker 13y ago
  "Valuable legacy windows programs can run on a tablet." Simply because it (Surface Pro) runs the same OS ie regular Windows.