[OT] Windows dying

[Tony]

On Friday, 3 November 2017 at 14:12:56 UTC, Joakim wrote:


> I don't know why you're so obsessed with storage when even 
> midrange smartphones come with 32 GBs nowadays, expandable to 
> much more with an SD card.  My tablet has only 16 GBs of 
> storage, with only 10-12 actually accessible, but I've never 
> had a problem building codebases that take up GBs of space with 
> all the object files, alongside a 64 GB microSD card for many, 
> mostly HD TV shows and movies.

The smallest storage Windows 10/Linux laptops have is a 128GB 
SSD. Even with a faster 128GB SSD being around the price of a 1TB 
hard drive, I still see 1TB being the dominant low-end storage. 
So I am going by what I see being offered as a minimum. It may be 
that most or even 99% of people can get by with 32GB flash 
memory, but it isn't being offered (except on Chromebooks which 
have traditionally only been web browsers, and on Windows 10S 
machines which can only run Windows Store apps).


>>
>> Are you suggesting they are developing their games for iOS and 
>> Android devices ON those devices? Apple has XCode for 
>> developing iOS apps and it runs on macOS machines only. There 
>> is also the Xamarin IDE or IDE plug-in from Microsoft that 
>> allows C# on iOS, but it runs on macOS or WIndows. For 
>> Android, there is Android Studio - "The Official IDE of 
>> Android" - which runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. There is no 
>> Android version.
>
> Yes, of course they're still largely developing mobile games on 
> PCs, though I'm not sure why you think that matters.  But your 
> original claim was that they're still using PC-focused IDEs, as 
> opposed to new mobile-focused IDEs like XCode or Android 
> Studio, which you now highlight.

I never made any previous claim about what IDEs are being used. 
The only time I previously mentioned an IDE was with regard to 
RemObjects and Embarcadero offering cross-compilation to 
Android/iOS with their products.

"There is a case to be made for supporting  Android/iOS 
cross-compilation. But it doesn't have to come at the expense of 
Windows 64-bit integration. Not sure they even involve the same 
skillsets. Embarcadero and Remobjects both now support 
Android/iOS development from their Windows (and macOS in the case 
of Remobjects) IDEs."

That was to highlight that those two compiler companies have seen 
fit to also cross-compile to mobile - they saw an importance to 
mobile development. It wasn't about what IDEs are best for mobile 
or even what IDEs are being used for mobile.

Not that it matters, but I don't think that XCode meets the 
definition of "new mobile-focused IDE" as-as far as I know, it 
was developed for OS X development and is still used for such. 
Android Studio may be "new mobile-focused", even though based on 
IntelliJ IDEA.

> Yes, Windows is dominant, dominant in a niche, internal IT.  
> The consumer mobile market is much larger nowadays, and Windows 
> has almost no market share there.

Sad too, because of all the tablet/phone interfaces, the only one 
that is not just "icons on a background", and my personal 
preference, is Windows Mobile.

>
> As for Microsoft, Windows is not their only product, they have 
> moved Office onto the dominant mobile platforms.  As long as 
> they keep supporting mobile, they could eke out an existence.  
> Their big bet on Azure is going to end badly though.

They have Word, Excel, Powerpoint for mobile, but they are free. 
The Android store mentions "in-app purchases" but I wasn't 
offered any. Maybe it is for OneDrive storage of files. I already 
have that so it could be why I don't see anything to purchase in 
the app.


>> Why did they fund development of a new iMac Pro which is 
>> coming this December as well as the new MacBook Pros that came 
>> out this June? That's a contradiction of "milk it like an 
>> iPod".
>
> Because their userbase was rebelling?  I take it you're not 
> that familiar with Mac users, but they were genuinely scared 
> that Apple was leaving them behind, since they weren't 
> refreshing Mac and Macbooks much anymore and all Apple's focus 
> is on iOS:

So, let them rebel. You said that they would like to see it go 
away, and/or they want to milk it. If you have to spend money on 
development to keep selling it, then you can't "milk it".


It is ironic that Microsoft and Ubuntu both saw a convergence of 
mobile and desktop and began modifying their desktop interace to 
best suit mobile, and now  Ubuntu has abandoned the idea and 
Microsoft has abandoned the phone market. As it turns out, any 
convergence will have to come from the two dominant mobile OSes 
as it is impossible to go the other direction due to the app 
catch-22.