Hi all, my company still relies on a few Windows applications and runs Windows desktops. The reliance is decreasing however, there are some obstacles if we migrate to "something else" (Linux most likely, maybe some tablets for a few roles) Anyway, I have problems to imagine how other, especially bigger companies dealing with Windows networks see the future. We are still buying Windows 7 licenses, we do not consider Windows 8 as a good option. I have problems to understand how Microsoft itself sees their future in big company environments where people use MS Office, Word, Excel, Outlook.. etc. There are questions about "going touchscreen" or not, there are questions about security issues (apps, even the installation needs a live.com account etc. - that all makes it quite difficult to establish a trusted network sometimes even legally required, e.g. in banks) etc. These questions are "brewing" for a while and I haven't found good answers in my little bubble yet.. Do you see any "movements" in these Windows environments, have own strategies etc? I am really curious. At this stage I consider moving away from Windows (middle term, will take a while and cannot start immediately), establishing a Linux desktop environment with Web applications and LibreOffice and Thunderbird. I have problems to imagine what to do with our engineers using AutoCAD, and there is a bit of software used by our Chief Accountant. Some kind of virtualisation or remote access to windows server with remote services enabled may be in the mix but especially AutoCAD cannot be run that way. For a while we can stall at Windows 7 and just wait.. but in the long run we have to make a move somehow. As said, any thoughts and observations welcome. Thanks Peter
Hi, On 14/08/13 09:41, Petros wrote: ...
There are questions about "going touchscreen" or not, ...
Are you talking about full-size, vertically-oriented, desktop monitors, to be used by people on computers a lot? (Back before Windows 3.1) Hewlett-Packard released a DOS-based touchscreen system -- after great expense and much hoopla. (Light sensors along top and right edges. LEDs along bottom and left edges.) Immediately, the "real world" user base developed severe "gorilla arm", and the entire phenomenon was quietly strangled in a dark alley. Don't know how many scapegoats lost their jobs at HP as a result. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorilla_arm#.22Gorilla_arm.22 George Santayana, in his book "Reason in Common Sense", said: "Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it." Yep, yep, yep. Dagnabbit. Carl Turney Bayswater, Vic
On Wed, 14 Aug 2013 09:52:58 Carl Turney wrote:
(Back before Windows 3.1) Hewlett-Packard released a DOS-based touchscreen system -- after great expense and much hoopla. (Light sensors along top and right edges. LEDs along bottom and left edges.)
Immediately, the "real world" user base developed severe "gorilla arm", and the entire phenomenon was quietly strangled in a dark alley. Don't know how many scapegoats lost their jobs at HP as a result.
The idea of a traditional desktop PC with a touch screen was a bad one. However there does seem to be some benefit for a touch screen on a shared use system (EG a PC used in a meeting room). Also the MS research that led to the "Surface" tablet apparently started with a coffee-table touch display which is also an idea that has some potential. I'd like to see a 4M*2M table that's entirely a touch display for use in a meeting room. On Wed, 14 Aug 2013 10:59:23 Petros wrote:
I cannot see this working out in a world where more and more people using tablets, which are not really great devices for, let's say, a person working with Excel or Word most of the day.
That really depends on what they are doing. Someone who is primarily reading (EG proof-reading word documents) would probably find a tablet to be quite good. Also a tablet can be placed into a stand and act like a desktop or laptop. There's no technical reason why a tablet couldn't connect to an external monitor of FullHD or better resolution and a full size keyboard. Being able to use such a device with a full size monitor and keyboard at your desk and quickly and easily carry it to a meeting room to use as a tablet would be a significant advantage over the current way of doing things.
I am pretty sure MS does not want to lose this market but Windows 8 does not seem to be the answer.
And I don't have a clear picture how a company network (and ours) could look like in a few years time. I also wonder what bigger companies, banks, big retail companies (the Coles head quarters in Toronga must have close to 10 000 Windows PCs) do about it (to foresee future developments).
AutoCAD, e.g. is a market leader in CAD software for 20 years or so. What will they do if the "Windows PC" disappears? How could the engineer's workplace look like then?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autocad The history of AutoCAD is worth reading. Apparently the first versions of what later became AutoCAD were developed in a proprietary language to run on proprietary hardware. PCs are getting really cheap $699 for an entry Dell PowerEdge tower server (probably the minimum hardware for AutoCAD - you want ECC RAM for such things). So if Autodesk was to sell specialised PCs for running AutoCAD it would be a repeat of what they already did and it would be something that would probably suit the market needs - any company that hires someone for 40 hours a week of AutoCAD work will probably be happy to pay extra for a PC dedicated to AutoCAD use. Also AutoCAD has cloud based versions of their software and support iOS and Android. On Wed, 14 Aug 2013 11:41:13 Jason White wrote:
UNIX workstations were also expensive in those days; Linus, according to accounts that I've read, wanted to run a UNIX-like system on commodity hardware, hence the Linux kernel project began.
In 1992 I offered to buy an unused Unix server from my university. The system was outdated and unused but they still wanted $1000 for it. So I used an old 386 system with a value of about $300 running Linux.
64-bit ARM CPUs are under development for server environments. Perhaps the future of the high-end desktop workstation ultimately lies in that direction.
Noise pollution has a significant impact on productivity. As hard drives are being replaced by SSDs the main noise problem from a workstation is now the CPU cooling fan and the PSU fan (which can idle if the CPU doesn't draw much power). -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/ -- Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 2 with K-9 Mail.
Russell Coker <russell@coker.com.au> wrote:
On Wed, 14 Aug 2013 10:59:23 Petros wrote:
I cannot see this working out in a world where more and more people using tablets, which are not really great devices for, let's say, a person working with Excel or Word most of the day.
That really depends on what they are doing. Someone who is primarily reading (EG proof-reading word documents) would probably find a tablet to be quite good.
Also a tablet can be placed into a stand and act like a desktop or laptop. There's no technical reason why a tablet couldn't connect to an external monitor of FullHD or better resolution and a full size keyboard. Being able to use such a device with a full size monitor and keyboard at your desk and quickly and easily carry it to a meeting room to use as a tablet would be a significant advantage over the current way of doing things.
I would be very surprised if this were not feasible already for some tablets. Connecting the peripherals should be easy. Selecting software that will modify the user interface appropriately according to the i/o devices in use could be more challenging, but there is likely to be sufficient demand for it to ensure that the code is in fact written.
participants (4)
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Carl Turney -
Jason White -
Petros -
Russell Coker