At this year’s CES two unthinkable things happened:
1. The abandonment of Windows exclusivity by practically all of Microsoft’s OEM customers.
2. The abandonment of Intel exclusivity by Microsoft for the next generation of Windows.
“Many of Microsoft’s customers chose to use an OS product from Microsoft’s arch enemy. Some chose to roll their own,” Dediu writes. “Microsoft, in turn, chose to port its OS to an architecture from Intel’s arch enemy.”
Dediu writes, “These actions confirm the end of the PC era.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Good riddance to bad rubbish. (And, before you ask: Yesss, the last time we used that one must have been in 4th grade, but it is so appropriate, you must admit.)
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “iWill” for the heads up.]
Karma ??
Windows has run on other chips in the past and does now.
AMD, Sun Spark. Ect.
Now that more people will be accessing the web via alternative platforms and different operating systems, web designers will no longer be able to take the lazy option and assume that most visitors will use IE on Wintel. Unless they write standards compliant code, they will be cutting themselves off from more and more users.
When compliant code is the norm, using a browser other than IE becomes much simpler. Users will not need to use IE and can adopt one of the many alternatives, which offer many advantages.
It’s not just the end of Wintel, the decline of IE will gather pace too.
Hey Monkey Boy, Great Job @ the Helm, Great Job (Not)
Nah Na….. Na Na Naah Na!,,,,,,,,,, HEY HEY HEY!!!!!!!!
@Jeff
AMD is an Intel clone.
Yes, NT ran on other chips. Hardly anyone used it, and MS dropped it long ago.
BTW, NT ran on MIPS and DEC Alpha, but not Sun Sparc.
And Apple is behind the ARM. ARM = Apple, Acorn and VLSI and later others.
1/2 an hour after I first used a Mac was the end of the PC for me. The Dark Ages are ending. Rejoice!
@One Guy From Finland
I’m not disputing your comment but ARM originally meant Acorn RISC Machine. Then it was changed to Advanced RISC Machine when the Acorn & Apple connection was severed. Apple dropped ARM back when the Newton was pulled.
But it’s good to see that they picked ARM for their A4 Cortex design.
Don’t know what Sun Spark is, but AMD is x86… which is the whole point…
Sun SPARC runs on a variant of Unix called Sun Solaris which shares a common heritage with OS X being certified as Unix compliant.
In fact the development of the next OS X file system ZFS was derived from work done by Sun engineers. Development work on ZFS by Apple has since stopped after Oracle’s takeover of Sun.
You’re doing a heckuva job, Balmy.
@ ChrissyOne It’s my neck I tell you!, It’s my neck on the line hence that weird crink on my neck, ooohhh! the pain MDN, it really is painful to observe.
@C1
Thanks for the vote of confidence.
Don’t be put off by my nick. I just use it to piss the ‘zealots’ off on here, present company excepted.
@Ballmer’s left nut
I think C1 was talking about the rest of you …
@ Ballmer’s left nut: “ARM originally meant Acorn RISC Machine. Then it was changed to Advanced RISC Machine when the Acorn & Apple connection was severed”
It was originally Acorn RISC Machine, but was actually renamed to Advanced RISC machine after Apple and VLSI partnered to recreate the ARM architecture for mobile devices.
Apple didn’t exactly drop ARM after the Newton as it was the CPU that powered the iPod and their Airport Base Stations.
And picking ARM for the A4 was a no brainer as all previous versions of the iPod touch and iPhone already used ARM.
@ Jeff: “Windows has run on other chips in the past”
That was only server versions of Windows, consumer version has always run on x86. Windows 8 will supposedly break that. How they plan on supporting legacy software remains to be seen, that is, if they do at all.
@skylark
Don’t think, it’ll just hurt your brain. I’m sure C1 can talk for herself.
@Michael Tomlin
I stand corrected. I read somewhere that Apple severed its connection with ARM after it exited Newton. But I’m sure you’re right about ARM being used in the iPod line.
@ Ballmer’s left nut:
You probably read that Apple sold off its stake in ARM Holdings, LTD.
http://www.applematters.com/article/april-5-1998/
Flea alert!!!!!
But what a revolution the 386 was. Full motion video, stereo sound, internet,6 gig drives, 128 meg of RAM, it was heady stuff then.
Out with one (Microsoft) and in with another (Google). Different company name…same EVIL.
Ding Dong the witch is dead!
I’m looking forward to an ARM-based Mac myself!
@ Spudly
Yep. It looks to be that way alright.
“Abandonment.” That’s an interesting way to look at it…
It’s so clear how Microsoft has been manipulated (by Apple) into its current position, and how panicked they are acting right now.
First, due in part to Apple’s constant taunting with the “Get a Mac” campaign (with “Mac” and “PC”), Microsoft focuses on Windows Vista (and then Windows 7) at the cost of practically ignoring the (relatively) strong position of Windows Mobile. During that time, Apple secretly works on iPhone. After iPhone’s debut and success, Microsoft panics and puts its full focus on what became Windows Phone 7. And during THAT time, Apple secretly works on iPad.
So in 2010, just as Microsoft is releasing Windows Phone 7, Apple shows unprecedented success (even by Apple standards) with iPad’s debut; Microsoft realizes future growth will depend a great deal on tablet computers. Windows Phone 7 uses technology and an interface that is completely unsuitable for tablets. Windows 7 is too bloated and only works with Intel.
So while Microsoft loudly announced at CES that it was “abandoning” Windows exclusivity to Intel, they won’t be able to deliver for another two years or so. All they could show was something that looked like Windows 7 running on ugly prototype motherboards. You don’t show stuff like that on the keynote stage of CES, unless you are in panic mode. Can you imagine Apple publicly showing such unfinished work?
@Jeff
What the heck is “ect”?
Google is a far more scarier monoploy than microsoft ever was.
The future of Microsoft is a one of total insignificance in all markets.
The days of the Microsoft dinosaur are now seriously numbered and give it 40 years microsoft will close its doors for good as its surplus cash runs out.
Google on the other hand is VERY worrying!
How wonderful it was to hear the co founder of ARM and generally unheralded Dr. Hermann Hauser taunting both Intel and less directly but equally poignantly, Microsoft as dead men walking. I can’t wait to hear more from a man who’s work 30 years ago now seems to finally be getting the credit it deserves. For those that haven’t seen it do take a look at Micro Men if you can find it, a BBC docusoap and a humorous look at that era and the characters involved and how ARM came about. Very entertaining.
CES marks the end of Windows era, because the complicated ARM port will delay Windows 8 to somewhere after 2012 and until then Apple will sell more iOS devices per quarter then all Windows devices together.
Till 2013 Microsoft has no answer the success of iOS and Android and they cant compete in the exploding market of mobile internet devices.
Till 2013 most of the small apps, which make Windows to the most versatile operating system in the desktop environment will move to the cloud. But in the cloud only those providers will be successful, who can offer vertical integration and support for all types of devices, from smartphone over tablets to desktop and web-based Applications.
Microsoft will come far to late to the party, they cant even defend their monopoly on the desktop, because with an easy install of a modern web browser all of those 100 millions of aged XP machines could change to new “thin clients” for the latest Online platforms. Windows will only manage the legacy but have no relevance for future development anymore.
The era of the Personal Computer ended about a year ago. Wasn’t anyone paying attention?
http://rip-ragged.com/dross/index.php/2010/01/game-over-man/
Windows and the PC are just “old” technologies. They still have filing systems. I really prefer the way apple handles things by using libraries managed by programs and allowing you to interact with files directly through the program (or app in iOS).
For example, in iPhoto, you can manage everything from the program and drag/drop things wherever you want them to go. I hope that in OS X Lion, we see this capability universally, and finder just becomes a simple interface for quickly accessing any of your files or drives, and not a tool to explore your filesystem. This means that each application will manage its own files without you having to worry about where/how they are stored, and finder will have folders for each media type and files within those folders to “index” your data (for example, it could pull all photos and link them to the “Pictures” folder – even though you can do everything within iPhoto. A better analogy would be like iOS having an app that could let you access all text documents under the “document” category – whether they are from the Notes app or the Pages app shouldn’t matter, and you could change how they were sorted.
Windows is outdated and it uses too many convoluted filesystems, while the Mac focuses on simplifying everything.
MS and Intel will be totally left behind in mobile
@skylark
I apologize for my uncalled for comments. It’s just hit me what you were trying to say. Yes, I’m slow but I was responding to a whole series of attacks on another thread and unjustifiably thought you were doing the same. Please accept my apologies.
Won’t the ‘Windows on ARM’ begin an ‘Osborne Effect’ for MS so businesses will not want to upgrade their laptops as they wait for these software-incompatible devices to arrive?
MS won the PC race because they cleared the OS confusion with Wintel 95. Now the market is getting confused again, it will take a new ‘clear’ leader to make us swing back to a new standard. The Apple App store might make Apple that leader.
Windows NT Workstation and Server version 3.1 (v.1) ran on x86, Alpha, MIPS, & Clipper. NT version 3.51 added PowerPC. All but x86 were dropped in various later versions and Intel Itanium was added.
The Microsoft on ARM announcement is significant. Intel has dropped the ball on mobile computers and smartphones, and M$ has finally realized that fact.
The decline of Windows exclusivity by PC vendors is similarly significant. It is a (long overdue) wake up call for M$ that Windows is not good enough to survive on past momentum.
Intel is not proving to be the greatest of partners for Apple. Their new CPUs push subpar embedded graphics and do not support OpenGL. Using the Core2Duo for the Air and the lower end laptops was a slap in the face for Intel. In addition, Intel has yet to deliver a competitive mobile CPU. It will be interesting to see where Apple goes from here.
Incredibly, Intel actually invested huge amounts of R&D in ARM technology. They acquired StrongARM from DEC, then developed the XScale which was used in many of the early PDAs. They then decided to sell their ARM division to Marvell, in an effort to focus on making the x86 the mobile chip of choice. Intel now find themselves up the creek having sold their paddle. Ballmer also failed to see the risk of being shackled to one architecture. Both companies deserve to fail for their utter arrogance.
Good news.This is a great post. I like this topic.This site has lots of advantage. I found many interesting things from this site. It helps me many away..So i want some information for sharing this side with some of my friend. Thanks
GMC Steering Parts
autotranslate you site not understand the writing any hope deutsch version?