Anyone here think that Windows 8 is 'vastly superior' to iOS and Android?

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

Well, you'll have to pay the price if you want the features and you want a rapid development cycle. But at least Linux distributions (including Ubuntu) make it easy to cut out the fat. It is nowhere near as lean as the other systems you mentioned, particularly if you want the features to be on par, but at least you can use the resources more effectively.

Did you mean "the other systems fjtorres mentioned"?

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Serpentine

Because Linux isn't an OS

Strictly true, yes.
Linux is a family of products derived from GNU so, as Stalman insists, the proper term for the OS should be "GNU Linux".
(But Stalman's a...not so nice guy...so ignoring him and his opinions is fine by me.)
Still, it's a valid point since I'm trying to highlight out the difference beween the quality of the product the consumer buys and the quality of the underlying OS in the "plumbing".
The Android devices can be (and some are) very useful products despite the limitations off the poor OS. Some products are *more* than the sum of their features, some are *less*.

Which is why its important to keep an eye on the bottom line: how useful it is to *you*. Specmanship isn't the end-all, be-all of tech product development and we should blind ourselves to all the ways otherwise good hardware can be crippled; by crappy software, oppresive network operators, and misguided corporate policies.

[Hellmark]

No, but the OS was designed for better hardware. Big thing is storage.

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

Did you mean "the other systems fjtorres mentioned"?

Sorry about that, and thank-you for the correction.

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Linux is a family of products derived from GNU so, as Stalman insists, the proper term for the OS should be "GNU Linux".

Technically speaking ... nah, let's skip that because you're right. Most people don't listen to those who are that, erm, ideological (to use a family friendly words).

Some products are *more* than the sum of their features, some are *less*.

Which is why its important to keep an eye on the bottom line: how useful it is to *you*.

Exactly. In my case, Android is more than the sum of its features because the relative openness of the platform allows developers to do create interesting things with it (and it allows me to play with programming). Other people will think that iOS is more than the sum of its features because the user experience and apps are better. Both of these things are difficult to quantify in specs. Of course, contrary arguments can be made for both platforms claiming that they are less than the sum of their features.

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

512Mb of RAM?
140 MB of storage?
The IBM PC XT and AT ran 640Kb RAM and 10-30MB of storage.
Macintoshes ran with 128Kb and 10Mb.
Windows95 ran on 4MB RAM and 50 MB storage.
Windows CE portables ran smoothly on 64MB RAM since the OS footprint was only 350Kb.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_CE_5.0
As the Linux crowd would say: OS bloat is not a law of nature.

It looks like android live wallpapers use around 20 Mb of RAM. Considering this, how many resources should the OS take up?

[GreenMonkey]

Originally Posted by taustin

The first thing I do when setting up a Win7 computer at work is to set the desktop theme to Windows Classic, which pretty well emulates XP. It turns off a lot of the distracting animated crap that eats up CPU resources and memory. Set it once, and it's set.

Um, I hate to break this to you- I've had to do it for a lot of folks - but Windows Classic theme is actually *SLOWER* than the stock Aero themes, uses more CPU/RAM and performs worse on a vaguely modern PC. Google it, seriously.

The Aero-accelerated themes use graphics acceleration...the classic theme is intended for PCs with very, very weak graphics processors (think Pentium 4 era).

Look it up. Classic runs on CPU + RAM only...and not using the video acceleration capabilities. Aero is actually faster. Microsoft actually knows what they are doing.

[Dulin's Books]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

The problem of these threads is they are non-specific and hence meaningless.
...

/thread