TeknoBlast
Active Member
This is why we can find peace in this forum. Anything outside of here, reviewers are being dicks.
Heavy-Handed Critique of Surface RT
- Thread starter kristalsoldier
- Start date
Jglnaz372
New Member
I could not agree with you more. The atom powered netbooks were useless for me and slower then almost everything else. The Surface RT has been great to use, not slow with the apps I have used, games and the like. I had desktops and laptops with the full Windows OS and they always became slower and slower over time if you did not delete programs, defrag, etc. Even with service packs and changes to the OS over time like XP, Vista,and so on were not perfect and good user friendly experiences all the time. The Surface RT is the first Windows device I have not had to reset or deal with software conflicts. Amen! Plus it has become more stable and better to use since all the updates. Bravo Microsoft for just that fact alone in my user experience.
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OP
kristalsoldier
Well-Known Member
I'd disagree with that, I'm afraid. I enjoy reading some of the critical reviews of the Surface RT when they are reasonably presented and carefully argued. There is no perfect product/ gadget - as you very well know. And, the RT has its faults. Heck, even I can list out a number of them based on my usage and I am by no stretch of the imagination a specialist in either the hardware aspects of the RT or the software. So, when commentators/ analysts point out shortcomings of the RT in a helpful manner, such analyses and commentaries are helpful. They provide a rounded perspective to me (the user). So, no, I don't agree the statement that "anything outside of here, reviewers are being d**ks" (your words).
Yeah, the Surface RT is not perfect - I just don't see performance being a major problem and I use this this thing hours a day, every day. When I read other reviews and comments on other sites, it seems to be a general accepted fact that the Surface RT is a slow dog. I just don't get it.
quadtronix
Member
Lol! I use an atom netbook!! And yes it IS slow... I only use it as a backup laptop when at family's house to update certain things in my evernote account that I can't use a tablet for. My laptop at my house is 17.3" and too heavy to lug around. but I just wanted to confirm what you said... atom netbooks are SLOW...
Everyone of the Tech Pundits have grown tired of a MS dominated world, most journalists (I know its a stretch to call most of them that...) use Apple products personally so they would love MS to become the next IBM. They compare the MS Store (Which has 100,000 Apps now) to the 5 year old Apple App Store and the 4 year old Google Play. Heck the new editor of PC World is the current editor of Mac World and is doing both.
Microsoft has found them in a interesting spot, they are being bashed by the Windows Traditionalists (Paul T. and the like) who are in love with the desktop (even transparent windows and Aero) who scream...don't forget we built you MS and we don't want no Tablet Crap on our desktops and laptops, and by golly we want a cascading menu system and if we can't we going to whine....whine...whine (these are the users that MS has placated for too long and have them 3-5 years behind and needing to catch up).
The you have the journalists who love all that Apple an/or Google trashing MS for even having a desktop because you know, phone OS tablets have no desktop and heck Apple gives 80% functionality to Office and I have no idea what a Pivot Table is so no one would ever use it....so MS is stupid and should just die already...
The there is that silent group that sometimes trickles in here (to a warm welcome I might add ) that have 3-5 year old PCs that still do their PC-y stuff well enough and they haven't bought a new one because they bought a $200-$600 iPad/Android Tablet for fun stuff. Then there is the bread and butter Enterprise Crowd (IT Pros and Developers who still like legacy Access Run Times) who have written millions of dollars of code that we only run 32bit XP, that survived the Great Recession and/or EU austerity Programs who are trying to get 12 months more...
Most people who have actually used RT for any length of time discover that it is great companion device that accomplishes that 90% of what is needed (iPads/Android Tablets are usually 60-80%). With 8.1 RT we reach 95%...
Tech journalism is full of Apple Fans or people who long for the Richard Stallman GNU fantasy world...<rant over>
Microsoft has found them in a interesting spot, they are being bashed by the Windows Traditionalists (Paul T. and the like) who are in love with the desktop (even transparent windows and Aero) who scream...don't forget we built you MS and we don't want no Tablet Crap on our desktops and laptops, and by golly we want a cascading menu system and if we can't we going to whine....whine...whine (these are the users that MS has placated for too long and have them 3-5 years behind and needing to catch up).
The you have the journalists who love all that Apple an/or Google trashing MS for even having a desktop because you know, phone OS tablets have no desktop and heck Apple gives 80% functionality to Office and I have no idea what a Pivot Table is so no one would ever use it....so MS is stupid and should just die already...
The there is that silent group that sometimes trickles in here (to a warm welcome I might add
) that have 3-5 year old PCs that still do their PC-y stuff well enough and they haven't bought a new one because they bought a $200-$600 iPad/Android Tablet for fun stuff. Then there is the bread and butter Enterprise Crowd (IT Pros and Developers who still like legacy Access Run Times) who have written millions of dollars of code that we only run 32bit XP, that survived the Great Recession and/or EU austerity Programs who are trying to get 12 months more...Most people who have actually used RT for any length of time discover that it is great companion device that accomplishes that 90% of what is needed (iPads/Android Tablets are usually 60-80%). With 8.1 RT we reach 95%...
Tech journalism is full of Apple Fans or people who long for the Richard Stallman GNU fantasy world...<rant over>
OP
kristalsoldier
Well-Known Member
Everyone of the Tech Pundits have grown tired of a MS dominated world, most journalists (I know its a stretch to call most of them that...) use Apple products personally so they would love MS to become the next IBM. They compare the MS Store (Which has 100,000 Apps now) to the 5 year old Apple App Store and the 4 year old Google Play. Heck the new editor of PC World is the current editor of Mac World and is doing both.
Microsoft has found them in a interesting spot, they are being bashed by the Windows Traditionalists (Paul T. and the like) who are in love with the desktop (even transparent windows and Aero) who scream...don't forget we built you MS and we don't want no Tablet Crap on our desktops and laptops, and by golly we want a cascading menu system and if we can't we going to whine....whine...whine (these are the users that MS has placated for too long and have them 3-5 years behind and needing to catch up).
The you have the journalists who love all that Apple an/or Google trashing MS for even having a desktop because you know, phone OS tablets have no desktop and heck Apple gives 80% functionality to Office and I have no idea what a Pivot Table is so no one would ever use it....so MS is stupid and should just die already...
The there is that silent group that sometimes trickles in here (to a warm welcome I might add
Most people who have actually used RT for any length of time discover that it is great companion device that accomplishes that 90% of what is needed (iPads/Android Tablets are usually 60-80%). With 8.1 RT we reach 95%...
Tech journalism is full of Apple Fans or people who long for the Richard Stallman GNU fantasy world...<rant over>
That part in bold is the key phrase! I agree!
ArnoldC
New Member
PT must be funded by Intel.
If I may spill a bit of my rant, that would be when Microsoft decided to go Intel. In the past, we enjoy Windows NT running on MIPS, DEC Alpha, PowerPC and Intel crap. MIPS had 64 bit decades ago, but Intel shoved us their crap and had to live with it.
Have you wondered why there's no Unix running on Intel platform before?
So there, I'm not a fan of Intel and I welcome Microsoft going with ARM.
If I may spill a bit of my rant, that would be when Microsoft decided to go Intel. In the past, we enjoy Windows NT running on MIPS, DEC Alpha, PowerPC and Intel crap. MIPS had 64 bit decades ago, but Intel shoved us their crap and had to live with it.
Have you wondered why there's no Unix running on Intel platform before?
So there, I'm not a fan of Intel and I welcome Microsoft going with ARM.
brocharlieb
Member
Among the other things jnjroach said, that I agree with,
I've been using my RT now for 8 months. It doesn't do everything the laptop it replaced did. It does some things it wouldn't. My RT is almost exactly what I wanted it to be. I did buy another laptop to do the few things the RT doesn't and it should last forever, because I don't have to use it very much.
I'm a pastor, I write my sermons on the RT, flip the type cover over and lay the surface on my pulpit. I put the document in the view mode that this version of MS Office has, and preach straight from the Surface. I couldn't do that effectively with my laptop, I used an ipad that someone loaned me that way for a while, but it was no where near as effective as the Surface. The Surface RT is what it is, but it's a very good one of what it is for my use.
I've been using my RT now for 8 months. It doesn't do everything the laptop it replaced did. It does some things it wouldn't. My RT is almost exactly what I wanted it to be. I did buy another laptop to do the few things the RT doesn't and it should last forever, because I don't have to use it very much.
I'm a pastor, I write my sermons on the RT, flip the type cover over and lay the surface on my pulpit. I put the document in the view mode that this version of MS Office has, and preach straight from the Surface. I couldn't do that effectively with my laptop, I used an ipad that someone loaned me that way for a while, but it was no where near as effective as the Surface. The Surface RT is what it is, but it's a very good one of what it is for my use.
I find Paul's sites to be a great source of news and information, but there are one or two areas where I can't agree with what he's saying.
This article shows a serious difficulty in accepting that a product that isn't right for him, might be right for others. In that regard his 20 years of experience doesn't really count for much if he can't operate as a journalist who puts himself in other people's shoes. I get that he probably has a whole load of junk in his inbox from people who don't understand what Windows RT is, and why it doesn't run regular desktop software, but to focus on that is to miss the point entirely. Said point being that Windows RT absolutely fits perfectly with the brave new world of devices not shackled to the legacy past, and to suggest that most people aren't able to move to that brave new world is rather ignorant (particularly given many people already /are/ moving in that direction by buying iPads and Android tablets, which is precisely why Microsoft crafted Windows 8/RT in the way they did!)
Plenty of us /want/ a tablet experience that isn't going to be undermined by desktop software, but still has enough 'Windows' in it to run rings around iOS and Android. Devices like the Surface RT meet that need perfectly, and indeed would be perfect for a great many more people than Paul seems to realise. His unwillingness to treat the Surface RT as exactly that kind of device (squarely in the iPad end of the tablet market as opposed to the 'hybrid' end) is disappointing, and I certainly will continue to advise anyone looking for a great tablet that doesn't need legacy software to consider a Windows RT device like the Surface RT.
This article shows a serious difficulty in accepting that a product that isn't right for him, might be right for others. In that regard his 20 years of experience doesn't really count for much if he can't operate as a journalist who puts himself in other people's shoes. I get that he probably has a whole load of junk in his inbox from people who don't understand what Windows RT is, and why it doesn't run regular desktop software, but to focus on that is to miss the point entirely. Said point being that Windows RT absolutely fits perfectly with the brave new world of devices not shackled to the legacy past, and to suggest that most people aren't able to move to that brave new world is rather ignorant (particularly given many people already /are/ moving in that direction by buying iPads and Android tablets, which is precisely why Microsoft crafted Windows 8/RT in the way they did!)
Plenty of us /want/ a tablet experience that isn't going to be undermined by desktop software, but still has enough 'Windows' in it to run rings around iOS and Android. Devices like the Surface RT meet that need perfectly, and indeed would be perfect for a great many more people than Paul seems to realise. His unwillingness to treat the Surface RT as exactly that kind of device (squarely in the iPad end of the tablet market as opposed to the 'hybrid' end) is disappointing, and I certainly will continue to advise anyone looking for a great tablet that doesn't need legacy software to consider a Windows RT device like the Surface RT.
For me the Surface didn't replace a laptop - it replaced an iPad. I don't need a lot of power when I'm not at my desk, so I will never carry a laptop. Laptops are just too big and bulky. The Surface RT is everything I wanted the iPad for, but much more capable like a laptop. The Surface is not a full powered laptop, but the device you have with you is worth more than the most powerful device you left at home.
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