Re: Goldman Sucs
You're missing the point... today phone=computer, tablet=computer. And yes, if everyone began biking to work or using mass transit or fuel-efficient scooters auto manufacturers WOULD be worried.
>Can anyone do all their work on a eBook reader,
If it involves reading... yes. :-)
>Portable Media Player
I can, but then mine runs Android and has a 5" screen and I'm going to get it to run desktop Linux soon. Just last night I remotely connected as root to a desktop PC via WiFi and SSH and killed a hung process and then later rebooted the system remotely. Is that work?
>, Tablet,
Certainly.
> or Phone (my MP3 player can't run an MS-OS.
You seem to be under the delusion that the only OS that counts is an MS-OS. In the Linux world they call that MTBS (Microsoft-Trained Brain Syndrome). It's the mistaken belief that Microsoft products are the only way to do something or that the way Microsoft does something is the only way it can be done. Symptoms include saying things like "I need to use Excel" instead of "I need to use a spreadsheet" or "I need to type this on Word" instead of "I need a word processor". In one vexing case I had a person insist to me she couldn't switch to desktop Linux "...because I can't sync my iPod with iTunes", which she repeated about three times in eight sentences. I then began to administer the cure by explaining to her that the operative phrase there was "...with iTunes". The Linux world doesn't use iTunes. But it does use Amarok, Banshee, Clementine, gtkpod and several other programs, all of which will sync to ipods just fine.
While your phone may not be able to run a Microsoft OS (but it would if you had a WinPhone 8 model) my media player does run the Linux kernel, as does every Android device. Ubuntu is also completing work on "Ubuntu for Android". One would slip an Android phone into a dock which is connected to a monitor, keyboard and mouse and the device would immediately switch over to Ubuntu complete with a desktop interface. The OSes would be integrated to the degree that pages open on the Android browser would be open when launching the browser in Ubuntu! Contacts, etc. would be shared and the phone would still be able to take calls in this mode. No Microsoft necessary. Also, unlike WinRT, Linux has been ported fully to the ARM architecture including applications, most of which merely need to be recompiled. For instance, while Office runs on RT minus VBA script, LibreOffice continues to function normally including its support for its own basic script and the superior options javascript and python. Linux, not Microsoft or Apple, is the only option today if you want to run your desktop software on an ARM mobile device.
In addition the Asus Transformer line of tablets have an optional keyboard dock with extra battery that turns the tablet into an ARM laptop as well as extending the runtime to about 14 hours. Given its unlocked bootloader you could install an ARM Linux distribution instead of Android and run regular desktop apps on it. Of course with VNC, SSH, etc. you could remotely connect to a server and use the tablet/laptop as a thin client.
> I suppose (if you care enough) you could ask what's the percentage of things that can actually run an
>MS-OS actually using an MS-OS ? - oh, 97% you say - well there you go.
Sadly, I have absolutely no clue what this even means unless one assumes that you only regard Microsoft Windows as a "real" operating system, which is just ridiculous.
I've seen new benchmarks of Linux on the Exynos dual-core ARM chip and in most benchmarks it blows away both the mobile and desktop versions of the Intel Atom chip and on many benchmarks places about half the results of an Intel i3 (although some were worse and a few better than that). About two years ago someone connected told me ARM was four years away from a chip with the same processing power as that year's entry-level x86 chip. It looks like they've made good progress towards that goal and possibly are even ahead of schedule depending on how the newest 64bit ARM architecture performs. This is the world we are heading towards: a mobile phone/computer that you simply plug into a small dock on your desk and which transforms into a normal desktop for large screen/keyboard use. Between increased storage densities, ubiquitous wifi and the cloud, you'll be carrying your only computer and its data with you wherever you go. The whole point is that it's looking more and more like Windows won't be the OS you'll be carrying around with you. MS could have tried to do what Ubuntu is doing and given us Windows in our pockets and it would have been an iPhone killer, but instead Ballmer's doing the only thing he's ever known how to do: leverage the existing monopoly to create another one. Between Win8 and the rumored Windows 9 "Blue" update next year, he's trying to force anyone who wants to develop for the Windows desktop to make apps compatible with the phone and tablet as well or be locked out of the Windows Store. Personally I think this is going to backfire big time. Either way, you need to understand that many phones today are now more powerful than the netbooks of a few years ago and they're eventually going to replace desktops for most users. Your (odd) thinking that it's not a computer unless the OS is from Microsoft is at least 10 years out of date.