Ballmer's opinion is like a chair to the head. No one wants it.
HP PC chief: Microsoft's Surface is 'KLUDGEY'. There, I said it
HP's chief of personal systems has branded Microsoft's Surface "kludgey" in a broadside against the new laptop-cum-tablet hardware. Todd Bradley dismissed the fondletop in an interview with IDG's CITEworld, and said although the tech press is obsessed with it, the public couldn't care less about Microsoft's 10-inch offering. …
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Thursday 15th November 2012 16:43 GMT Anonymous Coward
What always surprises me...
Is that when a company has made $awesome_hardware_which_everyone_should_have you hardly ever see one of their own staff working with it. This isn't only commenting on Microsoft, but other companies too. Its a given.
Back in he Compaq days the iPaq was advertised as one of the greatest thing to have but you'd never see the CEO walking around with one. And there are dozens of examples like this.
The moment where I see Ballmer carrying around a Surface and also actually /using/ it to, for example, take notes during a press conference or something then I maybe believe in some of Microsoft propaganda. But until that time first things first; like waiting for version 2 which doesn't start showing wirering in the keyboard after a few weeks of use.
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Thursday 15th November 2012 16:46 GMT Tim 11
I've got one and it's kludgy
only when you actually use it for a while do you fully appreciate that trying to make something that's a laptop and a tablet at the same time is just never going to work
I think they've probably done as good a job in the execution as anyone could have done with the aims they set themselves, but the whole concept is pointless
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Thursday 15th November 2012 20:43 GMT Lars
Re: I've got one and it's kludgy
I haven't got one and I don't think I will get one, kludgy or not. But the concept is that Microsoft has to deliver regularly something "new" to get the money they want even if they don't need it. The concept is wrong. Compare that to Linux "who" has not forced a new, start from scratch kernel, every third year, but instead developed it from year to year to be better and better. Money is a devil. Nothing will change it and perhaps it's as well. When every retailer starts to push Windows 8, some will eat shit, some will feel disturbed but most consumers will just accept it, as it is, like before, because there is no choice. Microsoft knows and relies on that. Still I hope that the market share of Windows will suffer.
Oh my god, how pleased and proud people can become when they have something new, good or bad, does not matter. On the server side, I am sure, they will be more cautious, or they have lost the sense of reality completely, perhaps as well too. And I might be wrong, of course.
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Friday 16th November 2012 06:33 GMT Michael Kean
Re: I've got one and it's kludgy
"... but the whole concept is pointless"
After seeing http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/15/review_viewsonic_vsd220_aio_smart_display/ I am not so sure it's pointless. Think also about the Asus transformer for example - an Android 'Laptop.' Think about how many non-computer and semi-computer literate people now have smartphones. And how many of those phones run Android. Perhaps it makes sense that those people can grab an Android-based Laptop or 'PC' and already know how to get around it.
I think Microsoft might be thinking that way and hence trying desperately to make this synergy happen so that Win8 phone buyers would also have that same 'familiarity' experience. But have they left it too late? I guess give them a year and see. Maybe Windows 8-and-a-bit will be what they need.
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Thursday 15th November 2012 16:53 GMT Robert E A Harvey
Ermm
I thought HP were going to have a whole comet-full of windows 8 stuff on sale by now. Instead they are slagging it off (or at least the ginger stepbrother of it) Weird gets wieridererer.
Oh, and wasn't WebOs going to rise zombie-like from the grave too? what news on that, lads?
I think HP will be next through the magic curtains to the afterlife.
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Thursday 15th November 2012 18:30 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Ne'er a truer word spoken in jest
> the "kludgey" being the far earthier word in the Glasgow of my youth for what the Septics so delicately call the "bathroom".
According to the Jargon file, that is the etymology of "kludge".
Not to be confused with "kluge" which is roughly the same thing but is not necessarily a pejorative term.
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Thursday 15th November 2012 19:05 GMT W. Anderson
Tech Media always in awe of Microsoft new products - for money?
It is no news that much of the technology media are and can be overly impressed with Microsoft technology.
Take Ed Bott of ZDNet, who would find it harder to criticize Microsoft even for egregiously - and admittedly - violating their anti-trust agreement and mandate with the European Union than it would for Bott to fly by simply flapping his arms about. He prefers to flap his mouth about in aid of his heroes in Redmond.
Buying support and popular commentary will only work for so long, since most of the populace here in USA and elsewhere have become accustomed to receiving crappy products and services from Microsoft for too long.
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Thursday 15th November 2012 19:43 GMT mhoneywell
Go Balmer
It irks me to say it, but Balmer's right. iPhone is too expensive and Android is like the wlld west. The Surface is too expensive too. And I'm as yet unqualified to talk about Kludgeyness.
That said, if I were Bradley I wouldn't be criticising MS, or anyone else. HP more than any tech firm out there needs all of the allies it can get at the moment.
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Saturday 17th November 2012 19:24 GMT Blitterbug
Re: Android is like the wlld west
Thar's truth in them thar hills, but my Nexus 7 has honestly surprised the living spoink out of me. I messed around with a cheapie Gingerbread StorageSystems Scroll 7" jobbie a year ago, had some fun, but boy was it crappy compared to my iPhone. A month ago I dithered over waiting for an iPad Mini or getting a shiny Nexus 7 there-and-then.
£200 quid later and I'm a happy bunny. The £15 free Market (sorry, Play) credit was the icing on the cake; very quickly I was banging out customer invoices (MobileBiz) and enjoying full-fat Chrome browsing.
Try as I might I can't even get the interface to stutter. Now if they could just do something about the crappy black backgrounds on most of the 'system' screens - it's not as if Apple have patented grey! Oh, wait...
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Friday 16th November 2012 00:30 GMT Anonymous Coward
Yeah well..
two weeks into Windows 8 on my laptop with a new drive and I am going back to Windows 7. 8 won't activate with the key that came with the software and keeps giving me "the warning" in the middle of my work - very annoying. And now IE is showing me blank white pages very frequently for no good reason - again, annoying. And web Hotmail locks up more frequently now too - very annoying.
I guess Windows 8 can be christened "the annoying one" .
Sinofsky got out just in time because the crew behind him has a huge mess to clean up. Why taint a good fantasy legend with pesky factual details?
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Friday 16th November 2012 06:04 GMT Nate Amsden
will HP's be any different?
from what I've read/heard the klunky-ness of the Surface is mostly the software, the mix-mash of Metro and desktop etc. Which I'd imagine every Windows 8 tablet will have to mess with even HP's.
I haven't noticed anyone complaining about the hardware of the tablet itself..
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Friday 16th November 2012 09:04 GMT Martin
Can't believe that no-one has commented on the irony here...
...of an HP person accusing someone else's software of being kludgy.
HP printers are excellent, but the Windows drivers are 90% bloatware, which take ages to install and complain loudly and bitterly about the slightest problem.
(To be fair, though, the Linux drivers just work beautifully...)
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Friday 16th November 2012 09:56 GMT Anonymous Coward
Windows 8 and surface
After 2 months on Windows 8 I still find it an uninviting and weird experience. You try and close the metro start screen to get back to the desktop and realise this OS is stuck in reverse and treats the desktop as an app. The live tiles scroll continuously, cycling irrelevant distractions while the start menu is now impossible to keep organised and find things on. People who rely on the mouse are actively discriminated against. Was Rentokil responsible for their UX strategy? Everything about this product is half finished.
So you get a surface RT, expecting it to be cut-down but at least a consistent experience. Well, it turns out it is 0.6 finished. And the device is noticeably less snappy to use -- all the little details like key presses, clicks and selection -- than your old ipad 2.
HP's boss is right, but unless he switches to some other OS I fare their fate will be no better.
ps. just my real life user opinion, yours may vary
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Saturday 17th November 2012 03:35 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Windows 8 and surface
Personally speaking, I don't find the desktop PC experience very different with 8, I'm not using touch monitors yet but hoping the monitor manufacturers getting their act together on resolution, touch etc. one day. Most of the time at present I've no reason to visit the start screen or run Windows store apps. Likewise on my notebook devices. I guess it all depends what you use the computer for.
I borrowed a Surface RT this week for evaluation and seemed fine to me for everyday apps, I didn't find it less snappy than an iPad but unlikely I'd buy one for personal use until graphic resolution and SoC are upgraded as I'm into graphics intensive software. As you say opinions will vary, users have different requirements and expectations.
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Sunday 18th November 2012 05:36 GMT Blitterbug
Re: Windows 8 and surface
Well-measured post, Sir (or ma'am). I actually would like a Surface, the build qual is supposedly 'legendary' and despite all I've said about the Start screen, that's mainly 'cos it's an unholy carbunkle on the face of my lovely PC and laptop. On a tablet I could live with it, as a kind of quickie 'do stuff' mode. Though might wait for the 'pro' version (sadly no office for free though)...
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