Worried about Windows Fragmentation

Posted by Duke_Nukem on April 23, 2012 11:03 pm 19

As a tech enthusiast I am worried about Windows fragmentation for 2 reasons.

1) The average person will see tablets and laptops and desktops in a computer line in Best Buy and they all will look the same because of the Windows 8 start screen. People will start looking at specs they know like screen size, resolution, hard drive capacity but most of all prize. When they get to the tablet section however they might go for the generally cheaper ARM tablets without knowing it is an ARM tablet and will get home and realize all the games they have at home labeled "Games For Windows" don't work on it. The Windows RT and Windows 8 names are not distinguished enough for casual people to know the difference, especially if they totally look the same.

2) Tablet manufactures love to put proprietary docking ports on tablets and that would be one of the few ports you get and you need to by a proprietary docking station or usb hub or keyboard. I wish we could standardize on hardware ports so I can choose the docking station that fits my needs the best.

For number 1 I still have hope Microsoft will fix it by not including the desktop in Windows RT, just to make it very obvious to consumer "Here you have the old stuff (Windows 8) and here you do not (Windows RT)". It would also make the pitch much clearer from a salesman's perspective or giving advice perspective "As long as you can access the desktop you are compatible". They might also help solve the issue by making the Windows RT logo and Windows 8 logo very different from each other. In either case Microsoft has a big marketing challenge ahead of itself and I don't feel like naming it Windows RT was a good start.