Asus Kills Dual-boot Notebook to Please Microsoft, Google

[JMcEntegart]

The dual-boot machine that almost was.

Asus Kills Dual-boot Notebook to Please Microsoft, Google : Read more

 

[Lutfij]

Whats stopping folks from doing a bit of dual booting alchemy of their own?

 

[TyrOd]

Whats stopping folks from doing a bit of dual booting alchemy of their own?

Driver support and extremely limited(locked-down) BIOS options.

 

[Lutfij]

True but you'll see a niche form that will address the concerns you've mentioned. Most probable that it won't be legal but then again you have people going on about torrents in a world where that sort of activity can land you in jail.

Not refuting you, just saying it possible to take form in a small manner. Here's hoping it does happen legally at least.

 

[11796pcs]

"Our policies have not changed, Microsoft will continue to invest with OEMs to promote best in class OEM and Microsoft experiences to our joint customers."This is worse than not responding at all.

 

[ericburnby]

banmaster: Bingo. Microsoft had nothing to lose. People using Android and Windows on the same device would soon see how limited Android was, and end up just using Windows.

The only company that would be negatively affected would be Google. And Google has put their foot down before when Acer tried to release a phone running a forked version if Android.

I bet it's all Google and not MS.

 

[bystander]

I'd say Microsoft is the only one to loose on a dual boot system, unless it shows far superior in all things. MS has a huge market share lead. There is nothing to gain for them, but Google can get into more households on a dual boost system. It allows people familiar with Windows to try out Chrome, rather than just going with the familiar.I'm quite shocked that Google would not want this.

 

[antilycus]

Microsoft and UEFI, along with the OEM's have done a fantastic job of making sure you can't install anything else. UEFI has eliminated the need to for License Keys (on MS) and if you want one, they make you pay for a license for the non UEFI (speaking from first hand experience w/ a preloaded WIN 8 lenovo) license, so you can actually do dual boot. So instead, I have made it a goal in life to never recommend Microsoft based products to any customer ( companies with multi millions of dollars to spend on I.T. Budget ) ever again. No MS SQL, no Microsoft GP, no MS Exchange, no MS Office, no MS Outlook, no MS Server, no MS Active Directory, nothing. Microsoft has proven that can't can lead a camel to water, so why keep giving them the camels?

 

[Ian Mahaney]

Ridiculous. I was looking forward to this device and already saving up for it. I hope Asus still releases the device itself whether it be only Windows or only Android.

 

[therealduckofdeath]

Both companies has pushed equally hard to make sure a device isn't sold with both systems on them. It's bad business no matter what position you're in. Microsoft themselves has much of their success to thank for IBM not understanding this around 25 years ago.

 

[AndrewMD]

The problem with dual booting OSes is that most consumers would not benefit from it. Windows is a better desktop OS and Android is just better with being a tablet or phone

 

[brandonjclark]

IMO dual-boot will never be a mass option. We need integrated functionality, not segregation.

 

[BranFlake5]

It's a shame...Why can't Microsoft and Google just friggin' get along. Google "We have the best search engine"Microsoft "Bing is betta cuz it's not google"Google "We gave the web a kick-ass browser"Microsoft "We 'didn't' intentionally slow it down on Windows 8, Try IE though"Google "We have a great email client"Microsoft "Your getting scroogled guys!!!"Google "We made a new open phone OS"Microsoft "They're still scroogling you"Google "We made a simple internet OS and free software"Microsoft "Chrome OS sux, google docs is scroogling u 2 guys"Frankly, there seems like no good reason for the two to compete so much. Collaboration brings us the greatest inventions. Google dominates the web and open tools and Microsoft dominates in paid software and a full feature OS.

 

[ethanolson]

Microsoft doesn't have a license scenario for multi-platform systems outside of FPP, which would cost more than double the OEM license price. Google probably doesn't know how to approach it either. Why confuse the consumer and take support calls with finger pointing when you can just not update your licensing and avoid the whole thing?!

 

[back_by_demand]

I'd say Microsoft is the only one to loose on a dual boot system, unless it shows far superior in all things. MS has a huge market share lead. There is nothing to gain for them, but Google can get into more households on a dual boost system. It allows people familiar with Windows to try out Chrome, rather than just going with the familiar.I'm quite shocked that Google would not want this.

There is nothing that Android does that Windows cannot do, it may be popular but let's not fool ourselves, Android is not a full desktop OS. It isn't full Linux and all the things most people use Android for can be done on Windows without having to swap between OSs. Microsoft's statement is pretty clear - "We think Android is crap"

 

[alyoshka]

Well , this is surprising, since the Acer Aspire One Netbook I bought for my kid 4 years ago had the same dual boot thing with XP and Android....That of course gave new users a feel of the future of the cellphone OS to come....But I really don't think it is the slightest bit of competition in the PC market....the droids fine for portable stuff, doing small things .... can't see it replacing the other Desktop/PC/Laptop OS's in the near future.....Touch or no touch, I just can't see myself seeing people tapping on the onscreen keyboard for ages to come....

 

[TobyStanley]

I don't think I will be interested in such product.

 

[kawininjazx]

It's a great idea, let the kids play with Android so they don't infect your Windows.

 

[rwinches]

This already exists in a large version
https://www.asus.com/AllinOne_PCs/ASUS_Transformer_AiO_P1801/

Available at Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Transformer-P1801-B037K-18-4-Inch-Desktop/dp/B00BWHILC4

 

[SirGCal]

It's a great idea, let the kids play with Android so they don't infect your Windows.

Android has it's own share of malware, viruses, etc. Especially in the 'free' apps which many (more then one would think) contain data collection. Android itself doesn't stop 'infection'.

 

[teh_chem]

I think this had more to do with the recent Android licensing agreements that Google/Android re-negotiated regarding licensing of google services. Google/Android recently significantly reduced the per-device license fee for Google Services. My guess is that under the new terms of significantly reduced licensing fees for google services, comes a clause that nixes running multiple OS's on these devices. ASUS was probably happy to get the significantly-reduced license fee per-device for google services, and decided to axe their dual tablet (though aside, I can't quite rationalize the market/demographic for the price point they think consumers are going to be buying a device like this, and the form-factor; lots of people are fine paying $1200+ for a windows machine, but at the same time, not a lot prefer, at that price point, to have a large Android tablet; most have preferred the 7-8" form factors for android tablets. At least, myself, I don't like 10" android tablets).

 

[Camikazi]

I'd say Microsoft is the only one to loose on a dual boot system, unless it shows far superior in all things. MS has a huge market share lead. There is nothing to gain for them, but Google can get into more households on a dual boost system. It allows people familiar with Windows to try out Chrome, rather than just going with the familiar.I'm quite shocked that Google would not want this.

Google is the one that locks down Chromebooks remember, MS does not lock down their notebooks or any Windows running notebooks. I would say this is more a Google thing than MS.

 

[sonofliberty08]

ASUS Kill AMD & ARM chips to please Intel too

 

[chazking260]

Microsoft spokesman Jay Carney explained that duly certified vendors wanting dual boot could "kiss his behind". But not in the vernacualar that may be erroneously interpreted to mean. We stand by our decision. Next...

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

Whats stopping folks from doing a bit of dual booting alchemy of their own?

Driver support and extremely limited(locked-down) BIOS options.

Absolute nonsense. I am dual-booting my Asus N550JV with Windows 7 (despite it shipping with 8) and Ubuntu 12.04. Had I wanted to, I'd add Android as well, though it'd require messing with GRUB entries a bit more - currently I'm just happy I got EFI dual-boot to work (don't want GRUB chain-booting Windows too). I have yet to see a normal x86 laptop the BIOS of which wouldn't allow installations of multiple OSs and which wouldn't run Linux at least to some extent (99% of them work fully with only minor quirks like Fn-keys not working).Either way, I think Android doesn't belong on laptops (neither does Windows 8, mind you) - it's great for touchscreen phones and tablets, but this... meh. If I really wanted it, I'd run it in a VM. But why? Got a phone and a tablet with it.