While this doesn't look like a good deal, it isn't really that bad of a deal either. Not Apple bad anyway. Although the others include a proper OS so this is basically $1050. It still in the approximaste ball park but for that price it would want to be very well built.
You're right, the Windows 10 S specific OS is not meant for gamers. But Microsoft would LOVE if everyone, including gamers, used the UWP for everything.
Eh, have you looked at the specs? And have you looked how and where that Windows Version is distributed? It's not meant for homeuse and not even available as a standalone as far as I understand.
No it's not, because this is not a regular Windows Version.
Don't know about you, but I can still use my stuff...
And even if MS would love for everyone to use the UWP (which wouldn't even be that terrible), Gaming is way too big a market that they would give it up by locking down steam so easily. Why would anyone seriously think that... Of course it's technically possible but seriously... brain.exe (soon™ on Microsoft Store).
I'm not talking about the laptop. I'm not talking about the Windows 10 S operating system in 2017. Nor was Tim Sweeney.
I'm talking Microsoft's 5-year plan about UWP. This COULD be the first step in a UWP only Windows world. I would have laughed at this notion in the Windows 7 days, but Windows 10 keeps on becoming a service and not a product like how Windows 7 was.
We'll see if UWP 'isn't terrible'. Maybe I'm just stuck in old-ways, but this is where the freedom of choice with being able to use Linux will really come in handy.
I understand your "fear" about it but I can't share it as of yet.
Apart from Applications being pretty easy to port to UWP (because it's just a wrapper...) regular applications are still just too big a market that they'd ruin it so easily. As I said of course it's possible but.. ya, I talked about that. We'll see in a few years I guess.
But it is. There is no one off, only for this hardware custom OS stuff going on here. It can be straight upgraded to 10Pro for free for some unspecified period of time.
So this is completely standard Win 10 just heavily locked down for absolutely no reason as it still has all of the normal capabilities. It is solely for locking people in and forcing them to use the Win Store.
If they were serious about the EDU end of it there would be no option to unlock this for free to full Win 10 Pro as that would just not be needed if they set it all up for the specific purpose with all the support it needs. The EDU end is just a ruse as they are also marketing it as a full Macbook Pro(edit:/Air) competitor with the same option to unlock all the features of the full Pro Win 10.
Win RT was not a regular version, this completely is, just with extra steps which seems to be standard windows now, many extra steps for no reason.
Hmmm, news is getting worse even when vetted through tech people. Annoying. I had heard the opposite. Free but potentially not forever, you know like the Win 7/8 to 10 upgrade.
worked in a school for a time, You try and stop them completely.
Microsoft has also announced that they are moving Office to the windows store. I'm rather surprised it wasn't already but once they force everyone to start using the windows store just to use windows 10, it won't be long before most people just accept it.
It does feel that Windows 10 's' is a bit premature though. They should have put their entire software catalog on the store before hand. It may be difficult to build momentum for 'S' before they even have software that people need available on the platform.
While I'd really like for people to switch to Linux, I can't help but feel that history is on Microsofts' side with this. The average user will just be happy to live in a walled garden if they get improved stability and security. I'm not a fan of where I see this going and I don't see it being stopped except for better competition from Google and Apple.
Yeah, poor choice of words. I meant that walled gardens appear to be unstoppable at this point and that the only way Microsoft's implementation might fail is due to competition providing a better experience, not that walled gardens appear to be in danger of failing.
I would not be concerned with it. Windows 10s will fail as the device is being restricted makes it useless. No itunes no adobe or any other programs that students us equals useless.
Even though I'm pretty sure this wouldnt happen, I kind of hope it does. If gaming became restricted to windows store there would be a huge push in development on linux for gaming. Valve has already made leaps and bounds on that front but things would start happening even faster and I for one welcome our FOSS overlords.
Wait, what?!? MS Office wasn't already in the MS App Store for the MS OS?!? I'm a Mac and occasionally Linux guy, so it wouldn't have affected me anyway, but really? How long have they been selling Office as just a piece of folded card-stock with a download code? I'd have thought it'd be easier to just have one e-commerce platform to maintain.
The wall around iOS's garden are indeed high, but the only "wall" around macOS is a default setting regarding unsigned apps. The dialog box even tells you how to change the setting. Plus, I like the warning... if I run, IDK, MS Word or something from some other major company, and that dialog pops up, that's a big red flag for me that someone's tampered with the binary.
To extend the analogy a bit too far, macOS's garden might be located a bit off the beaten trail, but once you're there, Apple doesn't do much to stop users from coming and going. Plus it's a rather nice garden, with a coffee shop and a pub just off to the side over there (don't dwell on it... even I don't know what that's supposed to mean).
It's the same with 10 S though. I mean, the first devices are out for like 200$, 50$ more for a Pro upgrade, that's actually a not a bad deal for a 10 Pro license and a device alongside it. You can still unlock the functionality. The difference is that 10 S wants you to pay to unlock, macOS does it for free. But then again macOS is on a 2000$ 3year old hardware PC, but you can (at least of of now) transfer that Pro license to a new PC.
But it locks the stupid people out at least 
Not everyone is tech-savy 