http://www.zdnet.com/article/google-microsoft-apple-where-does-the-money-come...


Microsoft is running a whole year late at this point in time on Win 10.   Win 10 phone is just about a dead issue right now, and mainstream PC implementation is falling woefully short of the one billion desktops that were promised by mid year.

Why is MS allowing this to happen?  

BECAUSE IT DOES NOT MATTER ANY MORE .....



Microsoft finds that Win 10 does not and never will contribute large dollars to the MS cash register, so resources are being shifted away from the efforts to other more profitable arms of the company.

If this means you wait forever for drivers that work with your old hardware, tough.  Some half-arsed generic drivers is all MS is ever going to give you after TRASHING your old vendor based drivers as "conflicting non-standard driver software".

Why?   MS keeps churning the code base for Win 10 --- it is never "done" enough for the old vendors to try to write any "fix it" drivers any more.    They can't hit a moving target, in other words.   By the time they write something, MS has moved out from underneath them again .....

Also, MS sees the phone/pc thing coming on strong now from both Android and Linux -- on top of Google's Chrome OS picking up even more market share ongoing.

PC shipments will continue to decline 6-10% year on year, in other words ......

Win 10 has caused a LACK of new PC sales as the New PC pricing is all out of joint right now and the drivers mess has no end in sight as last night MS changed things yet again.

As a google fan, I was looking into Fi also.... here is a review

http://venturebeat.com/2015/12/28/google-project-fi-review/

The biggest worry I would have, is that I would purchase the phone for $200 and google go and cancel the program. (much like my google glass)

I have four phones on my plan... i'm a crazy softy and let my sister in law and a friend who can't afford a phone ride on my plan.

At current I spend right at $180 a month (taxes included).... for unlimited talk and text for all phones and 6 gig of data on mine.

The wife and sister in law only have flip phones. My friend has an older (blackberry style) flat phone.

I was hoping Google Fi would be the answer to my dilemma of large phone bills, but the initial investment on phones and the likely hood of folks going over a set data fee would put me right back at the same price I am paying now.

Currently I am looking into getting the government phone for the sister in law (she is disabled) and for my buddy who really doesn't have a job other than his dog kennel (which loses money monthly) which sorta doubles as a dog shelter.

If I can get them off the bill, the wife and I will look into something better than Verizon.... even if I have to do the old AARP cricket or whatever they call it now....

Got the new ($249 -- $49 extra for 32 gigs of "program holding memory") Nexus 5X in today and got it all set up for my wife -- her phone number has to port over now to complete the change up, plus adding and remembering all the passwords for each of the "executable" items like Netflix.

The new phone has over four times as much processor, twice as much systems memory and 4 times as much local storage as her old phone had.

It is quick and it makes very few mistakes when interpreting what you say to it.  

It is twice as much available "screen surface" (higher density plus more square inches of screen) and the contrast and color are better than before too.   Phone overall is both thinner and lighter than before and yes my wife can hold it and do it with one little bitty sweetheart hand -- she is pleased with her new phone.

And yes, her new phone will be "PC ready" when Android N and O each get out there in a year or two, or right about when her PC is finally killed off by MS.    I daresay Jide will support her phone starting sometimes later on this year with their full bag of PC style tricks as the Nexus phones always get to go first.    Ditto for Ubunu, Nexus phones are always supported first with any new Ubuntu stuff as well.

You see, the Nexus 5x already has the required 2 gigs of fast "PC" systems memory already in it .......  along with the required industrial strength USB C connector.


   


And yes, Google Fi phones are swinging all three modes all the time  -- wifi and both/each T-Mobile and Sprint 4G-LTE full speed tower service packages, doing 3 way full speed swapping between the three as you roll down the road.

Whatever signal is stronger, for as long as it is the best.    

http://liliputing.com/2016/03/ubuntu-versions-of-dell-xps-13-precision-laptop...

Dell is updating its “Project Sputnik” line of laptops which ship with Ubuntu Linux rather than Microsoft Windows software.



These are premium programming workstations, not casual PCs.

If you were hoping to save money by purchasing a laptop that doesn’t come with a Windows license, you should note that none of these options are cheap: The cheapest XPS 13 Developer Edition at the moment sells for $1550.

What you get for that price is a thin and light 13 inch laptop with a Core i7 Skylake processor, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of solid state storage, and a 3200 x 1800 pixel touchscreen display. Dell also offers models with up top 16GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage.

All of Dell’s Linux notebooks currently ship with Ubuntu 14.04, which is the latest long-term-service release of the operating system. Eventually Dell plans to update to Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, which will be released in April.

OK, business is NOT WANTING WINDOWS so much any more -- most real serious internet based programmers prefer Ubuntu now for their main machines.

Back to the Linux Mint hacking for a minute.


AVG and AVAST both offered help to Mint structure a no-user-bother defensive set-up, as did a couple of commercial web page building firms -- all FOSS gratus of course.   Mint has new options to follow at this point going forward.  

Ubuntu is taking a new look at security as well, as is the Mother of all Distros, Debian itself.   Both have better security than Mint had at the time, but that may change soon.   If Mint (and their helpers) comes up with something neat, they can feel free to copy it.

PS

???? Somebody ????  went and wrecked the Bulgarians world for them, very very thoroughly,  as a reminder to stay the frick away from good FOSS contributors in the future.

MS "Closed Garden" proceeds along with HERE MAPS leaving MS completely .....   (stopped supporting Win 8.1 too)

http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/15/11234462/here-maps-support-windows-phone-wi...

Here maps has been a strong part of Microsoft's Windows Phone offering for years, but that's coming to an end later this month. Here is announcing today that it plans to pull its mapping apps for Windows 10 on March 29th, and "will limit the development of the apps for Windows Phone 8 to critical bug fixes." If you own one of the latest Lumia 950 handsets then Here maps will stop working after June 30th. If you're still on a Windows Phone 8.1 device then Here maps will keep working, unless you upgrade to Windows 10 Mobile once it's available in the coming weeks.

"We made the Here apps compatible with Windows 10 by using a workaround that will no longer be effective after June 30, 2016," explains Here spokesperson Pino Bonetti. "To continue offering the HERE apps for Windows 10 would require us to redevelop the apps from the ground up, a scenario that led to the business decision to remove our apps from the Windows 10 store."




http://mspoweruser.com/finally-admits-drops-windows-10-stops-wp8-1-development/



After a long period of will she or wont she HERE has finally admitted that they are withdrawing from Windows Phone development.

Posting on their blog they write:

In the last few months, we made the HERE apps compatible with Windows 10 by using a workaround that will no longer be effective after June 30, 2016. To continue offering the HERE apps for Windows 10 would require us to redevelop the apps from the ground up, a scenario that led to the business decision to remove our apps from the Windows 10 store.

This means the HERE apps will no longer work on devices running Windows 10 mobile after June 30, 2016. To prepare for this change, we have also decided to remove the HERE apps from the Windows 10 store on March 29, 2016.
Windows Phone 8.1 users are not spared however.  While the app will remain available for Windows Phone 8.1 users, HERE will no longer be updating the app or associated maps.

HERE writes:

HERE is deeply integrated in the Windows Phone 8 operating system. The HERE apps for Windows Phone 8 will continue to work for you without any disruption. However, we made the business decision to stop the development of new features. Additionally, the maps developed specifically for Windows Phone will not be updated.



http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/16/11243974/microsoft-windows-10-maps-app-update

Here Maps announced its plans to drop support for Windows Phone and Windows 10 yesterday. As the primary mapping service for Windows Phone, it leaves existing users with Microsoft's own lackluster maps app. Thankfully, Microsoft appears to be ready to improve its own maps situation. In a post on Reddit, a verified Microsoft employee identified as Dave_MSFT reveals that the company has an "exciting update" planned for the Windows 10 maps app.


What does this mean for MS?    First, MS Phone just got dumped by HERE MAPS because they killed off a key vendor's ability to put his stuff inside their walled garden.   Second, they have to either make or buy a mapping app for Windows Phone, ASAP.

Third, who really cares about Windows Phone anymore?   So what if they don't have enough apps to fill out all the little square blocks on their start screen any more -- who cares?

MS should care, a lot.  

If software vendors in general stop supporting the Windows 10 UNIVERSAL WINDOWS PLATFORM  --  then it is all over for MS at that point in time.    And this HAS ALREADY HAPPENED, wholesale, over in the Win 10 for phone Universal Application vendor platform base.

Flip side time ..... why do you really need Windows 10?


1)  Your work requires it, having absolutely locked in on MS OFFICE or Autocad, etc. in years past.

2)  Your gaming requires it, you are hooked on PC Triple AAA titles and can't get loose.


YOU can expect to be forced into buying a brand new Wintel rig inside the next 24 months if either of these two things is true.    

The "walled garden" lock in level you are about to see in HAS SIMPLY NEVER EXISTED AT THIS ABSOLUTE A LEVEL BEFORE.