Nor do some of us want to use web apps, and would rather use a dedicated app, even if it's an iOS app. (orAndroid)
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Windows 11 Will Run Android Apps From Amazon Appstore
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If you understand history, apps are reinterpretations of web to run on lower performance devices so apps are inferior to web for the most part. That's why ChromeOS with full desktop browser now has #2 marketshare after Windows.
I don't know how old you are but here is some science for you:
Computer operating systems market share 2025| Statista
Microsoft’s Windows is the most widely used computer operating system in the world, accounting for ** percent share of the desktop, tablet, and console OS market in March 2025.
www.statista.com
Please note all goverments, banks, corporations world wide run Windows for their employees and Microsoft Office. I never went into a bank or an insurance company and saw them using MacOS or Linux Ubuntu as their main driver.
I did not write off business. For business it’s 90% office and 10% specialist apps on the desktop but 90% of those businesses now are slowly moving to SaaS based products due to the lower management overhead.
I spend most of the day using windows, writing windows software and dealing with corporate windows stuff. I’m right in there.
Here’s my desk to point out the shocking disparity in my Mac to pc ownership ratio. Test machines galore! Oh and my docked main workstation is a Dell…
Definitely not out of touch. But this is a dying thing. Most of our 120,000 user base across three continents are running their **** as terminals with a browser.
My point is the people who are doing this are making conscious decisions to move to SaaS products and zero management desktops (terminals) where possible so that when Windows N+1 turns up there Isn’t a capital expenditure to deal with as often.
fundamentally when a new windows version comes out everyone gets scared rathe than excited. And that’s where people get off and use other tools.
One of our national banks still uses a TN3270 emulator on windows that replace explorer.exe.I don't know how old you are but here is some science for you:
Computer operating systems market share 2025| Statista
Microsoft’s Windows is the most widely used computer operating system in the world, accounting for ** percent share of the desktop, tablet, and console OS market in March 2025.
Please note all goverments, banks, corporations world wide run Windows for their employees and Microsoft Office. I never went into a bank or an insurance company and saw them using MacOS or Linux Ubuntu as their main driver.
I’m not sure if that actually is running windows on a desktop though 🤔
Problem I find is my iPad is a better laptop than my laptop. And my laptop is a terrible desktop. Might as well just use the iPad and get a desktop.
Darth Tulhu
macrumors 68020
With all the "blades of glass" stuff it looks more like iOS to me.
Which is, of course, very nice.
if I could move 100% of my companies required tools to some form of Web interface, even if I have to host it myself, I would be in a second.
breaking the OS dependency of legacy would be the greatest boon to my job. having to force users to use windows, instead of whatever OS of their choice (even iOS!) sucks. Especially in this day of age where Windows doesn't bring anything to the table that others aren't also now able to deliver, but better and faster, and MORE EASILY MANAGABLE
but you probably understand how bad old legacy junk can be. The bank I run the IT department for is still on a back end platform that was originally written 20 years ago, and it's still using the same win32 runtime. the backend DB is still single threaded, and the front end will only run in windows. the mllions that it will cost to migrate, plus the 1-2 year project scope to do so, requiring 100% of our useres to dual key for validation, is not on the table right now.
iPadOS is poop though and would kill the terminal emulator if put in the background so unfit for business use. Bank branches also use other Windows software besides the terminal emulator like MS Office.
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I decided to get the iPad pro a few weeks back to see how suitable it would be as a laptop replacement for our users.
it's not
the thing is. it can run everything I need it to. for any of the legacy applications, they can use VMWare Horizons VDI images we publish.
But what I discovered is that even on the M1, if I task switch to Outlook App, after about 2 minutes my connection to VDI is disconnected, which, since I use instantclones, shuts down then destroys the user VM. that's just not a usable experience for people
So while i find the iPad and iPad OS tremendous for performance and it in thoery could replace laptops for my users. iPad OS's (iOS's) "cheats" for efficiency render it an unusable product for my deployments. Which sucks, Because i NOW it would have cut my costs to administer down as I have valid MDM licenses already to cover all my users on iOS.
and for the first time the cost wouldn't even be prohibitive to move my users to iOS. an ipad Air si fast enough. and the keyboard /trackpad is great. combined costs the same, if not less than what I'm spending on Laptops now, which have caused me nothing but problems (the 2021 Dell XPS 13's have been killing me)
Actually they don’t on these. There is no shell. It’s just the terminal emulator. If you close it, the windows session restarts a terminal with the good old TN3270 login.
I wouldn’t use it for that case. It runs native and web apps fine. Running VDI over it (or anything to be frank) is insanity.
The point is I can deploy our entire stack in AWS and point an off the shelf iPad with an MDM policy set up and we’re go.
Hey, that’s fair enough. I feel a bit bad for my comments but it was because your previous post really came across as someone who was bashing a system they had not used a lot recently (kind of like how I’d have PC users say how macs didn’t have a right click button in 2012). The difference here is you seem to use your windows PC a lot more than me so I fully respect your take here.
The thing is, it works really well. except the iOS background killing disconnecting the users and forcing them to log back in and wait for a new clone vm to spawn and let them in.
if it weren't for Apple "fake" background multitasking, the iPad would absolutely be perfect for my users. These same users when I upgraded them from win7 to win10 complained they couldn't do any work because it was 'different'
but they all know how to use an iphone. (mostly, one of my previous CEO's didn't know what a smartphone was and needed my helpdesk staff to create her a personal icloud account and sign her in... btw, that was in 2020)
As an American who lives in one of the most "advanced" European countries, I think a key difference is the degree of bureaucracy and regulation in Europe. People here are just simply used to a million arcane steps to get things done and what Americans would consider overbearing rules. Likewise with GDPR, 75%+ are just completely disengaged from anything to do with it and accept the rules as just another small hassle of accepting cookies constantly. Compared with the hassle of, say, operating a private vehicle legally, it's not a hassle at all.
As for privacy generally, I think the vast majority of people only care about privacy if the breach of it meaningfully impacts them negatively (this is true of most moral issues), and no one is really harmed or bothered by Google showing them some ad that may be related to their browsing history. It's not like Google is posting their naked selfies to jumbotrons, and for Gen-Z, i doubt that would bother them so much as long as they got some side-hustle money.
As for why they buy cheaper phones, the short answer is that they have lower incomes, and aren't as into gadgets as a status symbol. Would rather have a better haircut and scarf, being seen at the trendy cafe elegantly relaxing before going home to their tiny old apartment. The way phones are used is somewhat different as well--you almost never see phones out at restaurants or social occasions generally, whereas in America, people are just in four different phone realities in their booth.
Completely understand. Really it’s all crap but some things are less crap than others
You wait until I kick off about apple 🤣. My AirPods are giving me trouble this week
Thats by design with the iPad of course which is the issue. Rather than relying on remote connections the ipad is designed for occasionally connected networks and the client apps should be dedicated for that use case rather than delivered remotely. With that consideration it makes sense but RDP/VDI and SSH users get shot. Give them office 365 on an iPad and they go quiet though…
As for CEOs yes. Been there!
I don't know how old you are but here is some science for you:
Computer operating systems market share 2025| Statista
Microsoft’s Windows is the most widely used computer operating system in the world, accounting for ** percent share of the desktop, tablet, and console OS market in March 2025.
Please note all goverments, banks, corporations world wide run Windows for their employees and Microsoft Office. I never went into a bank or an insurance company and saw them using MacOS or Linux Ubuntu as their main driver.
Microsoft still has a big share, no doubt, but your list does not include smartphones. Since smartphones cover web surfing, emails and most of the common OL tasks, why would that not be included?
Windows was 90% of the OL market 15+ years ago. It’s headed toward 30% (including smartphones) in the coming soon years.
But even going with the data excluding smartphones, Microsoft’s share is still declining. That’s not to say Windows isn’t still on a huge number of this specific list, it is to say Google is eating away at their once ultra dominant position. There is no data I’ve seen(?) that suggests this will stop. Even more so, data suggests Windows key dominance, the business side, will see erosion.
Yeah on Xbox because that store makes money and not a complete and utter failure like the Windows store.
I do not know anyone who wants Windows on a Mac. Maybe 5+ years ago but I have not run a Windows VM on my Mac in a very long time.
Microsoft is doing that because that store, the Windows store is a total failure. Are they doing the same thing for the Xbox store? Oh heeelllllll no because it makes money and not just a jab at Apple.
I can’t say for certainty it is the case today (I suspect so) but it was well known Microsoft’s Xbox primary hardware did not generate a profit. I believe they actually had negative margins on it. It was software and peripherals that made them money.