I own a Surface and disagree with everything in this article.
The Surface does have quirks, but as a v1 device from a company that has NEVER designed a commercial PC let alone a tablet, I think it is nothing short of fantastic tech.
I just sold my Couch-MacBook over the weekend because the Surface satisfies every single casual at-home PC scenario I have.
Right...but the point of the OP was that Microsoft has all of the hindsight of Apple's iPads and the Android tablets, thus it should be held to a higher standard. The OP may be wrong about how good the Surface is, of course, but I think he's right not to give Microsoft a "it's just their first try" a pass.
The Surface does have quirks, but as a v1 device from a company that has NEVER designed a commercial PC
Not true. In the 1980s Microsoft attempted to standardize the 8-bit home computer market, and developed the MSX architecture, exemplars of which were built and sold by a few Japanese companies. The MSX did not see much traction in the United States but was popular in Japan and Russia.
I'd argue that Microsoft never actually built the MSXs, Microsoft more or less just spec'ed out what an MSX should be, similar to the way 3D0 never really built a machine (in fact I think some of the same companies who built MSXs built 3d0s if I'm not mistaken).
but...Microsoft did build the XBOX (which was a PC) and the XBOX 360 (which is less PCish, but still a computer).
Also in Europe; in Spain and the Netherlands you can still find quite a few of them even now. I don't think MS designed the hardware though; they made the MSX Basic (which I like and program for fun still), but the specs where by ASCII corp Japan and where 'interpreted' within the confines of the standard by the mostly Japanese MSX creators (like Sony, Hitachi, Sharp etc). I'm not 100% sure but I cannot find any information about MS actually working on the hardware themselves although being in the standards body.
Not to say this is not true at all, however can't that be said for the iPads and Androids as well? I'm curious; I see a Macbook is something different, but other tablets fall in that category as well or not?
The Surface does have quirks, but as a v1 device from a company that has NEVER designed a commercial PC let alone a tablet, I think it is nothing short of fantastic tech.
I just sold my Couch-MacBook over the weekend because the Surface satisfies every single casual at-home PC scenario I have.