New 'Windows-8.1-with-Bing': How's it different from Windows 8.1? A wave of cheap Windows 8.1 (with added Bing) devices will wash over the UK this summer but the distribution channel's finest aren't exactly rubbing their hands together in anticipation - quite the opposite really. Until Microsoft last week confirmed the plan to release a new licensing option, the UK PR team - which gets nods …
Not until MS does a major overhaul of the Office interface. The menus and buttons are so tiny that trying to use Office on anything less than about a 13.3 inch touchscreen is quite tricky, probably requiring a stylus of some sort. I've got a 13.3 inch tablet, and even there some of the menu items are nearly impossibly small to stab with a finger.
This is obviously marketings plan to massively boost Bing's market share by counting every system sold.
That same marketing department will also carefully forget to subtract users who immediately switch search engine as soon as they boot up their new toy (ie: all of them).
Windows 8.1 with Bing is simply the normal Windows 8.1 edition with Bing set as default, so to OEMs they won't be able to customise it with a different search engine (and other options) as they may have done before.
In return they (after signing an agreement) get to offer it on devices less than 9" while paying little to nothing, compared to what they would normally have to pay to include Windows 8.1 on devices.
Having had the mispleasure of seeing some of the brand name's home pages in action, I'm not sure what's worst between them and bing.
But somehow, somewhere, I get a sent that reminds me of something about browsers.
Then again, it's not like bing is now in the same place IE was back then, so maybe I'm just imagining it.
"Windows 8.1 with Bing is simply the normal Windows 8.1 edition with Bing set as default, so to OEMs they won't be able to customise it with a different search engine (and other options) as they may have done before."
So the price difference is Microsoft's estimate of how much OEMs are willing to pay to avoid being associated with Bing? Awesome!
Come on EU on making Microsoft put a search engine select screen in. Wouldn't that be a kicker? Lower cost version of Windows but the user will get a screen when powering it on for the first time asking what search engine they would like to use.
Maybe Microsoft could put the lowest used search engine first. lol
"Come on EU on making Microsoft put a search engine select screen in."
They obviously think they got away with the "accidentally AWOL" browser poll in Windows 7, because the first time I fired up Firefox after upgrading my desktop to 8.1 (or was that 8.1 Update 1?) the fucking thing tried to persuade me to run IE instead.
"Come on EU on making Microsoft put a search engine select screen in. Wouldn't that be a kicker? Lower cost version of Windows but the user will get a screen when powering it on for the first time asking what search engine they would like to use."
The EU required changes around search engine defaults were introduced in Vista SP1 and mostly stemmed around third parties being able to completely replace the built in search engine (which, AFAIK, none of them subsequently did). Suggestions that there needed to be any kind of ballot for that were dismissed at the time, so don't hold your breath.
its funny, I don't mind bing for anything simple, it is pretty quick an is fairly accurate, see if you add anything more complicated to the search though, its utterly rubbish, I find myself searching for multiple key word strings and getting frustrated I cant find what I want, then I remember its Bing, so fire up google and bam, usually in the top 3.
They keep asking me to do that test to see which is better, every time its come up with on this occasion you've chosen Google more than blar blar blar. but most people find bing better!!
Ha!
But I do want to say, on my phone it defaults to bing, I do have the ability to change that and I don't because if what I want is a simple string or a single word, it is usually very good. so its not all bad. just could be better.
Well I've enjoyed my time as a bit of a Microsoft fan. But I guess I'll be going back to my pre-Windows 7 self at last. I loathe ad-subsidised products and how it's become the de facto standard. Seems like MS will be following Google into the world of business models I hate.
Maybe it's time I finally tried Apple after all these years.
So this will apply to ... who? Um ...to the very small percentage of low-skill users who stick grimly to Internet Explorer instead of using Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, whatever else? Internet Explorer share is below 20% now, and still shrinking. In short, hard to see how this actually matters much. Presumably, everyone will buy Win 8.1 with Bing and (as usual) run Chrome or another third-party browser, making the pre-set IE search engine irrelevant.
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