Surface Fears

Yes, I am an Apple fanboy.  But I am also an Android fanboy.  And I am definitely a Microsoft fanboy.  One of those statements probably offended you.  Oops.  Sorry.

I absolutely love Windows 7.  If I could get it on hardware I loved as much as my MacBook Pro, I would probably have purchased that hardware instead.  I use Windows 7 on my HTPC and it is awesome.

But once upon a time, a long time ago, I had a little Asus netbook with tiny SSDs.  These SSDs were tiny but together provided limited (16 GB) storage capacity versus the Microsoft’s new Surface with 64 GB.  At first this little netbook was a sweet, fast-booting joy to own.  But as the nearly daily Windows updates continued to burgeon, the space available for programs was ultimately squeezed out and the performance became abysmal.

I have little doubt that the Surface will start well.  My fear is OS creep.  Not a big deal on big hard drives, but on little SSDs like the one provided in the Surface it could be a ticking bomb waiting to make this nifty new device a paper weight.  (At least they provide an SD card slot. Eat that iPad, iPad mini, and Nexus 7.)  David Pogue has already noticed tell-tale messages warning of not enough memory right out of the box. I would be just a little reluctant to take the OS creep gamble even if I wasn’t enjoying my new (not so new today but new six months ago) iPad. But if MS proves they can avoid OS creep on this device, I just might give them a shot at the end of my iPad’s life cycle.

Source: Laptop Magazine
Source: Pogue-NY Times