[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Microsoft Windows RT: An Unfortunate Name for Windows on ARM here

[MichaelZwarg]

At first glance of article, I thought the new name would be "Windows RT ARM" yet another poor naming scheme....

[JustinMorgan]

They're calling it Windows RT instead of Windows 8 ARM because some corporate site licenses would grant free access to Windows 8 ARM if it were to have Windows 8 in the name. By giving it a different name it doesn't fall in the purview of Windows 8 anymore, so corporations don't get free access.

[rokky]

IBM PC RT, anyone?

http://en.wikipedia....iki/IBM_6150_RT

First thing I thought of ;-}

[jbelkin]

It hardly matters what MS names it - other than selling a few thousand of either tablet version, MS is dead as a brand name unless the tablets are $149

[ArieVandenbergi7nh]

Windows "NT" = Northern Telecom

[TomXubqst]

Windows Mobile and Pocket PC *did* achieve mass-market traction and consumer awareness in its time. Windows Embedded Standard was never supposed to - it was designed to be the OS that ran ATMs, kiosks, and other embedded applications.

[FalKirk]

"...the new version's name appears to draw from the arcane coding term "runtime," a designation that most shoppers will find devoid of any resonance or impact when they have to decide among products running Microsoft Windows."

Exactly. Only Microsoft would think that RT was a good name and a good way to distinguish their ARM Tablet OS. Another horrible, horrible naming decision.

[richeemxx]

TomXubqst, on 17 April 2012 - 09:00 PM, said:

Windows Mobile and Pocket PC *did* achieve mass-market traction and consumer awareness in its time. Windows Embedded Standard was never supposed to - it was designed to be the OS that ran ATMs, kiosks, and other embedded applications.

Exactly, those variants weren't supposed to be mainstream consumer marketed. They were enterprise versions and were/are highly successful. From my experience you'd be hard pressed to find a kiosk, POS system out there that isn't based on Windows CE. I'm sure there are some but most the systems in retailers I've been in use CE with whatever overlay.

Windows RT's fate will rest in the environment and market its marketed it. If they lock it down for an enterprise environment and only allow productivity apps then it could carve out a nice niche. If its marketed for mainstream users then it might not take hold but that is yet to be seen.

[DjarnNicholas]

how sad... sad sad sad, you guys have nothing better to do than talk about the name of something?

You could call it Moonshine prfart for all I care, the name does absolutly ziltch, it will run exactly the same no matter what you call it.

Do you guys really enjoy crying about spilt milk so much?

[DanielPage]

What a stupid article. Who cares what they call it. I guess it was a slow news day.
And btw, would you be so kind at to explain what "programming arcana" NT refered to, if not New Technology.. Enlighten us, please, oh great critic...

[ToddMiller]

First thing that came to mind was WinRT like inert: (from freedictionary.com) 1. Unable to move or act. Sluggish in action or motion; lethargic.

[doctordawg]

Windows CE all over again. Lame.

[doctordawg]

DanielPage, on 17 April 2012 - 09:36 PM, said:

What a stupid article. Who cares what they call it. I guess it was a slow news day.
And btw, would you be so kind at to explain what "programming arcana" NT refered to, if not New Technology.. Enlighten us, please, oh great critic...

This is a profoundly important article. It's a veiled warning to never buy RT on ARM, or you will have hardware that won't run any existing, mature programs. RT is "chopware" that looks just like a real OS, but there's nothing under the hood. Oh, sure, Fruit Ninja will be ported soon...

[EinarRowan]

ARM means "poor" in German...maybe Micrösöft didnt want to confuse the Germans with a "poor" version of Windows.

[DanielPage]

doctordawg, on 17 April 2012 - 11:07 PM, said:

DanielPage, on 17 April 2012 - 09:36 PM, said:

What a stupid article. Who cares what they call it. I guess it was a slow news day.
And btw, would you be so kind at to explain what "programming arcana" NT refered to, if not New Technology.. Enlighten us, please, oh great critic...

This is a profoundly important article. It's a veiled warning to never buy RT on ARM, or you will have hardware that won't run any existing, mature programs. RT is "chopware" that looks just like a real OS, but there's nothing under the hood. Oh, sure, Fruit Ninja will be ported soon...

Ok, well that aspect of it is important, I agree. But half the article is expounding and moaning on the nomenclature, claiming it will confuse the public, or some such thing. As if the public cared. The average non-technical Joe is not going to care what its called, all he needs to know is that they are both Windows and that they are different. The technically savvy people wont give a hoot either, its just a label.

The crux of the issue (compatibility) is buried in the second half of the article. That should have been front and center. Half that article is self indulgent opinion and historical hogwash. In my world, RT means "Realtime" (as in RTOS ), not "Runtime", and as far as I know, NT stood for "New Technology" from day one.

That labeling was extremely relevant and significant at the time, because it marked a split in design philosophy between IBM and its DOS and OS2, and NT, which was designed by a key system's architect from Digital Equipment's VMS development team who had jumped ship and joined MS. At the time, this was big news. This was the period of the original "OS wars" on the PC platform, between DOS, Windows and OS2 on one side (more or less, from a technical point of view), which were all perceived to be related to the "IBM approach" and all tracing their ancestry to DOS, and NT on the other, which represented a clean break with previous OS design philosophy. The author of the article makes it sound like it was an afterthought..

This post has been edited by DanielPage: 18 April 2012 - 01:45 AM

[ashrafpashagz2d]

Windows RT = Windows Real Time OS. That's fine as it is... People who are complaining are iZombies...

[KeithReagan]

This article made me sad.

[jglen490]

Windows is an anachronism anyway. I find this whole differentiation between Windows Metro and Windows anything else boring.

[aThingOrTwo]

ashrafpashagz2d, on 18 April 2012 - 01:12 AM, said:

Windows RT = Windows Real Time OS. That's fine as it is... People who are complaining are iZombies...

Windows RT (WinRT) is definitely Windows Runtime, which as the name so subtly suggests is the new runtime for Windows.

To qualify as a real time operating system, you need a kernel capable of guaranteeing response times regardless of the load on the system. Something which NT is flat out incapable of doing.

The only real time OS shipped on a consumer product (of which I am aware) is QNX, which is used on the Blackberry Playbook.

Sent from a MacBook Pro (with a Windows 8 partition) by an iZombie.