New
#1
Screwed-over by HP/Intel/Microsoft
It's a sad day for early adopters of Microsoft's touch-first OS strategy. Customers who bought some of the first examples of Windows 8.x hybrid systems - e.g. the HP Envy x2 and ElitePad G1, Dell Latitude 10, Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2 and Miix series, ASUS VivoTab, etc. - will not be able to reliably run Windows 10 because the powers that be are refusing to release a compatible video driver. In fact, anyone with an Intel Atom z2760-based PC is SOL when it comes to Windows 10 support. As far as the vendor community is concerned, the demise of Windows 8.x signals EOL for your systems.
The truly tragic part is that these PCs were designed specifically for a post-Windows 7 world. They feature multi-touch screens, the latest UEFI BIOS architecture and generally support all of the features and functions that separate Windows 10 from all of the pre-Windows 8 versions. Thin, light, fan-less and sporting all day battery life, they represented Intel's first, best shot at creating an x86-based platform competitor to the iPad juggernaut.
Now, these customers (of whom I am one) are being left out in the cold, ostensibly because of a classic "Not Invented Here" scenario. In order to meet its power envelope design requirements for the "Cedar Trail" chipset, Intel went with a Samsung-designed Power VR 545 GPU. And now that the competition between Intel and Samsung is heating up, Intel is treating its own platform like an ugly stepchild - starving it to death in the attic of driver incompatibility while lavishing attention on its own, more "acceptable" children (e.g. "Bay Trail" and later).
Needless to say, this leaves many of us early adopters seriously PO'd. Not only did we get screwed-over for having the audacity to believe in that early Windows/Intel multi-touch PC vision, we now get to watch as MUCH OLDER systems get upgraded and supported, again ostensibly because their hardware components fall on the correct side of the competitive divide.
Shame on you, Intel, for abandoning your most loyal supporters. Shame on you, Microsoft, for failing to bridge the gap through an updated OBOE driver (the most recent Windows 8.1 driver is *almost* functional). And shame on you HP/Lenovo/Dell/ASUS for leaving your customers in such a compatibility lurch.
Just pathetic...
RCK