From an architectural POV, I wouldn't bundle laptops w/ phones/tablets. ChromeOS is still a fringe OS, and Linux/BSD even more so. Laptops are still overwhelmingly Wintel, and even WinRT failed to make any impact. You might as well bunch laptops w/ your 'tower rigs'.

ARM pretty much owns the phone & tablet markets with not just Android, but iOS as well. Intel pretty much owns the laptop and server markets w/ Wintel. A good indicator is Apple, who've gone w/ ARM for their iOS toys - iPhones & iPads, while they've gone w/ Intel on all their OS-X boxes.

The only 'mobile' area that Intel could do well is the Surface Pro clones, once it's recognized that it's a de-facto laptop, rather than a tablet market that they are playing in. There is no reason to go Intel for Android.

You mean not allowing Windows 8 on non-touch laptops?

Aside from that, not the case. I bought a Dell Inspiron (albeit non-touch) a few months ago from Costco, preloaded w/ Windows 8. The configuration? A Core i7, 8GB of RAM, 1TB HDD. Issue was not the performance, which was fine. Issue was that the whole experience of working w/ Windows was totally overhauled. I installed Classic Shell, which initially seemed to fix it somewhat, but I found out that when I'd type a document and the cursor got anywhere near the right end of the screen, the charms bar would pop up. Oh, and also, the trackpad was too sensitive, and there wasn't a good way of disabling it.

After a week of trying all this, I bit the bullet and installed PC-BSD on the laptop, wiping out Windows 8. It had some rough edges @ first, and it took me a few tries to get it right (such as automatically booting to the OS, getting the BIOS settings right), but soon enough, I had it working the way I wanted. Recent updates to the OS, such as Lumina, have improved the experience somewhat, and now, I'm generally happy. In the meantime, all the work laptops that I've had have been Windows 7 only

Once Windows 10 is out, I might just try that, not on this laptop though. I might try Windows 10 on a Surface Pro, if I think the budget justifies it. But the current configuration I got was for $800, whereas a similarly configured Surface Pro 3, if it existed, would be something like >$2k. The smoother form factor is certainly worth a bit more, but not >$1k more.

Only Windows 8 platform I've liked has been Windows Phone 8, now the 8.1 version. Only thing I'm missing on that is Vonage.

No, because the Charms bar is still there, and unremovable, and when you click on the start button on the keyboard, you get a start screen, rather than a start button. One thing that MS could have done, but didn't, could have been to introduce multiple virtual desktops, like you have in X11 based DEs. Windows 10, OTOH, supposedly allows you to make Windows a Windows 7 when a keyboard is attached to the tablet making it a de facto laptop (and indeed may be the default on laptops as well) and Windows 8 when the keyboard is detached, or for a pure tablet. It gets rid of the gorilla arm issue

Will they bypass the likes of Verizon while doing this, so that we can get our updates directly from Microsoft instead of waiting for Verizon to roll them out? And I'm talking about automatically, just like Apple, as opposed to signing up for the MS Developers edition.

Incidentally, I got an update to WP8.1 yesterday on that, and now they've tossed in folders - the same way one does in iOS by merging 2 icons. Managed to reorganize a lot on that phone following that.

If a commercial driver exists, then it's supported, since BSDL allows a mixing & matching of liberated & unliberated software. I have no issues running Lumina or LXDE, and I've managed to tame KDE (disabled Nepomunk & Akonadi). Maybe b'cos it's just Intel Graphics? Only GNOME/GTK apps are a problem when run under a different DE. OTOH, none of the PC-BSD updates I've done to date has enabled the OS to recognize the built-in Wi-Fi that comes with the laptop. And it's not a no-name laptop or a weird configuration from someone - it's a Dell Inspiron using off the shelf Intel Centrino. If anything, that should be the first thing supported, ahead of Atheros or Broadcom or anything else. iXsystems should make that a priority.

As for Wayland, since qt 5 supports it, it may not be a major issue for Lumina to support it. They can make that the default DE for starters, and then get the other WMs ported to Wayland.

I run PC-BSD, which is pretty much FreeBSD, albeit with a smoother installation and a wide choice of package managers. My only beef - the PC-BSD guys should add the role of writing device drivers for the OS, particularly for items not important to the server, but important for desktops. Centrino, for crying out loud, ain't supported. When you install the OS, it recognizes everything, except the Wi-Fi. While the FreeBSD guys may write drivers for everything else, the PC-BSD guys should take up drivers for Wi-Fi, maybe graphics and Wayland. The last ain't important for FreeBSD, but PC-BSD sure could use it. Oh, and Lumina is great.

Yeah, Groupon was doing that name a favor by launching a new product with it.

Actually, I've tried Gnome 3.12 with PC-BSD, and while the UI itself is okay, the applications ain't. After I installed GNOME 3.12, a lot of applications, such as Chess, Four-in-a-row, Epiphany accompanied them. Problem is that under other DEs, those windows can't be moved. Some, like Web/Epiphany, fill up the screen, even going over the taskbars of the DE, so that the only way to go to the other virtual desktop is to close the application.

So having seen it now, the DE itself seems fine, but its apps, or rather their interaction w/ the DE, is a POS.

Not just that, the vast number of apps are available on DVDs/CDs, and not in the Windows Store. But the Surface Pro 3 doesn't come with a DVD drive. So one would have to get an external DVD drive connected to an USB, and then use it. But it still begs the question - will the Surface Pro 3 recognize it, given that it doesn't have a Type A USB slot?