I've used one for a while (an Acer C7) and traveled with it to Europe. Served me well with a dual setup Chrome OS Ubuntu Linux setup but I did find it somewhat disappointing at times. I ended up selling it off and buying a full fledged laptop afterwards.

I would think that one reason you don't see them much is because they are left home. The same people buying these probably use the saved money to buy a tablet for on the go computing.

Also keep in mind, 20% of the sales are for this year. People you see on the streets using laptops out there have models purchased up to 5 years ago. Chromebooks don't have an accumulation of years of sales so If (and that's a big if) their sales trend continues for 2-3 years. Then we will see them in the wild more. Otherwise, they'll end up like the Wii was to casual gamers. Collecting dust in a closet which is incidentally what prompted me to sell mine as I don't want my closet filled with techno junk.

That's my nickel's worth since we don't have pennies here anymore.

Maybe AMD's open source drivers are better but Nvidia's drivers are better suited for use to do renders in Blender because of their support of CUDA.
While few will need to buy a graphics card for Blender 3D in particular it does show that you have to consider what you wish to use the card for when you want to make a purchase to get the performance you need out of it.

I'm not sure a higher resolution, twice the memory and a camera with more than twice the megapixels qualifies as only *slightly* better.
The Jolla does have LTE over the Oppo but that seems to be of small consolation.

I believe such a phone already exists.

http://oppostyle.com/find-5/8-find-5-white.html#/capacity-16gb

How about people with a job?

Can I get a citation please? Seems a rather high percentage.

Also, this was always the problem with Windows and yet when they try to push towards a walled garden arrangement people cry foul to that so IMHO you can't please everyone.

Don't know where you're checking but I can find copies by walking into Staples. Most small shops still sell OEM copies too. You can order on their web site too if walking is too difficult.

Okay. So I get they are cutting support to many webcams and headsets on the desktop and competing platforms like OS X as stated in the article and from Android based on the comments posted here.

Crazy theory here. Could they be trying to focus Skype for use with their Windows Phone to try to give people a compelling reason to switch over to their mobile OS?

Thoughts?

You know I recall a few years ago about an article stating how kids in college would be texting during classes and tests (yes those critical things you need to do to pass your courses) to the point where teachers had to expel them during tests after more than one warning wasn't enough to get them to stop using their cell phones.

I'm thinking this is simply the evolution of those same kids now entering the work force. I'm thinking this might be worth following to see if these same kids will continue their social ways in the next few years. Are we going to see them continue to text in their 30-somethings or will they eventually learn better etiquette?

Heck! Will anything the next generation do irritate them? I imagine by the time they reach their 40s that the new generation will be watching videos (loudly) during meetings or something crazy like that and think it's as appropriate as this group seems to think talking and texting are now.

The Hurd has been in development for a long time so it must be stable as well.

All kidding aside, you're just making an assumption.

Damn. I think I messed up on the link.

Here it is:
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/10/googles-iron-grip-on-android-controlling-open-source-by-any-means-necessary/4/

It could be a lot more free. At least it's already clear it's heading in the opposite direction when it comes to improvements from Google based on the article over at Ars Technica.

I still use a HighDef camera to record video and it uses a Hard Drive to store the information. I've shaken it enough to feel that taping a tablet with a HD won't cause it to crash. Shaking it heavily would cause the software on the camera to respond to keep the HD from getting damaged however so I would think a similar situation would happen on a tablet. I'm going to guess that a Hard Drive solution would be fine for a tablet unless you're shaking it violently around. Might be more fragile than a SSD if you drop it however (assuming you don't break the screen 1st).

The real problem I see with this is that the extra storage capacity would be offset by the extra power consumption caused by the moving parts so what would be the point of having more content on the go if you have a lot less time to access it between charges?

While there is no end to the problems that could list this product fail. One of the key parts I feel is killing Windows RT is the fact that you must use their Apps store to get new software unlike x86 version of Windows where you can go get it from any website.While it could be argued that it helps avoid viruses and security issues for the users and give a better experience using the device it was most likely their need to control the apps and be more like Apple to get more revenue.

If the system was open with tools to program and add software, that might have made it easier for people to port software over that was open sourced.
I don't know what is available in the Windows store for RT devices since I do not own a Windows 8/RT computer but I doubt they have Blender 3D or The Gimp or Libre Office available for Surface RT and I doubt people would be willing to pay a fee (I'm assuming there is a cost to get you're app in the Windows Store) to port it over free.
Had it been easier to port software over like it currently is for Windows using x86 processors, that would have made the tablet a lot more attractive.