Major business magazine says Surface is 'doomed' because of viruses, forgets it can't get Windows viruses

Microsoft's Surface tablet can't get viruses designed for Windows, but don't tell Inc.com that.

There's been a lot of talk about how Microsoft is doing with the sales of its Surface tablet, and now one journalist with a major business magazine is putting in his two cents on why Surface should be avoided in an interesting – and extremely misinformed – way.

According to Geoffrey James of Inc.com, Microsoft's Surface with Windows RT tablet will fail because viruses and root kits are "inherent in Windows's design." He may have a point, if Windows RT didn't run on a completely different architecture than Windows 8 and previous versions of Windows.

In his own "horror story," James discusses how he obtained a virus (or a root kit – he's not quite clear on that either) on his Windows 7 computer. This horror story is why he says users should stay away from Surface, again forgetting the very fact that viruses won't run on Windows RT (at least not unless they're completely rewritten, which could hypothetically happen with Android or iOS as well).

Another issue, James claims, is that applications will cause instability with Windows RT. Again, however, Windows RT doesn't run traditional desktop applications. The only desktop applications it runs were recompiled by Microsoft specifically for ARM. Even if they were to recompile their programs, other developers don't have access to the desktop because of the digital signature Microsoft requires.

At the end of his article, James recommends "anything other than the Surface" precisely because of viruses that Surface is incapable of getting. He also says the concept behind the tablet is flawed and "Windows is getting so old and creaky that it's getting to be more a bother than its worth."

Source: Inc.com | Image via Microsoft