Windows 8 - A disaster about to happen?

[Kym]

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/final-thoughts-on-windows-8-a-design-disaster/20706?tag=nl.e539


Summary: The biggest problem with Windows 8 is that it wasn’t born out of a need or demand. Its design failures, particularly with ‘Metro UI’ will likely be its downfall.

Another Windows ME or Vista? Or is it going to be worse?

Is Microsoft going to self destruct and play into the hands of Google and Apple?


I’m now ready to sum up my Windows 8 experience with a single word: awful.

I could have chosen a number of other words — terrible, horrible, painful and execrable all spring to mind — but it doesn’t matter, the sentiment is the same.

And I don’t say this lightly. I want to like Windows 8. I really do. From a performance point of view, I’ve no complaints since it’s just as snappy and responsive as Windows 7, and will likely get a little better as drivers mature. Hardware support is also excellent; the platform able to handle effortlessly everything I threw at it.

[arthurking83]

I've played with it on my tablet and I found it quite OK.

The Metro UI is fine for tablets, and surely it'll be an option for desktops and laptops.
But for touch screen devices, I found nothing wrong with it, and it was definitely 'snappy' considering the modest hardware specs of the Gigabyte tablet.

An aside to this is that technically speaking the Gigabyte shouldn't be able to run Win8 at all, if not for a hardware hack that I had to enforce on the tablet to get Win8 loaded .. so considering this it worked well!

The way I see it tho, if they (M$) have plans to integrate it with the Kinect system of cameras and a body movement hands off UI, it could work well, even on a desktop.

Haven't tried it on a desktop at all, as I basically didn't see a need .... but for ultra portable touch screen devices, M$ need a more friendly UI than what they currently have(with WIn7).

At this point, I only just read the link to the 'awful' review, and I have no idea on what he's talking about!
..... in terms of finding apps(why are programs all suddenly called apps now!? :confused013).

I installed Win8 over Win7 on my tablet and finding all my old programs was as easy as finding them with Win7!! :confused:

If the software is not WIn8/Metro UI aware then it doesn't show up in the Metro UI at all as a tile, but you can still add it.
All the Metro aware software have these live tiles, but any older non Metro capable software can also be added as a tile to any page but it's just a blank solid colour square.

I never found it confusing, except at the very beginning where it was a totally foreign environment, just as Android was when I first started using it!
That's a natural consequence of a new user interface, but once used to it, it was quite easy to navigate through it all and group programs as I wanted too.

[dieselpower]

Just one guy's opinion.

Plenty more 'opinion's' out there from people who reckon it's great...

I have to be honest I haven't played with it much but I like it, didn't have a problem finding my way around, didn't have a problem finding where stuff was installed so not sure what this guy is on about really!

[farmer_rob]

The concept of the metro UI is great for a tablet, and I think will work well. A colleague has a windows phone with Metro, and it looks good and will be a viable alternative to iOS and Android.

However, MS seems to be insisting on using metro as the main desktop interface for PCs, removing the start menu and subsuming what remains of the original windows desktop as an app under metro. (The aforementioned colleague is also running the win8 CTP on his desktop PC, so I've had a bit of a look at it in action.)

I think it is a very retrograde step for the desktop PC, and even my colleague (a badgewearing Windows fanboi) is doubtful. In a corporate environment, it will be a major upgrade, with significant retraining, and I think won't happen.

Me - I won't be buying.


Regards,
Rob

[ricktas]

Must say I got a giggle out of his 'review'. Too many cliched comments.

And who says we have to upgrade to Win 8 anyway. Just like vista, a lot of people just skipped it entirely, they could do the same with Win 8. I have no reason to upgrade from Win 7, as my Win 7 works, is stable, does what I want it to.

At the bottom of the blog post is this statement "Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology.", Yet his whinge doesn't sound like coming from someone who is DEVOTED to helping users. Rather he seems to come across as someone who doesn't want anything to change, or learn how to do something new or in a different way. Thankfully most of us like to experiment with new things, or we would all still be shooting with a box brownie.

[etherial]

Here is another article I read this morning...http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/youll-hate-windows-8-20120608-200ry.html

[ameerat42]

Help! Windows 8 my computer! Perhaps?

[Kym]

At work are in the process of upgrading ~2,000 desktops from XP/2003 to 7/2010.
There is NO WAY commercial organisations who skipped Vista/2007 will go 8.
There is no commercial benefit, and the change resistance + training costs for the 7/2010 move was bad enough.

In fact there is very little benefit to a business in moving off XP/2003, i.e. people just get on with their jobs regardless.

[Cage]

I had ME, flaky, XP Pro, excellent, Vista, very ordinary, the Updates always caused problems, and now Windows 7, which after a few early hiccups is now running smoothly and doing what I want.

I can't see me upgrading any time soon.

[etherial]

I was discussing the previous versions of windows with a friend the other day, and we came to the conclusion that only every second version is any good (roughly)...

3.1 95 98 2000/ME XP Vista 7

So obviously Win8 will be rubbish :p

[Kym]

95 was ok, and 2000 was quite good.
Remember that 3.1 95 98 98SE ME was one series and 3.51 4 2000 XP Vista Win 7 is a different series.

[SirLozalot]

I haven't played with Win 8 yet. I understand the need for metro UI to compete in touch centric tablet space, or even some sort of laptop/tablet hybrid. Good luck to MS with that - sounds like they are on right track. However, what concerns me is the impact of Metro on the more heavy duty PC app UI experience, such as Word or Photoshop, may be too radical a change. If so, it would be a backward step that will take another windows release (and 3 more years) to settle. Time will tell. For now I am happy with my Win 7 and do not feel the need to change.

[JM Tran]

Im more than happy running OSX from Apple, never had a big or small niggling problems like I did with Windows - can never go back to a PC now. Even running Windows on Mac seemed smoother than from a native PC!

[SpaceJunk]

I've had a tinker with it for a coupla months and loaded the most recent beta a week ago............ don't really like the interface but it has some OK features buried in there, but not choosing to go with an option for classic interface seems deliberately provocative? I see it as a useful OS for finger finesse folks and power users will no doubt come up with some hacks to drive M$ nuts........... it has already been happening, and at some point it will sort itself out........... but Kym is on the money, business won't want to know about it, but it is a glimpse of the future for consumer OS software which will almost certainly be aimed at touch screen technology ( I have actually witnessed some mates put greasy fingerprints on my monitor whilst giving it a try out on my experimental install) which is entertaining enough, I'm happy to trade a smirk for a sheepish grin :oops::oops:

[Dug]

I have used all the Windows versions from 95 onwards (I skipped 2000)and have not had a problem with any of them.
Each one I found to be an improvement on the last , ME for instance I did not see what all the negativity was all about.

Vista had the user account control nanny nags that I turned of and you had to push Alt to get tools/option, but that is not a big deal. The personalize menu is a bit rubbish and control panel I set to classic, but after an initial frustration in the changes you just get on with it and often the features that are different do not need to be visited on a regular basis after initial setup.

I only trailed Win 7 on a separate drive that I can swap to at boot up if I want. Though I liked what I saw I was a bit over reinstalls to make the move.

Now things are getting a bit cluttered on Vista so I might do the reinstall as Win8. I'm sure there will be a simple setting change that can be done in Windows services that makes Metro not the default boot screen or the option will get added in a patch if there is enough fuss about it.

That is the thing with Windows you can make it how you want it one way or another regardless of Microsoft's intent.

[MissionMan]

As a Mac fan, I don't see the issue with Windows 8. I think its a catch 22. People complain that Microsoft aren't innovating enough and when they do innovate, people complain. At the end of the day, you can't have innovation without change and you have to let go of your comfort factor and try new things if you want technology to progress.

I think its a good move for Microsoft. You cannot be creative if you're scared to fail and Microsoft is changing. Its a good thing.

[Warbler]

MS lost me when they changed all the menus in Office and hid most of my favourite commands. I guess that means I'm getting old and cranky. I'm still having issues with Windows 7 and hardware/software compatibility. There's not a chance in hell I'll be going to Windows 8 and then having to upgrade all my perfectly functional old software applications (does that answer your question about "apps" Arthur?).

A little off-topic, but did anyone else find all their optical drives no longer accessible on Windows 7 after a recent update? Mine all disappeared on two different computers at the same time. After about a week and a new update, they're back.

[MissionMan]

MS lost me when they changed all the menus in Office and hid most of my favourite commands. I guess that means I'm getting old and cranky. I'm still having issues with Windows 7 and hardware/software compatibility. There's not a chance in hell I'll be going to Windows 8 and then having to upgrade all my perfectly functional old software applications (does that answer your question about "apps" Arthur?).

A little off-topic, but did anyone else find all their optical drives no longer accessible on Windows 7 after a recent update? Mine all disappeared on two different computers at the same time. After about a week and a new update, they're back.

I agree on the office stuff. I still battle to find things in office. I think menu changes make sense but you still need to conform to a basic logic from before. I.e. nothing wrong with changing the look and feel, but leave the structure of things the same. I think office did exactly this. I had the same issues with the old nokia's. They'd change the menu settings every phone and all of a sudden you couldn't find the alarm clock because they'd put it in another completely random place that didn't make sense.

[Dug]

I think its a good move for Microsoft. You cannot be creative if you're scared to fail and Microsoft is changing. Its a good thing.

To true.

I think a lot of Windows power users get a bit set in their routine.
On the other side of the coin Microsoft get a bit over zealous I think at times with dumbing down the interface for new users and the "do you really think you want to do that" messages.

Interestingly it is new or infrequent users from previous versions that struggle the most with the new look update versions.

Time marches on and change is inevitable. Metro is an excellent addition but on a PC I fail to see how its interface is better for mouse and keyboard use or the need for a touch screen PC. Metro should have optional interfaces for M/K use I think.

Perhaps it the hardware that needs to catch up. A mouse pad with a scratch pad to the side like on a laptop seems a good idea to me. Moving, resizing and scrolling of open windows has always been a bit fiddly with a mouse where as it is quick and precise at most other things.

[Wayne]

Im more than happy running OSX from Apple, never had a big or small niggling problems like I did with Windows - can never go back to a PC now. Even running Windows on Mac seemed smoother than from a native PC!

+1 Amen. I will not be going back to a Windows based machine whilst OSX series is alive and well.

[Dug]

I installed the Win8 preview tonight to have a good look at it.
At first it is very disorientating after so many years with a familiar desktop environment from one version to the next.

After a few hours of poking around I can see that a lot of people will get frustrated with the new setup.
If it was something new on a mobile device they had never used then it would be a case of accepting that this is how it is done on this device and working though it.

In the pc environment it is something that will initially feel like it is getting in the way of 30 yrs of desktop tradition made worse by the need to configure things if it is a new install.

The preview copy comes with no "welcome to" video that I have found so you are left to work out the "why is it this way?" and "where is this?"questions for yourself.

The first screen at start up is the thing they call Metro and I can see it being a very good idea, it just does not seem that way for a start because it is not yet customised to what you want to have there plus there is the initial disorientation of "where is my desktop stuff".

Metro is good if you want to just get on the computer and do something, check the news or weather, look up something on the map, plus other apps and many more to come, or run a program.
It is all there on the whole screen instead of small writing on a scroll in a start menu.

I found that in the pop out side bar menu on the right (that you can access any time in the Windows environment), if you pick "search" from that menu you get a screen of both your apps and other things you would find in the start menu as well like, computer, control panel, system, etc all well layed out over the whole screen. This could be considered a stand in start menu if you like to see everything you would find in a start menu there in one place.

The side menu is where turning off the computer is hidden also. So picture this someone fires up Windows 8 for the first time and get completely lost what to do, which turns to frustration till they want to rage quit, but where is the thing to shut down, the start menu is gone so where is it. Well if you move the mouse to the bottom right corner a hidden side bar pops out and one of the things on it is "settings" and when you click on that the option "power" appears at the bottom of the side bar, click on that and there it is your usual shut down options.

Fine once you know, but there would want to be a good induction built in on the final version.

There is a traditional desktop that is quick to get to from Metro. My feeling is that after the initial leap to accepting Metro the desktop will become old school.

Apart from no start menu I don't see any difference in this desktop to the usual one. Installing a program puts a tile in Metro for it and a icon in the desktop.

I am used to getting to most things straight from the desktop so I tried replicating some of my usual setup.
I opened "computer" from where I said search was and from the "computer" window I dragged its address icon at the top on to the desktop making a shortcut to it there.
I did the same for each drive from "computer" as well as doing the same with "control panel", "system" and my "user" icon.

So no problems with creating a bit of home comfort while you workout the thinking behind the new stuff.

I like Windows 8 and I can see myself doing a new install to it from Vista and skipping Win7 (good as it is also) . I think people are going to take some time to understand Win8 but when it clicks they will never look back.

I do feel sorry for the ones who are just getting confident with standard Windows, or work in IT support. :)

[Kym]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/26/gabe_newell_windows_8/


Newell’s tongue-lashing came after a Gartner analyst got everyone bent out of shape with a single word summary of Windows 8 when a touchscreen isn’t available: "Bad".

Hmmm Gartner says its bad, and they ain't talking about Michael Jackson

[Dug]

Newell’s tongue-lashing came after a Gartner analyst got everyone bent out of shape with a single word summary of Windows 8 when a touchscreen isn’t available: "Bad".

Here is an interesting article that suggests that the likes of Gabe Newell of Valve and other games and app online distributors are more interested in jumping on the Windows 8 negativity band wagon because of the integration of the "Windows Store" cutting into there market share.

http://gizmodo.com/5937590/youre-being-lied-to-windows-8-isnt-bad-for-gaming

They are perhaps using there high profile name to discredit a yet to be release version of Windows feeding on fear of change and the unknown to there on end.
No doubt there are some things in Win 8 that as a general PC user they genuinely don't like changed, but I think their response is way overstated.

It will be interesting when Windows 8 has actually rolled out, has had a chance to mature and the apps part of (what used to be called) Metro has lots of cool stuff, will the decision to do the cheap upgrade from Win 7 to 8 be an easy one.

I think yes for the general user and no for the business user.