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Intel CEO Tells Staff Windows 8 Is Being Released Prematurely
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Geek.com: "Intel CEO Paul Otellini may be getting an angry phone call from Steve Ballmer today after it was revealed he told staff in Taiwan Windows 8 isn't ready for release. Otellini's comments were made at an internal meeting in Taipai, and he must have naively thought they would never become public knowledge. We don't know if he went into detail about what exactly is unfinished about Windows 8, but others have commented about a lack of reliable driver support and supporting applications. For many who have picked up previous versions of the Windows desktop OS early, this probably isn't coming as a surprise."
Well, the saying "the line between genius and insanity is thin" can probably be modified slightly here to something like "the line between awesome and steaming-pile-of-frustrating-monkey-shit is thin".
Then your statement makes more sense.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
Yes, but have you used it on a computer?
Apparently the Start Menu isn't working yet. I can't even find the Start Button.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
Already got your monthly astroturf paycheck?
S.B, would like to thank you for licking his albanian car. (TopGear UK viewers will know what I mean)
I think Aero just took a while to get used to. When I first started using Win7, I disabled it. It wasn't until I got some hardware with enough power that Aero's extra resources were negligible that I gave it a chance; I still don't love it, but I don't mind having it on. Whenever Windows does the next big UI change, people will probably wonder why they can't stick with the Win8 design.
Has windows ever been released with full driver support? Windows 7 still has driver issues, XP had driver issues for years etc.... I'm not sure what his point was if he mentioned driver support.
This is not news. Microsoft have ALWAYS released new OSes prematurely. Users basically beta test the OS, and then MS goes on an ad nauseum patch release cycle for bugs that have been found. I recall that it took XP at least 2 to 3 years before it was solid. And, let's not forget Vista. That was nothing else than a stop-gap release of underperforming beta software.
Driver support ALWAYS lags because some companies are lazy. The big guys, Intel, AMD, nVidia, all seem to have drivers out on time and Windows 8 is no exception. You can get 8 drivers from them, life is good. However more specialty companies often lag badly. There's no Windows 8 drivers for any pro audio interfaces I can find, but that's no surprise I remember that it took M-Audio the better part of a year for Windows 7.
There's just never going to be good driver support for a new OS on account of companies not wanting to bother. Even if the drivers don't need any changes, just testing and re-certification it can take time or just not happen at all.
And I can say it's great, and it's terrible.
The great -- it's really, really fast. Boot times are under 10 seconds to completely usable, apps launch fast, and IE10 is really not as bad as I thought it might be. The snapping of windows to side by side and whatever work really, really well, and I find myself more productive by seeing my email snapped to the side and then browsing or whatever.
The bad -- the experience is really jarring. Most of my time is spent in the "desktop" which is a complete carryover from Windows 7. I would have thought that Microsoft would have taken the effort to re-skin that in a way better than they have (see here: http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/24/2822891/windows-desktop-ui-concept), but they didn't. It's a complete lack of effort. Not to mention, that things like battery life remaining, the time, are hidden into the OS and don't make appearances anywhere.
The ugly -- Media Center. Fuck man, that's probably the best app in Windows, and could really kick the crap out of the Apple TV or Google TV if it was properly developed. With Windows 8's API structure there could be a lot of integration here, making media center the "hub" for entertainment on the PC. So if you wanted Netflix, or Amazon, or whatever - you'd have to integrate it into Media Center. But they just booted it out because people weren't using it. Of course they weren't... when you treat it like a third rate product, it's going to get third rate attention.
Also ugly -- control panel. There are two of them in the OS. One is the 'desktop' version which remains unchanged from Windows 7, and then there's the Metro one that lets you work on settings for "Metro". Additionally multi monitor support with "hot spots" is a nightmare. I have two monitors and at work, I have 3. Trying to get into the bottom right or left to click on the start menu is extremely difficult, and in a remote desktop window, even harder. You can't use shortcut keys in remote desktop, but I've gotten used to using Windows Key + C for the charms bar, but realistically it's annoying.
All in all it's a mixed bag. Microsoft needs to step up development to complete the UI experience because right now it's a joke. The OS itself is fundamentally better too, in terms of speed, stability, resource usage, sleep/hibernate, etc. However nobody's going to care if it acts like a fucked up monster to play with. Most people will adapt, as they always do, and it's not terribly hard to get used to. But if you want to compete in a world of where Apple makes design a #1 priority, and people VALUE that, then you have to fix the UI experience in Windows. It's not all about usability.
The price is always right if someone else is paying.
The UI mess is any easy thing to complain about and one that people instantly see.
The main problem is what technical or feature reasons are there to switch to Windows 8? I can point to benefits of switching to Vista when it was released but windows 8 is some bug fixes, ms-phone tied in, and a poor UI.
It has some definite elements of awesome, but it's interface is such a turd that it's hard to look past that. I've been developing a Windows 8 class for Support staff. There's been so many times when I exclaim "Cool! That should have been in Win7". Then I have to go back to that duct-taped construction paper and glue start screen and the mystique fades away. After using it for a few weeks, I don't hate it as much as when I started, but I still wouldn't load it on my personal machine.
There may be no "I" in team, but there's also no "F" in way.
The first rule of Windows Vista is: You do not install Windows Vista.
The second rule of Windows Vista is: You DO NOT install Windows Vista.
That's funny, as I've been working with Windows since 3.11 and you know which look I liked best? Everyone will probably make fun of me but Vista Black was probably my favorite. I just wish i could find an easy way to get the straight Vista Black them on Win 7 without Aero as i have an older system I'm getting ready to switch over and hate 7 Basic and as far as i know nobody ever released a working basic straight black theme for Basic. Everyone I've seen you have to patch theme.dll and even after doing that frankly they just don't work, damned shame as straight Vista Black was frankly the ONLY thing I liked about that OS and being able to keep the look would have been nice.
That said Win 8? reminds me of Win 3.11 actually. Its way too primary colors, way too "one app at a time" centric, just feels like I'm going back in time. if this is the future of computing can I say no thanks? Are the tablets they are planning to put 8 on sucking THAT much balls when it comes to graphics they gotta go back to Win 3.1? Hell isn't Nvidia up to like 5 cores now on ARM? The whole thing makes me feel like I'm dealing with a Zune flavored cell phone and I didn't care for the Zune UI either, no thanks MSFT.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
>In all the Slashdot articles trashing windows 8, the one and only criticism ever brought up here is of Metro and the start menu.
When Metro is the biggest change that the user sees to the OS, isn't that a core criticism?
>Windows 8 is stable
So is XP. So is 2000SP4. So is 7SP1. Windows 7SP1 is going to be the new XP. Deal with it.
>uses minimal resources
That title belongs to Windows FLP, which boots in 7 seconds and not even a second after hitting enter on your password to get to a desktop. It does not belong to 8.
>performs well
Compared to what?
,
>features a variety of real improvements to the UI and workflow
Marketing nonsense.
>is secure,
That remains to be seen. Out of the lists of changes to Windows in 8, none have listed any major changes in security. If there are changes, they aren't ever listed.
>is scalable to hardware even 7 years old (at least)
No it isn't. That belongs to Windows FLP and XP.
>is compatible with almost all software available for Windows 7
Isn't that to be expected? 7 is only 3 years old. SP1 is 18 months old.
>is compatible with almost all drivers for Windows 7
But wait, isn't this article about the Intel CEO complaining about drivers not being ready?
>it's ready, and has been for a long time.
Says you.
>Public betas and pre-releases have been available for over a year now, including a free RTM evaluation, so we've all been free to test and evaluate it on our own machines.
Yes, and it's like Microsoft has not only ignored any and all criticism of Metro, but went out of their way to disable turning it off.
>And still the *only* complaint
No, it's not the only complaint even though you frame it that way. See this current article.
> If that's the worst you can come up with for Windows 8, I'd say it's good to go.
I would say that an interface that is as maddening as Metro is on the desktop with no way to turn it off means that it's not ready for prime time.
It's funny how there were all those ads years ago about how Microsoft was proud of how they took ideas from users to integrate into Office. They don't listen so much now, do they?
>modded insightful
>marketing spew
Well, there's no accounting for taste.
--
BMO
I have used it on several, I'll be happy to list specs and give a review of each.
First up is a EEE E350 netbook, here? It is actually okay. Not great, but its okay, as with the bobcat dual core and a 12 inch screen you're not gonna run more than one app at a time and their hack boot (hybrid sleep) actually shaves about 20% off the boot time. Can't tell any difference on battery life, still around 5 hours watching videos or a little over 6 surfing, not bad but not really any different than what I was seeing on 7 as far as battery life.
Next up my test for older systems, a Pentium 4 3.6GHz with HT box I had sitting in the corner KVM'd into my shop monitor which is a 1600x900 20 inch...yuck. Oh the performance was okay, it again booted a little faster than Win 7 but the constant switching between metro and desktop sucked and the metro UI just doesn't work well on a large screen, especially once you go past around 12 programs installed. The whole thing quickly fills up to become this large multi-page mess.
Finally we have my personal system, an AMD 6 core on a 22 inch 1600x900 monitor...again with the yuck, I like to game on this as it has 8Gb of RAM and an HD4850 GPU and once i started loading up my games again metro became seriously messy, I'm the kind that don't allow more than a couple of icons on my desktop and having this huge shotgun blast of a start screen was irritating. Again the hybrid boot was a little faster but seeing as I only turn this system off when its storming doesn't really sway my opinion and the Metro apps just suck, no way to easily multitask and there was some I even had to use Task Manager to kill because they just didn't want to stop, really beta quality crap which considering this was RP didn't make me feel good about it.
Final verdict? the only one where it felt like the equal of Win 7 was on the netbook, which considering its roughly the same size as a large tablet shouldn't be surprising. I said it before and I'll say it again, Win 8 is a tablet and cell phone OS that has been shoehorned by MSFT onto the desktop to try to get people "used" to their tablet UI in the hopes people will buy it over Android and iPad. Will it work? I seriously doubt it, but thankfully Win 7 is supported until 2020 so we have plenty of time to kick back and see how Win 9 comes out. Hopefully MSFT will do as reviewers have suggested and just split metro off for tablets and leave Win 9 with a functional desktop UI instead of this mish mash.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
The shills create a new account for each story and they tend to drop that account rather fast.
For proof, check the posting history of the person being accused of being a shill.
He has only posted in this story and that account will never be used again.
Also he posted the very minute that the story was available to post in even though that account is not a subscriber.
This is the common MO of shills on /. , new account, only posts in this one story, first post at the same time story was available to post in. You see that situation and you will know that that person is a shill.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.