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Even Windows 8 Users Prefer Windows 7
judgecorp writes "Windows 8 is not proving an instant hit amongst the early adopters who have got their hands on it. More than half of them prefer Windows 7, according to a survey by a Windows 8 forum. Skeptics cited fears of price and compatibility issues. Meanwhile, Intel is busily applying damage limitation to criticism by CEO Paul Otellini. Apparently he did say Windows 8 wasn't ready — but added that it was still a good idea to get it out before the holiday season."
I'm one of the people that will use Windows 7 for the future in my office and in my house....
Will give a try in the pad field but with both fingers crossed...
Don't hate me - but I like Win8. Takes some getting used to but there are a lot of nice power features. Just the fancy new keyboard shortcut Win+X alone will get you a long way toward adjusting.
So new users before the old, safe choice they're familiar with instead of something radically new and different. How does this surprise anyone?
Look, I had the same inclination when I switched from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95. I was one of those early adopters who bought it launch day and ran home and installed it. I, and many others, had the same feelings when the Ribbon debuted for MS Office. And yes, I thought the same thing trying out Windows 8. There is always that moment of "panic" when you realize you don't know where things are anymore like you did with the previous version.
But, each time, if you stick with it for a bit, you get familiar with new interface. You pick it up just as you did with the old one--and you even start to realize the advantages of the new layout versus the old. Sorry, Slashdot, but this is FUD and you're guilty of spreading it.
mr.nobody
--Don't you wanna go where nobody knows your name?
Maybe it's the new trend. Worked for other companies.
Not true, though it is imposable to prove a piece of code has no bugs there it is possible to verify that a subset of bugs do not exist within the code.
And you can verify that the code will do what it is supposed to do. Though Microsoft's waterfall development cycle isn't exactly the best system for producing reliable code. Though it is one of the better cycle to guarantee that the code gets out the door on time.
I think what has CEO Paul Otellini worried is the first quarter sales more than the actual product being ready. This is a short term foresight, as releasing a buggy product when there is a better product already out has traditionally stifled overall sales, even though it will boost quarterly sales. I thought his goal was to resurrect the Microsoft empire not worsen it. If i were Bill Gates I'd sell my shares and get out while Microsoft stock is still worth something, otherwise the Microsoft foundation will fall with the Microsoft company.
-In general it's best to not have your users to want something other than what you are producing. When will Microsoft get this?-
If you don't like the new UI it's still faster typing the first 3 letters of the app you want than it is digging through a start menu. Or you can just switch to the desktop and use icons there.
There really isn't a single thing better about the old start menu over the new setup besides you and everyone else doesn't want to take five minutes to figure out how to use it properly.
I have moved all the BS I don't like to the right and have my most used programs on the left of the UI.
The only thing that bugs me is I'm used to hitting the winkey to have the hidden task bar appear so I can check the time but now it brings up the new UI.
Task Manager is vastly improved. Just for that reason only I don't want to go back to W7. Explorer too. The copy window actually shows you whats going on. No more 3rd party apps needed anymore. It's all the little things that you will never see if you stop using it after looking at the new UI for 2 minutes.
Just yesterday I installed the final version of Windows 8 from DreamSpark to a netbook just for fun. The result? It actually ran smooth, but none of the Metro apps could be run due to the 1024x600 resolution. Not a big loss, but I was slightly surprised that they actually completely skipped us netbook-connoisseurs.
As a sidenote, it was funny how in W8 many of the texts have been changed to a casual, "user-friendly" style. "While we set up your stuff, please enjoy a pizza. Meanwhile we'll send some info to Microsoft, but you can change this later."
Users experience the most radical UI change since DOS added Windows. And shockingly, 53% percent prefer the older more familiar Windows 7.
You know what this really means folk? Microsoft actually succeeded. If you can get 47% (or just shy of half) of users to prefer a new completely radical UI experience. You've done something really really right. As I'd expect 80% to prefer that which they're familiar with and have used since 1995.
Let's use our brains, and look at this data for what it really is. A measure of a decent amount of success. 50/50 on a new experience is good. Heck, probably didn't have that much higher support when XP or Vista came out. And those were incremental changes.
It may be true that mobile touch-screen devices are the way of the future but, desktop/laptop systems are never going away (or at least, not for a very long time). Mobile devices are great for web browsing, short texting and reading emails but for productivity applications, you need a desktop. In other words, if you want to author Word Documents, create web pages, create PowerPoint Presentations, create and test code for applications (including mobile apps), do graphic design, etc, you need a desktop system. Also, what works for touchscreen, on-the-go devices doesn't necessarily work for a laptop/desktop. I guess Microsoft lost sight of this when they tried to create one operating system to rule them all.
Insightful, really? Microsoft deliberately try to fail with every other iteration of Windows. Right.
You can take each fuck-up individually. ME was an attempt to get away from what they knew was bad, but failed due to incompetence. Vista was a necessary evil to move developers away from XP and doing bad things like shitting all over the filesystem and installing millions of random shell extensions. UAC was deliberately designed to piss users off so that developers would try their best to avoid activating it, and it worked as intended.
Besides which the "every other" idea falls down because 2000 was excellent and XP wasn't really that brilliant, especially before SP2.
As for Windows 8 it looks like the Metro stuff was ill thought out. It is still too early to tell if it will be a flop though.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Ya know I actually WISH this was true sadly, it would show careful planning and a choice to risk sales to innovate, but I honestly think you are wrong and here is why: MSFT is pushing like crazy for WinPhone and WinTab, which you aren't gonna purposely throw a flop and have that name brand tied to a product you really want to sell. It would be like selling "The new Edsel" or how when I ask someone which OS they have if they say Vista I automatically say "I'm sorry". its tying the label of lemon around your product.
Instead, and this is the pathetic and sad part, what I think this is is Ballmer's and Sinofsky's "Hail Mary" pass. They know that with the price of Android units falling and that with Android and iOS having so much market share if they don't get something, ANYTHING out there right NOW NOW NOW that Windows is gonna be as dead as BeOS in the mobile space. Add to that the facts that the PC market is mature with machines so insanely overpowered compared to what the users actually do with them they don't replace until they break while ARM is gonna through a MHz war just like X86 did you can see why Ballmer and Sinofsky is so desperate to get their product out there.
Here is where they screwed the pooch though: Win 8 X86. Oh I get WHY they bolted on Metro, they have hopes that by forcing WinPhone UI onto the desktop users they'll "Get used to it" and when the time comes to buy a phone ot tablet they'll choose WinPhone or WinTab. The problem? Cell phone UIs do NOT work well without touch, the movements one does with a touch device that sits in your hands, like turning the pages, is natural. With a vertical screen and a mouse? This is an UN-natural movement. Its like replacing a steering wheel in a car with a pair of motorcycle handlebars in the hopes people will buy more bikes, its just not a good fit.
Finally you don't shit a billion dollars down the toilet launching a product that you know stinks on ice, not when if all MSFT wanted was beta testing they can do that just fine now just by saying "Win 8 is free! Here ya go!" or even selling it for like $25 a pop downloads. When you have Windows 7 Home at $100 and Pro at $140 having a $25 Windows would sell a LOT of copies, beta or not. No the ONLY reason to push this into mainstream is as a backdoor to try to get users to take the WinPhone UI..is it gonna work? Seriously doubt it, its "Windows Frankenstein" with the flipping back and forth between Metro and desktop just irritating.
But its not a big plan, its a Hail Mary pass, simple as that.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
I don't think so. I have a Win 8 system set up in the shop for people to play with and frankly it don't take long on a non touchscreen desktop for those that play with Win 8 to go "Eeew!" and then start looking at the Win 7 units. The movements MSFT expects you to make would be perfectly natural...if its a tablet sitting in your lap, but on a desktop with a mouse? NOT natural, it feels wonky and weird and wrong.
So I don't think a number change will do much in the way of sales, as TFA shows even those that use it go "eeew!" and want Win 7 by over half. I can tell you that here in the shop I've never seen that kind of negative reaction, even Windows Vista they liked the basic look and feel, it was when one of the numerous bugs bit them in the ass or that damned UAC slapped them in the face a couple of dozen times they hated it. With Win 8 I can see within 3 minutes they just don't like Metro, its just not a desktop UI.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.