Even Windows 8 Users Prefer Windows 7

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Even Windows 8 Users Prefer Windows 7

Posted by timothy on Thursday September 27, 2012 @12:48AM from the 7-is-prime-of-course dept.

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."

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Makes sense? by SirGarlon · 2012-09-27 00:50 · Score: 4, Insightful

How does it make sense to push a buggy product out the door before it's ready? It only makes sense if you want the product to tank.

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1. Re:Makes sense? by Joce640k · 2012-09-27 00:53 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Simple: Xmas is only 3 months away.
  
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2. Re:Makes sense? by gl4ss · 2012-09-27 00:55 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  it's _not_ buggy.
  it's the feature set which isn't ready.
  
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  world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
3. Re:Makes sense? by itsdapead · 2012-09-27 01:34 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  it's _not_ buggy.
  it's the feature set which isn't ready.
  Does that mean that they haven't finished documenting the bugs to turn them into features?
  
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  In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
4. Re:Makes sense? by AntEater · 2012-09-27 01:48 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  *Every* product is buggy.
  You, obviously, haven't installed Slackware.
  
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  Alex, I'll take keybindings not used by Emacs for $400....
5. Re:Makes sense? by Sir_Sri · 2012-09-27 01:51 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Windows 8 isn't so much buggy (at least not on microsofts end), it's just badly designed. Those are two different problems. Deliberately choosing something to behave stupidly isn't a bug.
  Also, both of your examples (SEL4 and TeX) have no relationship to a full product. One is a single piece of the product that, as an isolated microkernel might be bug free, but is not a full OS, and the other is a typsetting specification. The core kernel in Windows 8 could be bug free or close thereto (I'll show some sympathy for compatibility with new hardware, but it would still be a bug).
  Windows 8 is badly designed. There will inevitably be some bugs related to the new UI, UEFI, new hardware, etc. But those are easily at the level of satisfactory. The problem is that it's just hugely inconsistent in how it behaves. It still runs 7 or 8 year old directx 8 code fine. But it can't figure out if it's 'metro' or a desktop, which one it should be in when, or how to just produce a list of installed software that I can semi easily navigate. No, metro is not easy to navigate, it tries, and it makes sense for 'apps' but it fails for serious software that has both applications and documentation.
6. Re:Makes sense? by mcgrew · 2012-09-27 01:55 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  it's _not_ buggy.
  Then it's the first OS ever released by anyone that wasn't.
  
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7. Re:Makes sense? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · 2012-09-27 02:16 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  How does it make sense to push a buggy product out the door before it's ready? It only makes sense if you want the product to tank.
  It depends on how buggy the product is, and how big you think that the first mover(or at least not-quite-as-tardy mover) advantage will be for the product in question.
  Given that (relatively) seamless online patch delivery is now an expectation, shipping a product in the 'rough but usable' stage can work just fine, no matter how much the purists loath it(and, unfortunately for the purists, that now seems to be the mark of a good launch, with 'overtly broken' being a distinct option).
  The thing that strikes me as somewhat insane about MS' Windows 8 push is not so much that it is on an aggressive timescale, they haven't released an OS that was properly baked out of the box in a significant number of versions; but that they seem to be pushing out Windows 8 more or less solely for the sake of 'metro' which really only makes sense on tablets and any other touch-focused quasi-PC oddities.
  It would seem totally sensible if they were to rush Windows RT/Metro out the door so as to get Wintablets on the shelves by Christmas(it's not as though iOS or Android started as terribly finished products, and 'ship now, then iterate' seems to have done them minimal serious harm). What seems weird is tying that to a push for Win8 on normal desktops. Rushing out a product where you currently don't have one isn't ideal; but that's how the world goes. Rushing out an unfinished product with negative buzz in the face of a (now reasonably polished) product that your customers mostly like? That's weird.
  And this isn't even like the 'XP 4 lyfe contrarians hate Vista/7 because it breaks their shitty software' problem that they had last time. IT departments have, mostly, worked it out and switched or are switching, and Win8 isn't, if you ignore the 'we shipped an entire separate shell because, uh, fuck you, that's why' part, nearly as much of an architectural break. It's just unpolished and offers nothing interesting to current Win7 users. With XP, at least, while the legacy investment was massive, XP legitimately sucked a lot and needed to go; it just wasn't going to be pretty getting there.
8. Re:Makes sense? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-09-27 02:31 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  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.
  You failed programming didn't you. This type of programming is NOT impossible, but it is extremely time intensive. NASA's systems are example where there is a mathematical proof behind every piece of logic (hardware or software) to ensure things work as intended (read: no bugs). Why else would they still run on 40 yr old equipment? You don't run tests to verify it works as intended because you can easily miss tests that would reveal bugs, but if you create code that has a mathematical proof to it, you effectively already tested ALL possible test cases.
9. Re:Makes sense? by h4rr4r · 2012-09-27 02:40 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Because Windows 8 hopefully makes you love tiles so much that you buy WinPhone8, and sign up for the subscription version of Office.
10. Re:Makes sense? by Megane · 2012-09-27 03:11 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  And thanks to Obama's attacks on the coal industry, Santa needs something else to put in the stockings of bad little boys and girls.
  
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11. Re:Makes sense? by 93+Escort+Wagon · 2012-09-27 04:31 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Then they should have used swirling circles instead of tile.
  To symbolize the company is flushing itself down the toilet?
  
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  #DeleteChrome
12. Re:Makes sense? by 93+Escort+Wagon · 2012-09-27 04:34 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  In the last seven or eight years - has *anyone* installed Slackware?
  
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  #DeleteChrome
13. Re:Makes sense? by AmiMoJo · 2012-09-27 05:17 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  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.
  
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14. Re:Makes sense? by hairyfeet · 2012-09-27 06:00 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  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.
  
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And the other half... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-09-27 00:50 · Score: 5, Funny

Tried to figure out where the "I prefer Windows 7" button moved to and gave up.
1. Re:And the other half... by Wowsers · 2012-09-27 00:58 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Tried to figure out where the "I prefer Windows 7" button moved to and gave up.
  That's because you're supposed to be looking for a tile not button!
  
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  Take Nobody's Word For It.
2. Re:And the other half... by Chris+Mattern · 2012-09-27 01:05 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  You have to click the top of the desktop three inches from the left corner. The tutorial *explained* that to you!
3. Re:And the other half... by Sarten-X · 2012-09-27 02:04 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Windows 8: Emacs edition
  
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  You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
Ouch by Biff98 · 2012-09-27 00:52 · Score: 5, Funny

Not what Micros~1 needed. Then again they've always had big problems with adoption. A dollar's worth of free advice -- Stick to Xbox, mobile, and your business segments.
1. Re:Ouch by fibonacci8 · 2012-09-27 02:13 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  I give it an 8.3 out of 10.
  
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  Inheritance is the sincerest form of nepotism.
Win+X by drfishy · 2012-09-27 00:55 · Score: 5, Interesting

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.
Alternating by jbmartin6 · 2012-09-27 00:56 · Score: 5, Funny

Isn't it pretty much established that, like Star Trek movies, only every other version of Windows is any good?

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This Poll is Dumb by mr.nobody · 2012-09-27 01:00 · Score: 5, Interesting

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.

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1. Re:This Poll is Dumb by RazzleFrog · 2012-09-27 01:06 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  I just see no point in upgrading to Windows 8. Windows 7 has been the best OS I've used in the last 20 years - and I've tried almost everything.
  I agree with you on the Office ribbon thing - we went through the same thing here - but the thing is there was enough plus sides to upgrading to offset it. What exactly is the plus side of Windows 8?
2. Re:This Poll is Dumb by Lucky75 · 2012-09-27 02:55 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  This might be blasphemy, but IMO windows 7 is far more polished than *any* flavour of Linux.
  
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3. Re:This Poll is Dumb by ray-auch · 2012-09-27 03:16 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  > Could you please list ONE big improvement?
  Well from my experience so far (only since RTM):
  - I thought I'd miss aero / glass - but the new flat window chrome etc. has grown on me very quickly, clean and less distracting (takes you back to twm days).
  - Some bits of the UI and standard dialogs are much improved - new task manager is a _massive_ improvement for one
  - Explorer has an "up" button again. One of the biggest issues I had with Win7 sorted (no, "back" is _not_ the ****** same...)
  - It's faster and more responsive. Noticeably. The new start / metro screen even comes up faster than the old start menu on same hardware (and with same programs installed - in-place upgrade).
  But biggest plus point for me so far is Hyper-V. Full ring -1 / bare-metal hypervisor performance on your local machine without the stress of (lack of) driver support for server 2008 on laptop / desktop hardware. It's a massive massive improvement on virtual PC or even VMWare workstation (now consigned to trash).
  [ and yes I know I can do that with Linux for free with Xen / KVM, but Linux isn't an install choice for the works machine, and we're comparing windows with windows here ].
  Not so good: Metro apps, charms bar etc. - meh. But I can see some of it might be nice on a tablet if I had one.
Windows 7 Will Be Around for A While by andy16666 · 2012-09-27 01:06 · Score: 5, Insightful

Something tells me that Windows 7 is here to stay, at least for the next decade or so. I can't see a lot of people switching any time soon.
Let the SlashFUD Continue by Toreo+asesino · 2012-09-27 01:16 · Score: 5

There's plenty of people on Win8 already. It does work, it is different (faster for one), people don't like change, and Windows has changed of course. If you don't like the metro UI don't use it. Where's the news here?

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Well this time there's merit to it by Sycraft-fu · 2012-09-27 01:19 · Score: 5, Insightful

I find 8's new Metro UI to be genuinely worse for desktops. I gave it a chance, just like I did 7's new taskbar, but it has failed to win me over. It is not a good way for working with a desktop. My desktop is not a tablet, I do not use a touch screen. So a start menu replacer (Start 8 is my choice) gets installed.
Also I'm sorry but it is ugly. It is a step back looks wise. 7 looks pretty slick. All the desktop composition is put to good use making it look nifty. In 8, it is just ugly. The desktop composition is still there underneath, and is in fact even improved, but it is used to render a very ugly UI. Worse still, the UI changes make it more difficult to navigate, it is hard to tell if something is a window for a separate program, or just a window under the current one. They all look the same.
It's sad because technically, 8 is quite competent. It is very fast. Cakewalk found basically across the board improvements in Sonar (http://blog.cakewalk.com/windows-8-a-benchmark-for-music-production-applications/) and this is just their release software, not a special 8 build. So it looks like under the hood, 8 is a good OS. However its UI is truly a step back and the UI is the first thing most people notice.
It isn't a horrible OS, but it is worse than it should be, all on account of them wanting to try and use their desktop and server OS to push tablet sales.
Gee, maybe if they had listened to their users... by gestalt_n_pepper · 2012-09-27 01:53 · Score: 5, Insightful

And just extended the Windows 7 shell so it had a "Tablet" mode with some sort of auto-detection, they might have kept the desktop people happy AND the tablet crowd happy - just like the actual users suggested on the Windows forums, again and again and again....
Microsoft, missing the obvious since the 80s.
Next up? Microsoft ignores 3d printing until Linux dominates the field!

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Low resolution by jones_supa · 2012-09-27 01:58 · Score: 4, Interesting

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."
marketing spin... by schlachter · 2012-09-27 02:05 · Score: 5, Funny

This new ver of Windows introduces many new features. So many, in fact, that we're still finding and counting them.

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So let's get this straight... by PortHaven · 2012-09-27 02:25 · Score: 4, Interesting

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.
Correction... by HerculesMO · 2012-09-27 02:46 · Score: 5, Insightful

Windows 8 isn't buggy... it's unfinished and unpolished. What is there works well.
The desktop and metro side by side experiences make you feel like Microsoft put a lot of effort into getting the system running fast, smooth, and seamless, and then forgot to do anything with the desktop, or bring over any of the options. I posted about this yesterday, but suffice to say, Windows 8 is really great in terms of technical prowess, but the UI is unfinished, unpolished, and jarring, to say the least. And this is coming from somebody who actually *likes* Windows.

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