Slashdot Mirror
30 Days Is Too Long: Animated Rant About Windows 8
First time accepted submitter Funksaw writes "Back in 2007, I wrote three articles on Ubuntu 6, Mac OS X 10.4, and Windows Vista, which were all featured on Slashdot.
Now, with the release of Windows 8, I took a different tactic and produced an animated video.
Those expecting me to bust out the performance tests and in-depth use of the OS are going to be disappointed. While that was my intention coming into the project, I couldn't even use Windows 8 long enough to get to the in-depth technical tests. In my opinion, Windows 8 is so horribly broken that it should be recalled."
" Windows 8 is so horribly broken that it should be recalled."
Now, forgive me, but you can totally enter into windows 8 from a standard windows interface (as I understand it). That and, data shows, people are becoming familiar with it. Put that onto anecdotal evidence that younger individuals pick up the interface just fine and I'm inclined to think you knew what you thought before ever using windows 8.
Eat sleep die
Hey just because its easier to brainwash a child does not mean we should be attempting to brainwash ourselves.
Also 3 is way to young to be allowed electronics or access to IT/telecommunications. Not until 5 yrs old and only with supervision and seriously protective software installed (I want my kids to be expert A+ hackers, not 2cnd rate script kiddies)
No amount of ranting is enough in this matter. Windows 8 is trash.
This video shows that you just can't copy Yahtzee Croshaw without his motor mouth rambling, it just doesn't feel right :D
Captcha: copied :D
Not conviced. From both design and functionality standpoints it's utterly horrible, and a kid isn't going to fix that.
Yeah, the author's attitude is more than a little arrogant. You expect reasonable people to give your video a chance after speaking like that?
Yes I have used Windows 8, and while I am one of the hoards who loves the old start menu, apart from that change Win 8 is simply better. 7 was excellent, 8 has a few improvements over that.
I just finished building a budget pc to replace a dinosaur. I put the XP SP3 on and did a clean 'upgrade' to 8 Pro. After three days, I have to say I quite like it. I mostly use the desktop but flipflop to the metro stuff now and then too. Still a bit put off by lack of start button but I've not really gone too deep into the whole Win8 thing to find out all the short cuts and other features (I've not had to). BTW, my other OS on the machine is FreeBSD so hardly a rah rah MSFT guy. But I do think much of the hyperobole against it is misplaced.
It seems a bit over the top for the context, but it is well-done.
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."
-H. L. Mencken
I have been using Windows 8 for the last few weeks and it seems to work just as well as Windows 7 did on the same machine. I suspect most of the issues the OP is having is just due to change anxiety due to for example the new Metro interface. Metro does take a while to get used to but like the ribbon it grows on you after a while. I think there are better things to rant about than Windows 8 to be honest.
3 year old
five year old
I would expect them to be better at it. It was designed for them.
It's getting old. This shill account might be pretty old (879048), yet just check the posting history. Not a single post not related to Microsoft.
The problem is not that it's difficult to learn (though it is a bit of a shock at first); the problem is that some people just don't like it. You might be perfectly content with a touch-first tablet interface on your desktop, but Windows 8 will never touch any of my personal machines. That being said, I am still interested to try it out on a tablet device where many of the design decisions might actually make sense.
If you find this post offensive, don't read it! THINK ABOUT YOUR BREATHING! I am what I am because of how apes behave.
Because three- and five-year olds don't actually have to get any work done?
I've been using it. I don't like the metro UI, so I installed a tiny program I found on ninite.com called Classic Start, self-explanatory. It works, I don't interact with metro, everything behaves as expected. Before that I classified it as a minor annoyance. They made some poor design decisions, but I don't understand the tantrums and hyperbole, I do all my work in the browser or in programs and there's no change there. And the desktop is virtually identical to windows 7. MMC, powershell, command line, control panel are the same. It might be because I've always used keyboard shortcuts to navigate windows, I just don't understand the vitriol.
Why would I want to use an interface designed for a 3 year old? Hmm? Come on.
Yes I use the command line and the function keys and I can fly around the thing when I have to. Doesnt change the fact it's just about the worst interface imaginable, and confuzzles the regular users to no end, resulting in them constantly calling me to figure out how to do the simplest of things. I am not saying previous windows interfaces were all that great, but in general people had gotten to the point of being accustomed to them at least. Breaking things for the sake of breaking things does not a good product make.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
He's not real bright.
You can pretty much use Windows 8 just like Windows 7, just the "start menu" is now fullscreen. Press the windows key, start typing what you want, bingo.
Tens of millions of licenses have been sold because there's no choice. One buys a PC with an operating system to view and edit files, and a lot of industries have standardized on file formats exclusive to applications that are in turn exclusive to Windows. Windows 8 is the only thing that sort of reliably runs these applications that Microsoft still sells for bundling with a new PC. If Windows 7 were still widely available, tens of millions of Windows 7 licenses would be sold instead. If application publishers made a point of supporting Wine, at least millions (if not tens of millions) of Xubuntu licenses would be sold instead.
No...what recoiledsnake means is this:
If you use a computer like a 3 year old, then Windows 8 is perfect. That includes splashy, bright coloured interfaces, and chunky buttons big enough that someone lacking good fine motor control can still click on them.
For anybody who actually uses a computer like an adult, though, it sucks rocks.
"City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
Some of us started on paper tape and punch cards. Windows 8, Unity, whatever. It's not going to stay the same forever. Cry me a river!
I have no use for an OS or GUI designed for 3-year-olds.
Scruting the inscrutable for over 50 years.
So removing windowing, and requiring all programs to be full screen, so only able to run one program at a time, is an improvement to you?
This is Windows 1.01 level technology, not an improvement on Windows 7.
"City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
I'm holding it wrong?
My three year old got on my computer and sold my car, bought some drugs, and posted nude photos of herself on Facebook. But seriously, what's with the FUD over electronics and children? Get over yourself.
If you can avoid metro, it's pretty usable.
But metro intrudes at annoying times for various routine tasks. Frustrating indeed. Showing how a child can perform cherry-picked tasks doesn't change this.
QUESTION: Why'd Microsoft attempt to shove something down folks' throats they didn't, & clearly DON'T, want (and the figures show that much backing me)?
* Answer me a another question: Why should I, or anyone else, have to learn anything new they didn't WANT IN THE 1st PLACE??
(We're all used to the Win9x style interface, there was nothing wrong with it @ all - so what was YOUR point???)
Understand this as well, per my subject-line above:
You're using "blank slates" in 3 & 5 yr. old children!
So - have you considered the rest of us are NOT "blank slates", & that we're already conditioned & used to something we've all used for, what?? 17 yrs. or more now???
Please... your links are comparing us to children who haven't gotten used to a damned thing yet.
E.G.-> Why don't you learn how to drive a crane to work instead of your car... oh, wait - what's that?? You aren't used to it??? What's the MATTER with you, boy!!!
APK
P.S.=> A cardinal rule of sales: You can't sell something people don't want... & they do NOT want to have to LEARN what they do not want to - get it? Good... now, try make Microsoft understand that, & thanks.
Above ALL else here - This, from me? It isn't "negativity"... it's just telling it how it is, & I'm probably 1 of a VERY SMALL MINORITY AROUND HERE (windows fans, vs. *nix folks)
... apk
It's the primary interface because they will collect a 30% fee of the retail sales price of every program written for it. So obviously they want to coerce people into using it.
too bad Windows 8 does exactly none of that.
Until you accidentally swipe the wrong way, and your desktop disappears and is replaced by a full-screen weather application.
Coming from someone who has had a deep and long dislike of Microsoft, Windows 8 is not that bad. Metro is half baked and feels like it was tossed in at the last moment. Other than that, I have had less issues with Windows 8 than its predecessors.
Now then, what were they thinking with Metro? I have no idea. It feels half assed, and adds no value. The screen looks like someone's idea for webcasting push technology from the late 1990's.
"To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
Just out of interest, I walked into a PC World store to check out the new touch-screen PCs running Windows 8.
I timed myself: I was sitting there trying to work out how to do the gesture to get the Start screen. 90 seconds later, I simply gave up.
Windows 8, even on high-spec hardware with multitouch displays is completely unintuitive, completely undiscoverable, clunky, and amateur-looking.
I am GOBSMACKED, that Microsoft claimed that they've put a million user-hours into usability testing.
It'll snow in Hell before I put my hand in my pocket to upgrade.
have kids try working desktop and metro apps at the same time.
MS will need to let you install metro apps out side of the app store and let up on some of the sand boxing as well.
The Sandboxing in the app store apps just get's in the way of many work flows.
Microsoft needs to destroy Android or they will lose their monopoly pricing power, and the only way to do that is with pushing Windows Phone and it's Metro application stack. If the users see desktop first there's no reason for Metro apps to be developed, and with no applications, no reason to by WinPho.
There's inevitably going to be fans for any OS, even windows ME.
Since we have a Windows 7 slate that I really wanted to upgrade (read: make usable, as 7 is pants on a slate) daughter and I went to an Office Despot that had Win8 running on a big touch screen monitor, and I tried to get it to do stuff. Never touched Win8 before, but had worked on most previous Windows operating systems, (starting with 3.1, 3.51, 95, 98 SE, NT 4, 2000, ME (shudder), XP (still using it) and 7, plus experience with server 2000 and 2008) how hard could it be?
I massaged the screen for about ten minutes and couldn't get it to do anything useful. Oh, you can touch a tile and something happens, but it's easy to get into a mode where it's not at all obvious how to get out. GUIs, especially touch GUIs, should have visual cues on how to navigate, or at very least do things in consistent ways.
After awhile, daughter pushed me aside, as she has experience with Windows 7, Android and iOS on touchscreen, she wanted to take a crack at it. She figured out how to get out from where I had gotten stuck, but not much else after another ten minutes of pawing at the thing. Like 7, there seems to be little cabalistic gestures one has to learn to perform certain actions in 8, and they don't seem to be similar to what you had to do in 7. We finally gave up.
Mind you, I'm sure it's possible to learn Windows 8. The point is, it's not at all obvious how to use it.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
treat the Start screen like a full-screen version of the Start menu
And because it's full-screen, it all but encourages the user to forget what he's working on. Ever have amnesia as you go through a doorway? The fact that the Start screen is full-screen is like that.
You don't need a Start orb to click on -- just hit the Windows key.
How are users who have been opening the Start menu with the mouse for a decade and a half expected to discover the Windows key?
I can't really see the benefit of Windows 8 over 7 at the moment though so I'm considering going back.
Why even bother going back? Just install a start menu replacement (one of dozens available), and you'll have a machine that looks and acts like Windows 7. You'll never even have to touch metro, as they disable hot corners and boot to desktop. Then you retain the performance, security, and new features in Windows 8, with all the benefits of Windows 7.
Seriously, there's a lot that's broken about Windows 8 right now, but I'm willing to give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt long term. I'm certainly not going to upgrade until they've fixed a lot of their poor UX decisions, but I'm pretty sure they'll figure it out by the next version. Microsoft "Window" is a very apt analogy at the moment, but I'm putting my money on this being a success long term.
Happy user of Lenovo X1. Got it with Windows8 (no other option), played for 4 hours and installed Ubuntu. And since Windows for some reason showed me that there's only 65 gigs of free space left on my shiny new computer with 128Gb(Gib?) SSD I wiped windows cleanly (including recovery partition).
I also got a new Dell workstation at work. Not sure if it was managements fault or there is no choice but it came with Windows8, which was wiped immediately. Got it on VirtualBox now for IE testing which is about 1hr/month. I'm not sure if many of those millions had a choice.
So removing windowing, and requiring all programs to be full screen, so only able to run one program at a time, is an improvement to you?
You seem to be confused between Windows RT and Windows 8, the latter (which is what we are talking about) does not have the attributes you describe.
and is replaced by a full-screen weather application.
Which can be run side by side with the desktop and other apps, and does not prevent any other applications from running. The fact that some subset of programs run fullscreen does not mean Windows 8 requires all programs run full screen, and only one program can run at a time. This would be like saying "Windows 7 removes windowing, and requires all programs to be full screen, so only able to run one program at a time" just because you run games in fullscreen mode.
In fact, even for the programs that run full screen (metro apps) they can run in the background simultaneously, and side by side.
no, he IS an idiot. he could not figure out how to close a metro app. you click and you drag it down to the bottom of the screen and let go. real super easy. He spent 30 minutes and could not figure this out. It took me about 8 seconds. He is an idiot.
If you HAVE to deal with a Win8 system then install classic shell and be done with it
If you think the measure of things is how a 3 year old does them then i would suggest your choices are a bit different beginning with say your underwear,
note for MS please restore the Start menu/Orb at least as an option for SP1
note for IT managers please allow things like Classic Shell so that your folks can get WORK done.
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
"Tens of millions of licenses have been forced down the throats of new pc and laptop buyers...."
FTFY
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I've never had the "swipe" issues the author pointed out and I haven't heard anyone else in the family complaining about it. Maybe it's a logitech driver / config problem? I'll try it out later, though, as swiping may be easier to get used to rather than going into the top right corner to switch between applications.
And you open up the left hand sidebar to close any application that's running, btw. Figured that out in the first few minutes of using Win8. Too bad the author couldn't figure that out.
Use those two tools to make it even easier.
You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
I don't give a shit that a small child can interact with a device and get stuff to happen. My needs are a lot different than a child's.
The Internet King? I wonder if he could provide faster nudity.
My Model M doesn't have a Windows key, you insensitive clod!
So you're ignoring half the OS, and you've installed a 3rd party application to make the part you aren't ignoring actually usable?
Basically, he discusses the four c's: control, conveyance, continuity, and context, and gives examples about why all of these are horribly back-leveled from earlier Windows versions. Most damningly, he points to reduced control by the user...which is a trend that seems to have permeated through Windows since Windows 95. He summarizes by referring to someone else who observed that Windows 8 was really designed for content consumption by the user rather than content creation as personal computer devices were originally intended for. Content consumption is probably the main purpose of a tablet but we will still need content creation equipment and Windows 8 appears poorly suited for that, while not offering any alternative due to ending sales of Windows 7. His most damning comment is that Windows 8 is "user hostile." The best thing about his comments is that they will (hopefully) start the discussion about what capabilities need to be retained in future personal computers and future Windows versions.
It's not. You need very intricate mouse control to use the charms bar for example.
You know why I say Fuck You? Because your links are like boasting how easy it is to bypass an AES128 encrypted file by watching a fucking youtube video that shows you the key. If you don't know something, I don't care how short a video is if I shouldn't have to watch it in the first place. So, fuck you.
How is a person supposed to know what to type to find a thing that isn't listed? This has frustrated me at times in Ubuntu also. Why the menu hate?
And I replied to the wrong dude. Even quoted the wrong dude. gj me! high fives all-around, no more eggnog while on the internet.
That is sort of the point. You aren't using it like Windows 8 you are using it like Windows 7 with a 3rd party application to make it MORE like Windows 7.
The complaint is Windows 8 out of the box is junk.
My studio - www.graylands.ca
on the Princess Bride? INCONCEIVABLE!
I'll just copy my reply to another similar post... So you're ignoring half the OS, and you've installed a 3rd party application to make the part you aren't ignoring actually usable?
Nope. He means the way I try to move my mouse to the right to moderate something on Slashdot in Firefox, and Windows 8 thinks I am using the right swipe gesture and changes to next application (Weather if always open, and is very often the next app). That is what he means.
I think you'll find that over the next couple of versions, that the 'classic' interface disappears or has reduced functionality. Anyone think this is not gong to happen? Apple set the precedent, now Microsoft is going to try cashing in on the same lock-in. Buying or using Windows 8 is funding the loss of your ability to actually 'own' your own hardware, same as iOS.
Yes, a few:
Start8: http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/
ViStart: http://www.lee-soft.com/vistart/
Classic Shell (has the benefit of being FOSS): http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/
Pokki: https://www.pokki.com/windows-8-start-menu
It means you don't use your computer for anything serious.
"City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
There are two fundamental problem with the "just install XYZ add-on and it becomes tolerable" perspective.
1) Every time you have to use the computer of someone not savvy enough to want/install such a thing, you're stuck with the horrible stock configuration.
2) Every time you have to use a locked-down/policy-controlled computer, you're stuck with the horrible stock configuration.
#1 kinda reminds me of having to use the Gentoo or Ubuntu machine of someone who has different command-line needs from install-to-that-point.
#2 is a tad less of a short-term concern, since many of those are just moving from XP to 7, but a serious long-term concern if things aren't fixed in 9.
It is a user problem, Windows 8 also works fine for me. And it seems to work fine for a buddy of mine who I just built a computer for. I gave him the choice of Win7 or Win8. And he took Win 8 and was off doing what he was doing before with minimal difficulty.
Does that mean it's perfect? Hardly, but people stuck in their ways with the UI or have a bug up their ass over it are going to continue to throw a hissy fit no matter what.
Om, nomnomnom...
I am not at all a fan of Metro, I think it is a stupid decision to try and force their tablet sales, and it isn't going to work. I dislike the start screen, and on my personal work desktop I replace it with a start menu (Start 8 is my choice).
However it is not hard to use. It is different, and I feel a number of the things it does make for a less efficient workflow, but it is not hard. Inferior to what it replaced, but not hard.
So if you truly can't figure it out you are either:
1) Extremely technically inept. No shame there, but don't write for a technical publication.
2) A moron, in which case please try and get your learn-on and don't be.
3) Trolling/lying, in which case please stop.
I get tired of the tech troll types trying to make Windows 8 out to be worse than it is. That is stupid and it weakens your real point (which is presumably that people shouldn't use 8). If you have to lie to make your point, it leads one to question how valid that point is. If you can't make your argument based on truth, then you need to reevaluate it.
Windows 8 has a somewhat poor user interface, not a hard one. There's a difference. A command line is a hard user interface, though it can be very good for some things. Without training you will likely be able to do literally nothing with the system since there are no hints as to what to do. When one learns it, it can be very efficient, but it is hard to learn.
8 is the opposite, it is actually quite easy to use and learn, but it is somewhat inefficient compared to what it replaced. That is a bad thing and MS shoudl be scorned for it, but don't try and claim it is hard.
Seriously, I know several people who actually like Windows 8 better.
Cool story bro.
Watch a couple of videos if you're lazy and learn some shortcuts and it's a better Windows 7 at the worst.
While Windows 7 was a bit annoying when you were trying to find somehting in the new control panel, if you knew Windows XP you could pretty much use it right away, and teach yourself the few things that had changed.
WIndows 8 simply has too steep a learning curve. You need to watch instructional videos to figure it out. I'm sure it's a fine phone OS, and maybe if you're used to a different phone OS it's not that strange, but nothing changed for the better for keyboard/mouse users trying to get work done. Why would I want this on a laptop or desktop?
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
If I'd been drinking I'd have spit coffee all over the keyboard. I do believe that charms is one of the most unreliable chunks of interface I've seen in recent OS.
Come on charms, come out, you can do it.. There you are.
So you're saying the changes from Windows 7 to Windows 8 are fine if you use 3rd party software to ... suppress them all and make it just like Windows 7 was? Hardly an endorsement.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Windows 8 is now about giving each application your full attention
Which leads to doorway amnesia, as I pointed out in another comment. I don't want to give attention to an application; I want to give attention to a task that involves the use of several applications.
The Start screen is an overview of everything you have available and live tiles allow them to each give you different types of information allowing you to decide if they are worth your time or not.
So why can't I have this Start screen take up only half the screen, so that the other applications involved in this task remain at least partly visible to retain context in my brain?
The best way to describe what's been done is that windows is now more about flipping through a book
A task may require (and often does require) more than one book.
and less about putting all the pages spread out on your desk.
In other words, as the video points out, it's Microsoft Window, singular, not Microsoft Windows, plural.
I'm sorry, but if a video featuring a child moving pictures around the screen is the best counter-argument Microsoft can come up with, there has to be something seriously wrong with Windows 8.
I recently had the opportunity to try Windows 8 for the first time. I'm a 40-something IT consultant with 20+ years experience, so I'm not your typical user by any stretch of the imagination. I've used DOS, Netware, AIX, SCO Unix, Linux and every Windows version from 3.0, but I've actually never used a tablet and I've never owned a smartphone. I was ready to give Windows 8 a try. I mean, how hard can it be?
Pretty hard, as it turns out. I knew I was in trouble when after staring at the "start" screen for a few minutes, I had no idea how to access settings or navigate the file system to get to, say, my NAS unit or USB stick.
In previous Windows versions, I can remember feeling annoyed over having to search through the system to find settings or applications that Microsoft had decided to move around. In Windows 8, I felt like I did that time my car broke down: I was stuck. There was nowhere to go, and nothing seemed familiar.
I though most of his rant was spot on, and my customers seem to agree. I sold a few laptops with Windows 8 preinstalled, but ended up having to downgrade to Windows 7. I'll be doing that with every laptop from now on (but Microsoft still gets to count them as Windows 8 sales).
All you need to know is - who the hell decided to call this crap on the side the "Charms Bar"?
Seriously? That alone disqualifies Windows 8 from being a usable operating system.
His list of four design elements that Windows 8 CLEARLY breaks is perfectly correct. A tablet and a desktop PC are TWO TOTALLY DIFFERENT ANIMALS. Mixing the UI metaphor is just stupid.
I don't think the notion of a "recall" is likely to be a useful suggestion. However, I think a "Service Pack" that makes some of the UI screwups "optional" is likely to be in Windows 8 immediate future, despite Microsoft's insistence that there won't be any more "Service Packs".
OTOH, there are enough third party utilities out there that attempt to correct some of the more egregious UI errors that maybe Microsoft will try to "tough it out". After all, as the guy says, anyone buying a new machine is pretty much going to be force-fed Windows 8, and we all know Microsoft couldn't care less about its customers.
I do agree that Linux is undergoing the same sort of stupidity. The Ubuntu Unity interface was roundly denounced by many Linux users. I didn't like a lot of the KDE 4.x changes when I shifted from KDE 3.x to 4.x and either never used the "features" that were added and in a couple cases disabled them.
I don't have an a priori problem with trying to improve PC user interfaces. I DO have a problem with making changes that no one has asked for, simply on someone's notion that "hey, this could be COOL!" "Cool" invariably leads to CRAP.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
Yes, that was the idea of Metro. The problem is that as Apple has shown, Desktops/Laptops and tablets are used in very different ways, so need a very different UI and apps.
There's literally a fucking tutorial that shows you how to access most of what you mentioned
If you have parental controls turned on, is there a version of the tutorial that doesn't involve the fucking?
I thought in a general sense, as a community, we'd moved past cheering for nerd-rage melodrama.
Windows 8 makes a few gaffes, but they're largely the same problems that Windows 7, Office 2007, and others started introducing. It can be annoying, but it's the same stuff taken to a reasonable next step, as well as UI unification between desktop, laptop, and tablet.
None of that is necessarily a fun thing, but OSX has been pushing many similar UI changes for longer. A lot of people were unhappy with Lion's increasing similarity and unification with iOS, just in case anybody actually forgot that in less than a year.
The bottom line is, 8 works in the same ways as 7, just with some added complexity. The easiest way to almost entirely remove that complexity? A start menu replacer. People recommend Start8, ViStart, and others. My personal recommendation is "Classic Shell". It works exactly the same as it used to on Vista+, except it adds the "Apps" to the start menu as well.
But even so, why wouldn't somebody be able to figure this out? The video author was squealing about how the start menu "hurt him deeply". Trackpads aren't really supposed to do "touch gestures" by default. It's vendor opt-in. Logitech opted in, and chances are, this guy didn't install whatever WIndows 8 drivers or control panel may or may not be available. Either way, it's a vendor issue. Just like 'no install/repair/recovery/etc' disk is a vendor issue. If you don't want vendor issues, you don't buy things from those vendors.
All of the UIs Windows (95-W8), OSX, KDE, iOS, Android, etc are different. What everything has in common is that there are roughly 6 different things you have to know about each, then consistency covers all of the multi-step operations, or using various applications. Occasionally you get something that breaks out of that a bit (Office 2007+). There are so many "advanced" things, like command line digging, reinstalling from scratch, that the overwhelming majority of people will simply ask a friend for help with or pay a PC repair company. That's pretty much regardless of operating system.
But I digress. The rant is pretty simply over the top drama. It should sell itself as entertainment (if it at least had any humor), not as something relevant to 'tech news'. It's not politically correct to mention, but this guy sounds and acts like the stereotypical nerd, going into a panicky, narcissistic rage about primarily one change that, overall, isn't that significant to day to day use, AND for which there exist free, open source, and easy to use workarounds, while still obtaining benefits of a newer OS.
He himself admits he only tried it for 30 minutes, in a coffee shop, and didn't bother one iota further.
Personally, I've been using it for 4 months (and preview versions before that) with NO issues that would meaningfully impact your average, or above-average user. All of my personal complaints are exceedingly specific and technical, and have mostly been taken care of by various updates.
And, in the interest of disclosure, I'm not the kind of person who likes Windows, or most other OSes, in a general sense.
I prod and patch kernels, have no problems custom-rolling EFI stub-only boot on Linux, etc. What I really miss, is being able to run highly customized FreeBSD and still use ~90% of my Windows games at full speed. That's mostly a hardware/driver/wine(!) issue, though.
So when I say I'm using Windows 8 in the exact same manner as I use Windows 7, I'm not exaggerating. I actually like the availability of some of the W8 new features. I middle click on the start button (or use Shift+Windows) if I want to see live tiles like the weather...just like on OSX, you use F12 to get the Dashboard to pop up a full screen of 'one glance' kinda information. Even before using Classic Start, the only quirk I took issue with, on the 'start screen', is that when typing for programs, it wouldn't search for stuff like control panels "by default". You'd have to move the mouse over to select "settings". Mos
"A Goddess rarely smiles for she is forced by others to be an island unto herself." - Zephiris
Sooner or later I am going to walk in somewhere and have to use Windows 8 to get something done. Sooner rather than later. Currently, there is no major OS that I could not be modestly productive on in a few minutes. However, the video rant gave me pause with respect to this new iteration of Windows. Also the video was actually instructive in a backassward sort of way. Note to self: Careful with the touchpad. Or disable the swipe feature. Use Windows key to see applications Etc...
So now I am going to take advantage of the price-of-a good-dinner introductory cost and put Windows 8 on an old Vista laptop I have in order to do a solid familiarization. Perhaps I will be pleasantly surprised. And ... Forewarned is forearmed. I might even RTFM. A little.
This appears to be a matter of self preservation because in my experience there seems to be some stuff that has a learning curve for dweeb types, but not for three-year olds. I remember the terrible experience I had with iTunes the first time I used this "easy-to-use" application. (And a lot of people do find it easy to use.) At the time (about four years ago) I had had an MP3 player of one sort or another (not Apple) since 1999 (Creative Nomad was my first). Someone gave me an iPod Shuffle she wasn't using. So, and for the very first time, I downloaded Apple's music utility onto my PC and attempted to use it to put mp3 files on the Shuffle in the straightforward way I was used to. All my other players worked like flash drives if I wanted. It took me far too many frustrating minutes (and a dash to the dreaded help files) to realize that Apple's resource was padding my experience and preventing me from using the equipment in the manner I wanted and which made sense. Nanny Apple: "First we make a playlist... etc". Sometimes resources are so dumbed down and bullet proofed that people who have a feeling for how computers work get limited, confounded and frustrated. Seems like this poor guy repeated my brief iTunes nightmare with Windows 8 -- on steroids. And since I have had similar experiences with easy-to-use stuff I better get familiar with 8 since it might not be a cake walk should I walk into it cold.
So, as I said, A reverse effect. Now, instead of being put off by the negative review, I heave a heavy sigh and download this thing. This because sooner or later I'll have to deal with Windows 8. Good, bad or indifferent. Feh!
"No fear. No envy. No meanness." Liam Clancy
Let me understand this.
You like Win8. You're part of a select audience for which Win8 was designed for. You haven't enabled the start menu, because you love the metrosexual aspect so much. You love that shit, and you didn't even have a learning curve to deal with. You don't need or want any of the more advanced features of Windows that are semi-hidden on the metrosexual workspace.
Of course that invalidates the complaints that all the rest of us have about Win8 and the other metro "desktops" being pushed by Gnome, Unity, etc. We're all just idiots.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
879048 is old? Who knew.
You need to watch instructional videos to figure it out.
No, the only thing you need to know the OS is "move your mouse into any corner" which is told to the user on first log in. Moving your mouse to the corners reveals everything you need to navigate and use the OS.
No amount of ranting is enough in this matter. Windows 8 is trash.
no, No, NO!!! Windows 8 isn't trash -- VISTA is trash. Vista IS TrAsh. See?
Windows 8 is rubbish, conceived by the marketing droids and PHBs positioning Windows in the touch world for the future. In 4 years when everything has been converted is touch, you'll wonder how you ever managed with a simple "read only" display. (MSTSC.exe's going to have to be re-written for another input device.)
And just think about all of the new market share Microsoft will have after Every Single PC and Laptop has to be completely replaced to become touch-enabled. (Time to sell my mouse-hardware stock.)
Forget cutting spending or raising taxes --- the economy is saved! Windows 8 is going to end up with the largest market share E...V...E...R.
If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?
Yes it does. It's the 'metro' interface which has exactly ONE app on screen at any one time (apparently random times too!).
Within the 'metro' UI that is partially true (there is some support for side-by-side apps), but that is not the only UI on Windows 8, as such his assertions are demonstrably false, they didn't remove windowing, they didn't require all programs to be full screen and they didn't remove the ability to run multiple programs at once, that is all still there.
When people say, it's a good app, I use the Desktop...they're saying that Win8 isn't good and Win7, which is what the Desktop basically is, is what they prefer to use.
So you are under the impression that the only thing different between Windows 8 and Windows 7 is the 'metro' UI, in that case your post makes more sense, still wrong though.
I should have mentioned, I was using a touchpad (not a real mouse). The swipe gestures work both in desktop and metro mode. It is not able to interpret whether I am trying to move my mouse pointer to the right or I was using the swipe gesture (well, how could it).
May I ask, what improvements?
Aside from the new Start Screen / Start Menu, which is controversial at best, the second most important feature I had heard is that 'it boots up faster.'
Ok, so it boots up faster...I am on a SSD, and before that a 7200 RPM hard drive. My boot times are, what, less than a minute? And part of that has to do with my machine having any number of startup programs / drivers for things hanging off of it?
I mean, don't get me wrong, faster boot times are always appreciated, but for that to be the second most taughted feature....I'm having trouble justifying the $40 upgrade from Windows 7, let alone buying OEM or full versions of 8.
And the third feature is, what, the Windows Store? How is that a feature? Why do I need a marketplace on my desktop? It's an Operating System...what new, compelling features are you offering that makes this operating system a must have? Better driver support for exotic devices? Easier mass deployment / imaging routines? A more powerful framework for designing applications / programs that is not arbitrarily limited to the latest version?
Has MS Paint been upgraded to something Photoshop like? Has the Image Viewer been redesigned to have more features / work with more formats? Has the CD / DVD / BluRay software been upgraded to something more useful? How about the creation and extraction of archives? Backup and restore? Has the Media Player been rewritten to be less annoying, something approaching WinAmp in terms of usefulness? How about its support for codecs? Both old ones and new ones. Subtitles. Have they implemented 'Admin Command Line' here as a standard option? How about video transcoding? A PDF viewer that doesn't make people spit tacks?
I am John Hurt.
I don't understand it.
Windows 8 is just Windows 7 PLUS metro.
Surely you could just not use the metro parts and it would be just the same experience as windows 7 (mostly). In fact, I do just that.
I got used to the new start screen - it's not _that_ bad, no worse than hunting through menus to find what you're looking for, and actually better in that you can just start typing the name of a program and it comes up in the search. Or you can type the name of a control panel applet or setting, and that works too.
There are definite improvements over windows 7, even if they are minor. So in general, if all you want is an incremental improvement over windows 7, you can use it just like that.
No one is forcing you to use metro for all your apps.
So yeah, windows 8 is less than ideal in that some settings screens take you to a metro interface (but you could live without them), and metro itself is horrible, but if you use it just like windows 7 and all versions before that, it still works fine.
This seemed like a reasonable sig at the time.
If only there was some sort of magic information warehouse that someone could access from a variety of electronic devices in order to access basic documents that could explain in simple terms how to use Windows 8 or anything else for that matter. We could call it, I dunno, the internet
And in the video, the reviewer ended up searching the Web for how to solve each of the annoyances. But the reviewer had to pull out a second computer running a more familiar operating system to have a chance to do this without accidentally running into one of the annoyances. So Windows 8 is fine as long as you already have a second computer on which to search the Web.
"WIndows 8 simply has too steep a learning curve. You need to watch instructional videos to figure it out."
Strange ... I still haven't watched any videos. The only two things I needed to know were where the Desktop tile was (bottom left, easy to find) and how to turn off the "swipes" on my touchpad. Of course that one took figuring out where the Control Panel was and figuring out that the swipes were in the touchpad settings.
If you don't want to use apps, then don't use apps. What's so hard about that?
Install machine:
Fujitsu Lifebook P1620 (tablet.. not multi-touch, etc)
2gb RAM
64GB SSD
1.2ghz C2D
Okay, I got this machine for like $75 off of ebay awhile back. Upgraded the RAM with a 3rd party module off of ebay, tested and works fine. I was going to install linux, but I already have a linux laptop in the form of a Sony Vaio TR3A (Pentium M 900, 1gb RAM (same 3rd party vendor), and a 32gb CF Flash card as a cheap SSD test). Besides, from the research I gathered online, the tablet functions are pretty spotty and I hate having functional hardware that's not supported. Besides, I can always install something else later. Anyway, replaced the HD with the SSD the other night and installed Win8 on it.
Thoughts so far: Okay, it's an old machine, no multi-touch. No finger recognition, but I can use my nails or the stylus and it's generally okay. Definitely not as smooth as my android phone, but this is hardware, not Win8 (it was fine on the tablets I played with the other day). I installed Visual Studio 2012 (I work primarily in the .NET world at work), and ghci and clisp, and just added IntelliJ to the mix earlier today. So far, haven't done anything intensive, but it's not been so bad.
Things I don't like:
Where the fuck do I shut the goddamned machine down? Or do I have to "sign out" everytime I want to use the shut down feature? This is beyond annoying. The spash screen that I have to move to get to a login is an unnecessary step. I think I'll have to dig through the user settings and see if there's a single user mode.
Moving tiles around on the screen is hit-or-miss, at least with my 2005-era hardware. I don't mind moving my tiles around, and using that to launch on the desktop, as that feels like an extra step.
Things I like:
As a tablet, and even with crippled touchscreen hardware, I actually like this a lot. I can lay in bed and read or browse books in tablet form, typing with my stylus on the soft-keyboard. A modern tablet touchscreen would make this much smoother, so can't fault Win8 here.
So.. as a serious dev system? since I use the keyboard, a lot of the touch interface seems to be a bit clunky and clumsy. When I'm deving, I don't want to fight metro, i just want a desktop.
As a tablet, web browsing machine: Lots of potential, and wouldn't hate it on a phone, for example.
I'll give it a few more weeks and see how I like it then, at which point I might wipe it and install fedora or mint on it.
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
He explained exactly what was wrong, and why.
He used the basic principals of GUI design and explained why Windows 8 is a total failure.
Great job. No wonder the MS shills are going crazy.
No, the interface is the same as it was before... plus touch based application support. Is an IOS interface designed for a 3 year old? Is android? Same thing. get over it.
While Windows 7 was a bit annoying when you were trying to find somehting in the new control panel...
Or trying to search for files. (Slightly off topic for Win8, but within the realm of Usability) Seriously. I don't need or want the Indexing service scanning everything and I don't want the content searched/reported when I'm looking for a file name. Having to know the secret search keywords to *limit* my search is really annoying (I had to search the Internet for those). I'd much rather have a GUI mechanism to specify or expand my search. And don't get me started on using "Back" instead of "Up" ... In short, the Windows Explorer is better in XP than 7 (haven't tried it in Win8) - and anything pre-Unity for Ubuntu (to be fair to MS).
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
I feel for you bro. I, too, wanted to seriously give Windows 8 a try, but I've found that it seriously disrupts my Norton Commander workflows.
Our support group meets every Thursday on 7 pm. That's right after Asperger's, so you can conveniently attend both.
My exception safety is -fno-exceptions.
Oh dear! Just typing what you want in Modern UI and selecting the settings category, so hard to find things in the control panel!
We're seeing more and more of this. When did a command line interface become easier to learn than a UI again? I mean, once you learn exactly what to type it's great and fast and I like it, but it's no way to get started.
In your case, to figure out better complaints with the OS, because you don't appear to know much about it.
True enough. It exceeded my frustration threshhold, and I never went back. I have no desire to "learn an OS" as an activity, and there are many fine OSs that let me do the things I do enjoy easily enough, including WIndows 7. While I do enjoy trying out the latest whatever, if that trial experience is unpleasant then I'm done.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Touchpad !== touchscreen.
The rest of the video is worth the watch. It squarely identifies some of the things that just make win8 feel unnatural, but you don't explicitly notice unless you regularly ponder UI/presentation issues. Like having no visual distinguisher between clickable items and informationals/decorations.
Someone had to do it.
Two things come to mind:
He is correct that its usability suffers from Metro and the abrupt changes to the UI when it is being pushed so hard. One of many points made in the video was that people who have never used it will find it very confusing because in more ways than one the UI gets in the way. Microsoft trying to have its cake and eat it too is what is causing all this grief. Instead of doing like Apple did with the change from OS9 to OS10 and dropping legacy and backwards compatibility to go with the new paradigm they want to maintain backwards compatibility. This is because Microsoft fears backlash from both its main customers, big businesses and governments, and the developers for those businesses and governments. Worse, they really made it for the tablet market all the while still trying to hold onto the laptop / desktop market with it. The point made in the video of the differences between a mouse / touchpad and touchscreen are valid.
To do it right, Metro should NOT be the default interface if you are installing it to a machine without a touchscreen just as the "classic" should not be the default if you are installing it to a tablet. They are different beasts. A tablet is more for viewing content than it is a great workhorse for making that content no matter what Microsoft or Apple may think. An even better solution is to do two different products. One for the tablets and one for the desktop / laptop and let the consumers choose which they really want for what products. Again, that too was pointed out in this video.
The second observation of your post deals with your contempt for humans. It is those very humans that Microsoft is trying to impress. There is a very, very large segment of the population that are not pleased with the Metro interface that Microsoft really wants to go with. The so called "fix" of downloading a second application to eliminate it as the advice that is often given is proof enough of that dislike. Calling that many people names isn't the way to win over support.
This is a sig. This is only a sig. Had this been an actual sig you would have been informed where to tune for more sigs.
Nobody is saying anything against all Windows version. Just this specific one. Yes, Windows will work well for people who can't afford a Mac. Actually it could be argued that even with their problems the stable and reasonably well designed versions of Windows (XP, 7, etc) are actually better than anything Apple has to offer in this area. Apple desktops just suck.
Windows is not easier to install or use than Ubuntu or any other end-user Linux, though. You are just wrong about that. Figuring out how these Linux distributions work is about as hard as figuring out as Windows 8 works for a layman used to Windows 7, for example, with the added benefit that in the end you will have a much less frustrating experience.
That said Windows 8 is simply unusable for anything serious and thus does not work, perfectly fitting your definition of trash. Metro is an horrible UI and the choice to make it entrenched in the OS like a virus turned this OS into a useless piece of trash.
This is the first time I feel like I understand Microsoft's motives in the Windows 8 fiasco. Until I'd read your comment I'd been thinking along the lines of: Microsoft doesn't want to pay for long-term development of both PC and Phone operating systems, so to save long-term development costs, they're creating an OS that will work on both hardware platforms. That line of thought never really made sense to me because Microsoft makes money only on Windows and Office, but they continually spend huge amounts developing other code that has never and probably will never make them any money. Why would they suddenly become so stingy when it comes to making separate user interfaces for PC and Phone, especially when they are risking alienating virtually their entire customer base?
Now I get it. This isn't about coercing customers into using a cheaply-developed UI, to save Microsoft money. It's about (possibly illegally) leveraging the Windows monopoly to coerce independent developers into creating Phone-compatible apps - thereby potentially expanding Microsoft's monopoly into another line of business. It's all about "developers, developers, developers!" and to hell with "users, users, users". Ballmer is betting his company on this - and possibly risking another antitrust action.
And the thing everyone needs to remember is that no previous version of windows used the screen corners as a UI trigger. It's simply not expected: there's no visual cue in the corners to indicate that they cause something to happen. Not much different than if win95 had shipped with no task bar, but the 80x20 pixel block 4 pixels up and to the right of the bottom left corner was still the start button. Who would know to click there?
Win8 defenestrates most windows usability conventions, and on top of that doesn't express itself very well, if it bothers to at all. People know to click on buttons because they look like physical buttons, they have depth. Metro is just a Wall of quasi-meaningful white shapes (with little to no context) floating on colored boards.
For me, the bigger the screen, the more useless it is because the touchpad interface requires larger and larger gestures to get at what's needed.. Remember the windows 2k/xp start menu with its crazy long cascaded menus? No one wants to sort through those. Metro 'start' is like that, only worse because the tiles are huge.
Most of the complaints in the video link are right on.. It's jarring and mystifying at the same time. Basic functionality should never, ever be hidden. That includes configuration utilities. The whole concept of having two separate interfaces with separate rules is also beyond stupid. The frustration isn't just in figuring it out, it's having to figure out ways to complete the work I need to that actually take longer than it did on previous operating systems.
What's this trend in attacking 'negativity' as though doing so is a legit argument against what was said? Is this some kind of peer pressure to conform to the head-in-ground masses of ostriches who can't handle reality because they're too weak willed to not take everything personally?
You can shrink the size of the tiles, but I think it would be a disadvantage. I can use a higher mouse sensitivity because I don't have to be anywhere near as precise when I actually click on those tiles. I can completely mitigate the gesture size, and use a mouse sensitivity I like. I see there is also an option to fill my large monitor (settings->show more tiles), which actually gives me an array of 8x12 tiles if I use the smaller setting for each tile - 92 icons I can access without navigating submenus or scrolling on a 2560x1600 monitor. That's actually not bad. I like flat structures, they are fast.
That said, I rarely have to use the start screen. I stay in desktop mode. I've pinned my commonly used applications, about 15 or so, to the taskbar. I never need to open the start screen to access them. It's how I used 7. The start screen comes in to play when I search, and I now access it using win+F intead of just hitting the windows key.
I've seen the actual "start" tiled interface a few times this month because I had something specific to do on it. I'm not even trying to avoid, it's just the way I use windows tends to avoid it. I would still prefer to have the old style search back - flat, and tucked down in the lower left, as it should be. In short, the new start screen is not the end of the world. As for gesture size, I don't care, because it's fairly silly to call an OS bad because of that, especially when a highly efficient type-to-launch system is in place. Win7's start menu needs more precise aim, but I never ran into that limitation because I never used my mouse to find and launch programs.
What I do agree with is that functionality is hidden. The problem with the video is that it claims that the functionality is not there at all first, then says, "actually it's hidden". Hidden is bad, but manageable. All the same shortcut keys work, so for keyboard users like me there's really no difference. The guy didn't even notice that the old windows 7 backup feature is still there, which would have allowed him to restore to an SSD. The video is pretty much completely un-researched, and while it makes one good point - don't hide features - it's a failure in every other sense. The person who made it should be embarrassed. He's also contradicting himself: In the past he claimed Vista was unusable, now he's claiming otherwise.
i love how fanboys can declare one OS trash because they've become religious about using 1 or 2 platforms.
might as well stop reading after this.. You can't pass off a criticism with the assumption that the person making it is deficient or otherwise unqualified. The statement stands on its own or it doesn't.
1. the 'compatibility crud' is still there. Basically, all that changed was the change from explorer.exe as the shell, and they disabled aero..sorta.
2. There are all kinds of hotkeys for windows. Many of them are useful, but this one thing is not an excuse for other deficiencies.
3. a search box is a crutch for a shitty and/or limited interface. It's ok on a tablet or a phone (even that's a stretch because the difference between picking from lists and typing is even larger), but on a desktop it's definitely faster to use the mouse on a gui. Having to click a menu, then hit 'search' then type 'recovery', then back again to click (as he mentioned in the video) is positively the WORST way to do this. With all the search boxes these days, I'd rather just have a full screen terminal again. It's more powerful and requires less guess work about what you're supposed to type!
4. that's right.. trash is something that doesn't work. Windows 8 doesn't work for all but the simplest of tasks, the kinds of things that could be done with a tablet, media player, or a tracfone. Again, the video is right, the desktop is not about media consumption, it's about content creation. Consumption is a sideline use. Thus windows 8 is trash.
5. the task manager is improved? it's worthless. They've been dumbing it down since windows 2000. Now it's gotten to the point where the default screen shows nothing..literally nothing.. just a blank window. The rest of the tabs are seriously short on information.. The task manager is supposed to give you a top down view of ALL processes running on your computer. Deliberately hiding certain classes and details makes it worse than useless because it's deliberately bad at doing what it's supposed to do. the icing on the cake is that getting at what info is there requires even more clicks than before.
I got used to the new start screen - it's not _that_ bad, no worse than hunting through menus to find what you're looking for, and actually better in that you can just start typing the name of a program and it comes up in the search. Or you can type the name of a control panel applet or setting, and that works too.
What if you don't remember the name of that control panel applet? What if you don't know the application's name, but would otherwise find it if you could browse through menus?
"Just typing the name" of some computer program or appet can be horribly inconvenient.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
What if you don't remember the name of that control panel applet?
Try typing "control panel"?
Too obvious?
What if you don't know the application's name, but would otherwise find it if you could browse through menus?
Then just browse through. You can do that, you know. Swipe up or right-click on the start screen and select "All Apps" -- you'll find control panel under "Windows System"
You can even go classic in control panel by switching from Category view to " Small icons" or the "Large icons" view.
Windows 8 isn't all that different from 7 -- just a stupid start menu with it's own special apps. You'll get used to or get over it pretty quickly. Of course, you could always skip this release and hope that Metro goes away. (I figure if MS doesn't change their Apple-like restrictions on Metro apps, it'll die in a version or two.)
Required reading for internet skeptics
it's arguably more convient and intuitive to do certain things on the screen than it is with the mouse
SERIOUSLY arguable. I can't find a singe use case in MY workflow where touch on the screen (for a workstation) works better than a mouse. There are no tool tips for context information. The contact point is far less precise. I haven't seen how selecting text for copy and paste works on Win8, but for all the other touch interfaces, f-me. Now touch works great for mobile devices where a mouse just isn't practical or logical. I have no complaints about going this route for mobile. But jamming a mobile interface down my throat for my desktop is not going to garner you any sales with me.
I don't get what people are complaining about, except that it's CHAAANGE!
That is like arguing that "GMC Sierra owners are only complaining about the new Corvettes they have been issued because it's CHAAANGE". Yes, the bitching is about change. A Corvette may be a significantly faster vehicle that can pull 1.02g on the skid pad, but you are NEVER going to haul a load of firewood in it. Change is relevant. What am I supposed to do, switch from being a lumberjack to a race car driver? Who gave GM that much control over my life?
I have been a Microsoft basher for a loooong time (think wfwg), but Windows 7 finally works the way I want it to. It is finally stable enough and secure enough for me to be happy with it. I transitioned my departmental workstations back from Kubuntu to Windows a year ago May.
There is no way I'm going to switch to Windows 8's (subjective) usability nightmares. Yes, it is a rant, but you mistake your arrogance as my ignorance.
A lot of the complaints with the Metro UI are not unique to Metro, they are actually shared by Android (probably by iPad users too but they are cognitively incapable of criticizing Apple) . I would NEVER use an Android device as my primary workstation. I do like Android, I have a tablet below my monitors with ICS on it. But it is an ancillary mobile device, not a primary interface that I spend 10 hours a day working with.
Your argument about shortcuts is really pretty weak. There are places where shortcuts make more sense. Places where mouse gestures make more sense. On Windows 7, I get to make that choice. On 8, in lots of places that choice has largely been made for me because the mouse interface just doesn't work well with it. You could likewise argue that if they replaced all the fonts with Klingon, that you could still read the screen with a screen reader, like somehow that addresses the fact that I can no longer interact with it in the manner that I find most efficient.
So am I complaining about change? Yes, I am. You are absolutely correct. Because if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I don't want to deal with UI nightmares every two years, that played a considerable role in my decision to switch back to Windows from Ubuntu. The one thing Windows had going for it was its consistency.
If these changes were somehow better, OK, I could see your point. But you aren't even arguing that. You are arguing that they don't suck that bad and people should quit whining. Seriously? Do you work in sales?
If they had released Windows 8 as a mobile platform, and kept a standard version for desktop usage that would be great. But they didn't do that, and there is a reason why. Because Microsoft has never been able to gain any traction with their mobile OS's. By making them a single OS, it should make the transition to Microsoft based mobile devices easier and increase sales. But this is completely flawed logic. Microsoft failed in the mobile space because the Windows paradigm did not work there. Now, instead of addressing the issue, they are just flipping which platform is screwed. Just as pre-8 Windows didn't work on mobile, 8 doesn't work for me and many others on the desktop.
Hey, if you are happy with it, great, I'm happy for you. We will let the free market choose whether it is a success or not. Wait, what? I can only get that new PC with Windows 8? Really? oh.
I remember when all this was fields....
Liked this comment? Why not buy me something nice
Just RTFA, or in this case watch the video and you will see. Actually you may choose one from the dozens of videos about Windows 8 and you will see. Just to cite a few things:
- it more than doubles the number of clicks and moves you have to do to perform normal operations,
- applications (like the weather predictions) keep popping up when you least expect because you made a gesture with your mouse that the horrible horrible UI mistakes as another touch gesture that has nothing to do with what you want to do,
- you simply cannot find configuration features without knowing the specific keywords, because there are no shortcuts that do not involve typing these specific keywords/ This is something they started with the advanced file search in Windows 7, which is much worse than XPs, but went viral on Windows 8
Disclaimer: I've never used Windows 8. I have however, used every version of Windows (excluding Vista) since Windows 3.11 -- And I'm currently using Windows 7.
Seriously; anyone. Have they fixed COPY yet? When I drag files from one folder to another, it still does a blind copy. It doesn't check available disk space, it doesn't perform a count of files, the estimated time remaining is still a wild guess, and if there's a problem (such as duplicate file name in target), it still brings up a requestor in the middle of the operation, when I might be busy doing other things.
It seems to me that a lot of CORE functions of being an "os" are still from the 16-bit days, and when you consider that MS is supposed to be full of relatively bright people, they still manage to create a dumb-as-a-sack-of-bricks Operating System.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
The community is emulating the metro thing. I did mention Gnome 3 and Unity, so yes, you are right.
There is also a large segment of Linux people who DO NOT have any use for a mobile device workspace on a desktop machine. For that reason, we have Cinnamon and Mate, not to mention a half dozen excellent, if less eye-candy intensive desktops that have been around for years, and aren't planning any changes.
I'm running Linux Mint Debian Edition, with Cinnamon, Mate, Enlightenment, Blackbox, XFCE, FVWM, and Fluxbox all installed. I spend almost all my time on Mate. There was a very slight learning curve on both Cinnamon and Mate. Kinda like going over a speed bump that is almost unnoticeable, but it was there.
So - despite the fact that "the community" is emulating the Metro thing, there are more than enough of us who despise the whole metro that we have created not one, but TWO new desktop environments, plus we have all those wonderful OLD desktop environments from which to choose.
This ain't Windows, after all.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Hardly, but people stuck in their ways with the UI or have a bug up their ass over it are going to continue to throw a hissy fit no matter what.
It will always suck to lose days of productivity learning a new UI. Microsoft could have done this a LOT better, rather than just saying "who cares how we did it in Win7, we're throwing everything out".
It also doesnt help that theres basically no discoverability built into the UI. I had to get a metro app called "Win8 tips" or something that has a list of shortcuts and how to use the new UI; thats not the mark of a well-done interface.
Yes, Im starting to cope after about 2 weeks, but somehow when I started using Ubuntu in 6.04 I figured out the UI in about 4 hours; and when I first used a Mac I figured things out in about 2 hours (though the hot corners and the disappearing dock remained perpetually aggravating). That Windows 8 / Server 2012 continues to mystify even people who do cross-platform tech for a living indicates that its not an issue of "people being stuck in their ways" as much as it is an issue of a really sloppy release.
"The guy didn't even notice that"?
A bad user interface doesn't necessarily mean that the option isn't there. If the option exists, but is difficult to discover or presented in such an unintuitive way that people will miss it, that's the fault of the user interface, not the fault of the user for not noticing it.