Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft's "New Coke" Moment?
theodp writes "Remember New Coke? Twenty-eight years ago, Coca-Cola replaced the secret formula of its flagship brand, only to announce the return of the "classic" formula just 79 days later. Had it launched in 2013, Coke's Jay Moye suspects a social media backlash would have prompted it to reverse itself even sooner. In a timely follow-up, ZDNet's Steven Vaughan-Nichols points out that Microsoft is facing its own New Coke moment with Windows 8. 'Does Ballmer have the guts to admit he made a mistake and give users what they clearly want?' Vaughan-Nichols asks. 'While it's too late for Windows 8, Blue might give us back our Start button and an Aero-like interface. We don't know.'"
OS X is becoming the standard desktop OS. It's much better than both Windows and Linux desktops. After I tested OS X, there's no going back.
More like Old Joke. (This has happened before, you know.)
Seems like Microsoft already had their 'New Coke' moment with Vista.
Two failures in three OS launches is going to be a lot more difficult for the shareholders to get over.
The problem is the trend of being cool because you can complain has left .
Can't find the start button? Yes it's damn annoying I agree, but New Coke sucked all around. Windows 8 isn't all about a single button. A keyboard you aren't used to will ruin your life much more miserably, but do you call Dell and tell them the computer should go in the garbage? It's time people got used to this mess. Yes as a hardcore 24 hours a day user it is definitely a mess and why we can't get to the shutdown or log off screen with a click is frustrating. You are not going to sell businesses on this model the way it is right now. But it is not going to make anyone go out and change their life. Let the insane and moaners do whatever makes them feel better. I will donate a leper to your cause.
When the foot seeks the place of the head, the line is crossed. Know your place. Keep your place. Be a shoe.
Remember Microsoft Bob?
Apparently, neither did anyone at Microsoft.
Rarely ever will a CEO admit a mistake. It's the user's fault for not loving it.
I don't care for Windows 8 as much as the next guy, but they're not going to reverse field; Microsoft is all in on this.
I'll debate that while New Coke didn't work out, the aftermath resulted in Coke classic dominating the cola wars with a solid lead for decades now.
If it wasn't for new Coke, Pepsi would have overtaken Coke in the mid 80's and never looked back.
In Soviet Russia, Trojan exploits YOU!
...when you put sh** in the new recipe.
To say this is a "New Coke" moment is to fail to identify Microsoft's slow but irreversible decline. It's just another punctuation on the way down.
For me it was W7 when I couldn't get the classic view. The newer views are still a hindrence.
A new cock that distributes HIV.
If you haven't figured it out yet every other version of a MS product is a test bed for new/bad ideas. ME mostly sucked, Vista sucked and 8 sucked worse, but the salvageable parts got integrated into the releases in-between. This is a marketing tactic designed to part consumers with their money. Odd releases == market new features that look visually appealing in ads to consumers. Even releases == market "Hey we fixed our crap like you asked"
What these critics all miss is that Microsoft is now betting on the tablet market, and doesn't give a damn what its PC users think.
I loved the flavor of new Coke. The Edsel was an innovative automobile. I still have Vista installed on my PC. I plan to upgrade to the Windows 8 experience. I am insane.
I'm not giving MS any more of my hard earned cash until I see Clippy up there helpfully interfering with my mouse clicks.
If I have a keyboard, I want a shortcut that allows me to write the command I want to start.
If I am on a touchscreen, I prefer to have a big scrollable list of icons than a menu.
The Start menu was a strange idea that was Microsoft attempt at copying the Apple icon. It never really worked as intended. I don't miss it (the latter may be due partly to the fact that I don't use Windows much anymore)
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
And we get a faster complaint window. Coke back sooner, now that's what all of us have spent our lives doing.
I hope not. I hope they stick to their guns. Look, I am not the biggest MS fan, but Windows 8 is probably the most innovative and certainly the boldest thing MS has done in years. Maybe, ever.
the start button is an afterthought, it was something to get rid of how we used Windows 3.11 (which was permanantly opened folders). It was neat, it worked, but that is the past. The part people don't seem to grasp is that window with all those boxy icons IS the start menu. it is just visulazed now.
they will cave, because that is what MS does, but they shouldn't. Windows 8 is fantatic, and MS should grab their users and drag them out of 1995.
This really riles me that people are rejecting Windows 8 because it does not have a fucking 'Start' button. Just the mindless stupidity of it just boggles the mind. Windows 8 is fast, lean and very impressive OS. It continues the great work done on Windows 7 and really builds on that foundation. How fucking stupid are these people that they don't understand the Metro start screen is just a full screen modern version of the start button. Fucking Lowest Common Denominator morons dragging the rest of us down with them.
They don't need to backtrack very much. Add a button during initial user setup that lets you enable boot to desktop if you want it. When that's on, boot to desktop and show a start button. At a bare minimum that button could just bring up the Metro Start Screen, which as long as it had a clear way to close it (like an X at the top right when on a PC) would mollify a lot of the complaining.
Bringing back the full start menu would solve more of it, but I'm not convinced that's entirely necessary. In my experience most users actually start programs by clicking icons on the desktop and don't use the start menu much at all anyway. What they really need is just a more familiar way to do what they need to do.
For the more serious people that really want a full start menu back, there's stuff like Start8.
-- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
Apple *is* getting converts in key sectors
No its not...and it won't Apple will never be a serious contender for the Desktop, it simply costs too much. Sales dropped 22% last quarter...and shrunk a more manageable 2% this, but any pretence of world domination, or mass exodus to Apple simply aren't happening.
The reality is Apple could buy Dell (about 22 times), or they could License their OS, but if anything they have got used to relying on Microsoft being so awful..they get to roll around on wads of cash...and even though the salesman is dead, Cooky seems indent on second guessing what a dead man will do.
I love the idea of Apple going for Microsofts throat, but they Love the incredibly profitable Duopoly. It looks like companies are putting bets on Android...and Linux is sneaking market share.
Classic Shell is the way to go with Win8 by the way. Works like a... *not*charm. I am never in Metro besides a brief instant on startup. And all the edge mouse gestures are gone! I now prefer Win8 to Win7. Thank gawd for whoever is writing Classic Shell. MS should pay them.
The change to New Coke and then back to Classic Coke happened because Coke wanted to change their formula but knew that consumers would notice a taste difference. They needed to create a time barrier that would allow people to forget what Classic Coke tasted like so it was in their interest, in the long term, to release an inferior product knowing people wouldn't like it and "force them" to change back to the Classic formula which, actually, had changed to a cheaper ingredients list. It was one of the smartest executions of a formula change ever yet people constantly view it as a marketing blunder.
I'm a full time Linux user and admittedly a basher of windows, but I am generally quite impressed with windows 8. The tiled environment, though different, is something I could get used to. The problem is they've missed the point of it; when you still have to go to a traditional desktop to do pretty much anything, why bother?
I've both used windows vista & windows 8 a lot, and both are very decent versions of windows. Vista was very stable & fast for the time i used it (a few years), and now i've got windows 8, and i like the look, and it's extremely fast :). The new start menu is a bit of getting used to, and there are some improvements possible, but it's a very decent first attempt, and i'd rather have them improve that, than keep that old start menu alive forever because people are so afraid of change -_-.
And seriously, all the stupid things you read about it on slashdot are just ridiculous. it's not because we now got a tablet friendly start menu that allows some basic applications in it, that the entire desktop and every single other feature of windows suddenly disappeared, there still is a desktop, windows, multitasking, ... just some fancier start menu that's strange at the start, but works pretty well. and when my family sees me using it, they seem fairly positive, the change to the new system is only a week of getting used to it.
For all the intelligence that people always say is here, why do you all have to act like conservative bigots when it's about windows?? both vista & 8 are decent windowses, and all the fuss about them is just plain ridiculous -_-.
I've been in the business since DOS4 and Windows 3.0 were the currently shipping versions. Windows 8 is the only version I have seen where people around you will spontaneously chime in and tell you how much they hate it. Even WinME wasn't like that.
If you're doing stuff that upsets customers, you need to change your business model to sell ($) to customers what it is they really want.
Microsoft should switch to annual subscription fees for Windows, and keep patching and supporting Windows versions indefinitely.
It's time to retire the 1980 business model of software. Viruses didn't exist in 1980.
Ask any computer professional or any focus group of moderately intelligent users and you'll get the same thing. Bring back the start menu, leave the new features that are actually beneficial, dump UEFI, and ditch Tile Land. That's it. After that, it's all set to go. I'd even concede the BIOS-embedded license key because I'm sick of other repair shops than mine playing games with Windows 7 licenses to save money. 1 license = 1 motherboard and enforce that for everyone and I can accept that.
I think Microsoft is like a WW II giant warship. Helpless against modern warfare still takes hours or days to sink. In the meanwhile it is still a sitting duck firing big rounds against anything that moves.
Please die and don't make more damage.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Yamato
Windows 8 is not "New Coke." For this to work out as well, M$ would have to have a Pepsi-like product. On the desktop, that doesn't exist. New Coke was an attempt to re-make a flagship brand. To appeal to changing American tastes for a sweeter product. Windows 8 isn't that product. Consumers weren't clamoring for a touch screen desktop. They accepted touch on tablets and smartphones because it works on handheld devices. It doesn't work well on desktops. Look at the Windows 8 commercials. You don't see office work. You don't see email or composition. You see touch applications, and that's the point. When you buy a laptop, you expect a keyboard. You expect to type. When you buy a tablet, you expect to touch.
For this to work, Microsoft has to have a Domino's moment. Admit you were wrong, then come out with a truly well designed and well made product. I'm not seeing this happen with Blue. I hear about Blue on sites like this. I don't see M$'s corporate face on Blue. Blue feels like a politician's half-hearted admission of guilt.
I predict the business world will continue to adopt Windows 7 and skip Windows 8. If these same IT shops adopt Office 365, Windows may fall off the desktop. A web-based office automation product doesn't need expensive desktop licenses. That change could make "the year of the RHEL desktop" happen.
Only the dead have seen the end of War. - Plato
I think if nothing else Apple has learned form history, both its own and the many other PC companies that, well, no longer exist
Except its an insane fantasy...the PC industry is still dripping with money (although not considered as sexy as tablets).
Lets be honest Microsoft & Intel make over 70% gross margins (Apple executives used to remember good margins)...admittedly HP has to suffer at only 20% *rolls eyes*
Windows 8 made to many changes to fast without the support of legacy add-ons. Forgoing my own feeling about the Windows 8 interface and window management, not including a start button or a way to add the start button back and not allowing a user to boot to the desktop were both huge mistakes.
You can try to change the way things are done but at least provide a way back to the old methods, at least for the first release of a new system, then you can go ahead and start removing features slowly. It's like getting into a cold pool, you slide in gently to make sure you don't get a shock, this is what Microsoft should of done, not a running cannon ball and later have to suck the water back out.
"I am altering the OS, pray I don't alter it any further."
— Darth Ballmer.
The Desktop market is shrinking in favor of tablets and smartphones. Two areas where apple has strong products (One could argue they created those markets).
...and then gave those markets away to Android...to remain vastly profitable in those...are we seeing a patten.
These are the latest numbers from IDC - Smartphones http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS24085413 tablets - http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS24093213 spin the numbers however you want we both know where the argument goes
The only sad thing about your comment is Apple could reinvigorate the Desktop market...but they are just going to as Dellboy would say Give the money back to the shareholders.
Quote: "Windows 8 sucks because it flips between the classic and the metro interface seemingly at random"
Exactly. Metro on a phone is not bad at all. I KNOW I don't know, so I'm OK with exploring the interface. But Win 8 gives me a lot of "WTF - when did $X go?" Is it in the metro interface, or in a new location in Control Panel, or was it dropped, or...."
Place nail here >+
No, New Coke and then the switch to "Classic Coke" concealded the real changes from using sugar to using corn syrup as a sweetener. Classic Coke was *not* identical to the old Coke formula, it was considerably cheaper to make because of that switch to corn syrup.
No, that's an urban legend. The switch to HFCS was coincidental (actually, it was spred out over a much longer time period, most of the decade) and did not coincide with the Coke-New Coke-Classic Coke switch.
ALL the other soda brands also switched to HFCS over the course of the 70s-90s. None of the rest of them needed some kind of grand conspiracy to do it. They all just went from all-sugar to a blend of sugar+HFCS, and then to all-HFCS. They did it gradually, people got used to the taste, and nobody noticed.
My laptop started chugging on Windows 7. I noticed a performance increase on my netbook when I previously tested Windows 8, so I thought I would give it another try,
I have to admit, it works wonderfully. The system definitely performs better and the interface on Windows 8 is nice.
Here comes the obvious: Metro is pretty shit.
The full screen apps are useless and the main interface has no appeal. You know what my biggest problem is? The thing that bothers me the most? When I search for a program, there is no default "Show All". First it only shows programs installed, and then "Settings". Often I'm using it to find windows components like Device Manager, and it requires additional mouse clicks and movements to get there. Likewise on a tablet, it would require more touches. It's the simplest, most obvious thing, and if they overlook little things like this I don't have much hope for the rest of Metro.
The OS itself it pretty nice though.
I would disagree with the comparison to New Coke. Drinkers of New Coke plain just didn't like it and there was nothing Coke could do to fix the product itself, so they had to revert to a different formula.
Windows 8 is more like the recent J.C. Penney disaster. Microsoft brought out this new version of what they think an operating system should be like, and ignored what their customers were telling them. Windows 8 can be fixed, Microsoft just needs to be willing to listen to their customers. They can start by making Metro an optional GUI overlay that can be enabled by the user - and not the default GUI. They can make Aero an optional GUI theme that can be enabled. Of course no one will get fired at Microsoft over this debacle like the JCP CEO did (except Steven who tried to stop the Windows roll-out). Microsoft should roll out a service pack for Windows 8 that takes care of these issues.
But hey, not that I would have anything against MS killing itself that way... ^^
Now if only Apple would do the same, now that psycho-Jobs is gone...
ffs. this was just a fucken stupid piece.
I like how the biggest problem people have with Windows is its Start button. The security holes, viruses, instability - all okay, don't worry about it. It's like sitting on the deck of a sinking ship and talking about the paint job that's desperately needed. Who. Cares.
If Steve Jobs was the CEO of Microsoft, Windows 8 would've been thrown out the window in no time. Microsoft is run by business men, with no affiliation with technology. All they care about is financial numbers. They attack the market by pure reaction, to copy and eliminate successful startups. It's amazing such a big and rich company has so little innovation and has so little motivation to do so. The last major innovation from Microsoft is windows 3.1 and 95, that was the golden days of Microsoft, when it felt like a tech company. Whatever Steve Jobs was, he was a person with great feel for technology. What he liked about a piece of technology, the market would embrace. Not so with Microsoft, which is run by clueless people.
I'm starting to think I'm the only one on the face of the earth that actually likes Windows 8. Sure Metro sucks, and yeah it's a bit ridiculous to pay $4.99 (Start8; excellent app in terms of use and licensing) for a start menu replacement, but there are at least options. As far as interface goes, I actually prefer to not have Aero. The UI is faster without it and it I can't say I've ever sat down at my computer and wondered how I'll be able to continue living with a lack of shiny interface components. With any OS there are always a handful of things any given person wants to disable or bypass and Windows 8 is no exception. It's a solid, fast OS with enough small improvements over Windows 7 that it was completely worth the $15 ($40 list, $25 promotional discount) I paid for it.
Let's just put a happy little 8 here and this Start Menu can be "our little secret"
I think the solution to Microsoft's woes, and the whole industry's, is for Microsoft to scrap every line of code released post-Windows 2000. Just start over and do it right, and please, dear god, don't have the goal of turning my computer into a cheap ipad.
This industry can turn on you in an instant (Well a decade-long instant, you really have to not be paying attention.) Look at Sun, no one ever thought anything would take them down. A decade before Sun went under, I attended a Linux con in Denver and had some SGI rep try to convince me that his company was crapping daisies and unicorns. I asked him point blank why I should buy a storage solution from him when I knew for a fact that IBM would be here two decades from now. He then tried to blow some marking smoke up my ass, but their company sank shortly thereafter. I started seeing the same writing on the wall for Sun later on, and they were gone a couple years later. I really feel like these guys believed their marketing and thought nothing could take them down. Well these days Microsoft's competitors are VERY quick on their feet and can take over emerging markets before Microsoft's lumbering behemoth even realizes there's something to take over. So they're coming in against already-established and VERY popular players. So unless Microsoft loses the complacency and learns how to compete in this new era, the gutted remains of their company will join Sun and all the others in the "Also-Ran" bin of history. This is not an anti-Microsoft rant. This is a warning.
My guess is the future will be pretty robust competition between an Android-based Google OS and OSX. Though I'm still not sure about Apple without Steve Jobs' vision to keep them rolling. Plus, once they exhaust the world's supply of brushed aluminum, things will get difficult for them, too.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
http://www.classicshell.net/ I recommend this to everyone who's complained to me about Metro. For a bonus it customizes the Start Menu and Explorer. No Windows 8 isn't bad, just the forced mobile GUI was a bad choice. You lost the mobile war M$. Foisting your mobile GUI on desktop users isn't going to increase the love.
Considering the "I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this" patent wars Apple has instigated in the smart phone and tablet markets, I wouldn't exactly say they gave them away.
Having a strategy...that failed to stop *sales* of a larger range; better value; standards following; more open; platform. There are strategies against that, but they decided to swim in money instead.
Going forward whose FRAND patents that allowed Apple to enter the phone market will not be available to Apple in future (and unfortunately anyone else). Apples interface patents have been worked around or ignored now. It was a dumb play...at lest they get to take home 1billion...no 650 Mill..no 459 Million.
All Apple achieved is replace standards...with Android. It is the worst of all worlds.
I would love to see the financial logic (assuming there is any) behind this. They might be basically going from Henry Ford's: "If I’d asked people what they wanted, they would have asked for a better horse". This might mean that they have looked at the future of windows with a Start button and realized that it has no future. Many companies in the past stuck with "if it ain't broke don't fix it" and ended up in the rubbish heap of companies while some upstart came along with a new way of doing things and ate their lunch.
So if I had to guess the MS plan it is that they see the mobile type platform as becoming dominant. They probably see people showing up at work and becoming frustrated with their work machines not being more like their mobile platforms. To see this point of view dig out your favorite iOS or Android product and envision your anger if the next version comes out with a start button style UI. Most people would scream "What is this? Hello 1998 is calling and wants its UI back!"
I am not saying that the new Windows 8 interface is some work of genius but I suspect that it is the result of a company that knows that it has to do something to stay relevant.
If I did have some suggestions for MS marketing it would have been to do two things. Assume that all mobile initiatives are loss leaders. Win hearts and minds is the primary goal. So I would have put out 3 versions of the new mobile platform at zero cost. One designed for the crappiest phones possible. Basically step in front of Android for people testing the smart phone waters. A second version aimed at people who are going to have a phone as their primary interface to the world; so basically aimed at large screen fairly good phones and people who usually consume but once in a while might need to do some work so a docking station option. And a third optional interface that could be turned on in Windows 7 (I never would have put out an 8). This way once you are familiar and love your mobile interface you could go to work / school / staples and make the computer just like your phone.
So the goal is to not win Windows 7 people over to your mobile platform but to win mobile people and then keep them in your ecosystem.
Where I don't think MS gets it is that the days of the Windows Tax are dwindling. It seems that they put out overpriced phones that were loaded down with the windows tax. Then they took their desktops where they already charge their tax and managed to get people who used to be happy to pay rethinking their relationship with MS.
M$ is at it one again. M$ is trolling Slashdot by using a newly created account to Astroturf just as they always have. M$ knows they are dying so they continue to claim there were no problems with Vista even though it was a total failure. M$ has done the same with Vista 7 and Vista 8 and have failed with both now that people no longer buy into the M$ upgrade hype. Today M$ is set to attack GNU/Linux with patents to protect their illegal monopoly.
--
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk
Friends do assist M$ addicted friends in committing suicide.
If you want to sell your product, you have to listen to what your customers want. You can't just brush off their complaints by saying that they will eventually get used to it.
Of course you can, particularly if you're right. Most people are naturally resistant to change, even if in the long run it is change for the better. Experienced business management teams know this, as surely as politicians do. They still promote ideas that their research tells them are better than what was there before or necessary to cope with where the world is heading, and they accept that in the short term they will take flak for it, and they hope to survive market forces/elections for long enough that their newer idea starts to pay off.
Obviously there is a risk involved in that strategy if you're not in a secure position to start with. That's why these big tech companies love their war chests. And obviously sometimes people do push things that aren't really better at all. They made the wrong call, and in the long run the hostility is still there and their strategy doesn't pay off.
But I think the important question here isn't whether Microsoft should be listening to their customers more, it's whether they're right about the change. The immediate, knee-jerk feedback from customers may or may not be a reliable indicator of that.
If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses. -- Henry Ford
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
If Steve Jobs was the CEO of Microsoft....
...except (salesman) Steve Jobs logic turned Apple into to become an electronics company (dropping the computers from its name in the process). Microsoft is already doing that...store *check* locked down OS *check* surface mobiles and computers *check* electronics interface *check*
The problem is they should have done the opposite of Steve...and focused on creating a great product we would love, license the OS for nothing, remove restrictions from the hardware....Like Android.
Anyone that has studied marketing at all would know that New Coke was a way to replace sugar with corn syrup in Coke and not have a back lash. Introducing New Coke for a few weeks forced customers to beg for old Coke back. When Coke Classic was brought to market, no one complained about Corn Syrup because it was so close in task to the original. Comparing Coke's brilliant idea to trick people into accepting change to Microsoft's blunder makes no sense!
I thought the slow adoption of Windows 7 was one of the motives for Windows 8. The other motive for Windows 8 was univification with mobile platforms, rplacing Windows CE. Poor Windows 7 sales was the reason the long time Windows manager was retired.
like win9x && win2k
maybe microsoft should cope gnome-2 or gnome-3 or kde-3 s
at least i knew where everything was and i was not searching all over menus and the control panel and rightclicking all over everything trying to find where they hid some feature i liked to change
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
>> it's really not so different.
Yep. if you use only the keyboard.
Few people use only the keyboard.
For all others it's unusable.
aaaaaaa
How many people click the button to allow MS to collect usage data? Thats where they must be getting the data. Ive never allowed MS to collect my usage data so they miss the fact i use my start button numerous times a day.
Jack of all trades,master of none
Apple better USE that money to DO something game changing
I think they should take over Nintendo. Since the launch of the Wii U. It just seems such a interesting match.
But the reality is they should do the boring things, like compete on price, have a product range..things every other company has to do in a maturing market.
New Coke was not a blunder. The fact is that Coca-Cola wanted to replace the sugar cane on the recipe with high fructose corn syrup. It's not only cheaper but generates more need to keep drinking (eating) whatever has it. The taste is close enough, but you couldn't switch it overnight without people noticing. Thus, the launched New Coke to have a few months between batches, so people wouldn't notice ti taste difference. After all, they wanted the Old Coke to taste the same old.
It worked quite well, btw.
Win8 might have been quite the same strategy, but the question would be what's the Microsoft high fructose corn syrup? I don't think they are that clever.
As the technology has matured, the inevitble is coming to pass, the laptop/desktop market is coming to a plateau. The tablet and phone markets will (or already have by some accounts) hit the same point. Some even say that the 'tablet' market other than iPad *started* in that fashion. Apple probably has the most durable strategy, inspiring their customer base to consider their devices a fashion statement as well as a tool (same way some auto makers can extract more volume and margin out of select models versus others)
While there of course are examples of people who use Tablets to displace their usage of computers, by far the vast majority have both depending on circumstance. Maybe they bother to bring their laptop out to lunch or the couch less, but at work and at home they are still pounding on a traditional PC system at least once a day.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Honestly, I can't believe how obsessed people are over it! Why do I want to scroll through a whole list of options rather than just select an icon (Win 3.1 and iris 4D style) or type the name of the application (linux style)?
As always, failure flows from the top, starting with Ballmer, with help from those immediately below him.
As long as Microsoft's internal fights keep shifting strategies, as long as they keep firing competent programmers who didn't happen to get management's notice that year. As long as they continue with the 90's teen nerd arrogance that seems to say, "I know better than you," they will fail, and fail, and fail again.
They need to dump most upper management, change evaluation procedures to eliminate the constant paranoia, and start acting like mature adults creating and selling the products people *want* instead of solving problems that nobody has (e.g. Metro, WPF, etc.) with pointless cutting edge whiz bang.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
I think with Windows 8 Microsoft felt the need to be innovative and groundbreaking and so introduced Metro to work as a common bridge between the emerging Tablet market and the existing Desktop/Laptop market.
Had this been an optional interface I think the reaction would have been far more favourable. Had people not been forced to use Metro on the desktop, but instead allowed it as an optional "new" interface, people's reactions might have thought it cool and overtime more and more people might have adopted it favourably. But forcing it on everyone upfront was a huge mistake and it will ensure that desktop users will never like "metro".
Its going to be hard for Microsoft to recover from this, but they should make it optional sooner rather than later, at least turn it off by default on non-touch products because the new Metro overlay was simply not designed efficiently for use with a mouse.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
iOS is the market leader, everyone is into lightweight portable information handling with apps , let the servers handle the computing, let devices handle the information.
The truth of the matter is, beneath the surface, Windows 8 is a respectable improvement on Windows 7. Even as an outspoken hater of Windows 8, I have to admit this after having run both OS's side by side on a number of machines.
Windows 8 has a lot of optimization in it, so it performs better than 7 - especially on older/marginal hardware. (I suspect the effort was made in this area because Microsoft was concerned that Win 8 adoption would suffer if people decided their older machines weren't going to handle the upgrade very well.)
For example, I have an old Dell Latitude D420 here... one of the early attempts at an "Ultrabook". It only has 2GB of RAM in it, and its hard drive is a SLOW drive of the same type Apple used in the iPod Classics. It was designed for Windows XP. Interestingly, it runs Windows 8 pretty well. The slow hard drive means you have to wait a little while for it to do the initial boot -- especially if you just performed some Windows updates and it's grinding through the final stage of those during the subsequent boot. But other than that, you almost wouldn't realize you're not using it on a much newer, more capable machine.
The *real* reason most of us (myself included) can't stand using 8 is the Metro UI they insisted on bolting onto the front of it. Everyone I talk to who tries to defend Win 8 talks of the ways to patch it to boot to the Windows 7 style desktop and/or put back a START button. I'd say that's generally not a bad work-around, except the reorganization of configuration settings on the sliding side menus is really annoying too. I don't see how any of that improves the user experience. It only forces people to re-learn how to get to all the functions they've had years to get used to.
So all MS needs to do here, if they can admit they screwed up, is to back out all the Metro stuff. If they simply gave users the OPTION to run an update that allowed a "Windows 7 style" configuration for 8, or the new style -- that would be ideal, IMO. I'm sure some people do like the tiled interface and Metro apps, and there's no reason to throw out all of that code completely. Just let each user decide which way they prefer to set it up.
How many desktops in Redmond squeal "Windows 8" when they boot up? Not counting the demo units in the lobby or the one in the lab. How many actual employees are using it day-to-day.
I'd very much like to see what would happen to Microsoft Research in case the mother base plummets. There is some incredibly good stuff in there, of which Kinnect is the most viable of their short term projects - but they have equally good things going on for mid and long term. I wonder where all that IP would go if/when the ship sinks.
Singularity: a belief in the "God" idea with the "demiurge" relation inverted.
Putting a TOUCH SCREEN interface on a SERVER OPERATING SYSTEM that is going to be INSTALLED IN A VIRTUAL MACHINE is going to go down in history as the biggest "screw the pooch" moment in computers. Every time I try to use Windows Server 2012 in a virtual machine, I have to stop and wonder how a collective of the best minds in software working at MS could do something so insane.
I was in my 20s when the Coke switchover happened, I tasted all the varieties. The Coke that they ended up with was nothing at all like the previous white sugar version. Just because Snopes trots out the official corporate story doesn't mean it's true. You young people can read about it on your computers, but you weren't there, and you never tasted the different versions.
It's amazing how a few 'loud' whiners on the internet make it look like microsoft made some huge disaster. vocal minority. Meanwhile, the world turns.
Had a Mac. Detested it. The prob with windows is that it's getting more and more mac like every day. MS seems to be looking at mac sales and thinking that's the way to go. Not realizing that Jobs is dead. He was the driving for and marketing genius behind mac. Look at them now. While still a powerhouse they're beginning to stumble without Jobs.
If they do put the start button back I have to wonder what will be there. Just shut down / restart? Not what people are really missing. If they don't put all the features that were in the start button... well, they don't have a clue as to how bad that screw up was.
Wuddooeyeno? IITYWYBMAD? Like nuts? eclecticallyincorrect.com
Sure some of their shit seemed insightful, allowing DOS 3.3 to be pirated so widely established their dominance.
It was already dominant, except for toy computers like Tandy and Timex-Sinclair MS-DOS was the only game in town; IBM killed CP/M by selling a PC that ran MS-DOS. IBM was like Microsoft now, "nobody ever got fired for buying IBM". Apple was just another niche player, used mostly by musicians and visual artists.
Piracy did help Excel overtake Lotus (that and MS got Excel right and Lotus forgot the user).
Reminds me of all the self righteous blog posts by industry insiders about how average person just don't understand the elegance, and the future direction of the GUI.
The said the vocal outspoken are just loud cry babies that don't know anything, don't contribute, and just waste everyone's times.
As if removing the start button and window themes and ridding the world of "archaic" features like a program list and mouse will enlighten the common man to GUI nirvana.
Yeah, didn't happen did it.
I got it because I figured it would work well enough, and it does. There are some annoying things, like a really really bright interface, and metro, but since installing shell I don't have to worry about those things. The interface is also a lot less in your way (unless again you do anything in metro).
Its worth noting that you can delete all of the metro tiles, so that they don't run and then never return to that screen again. I only rarely use the start bar anyways, short-cutting around it and laying out my apps in the task bar for quick launches.
And all of the programs that worked in 7 work here, so I'm not missing any functionality.
I'm not totally satisfied, but I don't want to throw my computer in the trash either. I don't think this thing is as big of a failure as people like to claim, but it does take some adjusting to... In two years people will get over it, probably.
I see Windows PC's in so many workplaces, offices, doctor's offices, etc. Most (not all) have upgraded from XP to Windows 7. These are offices where often multiple programs run at once, where productivity is king. I cannot envision Windows 8 working at all well in an office environment. Maybe, if the clerk has one application ONLY that they run, but a lot of office workers are actually pretty good power users of Windows. All this goes out the window (so to speak) with Windows 8. I have helped many new users with Windows 8, and it has been uniformly bad. I myself had a windows 8 computer for ONE DAY, and went all over the place to find a Windows 7 machine (wonderful HP Envy :)), display model, but I didn't care. I now enjoy productivity, the enjoyable Aero interface (which is actually beautiful compared to the blocky 90's looking Win 8), and easy navigation of multiple windows. With a 3 year warranty with my new Windows 7 laptop, I am set until at least Blue. Then I will decide if it is finally time to jump ship. The next move is yours, Microsoft. I will be watching.
The reaction to Vista was supposed to be Microsoft's New Coke moment, which is why many desktop users are unnerved by Windows 8 and its management.
Or here's a car analogy: Windows 8 is to Microsoft what Chris Bangle did to the 2001 BMW 7-series. I don't remember BMW apologizing for that f-up either.
Well, unlimited in theory, but in practice it is "only" limited to the EXPECTED future taxable income. Expected: They can spend money today and create an IOU and the expectation is that (hopefully because of good government investments, e.g. in key infrastructure instead of wars, which are just spending with no real ROI) the people will have more income in the future, which the government then can tax to pay back the IOU.
Anyway, even while some IOUs are being paid, you DON'T WANT the government to pay off all debts - your money IS the debt! Please read up on what modern money actually IS. A simple google search will suffice to give you enough to read for a few months. Anyone repeating this stup|d stuff about the government debt needs to get an education. What that debt DOES do - in the long run - is a redistribution of wealth, of course - from tax payers to those holding government debt.
Windows 8 interface is fine. With the amount of time half of you spend whining about it not looking like Windows 2000 did when XP came out you could searched and figured out by now how to change it back on your own (if its really hurting your productivity that badly). Vista was not ready for release, Windows 7 IMHO is what the Vista release should have been at least in terms of finish quality and level of detail. Again too, all of the time 'tech savvy' people spend whining about how Vista or 7 don't look like XP enough. You sound like the oldest and slowest farts of computer users did when they used windows 95 for the first time; "I can't find the buttons, they moved them, wah". I use all flavors of OS, primarily ubuntu and windows 8 these days. As a web, java, and now android ui developer, I never thought I'd be defending Microsoft like this, but IMO they haven't done anything wrong here; people are just too whiny with their expectation that somehow a UI should be progressively advanced (enhanced) but at the same time should not change at all.
How about this: Go learn to do something useful like how to customize your OS (or install a different one).
Windows ME, Windows Vista, Windows 8.
Folk-wisdom is that these were all mistakes - because they were awful, and we ask ourselves "why would you sell this P.O.C"?
But I don't think people really stop to think about that. Yes - the Coca Cola company reversed course after less than 3 months, but not because of popular backlash, because of the bottom line.
And yet - here we are on Microsoft's 3rd "New Coke".
Not least because, while PC sales may be dry at the moment, MS has a cornered market there that ensures they're going to make most of cost back simply on people buying PCs, and even if those people don't actually use Windows 8, that doesn't hurt Microsoft; infact, if some portion of them go out and buy a replacement, older, MS operating system, that's still good on the bottom line.
If Microsoft have decided not to release Windows 8 and continued development to the next version, there would be this big gap on their books and the actual development cost of Windows 9 would appear much greater.
My take is that it's not a mistake, it was a calculated gamble to manipulate the books.
-- A change is as good as a reboot.
You know its bad when they consider references to BSOD better than their current OS offering.
it was coke's way of getting rid of the expensive sugar in the original formula and replacing it with cheap hfcs... marketing genius is what it was, even if it was dishonest (calling classic the 'original formula')
STFU! already about windows 8 failing for being to complicated or schizophrenic. Same shit was said about 95, xp, 7, etc... I got used to the menu and it does not take more than 4 seconds to click on the windows key and find your app or application icon quickly. Like i mentioned before in other posts it took me 8 minutes to install windows 8 from a usb on my phenom x6 machine and about 40 minutes for installing the vendor proprietary drivers, than applications and apps, and finally windows updates. With windows 7 everything took me nearly 3 hours. If you want the old menu style for crying out loud go and get classical shell which is free and it has the old 95, xp, and 7 menu's to choose from.
Sorry, but they are huge in the enterprise. That's not the result of their OS monopoly, that's what caused their OS monopoly.
Home users are jumping ship from the open computing paradigm anyway. It's too much power in their hands that they can't manage. Users want the walled garden.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
Had it launched in 2013, "
Why do we think one-sided? If New Coke had launch today, the company would have 100x more capability to focus group test it, analyze it and formula a better formula. It's not that coke-cola is using the same old scientific processes of 1985 to taste test? (or our they that stupid?).
This article is so much speculation and what-if that it doesn't make sense.
I use Windows 8 every day, and spend the large majority of that time on the *desktop.* Sure PC sales are flagging, and MS has to be more present in the tablet area. But the number are... anyone. Huge. They better get WITH IT! Because we Linux nerds know marketing, sales and what the people really want sooooo well. Also, when we all get into an echo chamber, the sound gets really loud! That means what we're all saying must be true! By Shona Ghosh Posted on 2 May 2013 at 11:18 Read more: Microsoft sold as many Windows tablets as all its partners combined | News | PC Pro http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/381583/microsoft-sold-as-many-windows-tablets-as-all-its-partners-combined#ixzz2SXEDxYcE http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/381583/microsoft-sold-as-many-windows-tablets-as-all-its-partners-combined "Including sales from Acer, Asus and other manufacturers, total Windows tablet sales came to 1.8 million, meaning Microsoft sold as many tablets as all of its partners combined." All you have to do is get off your asses and do the smallest amount of research to see that your positions of alarm for MS are debatable at best. I love when nerds get their panties in a bunch about an operating system that has already blown all Linux distributions into the weeds. Windows 8 is great. I think the Start Button replacement start screens are much better than searching through lists (click click click click click click). When people get used it, they'll start complaining about something else. Meanwhile, whatever PCs and Tablets with Windows and Windows RT will keep selling, way, way more than all desktop users using Linux. We should make a yearly "Microsoft is Going to Die Because _________," event where Slashdotters can carry signs that say, "The End of the World is Coming!"
This conversation is a lot of grumpy old men complaining about things changing too much.
I hated Win 8 until I saw one of my friend's kids using it on a tablet. If you haven't seen a "touch native" use it yet, track one down. This kid was great, he was doing things with shocking efficiency. His dad was telling me he wouldn't use the (substantially more powerful) desktop anymore because "it's too slow".
We are not the market segment Win 8 was built for, and we're not going to drive the market maybe ever again. This is the kind of thing we're going to need to get used to. It was only a matter of time before technology changed so substantially that even technophiles got future shock.
In the end, it doesn't matter that Win 8 is a market failure. Our first computers were DOS or Windows 3 boxes. Our kid's first computers are cell phones and tablets. They're going to want an operating system similar to the one they grew up using the most.
This whole topic is just a flame war. What I really dislike is that people criticize with such harshness that they attacking those who disagree with them. Hey, it's a computer program. Like a movie, you like or you don't, or you like some things but not others, etc. These are opinions, and it's fine to give your opinions, but please stop flaming about it. It's not really productive.
Cook: We're a hardware company.
Dunkirk: But you could be software company and clean MS's clock.
Cook: Could someone please remove this Dunkirk fellow from my office?
...and right now that hardware is selling badly as natural market forces come into work, one of its options would be to sell music; books; applications and take a cut of the profits. the PC market is 1.2Billion computers.
Right now what saved Microsoft last earning was it had managed to Diversify enough, so its Windows sales drop did not hurt it short term. Google famous for selling advertising space is suddenly collecting more and more of its Revenue elsewhere (even without Motorola).
Currently Apple is simply the iPhone company...and because of that it looks incredibly weak
Why do Americans keep putting "an" instead of "a"? Idiots.
I've heard mixed talk about the new Win Blue version adding Start Button back. Question is will work the same. I've read it has some functions that are the same and something will not be there.
Everyone knows pepsi is better than coke. Linux is better than windows. Android is better than iOS.
Mice are overrated.
1) Lose your phone, you've lost your data to someone else
2) If it's in the cloud, any police agency can walk in with a warrant.
3) If it's in the cloud, access can be socially engineered by the bad guys, and your data wiped. See http://apple.slashdot.org/story/12/08/07/0250248/how-apple-and-amazon-security-flaws-led-to-mat-honans-identity-theft
I'm not repeating myself
I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
As someone said earlier, if Henry Ford had asked, the people would have said they want a faster horse.
Win8 is a faster horse than Win7. I see engineering occurring, not creativity.
The Entire point of Win8 was to try to leverage their massive desktop monopoly into saving their dismal mobile offerings.
The idea being that people got used to Win8 on their desktop PC, and when it's time to buy a phone or tablet people would pick the windows version because they would already be familiar with it. Metro had to be front and center and pretty much 'unavoidable' in order to push that agenda.
In addition to that, as an added bonus it would enable them to follow Apple's lead and position their own appstore with a 30% kick-back because 'of course' all app developers would want to be able to tap into the nifty new launch screen.
What Microsoft always seems to forget is that outside of the MS board room, Microsoft ISN'T cool or desirable. Never have been, never will be. Microsoft is the 'boring-but-it-does-everything-i-need' option, leveraging 30 years of legacy software support. By throwing that out the window and forcing such a radical change, they are alienating their entire customer base. A PC with dual 24" monitors is NOT the same as a 4" mobile device, and you absolutely can't treat them the same way.
I've ran into three different people last few month that started ranting to me about how they just bought a new PC but returned it to the store because they absolutely despised the operating system. People didn't like Vista either, but I don't know anyone who returned their computer over it.
just imagine the execs eyeing getting thirty percent from every CS installation.
This is likely why Adobe went this route - they can sell users a service that has feet in all ecosystems, even walled gardens.
By not charging for the software, but the service, Adobe neatly sidesteps the 30% problem. They can also now play in the OSX fenced (gatekeeper is default on) and iOS walled gardens now too.
Apple tried to prevent this with their draconian pricing/link policy a few years back, and lost, but this seems the end result - if Microsoft's Win8 marketplace was successfully entrenched, Adobe's profit would suffer greatly with a healthy 30% cut being taken out. That MS has yet to succeed gives Adobe time, but I'm betting Adobe doesn't want to be caught off guard when Win9/8blue/etc has a successful uptake of the MS app store concept.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
in my mind and in my smartphone
we can't rewind, we've gone too far
live tiles came and broke your heart
put the blame on the Ballmer
Start by realizing that the problem with soda isnt kind of sugar, its that each coke has 1/10th of a pound of "sugars".
(checks label of Coke Zero)
Are aspartame and acesulfame potassium any better?
Because I want this thread to be even longer than it already is.
sorry, couldn't resist.
-- Julien Pierre http://www.madbrain.com/blog
It's useless!!!! If they bring back the Start button that will the very first thing I disable. If they don't let me disable it I will get (or write) an app that hides it. I can't stand the Start button and anyone who insists they need it has probably never actually used Windows 8.
If I have a keyboard, I want a shortcut that allows me to write the command I want to start.
Once you use the shortcut, a list of completions of the command that you are typing should appear. The problem with the Windows 8 Start screen is that a full-screen list of completions completely obscures what you're working on. This change in visual context leads to a memory loss analogous to doorway amnesia, as another Slashdot user pointed out.
As for the start menu, how many clicks does it take in Windows 7 to open the control panel?
In Windows XP, it was Win+R c o n t r o l Enter.
Buy more monitors. Maybe you can get a 6-pack.
For this to work out as well, M$ would have to have a Pepsi-like product. On the desktop, that doesn't exist.
Might Launchpad (formerly At Ease) on Mac OS X or Unity on Ubuntu be Windows 8's Pepsi?
how many of the posters here have actually tried Windows 8 on a laptop or desktop? Yes, I think most of us can agree that the 'Metro' interface sucks on anything but a tablet or phone. All that aside, you're one click from the old familiar desktop. Just click on the Desktop tile and you're good to go. So I really think this stuff about the tiles is a bit of a red herring. You don't have to work with them. In fact, I downloaded a free tool that completely bypasses the tiles and goes right to the desktop. Puts back the Start button too. It starts up and shuts down faster than Windows 7. It has better memory management than Windows 7. They finally got UAC right. In short, Windows 8 is better than Windows 7 in many ways. It's light years ahead of XP and Vista.
What this all illustrates, for me, is that MS is possibly the worst marketing company on the face of the earth. You watch the commercials and all you see are fancy colored snap-in keyboards and people dancing around in an office. Why not just show you how the thing works? How about illustrating some of the new tile based features, for those that want them, but also showing that you can still use your computer in much the same way you have in the past? Is this the same crew that pushed out those disastrous Seinfeld ads? I swear, these clowns couldn't sell life jackets on the Titanic.
> 'Does Ballmer have the guts to admit he made a mistake and give users what they clearly want?'
It's not guts, it's arrogance, I think, that's keeping him from doing the right thing.
Reminds me of my last flight on TWA, shortly before they went out of business. We had had a horrible flight on the first leg, the movie stopped five minutes before the end, the release button jammed on the intercom so we got to hear galley noises for much of the trip, the plane was ice cold but the woman next to me was yelled at when she asked for a blanket, two flights were combined making it way overcrowded, people were bumped after their luggage was loaded, and on the second leg, the plane went back to the terminal after three attempts to get the engines up to takeoff speed, and we were told to deplane and wait for another plane. I was one of many people trying to get transferred to "anything but TWA" once we deplaned, and after establishing that TWA declined to transfer the ticket, was told by the TWA ticket agent through gritted teeth "you. will. enjoy. that. flight. ... SIR!" With the last word said sarcastically.
I vowed never to fly with them again, which turned out to be an easy vow, as they closed up shop shortly thereafter.
So is Balmer to say to us "You. Will. Enjoy. This. Version. ....... SIR." -- through gritted teeth? (Or would he say "punk"?)
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Partially obscured background windows are often useless for both reading and interaction, so most of the time they are merely noise.
An obscured window provides a visual reminder that the document represented by the obscured window still exists, which adds context to the user's mental model of a task that involves both the frontmost window and the obscured window.
However, tablets are mostly aimed at doing one thing at once. The screen typically isn't big enough to show lots of things at the same time
Even a 7" tablet like my Nexus 7 is bigger than two phone screens. Why can't I run two phone-sized applications side-by-side? It's because the major phone operating systems' APIs were originally designed to allow applications to assume that the screen size will never change after the application is installed.
Neither of those limitations necessarily applies to a desktop or laptop system where Windows would traditionally be running
That'd be fine, except manufacturers discontinued 10" laptops in 2012 because tablets have a higher profit margin.
Microsoft is a business that is attempting to sell a rather expensive (~$100 and up) product to consumers.
What makes you think that? I was under the impression that Microsoft sold most copies of Windows to PC manufacturers.
Oh, I agree with you there. But Microsoft, IMO, lacked in the creativity department for a LONG time. I don't really look for a Microsoft solution if I'm expecting a creative, new way of accomplishing tasks. I consider MS stuff more of "staple items". About as exciting to use as a loaf of bread or carton of eggs is to buy at the store -- but just as popular and practical.
The problem they've had with products like Windows ME and Vista is an inability to deliver even on THAT. To keep with the loaf of bread analogy, it's like they discontinued their line of bread and replaced it with "New, improved!" versions which no longer came pre-sliced, had a bag that wouldn't re-seal properly, and some of the bread was stale as soon as the buyer got it home.
All I'm saying is, I think Windows 7 was honestly a good, solid OS. Sure, some people dislike it and that's fine... There are other options out there for them. But by and large, it did what it was supposed to do and didn't crash much. Windows 8 would be a worthy successor if it did nothing more than improved on performance and resource usage while adding support for some newer technologies. It was the MS attempt at "getting creative" which ruined it, a la Metro UI.
True, all we need is the option to install the traditional desktop style UI with start button and task bar, other than that I'm windows 8 is just fine. It's the UI that makes it unusable and no corporate user wants to retrain their entire workforce to use a new UI just to suit microsoft. Microsft need to realise that it's their job is to suit their customers, not the other way around.
No matter how many times Microsoft say it's good, metro UI is crap for desktops, always will be crap, and no mindless mantra is going to change that.
If they had refined it and geared Metro towards being a Kinect compatible interface, instead of touch, and made it optional I think they would have had a hit. Or at least a not-a-turd!
So, how's that IBM storage solution workin for ya?
The fact that government "debt" isn't the same as personal debt is one of the most crucial things that people need to be aware of, especially when it comes to voting -- yet precious few Slashdotters have a damned clue about it. It's pretty messed up given how many people here claim we should restrict the right to vote to "knowledgeable" citizens in order to ensure good results...
Now mostly at Usenet:comp.misc & SoylentNews.org (it's made of people!)
MS Just hit the 100Mileon licences sold on Windows 8 http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/07/us-microsoft-windows8-sales-idUSBRE94603220130507 so TFA is just more MS bashing bigoted FUD
Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.
We create software icons and always need to follow the latest trends in UI design. When it became clear that Windows 8 would have the tiles UI we decided this was a mistake and came up with an idea to at least make the transition to the new UI more comfortable for Windows users.
What we did was to take the old Vista/Windows 7 icons and create a monochrome version of each icon. With some Javascript this could have been used for a very cool transition between the old Vista/Windows 7 desktop and the new Windows 8 style.
Unfortunately this idea never really took off (we never saw anybody use this), but used correctly it could actually come in really handy for Microsoft in handling this difficult situation.
If you are interested here is our technical page demonstrating how the transition works (some animated samples, lots of technical details):
http://www.iconexperience.com/technical/
Signature deleted by lameness filter.
For Microsoft Windows 8 to have a New Coke moment, they need to realize that for Coke it wasn't about the taste, it was about the idea of New Coke. When it did that, Coke became stronger than ever. For Windows, it is not about the START button, it is about a 20 year relationship with a keyboard and mouse. I wrote more in my Really Cool New Stuff blog: http://www.reallycoolnewstuff.com.
dont worry, apple will have their day too.
Bitch you KNOW the side.. WORLD MAFUCKIN WIDE..
Why does it seem like I'm in the majority here on Windows 8? I understand most power users hate Windows 8 - but now that the average person in my classes this semester have gotten used to Metro, they actually really like it. I think one of the biggest issues with Metro is it's use on non-touch enabled laptops and desktops. The key to Metro is touch - without it, you need something different. As far as Office goes, I have noticed I am a lot faster now using the ribbon interface than I was with the file menus.
You forget how those 2003 menus would randomly hide whatever features you want unless you hover your mouse over the menu bar for an annoying number of seconds. I still run across machines with that feature and it's amazing how long interface rage can simmer.
Back in those days, network adapters were an add on accessory. I'm not sure that having to enable TCP/IP on a machine with no network hardware is such a bad idea.
Most people outside of Atlanta will never know this, but
New Coke was actually a resounding success for its true
purpose and stands as tribute to the excesses of pure,
gluttonous, corporapist greed.
The whole purpose of pulling all the "old coke" off the
market and replacing it with a planned to fail fraud
was so that they could CHANGE the formula without
consumers noticing. The "classic coke" that came
back to the shelves in the U.S. following the intentional
"new coke" failure was NOT the classic formula: the
cane sugar had been replaced by High Fructose Corn
Syrup, the poison that is now the prime contributor to
the obscene levels of obesity in America.
I'm in Nepal right now. The Coke here (like in Mexico
and South America) is still sweetened with cane sugar.
The difference in tastes is night and day, and it has the
added benefit of no long term toxicity.
There is a good reason that Goizueta, the scam artist
Coke CEO behind the New Coke fraud, has a massive
business school dedicated to him at Emory (Coca Cola
Bucks) University in Atlanta.
Just the facts, ma'am.
in peace,
aaron
Products are just the chuff. The real relationship is the company's PR/marketing and the customer. Any company is a viable entity not based on whether or not it makes a good product, or even a product at all...it's how well their PR department can convince the consumers that they need to send money to this company. Nike used to make good shoes. Now they fall apart, but we still pay for the brand, and not the product. We pay to feel good about the swoosh and the "Just Do It."
Products are just the placeholder for the initial buy-in. After that it's a combination of guilt, resistance to change, "brand loyalty," and the unwillingness to admit you may have made a bad purchase (which rises exponentially to the amount of money you spend.
Microsoft does not have to worry about losing customers to Pepsi.
Forget dreams of a New Coke moment.
We didn't want VISTA, and we really howled against W 7, Microsoft did not care. They seem to own the computer plants in China and forcing us to get new hardware was all that counts.
Industry and commerce does not need VISTA or W7 or W8.
XP works fine for business applications, and if that ever runs out, there is always Linux.
Remember, 99.999% of all web servers run on Linux.
Just like XP, Linux just screams along at high speed on hardware built for W7 or W8.
The penguins claim W8 is the best Pro-Linux advertisement yet.
Have FUN!
DearWebby