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Windows Blue Is Officially Windows 8.1, Free For Existing Users
Several readers sent word that Microsoft has officially dubbed the upcoming revision to its flagship operating system "Windows 8.1," retiring the code-name "Windows Blue." They also said the update would be freely available to anybody with Windows 8. It will be available through the Windows Store. "Reller declined to provide an exact release date for Windows 8.1, but said that Microsoft is 'very sensitive to the timing of the holidays.' Ideally, Microsoft will be able to provide devices with Windows 8.1 pre-loaded in time for the holiday 2013 season, Reller said, but those who purchase a Windows 8 device later this year will be able to easily upgrade to 8.1."
So, then it is the unofficial return of the service packs.
I seriously can't know how people can be comfortable with the Win8 Start screen. Here's a picture of my Start menu in Win7. Everything is nicely pinned right there (no moving mouse around the screen), the search functionality works the same and there is direct access to things like Control Panel. It does not steal the attention with a full screen jumbled mess of harshly colored icons.
Personally, I'm going to wait for Windows 8.1 for Workgroups...
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Big apple, new Yorik, undig it, something's unrotting in Edenmark.
Am I really the only one who sees the irony here?
Yes. Most of us saw the humor.
The lack of visual clues is appalling. My roommate has Win 8 and she asked me how she should change a setting. Well it was in the Control Panel but there is no apparent way to get to the Control Panel anymore. We had to look it up on the Internet. She had to find the one hot corner that showed her "Settings". There's no visual clue that's what she should do. It's also not a matter of getting used to change; there was no obvious clue that a specific corner shows you Settings.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
If you want to consider how the engineers inside Microsoft think of the code base, I'd suggest considering how they internally number the versions. I think it's very insightful. The windows API has a self-identification function that returns the internal version numbering.
Windows NT 4.0 self-identified as NT4.0
Windows 2000 self-identified as NT5.0
Windows XP self-identified as NT5.1
Windows Vista self-identified as NT6.0
Windows 7 self-identified as NT6.1
Windows 8 self-identified as NT6.2
This is a boring sig
When your UI is so undiscoverable that people need to use search to get anything done, then you know you have a lousy UI.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
I'm counting among the people who gave Windows 8 a chance rather than going in hating it already. I ended up going back to Windows 7 (as I said), but I don't think 8 is the disaster that so many people claim it to be.
People treat it like a house with a cracked foundation and rotting trusses when it really just needs new siding and maybe a few non-structural walls moved.
[sarcasm]Yes because Windows key + "Control Panel" is so obvious to a user using a mouse.[/sarcasm]. That like saying searching in emacs has always been Ctrl-S [Return] string [Return]. [sarcasm] I means why would anyone need to Google that?[/sarcasm]
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
That's nice, but Windows 7 works just fine. So why would I pay to upgrade to Windows 8, then pay more to remove functionality I don't want from the software?
!#@%*)anks for hanging up the phone, dear.
That's one way to look at it. The other way to look at it is: if your UI is so discoverable that all you have to do is hit one key and then type whatever you're looking for and *boom* there it is, you know you have a great UI.
DOS was even better. You didn't even have to 'hit one key' before you could type the command you were looking for.
Back in the real world, if your GRAPHICAL User Interface requires you to type the name of a program to start it, it's a lousy UI.
That's your problem... You are assuming power users. Do you know how many people I know who still go to the edit menu to select COPY and PASTE rather than using keyboard shortcuts or even right clicking?
Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?