At least with menu (bars) you can SEE ALL your choices. WIth the ribbon if your window width is too small you don't.
Ribbon starts removing functions from view when the windows is less than 1024 pixels wide (depending on the specific ribbon. Most are much less than this). According to stat counter, this accounts for about 15% of internet users.
Further, with menu bars, you can see all the menu options, just as you can in a ribbon (e.g. File, Edit, Insert etc. in a menu bar vs. Home, Inset, Design etc. for the Word ribbon). The menu entries within the menu headings are equivalent to the functions on the ribbon. Within these menu entries are further nested lists and flyout windows, which are always hidden no matter the resolution. So while the menu bar might be better for 15% of users, it's worse for 85%.
Finally, in the menu bar system, tool bars are also a interface common item. These also typically hide functions as the window size decreases.
It also completely sucks that you can't customize it like you could with a REAL tool bar.
Ribbons are completely customizable in Office 2010 and above. You can even create your own ribbons. In Windows 8 ribbon and Office ribbons, you also get a quick access toolbar to pin items. The Windows 7 explorer shell did not allow these customizations.
Copying text from the Metro email app to a word document is far to difficult
What exactly is your problem? Just highlight text in mail app > right click > click copy > Right click in word document > click paste. If you like keyboard shortcuts, standard ctrl+c and ctrl+v work as well.
Classic Shell and similar tools have been around long before Windows 8. You'll find with every version of Windows, there is a group of people longing for "classic" start menu. Happened with XP, Vista, and again with Windows 7 (for those who skipped Vista).
Alternatively you can just add the Start Menu folder (%USERPROFILE%\Start Menu) as a toolbar. It's essentially the most basic start menu replacement you can have.
Wrong. They went out to buy a new computer and were given exactly one choice -- Windows 8.
How is this the case, considering there is more choice now than ever? Hell you can still buy Windows 7 computers from all major retailers (at least online).
And what would that "something else" be?
Windows 7 laptop/desktop, Chromebook, Android tablet, iPad.... and yes even a Mac. Just because it's more expensive doesn't mean it's not a choice.
All new consumer PC's come with windows 8. It is pretty much unavoidable unless you have a legacy windows 7 license.
Maybe in brick and mortar retail... haven't been to a Best Buy in a while. But you can still buy Windows 7 machines from Dell, HP, Lenovo, et al.. You can even buy Windows 7 machines from Best Buy's online store. There are still plenty of machines that were built before Oct 26 with Windows 7 installed that need to be sold, and it will be that way for some time now.
For each Windows 8 feature that collects data they include: what data they collect (including what, if any, personally identifiable information), how they use the data, and how you can opt in/out. You'll find that, at least as far as I have read (haven't read the whole thing... again it's extensive), the data they collect isn't sold or used for advertising, even within Bing.
"Obvious" and "intuitive" are not ways shutting down the start menu has ever been. First there was the whole nonsense of going to a menu labeled "Start" to shut down the computer. Not obvious or intuitive, but people got used to it. Then they changed the restart/sleep/switch user/hibernate options to fit inside a little arrow next to the very large shut down button. What a wonderful UI design: making the function you do maybe once a day large and easily accessible, and making the more frequent functions like sleep and log-off hidden and hard to click. I can't tell you how many times I've accidentally shut down my computer due to careless clicking. Thank god Windows 7 asks you if you want to save work before shutting down.
Now, functions like power, sleep, and hibernate are supposed to be handled by automatic power options. Shutting down the computer is supposed to be something that rarely occurs; your computer is either supposed to sleep when you're not using it for instant-on access, and hibernate after extended away time.
Much more common functions like log off and lock have been moved far far away from the shutdown option into your account picture. In my opinion, this is a much more sensible and easily accessible place than where they were in the start menu.
the non-technical users are the ones who are least likely to have the option to go back to what they prefer
Why not? The first google result for "Windows 8 start menu" or even "Windows 8 start" is a simple utility that replaces the start menu in 2 clicks. The rest of the results are instructions, videos, tutorials, and utilities to replace the start menu in the plainest, simplest language. What makes you think this is beyond the reach of most users? I can see maybe the most novice users having problems, but if there's two things most users know how to do (which has more often than not lead them to trouble) its search the web and download and install executables.
There is much more you can do if you're willing to take on just a little (comparatively) debt. I posted about this before, but my undergraduate institution had the highest tuition in the nation at the time. Through scholarships and grants, I got the tuition cut down in half, and through work study and a part time job (plus a small loan from my parents, which I paid off before I graduated) I managed to leave with two Bachelors degrees and only 30k in debt. That may sound like a lot, but the full tuition at the time was about $30k a year + room and board. I figured for the cost of a new car, which many people don't have a problem taking out a loan for, I got myself a world class education.
But you can be even more frugal than that. My PhD advisor went to a local state school for his undergrad, did his master's at a top 20 US school, and did his PhD at an Ivy League school. He got paid to do his Master's and PhD, and left the PhD debt free after paying off his low tuition state school loans. The entire time he was in school he was paying no interest of course, by taking out only federally subsidized loans. So while Mr. Linder's associate degree for $3000 is great and all, there are some paths you can take that will lead you straight through a B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. with no debt accrued at the end.
No, I grew up in an area where the best public school in the state just happened to be located. My education there was just fine. He had no *reason* to send me to private school. He did however, send me to the university with the highest tuition in the nation (more expensive than Harvard). The point is that people from any economic class are happy to pay for an education if they feel it will help their child's future.
Tuition there in 1979, the year Obama graduated, was $2,000, or in today's dollars $6,000. Not insignificant, but certainly not out of reach for those who put value on such things. For reference, the cost of a new car in 1979 was about $3000 - $6000. My father was only a truck driver, but he sure as hell would have put me through private school for $6,000 if he thought it would have given me better opportunities.
University isn't going to turn into a skill tree where you choose a class and can't graduate until you reach level 65 and defeat the team of evil mascots...
Actually, aside from the evil mascots, it already is this. Replace "skill tree" with "majors" and "level 65" with "600 credits" and you're there.
Yes this. This time a thousand. This gamification concept is completely asinine. If you are going to a university but you can't be bothered enough to pay attention and actually engage yourself in your own education, even if the material is dull, then just save us all a lot of trouble and stay home. No one is forcing you to go to college.
And to think of the complete arrogance, that you have this amazing opportunity, a once in a lifetime chance to educate yourself about the world, a chance that people around the world would kill to have, to be in your shoes, and you can't bring yourself to pay attention at a lecture because it's not WoW enough for you? If this is you, drop out immediately, and make room for someone who actually wants an education. Sickening.
Honestly, if I'm paying $500 - $1000 *per lecture*, I'm going to sit and pay attention no matter how boring the material or the professor is. I realize that some professors or subjects are dull beyond comprehension, but you're actually *paying* to be there so sit up and listen. Get a good night's rest, read the material before coming to class, engage yourself in the discussion (or if there is no discussion, engage yourself in an internal discussion with questions).... no need to dress up like cartoon characters to make the class interesting like we're teaching 3rd graders with uncontrollable ADD. This is college. These are (ostensibly) adults. Give me a break.
Refunds are nice and all, but it doesn't help you when the game or app turns out to be buggy. 15 minutes is long enough for maybe the most simple apps, but for more complicated apps only through an extended trial do you get a feel for how it works... if at all. Also, a trial version allows the app developer to offer a limited feature version or ad-supported version that can be upgraded easily from within the app, thus getting rid of app clutter for separate free/trial versions like in the iOS app store.
Of the paid apps in the US store that I can see, 45% have a trial. For games, this figure goes up to 48%. Of the top 20 apps in the Noteworthy category, 85% have a trial. Not including one is a serious misstep for this developer.
Yeah, I've been playing around with Mint off and on, mostly due to the inclusion of the Cinnamon Gnome fork. Might be time to make the switch permanent.
Sales generally peak very early in the release of a game. Opening week is extremely important for a game company.
This is true as long as the game company actually markets their game. It seems this company expects the app store to do its marketing for it, by way of featuring their game in a highlights section or some other way, and they didn't actually promote the game themselves. They invested a whole *10 grand* in development (absolute peanuts relatively speaking), but then decided it wouldn't be worthwhile to actually promote their work, and expect Microsoft to do all the leg work? Whatever promises Microsoft made to developers, I'm sure "we will handle all promotion and marketing of all apps in our store" was not one of them.
Gamers on Windows are used to having a trial version. Honestly, if there isn't a trial version I just pass right over it. I've been burned by shitty apps time and time again, I won't risk the money just to find out it's terrible. I've certainly bought plenty of games after playing the trial version, so perhaps they'd see some more sales if they added that feature.
They should also think about porting to Windows 8.... no idea why the limited their app to only Windows RT, as the market share is so small right now.
I've been on 10.04 since it was released, and it seems like with every version there's more and more nonsense keeping me from upgrading. At this rate it seems, I'll be on 10.04 forever. However, the latest release of ROS doesn't officially support 10.04, so it seems like I might be forced to move on if I don't want to experience any unfortunate surprises... although now might be a better time than ever to find a new distro I'm comfortable enough with. Ubuntu is just going in the wrong direction.
Maybe that's more a problem with analysts extrapolating incredible conclusions from small isolated bits of data... also known as anecdotes. Anyone basing buying decisions on facebook posts deserves to get burned.... SEC doesn't need to get involved here.
In short, all of them. The right corners bring up the charms bar, the left corners bring up the apps bar.
How do I close IE that when started from metro runs as full screen and provides no way to close the application.
Short answer is you don't. Apps are designed to be backgrounded; when you leave the app, it suspends sits in the background, and Windows manages resources like RAM. Most apps only take a few megabytes but games and apps like IE take up much more. If you monitor RAM usage, you'll see backgrounded apps retain their RAM allocation until it's needed by another application. I used to be concerned with this when I first used Windows 8, but I soon realized it's not an issue.
However, if you really want to close an app, there are three ways: the easiest way is to just alt+f4. This has been the "exit app" shortcut since forever, and it still works. Second, the task manager. This might seem cumbersome and overkill for most users, but the default display of the Windows 8 task manager is actually just a list of apps with a single option to end task. Finally, the least discoverable way is to move the cursor to the very top edge of the screen. You'll see the cursor turn into a hand. Click and drag the app all the way to the bottom of the screen and it will be closed. This is pretty silly with a mouse, but is nice on tablets.
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At least with menu (bars) you can SEE ALL your choices. WIth the ribbon if your window width is too small you don't.
Ribbon starts removing functions from view when the windows is less than 1024 pixels wide (depending on the specific ribbon. Most are much less than this). According to stat counter, this accounts for about 15% of internet users.
Further, with menu bars, you can see all the menu options, just as you can in a ribbon (e.g. File, Edit, Insert etc. in a menu bar vs. Home, Inset, Design etc. for the Word ribbon). The menu entries within the menu headings are equivalent to the functions on the ribbon. Within these menu entries are further nested lists and flyout windows, which are always hidden no matter the resolution. So while the menu bar might be better for 15% of users, it's worse for 85%.
Finally, in the menu bar system, tool bars are also a interface common item. These also typically hide functions as the window size decreases.
It also completely sucks that you can't customize it like you could with a REAL tool bar.
Ribbons are completely customizable in Office 2010 and above. You can even create your own ribbons. In Windows 8 ribbon and Office ribbons, you also get a quick access toolbar to pin items. The Windows 7 explorer shell did not allow these customizations.
Copying text from the Metro email app to a word document is far to difficult
What exactly is your problem? Just highlight text in mail app > right click > click copy > Right click in word document > click paste. If you like keyboard shortcuts, standard ctrl+c and ctrl+v work as well.
Classic Shell and similar tools have been around long before Windows 8. You'll find with every version of Windows, there is a group of people longing for "classic" start menu. Happened with XP, Vista, and again with Windows 7 (for those who skipped Vista).
Alternatively you can just add the Start Menu folder (%USERPROFILE%\Start Menu) as a toolbar. It's essentially the most basic start menu replacement you can have.
Wrong. They went out to buy a new computer and were given exactly one choice -- Windows 8.
How is this the case, considering there is more choice now than ever? Hell you can still buy Windows 7 computers from all major retailers (at least online).
And what would that "something else" be?
Windows 7 laptop/desktop, Chromebook, Android tablet, iPad.... and yes even a Mac. Just because it's more expensive doesn't mean it's not a choice.
All new consumer PC's come with windows 8. It is pretty much unavoidable unless you have a legacy windows 7 license.
Maybe in brick and mortar retail... haven't been to a Best Buy in a while. But you can still buy Windows 7 machines from Dell, HP, Lenovo, et al.. You can even buy Windows 7 machines from Best Buy's online store. There are still plenty of machines that were built before Oct 26 with Windows 7 installed that need to be sold, and it will be that way for some time now.
The Windows 8 privacy policy is pretty extensive. You can find it here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/windows-8-privacy-statement
For each Windows 8 feature that collects data they include: what data they collect (including what, if any, personally identifiable information), how they use the data, and how you can opt in/out. You'll find that, at least as far as I have read (haven't read the whole thing... again it's extensive), the data they collect isn't sold or used for advertising, even within Bing.
Here is an FAQ about the CEIP.
"Obvious" and "intuitive" are not ways shutting down the start menu has ever been. First there was the whole nonsense of going to a menu labeled "Start" to shut down the computer. Not obvious or intuitive, but people got used to it. Then they changed the restart/sleep/switch user/hibernate options to fit inside a little arrow next to the very large shut down button. What a wonderful UI design: making the function you do maybe once a day large and easily accessible, and making the more frequent functions like sleep and log-off hidden and hard to click. I can't tell you how many times I've accidentally shut down my computer due to careless clicking. Thank god Windows 7 asks you if you want to save work before shutting down.
Now, functions like power, sleep, and hibernate are supposed to be handled by automatic power options. Shutting down the computer is supposed to be something that rarely occurs; your computer is either supposed to sleep when you're not using it for instant-on access, and hibernate after extended away time.
Much more common functions like log off and lock have been moved far far away from the shutdown option into your account picture. In my opinion, this is a much more sensible and easily accessible place than where they were in the start menu.
Works out great for me. There are keyboard shortcuts for everything. I can navigate the entire UI from keyboard.
the non-technical users are the ones who are least likely to have the option to go back to what they prefer
Why not? The first google result for "Windows 8 start menu" or even "Windows 8 start" is a simple utility that replaces the start menu in 2 clicks. The rest of the results are instructions, videos, tutorials, and utilities to replace the start menu in the plainest, simplest language. What makes you think this is beyond the reach of most users? I can see maybe the most novice users having problems, but if there's two things most users know how to do (which has more often than not lead them to trouble) its search the web and download and install executables.
There is much more you can do if you're willing to take on just a little (comparatively) debt. I posted about this before, but my undergraduate institution had the highest tuition in the nation at the time. Through scholarships and grants, I got the tuition cut down in half, and through work study and a part time job (plus a small loan from my parents, which I paid off before I graduated) I managed to leave with two Bachelors degrees and only 30k in debt. That may sound like a lot, but the full tuition at the time was about $30k a year + room and board. I figured for the cost of a new car, which many people don't have a problem taking out a loan for, I got myself a world class education.
But you can be even more frugal than that. My PhD advisor went to a local state school for his undergrad, did his master's at a top 20 US school, and did his PhD at an Ivy League school. He got paid to do his Master's and PhD, and left the PhD debt free after paying off his low tuition state school loans. The entire time he was in school he was paying no interest of course, by taking out only federally subsidized loans. So while Mr. Linder's associate degree for $3000 is great and all, there are some paths you can take that will lead you straight through a B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. with no debt accrued at the end.
No, I grew up in an area where the best public school in the state just happened to be located. My education there was just fine. He had no *reason* to send me to private school. He did however, send me to the university with the highest tuition in the nation (more expensive than Harvard). The point is that people from any economic class are happy to pay for an education if they feel it will help their child's future.
Tuition there in 1979, the year Obama graduated, was $2,000, or in today's dollars $6,000. Not insignificant, but certainly not out of reach for those who put value on such things. For reference, the cost of a new car in 1979 was about $3000 - $6000. My father was only a truck driver, but he sure as hell would have put me through private school for $6,000 if he thought it would have given me better opportunities.
University isn't going to turn into a skill tree where you choose a class and can't graduate until you reach level 65 and defeat the team of evil mascots...
Actually, aside from the evil mascots, it already is this. Replace "skill tree" with "majors" and "level 65" with "600 credits" and you're there.
Yes this. This time a thousand. This gamification concept is completely asinine. If you are going to a university but you can't be bothered enough to pay attention and actually engage yourself in your own education, even if the material is dull, then just save us all a lot of trouble and stay home. No one is forcing you to go to college.
And to think of the complete arrogance, that you have this amazing opportunity, a once in a lifetime chance to educate yourself about the world, a chance that people around the world would kill to have, to be in your shoes, and you can't bring yourself to pay attention at a lecture because it's not WoW enough for you? If this is you, drop out immediately, and make room for someone who actually wants an education. Sickening.
Honestly, if I'm paying $500 - $1000 *per lecture*, I'm going to sit and pay attention no matter how boring the material or the professor is. I realize that some professors or subjects are dull beyond comprehension, but you're actually *paying* to be there so sit up and listen. Get a good night's rest, read the material before coming to class, engage yourself in the discussion (or if there is no discussion, engage yourself in an internal discussion with questions).... no need to dress up like cartoon characters to make the class interesting like we're teaching 3rd graders with uncontrollable ADD. This is college. These are (ostensibly) adults. Give me a break.
Refunds are nice and all, but it doesn't help you when the game or app turns out to be buggy. 15 minutes is long enough for maybe the most simple apps, but for more complicated apps only through an extended trial do you get a feel for how it works... if at all. Also, a trial version allows the app developer to offer a limited feature version or ad-supported version that can be upgraded easily from within the app, thus getting rid of app clutter for separate free/trial versions like in the iOS app store.
Thanks for the heads up. I'll be installing the latest release tonight when I get home... give it another try.
Of the paid apps in the US store that I can see, 45% have a trial. For games, this figure goes up to 48%. Of the top 20 apps in the Noteworthy category, 85% have a trial. Not including one is a serious misstep for this developer.
Yeah, I've been playing around with Mint off and on, mostly due to the inclusion of the Cinnamon Gnome fork. Might be time to make the switch permanent.
Sales generally peak very early in the release of a game. Opening week is extremely important for a game company.
This is true as long as the game company actually markets their game. It seems this company expects the app store to do its marketing for it, by way of featuring their game in a highlights section or some other way, and they didn't actually promote the game themselves. They invested a whole *10 grand* in development (absolute peanuts relatively speaking), but then decided it wouldn't be worthwhile to actually promote their work, and expect Microsoft to do all the leg work? Whatever promises Microsoft made to developers, I'm sure "we will handle all promotion and marketing of all apps in our store" was not one of them.
Gamers on Windows are used to having a trial version. Honestly, if there isn't a trial version I just pass right over it. I've been burned by shitty apps time and time again, I won't risk the money just to find out it's terrible. I've certainly bought plenty of games after playing the trial version, so perhaps they'd see some more sales if they added that feature.
They should also think about porting to Windows 8.... no idea why the limited their app to only Windows RT, as the market share is so small right now.
I've been on 10.04 since it was released, and it seems like with every version there's more and more nonsense keeping me from upgrading. At this rate it seems, I'll be on 10.04 forever. However, the latest release of ROS doesn't officially support 10.04, so it seems like I might be forced to move on if I don't want to experience any unfortunate surprises... although now might be a better time than ever to find a new distro I'm comfortable enough with. Ubuntu is just going in the wrong direction.
Maybe that's more a problem with analysts extrapolating incredible conclusions from small isolated bits of data... also known as anecdotes. Anyone basing buying decisions on facebook posts deserves to get burned.... SEC doesn't need to get involved here.
Which corner is magic and why?
In short, all of them. The right corners bring up the charms bar, the left corners bring up the apps bar.
How do I close IE that when started from metro runs as full screen and provides no way to close the application.
Short answer is you don't. Apps are designed to be backgrounded; when you leave the app, it suspends sits in the background, and Windows manages resources like RAM. Most apps only take a few megabytes but games and apps like IE take up much more. If you monitor RAM usage, you'll see backgrounded apps retain their RAM allocation until it's needed by another application. I used to be concerned with this when I first used Windows 8, but I soon realized it's not an issue.
However, if you really want to close an app, there are three ways: the easiest way is to just alt+f4. This has been the "exit app" shortcut since forever, and it still works. Second, the task manager. This might seem cumbersome and overkill for most users, but the default display of the Windows 8 task manager is actually just a list of apps with a single option to end task. Finally, the least discoverable way is to move the cursor to the very top edge of the screen. You'll see the cursor turn into a hand. Click and drag the app all the way to the bottom of the screen and it will be closed. This is pretty silly with a mouse, but is nice on tablets.