The "Is Windows 8 a Flop?" Thread

[AlphaJohn]

Metro is also faster when it comes to searching for the application by typing the name on the keyboard, than the Start menu was in Windows 7, for me it was noticeable.

You do know that feature works in Windows 7 as well?

 

[rwenzori]

The late Steve Jobs on touchscreens on laptops in October 2010:

We've done tons of user testing on this, and it turns out it doesn't work. Touch surfaces don't want to be vertical.

It gives great demo but after a short period of time, you start to fatigue and after an extended period of time, your arm wants to fall off. it doesn't work, it's ergonomically terrible.

Touch surfaces want to be horizontal, ...

 

[NickLeStrange]

Did you read what I typed? No? Let me say it again then, in BOLD.

Originally Posted by NickLeStrange
Metro is also faster when it comes to searching for the application by typing the name on the keyboard, than the Start menu was in Windows 7, for me it was noticeable.

Clearly folks on MyBB also suffer from some cognitive deficiency. It explains so much.

You do know that feature works in Windows 7 as well?

 

[AlphaJohn]

Did you read what I typed? No? Let me say it again then, in BOLD.

Originally Posted by NickLeStrange
Metro is also faster when it comes to searching for the application by typing the name on the keyboard, than the Start menu was in Windows 7, for me it was noticeable.

Clearly folks on MyBB also suffer from some cognitive deficiency. It explains so much.

Yes I can read, no need to go up in arms and insulting about a simple misunderstanding, I thought you meant faster than navigating windows 7 start menu.

Personally, For me its the other way around at least searching in Windows 7 does not override my entire screen.

 

[Roman4604]

Not really the same thing, is it. One CAN do all sorts of things, even whistle through your arsehole, but one wants an OS that does things right, or pretty well right, on install, without a mission of third-party apps, settings fiddling and god knows what kludges just to make it half acceptable.

Why, the Taskbar and ability to (permanently) pin apps to it, is as native to Win8/7 as the Dock is to OSX ML/L, no third party apps or kludges required.

The way you talk makes it sound like you've hardly even used Windows 7/8?

 

[NickLeStrange]

Perhaps it was an indexing issue for me on Windows 7, but overall I found indexing on Windows 7 was a pain. It's not as noticeable on Windows 8, and it seems to work better, hence why Metro finds and displays my applications faster when doing a keyboard search.

WRT getting up in arms, it wasn't aimed solely at yourself, but to the entire of MyBB, me having been here a number of years and knowing that people do not read what is said before they reply. Also, it was more of a blunt reply than getting up in arms, as bluntness usually works, as you've clearly noticed and therefore did a blunt reply yourself before comprehending the entirety of my initial post.

Yes I can read, no need to go up in arms and insulting about a simple misunderstanding, I thought you meant faster than navigating windows 7 start menu.

Personally, For me its the other way around at least searching in Windows 7 does not override my entire screen.

 

[rwenzori]

Why, the Taskbar and ability to (permanently) pin apps to it, is as native to Win8/7 as the Dock is to OSX ML/L, no third party apps or kludges required.

The way you talk makes it sound like you've hardly even used Windows 7/8?

It would help if you read what I said videlicet:

"... one wants an OS that does things right, or pretty well right, on install, without a mission of third-party apps, settings fiddling and god knows what kludges just to make it half acceptable."

Sending the dreaded Metro to oblivion seems to require such. BTW the OS X dock has been there from the first release, way back when, when I loaded it ( was that Cheetah? ) on a beige G3 - not just on the Lion of de Mountains.

You are correct to some extent - I use Win7 daily, and curse it muchly, but I gave up on Win8.

 

[AthenianOwl]

Windows 8 is a flop. It's the most overrated OS in the history of mankind.

Pros:

Faster than Windows 7

Cons:

Poor usability
Hidden features
Metro UI
The absence of start button. (Don't fix it if it ain't broken, dumbasses!)

 

[biometrics]

Pros:

Faster than Windows 7

This they claim. Not in my experience.

Metro has to use resources, not so?

Some of this perceived speed may be the lack of Aero and the freshness of the install.

 

[Roman4604]

It would help if you read what I said videlicet:

Not if you keep deviating from the original topic, that being your assertion that OSX provides superior app launching choice i.e. Dock and LaunchPad.

My response is/was Win8's Taskbar (with pinning) is functionally equivalent to the Dock, while Start is equivalent to LaunchPad (with same information density). Thus I dont see how Win8 can be described as having lesser app launching functionality/choices to OSX.

I use both daily, and find it pretty obvious the two are functionally very similar.

I use Win7 daily

And you've never pinned a frequently used app to the Taskbar? Its so darn easy, just go into the Start menu, right-click on the App and Pin to Taskbar.

 

[Space_Chief]

I use both daily, and find it pretty obvious the two are functionally very similar.

They may be functionally similar to each other, BUT they are not functionally similar to Win7/XP/etc.

 

[Space_Chief]

This they claim. Not in my experience.

Faster than Vista!

Hence the reason I upgraded to 8.

 

[Crowley]

The late Steve Jobs on touchscreens on laptops in October 2010:

And him on the perfect phone size...

According to his own words, the company worked for years on finding just the right ratio, and they found that 3.5 inches was the optimal and most comfortable size. The one and only size

Seems Windows isn't quite dead yet.
http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/29984-windows-use-is-growing

While the Tame Apple Press has been quick to write off Microsoft and its new operating system Windows 8, it appears that use of Redmond’s products is growing.
Although the use of Windows XP is shrinking, other operating systems being flogged by Redmond are gathering steam. A few months ago Windows’ monopoly was shrinking. XP use had fallen below 40 percent market share, Windows 8 had managed to grab 1 percent of the pie. The tame Apple Press talked about it as proof that Windows was slowly dying and the company might as well sign over its assets to Apple and Google as the future was underpowered, toys which can connect to the internet. But the latest figures show that Microsoft is back in charge.

After six months of losing market share, Windows 7 and Windows 8 managed to give it a big enough boost to see a gain. The latest market share data from Net Applications shows that December 2012 shows that Windows 8 has gained 0.55 percentage points, Windows 7 gained 0.40 percentage points. The figures are expected to grow in January when all those new PCs bought over Christmas go online. It is the first time Windows 7 has passed the 45 percent mark. XP and Vista use is continuing to fall.

Over all it gained 0.29 percentage points, from 91.45 percent to 91.74 percent. This was at the expense of both OS X, which lost 0.23 percentage points, and Linux which fell 0.06 percentage points. So it looks like Apple is starting to lose market share rather than gain it, and any hope that Linux might make an appearance on the desktop are completely unlikely.

 

[rwenzori]

Not if you keep deviating from the original topic, that being your assertion that OSX provides superior app launching choice i.e. Dock and LaunchPad.

My response is/was Win8's Taskbar (with pinning) is functionally equivalent to the Dock, while Start is equivalent to LaunchPad (with same information density). Thus I dont see how Win8 can be described as having lesser app launching functionality/choices to OSX.

I use both daily, and find it pretty obvious the two are functionally very similar.

Did I say that? I would say that the OS X dock is a much more elegant way of handling quick access to frequently used programs, better than the tacked-on functionality you claim, which can create a whole hodgepodge down at the bottom of the screen with the quicklaunch and notification area icons. Easy to shrink and resize the dock too when it gets full. Me myself, I don't want any big fat launchers, as I said, and the Metro start screen kept popping up during my several Win8 trials:

"If you don't like such, just don't run them. Problem with Win8 is that you get Metro, like it or lump it, and even if you jump through a few hoops to minimise the intrusiveness, it keeps rearing its fugly head. MS are doing their best to drag the world into Metro usage. Stuff them."

My point about your piccy of OS X is that if you don't use any launchpad thingies in OS X you still have the dock, all there, on the same screen, which you can pack full of open windows/information. On Win8 all you get on start is fugly big tiles, and you have to switch to the desktop, and then the friggin fugly tiles or friggin ghastly fullscreen programs keep reappearing when you least expect it. MS could have given choice - they refused to.

 

[rwenzori]

And him on the perfect phone size...

Would you dispute what he said about vertical touch screens?

On your other quote, let me repeat what I quoted at post #131:

Net Applications says that for December only, 1.7 percent of desktops, notebooks, and laptops using the Web used Windows 8.

How bad is that? InfoWorld's Woody Leonhard notes that at the same time in Windows 7's life cycle, it had a 21 percent market share.

At the same two-month mark in Vista's release timetable, that OS accounted for 2.2% of all Windows systems, double the month prior.

Not quite so wundafully now, not so?

 

[rwenzori]

Some of this perceived speed may be the lack of Aero and the freshness of the install.

And part of the faster booting is the removal of the F8 boot window, reportedly. That could really stuff you around.

 

[Roman4604]

Did I say that?

Yep, in response to my LaunchPad screenshot ...

See that little thingy down at the bottom of your pic - dock thingy - it is missing from your Win8 pic. On the Mac you get a choice, see.

I would say that the OS X dock is a much more elegant way of handling quick access to frequently used programs

No dispute with your preferences, but that doesn't change the fact that Win8 (& Win7) has a functional equivalent to the OSX Dock in the Taskbar, able to combine frequent app launching and task switching. It can even be configured to slide out of view like the Dock.

better than the tacked-on functionality you claim

Combined app launching/task switching has been native to the Taskbar since Win7. Default installations pin IE & Explorer/File Mgr to the Taskbar.

quicklaunch

A throwback to XP/Vista days, made redundant in the Win7/8 Taskbar.

in OS X you still have the dock, all there, on the same screen, which you can pack full of open windows/information.

I dispute the all there. If you had to pack every default/installed executable app in OSX into the Dock, it would be a dogs breakfast to use. The norm, as would be with Taskbar, is to be populate it with frequently used apps (co-habiting with active running windows).

 

[BeVonk!]

The late Steve Jobs on touchscreens on laptops in October 2010:

Yes!

 

[BeVonk!]

We'll soon see the Cygnet Armrest Plus for Windows 8 to help hold the arms up of touchscreen PC and laptop users. I agree 100% with Jobs/Apple. But MS will push on and drag all their locked-in clients into their hell.

Q: Tennis elbow?
A: No, Windows elbows.

 

[Space_Chief]

We'll soon see the Cygnet Armrest Plus for Windows 8 to help hold the arms up of touchscreen PC and laptop users. I agree 100% with Jobs/Apple. But MS will push on and drag all their locked-in clients into their hell.

Q: Tennis elbow?
A: No, Windows elbows.

Well it's "gorilla arm" or the carpal tunnel syndrome. Gorilla arm is not nearly as bad as CTS. But since you're likely to do both mouse/keyboard operations with a Win tablet, and shoulder flexion, you may get both...