The "Is Windows 8 a Flop?" Thread

vinodh said:
I thought Windows ME was actually quite good. It gave me the same amount of crap (A few blue screen's of death to brighten up my day) as Windows 98 SE but it had built-in support for USB flash drives that Windows 98 did not have. That was the main reason I upgraded from 98. I really think that too many people exaggerate how bad ME was probably when comparing it to XP and not to 98 which was the OS it replaced.
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I agree, Windows ME ran pretty well on decent hardware.
I really didn't mind it as an upgrade from 98.
Vista on the other hand was a steaming pile of crap.... it was tolerable though after SP2.
 
vinodh said:
I thought Windows ME was actually quite good. It gave me the same amount of crap (A few blue screen's of death to brighten up my day) as Windows 98 SE but it had built-in support for USB flash drives that Windows 98 did not have. That was the main reason I upgraded from 98. I really think that too many people exaggerate how bad ME was probably when comparing it to XP and not to 98 which was the OS it replaced.
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If you reckon Vista was worse than ME I suspect that you have terminally short-term memory. ME was a nightmare. Vista was more stable than XP in my experience, assuming you had the necessary hardware to run it.
 
Garyvdh said:
I agree, Windows ME ran pretty well on decent hardware.
I really didn't mind it as an upgrade from 98.
Vista on the other hand was a steaming pile of crap.... it was tolerable though after SP2.
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Do you actually REMEMBER when we ran ME? I mean originally, not when you tried it later on a C2D with like 4GB RAM.
 
Rodent-Boy said:
If you reckon Vista was worse than ME I suspect that you have terminally short-term memory. ME was a nightmare. Vista was more stable than XP in my experience, assuming you had the necessary hardware to run it.
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I'm not comparing it to Vista. I'm just saying that it was not as bad as people these days make it out to be especially when compared to Windows 98.
 
Lol, I think that Tomato motherboard was in Windows XP days, wasn't it. I still have the box for that Tomato board in the cupboard at the office. :)
 
vinodh said:
I thought Windows ME was actually quite good. It gave me the same amount of crap (A few blue screen's of death to brighten up my day) as Windows 98 SE but it had built-in support for USB flash drives that Windows 98 did not have. That was the main reason I upgraded from 98. I really think that too many people exaggerate how bad ME was probably when comparing it to XP and not to 98 which was the OS it replaced.
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ME's biggest problem was instability, it's UI was fundamentally sound.

I'm perfectly willing to accept the claims that Win8 is fantastic under the skin, it's the skin however that's pissing people off.
 
Rodent-Boy said:
Do you actually REMEMBER when we ran ME? I mean originally, not when you tried it later on a C2D with like 4GB RAM.
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LOL. Yes bought it a few weeks after launch. It ran the same as Win98. Never ran 98SE but ME ran well. I can't recall having issues with it. Windows XP was significantly better of course, more stable.

Vista terrible. 7 not bad. 8 has interface issues but at least has 7's speed. I'd say Vista is still the worst.
 
Mouse said:
I expect that the average consumer will realise they don't really need a traditional PC and will opt for an Android or iOS tablet on their next upgrade cycle or mobile contract renewal, while keeping their old Win7 PC's until they stop functioning.
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It depends on what the average user is doing. Likely you have to write and renew your CV now and again. Write applications for new jobs. Write letters to businesses, government, etc when things go wrong or are needed. Write invitations for say childrens' parties. Your children will want to do research. You may want to do research with many tabs opened with copy/paste scratchpad. Your kids may want to do homework. A PC is still indispensable. People will want to edit their pics or videos, add captions or do slide shows.

PC gamers will still keep their PCs. Most people growing up in the 1st world have played PC games. Likely they'll get a PC to replay the old classics or even for nostalgia's sake to just be able to play a game again, as a vague sort of idea in one's head.

Several days ago CNN ran a story about how the PC is dying. Most people wrote back saying they think the PC is here to stay. A tablet cannot replace the PC at this time and I doubt that in its present form it will ever be able to do that. Even this BS I'm typing now, I'm doing it on a PC (rMBP 15). The two iPads here - just not good at it.
 
AfricanTech said:
I gots to disagree- ME was bad, very bad......
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I found crashes occurred in Win 3.1, Win 95, Win 98, Win ME more or less the same. Win XP had significantly fewer crashes and was more stable. Ran NT in varsity and it was also stable.

ME has Recovery checkpoints you could go back to. That was a nice feature.
 
I bought Win8 and was disappointed after reading how much more efficient it is ... faster... better UI etc. In my opinion, the UI is half-baked and will not do as an OS. I have since returned to OSX. Apple seem to get it right most of the time as opposed to MS. I gave the license to a mate of mine a couple of weeks ago. Asked him how he is finding it. He reckons that from installation onward, Windows keeps accessing the hard drive... constantly... which is slowing the machine down. He has plenty RAM (16gb) and the machine is relatively new. I have had a look and cannot see why it would do that. The weather, news and one or two other apps no longer access the net. They used to when he 1st installed. All in all, I think this OS is another Lemon from MS. Googling the problem online, the advice is always 'are you sure there isn't a virus on the machine?' Wow! 1st port of call for any MS product support - virus. (and no there is'nt a virus)

I was copying files from an external HDD to his HDD and all the time the files were copying, I could not even open a browser or do anything. The machine (i-5 3570 Quad Core) was dead until the file transfer was complete. He is in the process of returning to Win 7. I think he is making the obvious decision. Anyone liking this OS to stay with it are lying to themselves. I think most people just WANT it to be a good OS, since good OS's from MS are scarce. Only XP & 7 have stood out, but not enough to lure me back from OSX. I went from being an avid MS supporter to OSX and cannot find another OS which compares.
 
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Considering the global trend towards portable computing I think Windows 8 was a necessary evil. Regardless of what many people may think, in business there is just too much dependence on the Microsoft infrastructure from office suites, third party compatibility such as autodesk products, server products, SQL, Sharepoint and Active Directory etc... Not to mention all the compliance and governance surrounding these.

The widespread adoption of tablets in business left a gaping hole in MS strategy while it also left most of us consumers having to cart around multiple devices. Windows 8 addresses all of these concerns and I believe it is a far longer term strategy than what one would expect in this industry. Slow adoption of windows 8 is expected until the day comes when businesses have no choice but to make the call on how best to move forward.

I have been using windows 8 for a few months now on a standard non touch screen laptop. Honestly I work faster on it than Windows 7. My only worry is UAC setting dependence for metro but I seldom use metro at the moment.
 
biometrics said:
Excuse me?! What are you smoking?
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You obviously haven't been to many meetings where half the people bring their tablets nowadays. Or have had to implement mobile device policies because the wifi is over encumbered and then had to set up all the users tablets for email access. :P we have a ip address scope now for mobile devices and have quite a few business justifications signed up for tablet pc access.

In my previous company all the sales reps were getting ipads. And corporate head office arranged a development team for apps exclusive to the ipads. This was in healthcare industry nothing to do with tech.

And this is south Africa. Imagine a more first world experience.
 
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Bobbin said:
You obviously haven't been to many meetings where half the people bring their tablets nowadays. Or have had to implement mobile device policies because the wifi is over encumbered and then had to set up all the users tablets for email access. :P we have a ip address scope now for mobile devices and have quite a few business justifications signed up for tablet pc access.

In my previous company all the sales reps were getting ipads. And corporate head office arranged a development team for apps exclusive to the ipads. This was in healthcare industry nothing to do with tech.

And this is south Africa. Imagine a more first world experience.
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So fair to say management and sales types in meetings. And apps for customers. So the people doing actual work, no?
 
Don't understand why some are still bamboozled by the RT environment. Win8 is not just RT, so if you see no value in it as a desktop user, get rid of it.

It will take you 5 min to (right-click) Uninstall every RT App with the exception of Store & Desktop which cant be uninstalled. These can just be unpinned and forgotten about.

You'll be left with a newer, leaner & meaner Win7 that happens to have a full screen (non-hierarchical) Start menu, exclusively for the launching of desktop programs. Here is what my All apps screen looks like absent of RT...

All-apps.jpg

With my mouse mod I find the Start screen a very fast & efficient way of launching programs, but if its still too jarring for you, then install/activate a smaller Win7 type Start menu.
 
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biometrics said:
So fair to say management and sales types in meetings. And apps for customers. So the people doing actual work, no?
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In big corporate more and more the tablets are becoming the norm. People working less and less on their laptops and more on their tablets. Taking tablets home to work on etc.
imo from what I'm seeing at my customers its inevitable that the tablets will take over from most desktops.
 
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