The "Is Windows 8 a Flop?" Thread

Bobbin said:
Now if you are saying you hate Windows 8 because you just hate Microsoft as a company, well ok then that I can understand :D
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You must be a mind reader, except you got it all wrong - for me at least. So you're not a mind reader then.... :)

I don't have a problem with MS. I like XP and 7 is not bad at all. Win 8 would be OK if they were user centric and sensible about the GUI.
 
The ONLY reason i would prefer windows 8 to 7 is that it supports DirectX 11.1
 
louisek said:
When can we start whinging about Office 2013?
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The *final* version of Office is actually available, if you can get a product key. I upgraded to Win8 from the Release Preview, and had to download Office again. Either MS screwed up, or I was too clever that night, cos I got a trial build of Office 2013, and the other versions (Home what what) were available for download.

So ... We can start whining pretty soon
 
louisek said:
When can we start whinging about Office 2013?
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You mean the Office that YELLS at you?

Not a fan. It has one foot in DesktopUI and the other in ModernUI, with what looks like something the cat dragged in, in the middle.
 
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biometrics said:
Dude, we don't want Metro and we want the start button.

Deal with it.
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When Vista came, there was a difference in how the start menu looked and worked. Back then people also went balistic over that small change. When Windows 7 came out, the start menu was still the same, but now people got used to it and now everyone likes the new style.
The same with Windows 8 (while not a small change), I'm still not lekka use to the change, but friends of mine was also complaining a while ago and is now actually liking it. I will probably need some more time. But thats life in IT. You can't say to someone: "Get use to it!", because everything in IT change too damn fast for most to really catch up or stay in touch with tech.
If you're working in the IT industry, you'll know now if you're in the right industry.
 
Yes I'm running Win8 Pro.

Obviously I work all wrong.

I often need to have multiple applications running and visible. This I can do if I have the desktop open. this I can't do if I have a Metro app open.

If the metro interface were what one used when driving a vehicle, one would have 2 metro apps - one for looking out the windscreen and another for looking in the rear view mirror and when looking in the rear view mirror the windscreen would no longer be visible. Good luck if you'd like to drive like that.
 
Y know, win 8 is not all bad.

It's the forcing of this new method that grates with no easy (1 click) methods of getting your old UI back.

And again, some major fails :

- whut? No solitaire out of the box
- no aero? Has MS forgotten that humans are hardwired to respond to pretty?
 
The lack of Solitaire will not go down well with MS's government clients. What will people do to kill time?!
 
SuperNev said:
The *final* version of Office is actually available, if you can get a product key. I upgraded to Win8 from the Release Preview, and had to download Office again. Either MS screwed up, or I was too clever that night, cos I got a trial build of Office 2013, and the other versions (Home what what) were available for download.

So ... We can start whining pretty soon
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Been using it for a couple of months now already and I'm liking it, the default theme is way too white tough, hurts the eyes, but that's easily changeable.
 
grim said:
Been using it for a couple of months now already and I'm liking it, the default theme is way too white tough, hurts the eyes, but that's easily changeable.
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Though I haven't seen much change in Excel, I do like the new pretty, animations are good :) There's also some "why can't you see that I want to autofill this" changes, which I'm impressed with.

As for Metro, some people must just relax, though as this is a whining thread, I might as well add on:
- Metro should be more customisable, some of those pictures in the start menu are booring
- Some apps just crash when opening ... Sucks at times
Why not allow docking those Metro apps on both the left and right at the same time? I know that would look fugly on smaller screens, but for some of us with all that space, it'd be nice (at least there should have been some hidden option to turn it on)
 
AfricanTech said:
Y know, win 8 is not all bad.

It's the forcing of this new method that grates with no easy (1 click) methods of getting your old UI back.

And again, some major fails :

- whut? No solitaire out of the box
- no aero? Has MS forgotten that humans are hardwired to respond to pretty?
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Haha. Not sure what hardwired is supposed to mean as "hardwired" usually is used in the "science" of evolutionary psychology to explain anything which exists in lieu of actual explanation, but you're right. Aero was pushed as the best thing since Windows XP and now suddenly Windows 3.x had it best, no in fact Classic Apple Mac OS had it best as Win 3.x still had 3D buttons. Apple OS Classic had only flat buttons and no shadows. :)

Apple got it right back in 1984. Probably Xerox got it right before them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Apple_Macintosh_Desktop.png

I give you, the future:
http://www.aresluna.org/attached/pics/usability/articles/biurkonaekranie/xerox.big.png
 
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Interesting read, may also fall in line with this subject:

Why Touch Screens Will Not Take Over

For decades the cynical observer could be forgiven for viewing Microsoft as a giant copying machine. The inspiration for just about every major Microsoft initiative can be traced back to a successful predecessor: Windows (Macintosh), Internet Explorer (Netscape), Bing (Google), Zune (iPod).

But in late 2012 Microsoft broke from the pack. It made a billion-dollar gamble that personal computing is taking a new direction. The gamble was Windows 8, and the direction is touch.

Using a series of fluid, light finger taps and swipes across the screen on a PC running Windows 8, you can open programs, flip between them, navigate, adjust settings and split the screen between apps, among other functions. It's fresh, efficient and joyous to use—all on a touch-screen tablet.

But this, of course, is not some special touch-screen edition of Windows. This is the Windows. It's the operating system that Microsoft expects us to run on our tens of millions of everyday PCs. For screens that do not respond to touch, Microsoft has built in mouse and keyboard equivalents for each tap and swipe. Yet these methods are second-class citizens, meant to be a crutch during these transitional times—the phase after which, Microsoft bets, touch will finally have come to all computers.

At first, you might think, “Touch has been incredibly successful on our phones, tablets, airport kiosks and cash machines. Why not on our computers?”

I'll tell you why not: because of “gorilla arm.”

There are three big differences between these handy touch screens and a PC's screen: angle, distance and time interval.

The screen of a phone or tablet is generally more or less horizontal. The screen of a desktop (or a laptop on a desk), however, is more or less vertical.

Phone, tablet and kiosk screens, furthermore, are usually close to your body. But desktop and laptop screens are usually a couple of feet away from you. You have to reach out to touch them. And then there's the interval issue: you don't sit there all day using a phone, tablet or airport kiosk, as you do with a PC.

Finally, you're not just tapping big, finger-friendly icons. You're trying to make tiny, precise movements on the glass, on a vertical surface, at arm's length.

When Windows 7 came out, offering a touch mode for the first time, I spent a few weeks living with a couple of touch-screen PCs. It was a miserable experience. Part of the problem was that the targets—buttons, scroll bars and menus that were originally designed for a tiny arrow cursor—were too small for fat human fingers.

The other problem was the tingling ache that came from extending my right arm to manipulate that screen for hours, an affliction that has earned the nickname of gorilla arm. Some experts say gorilla arm is what killed touch computing during its first wave in the early 1980s.

(Another problem is finger grease. You can clean a phone's screen by wiping it on your jeans, but that's not as convenient with a 32-inch monitor.)

Now, half of Windows 8 addresses half of the touch-screen PC problems: Windows 8 is actually two operating systems in one. The beautiful, fluid front end is ideal for touch; only the underlying Windows desktop has the too-small-targets problem.

The angle and distance of PC screens are tougher nuts to crack. Microsoft is betting that Windows 8 will be so attractive that we won't mind touching our PC screens, at least until the PC concept fades away entirely. Yet although PC sales have slowed, they won't be zero any time soon.

My belief is that touch screens make sense on mobile computers but not on stationary ones. Microsoft is making a gigantic bet that I'm wrong.
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Source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-touch-screens-will-not-take-over
 
AlphaJohn said:
Interesting read, may also fall in line with this subject:


Source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-touch-screens-will-not-take-over
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I don't know, I reckon if you added a decent touchscreen to my laptop here, and gave me a UI that was friendly to touch, I'd end up using it quite a lot as an adjunct to traditional inputs. It might not become a primary input because of arm fatigue and imprecision, but I reckon it would become a useful third way of connecting to my work. A mouse is a fiddly thing to operate; it's just that we're all so used to it, and we require pixel precision.
 
Horses for courses. Leave the touch screen for tablets and phones.
I do NOT want to use a touch screen desktop pc, the mouse is here to stay. I control 2 X 23" monitor space with a mouse in a few square cm. It just works so brilliantly.
Don't fix it if it aint broken.
 
A good example would the blackboard at school. How much text did the teacher actually write, but it was punishment to write out lines on the blackboard -- Bart Simpson. Most lecturers and teachers would use an overhead projector and write on that. The kids and students would use paper books and before that they would use little slate blackboards which were used horizontally on the desk, not vertically.

In addition as someone somewhere said, when u point at the screen your fat finger, hand and arm obscures view. So you have to memorise what's under your finger, and that can change. You can also not get the type of accuracy a mouse pointer is capable off.
 
Nephew_ said:
Horses for courses. Leave the touch screen for tablets and phones.
I do NOT want to use a touch screen desktop pc, the mouse is here to stay. I control 2 X 23" monitor space with a mouse in a few square cm. It just works so brilliantly.
Don't fix it if it aint broken.
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Funny, but you just pointed out the major flaw in MS's reasoning. They did a New Coke on themselves. Don't fix something that is not broken. I still think that the one Option that will be available in Blue (Or whatever they call it, maybe they should codename it after cocktails - Alabama Slammer) - is to install it as either Metro, Desktop or dual mode.
 
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