Windows 8 - Combining a toaster with a fridge

[AndyD]

Looks like the Start menu is coming back

Microsoft is preparing to reverse course over key elements of its Windows 8 operating system, marking one of the most prominent admissions of failure for a new mass-market consumer product since Coca-Cola’s New Coke fiasco nearly 30 years ago.

“Key aspects” of how the software is used will be changed when Microsoft releases an updated version of the operating system this year, Tami Reller, head of marketing and finance for the Windows business, said in an interview with the Financial Times. Referring to difficulties many users have had with mastering the software, she added: “The learning curve is definitely real.”

Analysts warned that changing course would be a significant admission of failure for Steve Ballmer, chief executive, who called the October launch of Windows 8 a “bet-the-company” moment as Microsoft sought to respond to the success of Apple’s iPad.............

..........The combination PC and tablet software was widely panned by reviewers and has been blamed by some analysts for worsening the slump in sales that has rocked the PC industry. Even before its launch, Tim Cook, chief executive of Apple, said Windows 8 would be like combining a toaster and a fridge – something that, while technically possible, was “probably not going to be pleasing to the user”.

Source

[pmbguy]

The big man must be pissed!

[tec0]

In the end win8 is designed for touchscreen... Thing is not every person can afford one so it looks like a touchscreen but you still need the good old mouse to get around. The cluttered main desktop is sickening and it is a internet junky! With internet caps being an active limitation "in South Africa" it just failed to impress. The OS must not be an internet junky. Also most of the old applications just feels stupid on this platform. I can go on and on...

In a word... It is bad really really bad...

[adrianh]

I still run XP on all my machines and that works just fine. Windows 8 is the biggest mistake Microsoft ever made. They forgot that all their corporate users want to continue using their computers as serious business tools. No company that I know of can afford to replace their pcs and retrain their staff each time Microsoft decides to go ape$h1t on the OS. MS should rather have an OS for the business user, one for the touch screen tablet look alike pc and then one for handhelds. They did actually, XP Pro, XP Standard and Windows CE.

Microsoft claims that people don't want Android because it doesn't have Office....obviously they don't realize that Office sucks bigtime. OpenOffice is just great and there are many free office suites for Android.

[irneb]

The OS must not be an internet junky.

Yep, to me an OS needs to work with the local hardware / software / data as a first item. Web / internet / intranet connection's a secondary "feature". else I would have baught a ChromeBook and be done with it - none of this schizophrenia in an OS for me thanks.

As for running older versions, yes that's an option usually. Unfortunately not always. At the moment some of our programs (most notably Revit) do not work on XP anymore, and since we're on subscription with them - we're not allowed to use old versions (evil license agreements). Not to mention compatibility between old and new data files is not at all possible - so you need to be on the same version as any of the other companies you share data with.

Fortunately it works just fine on W7, though some have stated that they found W8 to perform faster on the same hardware as W7. It's as if W8 is lighter on resources. But I fear MS missed the point with the tiled OS, yes it's "new" and "spangly" and for some items it's even useful / better.

But where the tiled interface does help (e.g. news / weather / other allways-on-apps like a stock-ticker or so) it's nothing new at all. There were lots of similar programs on many (if not all) OS's since at least W95 - in windows they were called "Gagets". I think this is the issue: you get nothing extra only a new way of doing your job which you were used to do in a different way. The point which MS missed is people do NOT like change, so to force a change onto them you have to give them a benefit in that change, else they'll reject it. Change for change's sake is simply not an option.

And I think that is why Windows is now going to revert. They've run into this head-butting wall, and have found that inertia tends to require lots of force before it alters - usually too much force.

[tec0]

I find it very interesting that Windows 8 made the same basic mistake as android. Both OS platforms is now actively on the net at all times. This does not work as our internet is still very expensive. The biggest problem with android is the advertisement on there free software. This forces the user to be online all the time. Also you don't get software at your local store that you can buy and install.

Come to think of it, if Android actually just sell licences for there downloadable software at the local stores then that would already be a step in the right direction as not everyone can get there hands on a credit card. Basically more then HALF of South African users have no banking facility whatsoever That is a massive loss in the end.

As for windows XP pro... Well it was good. And yes almost ALL the basic hardcore systems that I know of is still running on XP pro... Now that is saying something to Microsoft. I also say it is time that Microsoft take a serious look at what the customer need.

[Blurock]

I am still very happy with XP Pro. It seems as if you will have to buy new hardware if you want to upgrade your software. Therein lies the catch!

[adrianh]

Both OS platforms is now actively on the net at all times. This does not work as our internet is still very expensive. The biggest problem with android is the advertisement on there free software. This forces the user to be online all the time.

ABSOLUTE RUBBISH

I use my tablet all the time, on and off the internet. All my free software works when the tablet is not connected to the internet.

Ag nee ou broer, you need to use a tablet before you make such statements. My wife and I both have Galaxy Tab 10.1's and neither of us would trade them for Crapple Ipad's or Windoze 8 machines

[adrianh]

I will only purchase additional machines and not "upgrade" existing machines. It's like having a Land Cruiser, ripping out the dashboard and installing a fancy new touch screen version that doesn't work properly. Rather keep the Cruiser as is and buy an additional new fangled shiny cheapie!

[tec0]

ABSOLUTE RUBBISH

I use my tablet all the time, on and off the internet. All my free software works when the tablet is not connected to the internet.

Ag nee ou broer, you need to use a tablet before you make such statements. My wife and I both have Galaxy Tab 10.1's and neither of us would trade them for Crapple Ipad's or Windoze 8 machines

No i got a Android device... Yes a lot of the software will work but have a look for yourself not all of them will.

Example

[adrianh]

None of my software needs to be connected to the net to work.

[Dave A]

though some have stated that they found W8 to perform faster on the same hardware as W7. It's as if W8 is lighter on resources.

It's the one thing I really liked about Win 8 - it definitely is lighter. A lot lighter.

Compared to Win 7 Pro, it installs super quick (I actually thought the install had crashed, but no - it's just super fast).
It boots up super fast too.
And despite all the active apps by default, it leaves more memory open than Win 7.
It also seemed to open stuff like Outlook, Word, QuickBooks a lot faster too - quite possibly because I was using MS's Bitdefender as the security rather then my usual non-MS options. (Yeah, I know, I checked the comparisons and it's not the strongest defence out there, but none of them are perfect and frankly I think MS is a pretty good future bet as leader on this front one day - they're just in the best position...).

I know all this because I got so pissed off with Win 8 Pro I ended up uninstalling it and loading Win 7 Pro on exactly the same machine, so the comparison / impressions above comes off the same machine.

Going back to a Start menu would get rid of 50% of what ticked me off about Win 8. Trying to remember how to do something as simple as navigate your way to shut down the PC kinda wore me down after a few days. Spreading menus around the screen edges might have seemed like a good idea at the time, but it's not exactly intuition friendly. More like rambling around the woods until you happen on the clearing you're looking for.

The killer blow though was its hopeless Workgroup functionality - which pretty much rendered the machine useless to me in our office network situation.

[irneb]

Another thing is the trends in Windows sales: http://techland.time.com/2013/05/07/...-1985-present/

Clearly W8 is NOT selling as well as W7 did. Not that it's not being bought though, just a lot less. How much is due to the new UI and how much is due to the new fad of tablets / smartphones running iOS/Android is probably another discussion on its own.



To pick up about the Mal-ware on Android. Yes of the free stuff there is 99% cr#p-ware on the Google Play Store, most of which are nothing more than links to a web page, and if not that then those banner ads. But I've seen the exact same thing on the Apple App Store and all the other "app stores". Not to mention, nearly all the "freeware" on anything is in actual fact "Mal-ware" - either some form of ad-ware or worse (theft-ware - stealing your info and/or security, just take Google Docs as an example).

So AFAICT it's not anything limited to Android only, it's more often than not limited to "free"-ware. Very few programmers would spend years on a decent app and expect nothing in return. So either they'd sell the app, or get their money back a different way (anything from ads to physing). Thus far the only thing I've found to be both "free" and "decent" is Open Source programs (and that's on all OS's including PC-based ones). Not all, but at least with FLOSS the source code's available so you can see what's actually happening behind the scenes (tends to stop stuff like physing). Though paid-for apps tend to not have these things, I've seen some which still do some ads and or stealing info - this is usually where I despise the "cloud": all your data is kept by someone else, no matter what "guarantees" they give you've lost control over it, even though you pay for that.

[irneb]

The killer blow though was its hopeless Workgroup functionality - which pretty much rendered the machine useless to me in our office network situation.

So you're saying W8 should only be used in a Domained network? Not a simple Work-group/Home-group network? Now that's irritating! Reminds me of how Vista/W7 didn't want to play well with XP and not at all with W2k/NT.

[Dave A]

So you're saying W8 should only be used in a Domained network? Not a simple Work-group/Home-group network?

I could set a Homegroup, but the Workgroup options just wasn't there. At first I thought I'd been sold Home or Basic editions, but sure enough, these were Pro editions, and should have had proper work network functionality.

I worked all the usual online MS support channels for 2 days - they simply didn't have a solution for if the "Set Workgroup" option wasn't there. And I wasn't going to reconfigure everything else on the Workgoup to try to work around it.

Error or mission creep on MS's part I don't know, but my solution in the end was dump it.