For MrRipley

[ACE]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/330c8b8e-b66b-11e2-93ba-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2SaQWst2b

Saw this while surfing the internet.  

[Chalenge]

When I saw it I thought of my typography instructor that insisted Windows 8 was the ultimate in design for appeal to users of all ages and demographics.

[ACE]

Is the link still working?  On my phone it is wanting me to sign up to something. On actual machines it worked fine when I was on it earlier. 

[Chalenge]

It tries to push a popup, maybe that's what you are getting.

[ACE]

Maybe.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/330c8b8e-b66b-11e2-93ba-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2SaQWst2b

Saw this while surfing the internet.  

And? As I said the user interface can be a bit annoying but it's personal preference. I had no troubles at all learning and living with it - but then again I've had to learn not only windows but OSX and several linux desktops, AmigaOS etc. during the years. The core of Windows8 will not change to anything, it will still be an improved version of Windows7.

I find it sad really how many people know nothing but windows.

PS: I read about the subject of this article a day or two ago already.

[Blammo]

Not sure what people are so upset about.  I got my new laptop just last week with Windows 8 Pro.  Yes, the interface is different (about as different as Windows 95 was from Windows 3.1), but people made that transition.  I am not sure why people are so stuck in the mud about this one.  It took me about an hour to get used to navigating and how things work and of course I still look for the start button all the time, but no wonder after all these years of having it.

Personally, I just think MS should stick with it and move forward.  In a year it will be the standard.

Some people (including me) just don't like change.  This time I just butched up and little and took the plunge.  So far my experience (other than getting used to the new interface) has been positive.

[Bizman]

I think most of us reading and commenting these threads have no problems learning a new interface. But what about our parents and grandparents? Not to mention the vast masses of AH players who constantly ask why a sub $500 laptop with an Intel video chip isn't working like a perfect gaming machine just because it's new.

Computers and their operating systems would evolve much faster if all their users had the capability to adapt to the novelties. Just think about the floppy disk: The latest common variation, 1.44Mb, was widely used for twenty years. As late as about five years ago a tech editor recommended a floppy drive and bootable floppies for recovery purposes, not to mention the early SATA drives which needed floppy based drivers during Windows installation.

We aren't all in the same train, and some people even stay at the station...

[MrRiplEy[H]]

I think most of us reading and commenting these threads have no problems learning a new interface. But what about our parents and grandparents? Not to mention the vast masses of AH players who constantly ask why a sub $500 laptop with an Intel video chip isn't working like a perfect gaming machine just because it's new.

Computers and their operating systems would evolve much faster if all their users had the capability to adapt to the novelties. Just think about the floppy disk: The latest common variation, 1.44Mb, was widely used for twenty years. As late as about five years ago a tech editor recommended a floppy drive and bootable floppies for recovery purposes, not to mention the early SATA drives which needed floppy based drivers during Windows installation.

We aren't all in the same train, and some people even stay at the station...

My uncle who has 5 thumbs for fingers was positively surprised when he saw Windows8 for the first time after I replaced his pirated and infected XP with the cheap Win8 offer. He has had a Windows phone for some time and Win8 had the same familiar tile interface like his phone. I suspect that the reaction will be the same for many windows phone owners. Of course those are not plentiful...

But the fact that there are now rumors on Apple changing iOS7 to a tile interface also mean that Win8/Mobile is not all bad.

[Skuzzy]

The user interface is a pathetic excuse for a desktop design.  It is not that great for a mobile design either, considering how much better and easier it could have been.

Accepting and/or defending mediocrity, as being appropriate, ends up being all you get. Personally, I will not accept mediocrity as a standard.  It has nothing to do with being different.  The user interface is a bad design.

Windows 8 still has many problems and shortcomings compared to Windows 7, no matter how many times anyone claims it is better.  Stupid things. like not remembering/recording settings, as Windows 7, or even XP did, is simply ludicrous.

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, said Windows 8 is akin to trying to merge the functionality of a toaster and a refrigerator together.  Sure, it can be done, but how useful is it?

Intel retired CEO Paul Otellini said, Windows 8 is not ready.  It has too many problems for any business to consider it as a viable solution.


For the desktop, it is a BAD design.  Why anyone would defend it as being anything other than that, for the desktop, is quite beyond me.  Even the designer of the interface has finally admitted it is not the best approach for the current desktop.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

The user interface is a pathetic excuse for a desktop design.  It is not that great for a mobile design either, considering how much better and easier it could have been.

Accepting and/or defending mediocrity, as being appropriate, ends up being all you get. Personally, I will not accept mediocrity as a standard.  It has nothing to do with being different.  The user interface is a bad design.

Windows 8 still has many problems and shortcomings compared to Windows 7, no matter how many times anyone claims it is better.  Stupid things. like not remembering/recording settings, as Windows 7, or even XP did, is simply ludicrous.

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, said Windows 8 is akin to trying to merge the functionality of a toaster and a refrigerator together.  Sure, it can be done, but how useful is it?

Intel retired CEO Paul Otellini said, Windows 8 is not ready.  It has too many problems for any business to consider it as a viable solution.


For the desktop, it is a BAD design.  Why anyone would defend it as being anything other than that, for the desktop, is quite beyond me.  Even the designer of the interface has finally admitted it is not the best approach for the current desktop.

Sure Win8 has some quirks and annoyances but it also has many improvements. Faster bootup, leaner running system, improved file copying etc. As with all new versions the problematic parts will be updated without a doubt. Windows blue has been rumored to bring the start menu back for example.

The main point is that Win8 is far from being unusable or bad. It works exceptionally well for gaming use - especially if you compare it to the alternatives OSX or linux

[Skuzzy]

Sure Win8 has some quirks and annoyances but it also has many improvements. Faster bootup, leaner running system, improved file copying etc. As with all new versions the problematic parts will be updated without a doubt. Windows blue has been rumored to bring the start menu back for example.

The main point is that Win8 is far from being unusable or bad. It works exceptionally well for gaming use - especially if you compare it to the alternatives OSX or linux

Faster bootup

The Windows 8 box we have in our office boots much slower (80%) than my personal Windows 7 box does.  Same hardware.

leaner running system

My personal Windows 7 box uses less resources than our Windows 8 box does, by about 15%.  My system also runs games better (i.e. smoother, better frame rates....).

improved file copying

Explain this one as my home system copies faster than the Windows 8 system does.  Looking at the system binaries, I can find no differences, in this area.  My system is only slightly faster, and that is due to the reduced overhead of my system.  The filesystem code is identical as well.  Windows 8 added the "Any user" back into the security defaults, where Windows 7 had removed it.  Easy to add that back though, if needed (sharing).


My point being, Windows 7 could be made to do everything as well as Windows 8 does.  It really is not that different.  If an end user can make it happen, then it would be trivial for Microsoft to do so as well.  Therein lies the problem.  For all its hype, Windows 8 does not deliver anything more than Windows 7 could and takes away a number of things Windows 7 provides out of the box.

[ACE]

I don't want to have to login to Facebook and many other social networks just to be able to do anything with Win. (End Sarcasm). The interface for 8 is awful. You seem to be only seeing the positive things about it.  Your looking at it from a Win/Win situation.  If you are going to argue about it at least see both sides of it.  I'm sure you will say you do.  However, it doesn't seem to be that way. 

[Blammo]

I think most of us reading and commenting these threads have no problems learning a new interface. But what about our parents and grandparents? Not to mention the vast masses of AH players who constantly ask why a sub $500 laptop with an Intel video chip isn't working like a perfect gaming machine just because it's new.

No offense intended, but if we follow that logic we would all still be on DOS or Windows 3.1.  Technology can't advance at the pace of the slowest adopter or it will never advance.

In general I think most people are letting their personal preferences and natural resistance to change bias their opinion.  Does Windows 8 need more work?  Of course...what Windows OS since 95 didn't need additional tweaking and improving.  Is the interface different and hard to get used to?  Absolutely, but the desktop is only a click away and otherwise the interface is very customizable.  Is it the worst/most mediocre ever?  Hardly.  Anyone remember Vista or Millennium?

My personal experience with it so far has been that it is faster and more stable than Windows 7 machines I have compared it against.

I don't see how any of this is accepting or defending mediocrity.  It is what it is.  It will be improved upon as every other release of Windows has in the past.  No, it isn't Windows 7 or even Windows XP (which was a pretty strong workstation OS), but it is far from junk or bad (regardless of what the pundits say).

DISCLAIMER: My experience with Windows 8 is limited because I just started working with it last week.  Perhaps I haven't run into all this terrible badness and mediocrity that is being talked about...

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Faster bootup

The Windows 8 box we have in our office boots much slower (80%) than my personal Windows 7 box does.  Same hardware.

leaner running system

My personal Windows 7 box uses less resources than our Windows 8 box does, by about 15%.  My system also runs games better (i.e. smoother, better frame rates....).

improved file copying

Explain this one as my home system copies faster than the Windows 8 system does.  Looking at the system binaries, I can find no differences, in this area.  My system is only slightly faster, and that is due to the reduced overhead of my system.  The filesystem code is identical as well.  Windows 8 added the "Any user" back into the security defaults, where Windows 7 had removed it.  Easy to add that back though, if needed (sharing).


My point being, Windows 7 could be made to do everything as well as Windows 8 does.  It really is not that different.  If an end user can make it happen, then it would be trivial for Microsoft to do so as well.  Therein lies the problem.  For all its hype, Windows 8 does not deliver anything more than Windows 7 could and takes away a number of things Windows 7 provides out of the box.

You have admitted tweaking your Win7 setup extensively and now you compare it to vanilla Win8  

It does not matter if an end user can make this or that happen, it's NOT happening to any vanilla Win7 user and will not happen without huge research and years of your kind of experience. You're totally comparing apples to oranges. The fact that Win8 performs in many ways as good as your extensively tweaked Win7 box speaks volumes on how good out of the box experience it provides!

You're losing your credibility there, nothing else.

About the file copy...

File copy experience

Microsoft has significantly enhanced the file copy experience in Windows 8, making it both faster and easier to use. If you’re familiar with file copying from previous Windows versions, you know that each file (and move) operation creates its own copy or move window, and that each subsequent operation slows everything down to a crawl.

This no longer happens in Windows 8. All file copies and moves now occur in a single window in which you can pause any copy or move processes if you’d like to give precedence to another operation. And file copies and moves occur much more quickly than before, even when you have multiple file operations going at once. File copy/move conflicts are also handled in a far more elegant fashion that before, with simpler remediation.

This along native ability to mount .iso and .vhd images show significant improvements over Win7.