Windows 8 Metro, duh!!

[DarkWolf]

Metro may go the way of KDE.

KDE's Plasma desktop lets you switch between desktop and tablet mode.

Maybe I shouldn't have typed that, now MS's spider bot will see that and push the code into the next beta.

I for one can't wait till tablets are dead.

Probably the most useless device concieved. I don't see the difference between them and iPhones other than size. Neither could be used for any actual development or production. When I need to "do" something how can I do it on a tablet/smartphone ?

Other than facebook (which seems to be what everything is designed for now) all you can do is watch video, listen to music or throw birds at pigs.

Could I really finish a radio shecmatic with an iPhone or type a dissertation on a tablet ? How about code for an embedded Freescale system ? Upload it too ? Paint like Bob Ross, I saw that in one of iPads commercials, there is no way it can be done. If you watch closely the brush actually used by the actor is too big and the wrong color for the painting.

PC's are dead RIP 2011

So much for getting shit done. Oooo is there an app for wiping my ass ? Maybe I could actually get some use out of it after all.

[donkey]

Well, after a month or so playing with Windows 8 I have to say it's annoying, frustrating and virtually unuseable. Navigating your PC is counter-intuitive, having to hit ctrl-alt-del in order to get a shut-down option is just stupid and though Metro seems to work well on a smart-phone, on a general purpose PC it's seriously flawed. The fact is that I will not go out and buy a touch screen because I'm not likely to hold it in my hand and stabbing at it across the desk I'm more ikely use a fist than a finger after knocking the monitor over 6 times a day trying to select something. The spread to zoom is fine for tablets and phones but seriously, it even looks awkward on CNN where they do it every election. The new "metro" start menu is useless, I didn't bother to find out how to add anything to it though from my experience with the rest of the OS I think I would rather a trip to the dentist than attempt to accomplish what should be a simple task. Dialogs kept disappearing as soon as you would select something, for example when setting up my network, I would select a drop-down combo and the dialog would disappear leaving the drop-down stranded on the desktop. It continually drops computers from its network list, sometimes in the middle of an operation, though this might be just an evaluation edition problem. Finally, the context menus which have been a part of the Windows GUI standard since the start are now missing items that have been there since Windows 3.x, I have no examples since I was too frustrated to make any more notes by that time.

At any rate my rating for Windows 8 and Metro:

:tdown  :tdown  :tdown  :tdown  :tdown

5 thumbs down out of 2.

Edgar

[Bill Cravener]

Win 8, yes it will be fun to play with except when it comes down to doing any real work with it. Here's a good yet brief read on Win 8 in regards to business use. I do not believe it will ever sell in the business world. :tdown

The question is what the new OS brings that's new or better than what we already have. This was the question we were led to expect would be answered today. The half-heartedness of the answer suggests that, ominously for Windows 8, Microsoft doesn't have an enterprise-friendly ace up its sleeve.

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2012/03/06/windows-8-what-benefits-for-business/

[GregL]

Windows 8 Consumer Preview

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/consumer-preview

Released on February 29, 2012

[Bill Cravener]

Look how hard it has been for MS to move people from XP to Windows 7 Aero. Now how do you think folks will take to a version of Windows that doesn't know what it wants to be when it grows up?

When you think of the history of Windows (perhaps with Windows 8 they should change the name to Metro 1) Microsoft's Windows versions beginning with Windows 3.0 went something like this: Windows 95 (a great improvement!), Windows 98 (wasn't worth the upgrade from 95), Windows 2000 (a terrific improvement and still used by small businesses), Windows ME (a total and complete dud), Windows XP (very good OS and still very popular), Windows Vista (oh boy, what the hell happened?), Windows 7 (wow, I think they may have finally gotten it right!), Windows 8 (what the phuk, have they completely lost their minds this time?).

So it goes something like this;

Windows 95: :thumbu

Windows 98: :tdown

Windows 2000: :thumbu

Windows ME: :tdown

Windows XP: :thumbu

Windows Vista: :tdown

Windows 7: :thumbu

Windows 8: Yep, you guessed it! :tdown :tdown :tdown :tdown

There's a quote I read somewhere that said it best; "Trying to make everybody happy will make nobody happy."

[Vortex]

Hi Bill,

About your comments, I agree with you 100%  :U

[donkey]

There's a quote I read somewhere that said it best; "Trying to make everybody happy will make nobody happy."

I think this is more a case of trying to make their shareholders happy. Current OS trends show a diminishing market share for the Windows desktop. Windows is losing ground (around 3% in the last year to ~85%), this is a disturbing trend for Microsoft, the rise of MacOS and iOS and the domination of the tablet market by Apple has them looking forward to a steady decline. Microsoft's great hope is that once Windows 8 is firmly entrenched in the PC and Laptop market consumers will select it as the OS of choice for embedded devices as well. Its a matter of where they see the computer market in the next ten years, not the last ten years (though I personally believe they have overestimated the long term popularity of tablets). Microsoft is just trying to position itself for what it sees as the market of the future and to finally make some headway in those markets where it has been disastrously inept (tablets and smart phones).

[jj2007]

Microsoft's great hope is that once Windows 8 is firmly entrenched in the PC and Laptop market consumers will select it as the OS of choice for embedded devices as well.

I am afraid Microsoft's logic is the other way round: "Try using this computer, it's so easy, it works exactly like your phone!".

Remember computer users are a minority...

[dedndave]

Bill - you forgot OS/2 and windows NT(4)   :bg
and - win98 wasn't so bad

ME and vista sucked rox - lol

[donkey]

I am afraid Microsoft's logic is the other way round: "Try using this computer, it's so easy, it works exactly like your phone!".

Remember computer users are a minority...

Not really, Microsoft is getting killed in the embedded market, they need something to push phone and tablet users toward their OSes and away from Apple and Android. Not an easy task as is evident with WP7's mediocre sales performance.

[anunitu]

I really can see the idea of making the win8 two separate forks in development for different hardware.

[Bill Cravener]

Least we forget a very large chunk of Microsoft's clientele involves the business world. Look at the facts, businesses haven't traded in their XP machines for Vista in droves nor have they flocked to Windows 7. Not only would moving to Vista or Windows 7 require hardware upgrades for many businesses a good many proprietary applications would have to be redesigned in order to work. It's certain that a change to Windows 8 could have similar repercussions. And let's not forget the costs in retraining employees how to use the new Metro 1 OS. Microsoft has a very tough job ahead of itself in convincing people and businesses to move to Windows 8. When you think about it they have to beat back three threats all at the same time, that being the iPad, the Mac, and the potential indifference among businesses.

I've also read that there is a chance that neither Chrome, Firefox nor other browsers will be allowed to run on Windows 8 tablets. Gregg Keizer of Computeworld notes that Firefox will use the existing Gecko libraries to build the Metro version of Firefox, but he warns that the browser will not run on Windows Arm.

I think MS is giving too much importance to the tablet market and little to who made them the great empire they are today, that being the business and personal PC markets. As I quoted they are trying to please everyone but in the end they may (as they have done in the past) disappoint everyone.

Here's a good read. Be sure and watch the video of Chris Pirillo's dad trying to use Windows 8 on a desktop.

http://www.lockergnome.com/windows/2012/03/15/why-cant-microsoft-afford-a-failure-with-windows-8/


Dave, Windows 98 sucked! And I was thinking Windows 2000 and NT4 as pretty much the same likeable beasts. :bg

[anunitu]

Win98 was in my memory a reboot every few hours thing,with Win2000 it can be reboot every few days,and I imagine XP has a better record as to having to reboot.

[Gunner]

"They trying to drive me to Mac?"  LMFAO!

They got Win 7 right, now they want to undo all that?  7 is very stable and I will be sticking with it for many years to come.

[donkey]

I think MS is giving too much importance to the tablet market and little to who made them the great empire they are today, that being the business and personal PC markets. As I quoted they are trying to please everyone but in the end they may (as they have done in the past) disappoint everyone.

Even the article you posted gives a little too much importance to them  :bg

84% of companies polled plan to buy tablets in the next quarter.

The article he was referring to actually said:

A total of 84pc of companies planning to buy tablets next quarter now say they'll purchase iPads

Later it says:

The ChangeWave Research survey of 1,604 business IT buyers also revealed that 22pc of companies will be buying tablet computers for their employees during Q2 2012.