As we approach the release of Windows 8

Caged said:
I think businesses (by that I mean corporates, not your mum's flower shop) will always move slower than glaciers when it comes to how they do computing. This is unlikely to change any time soon, and I'm not sure it's a healthy attitude to aspire to.
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They always have and always will. As they have to go through several stages. So I'm not sure what your point is?
 
inogen said:
I still use the Start button and won't be using Windows 8 until I can use a Win 7 style start menu and login directly to the desktop view.

I've tried Win 8 on a VM, I quite like it, but won't be using it until I have those options. I expect someone will build a mod. I've tried Classic Shell, which is fine but it's an XP menu not Win 7.
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Close enough?

http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/
 
I use the start menu like 100 times a day, so I won't be upgrading. The start menu has been there for many years and millions of people use it, so why change it.

I'm trying to imagine explaining to my 79 yer old grandad on the phone how to use metro compared to when I say "click start (the bottom left icon), then all programs......"
 
Could it be that the people here still using the Start Menu are the ones stuck in the past? :p

Microsoft doesn't care that not all businesses will upgrade straight away. They expect and know that. Windows 8 is a "path finding and paving" release just like Win95 was. It's going to show people that there is a different way to use a computer. The majority of these more casual users of Windows will be more at home with a touchscreen tablet device anyway.
 
NathanE said:
Could it be that the people here still using the Start Menu are the ones stuck in the past? :p

Microsoft doesn't care that not all businesses will upgrade straight away. They expect and know that. Windows 8 is a "path finding and paving" release just like Win95 was. It's going to show people that there is a different way to use a computer. The majority of these more casual users of Windows will be more at home with a touchscreen tablet device anyway.
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Maybe we are stuck in the past, but I think it will be Microsoft's undoing. In my opinion vista's public image was destroyed by word of mouth, starting with the nerds. Nerds talk amongst themselves and agree that it's a poor operating system, they pass this knowledge onto their computer illiterate friends and family with little justification and before you know it you have another vista.
 
A good blog post about Microsoft's position with Windows 8 by Jeff Atwood here - http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/07/betting-the-company-on-windows-8.html

Jeff Atwood said:
I'd argue that the last truly revolutionary version of Windows was Windows 95. In the subsequent 17 years, we've seen a stream of mostly minor and often inconsequential design changes in Windows – at its core, you've got the same old stuff: a start menu, a desktop with icons, taskbar at the bottom, overlapping windows, toolbars, and pull-down menus.

Windows 7 may be bigger, prettier, and more refined – finally, a proper sequel to Windows XP – but it's also safe. Rote. Familiar. Maybe a little too safe.

Windows 95 was a big deal because it innovated, because it was a break from the status quo. It sold 40 million copies in a year. It marked the coming of age of the Wintel beige box PC hegemony, and in the process dealt a near death blow to Apple and its rapidly aging System 7 OS.

But we all know how that story ends – with the iPhone in 2007, and most of all the iPad in 2010, Apple popularized the idea of simple touch computing surfaces that are now defining the Post-PC Era. The best way to predict the future is to invent it. And to their credit, Apple did; that is why their star is ascendant. Kind of absurdly scarily ascendant, actually....

more
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Microsoft have decided that it's time for Windows to move with the times.
 
I really do like parts of Windows 8 like the improved Task Manager which was long over due but there is just too much that I don't like:
  1. Ribbon in Windows Explorer - for people who use Office a lot then this is fine but I hardly ever use Office if at all and find this ribbon hard to use to find stuff that I want compared to how it is in W7.
  2. Logon - why should I have to use an email to be able to downloads apps and stuff I just want to get to my machine for crying out loud! If I want to download stuff later then fine but don't make me choose at logon.
  3. Metro - I don't have a tablet I have a desktop PC so why should I have the same interface that a tablet uses? I shouldn't!
Stoner81.
 
Stoner81 said:
I really do like parts of Windows 8 like the improved Task Manager which was long over due but there is just too much that I don't like:
  1. Ribbon in Windows Explorer - for people who use Office a lot then this is fine but I hardly ever use Office if at all and find this ribbon hard to use to find stuff that I want compared to how it is in W7.
  2. Logon - why should I have to use an email to be able to downloads apps and stuff I just want to get to my machine for crying out loud! If I want to download stuff later then fine but don't make me choose at logon.
  3. Metro - I don't have a tablet I have a desktop PC so why should I have the same interface that a tablet uses? I shouldn't!
Stoner81.
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  1. Not really looked at this, maybe theres a setting to hide it.
  2. The login is part of the cloud windows settings. It should allow you to log on to another Win8 PC and you get all your settings applied. Also, I didn't have to keep entering my email to log in. Only did it once at set up.
  3. Metro - Yep, I'm not the worlds biggest fan either!
 
djkav said:
  1. Not really looked at this, maybe theres a setting to hide it.
  2. The login is part of the cloud windows settings. It should allow you to log on to another Win8 PC and you get all your settings applied. Also, I didn't have to keep entering my email to log in. Only did it once at set up.
  3. Metro - Yep, I'm not the worlds biggest fan either!
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  1. I hope so I really do I just don't like it at all :(
  2. This I think it just that it is a lot different than previous versions of Windows but I still don't like it. I am not adverse to change when the change is a good thing but in this case I just don't see it. The world is obsessed at the moment by cloud and I never use it, though in time that might change but I doubt it.
  3. I know the feeling well, the less said about this POS the better.
Stoner81.
 
Pigeon_Killer said:
Who's trashing Windows 8? As far as I can tell it's literally just Metro people have a problem with, not the actual O/S. I'm sure it'll offer a number of improvements over Windows 7 but will 99% of those improvements ever be noticed by a normal Windows user?
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lots of people are, there's a large amount of people commenting in windows 8 threads on this forum stating they wont buy win8 mostly because of metro.
 
I hear a lot of average joes talking positively about Windows 8 and Surface. I've been genuinely surprised how positive some of the comments are. These are the same people that were talking negatively of Vista before it had even launched.
 
Stoner81 said:
I really do like parts of Windows 8 like the improved Task Manager which was long over due but there is just too much that I don't like:
  1. Ribbon in Windows Explorer - for people who use Office a lot then this is fine but I hardly ever use Office if at all and find this ribbon hard to use to find stuff that I want compared to how it is in W7.
  2. Logon - why should I have to use an email to be able to downloads apps and stuff I just want to get to my machine for crying out loud! If I want to download stuff later then fine but don't make me choose at logon.
  3. Metro - I don't have a tablet I have a desktop PC so why should I have the same interface that a tablet uses? I shouldn't!
Stoner81.
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1. There is a little arrow/chevron you can use to hide the Explorer ribbon.
2. You're not forced to use a email address, you can create a simple local account as before (although the UI encourages you to do the former)

Stoner81 said:
This I think it just that it is a lot different than previous versions of Windows but I still don't like it. I am not adverse to change when the change is a good thing but in this case I just don't see it. The world is obsessed at the moment by cloud and I never use it, though in time that might change but I doubt it.
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I'm not 100% cloud convinced either but the whole Microsoft account thing is done quite well. I'm guessing you use web based email? Cloud service. Logging into Windows with your email address and having your email/calendar/contacts/skydrive just ready to go is really convenient.
 
My company released a Metro-styled application this year (been in development for a year before or so) but the irony is it won't run on the most popular touchscreen devices (Android/iOS). Worth remembering that the Metro theme is about more than just ease of use on mobile devices it is also intended to give a lean typographical interface and when considering UX design it was a popular suggestion. I can see there being a danger of people thinking Metro = touchscreen pane type interfaces in Windows 8 when it is actually more wide-reaching than that.
 
|Thomas| said:
Maybe we are stuck in the past, but I think it will be Microsoft's undoing. In my opinion vista's public image was destroyed by word of mouth, starting with the nerds. Nerds talk amongst themselves and agree that it's a poor operating system, they pass this knowledge onto their computer illiterate friends and family with little justification and before you know it you have another vista.
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I lost count of the number of people who said "Vista is awful" and then when I asked if they had ever used it, they had not. Word of mouth unfairly destroyed it. I have one machine using it, and it is fine, I like it a lot. Windows 7 is better yes, especially on machines with less RAM. I like that too. But with enough RAM, I can happliy use Vista all day long.

I will buy W8. Any news on if and when MS will open a cheap pre-order like they did with W7 ?
 
Microsoft confirm August Win 8 RTM

Today in Toronto, Canada, at Microsoft’s annual Worldwide Partner Conference, Windows Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Financial Officer Tami Reller spoke to thousands of partners from around the world. She shared some exciting new details regarding Windows that I wanted to pass along.
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More from the link below,

http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive/2012/07/09/upcoming-windows-milestones-shared-with-partners-at-wpc.aspx?Loc=zTS2z&prod=zWin8z
 
I've never skipped any windows release but i will be skipping this one. It was obviously designed with tablet users in mind, it just doesn't work in a desktop environment.
 
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