Windows 8 - 8.1 nicrosoft what were you thinking!

[theheyes]

Microsoft have poor sales figures across all categories, from the tablet to the desktop.

Customers have spoken with their cash. They are not spending it. I doubt Microsoft will stick with this philosophy with Win 9 if this carries on.

But then what else could they have done to innovate? Copy OS X features?

Mac sales are down too, as are iPad sales - significantly. So you're right in the sense that customers have spoken with their spending habits, but the trend is towards inexpensive mini tablets for which Apple have a half-way solution and Microsoft have almost no representation at all.

Abandoning their philosophy won't solve that problem, and neither will it do anything to slow the decline of the desktop market. Windows 8 gets credited with way more influence on the PC market that it deserves considering the industry had stalled before it was even released, and does absolutely nothing to explain declining Mac sales.

Surely Mac sales should have spiked if Apple truly offered a superior solution?

 

[this_is_gav]

Personally, the only thing that bugs me is that they changed it so little. They had the opportunity to completely revamp the old, static, stagnant desktop (merging Metro and the desktop) and they missed it.

That said, Windows 8 doesn't do anything to annoy me. You still launch programs exactly the same (Windows key, type Chrome and Google Chrome launches). Unless you type with one finger, it takes all of a second. How does that differ from Windows 7? The only time I ever see the Metro screen for more than a few seconds is when I can't remember the name of the rarely-used program I'm trying to launch.

The only other negative is how different it is for the non-computer literate, but this is the OcUK forums FFS. And if you're so closed-minded that you still can't adapt to hitting one ****ing key, you either shouldn't be using a computer or go back to your dinosaur cave and come back with a floppy disk with Start8 or something on it.

Microsoft have poor sales figures across all categories, from the tablet to the desktop.

Customers have spoken with their cash. They are not spending it. I doubt Microsoft will stick with this philosophy with Win 9 if this carries on.

But then what else could they have done to innovate? Copy OS X features?

They have poor sales figures for two very good reasons.

1. People are spending less money on buying new laptops and desktops due to the economic position (and except for the business sector, surely 99% of Windows licenses sold are the OEM ones sold with laptops)
2. The real emergence of the affordable tablet, and Microsoft aren't competing there (yet anyway).

I'm not jumping on the obviously trolling OS X comment other than to say that since the iPhone came out (and I might give you reinventing the tablet), surely one of the least innovative companies are Apple? Since then it's just tinkering, taking bits from other OSes and attempting to patent them themselves.

 

[deuse]

Mac sales are down too, as are iPad sales - significantly. So you're right in the sense that customers have spoken with their spending habits, but the trend is towards inexpensive mini tablets for which Apple have a half-way solution and Microsoft have almost no representation at all.

Abandoning their philosophy won't solve that problem, and neither will it do anything to slow the decline of the desktop market. Windows 8 gets credited with way more influence on the PC market that it deserves considering the industry had stalled before it was even released, and does absolutely nothing to explain declining Mac sales.

Surely Mac sales should have spiked if Apple truly offered a superior solution?

I think you will find that most people build their own PC now that's why Pre built PC sales have gone down.

Just look at OCUK sales that tells the true storey.
MS made a big mistake by trying to force people to buy their bad phones then buy win 8 and now the failed tablets.

 

[djkav]

Oh boy, another lets burn Windows 8 at the stake. Its starting to wear thinner than a membrane.

anyone using win 8 or 8.1 will soon get fed up of it. Vista but worse!

I've been using Windows 8 since launch. I game on it, and also use it for my development work. That includes, running IIS, MySQL, MS SQL servers and VS Studio 2012, Photoshop and other apps.

I've not encountered any problems what so ever. I don't really like Metro, but then also, I rarely see it any more. Windows 8 has a fair few improvements with in the Kernal over Win 7.

I have used Windows ME and Vista, and yes the were pants. Windows 8 is not any where near them. I've been using OS's since the BBC Model B and Masters. Spectrums and C64s to Atari STs and Amigas. DOS and Windows 3.1/95/98... etc.

So no I don't get fed up of it. I don't even need to use Start8 or anything like that.

WIN + X or Right Click Bottom Left is all I need to know!

 

[jake108]

Found 8.1 to be better than Windows 8. The UI sucks when you are not using a touchscreen but that can be changed by classicshell.

The under the hood changes are a massive improvement over Windows 7 - especially removing the legacy COM functions and removing those 16bit extensions which haven't really been used since 9x. The performance does feel a lot better than Windows 7 on an APU.

Saying that there is a lot that still annoys me in usability - namely the sometimes schizophrenic control panels and the network components being dumbed down unless you use MMC or click-click-click-click-click. Everything seems to be a wizard of some description which is more than annoying, you can bypass those with powershell.

For general users wouldn't say Windows 8.1 is for them. I can use Windows 8.1 no problem but wouldn't exactly have my parents using it. For most people however it is awkward for them to pickup and use. Windows greatest strengths are compatibility and familiarity; Microsoft broke these in Windows 8+ so there is a learning curve. Part of the issue is this unified UI approach on every device; I use a Windows Phone and my desktop was a nightmare with Windows 8 - didn't translate well to my media centre.

Maybe it will improve on the next-next release of Windows but for now it just feels RAW and unrefined in a lot of ways.

 

[R088ieS86]

I installed Win8 over the weekend and went straight to 8.1.

If you take the time to setup your home app screen with your most used programs then it is very easy to use and get used to.
All the usual keyboard shortcuts exist to get to the core system bits and bobs.

Only issues I ran into were the fact that NVidia control panel didn't work as Win8 downloaded the wrong version. But as it is a test preview I'm not holding that against them.

It is different, if you were looking for the same OS then why even bother to upgrade?
Aero added nothing but graphical problems and was mostly disabled 90% of the time when running games / gpu intensive programs.
Sounds like you want windows 7. Stick with it please.

 

[Glaucus]

Saying that there is a lot that still annoys me in usability - namely the sometimes schizophrenic control panels and the network components being dumbed down unless you use MMC or click-click-click-click-click. Everything seems to be a wizard of some description which is more than annoying, you can bypass those with powershell.

.

Control panel is the same.

As for general users, they seem to love it, as do I. All the power oof windows and running all the software I always have, and all the bonuses and the better UI of android/iOS for those tasks. Mum got a windows tablet and loves it, she put office 2013 on it, family tree maker etc, but still has a modern UI that is far better for media consumption than the old desktop. She literally need about 5mins of coaching.

 

[ShortWarning]

I'll never understand how people on this forum struggle so much with windows 8. It doesn't even really operate any differently, it just looks slightly different.

I can understand that some people don't like the look of the tiles but to me this is a non-issue there are plenty of things I didn't like the look of in all iterations of Windows but I just got on with it.

 

[CMOS]

I still feel for the average desktop user they shoud've just worked off from windows 7, fair enough windows 8 is good for touch screen computer. Not everyone uses touch screen computers though..

 

[Phonesis]

About the only thing I dislike about Windows 8 is the way the bubbles screensaver from Windows 7 no longer appears as an overlay on the Desktop. Instead, the background just becomes a stock colour and the bubbles appear over that. Microsoft defended this by claiming that it was a design decision as a result of the Metro interface. Whenever I see it I just think it was far cooler in Windows 7. That, however, is pretty much my only issue when using it!

 

[stoofa]

I'll never understand how people on this forum struggle so much with windows 8. It doesn't even really operate any differently, it just looks slightly different.

They are the same people who struggled with Office 2007 and the ribbon. The ribbon was the very best thing that happened to Office. Sure there was a learning curve but once you'd spent that time with it, Ribbon was just perfect.
But yet people still moaned.

People get stuck into a rut. The same happened when Windows 95 was released. It was so different to Windows 3 and as a seller of PC's at the time I had so many people choosing Windows 3.11 over Windows 95 at purchase.

Some people just don't like change....and what's worse nobody is being forced to change!
Even when 9 starts appearing and it's more of the same nobody will have to change (certainly not at the moment).
Maybe these people just hope it will go away - but it wont, so might as well get used to it now.

 

[Dicehunter]

Windows 8 is disgusting, Yes the performance improvements are nice but for the tweakers and customizers out there it's horrid.
Not to mention the colour palette makes it look like it was made for someone with the mental age of 8.

 

[PapaLazaru]

This strange hate about the lack of a start button is also totally baffling. You still move your mouse to the bottom left hand corner and click. So far the same. Now instead of having a massive long list of programmes, you have tiles with a little image. This is quicker everytime. You can even rearrange them to suit what you use the most and have them towards the left or whatever you like.

How the hell can it be more complicated?

 

[Elevon]

Oh boy, another lets burn Windows 8 at the stake. Its starting to wear thinner than a membrane.



I've been using Windows 8 since launch. I game on it, and also use it for my development work. That includes, running IIS, MySQL, MS SQL servers and VS Studio 2012, Photoshop and other apps.

I've not encountered any problems what so ever. I don't really like Metro, but then also, I rarely see it any more. Windows 8 has a fair few improvements with in the Kernal over Win 7.

I have used Windows ME and Vista, and yes the were pants. Windows 8 is not any where near them. I've been using OS's since the BBC Model B and Masters. Spectrums and C64s to Atari STs and Amigas. DOS and Windows 3.1/95/98... etc.

So no I don't get fed up of it. I don't even need to use Start8 or anything like that.

WIN + X or Right Click Bottom Left is all I need to know!

Same here been using computers since Commodore 64 days, so got use to DOS 6.22,Win3.11,95,98,2K,XP,Vista,7,8 and Linux etc so can't understand those that think Win8 is hard to use or awkward,its not IMHO and any Windows is 1000000x easier to use then the old DOS days where you had to know how to reassign different types of memory,IRQs etc...I sometimes wonder if the average user has got thicker over the years or wants to be spoon fed every second.

As to Win7 all I can say is get over it,its days are numbered just like Win8 or any OS,either get with the times or get left behind its as simple as that,no OS or UI remains forever .
I use Win8 without any start mod,its not rocket science and don't even use keyboard shortcuts,good old mouse and keyboard which took me two weeks to learn my way around Win8 and for it to seem natural.

I can understand users not liking an operating system etc but don't tell me Win8 is hard to use because the fact is no far from it and yes I've used them all including Linux distros with no computer training at school(calculators were new when I was at school).


I also wonder whats with the start button fixation?...It's just a new modern hybrid OS with different UI and some of you guys go to pieces without a start button ,sad times indeed.
People go to work and can adapt to changes in their working environment but when it comes to an OS they fall to pieces ,I sometimes wonder if we are in the 21st century or back to caveman days.


I look forward to Win9,10 bring them all on with changes or whatever .

 

[Dicehunter]

The main problem people have with Windows 8 is that it was made for mobile devices ergo start screen, Tiles etc...
That BS shouldn't be on a desktop.

 

[PiKe]

It makes supporting Windows 8 an absolute ball ache, every things moved for no reason. Makes a task which took like 2 minutes on 7, take 20 minutes whilst you Google and found out where the sodding option went.

I downright refuse to support Windows 8.

 

[PapaLazaru]

The main problem people have with Windows 8 is that it was made for mobile devices ergo start screen, Tiles etc...
That BS shouldn't be on a desktop.

But the tiles are faster to navigate through?

It boots to 'start', which is tiled, instead of dektop. It is the only difference. It is quicker all round.

 

[Elevon]

But the tiles are faster to navigate through?

It boots to 'start', which is tiled, instead of dektop. It is the only difference. It is quicker all round.

Metro tiles are fine if you bother to customise them and have your programs/stuff organised in columns etc..fact is the old Start button menu(95 to Win7) was not as good,I could only get so many games pinned to it,with Metro I have my games column and listed A to Z and can fit them all on there,also have different columns for different things.

You still have the old desktop UI for desktop shortcuts and pinning to taskbar as well.


It's all down to if you can be bothered to adapt and learn your way around Win8,Metro etc...

I use it as a tool and make Win8 work for me and not the other way around,same principle I use for any OS.

 

[PiKe]

Tiles are also a really inefficient way to use the available screen space, I have no problem double clicking an icon, so what benefit does a great big tile have besides making it better easier to tap on in a touch screen environment?

 

[Elevon]

Tiles are also a really inefficient way to use the available screen space, I have no problem double clicking an icon, so what benefit does a great big tile have besides making it better easier to tap on in a touch screen environment?

You can fit more stuff/programs on screen and have more columns for your needs etc....with the old Win7 start button it was very small.


In some ways Metro is an improvement,I can now organise more stuff then the old way,obviously touch users and those with poor eye sight will get the most gain compared to the old start menu.

Also space is there to be used,pointless being empty,those with widescreens or mutiple monitors can even get more benefit out of it.

The old start button menu (95 to Win7)was small and limited.