Windows 8 Adoption Poor

[reflux]

Yes, Windows 8 has been designed for Joe Consumer above all else but that shouldn’t at any point have diluted the focus on people like myself who depend on it every day for PRODUCTIVITY. And that’s a vital computing paradigm that, despite all Steve Jobs’ “post-pc” rubbish is not going to go away any time soon.

Fact is, whilst overall I think W8 is pretty good, Metro gives me NOTHING whatsoever of importance. It’s clumsy, confusing and badly implemented. Start8 meanwhile gives me all the advantages of W8 without any of the guff. And I don’t lose an entire monitor to the Start screen every time I want to launch a program.

Plus Jakob Nielsen hates it, and when he doesn't like something there's usually a good reason: http://www.nngroup.com/articles/windows-8-disappointing-usability/

 

[Elevon]

You're a massive drama queen. Please stop crying like a fanboy after my posts, it's a little lame.

If you really need to now I'm a tinkering, I build all my own pcs, I've run every OS since win 3.1, I've had android/psion/windows mobile/iOS smartphones. I still think Win 8 is a poor. Mostly because I want to use my OS as I like, and not roll over for a cheap reskin of a very good OS that makes it less useful.

Now if you want to single out me again kindly bring some debate rather than trolling.

I can respect anybody not liking any OS,I do think Win8 was a start in a new direction for Microsoft and hopefully it will evolve over time and be improved ,the big question still remains however, will Microsoft stay on a hybrid OS?...guess only time will tell.

The only two operating systems I did not like were Win3.11(die hard DOS fan back then) and WinME.

 

[Glaucus]

The point is you should not need to.... Maybe a customer survey before the came up with the great idea of removing a key experience and function that has been a mainstay for years

They had to.
Choice is all well and good, however they don't always have a choice. They needed people to use metro otherwise no one would change and no one would develop apps for it.
As showen many people actually like metro after a few weeks, just check out the main thread and how many people have changed their opinion.
People seem to totally ignore the fact that desktop sales are failing, MS are no longer the main player. There are far far more touch mobile devices than there are desktops.
MS were very late to the game but they very much did the right thing, they had to, or die like Nokia did in the short term.
People who say win8 failed due to metro really are blind.
Win8 was never going to revitalise desktops, it was never going to happen. Companies weren't going to use it, it takes years to do testing and roll out. Public aren't going to buy desktops, desktops don't need upgrading like they used to and those that do swap are swapping for mobile devices.
However the once group that does still upgrade (gamers) is proving very popular, it has over 10% marketshare for that demographic (steam stats).
What MS and OEMs have utterly failed on is tablets/laptops, it's absolutely dismal and this is where they should off been making some headway in marketshare. But there's just nothing available. I wanted a tablet, nope nothing available, the pro still isn't out. Even then the stuff which is out is hardly comparable to the competition. 1366x766 resolutions, lack of 3G/4g, tegra 3s end.
So I gave up on a tablet and started looking at laptops, could I find one with a dedicated gfx card and a touch screen, nope not a chance, unless I wanted to spend over 1k.


mobile platforms are the future, desktops although will always be around, the bottom has fallen out of the market, that has little to do with the OS.

 

[gareth170]

it wouldn't matter if Metro was gone or whatever Microsoft changed you would complain about it.

I've said this many times before. even if MS didn't put metro in win8, people would still complain about something else, it happens with every new release.

 

[V F]

You're a massive drama queen. Please stop crying like a fanboy after my posts, it's a little lame.

If you really need to now I'm into tinkering, I build all my own pcs, I've run every OS since win 3.1, I've had android/psion/windows mobile/iOS smartphones. I still think Win 8 is a poor. Mostly because I want to use my OS as I like, and not roll over for a cheap reskin of a very good OS that makes it less useful.

Now if you want to single out me again kindly bring some debate rather than trolling.

I'm a drama queen? a fanboy? LoL! is anyone else laughing at this? oh dear.

You know, I'm quite honoured in the fact from the past 14 - 15 years it's the first time anyone has ever called me a fanboy.

 

[gareth170]

Minstadave u should look at yourself mate before calling someone a drama queen and a fanboy..

 

[marc2003]

I've said this many times before. even if MS didn't put metro in win8, people would still complain about something else, it happens with every new release.

yes, i remember well everybody whinging about 7 when it came out.

 

[James J]

The best thing about Windows 8 is this handy little menu, hover over the bottom left hand corner until the start picture shows up, then right click to get this menu to display

I didn't even know that existed! :O

Things just got interesting

 

[_Jimlad_]

I've asked you this a couple of times Jim and sorry to ask again but i'd love to get to the bottom of this perception of massive retraining program required for 8.

Install W8, remove all the metro apps for people that don't need them so the start screen is just a list of their normal win32 apps, disable the store in group policy if required, explain to them that when they start the PC they get a full screen menu of all their programs straight in front of them without even having to go rummaging through sub menus in "all programs" and although there's no blue dot on the desktop just move to the bottom from left corner the same as always to get the start list of programs again. Hell, even pin outlook etc to the desktop & task bar.

Enable metro, apps etc for the staff (task workers/exec/information workers etc) that need a touch / tablet device and manage them with normal group policy/sccm/antivirus/bitlocker etc the same as the rest of the estate rather than IT having to try to use mdm solutions to manage ipads etc for some staff.

I'm genuinely interested, what is the extensive retraining program you see there?

I work for one of the worlds biggest companies. Head office in the UK have more than 3500 users alone. Windows 8 is very different from what users have had in the past. NT, 2000, XP and windows7 they all had the default route to programs. It was deemed and righty so that to bring in windows8 would mean loads of work for the IT team and retraining for the staff. So much of windows8 is for home and leisure... With windows xp and 7 we had the classic theme. No training was needed for staff when going from xp to seven. As classic theme is almost the same. Windowa8 does not offer that. is that a good enough reason ?

Remember we have many users and some are knocking on retirement age... Just because you and I find windows 8 easy does not mean everyone will

Again. I don't mind win8 and use it. But I wanted a classic theme for business use

 

[Elevon]

I didn't even know that existed! :O

Things just got interesting

Even better use this http://winaero.com/comment.php?comment.news.30

It allows you to use Win+X menu as normal but can add programs to it or use default ones included.

 

[Elevon]

I work for one of the worlds biggest companies. Head office in the UK have more than 3500 users alone. Windows 8 is very different from what users have had in the past. NT, 2000, XP and windows7 they all had the default route to programs. It was deemed and righty so that to bring in windows8 would mean loads of work for the IT team and retraining for the staff. So much of windows8 is for home and leisure... With windows xp and 7 we had the classic theme. No training was needed for staff when going from xp to seven. As classic theme is almost the same. Windowa8 does not offer that. is that a good enough reason ?

Remember we have many users and some are knocking on retirement age... Just because you and I find windows 8 easy does not mean everyone will

Again. I don't mind win8 and use it. But I wanted a classic theme for business use

I'm curious,anybody here remember the Win 3.11 transition to Win95 in offices,how easy was it for office users,also was the feedback positive?..guess only old timers would know that worked in offices back then.

As a home user back then I was sort of happy(big improvement over Win3.11 IMHO) but very sad DOS was going since I started on good old DOS.

 

[Infidelus]

I'm curious,anybody here remember the Win 3.11 transition to Win95 in offices,how easy was it for office users,also was the feedback positive?..guess only old timers would know that worked in offices back then.

As a home user back then I was sort of happy(big improvement over Win3.11 IMHO) but very sad DOS was going since I started on good old DOS.

Can't imagine many offices went to Windows 95. NT4 more likely.

I remember doing the rollout for that, and there were lots of people moaning, although it was mostly because they wouldn't be able to play networked Hearts anymore, that and the File Manager

 

[_Jimlad_]

You are not seeing the big picture. Its geared up for home use. Thing like the charms and mouse gestures? The whole social hub side and other crap would leave the IT department in tatters

 

[Macro]

I work for one of the worlds biggest companies. Head office in the UK have more than 3500 users alone. Windows 8 is very different from what users have had in the past. NT, 2000, XP and windows7 they all had the default route to programs. It was deemed and righty so that to bring in windows8 would mean loads of work for the IT team and retraining for the staff. So much of windows8 is for home and leisure... With windows xp and 7 we had the classic theme. No training was needed for staff when going from xp to seven. As classic theme is almost the same. Windowa8 does not offer that. is that a good enough reason ?

Remember we have many users and some are knocking on retirement age... Just because you and I find windows 8 easy does not mean everyone will

Again. I don't mind win8 and use it. But I wanted a classic theme for business use

By classic theme do you mean the Windows 95/2000 look UI pre XP?

I still tend to think given the specific scenario I outlined there's not much in the way of retraining to be done although if your users aren't even on the XP UI yet let alone Vista, 7 or 8 I think there's more problems than Windows 8.

Having said that i'll caveat the scenario I outlined with a "assuming your users are using XP/Vista/7 UI". If you're stuck trying to replicate the way things were done in 1999 it's no surprise a modern UI and OS is going to scare the bejeesus out of corporate IT. Windows 7 will be around for another7 years or so until you have to think about it going out of support although I can't help but think the shock of the changes required then could be the end for the users and IT if they couldn't even cope with XP

 

[Macro]

You are not seeing the big picture. Its geared up for home use. Thing like the charms and mouse gestures? The whole social hub side and other crap would leave the IT department in tatters

I don't think it's geared up solely for home use at all, and as an aside "social" is possibly one of the biggest trends amongst Enterprise companies around the world right now with the likes of chatter and yammer being voraciously embraced. This is an extension of the adoption of enabling technologies such as Lync, jabber, webex etc for IM/presence/video/voip/online meetings.

If you remove all the metro apps, disable the store in GPO and just list the users traditional Win32 apps on the start screen I really am struggling to see the mass retraining/it's all for home use assertion assuming your users are already with Windows XP or more recent UI. If anything along with pinning to the desktop or task bar it's simpler. One single start page, list of programs, click, done. Under this scenario I'm genuinely interested, what do you see the retraining challenges being?

 

[Minstadave]

People will always complain, that's true. But 8 was panned by critics pre-release and now the light of day seems to have dawned at MS.

Not all changes are good and not all complaints are just old people whining.

 

[Glaucus]

Ms haven't realised at all, they aren't getting rid of metro. Nor should they.
You seem to forget vista and w7.
Being slammed by critics seems to eh what people listen to.
W7 is a few tweaks from vista, one was slammed the other was most popular os ever.

 

[Elevon]

People will always complain, that's true. But 8 was panned by critics pre-release and now the light of day seems to have dawned at MS.

Not all changes are good and not all complaints are just old people whining.

Works both ways ie changes can be good and some complaints can be just people moaning for sake of it,to be honest I never go by what others say,best way to judge any OS is by using it yourself,for example if I had listened to critics when Vista was released I would have avoided it,however I actually liked Vista and glad I purchased it on day one from OcUK so goes to show how unimportant opinions/critics can be,there's only one that counts and thats your own,anyway I can respect we all have different opinions but as I stated I never take net gossip seriously etc especially when choosing an OS,too old and seen too many changes ,moaning,FUD to take anything on the net really serious.

 

[_Jimlad_]

I don't think it's geared up solely for home use at all, and as an aside "social" is possibly one of the biggest trends amongst Enterprise companies around the world right now with the likes of chatter and yammer being voraciously embraced. This is an extension of the adoption of enabling technologies such as Lync, jabber, webex etc for IM/presence/video/voip/online meetings.

If you remove all the metro apps, disable the store in GPO and just list the users traditional Win32 apps on the start screen I really am struggling to see the mass retraining/it's all for home use assertion assuming your users are already with Windows XP or more recent UI. If anything along with pinning to the desktop or task bar it's simpler. One single start page, list of programs, click, done. Under this scenario I'm genuinely interested, what do you see the retraining challenges being?

If you had a small company I see your point. But when we are talking thousands all major IT changes have to have a training option. Or the user will say I can't do my job. There is a massive difference between win7 out the box and win8 out the box and the steps needed before you can hand over the PC to the user. As I mentioned disabling loads of stuff like mouse gestures is a massive pain. All comes back to my point. I welcome the change. And choice

 

[theheyes]

People will always complain, that's true. But 8 was panned by critics pre-release and now the light of day seems to have dawned at MS.

The major tech sites all gave Windows 8 very positive reviews, so it really boils down to which critics you're willing to listen to.