Windows 8 Adoption Poor

[Tute]

I still can't help but feel that Fillado has hit the whole thing bang on the nose.

Microsoft have tried "forcing" its existing massive installed base (Windows XP to 7) onto a UI they don't want (Windows 8) in order to hope they'll buy a (Microsoft taking years to catch up) Windows tablet/phone/overly expensive hybrid/ultrabook and give Microsoft relevance in this Post-PC (I really hate that Apple-coined phrase...) world they so severely need.

"OMG, look at how much money Apple have made from the iPad, maybe we could get some of that?"
"Well yes, but we're late to the party and everybody who cares about tablets already has an iPad or an Android based one"
"I have an idea, we can force our desktop users to use our tablet ecosystem, buy apps from the appstore and therefore lock them in that way"

 

[Glaucus]

He hasn't hit it on the head at all, I do want it, so do many others.

In fact his swing has totally missed.
Yes partof it is install base, but it's also computing has changed. Mobile devices massively outsell desktops and corporations need and want a mobile solution.

What MS is doing and is totally right in doing is a unification process. Win8 is the first step of several, but it is a massive step.

Anyone remeber the hate for vista? Yet one version later that was pretty much identical, was the best selling and most popular os ever. Or XP, XP was slated when released, there were even partitions and everything else for MS to go back to its old ways.
Give it's couple of years and there will be very few moaners and MS will off been proved right yet again, in the long term.

Short term chaos for long term strategy.

Simple fact is humans do not like change. Even if the changes are good. As showen people who stick with it and learn, mostly learn to love it and prefer it.

I have used Win8 since launch and still do. The thing is I don't get Metro... If I select the game icon in the start screen it drops to desktop then goes into it. On my phone you choose the app and off it goes, it doesn't go to the home screen then start.

It seems to me MS wanted to do away with the desktop completely then either ran into technical issues or couldn't guarantee that every piece of PC software would work within the Metro UI. Its almost like a halfway house. Maybe WIN9 will be something radical.

It's not a technical issue or even a problem, of course desktop apps will take you to the desktop. Is an instant switch really an issue for you.
Software has to be programmed to use metro,, the desktop isn't going anywhere anytime soon. There's is a massive demand for legacy software and will be for at least a decade. Win9 will just be what win7 was to vista. It will be virtually the same, just refined. Wn8.1 is already massively refining the metro experience.

 

[King507]

Windows xp released 2001 and Vista 2009, people will upgrade much quicker after an 8 year gap as the upgrade was fairly big. Windows 7 to Windows 8 to most people is very small and businesses will stay away because the metro UI will be a pain to support when it's rolled out.

MW

+1 agreed. Some businesses are still getting round to completing their Win7 uplift. IMHO Win 8 is a bit transitional, great for tablet market but home/business desktop users will generally steer clear as it still has that rough round the edges feel to me...

 

[RHS]

The interface is simply too clunky to use, or more to the point Metro is a pita to use. The mouse clicks are just too precise to bring up the charms bar. If I wanted social media all over my OS Win8 is great but for business I don't want Skype, Facebook, Gmail and all the other crap that gets smacked in my face.

Windows 7 is the way to go or at least until MS brings along something better, so maybe it's time to re-think the way things are done and move to Apple and iOS?

 

[disk5]

im not a fan of metro. makes computers look like a big phone.

 

[kitch9]

The interface is simply too clunky to use, or more to the point Metro is a pita to use. The mouse clicks are just too precise to bring up the charms bar. If I wanted social media all over my OS Win8 is great but for business I don't want Skype, Facebook, Gmail and all the other crap that gets smacked in my face.

Windows 7 is the way to go or at least until MS brings along something better, so maybe it's time to re-think the way things are done and move to Apple and iOS?

As a business you don't want Skype and Facebook?

Sounds like someone needs a rethink about their business. As a business you don't have to have stuff you don't want with 8, you know just like every other OS MS has made.

LOL at the move to Apple guff. Good argument, I'm sure that will save you money on re-training.

You don't click to bring up the charms bar either, which leads me to thinking you've tried 8 for 10 minutes at the purple shirts shop.

 

[ubersonic]

OI! I deliberately adopted win8 to learn it to help our customers and colleagues alike

I did the same thing but once I had forced myself to use it for a while and I became used to how much better it was 7/Vista/XP just feel like an outdated way of doing things so I installed 8 on all my machines lol.

I have used Win8 since launch and still do. The thing is I don't get Metro... If I select the game icon in the start screen it drops to desktop then goes into it. On my phone you choose the app and off it goes, it doesn't go to the home screen then start.

Think of it like this, with the start menu, you clicked start to open it, then went to programs, and navigated through the maze (depending how organised you were) to the shortcut to run it, then the start menu disappeared then the program ran.

Its the same with metro except the start bar takes up the whole screen, looks better and is much more practical

Windows 7 is the way to go or at least until MS brings along something better, so maybe it's time to re-think the way things are done and move to Apple and iOS?

After extensive testing we're about to begin the first phase of transitioning our network from XP to W8 (skipping Vista/7 obviously) as the new design works well in a corporate environment (the minimalistic appearance means no need to force the classic shell via policy, and Metro is very good for corporate, I would go as far as to say its reminiscent of NT/2K with Novell on top).

Don't forget too that OSX has a metro interface, its called launchpad (looks like iOS) its just it doesn't jump to it when the O/S loads (something that W8 will have the option on soon anyway).

 

[KIA]

Think of it like this, with the start menu, you clicked start to open it, then went to programs, and navigated through the maze (depending how organised you were) to the shortcut to run it, then the start menu disappeared then the program ran.

Search > Navigation

Start8 does a better of job of search than Modern UI because it shows everything in the same place.

 

[ubersonic]

Search > Navigation

Start8 does a better of job of search than Modern UI because it shows everything in the same place.

I ignored search because I was doing an apples to apples comparison and search is pointless in Metro, but even with Start+search Metro wins hands down.

 

[KIA]

Search is far quicker than scanning through a bunch of applications and clicking an icon to launch a program. It would be like going back to the days of XP if Windows didn't have a handy search facility for apps, settings & files.

I don't know how you can find less information and extra steps to be superior.

 

[ubersonic]

Search is far quicker than scanning through a bunch of applications and clicking an icon to launch a program. It would be like going back to the days of XP if Windows didn't have a handy search facility for apps, settings & files.

I don't know how you can find less information and extra steps to be superior.

Actually using search to locate applications from the Start Menu is a relic of Vista, Windows 7 introduced the ability to pin 20-25 applications icons on the taskbar (depending on resolution) making searching for applications like in vista mostly obsolete, you only needed to search in W7 if you were after something obscure you never used. Metro makes things even better by letting you pin another 40-50 to a pop up screen (half that if using large tiles) but most people don't need anywhere near that amount.

With Vista (or 7 used badly) you click Start or press the windows key, search for the thing you want and if its the only thing that comes up hit enter, if a bunch come up click the right one.

With Metro you click in the bottom left or press the Windows key, then click what you want, much easier.

 

[KIA]

Actually using search to locate applications from the Start Menu is a relic of Vista, Windows 7 introduced the ability to pin 20-25 applications icons on the taskbar (depending on resolution) making searching for applications like in vista mostly obsolete, you only needed to search in W7 if you were after something obscure you never used. Metro makes things even better by letting you pin another 40-50 to a pop up screen (half that if using large tiles) but most people don't need anywhere near that amount.

With Vista (or 7 used badly) you click Start or press the windows key, search for the thing you want and if its the only thing that comes up hit enter, if a bunch come up click the right one.

With Metro you click in the bottom left or press the Windows key, then click what you want, much easier.

There was no need to pin 25 applications because search nailed it. 25 applications is a hell of a lot of clutter. Vista nailed search.

There's no way I'm going to scan through a bunch of applications instead of using a rapid search utility.

This isn't just about application search. If a user wants to search for more than just applications, they must learn new shortcuts or click extra menus.

Start8 combined search FTW.

 

[neocon]

The only problem I have with it is the cost.

I'm intereted in how Windows will be adopted in China and India where people are much poorer. Surely these users are going to vastly dwarf us in the future.

 

[ubersonic]

There was no need to pin 25 applications because search nailed it. 25 applications is a hell of a lot of clutter. Vista nailed search.

There's no way I'm going to scan through a bunch of applications instead of using a rapid search utility.

Please read whats being said, opening the the start menu to search for something when it can easily be pinned by the start menu or on Metro is simply more laborious and a waste of time. If you were not even using the improvements brought by W7 then of course the ones brought by W8 are going to seem far fetched lol.

 

[KIA]

Please read whats being said, opening the the start menu to search for something when it can easily be pinned by the start menu or on Metro is simply more laborious and a waste of time. If you were not even using the improvements brought by W7 then of course the ones brought by W8 are going to seem far fetched lol.

If I wanted a laborious process, I'd use metro. It might work on touch, it doesn't work on desktops. Maybe I should clutter up my desktop with icons, no different to metro.

Hell, you might as well have one folder containing every file on your computer if you like looking for a needle in a haystack.

 

[ubersonic]

If I wanted a laborious process, I'd use metro. It might work on touch, it doesn't work on desktops. Maybe I should clutter up my desktop with icons, no different to metro.

I'm not arguing with you because I dislike peoples right to an opinion, I just want to clarify that, If you prefer the Vista style that's fine, but its not like your saying "I prefer walking to driving" its like your saying "I prefer walking to driving because cars are slower than me". Its factually wrong and to infer that doing it the Vista way is somehow faster than the Windows 7 and 8 way is factually inaccurate.

 

[theheyes]

The interface is simply too clunky to use, or more to the point Metro is a pita to use. The mouse clicks are just too precise to bring up the charms bar. If I wanted social media all over my OS Win8 is great but for business I don't want Skype, Facebook, Gmail and all the other crap that gets smacked in my face.

Windows 7 is the way to go or at least until MS brings along something better, so maybe it's time to re-think the way things are done and move to Apple and iOS?

I honestly don't know how you can call out Metro for being clunky and social-media orientated and then go on to suggest iOS as an alternative. iOS has Facebook, Twitter and stuff like Game Centre baked into it.

Windows 8 is supposedly a disaster for businesses due to its consumer orientation, and yet the iPad - arguably the casual consumer/consumption gadget of the decade - is widely heralded as a breakthrough mobile device for the enterprise.

Double standards...

 

[ubersonic]

Windows 8 is supposedly a disaster for businesses due to its consumer orientation, and yet the iPad - arguably the casual consumer/consumption gadget of the decade - is widely heralded as a breakthrough mobile device for the enterprise.

Double standards...

It is kind of funny that when Windows 95/NT4 showed up with the start menu businesses went as far as to install additional software to make them feel like NT3.x, so much so that the are still masses of networks out there running Lanboss on top of Windows 2K/XP, and yet now that Windows 8 has replaced start with an interface that feels more like Lanboss than start, some businesses are now complaining that its apparently too consumer orientated

 

[theheyes]

I'm not saying Windows 8 is a good fit for all businesses, because quite clearly it isn't (which OS is for that matter?) but there is some truly bizarre logic going around.

And to be fair, it's not confined to just random comments on blogs and forums - you see it repeated all the time in the mainstream tech press. It's no wonder there is such a distorted perception of Windows 8.

 

[Elevon]

It is kind of funny that when Windows 95/NT4 showed up with the start menu businesses went as far as to install additional software to make them feel like NT3.x, so much so that the are still masses of networks out there running Lanboss on top of Windows 2K/XP, and yet now that Windows 8 has replaced start with an interface that feels more like Lanboss than start, some businesses are now complaining that its apparently too consumer orientated

Problem is Windows and even Linux are always evolving changing,some people can't accept that,end of the day you can bet some people will have issues with changes on Win9,10,11,etc I've seen it on every OS so far and that includes Windows7 (they have to find something).

As I stated in previous posts I can accept that somebody does not like a particular OS,we all have plenty of choices out there and nobody is forced to upgrade or use a particular OS,end of the day I accepted a long time ago that no OS is perfect and operating systems are always evolving,it makes things easier in the long run.

I always find it kind of sad and funny what some people have issues with regarding operating systems,makes we wonder how they would have faired in the very old days,not very well I would imagine,as to the future well I think we know how that will also go.

I have used Win8 since launch and still do. The thing is I don't get Metro... If I select the game icon in the start screen it drops to desktop then goes into it. On my phone you choose the app and off it goes, it doesn't go to the home screen then start.

Obviously Metro was designed for touch and modern hardware like tablets etc..having said that its damn easy to use with a mouse and keyboard and I personally don't have any real issues with Metro(would like to see more customization options in Metro however).

I would have to say you obviously don't remember the very old days on Commodore 64 loading a game via a tape deck and waiting 20 minutes or so for it to either load or fail to load, let alone Microsoft DOS remapping memory etc.. for a game to work ,nowadays its what a second at most via Metro?..but hey you got to find something to moan about right?