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I'm doing a coding competition on Saturday and my team has decided on a Windows Desktop app using the provided APIs so I naturally had to get my laptop running

by TheCapn 15y ago

I'm doing a coding competition on Saturday and my team has decided on a Windows Desktop app using the provided APIs so I naturally had to get my laptop running Windows. Since I already use my valid Win7 key on my desktop I dropped on a VirtualBox installation over my linux and put in the Win8 Consumer preview. Holy hell. The start button was the first thing> I landed my self on the desktop (because fuck Metro) and quickly realized I have no idea how I can actually do anything. Virtual Box wasn't capturing my Windows Key entries as they were being nabbed by my Linux OS so I was S.O.L. there but it should not be this frustrating to actually use an OS to install Visual Studio + Libraries + FF. At this point I'm willing to axe that Virtual OS and just dual boot with a Win7 copy that sits on the "you have 30 days to activate" B.S. before axing it next Monday. The thing is that Microsoft is going the way of thinking "the average user no longer requires a desktop." I tend to agree, the content creators - whether they're programmers or artists - are the ones who require a fully operational OS. Those who simply consume the content are well off with smart devices which Metro was designed for. But these two worlds are DIFFERENT. I need the ability to dig through the internals of my OS. I need the ability to work with my system registry, services, administrative options and everything else mixed in. When a seasoned user suddenly struggles to accomplish tasks that are second nature you've IMMEDIATELY lost a sale.

grannyg00se 15y ago
"Virtual Box wasn't capturing my Windows Key entries" What the hell is a Windows key? Why would an OS be built to expect a special OS specific key? To be honest, I know what a windows key is, but I haven't used a windows key keyboard in my lifetime. I can get to my Windows 7 start menu by clicking on it, and failing that, CTRL-ESC will work. If there's nothing to click on, and I'm now forced to CTRL-ESC all the time, I can live with it, but it's definitely not something I would call an improvement. I know there's a familiarization burden with every new major release, but I'm hearing about an awful lot of extremely inconvenient sounding issues with this one. I wonder how hard it would've been to include an OS-wide "tablet mode" / "desktop mode" toggle.
- bunderbunder 15y ago
  To be honest, I know what a windows key is, but I haven't used a windows key keyboard in my lifetime. On an Apple keyboard, the Command key does the job. (Or vice versa, if you use a PC keyboard on a Mac.) To be honest, I haven't seen a keyboard that was manufactured since the late 90s and didn't have a 3rd key down there (whether it's Command or Windows). Even the Happy Hacking keyboard has one.
- dpark 15y ago
  >Why would an OS be built to expect a special OS specific key? You mean, like the Ctrl and Esc keys you mention two sentences later? There are quite a few "special" keys on every computer keyboard. The OS is quite justified in assuming that your keyboard has the requisite ones.
  - grannyg00se 15y ago
    Obviously "special" keys are expected. CTRL and ESC are used in many operating systems. The point is that an OS shouldn't expect a key specifically for that os. Do we now need an Ubuntu key? Or a CentOS key? Or maybe a more general "Linux key" would be appropriate? No thank you. I expect Apple to have an Apple key on their keyboard, because their hardware is tied to their OS and you buy into their entire ecosystem when you buy their desktop. But Windows doesn't work that way. Many people use Windows on the same hardware that they use other operating systems. So a Windows key doesn't make sense there. I suppose it's just a naming issue and most operating systems now recognize the key as a "meta" key, but it would be nice if its name wasn't tied to a particular operating system. And it's especially hard to do that if it has a particular operating system's logo on it. I guess people became accustomed to this a long time ago and I should just "let it go".
    - dpark 15y ago
      > The point is that an OS shouldn't expect a key specifically for that os. So don't call it the "Windows" key. Call it the "Command" key instead. That's what Apple does, and it's the same key. You can bind the key on Linux as well, and you can even get a "Tux" key if you prefer. > Many people use Windows on the same hardware that they use other operating systems No they do not. Installing multiple operating systems on a single hardware system is very much a power user behavior, and even there it's restricted to a small set of power users. Even having multiple desktop operating systems in a single household is uncommon.
crazygringo 15y ago
I had the same issue -- no Windows key, and I couldn't figure out how to do anything. It wasn't until I realized that the entire interface was built around the hot corners. This was totally non-discoverable inside the VirtualBox interface, though, because my mouse would continue beyond the edges of the screen to my own desktop. But that's a virtualization-specific problem, so I guess I can't complain about that.

by TheCapn 15y ago

grannyg00se 15y ago

"Virtual Box wasn't capturing my Windows Key entries" What the hell is a Windows key? Why would an OS be built to expect a special OS specific key? To be honest, I know what a windows key is, but I haven't used a windows key keyboard in my lifetime. I can get to my Windows 7 start menu by clicking on it, and failing that, CTRL-ESC will work. If there's nothing to click on, and I'm now forced to CTRL-ESC all the time, I can live with it, but it's definitely not something I would call an improvement. I know there's a familiarization burden with every new major release, but I'm hearing about an awful lot of extremely inconvenient sounding issues with this one. I wonder how hard it would've been to include an OS-wide "tablet mode" / "desktop mode" toggle.

bunderbunder 15y ago
To be honest, I know what a windows key is, but I haven't used a windows key keyboard in my lifetime. On an Apple keyboard, the Command key does the job. (Or vice versa, if you use a PC keyboard on a Mac.) To be honest, I haven't seen a keyboard that was manufactured since the late 90s and didn't have a 3rd key down there (whether it's Command or Windows). Even the Happy Hacking keyboard has one.
dpark 15y ago
>Why would an OS be built to expect a special OS specific key? You mean, like the Ctrl and Esc keys you mention two sentences later? There are quite a few "special" keys on every computer keyboard. The OS is quite justified in assuming that your keyboard has the requisite ones.
- grannyg00se 15y ago
  Obviously "special" keys are expected. CTRL and ESC are used in many operating systems. The point is that an OS shouldn't expect a key specifically for that os. Do we now need an Ubuntu key? Or a CentOS key? Or maybe a more general "Linux key" would be appropriate? No thank you. I expect Apple to have an Apple key on their keyboard, because their hardware is tied to their OS and you buy into their entire ecosystem when you buy their desktop. But Windows doesn't work that way. Many people use Windows on the same hardware that they use other operating systems. So a Windows key doesn't make sense there. I suppose it's just a naming issue and most operating systems now recognize the key as a "meta" key, but it would be nice if its name wasn't tied to a particular operating system. And it's especially hard to do that if it has a particular operating system's logo on it. I guess people became accustomed to this a long time ago and I should just "let it go".
  - dpark 15y ago
    > The point is that an OS shouldn't expect a key specifically for that os. So don't call it the "Windows" key. Call it the "Command" key instead. That's what Apple does, and it's the same key. You can bind the key on Linux as well, and you can even get a "Tux" key if you prefer. > Many people use Windows on the same hardware that they use other operating systems No they do not. Installing multiple operating systems on a single hardware system is very much a power user behavior, and even there it's restricted to a small set of power users. Even having multiple desktop operating systems in a single household is uncommon.

crazygringo 15y ago

I had the same issue -- no Windows key, and I couldn't figure out how to do anything. It wasn't until I realized that the entire interface was built around the hot corners. This was totally non-discoverable inside the VirtualBox interface, though, because my mouse would continue beyond the edges of the screen to my own desktop. But that's a virtualization-specific problem, so I guess I can't complain about that.