5 ms·

Will Windows 8 emphasis on Tablet features drive users to iPad?

18 points by josephcooney 14y ago

jarek 14y ago
Betteridge's Law of Headlines: "Any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word 'no'".
- sohn 14y ago
  +1
- josephcooney 14y ago
  For a 'law' it can be trivially dis-proven. "Is water wet?". I think the article raises some legitimate questions about Windows 8 that can't be as flippantly dismissed as your analysis of the punctuation suggests.
  - jarek 14y ago
    This doesn't disprove the adage as in practice no one would write a headline or a HN submission link entitled "Is water wet?"
    - blackhole 14y ago
      Unless they do for the precise reason of proving you wrong and then arguing against the point you are making.
      - stcredzero 14y ago
        This is the one time, "The exception that proves the rule," isn't sheer nonsense, precisely because it is.
        thomasjoulin 14y ago
        Did OP wrote his own title ? Currently the article is titled "Windows 8 – Who moved my desktop?" which is an exception to Betteridge's Law.
        jarek 14y ago
        "Windows 8 – Who moved my desktop?" was also the title when I saw the article six hours ago shortly after it was submitted to HN. My comment was regarding the title of the submission.
AJ007 14y ago
On the topic of pickup truck verse convertible car analogies -- Windows 8 may end up being the Chevrolet SSR of operating systems. This chimera could may end up doing both so poorly that it makes either OS X or iOS a clearly superior choice.
- josephcooney 14y ago
  Yes, that was one of the points I thought the article was driving at.
- sixothree 14y ago
  Microsoft seems to be the king of schizophrenic software and this one tops them all with its straight up multiple personalities. Regardless, it looks like ass and iOS is smooth like butter. I'm really not sure tablet is someplace Microsoft can actually compete. What's sad though is that Windows 7 is a rock solid OS and people absolutely love it. Why throw all of that away for something hideous and grotesque. I just don't get it.
blackhole 14y ago
I've seen lots of people say Windows 8 will be the death of Microsoft. This is about as accurate as saying Vista would be the death of Microsoft. In fact all it's doing is cementing Microsoft's incredibly resilient tick-tock process - release horrible OS, then awesome OS, then horrible OS, then awesome OS. Windows 7 was awesome, therefore Windows 8 will be horrible. This is ridiculously predictable.
- majormajor 14y ago
  As far as power-users go, how far back does that really go? My exposure started with Windows 2000. It was fantastic. It made me ditch Mac OS 8.x full-time instead of just maintaining a 9x box for games. XP wasn't horrible either. Sure, after that things stagnated for a long time—and that led me to dally again with Macs and eventually switch back to OS X for my main machine—but after the initial kinks were worked out Vista and 7 added some much-needed things (especially 7, UI-wise). But I agree that the "death of Microsoft" stuff is tiring. Personally, I'm pretty excited to see how this goes, since I like what MS is doing to bring touch-centered concepts to the desktop, and really don't like the direction Apple is going with Lion/Mountain Lion. I just wonder if MS will iterate quickly enough—Apple's release cycles may put a lot of pressure on them to get an "8.1" out the door very quickly with the kinks worked out.
  - fpgeek 14y ago
    In the consumer OS space, the predecessor to Windows XP wasn't Windows 2000, it was Windows ME (which was a disaster).
    - majormajor 14y ago
      Well, I don't think ME and Vista fit anything like the same pattern. Vista was an extremely messy release but nevertheless brought several big underlying improvements. ME didn't. It wasn't a "tick" at all. Trying to fit it and Vista into the same pattern is getting too pattern-happy. And even in the consumer space, how long do you have to go back before ME to find a dud? Windows 2?
tsunamifury 14y ago
I've been to the Windows 8 developer conferences and worked on getting an app off the ground for launch... and I have to say the skitzo strategy of half tablet half desktop environment is so much of a headache I decided to abandon the platform. Designing a metro and desktop version of the app, then compiling it for ARM and Intel. On top of that having to rebuild it for a phone. I wasn't willing to risk my teams precious development time on a store that is unproven and a product that looks confused and misguided. Several other developers agreed at the conference. I really don't know what Microsoft was thinking blending the tablet/desktop and separating out the phone. It seems they think this will allow them to claim a larger install base for 'apps' as their phone has dismal sales performance. The evangelists kept repeating over and over that I'll have 500 million user audience as soon as it rolls out. But the experience is a mess. Everyone in my office from seasoned techs to low level non-techy interns has made a terrible face at windows 8, constantly clicking around wondering what is going on. For the record, I thought Vista was alright and Windows 7 was nice. But 8's bifurcated touch/desktop strategy is good at neither and heading in a worse and worse direction with each successive release.

18 points by josephcooney 14y ago

jarek 14y ago

Betteridge's Law of Headlines: "Any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word 'no'".

sohn 14y ago
+1
josephcooney 14y ago
For a 'law' it can be trivially dis-proven. "Is water wet?". I think the article raises some legitimate questions about Windows 8 that can't be as flippantly dismissed as your analysis of the punctuation suggests.
- jarek 14y ago
  This doesn't disprove the adage as in practice no one would write a headline or a HN submission link entitled "Is water wet?"
  - blackhole 14y ago
    Unless they do for the precise reason of proving you wrong and then arguing against the point you are making.
    - stcredzero 14y ago
      This is the one time, "The exception that proves the rule," isn't sheer nonsense, precisely because it is.
      - thomasjoulin 14y ago
        Did OP wrote his own title ? Currently the article is titled "Windows 8 – Who moved my desktop?" which is an exception to Betteridge's Law.
        jarek 14y ago
        "Windows 8 – Who moved my desktop?" was also the title when I saw the article six hours ago shortly after it was submitted to HN. My comment was regarding the title of the submission.

AJ007 14y ago

On the topic of pickup truck verse convertible car analogies -- Windows 8 may end up being the Chevrolet SSR of operating systems. This chimera could may end up doing both so poorly that it makes either OS X or iOS a clearly superior choice.

josephcooney 14y ago
Yes, that was one of the points I thought the article was driving at.
sixothree 14y ago
Microsoft seems to be the king of schizophrenic software and this one tops them all with its straight up multiple personalities. Regardless, it looks like ass and iOS is smooth like butter. I'm really not sure tablet is someplace Microsoft can actually compete. What's sad though is that Windows 7 is a rock solid OS and people absolutely love it. Why throw all of that away for something hideous and grotesque. I just don't get it.

blackhole 14y ago

I've seen lots of people say Windows 8 will be the death of Microsoft. This is about as accurate as saying Vista would be the death of Microsoft. In fact all it's doing is cementing Microsoft's incredibly resilient tick-tock process - release horrible OS, then awesome OS, then horrible OS, then awesome OS. Windows 7 was awesome, therefore Windows 8 will be horrible. This is ridiculously predictable.

majormajor 14y ago
As far as power-users go, how far back does that really go? My exposure started with Windows 2000. It was fantastic. It made me ditch Mac OS 8.x full-time instead of just maintaining a 9x box for games. XP wasn't horrible either. Sure, after that things stagnated for a long time—and that led me to dally again with Macs and eventually switch back to OS X for my main machine—but after the initial kinks were worked out Vista and 7 added some much-needed things (especially 7, UI-wise). But I agree that the "death of Microsoft" stuff is tiring. Personally, I'm pretty excited to see how this goes, since I like what MS is doing to bring touch-centered concepts to the desktop, and really don't like the direction Apple is going with Lion/Mountain Lion. I just wonder if MS will iterate quickly enough—Apple's release cycles may put a lot of pressure on them to get an "8.1" out the door very quickly with the kinks worked out.
- fpgeek 14y ago
  In the consumer OS space, the predecessor to Windows XP wasn't Windows 2000, it was Windows ME (which was a disaster).
  - majormajor 14y ago
    Well, I don't think ME and Vista fit anything like the same pattern. Vista was an extremely messy release but nevertheless brought several big underlying improvements. ME didn't. It wasn't a "tick" at all. Trying to fit it and Vista into the same pattern is getting too pattern-happy. And even in the consumer space, how long do you have to go back before ME to find a dud? Windows 2?

tsunamifury 14y ago

I've been to the Windows 8 developer conferences and worked on getting an app off the ground for launch... and I have to say the skitzo strategy of half tablet half desktop environment is so much of a headache I decided to abandon the platform. Designing a metro and desktop version of the app, then compiling it for ARM and Intel. On top of that having to rebuild it for a phone. I wasn't willing to risk my teams precious development time on a store that is unproven and a product that looks confused and misguided. Several other developers agreed at the conference. I really don't know what Microsoft was thinking blending the tablet/desktop and separating out the phone. It seems they think this will allow them to claim a larger install base for 'apps' as their phone has dismal sales performance. The evangelists kept repeating over and over that I'll have 500 million user audience as soon as it rolls out. But the experience is a mess. Everyone in my office from seasoned techs to low level non-techy interns has made a terrible face at windows 8, constantly clicking around wondering what is going on. For the record, I thought Vista was alright and Windows 7 was nice. But 8's bifurcated touch/desktop strategy is good at neither and heading in a worse and worse direction with each successive release.