4 ms·

Poor windows. It is damned if you do and damned if you don't. First they aren't radical enough. Now they are too radical. sigh.

enraged_camel 14y ago
Windows 7 had the perfect balance. It made significant improvements in many areas that XP was insufficient at and Vista sucked at, while keeping the fundamentals the same. Windows 8 though... I haven't used it myself, but from what I'm hearing, it sounds like it's slated to be a bigger disaster than Vista.
- rjv 14y ago
  I only had to read "I haven't used it myself" to understand why you have the sentiment you do. Try it. It's quite good and not all that different from Windows 7. Seriously.
  - enraged_camel 14y ago
    Oh for sure. I'll try it when it comes out in October.
- cube13 14y ago
  I think the jury's out on that. Vista was a disaster because of MS' focus on security. UAC is a usability disaster, both because it's not clear exactly when it is triggered, and the behavior of the system when it is triggered(blanking out the screen then the dialog, etc.). Also, the driver signing meant that a lot of suppliers weren't able to get drivers out quickly enough. Plus, Vista was a pretty huge system hog, and bogged down even with the "recommended" requirements. That, I think, was the deal breaker for the majority of people. Comparatively, the complaints I've seen so far about Win8 are either centered around things that aren't really that much of an issue(See Notch's complaints about MS reaching out to him to certify Minecraft), or just new UI/UX designs that they're not used to. I haven't see many complaints about the stuff that matters: performance or driver compatibility.
  - cryptoz 14y ago
    > blanking out the screen then the dialog That was a much bigger issue than people give it credit for, especially since Vista shipped on a number of underpowered systems. My first encounter with UAC scared the living daylights out of me: I had just bought a new laptop. A few minutes in to setting things up, my screen turned off. For about a minute. Maybe two minutes. I was freaking out. Eventually it came back with a dialog asking if I would give permission to move a file. Disaster.
pyre 14y ago
Apple didn't remove core features from OSX to create iOS on the iPad. I think that is one of the issues here. The idea that Microsoft's tablet OS will run the same "Windows" that the PCs run. If anything, Microsoft probably should have left the regular mode alone, and done all of the radical stuff in 'Metro-mode' so that people on a desktop PC could ignore it if it got in the way of their workflow. If Microsoft thought that they could remove some of these things without any blow-back, then they are idiots. If understood the risks, and assume that things will work out for the better in the end? Then good on them, and good luck.
- corporalagumbo 14y ago
  I'd take Microsoft's approach with Windows 8 over Apple's tack any day. 10.8 is the most convoluted, user-unfriendly OS X yet. Microsoft is right to strip things down so radically and get the basics of the post-WIMP PC right.
- louthy 14y ago
  What have they removed? Things might be structured slightly differently, but I only see additional features and improvements.

enraged_camel 14y ago

Windows 7 had the perfect balance. It made significant improvements in many areas that XP was insufficient at and Vista sucked at, while keeping the fundamentals the same. Windows 8 though... I haven't used it myself, but from what I'm hearing, it sounds like it's slated to be a bigger disaster than Vista.

rjv 14y ago
I only had to read "I haven't used it myself" to understand why you have the sentiment you do. Try it. It's quite good and not all that different from Windows 7. Seriously.
- enraged_camel 14y ago
  Oh for sure. I'll try it when it comes out in October.
cube13 14y ago
I think the jury's out on that. Vista was a disaster because of MS' focus on security. UAC is a usability disaster, both because it's not clear exactly when it is triggered, and the behavior of the system when it is triggered(blanking out the screen then the dialog, etc.). Also, the driver signing meant that a lot of suppliers weren't able to get drivers out quickly enough. Plus, Vista was a pretty huge system hog, and bogged down even with the "recommended" requirements. That, I think, was the deal breaker for the majority of people. Comparatively, the complaints I've seen so far about Win8 are either centered around things that aren't really that much of an issue(See Notch's complaints about MS reaching out to him to certify Minecraft), or just new UI/UX designs that they're not used to. I haven't see many complaints about the stuff that matters: performance or driver compatibility.
- cryptoz 14y ago
  > blanking out the screen then the dialog That was a much bigger issue than people give it credit for, especially since Vista shipped on a number of underpowered systems. My first encounter with UAC scared the living daylights out of me: I had just bought a new laptop. A few minutes in to setting things up, my screen turned off. For about a minute. Maybe two minutes. I was freaking out. Eventually it came back with a dialog asking if I would give permission to move a file. Disaster.

pyre 14y ago

Apple didn't remove core features from OSX to create iOS on the iPad. I think that is one of the issues here. The idea that Microsoft's tablet OS will run the same "Windows" that the PCs run. If anything, Microsoft probably should have left the regular mode alone, and done all of the radical stuff in 'Metro-mode' so that people on a desktop PC could ignore it if it got in the way of their workflow. If Microsoft thought that they could remove some of these things without any blow-back, then they are idiots. If understood the risks, and assume that things will work out for the better in the end? Then good on them, and good luck.

corporalagumbo 14y ago
I'd take Microsoft's approach with Windows 8 over Apple's tack any day. 10.8 is the most convoluted, user-unfriendly OS X yet. Microsoft is right to strip things down so radically and get the basics of the post-WIMP PC right.
louthy 14y ago
What have they removed? Things might be structured slightly differently, but I only see additional features and improvements.