3 ms·
Microsoft has always struck me as a company that makes some really cool technology, then tries to find a way to make it relevant to the rest of us. For them, i
by redthrowaway 13y ago
Microsoft has always struck me as a company that makes some really cool technology, then tries to find a way to make it relevant to the rest of us. For them, it seems the consumer is an afterthought and the technology is key.
Windows 8 was an impressive attempt to merge mobile and desktop OSes so that mobile users are no longer second-class citizens and have access to everything desktop users do. The problem? Mobile needed fixing, not desktop. In the push for engineering parsimony, they made the desktop experience worse simply so that it could be shared with mobile.
Kinect is a wicked piece of tech. It's just seriously, seriously cool. But what does it do? How does Kinect make gaming better? Outside of that one boxing game, I just don't see it. It makes everything demonstrably worse, like QTEs that work as cinematic finishing moves for bosses in God of War, but are completely pointless in 95% of the games they're included in. Kinect has the same problem: it's a really cool solution in search of a problem.
Perhaps the best example of this is Clippy, where MS used Bayesian algos to analyze text and offer suggestions. Again, a really cool little bit of datamining/ML, in 1997, no less, and running on the computational equivalent of a potato. Clippy is a really cool program. But it was completely pointless. It solved a problem no one had in a way that pissed off everyone.
And really, that's Microsoft in a nutshell.
- calhoun137 13y agoI should probably make a throw-away for this comment but whatever, as much as it hurts to admit it: I kind of like windows 8.
- shock-value 13y agoOn a tablet or desktop? I have it on a desktop and every affordance it makes for tablets and touch interaction is annoying to me. And its desktop UI is ugly. It is fast though.
- redorb 13y agoto me being fast is a feature. I think it added speed to my ole thinkpad. Getting past metro is 1 click after boot.
- dagw 13y agoAt the risk of getting way off topic. I also like Windows 8 on the desktop. Yes, it is very slightly annoying that I have to click a large desktop icon after booting up, but after that it is simply a slightly faster, slightly better version of Windows 7. I can't think of any touch interaction aspect that I even see when using it in desktop mode. I miss it when I'm at work using Windows 7.
- hhandoko 13y agoI agree, ignore the Modern UI stuff and it is a better, faster Windows 7. If you don't mind parting with $10, I recommend purchasing the Start8 and ModernMix from Stardock. Boots straight to desktop, gets the old start menu back, and runs ModernUI apps in a window.
- alimbada 13y agoOr just wait for 8.1 if all you want is boot straight to desktop.
- LocalPCGuy 13y agoYou can setup a quick hack (add Explorer to the Start Apps folder) that switches to Desktop on load. Granted, you'll have an Explorer window open as well, but...small price to pay. Oh yah, I like Windows 8 on desktop as well.
- stonemetal 13y agoSame here, I just got a win 8 box a few weeks ago, and rather like it. I rather like the whole screen start menu thing, much better than Win7 or OSX's we know you are looking for something but we are only going to show you two search results in a tiny box because we don't want to cover your giant empty desktop.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]