Question still remains - has John even tried Windows 8 yet, or is the incessant badmouthing still based on "facts" garnered from "credible" blogs and stories passed down from the ancients? You might not see value in something, but that doesn't make it crap out of the box when there's no facts and actual usage case presented.
As I repeatedly said in prior discussions, I simply didn't have an opportunity to try it. Now I have (I'm having to put up with 8.1 on my work machine at the moment.) Funnily enough, it turns out that all those things that looked like terrible design decisions
were actually terrible design decisions. There wasn't some kind of cloud of magical illusion muddling my perceptions of the thing from learning about it secondhand that could only be pierced to see the True Miracle of Windows 8 through firsthand experience, believe it or not! So for the record, everybody: Windows 8/8.1 looks like crap because it is, actually, crap.
Having finally tried it and put an end to the "well, you only hate it because you haven't tried it!" snipes, I now yield the floor to the inevitable chorus of "well, you only hate it because you already decided to hate it!"
When configured in Apps view, I don't consider clicking the "Start" button "using the Metro interface". It's simply a full screen view of all the programs installed on your PC, searchable and easy to find. There are no touch friendly UI elements involved.
It's still a massively space-wasting thing that destroys the advantages of hierarchical organization the Start menu offered. And since it's not even tablet-friendly in that mode, it ditches the advantages of the Start menu
for absolutely no good reason whatsoever.
When I say "minor" exceptions I mean things like using the Control Panel to add a user, which requires using the "Metro" interface.
So you only see minor exceptions because you're discounting the major exceptions altogether? Sure, that makes sense.
You may think you're making your point, but you're not - you're making mine. That you are grumpy and too comfortable with how things are and are unwilling or unable to accept change - even if things are better or there are better ways. Please don't take me the wrong way - not trying to be insulting. If that's how you feel then that's fine, but it's not correct to say that things are not improved or better when they clearly are.
I'm still not clear on why I should feel any obligation to "accept change" to begin with, other than that there seems to be a huge contingent of Internet nerds who believe that the Evil Dissidents who Hate Change are Impeding Progress and must be stamped out. But in any case, I'm not blanketly unwilling to adjust to new things; I simply am not willing to put up with stupid bullshít for the sake of improvements to things that were already good enough for my purposes. And you can stamp your foot and say "well, you're just wrong to think that it's stupid!" all you like, and it won't prove a damn thing. Calling my opinions "not correct" doesn't actually make it so, nor does calling me "grumpy" and "unwilling to accept change" change the fact that I arrived at my opinions honestly, first via observation and deduction, and now through direct experience.
But, you know, you just keep insisting that I'm some kind of noophobic Internet Amish. Maybe if you believe hard enough, it'll come true!
(Spoiler: it won't.)
So, you spend all this time organizing and maintaining your Start Menu hierarchy but are unwilling to get use to a few new UI elements that will make your life much easier?
No, I don't spend "all this time." I spend about fifteen seconds when I install a new program, which happens once a week at most. And by doing that, I don't have to wade through a scrolling wasteland of every program on my PC or type in anything to find exactly what I want.
:eek: Really? Multiple displays are so cool that I use an old CRT SVGA monitor as my second display. Anything better than going back to a single monitor. You should try it sometime
I'm not saying multiple displays don't have their uses for some, they just don't fit my workflow.
If you're fighting to stay modern, then what I wonder is: Why bother? Is there anything wrong with being old fashioned if you're not like a grumpy person about it?
He's "fighting to stay modern" because Modernity is a Moral Obligation in the Church of Techno-Futurism. Simple as that.