Windows 8 Might Suck

[kedawa]

Imagine in 10 years time taking your high end hand held device plugging it into a docking station with a 25" monitor (touch or not) and fullsize keyboard and having a big machine computing experience on a device that also offers the small screen.  I think that is revolutionary.

That's ridiculous.  Why have all that hardware on your desktop and then cripple it by requiring yet another device to make it usable?

[Iggy]

Might?!?!?!

Ha!:laughing:

I never adopt ANY Microsoft product until its at SP1.
The initial release is virtually GUARANTEED to suck mightily.
This suck factor has been present since at least Windows 3.0 (which seriously sucked so most people remember using version 3.1).

[bbond007]

Holy Jesus that guy is annoying.

you are not kidding.

[smerf]

Hi,

@commodorejohn

Yeah, reminds me of somene else I know

smerf

[smerf]

I'm glad Vista is the last version of Windows I'll ever use.

Hi,

You really should try Windows 7, I think it is the best OS microsoft has ever brought out.

Windows 8 will probably be good for tablets and laptops from what I read.

smerf

[Argo]

Imagine in 10 years time taking your high end hand held device plugging it into a docking station with a 25" monitor (touch or not) and fullsize keyboard and having a big machine computing experience on a device that also offers the small screen.  I think that is revolutionary.

Manufacturers and aligned global corporates don't, because they want you to have a device for every desired UX, more devices for everyone.  I only want one.

http://www.asus.com/Mobile/PadFone

You were saying....

[Argo]

Hi,

You really should try Windows 7, I think it is the best OS microsoft has ever brought out.

Windows 8 will probably be good for tablets and laptops from what I read.

smerf

Agreed. To me Win 7 is the next XP.  I have a few 8-10 year old computers I tinker around on and use for loaners. They all have been upgraded from XP to Win 7 and preform just as well as they did running XP. I did try Vista on one of the better speced one's and could not even stream video with out it looking like a slideshow and devices that worked under XP didn't work under Vista. Though under Win 7, I found I could use them again.

[persia]

Rainman is right in one statement, Windows isn't the only game in town anymore.  Windows 8 may be ok on a tablet, but quite frankly compared to iOS or Android, the apps suck.

[koaftder]

On a positive note, Microsoft can't possibly do worse than what's going on in Linux land as far as desktop environments go.

The stuff major distros are pushing out is bizarre. I setup Fedora 16 on a machine about a week ago. Out of the box the "desktop" has no icons. It literally does nothing. Minimize and maximize buttons are gone from all windows in all applications and there is no analog of the "dock" or "task bar". I feel that UI designers have forgotten that many of use actually use computers to do real work.

(Fedora 16 is pretty nice though once you grab gnome-tweak-tool and use it to set nautilus to handle the desktop and re-enable the window gadgets. Sadly I still have to use xrandr from the CLI to init my second monitor, and the Gnome 3 UI metaphor doesn't really work well with dual monitor setups. I have an ATI 5770 card, but the ATI graphics drivers don't work well with any recent linux distro I've tried, so I'm stuck with Gallium and OpenGL 2.1 support, :mad: )

[CritAnime]

Holy Jesus that guy is annoying.

Yup this is the same guy who nearly wet himself when the C64x was announced.... nuff said really.

Might?!?!?!

Well they can't do as bad as ME.

[psxphill]

But that's exactly what isn't happening here. Windows 8 doesn't provide two different but equally important user interfaces for the two types of devices it's targeting, it provides one tablet-oriented UI and begrudgingly, disdainfully provides only the parts of the old desktop UI they couldn't get away with cutting, on the publically-stated assumption that developers are supposed to port their "desktop" software to Metro, simply because MS says so.

That is not exactly true, you can avoid metro on windows 8 if you want. On todays hardware that may very much be what you want.
 
After Windows 8 is launched there will be new hardware. Microsoft are creating a bridge across the divide and it will be interesting to see what direction they take by the time it RTM's (which is months away).
 
Windows 7 has been great & Windows 8 is better in many ways. The UI takes a little getting used to, but my netbook is running the consumer preview & I might get round to installing it on my laptop too.

[gertsy]

http://www.asus.com/Mobile/PadFone

You were saying....

Yeah almost there, but that's 2 devices...

Unfortunately every time they try to catch up the bar has to be moved by the manufacturers.

Having endless mindless goals on specifications like gfx resolution never allows technology to develop to a level of standardisation and consolidation.  iPad 3 is a perfect example;  Who could possibly tell the difference between Full High Def 1920 x 1080 and the ludicrous resolution of 2048×1536 on a 9.5" display. Most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference of the standard High Def on the iPad 2 and the new resolution. The increases in performance of Retina and A5X are all gobbled up. The UX is no better than the previous device but it's a mindless cosumer increase that "i want one" junkies just love. "It's resolutionary" sucker.  Your apps will slow down. Video downloads will slow down. But you'll have more portable resolution than the guy beside you, to read what content? text?

There is no reason an App cannot be written to offer a different UX for large or small display.  Some of them do it already.  But that's the last thing hardware manufacturers want.  You gotta keep buying devices. You gotta upgrade man.  Don't let the software catch up to the technology.  HTML5 has the capability to offer the multi display app experience.  Having an OS that complements that is a great idea.  Just like Chrome OS has.

[commodorejohn]

On a positive note, Microsoft can't possibly do worse than what's going on in Linux land as far as desktop environments go.

Heh, true that.

That is not exactly true, you can avoid metro on windows 8 if you want. On todays hardware that may very much be what you want.

Except that you can't completely avoid Metro (you're still stuck with the stupid-ass tile version of the Start menu, unless you employ a hack.) And more importantly, it has been very clearly stated by MS that Metro is the Official New Direction, and while they've kept "Desktop" functionality for old applications, they expect and encourage developers to get on board with Metro ASAP. Even if I could avoid it now, what's the point in making myself at home on something where the whole entire UI I'm used to and like is now considered to be essentially deprecated?

[Karlos]

I have an ATI 5770 card, but the ATI graphics drivers don't work well with any recent linux distro I've tried, so I'm stuck with Gallium and OpenGL 2.1 support, :mad: )

In my experience, if you are going to use Linux and want vendor supplied drivers for current hardware, nvidia is the only choice.

[persia]

I think Microsoft will relent and give people the flop up listing of your programs folder on a ball that Windows 7 gives you.  It'll be gone from Windows 9, but even though it's a dumb concept you still have to ween people away from it, since it's been a part of your OS since Windows 95.

[Duce]

You will be able to disable Metro entirely.  Anything else would be suicide in the enterprise market.

That also brings up a very valid point, though.  Why in hell should I pay the cash to upgrade to Windows 8 if I have zero interest in running anything Metro?  With the Metro crap disabled, it's essentially Win 7 visually.

The answer to that is - I won't.  I have no reason to upgrade to Windows 8 on my desktops, I find Metro atrocious for desktop use, and I wouldn't touch a Windows 8 tablet with a 10 foot pole.  The tablet market is awash with options, and Win8, especially the WoA ones that will be showing up are the least attractive out of all of them.

For all that can be said against the ipad and the locked down nature, I find my ipad absolutely indispensable and it for the most part has replaced my work laptop.  If the one specialized program I require on my Windows powered laptop was ever ported to iOS, I'd likely never use my laptop again.