It's 20 years on, and Windows still doesn't have...

[commodorejohn]

I always felt that Microsoft's main problem with their OS is that they keep feeling that they have to change the whole way it works every other major release...

If the way it's working is working for people, you don't HAVE to change it...

But I think they feel people won't buy it unless it's significantly different.

I mean, be honest, how many people think the "Ribbon" is better???  ;-)

Ugh, yes. This is the #1 reason I'm still using XP...

[commodorejohn]

What we are seeing is the decline of the desktop computer as a "personal computer." Businesses will use desktops, gamers, professional programmers, etc will use desktops, but your casual user is drifting away from desktops.  Tablets and smart phones along with smart TVs are the future for the hoi polloi.

Keep saying that, maybe you can make it come true by wishing hard enough.

[commodorejohn]

I'm just glad they got rid of the flop up windows ball menu thing that listed the apps folder, the one that was formerly known as start.  It was just an annoyance.

Yeah, now they just have a full-screen pop-up that lists the apps folder in vastly larger icons and wastes massive amounts of screen space. I can see how that's going to be a lot less annoying.

Ah, well. I guess this technological troglodyte will have to get dragged kicking and screaming into the "future." Or use something else. Ideally, by the time I have to support Windows 8 in the business environment I will be out of this profession.

That's why I'm keeping an eye on Haiku...

[commodorejohn]

I've been playing with Windows 8 and I think Microsoft tried to do too much in one bite.  The deprecated old Windows desktop's presence is annoying, I find myself asking where the h*** did Metro go many many times.  There's just something counter intuitive to having both Metro and the legacy desktop there.

I think that rather than trying to do too much at once, they tried too hard to combine product lines that were separate for a reason. For every person like you who wonders what the legacy desktop is doing in your Metro, there's someone like me who wants the new crap gone and wonders where the environment I'm used to went...

[commodorejohn]

Just me..

Not just you. Not in the least.

[commodorejohn]

Because touch is the future.  Everyone moaned when the introduced the mouse, too.  The desktop/laptop are about to become a niche.

I have a MacPro at home and at work, but my MacBook is starting to feel abandoned because of my iPad.  Keynotes, web surfing, youtube, facebook, even server maintenance. It's all there and all better on my iPad.

We are on the very beginning of a new computer generation.  Windows 7 is the pinnacle of the mouse age, but that age is ending.

You keep saying that, but the age of non-touch devices keeps sticking around...

[commodorejohn]

What I'm saying is that desktops will linger where they are needed as minicomputers and mainframes do today, but the average user is better off at home with a tablet device.

Well, I've yet to see any of the "average users" I know make that decision for themselves.

[commodorejohn]

Can AmigaOS run Photoshop?

Yes, via ShapeShifter.

[commodorejohn]

Yup. What I've seen generally happen is they'll buy a tablet then a keyboard and a stand, thus turning it into a sort-of laptop.  They'll use it as a tablet for casual browsing, games, or watching shows, but using it for emails or any "real" purposes doesn't happen in its tablet form.

I don't see the tablet making it as a general purpose device any time soon.

I haven't even seen that. The only people I know with tablets are tech-heads who think they're the Next Wave of Computing (and they do definitely use them as poor men's laptops as you describe, for most purposes.) The "average users" I know are far likelier to have only a desktop PC or a laptop.

[commodorejohn]

There's been 100 million iPad's alone sold since they came on the market, they are absolutely everywhere, lol.  That's not even counting the other makes and models, Android, Windows tablets, hell - even touchpads and playbooks, not to mention low cost ones like the Kindle Fire.

100 million iPads and more from other parties, maybe, but that doesn't mean there's that many people using them - particularly not the iPad, with Apple's carefully-cultivated disposal culture. How many of those 100 million are actually in use, and how many were discarded when St. Jobs introduced the New Model? How many were bought by people who'd never owned a tablet before, and how many went to the True Faithful doing the Obligatory Upgrade?

[commodorejohn]

120 Million is the forecast tablet sales in 2012, it was 60 Million in 2011 and they predict 140 million sold in 2013.  Traditional desktop sales are flat at around 120 million a year. So basically if projections are right, and we are 7 months into the year, tablet and desktop sales for the year will be about equal....

Right, and clearly this trend will continue forever unchanged, as trends are well-known for doing! Why, if we went from marginal to 120 million per year in just two years, that's an increase of nearly 60 million per year per year! Why, in 114 years we'll be selling more tablets per year than there are people right now on the Earth!

[commodorejohn]

Like it or not, be thankful for Windows, without it there would be no FireFox and thus no Timberwolf.= and not to mention countless other apps being ported or even apps ffrom other platforms that have been inspired by Windows.

I'm all for Windows, but you realize Mozilla was developed on Unix derivatives, right?