'Real Work'

K

Kebero

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Could someone please define this mis-used and abused term? I keep hearing that Windows 8 (or tablets or whatever) can't be used for 'real work,' bit no one's properly defined the phrase.
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If you use a computer at work and actual get paid for doing so - that would be real work. I use both Windows 8 and RT for work that I get paid for and when I get paid at the end of the month that is real.:thumbsup:
 

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Even work that you do as a hobby may be 'real'. Try to write a 30 page document on a tablet or make video encoding of a 1 hour video. It is possible, but not practical.

In the industrial world it also has an additional connotation. The thousands of people who sit behind PCs need training to use those PCs because they are no PC geeks. If you make a major change of the tool or it's software, they have to be retrained which costs a lot of money. Besides the applications may have to be adapted which can be costly too. Those are some reasons why so many companies are still using XP.

I made an interesting experience in my computer club of 800 (mostly simple) members. When we put IE9 on the systems, many people could not deal with the fact that the Favorites were now on the right top in lieu of the left top as they were used to. Many members complained and we had to go back to IE8.
 

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An example of real work: Developing the graphics and HTML5/CSS/PHP/JavaScript code for an extensive website.

Another example: Producing an 8 page newsletter with graphics, pictures, text, etc.

Windows 8 (or RT) on a tablet no way, Windows 8 on a PC with large monitor(s) Great!!
 

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There may be almost as "real work" defs as there are users. I think that many would agree with the idea that "real work" alludes to having an efficient computing environment--regardless of the kind of work (or play--expanding the idea a bit) in which one engages. So, if I want to get down to "real work" I want to be in a computing environment that involves as few wasted motions as possible given my use style (e.g., whether I am big on keyboard commands or am more visually oriented). As indicated, there is no one-size-fits all "real work" computing environment.
 

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Real Work = anything NOT to do with social-networking or surfing eBay/Craigslist. :haha:
 

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Kat said:
Real Work = anything NOT to do with social-networking or surfing eBay/Craigslist. :haha:
Click to expand...

Unless you work in marketing.
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It's a computer, no matter the device. Real work to me is data input, no matter what one is performing, whether typing, drawing, copy & paste, pushing an open link (which is a command), even making a phone call on a smart phone, etc. How one navigates to get to that point to perform a task is another thing. That's the problem some are having with 8 (in some cases rightfully so), which also entails window sizes of apps and menus. A whole different animal. All based on touch navigation and command menus are in different places than past OSs, so it's more of a learning curve.

Summary: Data input by a human or another machine = real work.
 

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Real work is technically whatever services someone else will pay you for. I think when we talk about computing in the realm of "real work", we're talking about office document work, development, or content creation (rather than consumption). However, the more we look at tablets in the enterprise (regardless of OS), it's amazing how little content creation people actually need to do - they really do a lot more content consumption or manipulation than actual content creation. This is why devices like these, or Windows To Go sticks, do make a good deal of sense for "Information Workers" in a lot (not all, but a lot) of scenarios.
 

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Windows to Go is a different animal, as it provides the full Windows 8 environment, Modern and Legacy, on any PC.
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As others have said, Real Work can vary.

My Real Work home and at work consists of 3, 5 even 8 windows open at once on two monitors. If your Real Work can take place entirely in a single window then metro will work fine, but for most situations I can think of, especially inthe production space, not at all. Alt-tabbing all day is not going to cut it. And a metro only tablet? Well if real work consists of answering email or doing minor "Office" work then your golden, otherwise..

The Metro interface was designed almost exclusively for content consumption with virtually nothing given over to production. While the Win 8 desktop can still be used for more complex multi-window tasks, those of us that need that question why we need to deal with Metro at all. Or rather why we can't metro in an appropriately limited screen area as we /may/ be developing there. A great example is web development where you want to see how it works side by side in 2, 3 or 4 browsers at once, INCLUDING IE10 or FF metro!
 

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Who said anything about Metro? The question was about Windows 8. And you can most certainly have multiple windows open in Windows 8.
 

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Ok, I've been waiting to post this, totally irrelevant but funny. Here it goes!

Real work on a PC means at the end of the day, you can turn to someone and look at them dead in the face and mutter, " 'merica" and walk away into the sunset.

:D
 

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Real work means the creation of high complexity content that does not already exist. Since Windows RT has most of MS office (excel, word, powerpoint), it CAN be used of real work, if that real work is done in office. The potential of Windows RT ends as soon as you need to do something besides use MS office. Video encoding is real work. Code compiling is real work. Data entry is real work. Photoshopping is real work. CAD is real work. LaTeX writing is real work. All things that cannot be done well in metro and/or Windows RT in their current state.
 

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The term "Real Work" was brought up and it has nearly always been used to point out that Metro CANNOT become the defacto windows interface because Real Work cannot (largely) be done there. That's why Metro was brought up.

OR COURSE windows 8 desktop can be used to do Real Work as always. The term Real Work is used as an example to those that would champion the desktops complete removal (and there have been quite a few).
 

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It would be possible, although application design would have to improve, and the OS itself would have to change (you'd need to be able to run multiple modern applications at once, for instance). The desktop could die, and that would be fine, but the new interface will have to evolve and improve before we could really consider that a viable option.
 

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Real work is difficult to define because as with anything everyone sees things differently. Real work is what you want to believe to be real work. I've designed stuff that I was not paid for, for my own sake. I consider that real work.
 

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