Microsoft: That Windows 8 “New Coke” Analogy Is Silly

Microsoft: That Windows 8 “New Coke” Analogy Is Silly

May 12, 2013 at 3:14 am PT

Will the launch of Microsoft’s forthcoming update to Windows 8 next month be the company’s “New Coke” moment? Is its rumored plan to revive the traditional “Start” button it killed when it debuted Windows 8 a massive and humiliating reversal of course, following an ill-conceived reimagining of the company’s flagship product?

Not according to Microsoft.

According to Microsoft, Windows 8 is a good product that’s steadily improving, and recent suggestions by the media that it is turning into a “New Coke”-style disaster are pure sensationalism. And in an unusual company blog bost, Frank Shaw, Microsoft’s VP of corporate communications, dismissed them as exactly that, suggesting they favored “hyperbole” over “nuanced analysis.”

“Windows 8 is a good product, and it’s getting better every day,” Shaw wrote. “Unlike a can of soda, a computer operating system offers different experiences to different customers to meet different needs, while still moving the entire industry toward an exciting future of touch, mobility, and seamless, cross-device experiences.”

Microsoft Responds to Windows 8 Critics - John Paczkowski - News - AllThingsD

 

[sashlon]

I need to be able to see multiple windows at the same time. I can't do that with any Metro app.

For instance a few weeks ago I was trying to extract travel details from a web page and create a Calendar item. Not being able to see both at once, but instead have to keep switching from one to another was hugely unproductive.

I know there is such a thing as "Snap" but:
(a) it doesn't give nearly enough control on the window size and shape (eg. I spend a lot of time looking at a few rows on a spreadsheet and another matching set of rows in a database at the same time, which means I need to arrange the windows horizontally rather than vertically) and
(b) it doesn't work on my laptop anyway, even though the screen size is perfectly adequate for viewing multiple desktop windows, it hasn't enough horizontal pixels.

Easily done:

ModernMix™ - Run Modern (Metro) apps in a window on your desktop with ModernMix™

This IS the new Windows.

It's like a bad late night commercial is the new fix for all things Windows.

All this too can be yours for just $19.99!!! Buy now and we'll throw in a start button for absolutely free!!!

Why is it $2 - $5 for all things that are lacking in Windows.

This is like pay for downloadable content being immediately available for full price games on release day. Kinda lame.

Lol ok. This might even be correct, but you can hardly blame Microsoft for that. Everyone does it. There's no one forcing anyone to buy anything. I'm certainly not. I bought Start8, and feel like I wasted my cash because I never use it. Its just not needed.


Choice is good though.

 

[Ray8]

LOL, Jim. Let's look at this logically. As an American builder/contractor I have yet to install a window that was re-sizable. This is not an attribute of a window. In fact, I can think of no fixed real estate that is re-sizable. It's fixed just as much as your PC monitor screen. A window may be divided into panes, but even they cannot be re-sized. "Re-size-abilty" goes beyond what the name implies, for a window is not re-sizable. Now for the plural of "window" which is "windows" they continue to maintain that with snap and what I read of Blue there will be more snap options. Incidently this concept is called mulling windows. The center bar is called a mullion.

But I'll bet that for every house that you install windows, the windows in no two houses are generally the same and even on the one house, there are likely to be many variations in the size of the windows. I've never lived in a house where every window is the same size and shape. In Microsoft's world, every window in every house would be exactly the same size and you wouldn't be able to open them either.

 

[DavidY]

The OS isn't perfect, and to me, yeah the Metro interface on the Desktop sucks, the hunt for this, hunt for that can be a pain as well. But, once you get past that, the OS isn't all that bad, and in some aspects better than 7, especially the new Windows Explorer.

Yes I agree with this. Although the Modern/Metro UI is (IMO) pretty poor, under the hood there are some neat features in Windows 8.

I went straight from XP to 8, so didn't know much about Windows 7. However I was using a Windows 7 laptop at work today and found myself missing features that I've used in Windows 8 (for what I wanted to do today, a Custom Refresh image would be ideal, for instance).

I so happen to think everything will be written in the Modern interface eventually. It'll take years. Beside the snap problem, of which I always agreed it is a problem for some, what other problem could there be to be productive? I'm a switcher

I think you're right, but I also believe there are a few fundamental things that need sorting in Modern. I don't like it as it is, but I wouldn't throw it away; I actually think it wouldn't take that many changes to make it good.

Modern/Metro is the future and I can see that for many users a touchscreen would be beneficial, but it doesn't work for the things I need to do. I don't hold with the "just boot to desktop and ignore Metro" approach, because Microsoft is pushing developers to write their apps in Metro, and sooner or later there'll be one I want/need to use... and when that happens I'd like Metro to be usable in the ways I need to use Windows.

I'm a switcher

The thing is there will always be a range of people who work best in different ways; one strength of Windows in the past has been its versatility. So Microsoft need to do something to keep the "switchers" like you happy, but also the "overlappers" like me who need to be able to open multiple resizeable windows.

 

[sashlon]

LOL, Jim. Let's look at this logically. As an American builder/contractor I have yet to install a window that was re-sizable. This is not an attribute of a window. In fact, I can think of no fixed real estate that is re-sizable. It's fixed just as much as your PC monitor screen. A window may be divided into panes, but even they cannot be re-sized. "Re-size-abilty" goes beyond what the name implies, for a window is not re-sizable. Now for the plural of "window" which is "windows" they continue to maintain that with snap and what I read of Blue there will be more snap options. Incidently this concept is called mulling windows. The center bar is called a mullion.

But I'll bet that for every house that you install windows, the windows in no two houses are generally the same and even on the one house, there are likely to be many variations in the size of the windows. I've never lived in a house where every window is the same size and shape. In Microsoft's world, every window in every house would be exactly the same size and you wouldn't be able to open them either.

I think that's a really odd and kind of misleading comment because windows in almost infinitely customisable and reconfigurable if you know what you're doing.

 

[Ray8]

It seems like you've never opened an app in Windows 8.

 

[sashlon]

Been using it since Developer Preview

 

[Ray8]

You seriously don't understand sarcasm. So to make my previous comment easier to understand, how many Windows 8 apps can you open up at the same time and have then 'windowed' any way you like?

 

[sashlon]

As many as I want. Easy if you know how. Check out the Stardock website.

Also, I understand sarcasm very well. My stock response to it is to be obtuse. The thing you need to remember about sarcasm is its the lowest form of wit. I just reminded my 13yo about this yesterday.

 

[SIW2]

MS are relying on 3rd parties to fix their UI.

We will see what they come up with in 8.1

They will have been faffing with the metro stuff, no doubt. Hard to tell what they have done for the potential customers with no interest in metro.

It is important for MS to push the metro stuff hard. Metro is there to get the users into MS services before Google gobbles them all up.

 

[Ray8]

Again I have to ask, why is it so difficult for some to understand the general criticism about the removal of the 'native' start button and start to desktop? Yes, we know that all of that can be returned with third party programs, but that's not the point. Some may call sarcasm the lowest form of wit, but it is still unfathomable by the witless.

 

[sashlon]

I just think there's no justification to some of these complaints at all.

So what if you need to use a 3rd party program? If its a legit, reputable program what's the big deal? I've used 3rd party programs for what I consider to be important stuff for years. There's no problem here. Here's a list of 3rd party programs you probably shouldn't use because of your objections:

Adobe Reader
Adobe Photoshop
Mozilla Firefox
Google Chrome
Open Office
ITunes
Steam
VLC

That's just off the top of my head. Those are bad. Their 3rd party programs.

This is a totally manufactured issue. Even if Microsoft 'fixed' all of your personal issues, you'd just find something new to carp about.

 

[Ray8]

I can understand if you don't wish to understand, but if you actually don't understand people's criticisms of Windows 8, then that is truly sad.

 

[pparks1]

I just think there's no justification to some of these complaints at all.

So what if you need to use a 3rd party program? If its a legit, reputable program what's the big deal? I've used 3rd party programs for what I consider to be important stuff for years. There's no problem here. Here's a list of 3rd party programs you probably shouldn't use because of your objections:

Adobe Reader
Adobe Photoshop
Mozilla Firefox
Google Chrome
Open Office
ITunes
Steam
VLC

That's just off the top of my head. Those are bad. Their 3rd party programs.

This is a totally manufactured issue. Even if Microsoft 'fixed' all of your personal issues, you'd just find something new to carp about.

it's the fact that you have to use third parties to do basic Windows tasks that have been in Windows for years and years and years. Nobody is against third party, but I don't want to have to get a third party calculator, or third party control panel.

 

[sygnus21]

I just think there's no justification to some of these complaints at all.

So what if you need to use a 3rd party program? If its a legit, reputable program what's the big deal? I've used 3rd party programs for what I consider to be important stuff for years. There's no problem here. Here's a list of 3rd party programs you probably shouldn't use because of your objections:

Adobe Reader
Adobe Photoshop
Mozilla Firefox
Google Chrome
Open Office
ITunes
Steam
VLC

That's just off the top of my head. Those are bad. Their 3rd party programs.

This is a totally manufactured issue. Even if Microsoft 'fixed' all of your personal issues, you'd just find something new to carp about.

I can understand if you don't wish to understand, but if you actually don't understand people's criticisms of Windows 8, then that is truly sad.

Why? Because we don't agree with all the criticisms.

And I agree, some of the criticisms are nonsensical - like the criticism about using 3rd party apps - something that's been happening since the early days of Windows.

No one is saying 8 is perfect, but it isn't the boogey man a lot of people are making it out to be either.

 

[Ray8]

Another one who doesn't understand. Since when has it been required to download a third party program to have a start button and be able to start in the desktop?

 

[DavidY]

Here's a list of 3rd party programs you probably shouldn't use because of your objections:

Adobe Reader
Adobe Photoshop
Mozilla Firefox
Google Chrome
Open Office
ITunes
Steam
VLC

Corporate IT folk don't like third party unless it's from a known supplier with many years' reputation or they can't avoid it.

The only one of those which I'm allowed to use on my work PC is Adobe Reader.

But if I can't use Outlook with (Metro) Reader because I can't see them both at the same time, it's not the fault of either application, it's the fault of the operating system.

It's the function of the operating system, not third party software, to allow me to use multiple software apps at the same time. To make a reliable product that supports multiple apps at once is a huge job and much more complex than making a stand-alone app that only has to interact with the OS.

We also use bespoke software and it's quite common to need to view that software and a PDF file (say) at the same time.

If we were reliant on ModernMix (or whatever) to make that process usable, and suddenly it broke because of a Microsoft update, it would be our corporate IT support who'd have to field all the unhappy calls. So our corporate IT folk wouldn't want to take such a risk on a small company that can't have tested its product to the same level that Microsoft can.

And actually I don't think Microsoft would want to be in that position either - if the only way corporate folk will buy Windows 8 is by getting a 3rd party app that Microsoft don't have control over, Microsoft would be taking a big risk.

 

[pparks1]

I am in corporate IT and we use a ton of third party stuff. But I am in a smaller shop and have more control. Half of my stuff comes from ninite.com in my images.

 

[kmint]

There is a huge difference between the New Coke and Windows 8.

The New Coke was withdrawn or drunk in a very short time and disappeared completely, but Microsoft cannot make Windows 8 disappear nor solve the fiasco it means for the whole structure of the product, the connected products and the whole company at the end.

Windows 8, as expected and predicted by all of us, is the mother of all marketing fiascos.

 

[XweAponX]

Another one who doesn't understand. Since when has it been required to download a third party program to have a start button and be able to start in the desktop?

THIS is the point - We shouldn't HAVE to - It should BE there, Start 8 is a LONG way from Photoshop.

 

[McRuff]

Microsoft: That Windows 8 “New Coke” Analogy Is Silly


I actually think that it is pretty accurate. But when it comes to Windows Blue from the leaked builds that we have seen, I think the Titanic Analogy is best (probably been posted before). Windows 8 is sinking and instead of fixing it or getting us onto lifeboats they are busy rearranging the deckchairs.