What problem does Windows 8 solve?

Summary: Windows 8 is intended to be Microsoft’s platform that does everything for everyone. The problem is it doesn’t solve anyone’s problems, so who will need it?

As Microsoft gets Windows 8 ready for the Consumer Preview coming shortly I am spending a lot of time thinking about the next OS from Redmond. There is a lot to consider given its multiple personalities. It’s a desktop OS, mobile OS, tablet OS, and touch OS all rolled into one. Rather, all rolled into multiple SKUs depending on the hardware involved. I admit to feeling more uneasy about Windows 8 the more I consider what problem(s) it intends to address. Fact is I just don’t see any.

Source

A Guy

 

[BarnabasSackett]

It also solves a lot of problems for specific groups like multimedia designers such as myself. Most of the tools used for design benefit the most from touch input. Photoshop is the best example. You would ideally want a touch input to draw on screen.

Huh? I'm not a pro but I do some photo editing and I can't imagine doing it on a touch screen. "Let's mark this area" and have my big ol' finger wobbling all over the screen.

I've used touch screens for work as a control system but I would hate to have to use it for continual use for writing letters and other normal tasks.

 

[burtie]

Funny how on Android this change is called a "Launcher" and costs less than $5.00....Not sure what Microsoft is thinking when they add a launcher and convince themselves that it justifies more than $100 upgrade cost per PC. Windows 7 is a great OS and I for one cannot really see any reason to pay to upgrade at this point. As someone else posted this release fixes........A Microsoft revenue problem and position's them to play in the tablet market.....not sure why we should pay for that but, to each their own. I for one will be watching for a long....long time before I spring for an upgrade from Windows 7.....I suspect that Business will take a skip on this iteration of Windows and opt for Windows 9 next (skip every other version).Xp -> skip Vista -> Win7 -> Skip 8 -> yup......next upgrade Windows 9.

Yup your right there about the Launcher! I have an Android tablet and I can already customise it to look like W8 and it wouldcost less than £5!
To be honest this feels more like W7.1 + metro

 

[Colonel Travis]

To be honest this feels more like W7.1 + metro

Yeah, that's exactly what it is. An OS (or partial one) shoved on top of another OS. Should have been seamless between Metro and the rest of it but it's not. I've warmed up to 8 since the DP and will be using it on my laptop from now on, but MS did a too half-assed a job on this thing. That's my principle criticism now. Although, I wish (among many others) that you could change the five stupid icons that pop up when you move the mouse to the lower right. Is that possible?

 

[Vertex]

I wish the would bring the Windows 7 style Start Button and Start Menu plus the show Desktop button on the right edge of the Taskbar cause I've been used to using it. I'm still using the "de-Metroed" Developer Preview right now because these stuff are still present there given the tutorial I found on this forum that was removed just a few hours ago because it won't work on the Consumer Preview.

 

[Colonel Travis]

I wish the would bring the Windows 7 style Start Button and Start Menu plus the show Desktop button on the right edge of the Taskbar cause I've been used to using it.

Show desktop is still there, just not an official button. Go down to the lower right as always and left click to go to the desktop, or right click to get an option to go or peek. If you want to always peek, right click, change the option, then when you go down there you will peek. Don't have to click.

 

[Mike Lonewolf]

I wish the would bring the Windows 7 style Start Button and Start Menu plus the show Desktop button on the right edge of the Taskbar cause I've been used to using it. I'm still using the "de-Metroed" Developer Preview right now because these stuff are still present there given the tutorial I found on this forum that was removed just a few hours ago because it won't work on the Consumer Preview.

Hey Vertex, just download and install ViStart. It will give you your start button back, and access to your programs.

 

[Vertex]

I wish the would bring the Windows 7 style Start Button and Start Menu plus the show Desktop button on the right edge of the Taskbar cause I've been used to using it. I'm still using the "de-Metroed" Developer Preview right now because these stuff are still present there given the tutorial I found on this forum that was removed just a few hours ago because it won't work on the Consumer Preview.

Hey Vertex, just download and install ViStart. It will give you your start button back, and access to your programs.

Yes, thanks for that. I saw someone on this forum post a screenshot of Vistart this morning. Was considering it as an option but looking at the screenshot, it may not be that perfect.

 

[chev65]

One problem it solves is all the confusion and problems when setting up a home network.

Windows 7 and specifically Home group had quite a few problems. The biggest problem was that the networking interface in Windows 7 wasn't very consumer "idiot" proof.

In contrast the new networking interface is much simpler to use, has no bugs far as I can tell and is pretty much idiot proof with less possibility of pushing the wrong buttons. It's easier to set up a Home group now and it will be easier to keep people on the network from snooping into personal files on other machines.

I worked in the networking section over in the Windows seven forum so I'm very familiar with all the shortfalls that Windows 7 had in the networking department.

It seems that Microsoft put great effort into improving the network interface in Windows 8. It's more secure, easier to set up and share files, seems to have no obvious bugs far as I can tell.

I think people will be much happier with this new network interface and it will also greatly reduce the number of complaints associated with Home groups and networking in general.

 

[tseven]

It feels faster. Although I don't know in the end will it actually be as smooth and fast as it is now since there probably isn't as much going on right now compared to the final version. But if it can be this quick then performance-wise it feels even better than ever before. I installed it on my cousin's computer that was slug-like with vista but this feels very smooth.

Their attempt at combining a mobile and desktop world is a failure though. The contrast is very obvious it doesn't feel like it could be part of the same world. In metro everything is flat to an ugly degree. There is no depth and while that is nice for things like content when you are looking at a video, reading on a browser the minimalism really lets the content show through other parts are too awkward like the metro menu. It's so flat that it takes away from the experience. The transitions are nice but just seeing type slapped onto a white background with flat buttons that just look like boxes(or looks like any of the metro tiles) just isn't aesthetically pleasing nor is it all that user friendly.

The desktop has some nice changes the borders are no longer round so now it matching with the "metro look" but at the same time I don't think the roundness was the problem it's more of the badly done glassy aero effect. All that blue in the hover effect in the scrollbars. The addition of the ribbon just makes windows more cluttered than ever before. I hope they really rethink the User-interface design. They seem to be confused if they are really trying to blend these two mobile and desktop because it just feels like two different worlds. I mean obviously they are for two different uses but testing out the features for example if you search instead of going through your desktop you are brought to the metro search which just feels uncomfortable, aesthetically and confusing as to where are you looking through and since the user is searching in the desktop it makes it weird that it would go to the metro same thing for settings.

They keep claiming you can just use one or the other but then if you keep moving into one or the other for task then it makes that statement false. They don't help by making the aesthetics so obviously different. Hopefully they work on the user-interface and the graphics a little more and that isn't the final look of everything. Usually I complain about the start button it's so ugly and they need to work on how they implement the "superbar" but removing the start menu is just off. The old search through the menu was much better and less cluttered feeling. Also where would one access programs? They put it on the start screen but they keep getting the metro part into the mix. The fact is if you are on the desktop installing a program you obviously don't want to have to be in the metro space to get to your programs. They automatically add that program to the metro screen which is weird because it's not like you can actually use it in the metro interface it brings you back to the problem they say you can use one or the other or both. But it feels like they are forcing you into using the metro interface. Also the desktop needs a little more time I mean with the useful start menu removed(which I hope they add back they still need to make hover effects and other effects with the programs pinned to the super bar better. They also need to make the arrangement of the superbar more aesthetically pleasing.

So far the only thing it seems to solve if they can keep it up is making things feel faster and smoother(maybe it's using less memory which is great) but as for the actual user experience and interface they need a whole lot of more work.(especially since this could become another vista)

 

[mart4494]

Their attempt at combining a mobile and desktop world is a failure though.

Could not agree more and even Apple, whether you like them or not, still have iOS and OSX. Touch screen works fine on my mobile but simply does not transfer to the desktop - it really is that simple. Like many have already commented, I know companies that refuse to 'upgrade' from Office XP or 2003 simply to get the ribbon look that takes up more screen real estate. They question the benefits and there are none.

Many of the early press previews are negative about the Metro UI but nonetheless probably a good representation of users in general. Contributors to these forums may be willing to play around and drill down to get things looking just how they like them. In the real world though that doesn't happen and unless things are intuitive from the start, folks loose interest very quickly. I hope MS take many of the comments on board but don't hold your breath. They dug their heels in over the ribbon toolbar. So this could be a Vista moment.

 

[tcman50]

windows 9 is another increment increase, windows 10 will really present us with a wow factor, it's a few years off though

 

[Trucidation]

I'm a gamer; I moved from XP to 7 mostly because DirectX11 is 7-only. Sure, XP was getting long in the tooth, but I could play all my games in it, even the old crap from DOS and not-so-old 16-bit crud. The move to 7 also coincided with my first foray into 64-bit.

Turns out quite a few things broke, especially plenty of foreign language 16-bit stuff. I picked up 7 Pro recently because of the VM feature albeit I've actually yet to try it out yet (although I've read some articles that don't really give me a good feeling about it).

Don't really see any reason to switch to 8, considering the switch to 7 felt like "just yesterday". It's got to be (1) really compelling - and I don't see this happening since MS's much-delayed "next gen file system" isn't in 8 last I heard - and (2) more time has passed. I'm only just now feeling semi-comfortable doing on-the-fly reg edits and manually moving stuff around at the file/folder level instead of wading through the UI. Not gonna junk all that just for a cosmetic upgrade, unless 8 is really the same beast as 7 under the surface.

Admittedly I could install it on one of the throwaway laptops we have lying around here, but you know what... these days it's like I'm always installing and tinkering with something. Screw that. When I get home from work I want to do something else.

In the meantime I'll learn about 8 from the fine folk here, and by watching over the shoulders of more adventurous colleagues. In these things it pretty much always pays off to "look before you leap", as the saying goes. I figure there's plenty of time to wait before a few service packs come along and people have had time to argue over who has the best "top X tips on how to tweak Windows 8" lists.

 

[BarnabasSackett]

Windows 7 and specifically Home group had quite a few problems. The biggest problem was that the networking interface in Windows 7 wasn't very consumer "idiot" proof.

Could they not have just changed that with an upgrade to Win 7?

 

[crawfish]

I'm a gamer
...
MS's much-delayed "next gen file system" isn't in 8 last I heard

It's definitely their Duke Nukem Forever. Are they even still talking about it? It had passed the point of being embarrassing several years ago.

 

[mart4494]

windows 9 is another increment increase, windows 10 will really present us with a wow factor, it's a few years off though

We've hit the jackpot then as MS have stated Win7 support for several years to come. Seriously though, I've heard from others that Win8 does offer under the hood improvements. If MS could just overcome the resistance to the Metro UI and offer a classic desktop option then they may just pull it off. From reports though I doubt if they will change much between now and release and I for one cannot be bothered to go through the learning curve to replace the Win7 rig I've got a the moment which is working just fine.

So for me at least Win8 doesn't solve any problems.

 

[Michael]

It solves the problem of a heavily infected used computer with no recovery partition or OS disc.

 

[whs]

I for one cannot be bothered to go through the learning curve to replace the Win7 rig I've got a the moment which is working just fine

I assume you are not over 90 years old. And if you are a bit younger, like me, it should be fun to learn new things. Although I do not agree with every gizmo they put into Windows 8, it is fun to explore.

 

[chev65]

Windows 7 and specifically Home group had quite a few problems. The biggest problem was that the networking interface in Windows 7 wasn't very consumer "idiot" proof.

Could they not have just changed that with an upgrade to Win 7?

The differences I saw weren't something that an update would normally be able to fix.

It's now near impossible to share the same file twice. With Windows 7 sharing a file twice would result in the file share icon showing up twice on the "shared with" machines. To fix the problem you had to run back and forth between machines to "unshare" the double shared file so that the extra Icon goes away. There are also notices when doing this with Windows 8 that allows for the subfolders to inherit the permission of the parent folders which simplifies the process and makes it much more idiot proof.

I see quite a few changes in regard to idiot proofing the Homegroup set up also. There are too many to list really but it's safe to say that the network and sharing problems associated with Windows 7 will now be a thing of the past.

I mostly work in the networking section over at the Seven forums so I've seen just about every flaw in regards to the network set up with Windows 7 and believe me there were quite a few of them.

 

[BarnabasSackett]

I assume you are not over 90 years old. And if you are a bit younger, like me, it should be fun to learn new things.

Some of us have things to do other than relearn how to use a hammer and screwdriver.

 

[BarnabasSackett]

The differences I saw weren't something that an update would normally be able to fix.

I did notice that home networking has gotten more confusing with the past few versions but if they really wanted to do it, it could have been an update. It is amazing what sort of patching you can do if you put your mind to it.