Windows 8: Give Microsoft credit for betting the farm

And that's just what they are going to be doing!

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Windows 8: Give Microsoft credit for betting the farm[/h] By Larry Dignan
June 8, 2012, 10:20am PDT


Summary: Microsoft is trying to make its customers think different with its Metro UI on Windows 8. Even if customers don’t come along, Microsoft has shown a willingness to bet its cash cow.


Microsoft’s Windows 8 and its Metro UI has sparked extreme reactions and there appears to be little middle ground. Windows 8 will either be a hit or the next Vista. But let’s give Microsoft credit for making one gutsy bet.

In short, Microsoft is looking to unify its phone, desktop and tablet interfaces. That move alone is pretty ballsy. Even more ballsy is that Microsoft is upending years of user habits and offering a UI that reshapes the software vendor’s approach to computing. Microsoft is trying to make its customers think different.

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[lehnerus2000]

Well they have something now no one else will want to be copying!

I think that is the point they're trying to make.

 

[Night Hawk]

The point being made at the expense of the desktop OS that is!

I think MS realizes this would be the only time they could "experiment" with everyone's patience since they are still trying to get their corporate base of customers to upgrade as far as 7! especially after Vista received the bad rep and lack of sales.

 

[lehnerus2000]

The point being made at the expense of the desktop OS that is!

I think MS realizes this would be the only time they could "experiment" with everyone's patience since they are still trying to get their corporate base of customers to upgrade as far as 7! especially after Vista received the bad rep and lack of sales.

Sounds plausible to me.

 

[Night Hawk]

Well 7 is still the current version presently in use since 8 isn't out on the shelves presently. The 600million + licenses sold show 7 has continued to gain in popularity as well as people only now moving into the present version due to need for a new machine or need for the improved hardware support lacking in previous versions(mostly 2000, XP).

The main problem with this type of major overhaul is not simply a new gui but how is simply being dumped everybody all at once rather then a progressive change leading away from. Despite any and all core improvements cleverly hidden system option menus, no visual option to shut down, logoff, restart, or put into sleep or hibernation mode is present.

It's a "can you find me" puzzle game replacing a desktop OS with hidden caverns or places to place the cursor before anything appears that has to be just right or it won't! If you just happen to "bump into something in the dark" you wonder "what the... was that?"

And one other thing about applying the 3rd party help is when powering up the next time something else will be missing! The Start button for Start Menu 7 or a blank space when using the Classic Shell since this is no check off box to see the "start up with Windows" option applied in either! I ended up pinning Classic Shell to the Start screen in both installs to the second HD and on VBox being the only VM where the RP will install to.

Now imagine not having all your programs pinned on the Start screen once they all on and then what? You have to go through Windows Explorer or Computer to find the executable for each one just to create a new desktop shortcut to pin to either or both the Start screen and task bar.

Gee it must be nice having the resources MS has in order to play "Spin the Wheel" with their main product without actually using any foresight on how it will be perceived by their main customer base! And it will be a big gambit since most will simply shun the changes automatically without second thought one just one look!

 

[Trucidation]

You know all those holdouts from XP and Vista? Well...

 

[mart4494]

And it will be a big gambit since most will simply shun the changes automatically without second thought one just one look!

And that's what happened to Vista. Personally I never had a problem with it once I spent time and drilled down to remove all the dross. Didn't really take that long to get Vista up to speed but most people I knew rejected it out of hand simply due to maybe what they had read in a mag or heard from a friend. That's the reality of first impressions.

If MS genuinely believe that normal users are going to take the time out to find out how to get the most from their latest and greatest then they are sadly deluded. They (MS) are living in a bubble over this. I'm looking forward to see how this plays out but they do not have the same slavish following that fashion accessory Apple has managed to create. Sure promote paid for downloaded apps and monthly subscription computing but it will not automatically be adopted like the Apple user flock.

 

[Night Hawk]

"Living in an MS bubble" would sum that up even further! Unlike others I got right into Vista and took care of a few things like disabling the side bar. That was an annoyance added along with finding out how to disable the UAC. Easy enough simply uncheck one box under Control Panel>User Accounts and call it a day!

Yet how many rejected Vista simply by not taking a look?! Yet despite three main things Vista was far easier to work with. 1)MS understated the need for 2gb stating 512mb as minimum. Wrong! 2)UAC had to go! uncheck box please! and 3) annoyance of side bar easily disabled with right click on bar, uncheck start up with Windows option!

Slower then XP? You could look at the 95/98 contrast where when first looking at 98 when running 95 that was also the new larger OS! Yet it offered far more 32bit support then OR2 for 95 already included. And yet out of the Legacy versions 98 still lives on with many! Gee may be when the RP expires I'll set up another dual boot? Dual-Boot Windows 98/Me and Windows 7 on your Windows 7 computer

First you have to get past the 512mb barrier however in order to 98 even load up! That was a dos move required when booted from an old 98 boot floppy to edit a system file in dos! The VM option however was good enough when tried last!



Gee now I will need to replace the second XP seen there with the RP! Or I could run a 7 VM on 8 for the new look? naaaaa....

One thing I still haven't tried out yet is installing Limux Mint Debian on an NTFS primary since that and Linux Mint are supposed to be able to unlike others like ubuntu. That will depend on just how well the RP works out in other ways besides the gui changes as a second OS based on how and what compatibility issue remain.

 

[iforgot]

Hi all It seems M$ has upset a few of their users again.

So should M$ refer to Windows-8 as Windows-Hate or Windows-Wait ?

 

[SIW2]

MS have upset a huge number of their customers.

The tragedy is - it is so needless.

 

[mart4494]

MS have upset a huge number of their customers.

The tragedy is - it is so needless.

It would have helped if they had called the thing MS Metro rather than Win8. The inference calling it Win8 is that it is the successor to Win7. You have a phone/tablet OS being passed off as a one size fits all!!!

 

[iforgot]

MS have upset a huge number of their customers.

The tragedy is - it is so needless.

It would have helped if they had called the thing MS Metro rather than Win8. The inference calling it Win8 is that it is the successor to Win7. You have a phone/tablet OS being passed off as a one size fits all!!!

Exactly Windows Metro would be better.
Touchscreen Gui for tablets, POS and other task specific oriented applications.

But then, it is M$

And You Have To Realize
M$ know exactly what you need

Just like the fruit pc company

 

[Night Hawk]

They didn't so well here for sure! All of sudden the desktop freezes solid where only the Start screen and side bar with power button(fortunately appeared) came out with all else useless! I hardly have anything on the RP and for some reason today it loaded directly to the desktop not the Start screen. But then something went haywire.

Found the same thing the other day where any windows open would freeze and no way to get the task manager up either. I never ran into any of this with the CP but now the RP?! It's as if they put out the beta build after the RC this time around!

 

[alphanumeric]

I had a couple of total lockups the other day, everything just froze. The only way out was to hit the reset button. I've had the odd program not launch correctly too. Just a screen with a solid color. I updated some drivers after that and it hasn't happened again. Knock on wood.

 

[Night Hawk]

Something here garbled up big time likely a bad install of a chipset driver or somehow a system file got bumped. This saw the entire desktop freeze up the second time and that's when the only things to work were the Start Screen(but nothing on it) and the Apps, settings bar where I went to look at the refresh option.

Once that show files were missing while the previous two weeks all was well I said let's eee how this works! And so far no futher locks with all for now seemingly going well.

Someone else I have been helping lately however sees locks when going to play back video files whether on the drive locally or YouTube. I can't rule out one of the few updates or something else for that problem.