Windows 8

[Tyyr]

The latest version of AutoCAD uses a ribbon interface. Someone needs to die for this.

[Tholian_Avenger]

Here is my two cents regarding Windows 8:

They reached their peak interface wise with XP. Everything before was crap, everything after it is crap.

I install XP and after 5 minutes ordering my stuff I can use it. I install 7 and I spend the next two hours knocking the damn interface in a shape I actually can use and Windows 8 looks - sorry - like somehing produced for a three year old.

(Yes I am a bit strange, I am one of those guys who started their PC adventure freeing up memory to play games and making start-discs so I bloody hell like to know exactly what the hell is going on on my PC and who knows what kind of crap is actually hiding behind all those APPS and buttons.)

This. I liked the openness of 95 and 98, some of the GUI features from those and XP. XP and 7 are tanks though, and they work really well. I have no interest in switching to a new system.

[Tyyr]

I have no interest in switching to a new system.

And you're not alone. The latest figures show Windows 8 being accepted even slower than Vista. The general public realizes when they're being sold a tablet interface for a regular PC and don't appear to want any of it.

[Teaos]

I know two people who were forced to get it with new laptops and HATE it with a burning passion.

[Captain Picard's Hair]

It's also a factor that we're in a very slow economy and it's predecessor Windows 7 is both modern and popular. Many people just aren't upgrading as often anymore since PCs have gotten so powerful in recent years there isn't as much need to unless you're a hardcore gamer or professional in need of the best workstation.

That's not to say Windows 8 is popular but there are mitigating factors in it's slow adoption also.

[Tyyr]

There's also the fact that Microsoft has made no case for upgrading. All their advertisements show the interface and the interface alone... ON TOUCH SCREENS. How many people have touch screen desktop computers? How many people want them? Their advertising for 8 absolutely blows.

[Captain Picard's Hair]

Microsoft has never been known for it's marketing skill.

[Captain Picard's Hair]

The next update to Windows is expected later this year: Microsoft is following Apple with an annual development cycle it seems. These look like they'll be smaller in scale than previous full versions of Windows but bigger than a typical service pack. It's big enough that they're rumored to be bumping the kernel version from NT 6.2 (current Windows to NT 6.3. They're sticking with the new interface (no longer known as "Metro"), expected to be made a bit more customizable but no less central. Not much else is known yet.

[Tyyr]

We'll see. Microsoft doesn't survive on new PC sales. They need people to upgrade and they need new business users. Business users have no interest in 8 at all and I don't know of anyone who is upgrading to 8, even the techies I know.

I strongly suspect that if Microsoft wants to move copies of Windows 8 they're going to have to restore a traditional Windows interface and leave Metro as an option. They aren't going to be able to intice business into 8 as it is now so its just how long they can hold out and try to shove Metro down the home user's throat before the cave to their need for business sales.

[Captain Picard's Hair]

There's that, though on the other side there's the Windows Store tied to the new Windows 8 style apps. Microsoft is hoping to build up it's app store business into a new source of revenue (again, like... Apple, the new masters of the Unvierse) which they'll be a bit reluctant to give up on too quickly. They're not dumb so I'm sure they were expecting resistance to the new interface; they seem to be hoping people will adapt to the new way before they're forced to make concessions.

[Tyyr]

Yeah, they want to start to build their own walled garden but they've got a problem in that a lot of their users loathe the entire concept of a walled garden and will fight it tooth and nail. I know Apple has a very pretty and enticing business model going but I think trying to emulate it with their customer base is going to shoot them in the foot.

On top of that Windows 7 is still young. Hell, most things are still XP compatible. So what's people's motivations to migrate? I've got none. I'm happy with 7. It does what I want it to, it's quick and can't recall my last crash. I know that it's going to be supported by Microsoft and developers for years to come. So yeah, Microsoft might think they can wait out their customers but they're wrong. No one needs Windows 8.

Windows 8 is a solution to a problem that Microsoft's business development team had. They wanted a walled garden eco-system like Apple's so the software development team cooked up a new OS for their tablets, phones, and desktops to support that goal. They forgot somewhere along the way to ask themselves, "Does anyone want this?"

[stitch626]

Many of the newest games and buisness programs are still rated as XP compatible. It will be a long while before we have to switch out of 7 (unless MS does something evil and stupid like make their new OS in such a manner than programs made for it won't work on old OSs...)

[Tyyr]

They could do that, but all it would accomplish is leave 8 with nothing that could run on it.

[Captain Picard's Hair]

Oddly enough, there is actually the "Windows RT" version designed to run on non-Intel tablets but visually all but indistinguishable from regular Windows 8. The former will only run new Windows Apps (plus a built-in copy of Office and the handful of basic applications built into the otherwise useless Desktop mode). If their marketing hasn't been great they haven't done much to dispel the Intel vs non-Intel confusion most ordinary consumers would experience when they discover that (e.g.) the Surface won't run desktop Windows software.

Incidentally, growth of Windows tablets thus far hasn't given Google or Apple much to fear yet.

[Tyyr]

They lack the app selection of Android or Apple. They're too expensive to compete with Android tablets and they don't have the marketing momentum to charge a premium like Apple. I fully intended to buy a Surface and the wife even wanted me to get one. Then we saw the price. Yeah, no.