I have been using Win8 as a main OS for the past 4 months. I can't seem to find anything I need that was there in Win7 and missing in the new version. I love the new keyboard shortcuts (esp. Win+X, A). Metro is by no means a requirement - the old desktop is still there and all programs (even games) run the same.
I guess it's just easier to bash MS than to really see that Win8 is not just Metro/Modern, at least on the desktop. I haven't used it on an ARM device yet so I cannot comment on that.
I totally agree. I thought the developer preview was a bit flaky, the left/right-scrolling start-screen was too jolting for example (so it was good to see that's been replaced with a fade-in/out). Having now installed the RTM I really rate it.
It's so much quicker and more responsive than W7, the start-search feels more accurate too and again much quicker.
Some of the UI changes take a little getting used-to, like the charms pop-ups, but it also brings some consistency to things like per-app settings.
For anyone who wants to largely keep the W7 experience there's no reason to worry, the desktop is there, the start-bar is there, the start button is there (just without a logo), and the start-screen works very much like the start-menu, you can still alt-tab between screens, and as mentioned above the shortcuts make some of the power features easily accessible without going through the start-screen.
There's always going to be people afraid of change, but I really don't see what there is in here to be so scared about. You're not forced to use the Metro apps at all.
How do you open an application quickly? For instance, in windows 7 I click start, start typing the name of the app I want, press return, and it opens. I thought the start menu in Windows 8 loaded the Metro UI. How do I use that to launch my app quickly?
All the time it takes for the full screen metro UI to animate into and out of view, is time I could be searching for something.
Has there ever been an OS release where (at first) people prefer the new one? Windows 7 might be the exception only because the previous incarnation was so awful.
Ubuntu with Unity? we want the old desktop!
IOS6? we want IOS5 and our maps!
OSX Mountain Lion? We want Lion!
Change is always hard and almost never goes down well - this is not a new phenomenon and occurs naturally at the beginning of most major software versions. People will get used to it and move on with their lives...
If you don't recall the abortion that was Windows ME, then you are lucky. Windows 98 was so clunky compared to Windows XP. All the little improvements and features were fantastic.
Then came Vista and that was another train wreck. But Windows 7 was a dream. It magically found drivers, everything "just worked."
> Has there ever been an OS release where (at first) people prefer the new one?
Every Linux distro with the possible exception of Red Hat 7 (when they bumped up gcc version and broke some binaries) and the ones that replaced the Gnome 2 desktop with Unity and Gnome 3. Every MacOS version with the exception, perhaps, of 7.5 and 10.0.
Apple didn't remove core features from OSX to create iOS on the iPad. I think that is one of the issues here. The idea that Microsoft's tablet OS will run the same "Windows" that the PCs run. If anything, Microsoft probably should have left the regular mode alone, and done all of the radical stuff in 'Metro-mode' so that people on a desktop PC could ignore it if it got in the way of their workflow.
If Microsoft thought that they could remove some of these things without any blow-back, then they are idiots. If understood the risks, and assume that things will work out for the better in the end? Then good on them, and good luck.
Windows 7 had the perfect balance. It made significant improvements in many areas that XP was insufficient at and Vista sucked at, while keeping the fundamentals the same. Windows 8 though... I haven't used it myself, but from what I'm hearing, it sounds like it's slated to be a bigger disaster than Vista.
Everyone cries and whines and moans about UI changes. It's like facebook changing their UI. It'll keep happening for a while, until eventually people will accept it and realize that they're being stingy.
My take on Windows 8 is simple, as a desktop OS - you can't take core features and remove them without a viable alternative.
My biggest beef is the removal of the start menu and the search bar on it - I could do/find anything from there.
My other beef is that the Metro UI gives you all these "fullscreen" applications, but no way to window them. Windows provided me with a train of thought, but when you make everything fullscreen, it becomes distracting when using multiple applications routinely.
Metro is just a 2D representation of the old 1D list. All the items from the old menu are there.
Search bar? Just start typing anywhere on the Start screen. Win+Q is all programs screen + apps search, Win+F - file search, Win+W - search settings in control panel. There are also a lot more search providers to choose from.
Full screen apps? Isn't that cool you can run tablet apps on your desktop? They are not required in any sense, if you don't like them, delete them.
I think the full screen start menu is fine, Windows isn't the only OS to use it, look at Gnome and Unity on Linux.
My biggest complaints are that system settings are difficult to find and navigate. It took me quite some time to figure out how to even shut down the computer the first time.
I do agree that the distinction between the Metro programs and the desktop programs feels arbitrary and frustrating. You can "Dock" the metro apps on one side or the other, but unless you have a widescreen display, that's not really an alternative to windowing.
I've found that I end up heavily reliant on the VMWare Fusion app menu for anything other than launching Internet Explorer - which, to be fair, is 99% of what I use Windows for.
Says a group of people, 20% of which, are on a 12 year old operating system. Is the problem that Windows 8 sucks or that these users are extremely adverse to change?
I thought the same thing. If 20% of the group polled likes XP over Windows 7, you have to wonder who is in this poll.
I bet most of the people in it haven't tried Windows 8, since at least 20% of the people haven't even tried Windows 7...I know that because no one (in their right mind) honestly likes Windows XP over Windows 7.
The other problem is you have no idea what hardware they're trying this on. Windows 8 will make a lot more sense when you run it with new IO devices that support Win 8 gestures.
I agree on on the corporate envirnoment. I wonder if MSFT is even expecting Win8 to penetrate that market. I welcome them taking the big changes and moving forward with Win8. I'll have to wait and see how the hybrid tablet thing works out, but i'm going to give it a go.
I installed Windows 8 last week. After hearing all the noise, I was excited to try something so radical. I ended up a little bit disappointed that things were so similar to Windows 7. But it sounds like there are lots of ways to do things. (10 years ago, that was my primary complaint about Windows.)
Install Windows 8 and stay in desktop mode. It's faster and has nice improvements to things like task manager, file copies, etc. There's no need to spend significant time in the "metro" part of Windows 8 if you don't want to.
[+] [-] lini|13 years ago|reply
I guess it's just easier to bash MS than to really see that Win8 is not just Metro/Modern, at least on the desktop. I haven't used it on an ARM device yet so I cannot comment on that.
[+] [-] louthy|13 years ago|reply
It's so much quicker and more responsive than W7, the start-search feels more accurate too and again much quicker.
Some of the UI changes take a little getting used-to, like the charms pop-ups, but it also brings some consistency to things like per-app settings.
For anyone who wants to largely keep the W7 experience there's no reason to worry, the desktop is there, the start-bar is there, the start button is there (just without a logo), and the start-screen works very much like the start-menu, you can still alt-tab between screens, and as mentioned above the shortcuts make some of the power features easily accessible without going through the start-screen.
There's always going to be people afraid of change, but I really don't see what there is in here to be so scared about. You're not forced to use the Metro apps at all.
[+] [-] pixie_|13 years ago|reply
All the time it takes for the full screen metro UI to animate into and out of view, is time I could be searching for something.
[+] [-] bitdiffusion|13 years ago|reply
Ubuntu with Unity? we want the old desktop! IOS6? we want IOS5 and our maps! OSX Mountain Lion? We want Lion!
Change is always hard and almost never goes down well - this is not a new phenomenon and occurs naturally at the beginning of most major software versions. People will get used to it and move on with their lives...
[+] [-] pragmatic|13 years ago|reply
If you don't recall the abortion that was Windows ME, then you are lucky. Windows 98 was so clunky compared to Windows XP. All the little improvements and features were fantastic.
Then came Vista and that was another train wreck. But Windows 7 was a dream. It magically found drivers, everything "just worked."
[+] [-] rbanffy|13 years ago|reply
Every Linux distro with the possible exception of Red Hat 7 (when they bumped up gcc version and broke some binaries) and the ones that replaced the Gnome 2 desktop with Unity and Gnome 3. Every MacOS version with the exception, perhaps, of 7.5 and 10.0.
[+] [-] markshepard|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pyre|13 years ago|reply
If Microsoft thought that they could remove some of these things without any blow-back, then they are idiots. If understood the risks, and assume that things will work out for the better in the end? Then good on them, and good luck.
[+] [-] enraged_camel|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Metrop0218|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JimmaDaRustla|13 years ago|reply
My biggest beef is the removal of the start menu and the search bar on it - I could do/find anything from there.
My other beef is that the Metro UI gives you all these "fullscreen" applications, but no way to window them. Windows provided me with a train of thought, but when you make everything fullscreen, it becomes distracting when using multiple applications routinely.
[+] [-] cabirum|13 years ago|reply
Search bar? Just start typing anywhere on the Start screen. Win+Q is all programs screen + apps search, Win+F - file search, Win+W - search settings in control panel. There are also a lot more search providers to choose from.
Full screen apps? Isn't that cool you can run tablet apps on your desktop? They are not required in any sense, if you don't like them, delete them.
[+] [-] josteink|13 years ago|reply
Just press the windows key and start typing. It's all there, sans the textbox which tells you it's there.
Probably not the pinnacle of intuitive design, but it is there ;)
[+] [-] k-mcgrady|13 years ago|reply
This is still there is a different form. WIN+F brings up the search interface in Metro (even from the desktop).
Also, you can kind of window with the snap mode (grab a metro window at the top of the screen and drag it to the side. Not ideal obviously though.
[+] [-] bloaf|13 years ago|reply
My biggest complaints are that system settings are difficult to find and navigate. It took me quite some time to figure out how to even shut down the computer the first time.
I do agree that the distinction between the Metro programs and the desktop programs feels arbitrary and frustrating. You can "Dock" the metro apps on one side or the other, but unless you have a widescreen display, that's not really an alternative to windowing.
[+] [-] pragmatic|13 years ago|reply
Do yourself a favor, download and install classic shell: http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/
With classic shell you get a Windows 7.1.
You'll boot right to the desktop (with a quick flash of the Metro start menu).
[+] [-] unknown|13 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] acdha|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nahname|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] IanDrake|13 years ago|reply
I bet most of the people in it haven't tried Windows 8, since at least 20% of the people haven't even tried Windows 7...I know that because no one (in their right mind) honestly likes Windows XP over Windows 7.
The other problem is you have no idea what hardware they're trying this on. Windows 8 will make a lot more sense when you run it with new IO devices that support Win 8 gestures.
The writers at ZDNet just love to hate on MS.
[+] [-] marshray|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rbanffy|13 years ago|reply
Or both, perhaps.
[+] [-] pragmatic|13 years ago|reply
Also, I don't think Windows 8 is going to work in a corporate environment. The training, etc is just going to be too costly.
Windows 7 is the next Windows XP, and that's a compliment to Windows 7.
Underneath the UI cruft of Windows 8 is a great, solid desktop just waiting to get out.
[+] [-] taude|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] iNate2000|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jtreminio|13 years ago|reply
Does anyone have any pointers on this?
[+] [-] Encosia|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] recoiledsnake|13 years ago|reply
So all the others just voted based on what they heard about Windows 8? If that's the case, it's easy to see why the response is the way it is.