marketwatch blog, John C Dvorak unloads on Windows 8 with a passion. Some choice quotes:
Windows 8 looks to me to be an unmitigated disaster that could decidedly hurt the company and its future.and
andIt’s not that the product out-and-out stinks. It is refreshingly slick-looking and modern, albeit without any charm whatsoever.
The real problem is that it is both unusable and annoying. It makes your teeth itch as you keep asking, “Why are they doing this!?”
There is an old-fashioned desktop you can visit, but whenever the OS gets the chance, it throws you back onto the Metro interface. For those of us who thought we could avoid Metro and live on the desktop screen, we are going to be sorely disappointed.His prediction:
The public and enterprise users are going to demand Windows 7 throughout 2013 and until Microsoft gives up on this soulless Metro interface and gets a new design team, fast.It’s definitely a hard nosed assessment of where this product is. You’ve seen my (final) Windows 8 review and now you can read his. What do you think of Mr Dvorak’s statements?]]>
“The public and enterprise users are going to demand Windows 7throughout 2013 and until Microsoft gives up on this soulless Metrointerface and gets a new design team, fast.”
This could be quite an accurate prediction.
I absolutely disagree. I have used Windows 8 for 9 months now, and I agree to what Paul Thorrutt stated about Windows 8. Windows 8 is very useable after you learn to use it.
I absolutely agree there is a learning curve. But guess what, you either have Microsoft moving to a future and take the time to learn a new OS or have MS stick in the past and do things comfortably. You can’t have both, and if you think you can, I pity your ignorance.
Some say, “Well I have used Windows 8 on my test PC or VM for a couple of days or even months. I know how to use Windows 8 and still hate it”. Let me tell you something, you are likely wrong. I was on the same boat. I used it for days and nearly a month, and still was uncomfortable. It was not that I didn’t know how to use Windows 8, but, rather, it was that I could’t do things the way I did them in Windows 7. But I decided to still stick to Windows 8 on my primary PC, using it every day for daily work.
I automatically learned to change my habits. Here are some examples of the habits I have changed and developed. Before Windows 8, I would drag programs from start menu to the desktop to make shortcuts. Now, I just press the windows key and search. Also, at first, I was upset that I couldn’t put desktop apps on the desktop from the start screen shearch. I frustratingly went to the program files folder and did it manually. Now, I learned that to add programs to the desktop, simply search it on the start screen, right click the program, and click “Open File Location”. This opens the Windows 7 start menu folder on Windows Explorer. I can now pin all my installed desktop apps in one spot from explorer to desktop.
Another habit I gained is the charms. I love moving the mouse in the corner and quickly checking the date and time. The one on the taskbar is too small. Was mad when I couldn’t do it on Windows 7. Charms also work on full-screen desktop programs; with win7, I couldn’t see the clock on fullscreen programs without minimizing the program.
Before Windows 8, I used to use the start menu for launching My documents or My computer. Now, I launch the libraries on Windows 8, and then click My Documents or My computer on the left sidebar of Windows Explorer. I love being able to pin things on Explorer’s quick access toolbar, like empty recycle bit or uninstall programs.
People have the notion that you either live exclusively on desktop or metro. On a non-touch PC, this is not true. I work on the desktop but I use metro for my mail, to check weather, and play some Metro Style games, like Fruit ninja. Why people can’t imagine using both is beyond me. If I buy a game that works great on metro, I want to play it. Games have always been fullscreen. With Windows 7, I can’t play thousands of games that will soon come to the Windows Store.
What if I want a flipboard like news reader on Windows? Windows 8 will soon have one. Windows 7 will likely never see such a nice news reader app. What if I want a great netflix APP and not a website? Can I get that on Windows 7 without going to the website or media center. Damn I can’t! What if I want to control my Xbox with my PC? Can’t do that with Windows 7. What if I want to work and play? Windows 8 gives me the best choice. What if I don’t want to repay for games I already bought for the tablet? Windows 7 users: tough luck. Windows 7 is so lame in comparison to Windows 8.
Metro is just the best idea of microsoft ever! I really love it and hope that a lot of developers and designers will learn how to use it so that soon there will be a lot more metro apps.
Microsoft has to explain its new os? well okay, but after more than one day you are getting used to it and you don’t want to miss this really nice thing with the corners. recently i had kinda reflex during using my win7-pc and tried to use the corners … 🙂
well i hope customers do not just believe all those negative journalists and other people instead of just trying out themselves. simply fantastic work!
I like the new interface. Before I installed it I downloaded the keyboard short-cuts to have at my side. It IS frustrating, but so is any change. What I really appreciate is the attempt to give the user the same method to interact with all their devices. My biggest beef is that the major program I use every day does not run under 8, and throws a “getprocaddress” error, heck it didn’t run under 7 until 12 months ago. I called “client care” 18 months ago (7 was RTM’ed July 09) and they still didn’t support it. They recommended running in a VM under XP mode. So there are two issues – user reluctance and developer malaise. Good luck – but I still like it.
It doesnt really matter how much the microsoft staff and co post, about how the sun shines out of windows8 and that it will cure all diseases and cancers, bring world peace and is our world salvation, at this rate, we’ll have the second coming with Christ walking down from the clouds with a Win8 slate tucked under his arm, winmobile in his hand, etc
nor does it matter how much others post (including myself) that we hate the new look, we need out start menu, that it just wont take off, that MS have shot themselves in the foot again, etc.
all that matters is how much it sells. Simple really. Either consumers will buy it or stick to Win7. End off!
well not quite, I wouldnt be surprised to see MS push it on everyone, the way they did with Win7, ie, withdraw access to previous systems. XP was brilliant, hence no one was really bothered about Win7, and so MS pulled sales of XP.
Will they do this with Win7 in 18-24months if Win8 flops, only a fool would day no!
Note: I’m not saying Win8 will flop or succeed, I’m saying MS will have a plan regardless.
Me, I’ll stick with 7, until the replacement for 8 comes out, I’ll see what that is like and then decide. But the warning for MS is that I WILL DECIDE what I do, MS isnt big or dominant enough anymore to be able to bulldose like it used to, there’s too many alternatives.
Consumers will vote with their wallet, regardless of spin by any one company!
Metro by itself is cool, the improvements to the desktop are equally cool – in fact I think it is much cleaner and nicer to use.
But I still that TOGETHER they are not cool. Rather we now two worlds colliding head on – and the aftermath is painfully obvious, it’s called Windows8!
Me – planning to stick with Win7. It is always best to stay away from disaster areas.
Windows should sack Microsoft and hire a new team – it’s life may depend on it.
I absolutely disagree. I have been using and developing on Win8 since the beginning, every day, at least 6 hours a day. For enterprise users the legacy desktop is a click away. For developers the legacy desktop is a click away. Enterprise management will love metro. No more mucking about attempting to get ipads to fit in to the enterprise. My enterprise environment (Education) will see an enormous boost. So many complaints from students and teachers about the limits of ipads in a centralised education environment.
You never did get it. Stick with what you know best. The on off button.