Someone has to say it, so it might as well be me: Windows 8 will be a giant mess

[_Aurel_]

I've read a ton of reviews and impressions from blogs and tech sites on Windows 8, and all of them seems to praise the interface out of a sense of miguided duty... as if to say since we all grew up using Windows, we expect Windows 8 to be just as good. But there's a strong undercurrent of resentment and even outright denial when it it comes to describing painful it becomes to use Windows as a PC, and doing office work.

None of it is more evident then Computerworld's review of Windows 8. First, the way the author describes being booted into a more limited Desktop, where the START button has been removed, and thus convenient search and access to apps quickly completely neutered simply to punish the user into using a design paradigm (Metro) that is completely opposed to mouse and keyboard navigation. To me, this sounds absolutely nuts, and the only conclusion I can come up with is that Microsoft are forcing early adopters to hate their original interface, in order to force them to use one that is completely awkward with their preferred method of navigation. The last thing a company ever wants to do is allow their users to hate using part of their product.

Coming away form all this, the only thing I like about Windows 8 are the gestures. I think they're the most creative and intuitive that any company has ever come up with. But that doesn't change the fact that the whole OS looks like a buggered mess when blown up to a 10+ inch display, with those over sized tiles and what-not. You have to spend a significant amount of time to set up tiles so that they display relevant information, instead of random stuff placed haphazardly on your START screen from your downloads. That doesn't seem any more complicated then setting up Widgets, Folders, and Shortcuts on a Android Home screen. Yet these same reviewers are saying that Android is 'Hard'. Seriously, that's the most complicated thing to do in Android, yet the same thing is 'easy' in Windows 8. Never mind the fact that Android already works better with mouse gestures, and it doesn't force the user to use two opposing interfaces just to do practical work.

I'm a PC user right now and I'm not really looking forward to upgrading to Windows 8. As a matter of fact, I'll stick with 7 as long as it suits my needs. I don't see anything that 8 offers that will entice me to spend $130 to upgrade just so I can have giant, ugly tiles on my 24" monitor. The next time I upgrade, I'm hoping that we'll see Transformer Prime Tablets with better processors then Ultra Books so that 3D modeling applications become viable, but I'd rather have an interface like ICS on it then Metro.


Note: this thread has been moved from Mobile Devices and Gadgets to Operating Systems.

I'm not seeing much about Mobile Devices or Gadgets in this thread. Windows 8 is aimed at tablets as well as desktop/laptops but we aren't talking about tablets in this thread. It's all about how desktop/laptop users don't/won't like Metro, which is a great discussion topic... but in my opinion it belongs in Operating Systems and not MD&G.

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[Ancalagon44]

I must say, after using the technical preview, or whatever its called, the one release last year, I'm a little concerned too.

Some things I didnt like:
The over reliance on the new start page, as you say. Its great for tablets, but not for PCs, and should be optional and/or configurable

No back button - I went to the control panel, and was stuck there. I had to use the start button to go anywhere else. No X that I could see, to simply close the window, and no way to get back to where I was.

Getting the menu at the bottom left to come up was way to fiddly. I had to move my mouse cursor over it just right, or it did nothing at all. Just give me a big button to click on already.

 

[notposting]

I haven't used it much, but I agree on the back button mention...I was getting stuck a lot, with no visual cues as to what I should be doing. They need to have things altered when in use with m/k. Another point I saw is that WP7 uses both horizontal scroll (ie different parts of an app) and vertical scroll (ie lists, more info within that part, etc), and W8 doesn't seem to be.

I also agree on the bottom left...give me an orrrrrb to click on. Personally I think they could have gone with a split identity approach--touchscreen gets Metro, k/m gets standard Windows. Either that, or the Metroization needs to go much deeper, too many things pop you out of it, it's a bit jarring.

Right now it's not ready for old folks for sure.

 

[hans007]

i think metro is going to be a complete failure . and windows 8 will be vista 2. if it werent for the fact that there doesnt seem to be a viable replacement for windows for the vast majority of oem machines (and no apple isnt getting 100% of all desktops or anything any time soon and people will just live with win8 ) it just seems like microsoft is trying to lose share.

with most people being very web centric to begin with its easier than ever to just ditch your platform entirely. i mean most people could probably get by with just an android or ios tablet and keyboard / mouse on bluetooth if it really came down to it. microsoft will just erode is share with this abomination. if they were smart they'd just kill it right now, release like a windows 7 hardware acceleration super speed pack with some newbie dock bar / widgets, and start over and release win 8 in a few years.

i think metro UI honestly is a failure. people on tech boards / magazines seems to love metro on windows phone 7. but most normal people (i.ee the vast majority of phone buyers) could care less. i've used it on friends phones and though it has some novel features, it isnt blow your mind better, in fact i think it looks really ugly. aesthetically it looks terrible. its too overly square and text based and that really turns me off to it. tech geeks love it.

but the problem with that is tech geeks love lots of things that are failures. lots of mags / blogs are saying metro on win8 is good or smooth or whatever. metro is not what makes win8 smooth, its better coding that makes win8 smooth. if windows 8 were just windows 7 with a classic desktop and smooth / fast bootup would that not be fine. there isnt exactly some outcry over how terrible windows 7 is, in fact i think most people like how windows 7 is other than it coudl be faster, or smoother (and well if microsoft can optimize it to be say better accelerated hardware wise, then it woudl be that or we could just all get SSDs and fast computers...) windows 8 just seems like microsoft trying to shift people to get used to metro for whatever reason, and that reason doesnt seem to be that its better than classic desktop (yes i know you can switch back, but the way they have it set up, it seems like theyreally want to marginalize it and put metro front and center). maybe they want everyone to just see so much metro everywhere that they will love it. i mean i've had an xbox 360 (which i dont really use much lately) since launch. and itsi going to some sort of metro ui. is it better? i dont really know i just know it has a lot of squares in it and looks less organic its like less apple or android like which people seem to like, so lets just go agianst it with more squares / giant text in that font. media center always had a sort of metro like ui and it was meh.

now if you read tech blogs you'd think that WP7 was great, metro was awesome and would change your life. but if you went by what blogs said well the pontiac G8 would have sold like crazy (it honestly had to be beloved by tons of car publications and for car guys it really was a good car) but it sold like crap, and they could not give them away and hell pontiac went bankrupt...

car blogs loved the pontiac solstice too... and saturn sky. both sold like crap. windows phone 7 is for some weird reason loved. sells like crap. webOS people still talk about like it was great, sold like crap. and going back to the car analogy, everyone on enthusiast car blogs seems to want a diesel , manual wagon, but hell wagons sell horribly in america so much that companies stop selling them.

for whatever reason the general public i just know won't like it, becuase its so foreign and weird, and its going to be a huge mess as the OP said. itll still sell just because its microsoft and you are mostly stuck in their ecosystem and every system at best buy save macs will have it there, but it will be the new vista. people just wont upgrade from win7 or keep their old systems (i mean really theres almost no real reason to upgrade a computer for 99% of people these days)

its sad for me to admit this, but microsoft tends to make things for geeks by geeks. windows media center for example (generally held as a terrible seller, tons of returns, impossible to use by most normal people. and agian with the car analogy. most car mags hate SUVs. they sell really well for most people and people love their SUVs. hell I dont like SUVs. but most people want them. they need to make an suv.

they need to make something everyone wil llike, that enthusiasts won't and that is what will be generally loved. clone mac os. put a damn dock bar at the bottom of windows 8 and keep the start menu, and leave metro just for tablets and take the grid lines and ugly boxes and overly functional but boring looking tiles out. make those icons bounce around and magnify when your mouse is on them or your finger is on them. copy EVERYTHING apple does but have win 32 compatibility and better hardware acceleration.

 

[MrX8503]

Even with all the flash and pizazzz of Windows 8, I like Windows 7 a lot. When I'm at a desktop I'd like to get work done and Windows 7 allows me to do that. When I looked at the preview of Win8, its like I'm just horsing around with social networks and photos.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

The Metro interface is a disgusting abomination when it comes to laptops and desktops.

 

[hans007]

i agree with this a lot.

http://www.alphaila.com/articles/failure/how-windows-8-looks-concept-dariod/

look at the "concept" of what he thinks windows 8 should look like. hell windows 95 had desktop widgets that never caught on, because well they sucked at the time. (they were more like embedded html pages)

but widgets are sort of like live tiles, but optional.

looks a lot like , well android ice cream sandwhich on a tablet, BUT with a start bar, and full win32 compatibility. the widgets are optional. just like on ICS. just like on a transformer tablet. if you watn a bunch of live stuff on your desktop you can have them. its like mac os x , meets ICS, meets windows 7. it is what a lot of people would be comfortable with.

http://www.alphaila.com/articles/failure/how-windows-8-looks-concept-dariod/

 

[Pliablemoose]

I put it on my laptop, really regret it

It's a hot mess...

 

[smartpatrol]

I really wish they would've made their tablet OS a variation of Windows Phone, and left desktop Windows to be their traditional mouse/keyboard OS. With cloud computing, you can have your docs, music, movies, calendar, bookmarks, the state of your open applications (tabs etc.) all synced between your devices. So why did they insist on mashing two completely different UIs, each clearly built for different input methods, into one OS? What was the point?

Windows 8 will be a "success" only because you pretty much can't buy a PC without Windows. But, I bet the Windows 7 downgrade option will be very popular with Dell/HP. Businesses especially will give Windows 7 the 10+ year lifespan that XP had.

 

[Chocu1a]

Patiently waits for the "I'm a mac...I'm a pc..." campaign to resume.
With Windows 7 all that could be said was you had to install from scratch, ie: no simple upgrade. This seems like fodder for a whole new campaign from apple.

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

Yeah I've seen one way early "preview" and that home page deal just kills me. I have refused to read any of the previews. It just looks so bad for anything outside of tablets.

 

[Red Storm]

They were on the right track with WP7, and then they got stupid and tried to merge it with Windows 7. They are two completely different devices (desktops/laptops and mobile touch devices).

 

[MrX8503]

I think this Windows 8 would work wonderfully on a tablet...well because I wouldn't do real work on a tablet. I think some mobile functions should be available for the desktop, but Win8 is too much.

 

[janas19]

Perfectly viable eplacement for Windows 8 on desktop: Ubuntu 11.10. It has an app store, end-user friendly GUIs, web browser and network manager, launch bar, "dashboard" feature, USB plug n play, automated install process, office suite, and a fair amount of developer support.

Ubuntu can do 90% of what Windows can do, for the casual user. There is no reason not to switch over. Linux is not just an indie OS anymore. It has really become mainstream and ought to replace Windows more and more.

 

[Red Storm]

Perfectly viable eplacement for Windows 8 on desktop: Ubuntu 11.10. It has an app store, end-user friendly GUIs, web browser and network manager, launch bar, "dashboard" feature, USB plug n play, automated install process, office suite, and a fair amount of developer support.

Ubuntu can do 90% of what Windows can do, for the casual user. There is no reason not to switch over. Linux is not just an indie OS anymore. It has really become mainstream and ought to replace Windows more and more.

You are right, but for me the only reason why I can't switch over to Linux is gaming. If I could play my games on Linux, I'd hop over in a heartbeat.

 

[Oyeve]

Perfectly viable eplacement for Windows 8 on desktop: Ubuntu 11.10. It has an app store, end-user friendly GUIs, web browser and network manager, launch bar, "dashboard" feature, USB plug n play, automated install process, office suite, and a fair amount of developer support.

Ubuntu can do 90% of what Windows can do, for the casual user. There is no reason not to switch over. Linux is not just an indie OS anymore. It has really become mainstream and ought to replace Windows more and more.

Sorry, in 20 years linux has barely made a dent. While I love it, I really cant ever see it going mainstream except for apples bastardization of it. Its a shame as it is very good.

 

[Deeko]

Perfectly viable eplacement for Windows 8 on desktop: Ubuntu 11.10. It has an app store, end-user friendly GUIs, web browser and network manager, launch bar, "dashboard" feature, USB plug n play, automated install process, office suite, and a fair amount of developer support.

Ubuntu can do 90% of what Windows can do, for the casual user. There is no reason not to switch over. Linux is not just an indie OS anymore. It has really become mainstream and ought to replace Windows more and more.

If you think the change to the Windows start screen is too jarring for the average consumer - you really think a switch to Linux is LESS jarring? Its an entirely new experience, and on top of that it has different programs for everything they do. It would be a much bigger change than learning start screen vs start menu.

 

[tommo123]

i keep trying linux but something invariably makes me go into terminal. that's when i go back to windows and remove wubi

 

[Dari]

After Vista I was really looking forward to Windows 7. Best OS Microsoft ever made besides Windows 2000. I'm not even remotely interested in Windows 8. They are trying to out-Apple Apple without thinking about why Apple does what it does and why they are successful.

 

[alent1234]

apple owns the high end of the computer market and the low end doesnt care what OS they run

the SA customers will get this and MS will hype the numbers but don't expect this to be used much. maybe windows 9, but traditional computers are a mature market like cars and TV's

 

[Puddle Jumper]

apple owns the high end of the computer market and the low end doesnt care what OS they run

I guess the multiple high end Windows systems I own must not exist then.

 

[MrX8503]

Sorry, in 20 years linux has barely made a dent. While I love it, I really cant ever see it going mainstream except for apples bastardization of it. Its a shame as it is very good.

I agree. Linux users having been saying the same thing for years and it still hasn't been anywhere near close to being mainstream.

I think the biggest downfall of Windows 8 is its unfamiliarity. People are going to be confused as hell.

 

[alent1234]

I guess the multiple high end Windows systems I own must not exist then.

most of the computers that cost more than $1000 are sold by apple

most != 100%

 

[Puddle Jumper]

I think the biggest downfall of Windows 8 is its unfamiliarity. People are going to be confused as hell.

I agree, the moment a regular user ends up on the desktop and doesn't see a start button they will be completely lost.

 

[Bateluer]

Heh, I suppose I shouldn't be shocked that iFanatics believe Apple controls any segment of the computer market. Expensive =/= does not equal high end. Cheapest Mac Pro model is 2500 dollars, is a mere quad core, and sports a Radeon 5770. You can get better than that for half the price.

But, back to the subject at hand. I thought it was pretty common knowledge that Windows 8 was going to be a fail train? We knew it was going to fall hard on tablets when MS said they expected pricing to start at 600 dollars. And we new it was going to fail on the desktop/laptop when Metro was going to be used. Even Ubuntu's Unity is better than that crap.