Windows 8. Odd operating system

[Nothinman]

One of the main complaints I see about win 8 "hard/cant figure out how to shutdown"

I'm guilty of it too but isn't it funny how we have been trained to distrust the hardware power button? Search in software for half an hour or hit the glowing button that turns the laptop on... Durrrrr

Because for several decades before the physical power button would hard cut power without doing a graceful shutdown first. Many people got burned by that and it's hard to undo that training.

And ironically, I see the opposite problem with "appliances" that are running full OSes but don't respond properly to the power button. I've had to do many rescue and recoveries of Cisco Call Manager systems because someone hard shut them off and then wondered why it refused to mount one or more of the filesystems.

 

[colonelciller]

Because for several decades before the physical power button would hard cut power without doing a graceful shutdown first. Many people got burned by that and it's hard to undo that training.

And ironically, I see the opposite problem with "appliances" that are running full OSes but don't respond properly to the power button. I've had to do many rescue and recoveries of Cisco Call Manager systems because someone hard shut them off and then wondered why it refused to mount one or more of the filesystems.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm a bit afraid to use the physical power button even though I know that a single touch only initiates a shutdown command... while a full hard continued press will kill the power (useful during a freeze-up).

Maybe it is because I often seem to forget to save open files here or there before powering down... that dialog box asking me to save/cancel/etc. has saved me on numerous occasions.

Do you know if that dialog box still appears/behaves the same when you press the power button rather than using the "shut-down button" from within the OS?

 

[SilentRunning]

ALT F4 is much better than using the charms bar to shutdown. The power button was my biggest gripe about windows 8 too.

 

[bbhaag]

Why not use a GNU/linux distro?

I run across the comment that "most users just surf the web and occasionally"... etc. Sounds to me like "most users" would be perfectly satisfied by a GNU/linux distro, not to mention the fact that it will be:

• cheaper (free)
• free again (as in less spying)
• more familiar UI than Proprietary Windows 8
• and then there's the free office productivity suites that will more than satisfy the needs of nearly all users

hmm... why should we pay money for Proprietary Windows 8 that spys on its users when they could have free and free GNU/linux with a free and free office suite that does everything that they need?


hmm...
hmm...
:whiste:

Most users would be satisfied with a Linux distro until they run into a problem that takes hours of googling to figure out. Two words man Broadcom wifi.

I use Peppermint 3 most of the time for general surfing, youtubing, ect. but lets face it most *nix based Os's aren't ready for the mainstream user. They don't have the time or the patience to sit there and figure it out. They want it ready to go right out of the box.

 

[Nothinman]

Most users would be satisfied with a Linux distro until they run into a problem that takes hours of googling to figure out. Two words man Broadcom wifi.

I use Peppermint 3 most of the time for general surfing, youtubing, ect. but lets face it most *nix based Os's aren't ready for the mainstream user. They don't have the time or the patience to sit there and figure it out. They want it ready to go right out of the box.

That's a chicken-egg problem. The only reason we have problems like those presented by Broadcom wifi (and all Broadcom devices have sucked hard for as long as I can remember) is because vendors made their radios generic and put all of the logic into the firmware which isn't kept on-device across resets and so needs loaded by the driver. That alone isn't a problem but the fact that they don't make the firmware easily redistributable like Intel is and is the only reason getting their shit hardware to work takes so much work.

But frankly, I still find Windows many orders of magnitude more difficult to get working from a fresh install. Chances are you won't have include drivers for anything at all and will need a 2nd machine to download them in order to load them from USB stick. At least with Linux you get 99% of your hardware working out of the box with only wifi and non-free 3D drivers requiring any real effort to make work. Have you ever tried having your mother install Windows? Give it a try and see how far she gets.

 

[Greenman]

Update.

My daughter has been using Win8 for about 5 days now, she really likes it. She spent a little time reading, and has the system dialed in exactly the way she wants it. No hitches, no problems, no complaints.

 

[Scooby Doo]

Metro lasted about thirty minutes. Charms barely works with dual monitors, they never appear when you want/need them to. Start 8 + Actual Multiple Monitors makes things doable. Also make sure you disable the sticky corners... found that very very annoying.

 

[TSDible]

Microsoft needed a whole two things to diffuse the situation.

1. Optional boot to Desktop
2. Optional Classic Start Menu

None of the hate would have ever occurred - but they don't seem to care. Very odd.

This is what boggles my mind.

I see the need for the departure from a menu based system as the world transitions in to touch interfaces. I think that Metro is good in that respect.

I really think that Windows 8 should have had the options above... MS had to know that the majority of the install base would still be on non-touchscreen computers. To ignore your largest install base seems short sighted.

You can always remove it in Windows 10 when your install base has shifted primarily to touch based systems...

 

[GrumpyMan]

You can always remove it in Windows 10 when your install base has shifted primarily to touch based systems...

That will never happen, the shifting primarily to touch base systems part by the install base.

 

[pmv]

I see the need for the departure from a menu based system as the world transitions in to touch interfaces.

I see the need for the departure from a menu based system as the world starts using touch interfaces quite a bit - alongside continuing to use traditional keyboard/mouse interfaces.

The 'transition' to touch interface is only going to go so far. It serves a different purpose to traditional desktop interface and not everything can be done on a mobile device while jabbing a small, horizontally-orientated, display. Using touch on a large vertically-oriented-display for any length of time is a recipe for an industrial injury claim.