Oldfeller--FSO
Serious Thumper ModSquad
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Hobby is now "concentrated neuropany"
Posts: 12673
Fayetteville, NC
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Forbes is a business magazine. It is a Wall Street dude's publication. Take a lookie see what Forbes writers think about Win 8 .... http://www.forbes.com/sites/adriankingsleyhughes/2013/03/14/why-windows-8-is-..."Why Windows 8 Is The First Windows Release I Absolutely HateThere, I’ve said it, and I feel better for saying it.
But how does a long-time Windows user, especially someone who loved every other version they tried, get to the point where they have so much hated the latest release?
Before I outline why I don’t get along with Windows 8, let me run through my past experiences with Windows, spanning almost two decades.
Windows 3.x – Can’t remember much, but I do remember thinking that this was the future.
Windows 95 – Woohoo! I loved the freshness of the user interface.
Windows NT 4 – Rock-solid reliability. I remember looking enviously at people running consumer versions who could do more stuff with their OS, but this was an acceptable trade-off for having a system that could go for months without needing a reboot.
Windows 98/ Windows ME – Never used them, but heard they were quite dire.
Windows 2000 – Again, more rock-solid reliability.
Windows XP Professional – I felt that this operating system traded off reliability for features, but that was acceptable.
Windows Vista – Not as bad as most people made out. Certainly by the time service pack 1 was out, most of the kinks had been ironed out.
Windows 7 – The problem with this release wasn’t that I didn’t like it, but that it didn’t offer much over what Windows Vista had on offer.
Which brings us to Windows 8. Oh, how I’ve tried to like Windows 8. I’ve been running it since the early previews—actually, I ran the leaked betas too—and I was happy with it until Microsoft unveiled the new user interface. Up until then, Windows 8 felt like an improved version of Windows 7, bringing new features to the table, and a reorganization of the layout of programs such as Windows Explorer.
And then Microsoft went and ruined it.
The problem with Windows 8 is that Microsoft decided to shove a highly inefficient touch-based user interface onto millions of PC users using non-touch desktops and notebooks. I have no problem with the idea of touch on tablets and other systems that have a touchscreen—Windows 8 is actually quite good on these—but forcing people sitting behind desktops and notebooks to change their workflow on a whim is simply asking too much.
And believe me, after trying for months to like Windows 8, I still hate it.
Don’t believe me? Then what about usability expert Jakob Nielsen, who holds a Ph.D. in human–computer interaction? Nielsen slammed Windows 8, calling it ‘disappointing’ for ‘both novice and power users,’ before going on to describing it as “a monster that terrorizes poor office workers and strangles their productivity.”
My only hope for Windows 8 now is that Microsoft comes to its senses and allows us to customize Windows 8 to focus more on the keyboard and mouse. It could achieve this with the service pack 1 update that we expect—if Microsoft holds to historical timetables—to land towards the end of this year. I’m not asking Microsoft to abandon touch, just give people who have no need for it—who, by my estimation account for 99 percent of Windows users—the chance to move it into the background.
I know that there are utilities that can be used to make Windows 8 look like Windows 7—Start8 and Classic Shell are two that spring to mind—using them feels like a dodge to me, an dads a layer between me and the operating system, something which makes troubleshooting tricky.
Why mess around installing Windows 8 and then making it look like Windows 7 when I can just install Windows 7."
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