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Windows 8 - Deeper Impressions


JorgeA

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Sounds like it's going to be a fantastic OS for audio and video content! :rolleyes:

CoffeeFiend,

Nice, concise rundown of the deficiencies in Windows 8 for people who do music, movie, or TV on their PCs.

I've been making my way through the hundreds of comments to the MSDN blog about WMC (thanks again, @belgianguy). Overwhelmingly, they're angry or disappointed. Here's possibly the most succinct comment:

ha ha ha Windows 8 codenamed Titanic

:lol::realmad:

I'll check out your links this weekend. Sounds like the reaction to Win8 in the computing media is getting increasingly negative.

--JorgeA

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Has Microsoft forgotten what Metro's all about?

When Microsoft announced Windows Phone 7, it made a bold proclamation: current smartphone operating systems are doing it wrong. They’re trying to be too much like computer operating systems when they should be something else entirely. “Phones kind of look like PCs, and the phone is not a PC,” Joe Belfiore, Windows Phone program director at Microsoft, said when Windows Phone was announced at Mobile World Congress 2010. “We wanted to revisit how we thought about [the phone] design.”

It's somewhat ironic, then, that Microsoft is trying to force a tablet interface – the same style of interface the company designed for phones, only enlarged – on PCs, while also shoehorning a traditional PC interface on tablets.

:thumbup

http://www.neowin.net/news/has-microsoft-forgotten-what-metros-all-about

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They’re trying to be too much like computer operating systems when they should be something else entirely

Smartphones are too much like a computer OS? Ok. I'd really like to know how making the computer OS just a smartphone (what they've actually done with Metro) was the answer to that.

Or in other words: phones are too much like a PC, so we'll turn PCs into phones :wacko:

Do they put LSD in the water over there?

Win8 is such a train wreck of an OS. Its only value seems to be comedic.

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Win 8 looks to be a I'll pass like Vista turned out to be. none of my money invested there and certainly won't be buying this junk either.

Oh where oh where are thee Sir Bill G, come back, you left idiots in charge :wacko:

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Has Microsoft forgotten what Metro's all about?

When Microsoft announced Windows Phone 7, it made a bold proclamation: current smartphone operating systems are doing it wrong. They’re trying to be too much like computer operating systems when they should be something else entirely. “Phones kind of look like PCs, and the phone is not a PC,” Joe Belfiore, Windows Phone program director at Microsoft, said when Windows Phone was announced at Mobile World Congress 2010. “We wanted to revisit how we thought about [the phone] design.”

It's somewhat ironic, then, that Microsoft is trying to force a tablet interface – the same style of interface the company designed for phones, only enlarged – on PCs, while also shoehorning a traditional PC interface on tablets.

MagicAndre,

CoffeeFiend has spotted the error in the logic there.

According to the Metro folks, the phone may not be a PC... but the PC is now a phone.

Meanwhile, check out this article from last year that I just found. Is Windows 8 a parting insult?

--JorgeA

Edited by JorgeA
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Win 8 looks to be a I'll pass like Vista turned out to be. none of my money invested there and certainly won't be buying this junk either.

Oh where oh where are thee Sir Bill G, come back, you left idiots in charge :wacko:

What, aren't you into upgrading your computers with an exciting new OS that does things you don't care about (Metro tiles), and doesn't do what boring old OS's do (play DVDs, record TV)?

Shame on you!

It sure would be interesting to hear what Bill G thinks about all this.

--JorgeA

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I do like what they're doing with Explorer (Ribbon!) I feel that there are real improvements, but since the Metro UI is forced, enhancing Explorer seems almost trivial.

Win 8 looks to be a I'll pass like Vista turned out to be. none of my money invested there and certainly won't be buying this junk either.

Oh where oh where are thee Sir Bill G, come back, you left idiots in charge :wacko:

What, aren't you into upgrading your computers with an exciting new OS that does things you don't care about (Metro tiles), and doesn't do what boring old OS's do (play DVDs, record TV)?

Shame on you!

It sure would be interesting to hear what Bill G thinks about all this.

--JorgeA

I found something, perhaps related to Windows 8!

EDIT: Alright, maybe it wasn't recent...But the comparison is especially true with Windows 8. :unsure:

Edited by UltimateSilence
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I found something, perhaps related to Windows 8!

UltimateSilence,

That was a VERY interesting blog post. Nice find!

What a strange reaction from Gates to the guy's analogy. It seems like Bill assumed that, in the shower/toilet/fountain model, Windows was the toilet. Freud might have had something to say about this.

Additionally, though it’s uncomfortable for the left-brained among us to discuss, another one of the fundamental aspects of today’s state-of-the art user experience design is to focus on how the software makes the user ‘feel’. You can imagine how popular a fuzzy notion like this is in a company (and industry) where empirically -minded engineers and their fans are running the show.

Hits the nail right on the head. Esthetics is the main reason why I like Vista, and one of the many reasons I dislike Windows 8. When it comes to how I feel when using Metro, this is the best emoticon: :puke:

--JorgeA

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Paul Thurrott is continuing what looks increasingly like a remarkable turnaround vis-à-vis Windows 8, this time with respect to Windows Media Center:

I feel like I’m finally getting the whole modus operandi, the zeitgeist, if you will, of the Building Windows 8 Blog. And it goes like this: Pummel the reader with so much information that it obscures the real point of the post. And in this case, the point of this post had very little to do with Media Center, despite the title.

--JorgeA

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I was willing to put up with the new metro interface and flat GUI but they just lost me with DVD/WMC decision

Remember the Vista days when some customers wanted to "downgrade" and go back to XP?

Be prepared Microsoft because you have created a new XP and its name is Windows 7 (this time it could be considered a "upgrade" to downgrade to 7 :P)

Edited by ricktendo64
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Paul Thurrott is continuing what looks increasingly like a remarkable turnaround vis-à-vis Windows 8, this time with respect to Windows Media Center:

I feel like I'm finally getting the whole modus operandi, the zeitgeist, if you will, of the Building Windows 8 Blog. And it goes like this: Pummel the reader with so much information that it obscures the real point of the post. And in this case, the point of this post had very little to do with Media Center, despite the title.

--JorgeA

Thank you for sharing, JorgeA.

I think my favorite part was this:

Microsoft can't make this kind of decision. Instead, it issues mammoth, dense blog posts that both obscure what they're really doing and then retroactively justifies those actions. Its strategy appears to be to pummel people into not paying attention. Sorry, but it's not working. And it's not right.

Mind you, it isn't my favorite because its a good thing (it's not), but because what he is writing is true.

Wonder what Windows 9 will be like... or will there be a Windows version after 8? Microsoft might finish the job by then. :ph34r:

Edited by UltimateSilence
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Not a day goes by without hearing about another dubious 'feature'.

At least they're not spending their money on making an out-of-touch music video for their phone, right? Oops, seems like they did! What the hell were they thinking?

In other news, they have decided that IE10 will get access to features other browser vendors will not have access to, making for an uneven playing field. I know Mozilla et al can still make a Metro version, but they can't optimize it, nor rely on the system to provide advanced functionality like Just-In-Time compiling (JIT) and security related features. People cite small market share of WinRT, but Windows is Windows to me. And I just hope they aren't thinking of returning to their anti-trust shenanigans of yore. Even so, the claims that they're doing it for security are absolutely unfounded, they could block/forbid any product that they deemed unworthy, but instead they opt to keep them all out on the premise that "they won't be safe", IE10 isn't infallible either. And of course, as a last line of defense: "Apple does it too" .

Great defense, Apple2 err Microsoft.

While I'm no longer in the market to buy anything labeled Windows 8, I'm getting more and more bewildered about what it is that they put in the water in Redmond.

Sigh.

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I was willing to put up with the new metro interface and flat GUI but they just lost me with DVD/WMC decision

I think that there is a perfectly good reason for this. I wonder what is the actual usage of DVD playback on Windows 7? I personally do not know anyone who uses this feature. That being said, those I know from online that use it do not use WMP to do it! Maybe PowerDVD or some other tool. MS is working towards creating products for specific purposes. I would imagine that those using HTPCs are going to be pushed towards the Home Server SKU to take care of that complaint. One thing is for sure, I know for a fact that most people use the wrong OS for what they want, but they don't know that. Then they don't want to hear that and don't like the idea of switching to the "correct" OS. :rolleyes:

In other news, they have decided that IE10 will get access to features other browser vendors will not have access to, making for an uneven playing field.

Note: this IE10 business is for ARM CPUs (Windows RT) and not the standard OS we get on PCs. Even if (once, ever?) a regular user can buy an ARM system (I know they have some micros out there for cheap) a Windows RT install DVD isn't made available to the general public. It might show up for users with MSDN/Technet subscriptions or Certified Partners. We'll have to wait to see that.

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I was willing to put up with the new metro interface and flat GUI but they just lost me with DVD/WMC decision

Remember the Vista days when some customers wanted to "downgrade" and go back to XP?

Be prepared Microsoft because you have created a new XP and its name is Windows 7 (this time it could be considered a "upgrade" to downgrade to 7 :P)

ricktendo64,

Funny you should mention downgrades. I just bought, on clearance, a tower system that was billed as "Vista Business." But when I booted up the machine, I got the XP splash screen. It turns out that the box came with separate DVD sets for both XP and Vista. So we might say that the computer was "pre-downgraded" to XP...

I'm wondering how aggressive Microsoft will be about pushing Windows 8. Will they disallow downgrades to 7? Given the other crazy things they've done, nothing would surprise me at this stage!

It'll be really interesting to see how the general public reacts when they unpack their new PCs and are greeted by the Metro start screen.

--JorgeA

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Wonder what Windows 9 will be like... or will there be a Windows version after 8? Microsoft might finish the job by then. :ph34r:

UltimateSilence,

That's a great question. I've seen speculation as to what Windows 9 will be like, ranging from the resurrection of the Start button and Start Menu with a real choice of UI, to the complete elimination of the desktop in a brave new Metro world. Then again, as you suggested, maybe MS is simply speeding toward a concrete wall. This is one of those times when I wish we had a crystal ball!

Thanks for the kind words. We do what we can.

--JorgeA

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