Windows 8: how did so much suck happen?

BenBurch said:
Ooops! Missed that slice. :-)

Seriously, when Linux is starting to approach the same numbers as a Windows release, something is happening, and it probably isn't the mythical Year Of Linux On The Desktop.
Click to expand...

And on Linux we are dealing with somewhat similar debacles from Gnome and Unity, but at least there is a choice to install KDE, XFCE, LXDE, E17, Cinnamon, MATE...
 
elbe said:
I really don't understand that when people point out that there are legitimate design issues with 8 there will be others who suggest that the first group are apparently just too stupid to work around them. I think most of the people complaining about the design can work around them but they shouldn't have to; being able to work around the problems is not an indication of a good design.
Click to expand...

I haven't checked, but this thread unsurprisingly turned into something of a clone of the first "h8 Win8" thread.
 
I know I don't hate 8 (except it's name), I just consider it a mess that I think is going to hurt MS in the long run.
 
3point14 said:
I have no idea what half this means.

Does this mean that, with 8, I will need to know what type of thing I am wanting to run to know where to look for it? Why? Can't I just run a thing?
Click to expand...
If you use Modern UI apps (Apps designed for Win8, are generally full-screen, and not windows on the desktop), the running ones will be listed in their own taskbar that slides out of the side of the screen. They won't be on the standard Desktop taskbar.

But, of course, standard desktop apps will be on the standard taskbar, and not on the Modern UI side bar.

Desktop users might not have to worry about that, so much, because you will probably stick with Desktop apps, anyway. You'll might only venture into Modern UI ones on occasion.

But, if you are using a Tablet machine, you DO, sometimes, need to know where to look for open apps. You might find yourself switching between Modern UI ones and Desktop ones, and not having them on the same taskbar becomes a hassle:
For example, if you are using a couple of Modern UI apps and an Office application at the same time.

Though, you can keep one Modern UI app in a split window, if you don't mind the real estate being limited by that.

Most people can probably put up with that, for a while, but the extra little cognitive load is really unnecessary. It's just a sign of bad design.
 
elbe said:
I know I don't hate 8 (except it's name), I just consider it a mess that I think is going to hurt MS in the long run.
Click to expand...
Win8 isn't a disease, it's a symptom -- a symptom of having bumbled the mobile revolution so badly that desperation set in. Look how mobile we are. Like when they "missed the Internet" but much worse.
 
I don't know..... I remember years ago... when facebook changed, everyone complained. I hated it.... Now, I don't remember what the old facebook looked like.

But this is different. This Windows just sucks. I constantly find myself trying to find where stuff is at..... I just can't see how it is an upgrade.
 
varwoche said:
Win8 isn't a disease, it's a symptom -- a symptom of having bumbled the mobile revolution so badly that desperation set in. Look how mobile we are. Like when they "missed the Internet" but much worse.
Click to expand...

I think that is part of it alright. They are trying to latch onto a trend they don't seem to fully understand. It looks as though they noticed the number of people who are using phones and tablets and concluded that users prefer the mobile UI. I don't think that is the case at all. Users like a to be able to carry a smaller device that is unencumbered by a mouse and keyboard. A touch screen is how to make that work, but it's not as efficient as a K/M for many tasks. For people at home, who have a K/M in front of them, why use a touch screen? Most users will switch to the traditional desktop environment once they figure out how. Even the 8 defenders here say they are doing that. Rat says he has hardly ever used Metro apps. Neither have I.

The dual UI perhaps does make sense for a hybrid device like the Surface. Maybe that is the direction the market will move. Until that is the standard for new laptops, Windows 8 will continue to elicit howls from new users like Travis.

As Icerat says, this is largely a marketing blunder. If MS had released a version of Windows 8 without the mobile UI, for traditional PCs, people wouldn't be complaining so much. But they also wouldn't see much difference relative to Windows 7.
 
Ahem. Classic Shell.

Seriously cannot tell the difference between 7 & 8 with Classic Shell installed (7 work, 8 home), except for the nifty shell icon as the start button (months before the button was returned by MS in 8.1).
 
icerat said:
Even worse were hardware manufacturers who elected to configure touchpads as pseudo touch screens
Click to expand...

Finally! This insight explains what I've found so very frustrating with my new Dell laptop. Like the writer of this article, I was unaware that the touchpad was acting as a hybrid touchpad/touchscreen. I just knew it was whacky.

What happens is that a normal touchpad move will sometimes be seen as an edge gesture or a swipe, which unexpectedly lurches the machine into tablet mode, bringing in an unwanted charms bar and time display. This then requires an additional touch to the pad to remove the charms bar and time display and put the machine back into desktop mode (or whatever we're supposed to call it). Only after that second touch can you get back to doing what you were doing before the machine lurched into tablet mode (if you can remember, because sometimes it will happen two or three times in a row). It really distracts from workflow patterns one got used to in Win7 --- or as Wowbagger implies, I guess it would happen in Win7 as well if that were running on this new Dell with the weird touchpad.

Apparently they are aware of this problem, as the article linked above states, but additional touchpad configuration to didn't quite make it into 8.1. Bah. But it's good to know it will likely be addressed in the future. Meanwhile, though, I'm getting used to a lot of double-thumping because of that extra hit required to get me back out of surprise tablet mode, and that new habit, while usually harmless, can cause things like multiple submissions into Drupal sites.
 
Last edited:
Travis said:
I just got a new computer. As is to be expected it came with Windows 8.

And boy do I hate it.

I mean my reaction can be summed up as: why did they change this? Why did they do that? Have they not heard of multitasking? Did they think everyone just loved the clunky interfaces of smart phones? Who possibly thought any of this was a good idea?


So many things I used to do on Vista (itself notorious for being clunky) are now harder. How did this happen?
Click to expand...

Very simple, tablets now outsell PCs. Microsoft has to grab a part of that market to grow. Microsoft tried to create an OS that would work from tablets to servers. The compromises weren't all that popular.
 
oody said:
Finally! This insight explains what I've found so very frustrating with my new Dell laptop.

...snip...
Click to expand...

I think you can switch that off a Dell laptop: look in the control panel under "Hardware and Sound" then keyboard and there is usually a settings page for the touchpad.
 
Perhaps someone could give me a step by step list of everything I need to do to make Windows 8.1 work exactly like Windows 7.

That would help me a lot.
 
Wowbagger said:
The Microsoft Office Ribbon was also a steep learning curve for some people. But, it was widely accepted relatively rapidly because it was an objective improvement over the previous menu/toolbar design.
Click to expand...

Is it? As far as I can see, "ribbon" stuff is exactly the same as the previous menu system, except that there are now large icons taking up screen space.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom