Windows 8 a flop?

[Syro]

I seriously don't know how anyone could be inexperienced in 2012.

Unless you are an immigrant from the congo or something.

But even then I learned about computers pretty quickly.

The hardest part was probably learning how to type efficiently.

So for example... your grandparents just immigrated from congo ? since i doubt they are as "experienced" as you are

[Shinzai]

Talk about selective reading. A quote from your own link

...Yes, you're completely right, it's the OS' fault that it doesn't act as a graphics accelerator. With beta drivers. On a candidate 5 months prior to its due release: These tests are from June, with the very first Windows 8 Preview Nvidia drivers.

The fact that you blatantly ignore all the other test results to centre in on the Directx 11 one is all kinds of silly. Also, feel free to actually look at the Furmark and Heaven benchmarks, where W8 pulls ahead. Talk about selective reading.

[This name sucks]

So for example... your grandparents just immigrated from congo ? since i doubt they are as "experienced" as you are

While my grandpa isn't going to be installing multiple OSes on a single computer or doing any hardware upgrades by himself, he can do most of the average stuff like knowing keyboard commands or how to change the format of pictures. But thats all he needs, anything beyond basic usability stuff like that is pretty irrelevant for people who aren't enthusiast or play high end games.

He got his first computer like 4 years ago and it took him about a month to be typing at a reasonable 40 wpm which is pretty good considering the poor guy has arthritis.

He had never used a computer a day in his life prior to that, his wife used to do all banking, his old job before he retired was a construction worker for bridges.

He picked it up pretty quickly because he really liked to play solitaire and bejeweled and skype blew his mind once I hooked up a webcam for him.

[Martinussen]

seems interesting. i am willing to try it on my laptop sometime, cus i wouldn't want to fuck up my desktop files right now.
Any guide on how to safely install, and possibly uninstall, without damaging or losing any files, programs and being able to revert back to the previous OS (SAFELY!!!)

[Nerph-]

Because you cant have your desktop with one click, you dont have the start menu.

Give me the option of having the start menu like i had it in my desktop and Metro UI becomes irrelevant, untill then, STOP SAYING YOU HAVE DESKTOP WITH ONE CLICK WHEN ITS A LIE.

Actually, that's exactly what we (the ones saying Metro UI sucks and we wont buy W8 because of it) are asking for, and just that, the OPTION to have the start menu in our desktop without a third party application..

But it isn't a lie, you literally do have your desktop in 1 click. Sure, without a start button or menu, but you're at the desktop.

And if you install Classic Shell (which has been around since the days of XP, so is no spyware/malware/whatever), you not only have a Start Button and Menu, when you login, you're automatically taken from the Metro UI to traditional Desktop in seconds. You don't even need to click! Oh, and there is a Windows 7 theme for the start menu, too.

Posting from Windows 8 right now, gonna install all my shit (hopefully most, if not all, of it works), and try to get used to it, and hope I do, so I can upgrade both my PC and laptop for €39.99 each to an OS which really isn't that bad. Sure I don't like the Metro UI, but right now I've had to use it once, and that was my initial login before I had ClassicShell installed ^^

[Octaboom]

Testing Win8 right now. It's ok, not sure what I expected. At least it's not Vista, so far feels pretty smooth. Not sure that I care for all of the apps, but since I've only been using it for 24hrs I don't have much room to complain yet.

[haxartus]

While my grandpa isn't going to be installing multiple OSes on a single computer or doing any hardware upgrades by himself, he can do most of the average stuff like knowing keyboard commands or how to change the format of pictures. But thats all he needs, anything beyond basic usability stuff like that is pretty irrelevant for people who aren't enthusiast or play high end games.

He got his first computer like 4 years ago and it took him about a month to be typing at a reasonable 40 wpm which is pretty good considering the poor guy has arthritis.

He had never used a computer a day in his life prior to that, his wife used to do all banking, his old job before he retired was a construction worker for bridges.

He picked it up pretty quickly because he really liked to play solitaire and bejeweled and skype blew his mind once I hooked up a webcam for him.

Pretty much everyone is inexperienced in 2012.
I know people who have used computers since Windows 95 and they can't change the wallpaper. Your grandfather is probably more experienced.
Most of the time they spend in the browser. Occasionally they use Skype or try to upload pictures from their digital cameras to facebook, but that's it. Some of the office workers know Word and Excel perfectly, but they don't know what a browser is or which version of Windows they are on. How ? It's simple. They don't tinker with the OS, they don't study it, they don't express any curiosity towards it. If something breaks, they call the "IT guy" and that's it.

[DeltrusDisc]

Every day the title of this thread bugs me, so I am just going to say, why are we calling Windows 8 a flop when the damn OS hasn't even been bloody released yet? Give it a chance, holy shit. Also from what I've read, it has quite a few awesome benefits to it as well that would give me reason to upgrade.

[Mad_Murdock]

Pretty much everyone is inexperienced in 2012.
I know people who have used computers since Windows 95 and they can't change the wallpaper. Your grandfather is probably more experienced.
Most of the time they spend in the browser. .

I dunno, My wife is pretty green with her system. Thoough she does know what OS she is running, she jumps between Chrome and IE9. And her initial thoughts of windows 8 when I loaded it for her was mostly, "I don't like it". Fair or not, she like many people don't like the look of it. There are times she would get into an App and have no ideal how to get out. Once I told her to hit the Windows Key, not so bad. But that is one of the main points made, it's not that intuitive. You are stuck there at an App and you just start mashing keys to try and get how. How many people today use the Windows Key ?

Whether windows 8 flops or not will probably depend on how much of a "Must have" vibe it gets. Right now, there is no Must have for gaming, like Vista tried to do with DX 10. Unlike the Mac\Apple world. I just don't believe the windows world is going to go for upgrades every 2 years.

[natureca]

We won't really know if its a flop or not till probably some time next year. With that being said, for most users already on Win 7 with there non-touch screen computers going to Win 8 (unless you get the cheap upgrade) makes little to no sense. However coming from XP or Vista, its probably a pretty good idea, unless your really attached to XP, and then again on a non-touch Win 7 might be a better option anyways.

I see Win 8 more of a tablet designed win 7 something that finally pushes it into that realm and does it better then any other windows has, cause for tablets the metro UI is great (or atleast I think so). I still don't know if it will take off, since I have seen a crazy amount of developers jumping over to it yet but who knows.

I highly doubt I'll move to win 8 on my desktop, and I doubt I'll get a windows tablet (gonna have my nexus 7 in a day or so!!!!) but my next laptop probably will have windows 8 on it, which isn't that big of a deal. They really should of carried over similar styling of metro to the desktop portion and allowed you to bypass the metro ui if you wanted too.

[Deleted]

Don't know, doesn't installing windows normally overwrite your boot stuff? I'm always told if you want linux and windows on the same machine to install windows first, then linux, otherwise Windows will overwrite the boot sector and you wont be able to boot into linux? Don't know how true this is or not, I'm no expert. So I was just wondering if I installed windows 8 on a 2nd partition, if it would overwrite the boot sector and I wouldn't be able to boot into Ubuntu anymore.

Yep Ur right. Always install windows first. Hmm i guess W8 will overwrite your Ubuntu but i'm not 100% sure. I will leave that to someone more experienced geek to answer.

Because you cant have your desktop with one click, you dont have the start menu.

I'm not talking about the start menu, i'm talking about the classic desktop. You can reach the desktop with one click. You have a start menu but it's a little bit different. You still use the windows key on your keyboard. Does a W7-start menu and slightly slower desktop access weight more than all of the improvements that W8 offers? You get used to it.

[haxartus]

Yep Ur right. Always install windows first. Hmm i guess W8 will overwrite your Ubuntu but i'm not 100% sure. I will leave that to someone more experienced geek to answer.

I'm pretty sure that it will destroy GRUB and not add it to the boot list. Microsoft is too "cool" to acknowledge the existence of other operating systems.

[This name sucks]

Pretty much everyone is inexperienced in 2012.
I know people who have used computers since Windows 95 and they can't change the wallpaper. Your grandfather is probably more experienced.
Most of the time they spend in the browser. Occasionally they use Skype or try to upload pictures from their digital cameras to facebook, but that's it. Some of the office workers know Word and Excel perfectly, but they don't know what a browser is or which version of Windows they are on. How ? It's simple. They don't tinker with the OS, they don't study it, they don't express any curiosity towards it. If something breaks, they call the "IT guy" and that's it.

Well if it really is just a matter of interest and curiosity, why would changing the interface and visible parts of it change anyone's mind about being experienced in that type of stuff then.

Doesn't matter how "open" you make it, if people don't care people will continue to not care.

At least when its categorized and in menus is not so overwhelmingly large that you get discouraged about trying to learn it.

[BicycleMafioso]

Hey, all.
Let's be friends and have a good-mannered discussion again, all right? Let's drop the congo immigrations, hostility and back up controversial claims with sources, all right?
Thanks!

[DeltrusDisc]

I'm pretty sure that it will destroy GRUB and not add it to the boot list. Microsoft is too "cool" to acknowledge the existence of other operating systems.

Wait, I thought Apple Macintosh didn't acknowledge other OSs. Hell, a huge majority of their userbase doesn't seem to realize that the OS isn't actually designed from the ground up by Apple, rather it was taken from the Unix/Linux crowd and had a slightly different type of GNOME GUI made for it.

Must say though, I <3 the GNOME GUI.

[Badpaladin]

Wait, I thought Apple Macintosh didn't acknowledge other OSs. Hell, a huge majority of their userbase doesn't seem to realize that the OS isn't actually designed from the ground up by Apple, rather it was taken from the Unix/Linux crowd and had a slightly different type of GNOME GUI made for it.

Not true.



Granted OSX (even from when it first came out in 2001) looks much different, it's still some of the same graphical "ideas".

[nevermore]

Not true.

well OSX is actually UNIX-based isn't it?

[Janaa]

Hating Metro very much. I'm forced to develop for it against my will!

I see both sides of the equation - it makes it much easier to monetize Windows "apps" to a mass marketplace. I can develop a game at the moment, but then I have to go through heavy promotion and listing it with dozens of different digital distributors to ensure it gets mass-market visibility, in addition to pushing through promotion to publishers and websites in order to get it visibility in media. Whenever I need to patch it I need to ensure each different patch method it suited to the individual digital distributors. (Patching with Steam is very different to patching with Desura which is very different to patching with GOG, for example). If I want to add content I have to create new DLCs with various digital distributors, set up new publication on the distributors for those, and go through marketing, etc.

With Metro, I can develop a game as an app, publish it on the Windows 8 app store, and then I only have to push the media promotion. There's no more trying to get it listed with multiple digital distributors, or even through my own website. I don't have to maintain patches with multiple distributors, and maintain all their individual DRM. It's available in once place, and patched in one place. DRM is added as purchasable app addons. Promotion for the DLC can be done very easily within the app itself (presuming I maintain my own website for it to check if there's "new stuff" - few existing digitally distributed games do this, although Magic The Gathering 2011/12 uses this method, but it's more easily maintained as it's only distributed through one DD).

HOWEVER, as a professional user, I despise Metro intensely. I hate it hijacking so much regular stuff that I do. I hate not having my start button (as I'm one of those statistical anomalies who make heavy use of it).

[fangless]

New Operating Systems aren't meant to be instant purchases like video games. They'll make most of their sales off computer vendors that just bundle it with the new machine.

What did 7 do that Vista didn't? No one knows, but it is just better.

[Janaa]

Not true.



Granted OSX (even from when it first came out in 2001) looks much different, it's still some of the same graphical "ideas".

Not sure what you're trying to prove. Mac Classic wasn't the first GUI. They didn't invent it, and indeed stole the ideas from elsewhere.

Examples:
Xerox Alto (1973)
http://www.digibarn.com/collections/...nvironment.jpg

Xerox Star (1981)
http://www.wikinfo.org/upload/a/a8/X...ar_desktop.jpg

Apple Lisa (1983 - first Apple GUI)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...System_3.1.png

EDIT: Nevermind, I get what you're saying now, misread it on first read. You were countering his point suggesting that Mac OS was based on X, which it wasn't originally. Although it is now. I am just too used to Apple fanboys arguing that MS "stole" the GUI that Apple "invented".