Windows 8 a flop?

[This name sucks]

Basically, no.

Microsoft are even removing code/stopping people from installing third-party stuff to re-enable the start menu.

Good luck trying to do that when they can't even prevent people from pirating the entire OS.

[Vargur]

Windows ME, Windows Vista, Windows 8 Metro. Microsoft likes to make mistakes every now and then.

I don't care for the Metro interface at all, but then I rarely like the interface changes. If I had my choice I'd probably be running something that looks 99% like the windows 2000 interface. I don't know who Microsoft gets to do their UI testing, but they seem to pick the worst people. It seems every new releases punishes people who have mastered the previous versions. Let's change and move everything around and make it take 4 more clicks to do something as simple has change the time, because that's a better user interface experience !?!.

Unless there is a must have, I'll probably skip Windows 8, like I skipped Vista. Windows 9 here I come!.

No, let's have the SAME features, just in a different order, just so it will look new and fresh, and we can squeeze more hundreds of dollahs out of those suckas.
Windows is a lost cause, and we have to live with it, because of no competition...

(Linux variants and Apple OS' don't count for gaming)

[THEORACLE64]

Good luck trying to do that when they can't even prevent people from pirating the entire OS.

Actually, if you do your research, you'll see people have managed to do it with Microsoft then removing code to prevent it a build later.

I believe there's one programme that enables it as of now, and with no doubt Microsoft will prevent this by the RTM build.

[This name sucks]

Actually, if you do your research, you'll see people have managed to do it with Microsoft then removing code to prevent it a build later.

I believe there's one programme that enables it as of now, and with no doubt Microsoft will prevent this by the RTM build.

I know they've been doing that, early on you could replace some dlls and then get your old interface back but they fixed that and basically told everyone who worked on it to go fuck themselves.

But the reality is that once it does go live they can't actually force a patch on anyone when its cracked after the offical release.

[theKarn]

Actually, if you do your research, you'll see people have managed to do it with Microsoft then removing code to prevent it a build later.

I believe there's one programme that enables it as of now, and with no doubt Microsoft will prevent this by the RTM build.

In dev preview there was a registry edit that allowed the disabling of the metro interface. Consumer preview removed it. Release preview and current RTM builds have yet to break Start8 because it's not doing anything the OS couldn't do on it's own

I have my doubts that Microsoft will break Start8 for the release. Microsoft isn't Blizzard.

[Mad_Murdock]

I know they've been doing that, early on you could replace some dlls and then get your old interface back but they fixed that and basically told everyone who worked on it to go fuck themselves.

I really don't get why Microsoft wants to stop people from enabling a old interface or style. If I want a windows 95 look, why do they care ? Are they so worried that the big vendors like Acer, Dell and HP are going to ship Windows 8 with the old desktop and people will be "WTF this is just windows 7 ?!?" I've always said that I didn't care what Microsoft did with the interface, just let me have my "classic" interface options. I guess that's a little extra work for what might be a minority of people, then again, everyone I work around always wants things back the way it was, so the group may not be so small.

No, let's have the SAME features, just in a different order, just so it will look new and fresh, and we can squeeze more hundreds of dollahs out of those suckas.
Windows is a lost cause, and we have to live with it, because of no competition...

Let's be a little fair here. Apple seems to be shipping out new versions of their OS X every 2 years, it's easy to see why any OS company would want to do the same.

[THEORACLE64]

I know they've been doing that, early on you could replace some dlls and then get your old interface back but they fixed that and basically told everyone who worked on it to go fuck themselves.

But the reality is that once it does go live they can't actually force a patch on anyone when its cracked after the offical release.

They'll probably remove stuff to the best of their ability. No doubt they'll slip things in minor updates if they have to, people mostly keep up to date these days.

[windfish]

It's always been like this for microsoft. Their OSes go back and forth from good to bad. Just going to have to wait for windows 9 for something nice when they realize that desktops/laptops are not Tablet PCs. Hopefully Windows 7 doesn't get too outdated by then.

[DarkBlade6]

So whats everyone's opinion of Windows 8? Specifically the Metro UI on a desktop/laptop computer.

I understand tablets and other mobile technology is the future of computers, be it iOS, Android, or Windows Mobile. However when I come home and log in to my desktop or gaming laptop I do now want a tablet OS. I tried the Win 8 Developer preview and after a few hours reverted the computer back to Vista. A week ago I installed the Consumer Preview on my desktop thinking maybe Metro was something that could "grow on you", I was dead wrong I am currently re-installing Windows 7!

Having been a Windows user my entire life I cant believe I am saying this but I think its time to jump ship to a Mac!

Why ? If you want to play some games, you will have to install windows on your precious overpriced piece of shit thats a MAC.

[Bigbazz]

Win 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows 7 - This is/was the good stuff.

ME was terrible but then XP was great, then came Vista which wasn't so good, followed by Win 7 which is great.... So it makes sense that Win 8 is gonna be bollox, but its ok because Windows 9 will probably be great!

[Wries]

There's a lot of things that are positive about windows 8, and some of the thoughts and ideas sure look promising. But that's what makes this whole thing so interesting, because there is a single flaw that is so big that it can't be overlooked. The inefficiency of Metro on a workstation.

During my testing it never grew on me. It felt retarded using metro with a trackpad or mouse. We have the wrong controls on our computers, it's not going to work out. Maybe there will be one mainstream application that disables all of that metro, that might be able to save this release of windows. Too bad Microsoft can't offer the checkbox for this by themselves.

That's what I believe. But hey, I've already half-jumped ship to OSX. For now, my desktop will stay with windows 7.

[Shinzai]

This all reminds me of when Windows 95 came out and people modded it to look like 3.1/11, then 98 came out and people made it look like 95, then Vista came out and people made that look like 98, then XP became the new 3.11. When Windows 7 came out, people used the Classic style views.

When 8 comes out, you can hide the big 8 menu and use the start menu. And faster and more compact performance than 7. It's like if a new season came around and Brand X car released a new car, same as the last one, with a slightly different front grill, but its performance was far higher, its top speeds increased, it worked quieter and used less fuel. You'd still have idiots complaining that it wasn't true to the older generations, while the mechanically minded would go "Hmmm, I can do so much with this new beast, where should I start tinkering with it?..." and new customers go "Oooh shiny".

On a side note, should probably just merge this thread with that one.

tldr; You can still change how it looks and it's faster than windows 7 and uses less memory. Deal with it.

[BicycleMafioso]

I think that people who are being dismissive about Windows 8 "because tablets" are being stupid and narrow-minded.

Nothing I've seen about Windows 8 makes me want to keep Windows 7.

(For the record, people who have tried Windows 8 RC and not liking it is fine. People who have just heard of the MetroUI or seen it and dimissing the whole UI because one of those minor functions are very obvious)

[Nosonia]

Win 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows 7 - This is/was the good stuff.

ME was terrible but then XP was great, then came Vista which wasn't so good, followed by Win 7 which is great.... So it makes sense that Win 8 is gonna be bollox, but its ok because Windows 9 will probably be great!

Just want to point out... Windows 98 was garbage.. it wasn't until Windows 98 SE that everything was working as intended...

Windows XP Pre-SP2 had tons of issues as well

[Deleted]

if I want something that looks like a cheapo LCARS then I would find one of the many ST:TNG windows mods that are out there.

[Deleted]

- Not sacrifice on information available

However it must also not present the user with information overload.
(And this is possible to do with Metro if you slap enough live tiles on there)

A lot of programmers fail to understand this aspect of interface design, and human cognition.
A lot of programmers especially fail to work with colors, shapes, and positioning correctly, and fail to understand their complete meaning both for discoverability and usability.

[Shinzai]

Just want to point out... Windows 98 was garbage.. it wasn't until Windows 98 SE that everything was working as intended...

Windows XP Pre-SP2 had tons of issues as well

Windows 98 SE is still Windows 98 and has little-nothing to do with how it looks. And people still bought 98 because it was new and people who knew better waited and bought it afterwards anyway.

Considering how many people adopted XP off the bat, the point is kind of moot overall. The SP releases just kept improving on things that most people already had worked around or had been fixed in separate patches.

[BicycleMafioso]

Win 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows 7 - This is/was the good stuff.

ME was terrible but then XP was great, then came Vista which wasn't so good, followed by Win 7 which is great.... So it makes sense that Win 8 is gonna be bollox, but its ok because Windows 9 will probably be great!

Vista was way better than XP.
XP was absolutely awful when it came, until SP's. Vista was so-and-so until fixed in SP's. Nothing changed there.

[Deleted]

XP was absolutely awful when it came, until SP's.

Specifically SP2. By then most of the drivers had been fixed, or hardware exchanged. In addition, by then most machines actually delivered with the 256-512mb of RAM that XP realistically required if you wanted to run anything on it.

XP had all the issues vista had back in its release, plus a few of its own. Even with W2000 already existing to mitigate some issues.

[Deleted]

ok after reading what a few people have stated about Metro being disabled with a reg hack I am going to give it a try.
RC is downloading at the moment. As long as I can get rid of metro permanently then I will take an extended look at it with the option of purchasing on release, However everything I have read about win 8 and win 7 I still see no reason not to switch OS's Yet.