Review: Windows 8, the hybrid OS has arrived

Did they ever fix the problem with broken multi-select/multi-sort? In XP you could select some files in a folder, sort them and then select/deselect additional files. In 7 as soon as you sort the original selections are all undone, very annoying.

 

Ed Bott Vs Stephen J V-N
Bott:
"Enthusiastically Recommend"
Hands on with Microsoft's Surface RT: Can it hit the sweet spot?
http://www.zdnet.com/hands-on-with-microsofts-surface-rt-can-it-hit-the-sweet-spot-7000006258/

Stephen J V-N
Windows Surface RT: Microsoft's greatest hardware fiasco ever?
http://www.zdnet.com/windows-surface-rt-microsofts-greatest-hardware-fiasco-ever-7000006341/

Not sure he hasnt nailed a couple of things there.
I suspect he was not on the launch invite list ??

 

"I used Windows 8 for XX minutes and it sucks." Oh, in that case, I obviously won't like Windows 8 and it's not worth the effort.

I've used every version of Windows since version 3 and I always upgrade to the newest version when released (I like software). So, I'm planning on installing an SSD drive in my system and then installing Windows 8.

I know it's a big change but plan on using it and learning the ins and outs over a month before I even think about reverting to Windows 7. You need to use new software/devices on a daily basis for a while before you can truly make an informed decision.

 

You know what?! I don't care how big or trendy the tablet market ia right now...because it is just that: a TREND.

People that love Windows 8 and say they love tablets all seem to unanimously have this usage pattern in common:

* Checking email
* Browsing the web
* Skype
* Listening to music
* Watching movies
* Playing games
* Typing documents at half the speed they would normally type on a standard keyboard.

I'm sorry in advance for this but...

A) I'm fed up
B) I don't sugar coat it...I tell it like it is, whether I will get heat for it or not (long as what I'm sayin' don't violate the TOS).

So here goes...

People who use tablets instead of laptops and desktops are just screwing around. There, I said it. Now you can disagree with me and tell me all the apps you use that make you happy as a clam and all the apps you think make you productive but I'm telling you straight up, I don't buy it, and here's why:

I feel this silliness all started when Steve Jobs told one of the biggest tech lies at the the first iPhone launch. He said, referring to the fact that it supposedly ran OS X (though they now call it iOS and rightfully so), that this is not "baby software"...this is "real, desktop class applications."

Really? A bloomin' fart app or lightsaber app is a desktop class application? That's a bit of a stretch, don't you think? Okay fine, have your mobile jedi moments. What really pissed me off was when Apple made a mobile iMovie and everyone seemed to ooh and ahh about it even though it had less functionality than Windows XP Movie Maker. Come on folks...that's bloomin' useless. Is it that hard to see?

But this post is definitely not anti-Apple in its intentions...because Apple finally did something smart: they realized they weren't fooling anyone with their mobile "desktop class applications". Moreover, they realized that while it makes a great deal of sense to use the same base for both OSs, they have two very different GUIs and usage scenarios. Therefore, Apple started calling it iOS versus Mac OS X. Smart.

Apparently since Microsoft insists on folliowing the "every other" rule (XP good, Vista bad, 7 good, etc.) they wanted to do something so bold and uh...innovative...that no one else had or would ever do it; (aka a bad idea!)

Microsoft decided to merge...more like smash two completely different GUIs and usage scenarios into one OS, and to put the whip cream on top, it puts the mobileish Metro first, replacing the beloved Start Menu which (not to use Apple lingo) just worked. And don't forget the cherry on top: it is mandatory and not user controllable.

Bloomin' fantastic! Now Windows 8, all editions across the board, put screwing around before the actual getting stuff done GUI.

I'm sorry that I may be coming off as harsh about that; please forgive me, as I my family and I do a lot of content creation such as professional video editing, business document creation, and advanced sound production. We are not just screwing around, to again be blunt. I cannot even remotely fathom tablets replacing our desktops, laptops, or sadly even netbooks.

To loosely quote Dwight Eisenhower: "People that think the tablets and mobile devices will replace desktop computing are a minority and they are stupid." Yes, I changed that quote (if I may still call it that) up quite a bit...but I found it very fitting to this scenario.

You just cannot accomplish stuff on a tablet that you can on a full desktop with a large monitor (or two...or three)...there's no viable argument against that as far as I can see.

And don't get me started again on the fact that a good chunk of tablet software is still "baby software", and even what's not still can't compare to the functionality you get on a full desktop.

By the way, I adore my smartphone. I am essentially addicted to it. I typed this entire post on it, and I'm ready to pull my hair out and throw it into a wall.

Best regards,

 

These two charts summed up the review for me:

http://www.neowin.net/images/uploaded/win7v8_2.jpg

http://www.neowin.net/images/uploaded/win7v8_1.jpg

If true I'll upgrade soon.

I already installed Win8 on a VM and it seems OK. I miss the desktop start button and found most of the things in the start screen useless (I just use it to start the desktop screen), but I suppose the whole set up could grow on me once I get used to hot corners and if I can customize the start screen.

 

Dude: not too sloppy.
Have to check both sides of the coin.

 

Do you have a tablet?

Your list of tablet uses is not wrong, but the point is that I can now do that on the go. I bought a man-purse and carry my tablet in it to places I wouldn't bother to lug my laptop to. For example, I use it to watch movies during flight/travel or on the exercise bike. I can edit documents on the fly (although I wouldn't type a whole report on a tablet) or check/send email. Let's say I'm waiting for a dentist appointment. Normally I'd read whatever magazines they have, but with the tablet I'll just catch up on some email or the news (via internet). As for skype, it's always on and I usually have the tab with me so people can reach me. I have a phone too, but skype is free and has video.

Also, on-screen typing (on Android) is not so bad anymore because they have all these new on-screen keyboards and excellent word recognition (for English at least). If you learn to use Swype (or SlideIT) typing becomes reasonably fast and accurate. For my 10.1 inch tablet I prefer KeyMonk, which is like Swype but with two fingers (thumbs) simultaneously. On my android phone I prefer SlideIT because the screen is too small to be swyping with two thumbs at a time.

 

You don't even have to install it to see how stupid it is. The concept is obvious and you don't have to bother. That's it.

 

I don't plan to upgrade my current machines' OS (Windows 7 in one and Windows XP in the other). But, I'll buy a new machine in the following months (December/2012 or January/2013, most likely). It will be a "convertible ultrabook"/slate (tablet + notebook), and it will come with some kind of Windows 8. I want it to have Windows 8 Pro or Enterprise, Windows RT is out of question for me. At the moment, my favorite ones are:
- Microsoft Surface Pro
- Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13
- Dell XPS 12
- HP Envy X2
- Asus Vivo Tab
- Samsung Series 7 Slate PC

 

I don't think so. Today, Ars Technica published similar details/results/conclusions of their latest performance tests comparing Windows 8 with Windows 7 on several different test systems:

http://arstechnica.com/information-...our-benches-measuring-windows-8s-performance/

http://arstechnica.com/information-...ur-benches-measuring-windows-8s-performance/2

 

There's only one benchmark - and that's me.
I know how things work on this side of the computing spectrum.

Besides, that article agrees with me - no difference overall.
As to boot speed, I have yet to be impressed.

Mrk

 

How so?

 

What a joke, starting with that quote:

I'm quite sick of companies like MS telling me what I need and what I should use. Requiring users to adapt to "new technology" isn't progress. The technology should adapt to the users and their real needs, not what MS says they should be.

Some of their performance charts are quite a laugh, starting with those boot and shutdown times. My XP unit matches that on a single P4. On the same hardware, my primary system blows those times away. A lot of the others are pointless. Are you going to notice a 20ms faster response?

IMO, much of this "newer is better" mentality suffers from a common misconception. Yes, progress means change. But somewhere down the line this got reversed to say that change means progress. The first is true. The second is planned obsolescence and marketing. Technology and advances therein should serve the people who use it, not the other way around.

 

Actually if I know the typical user well enough, the quote they started with in that article would cause a "WTF" look to emerge followed by the feeling of not knowing where the heck they are and a proclamation to stick with whatever OS they have now. MS isn't "leading the charge", they're doing their best (or worst) to get into a ballgame that has been played without them for some time now. They aren't telling you what you need and what you should use really, the tech sites and commercials are doing that and they always have. MS is in reality sitting quietly behind an altar asking the Tech God to please bless them with success and not have another Vista moment. We'll find out in 90 days or so if the Tech God was feeling charitable.

 

If MS is really telling you that, it's ridiculous. I read most of your posts and it's crystal clear to me that MS definitely doesn't focus their product's development to adapt to your specific computing habits and/or needs. BTW, this different focus is not necessarily a wrong step for Microsoft, due to the simple fact that your specific computing habits and/or needs =!= all users or most users' computing habits/needs (another crystal clear fact IMO).

 

elapsed,

The Secure Boot with Win8 concerns me as I plan to have about 20 OS in the new computer. Maybe I don't understand Secure Boot??

And I doubt whether my old OS, such as WinXP and DOS will run on a GPT disk.

My motherboard will be UEFI but I'm planning to install Win8 to a MBR disk.

 

You can disable the feature in UEFI menu.
And that's it.
Dedoimedo

 

Hello,

I think you may have misunderstood my point. I was certainly not bashing tablets for those uses...that is precisely what they are meant for.

The point of my post was to explain why I think the notion that tablets are to replace desktops is absolute pure rubbish with maggots crawling all over it. Additionally, I was bashing Microsoft for not learning their lesson about what happens when you force a radical change on users, as well as putting a screw-around on the go GUI on top of desktop GUI, Aero, that just works. If it ain't bloomin' broke, don't try to boomin' fix it. If anything they should be focusing continually on how to progress Aero, not reinvent the wheel when the wheel is shiny new enough.

It makes me absolutely mad out of my mind that they do this, and top it off by essentially putting Metro first; they give it more attention, want people to just think of it as Windows 8, make a whole new Windows application repository that which basically will be primarily for Metro apps...it's just unreal. The desktop is not dying...it is being brutally slain by morons at Microsoft.

Until you make me a tablet that magically transforms into a full desktop, the desktop will live on and strongly.

 

*Sigh* There you go MS. I hope W8 turns out to be a big FAIL!
Fingers crossed

 

No disrespect meant, but that's frankly rubbish. Of course Microsoft is telling you how to use your computers/technology! They are still close to a monopoly with PC OSs and their latest product, Windows 8, gives you a horrible way to interact with your desktops and laptops, with no alternative. Not only is Metro on by default and on the frontline, it is mandatory and not user controllable.

Okay, you don't have to upgrade. You can spend time carefully making sure new PCs you buy have a downgrade license and if you don't know what you're doing you better have someone to help you downgrade that crap.

But what ard you going to do when Windows 9 comes out? What if 9 isn't the "7"...aka the "Microsoft admits wrong and returns user demands" release? Eventually, if you want a PC, you are going to have to do what big M wants you to, or say bye to updates and a big wide open hello to hacks, cracks, and unpatched holes.

Say no to Windows 8. It's bad for your desktop.

 

Mrk,

That's my plan. Disable Secure Boot in the menu, install Win8 to a partition on a MBR disk to avoid getting a SRP and use BIBM as my boot manager.

Thanks for making it sound so simple. Great.

 

Well, no, they aren't telling you how to. Where do most users go to learn about the newest gadgets and software? Who do they normally listen to? The media, that is who. Arstechnica, PCMag, Wired and so on. These are the ones giving the "This is the future" speeches with pretty pictures and walk-throughs.

Not that many people buy a new computer every couple of years unless they bought a clunker to begin with. Have you ever wondered why it took XP so darn long to get a gravestone? That's why. It happens both in the home consumer world and even more so in the business world. In fact, the business world will be the last area in which new Windows versions will succeed for almost always that same reason.

Windows 8/9/10 and so on aren't ever going to be "the 7". They aren't meant to. 9/10/11 and so on will, if 8 succeeds, be built upon what 8 brought to the table. Nothing from this point on is meant to be like 7. Yes, you either do eventually have to come up a version or leave MS period, but that has always been and always will be. If that makes you unhappy now, you should have already moved over to Mac or Linux..and even there eventually it'll happen.

Edit: A typical tech website here that many many users will encounter or intentionally go to on a daily basis: http://www.pcworld.com/. Look at just the front page and tell me who is generally telling users what they should use and what they need, the media or MS?

 

Those places are little more than advertizing sites, especially PC mag. Lately, Arstechnica looks like a giant Apple catalog with a few decent pages on other subjects added. Regarding MS and Win 8, cramming a tablet/smartphone OS onto desktops whether the user wants it or not doesn't begin to qualify as trying to meet the users needs. There's no good reason that desktop users should be forced to use metro. The only reason I see for such a decision is that they want the desktop PC to die so that users will be forced onto smaller and less powerful equipment that can't easily be customized for the users needs, assuming that the user needs more than a tablet to start with. All of them can call this stuff "The Future" all they want. I'll choose my own.

 

Lots of folks have been predicting such and such year to be the death of the desktop. What lots of people don't realize is that, sure, these tablets and smartphones are cool little things. They're very helpful at times and can do a lot for what they are. But, they don't have the ability to run very much still used tools like Photoshop, no ability to run anything more complicated than a basic app, and so on.

Again, MS is trying to join a game they've been left out of and are far behind on. Bringing out a half-mobile, half-desktop OS isn't quite the way they should have done it. Having the Surface available in the tablet market and, with lots of prayer, another phone in the phone market with Windows 8 made specifically for those devices would have sufficed. Transferring it over into the desktop world was not the best of moves. Until tablets gain much more power and storage, the desktop won't go anywhere.

 

I couldn't agree more with you on this. I find it incredibly misguided of MS that they are doing this and I think their attitude about it all is worse than terrible. I personally believe they will suffer in a huge way for it. But we'll see....