"How Real People Will Use Windows 8"

different platform but the idea is much the same.

 

Yep, just as I thought.

 

Why don't you try it for yourself:
Microsoft Office Customer Preview

 

It's been pretty well-received off these forums or at least love-it-or-hate-it. Outside of NBR, there's definitely not the consensus that this is godawful like people on this forum are prone to say. Plenty of people like it on the discussions on The Verge and Engadget. Anandtech liked it. This forum predominantly hates it, and those here who like it don't seem to have the limitless energy to talk about it like those that hate it do, but NBR =/= the market as a whole.

A Review of the Windows 8 Beta - NYTimes.com

AnandTech - In-Depth with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview

Hands on: Windows 8 review: Windows 8 Release Preview: verdict | News | TechRadar

Windows Phone sales have everything to do with poor hardware limitations in WP7 (single-core processors and low-res screens, to be specific) and poor app selection, not the user interface. Most people who use the WP interface, love it, including The Woz.

 

Gotta agree that the members who don't like it are very vocal about it (nothing wrong with that). Personally, like i said before, it didn't wow me on the GUI front, but if you look at tiller's post in the SSD section about win8 on a SSD, i agree with him: what's under the hood impressed me so far in terms of how fast and light it feels on a SSD.

Give me a search bar when you right click the bottom left hot corner so you can get search for programs without leaving the desktop, make everything default to desktop programs when you're on the desktop and default to metro when you're in metro, same with the settings. Finally add an easy option to close metro apps for good from the app (instead of having to go on the start screen or desktop, left hot corners, downwards swipe, right click on the app and choose close) and i'm sold.

The touch interface gestures feel natural on a touchpad by the way.

 

this may have been covered , but

i read that windows 8 will be RTM for beginning of august but the release date is oct 26

does that mean laptops sold between this timeframe could potentially have windows 8 installed on them but no retail release at the same time..

 

Maybe you're visiting those websites during the Phantom Zone hours but I visit The Verge daily and it's clear that its getting the same intense debate over whether its good or not....and frankly I see more people saying its bad than its good.

In fact the only people saying its good are the die hard MS loyalist. The funny thing is I used to count myself among them.

If not for Apple just randomly deciding to stop making 17' MacBook Pros I'd already be saving money to get one and just install Windows on it. But thats over and done with.

Bottom line is that this is gonnna be a epic disaster of a product launch and Microsoft has no one to blame but itself. Windows Phone is failing and will continue to fail. And thats because Metro and the tiles are not interesting at all to the consumer. The same will happen with Windows 8...

 

I think that the Windows 8 interface looks horrendous.

 

OMG, those reviews are essentially saying Metro is either here to stay or is not going away. We shall see about that. For it to be a force the consumer has to buy into it. If no one upgrades for metro apps or if the purchasing power just never prevails for metro apps 3rd party developers will not flock to it. Apps may get relegated to freeware developers. So the free market will decide in the end if Metro has any merit and if it truely will stay.

Now if Metro apps are the epic fail some are predicting for the desktop then unless mobile devices get a really quick major support base Metro then will go the way of AOL applets. I can see M$ has a hard market to break into with the iPad but forcing its current PC user base to try and help them IMHO is a mistake as in this market there is no brand loyalty. Just look at how many avid nVidia users, even if temporarily, jumped ship with the solder media disaster. I know I will never purchase one where a choice is provided and I certainly would not purchase a series card that could have that known issue.........................

 

While I agree that Windows 8 does seem to have a split personality, I do wonder why people don't complain about OSX Lion's mouse interface. Everything seems to be either gesture or keyboard based much like Windows 8. You can't get out of a full screen Safari using a mouse alone for example. I have been using Windows 8 for a couple of days and I actually find things like switching apps work quite well with mouse alone. Two finger scroll works just fine in Metro. The most difficulty I have is actually with IE10 where the address bar disappears all the time (right click brings it back, but that's a little unnatural)

I do wish Metro apps can be windowlized in the desktop like what you can do in Lion, but in most cases, the split screen snap works fine.

Overall, I like Windows 8. It's very buggy though, hopefully they will fix everything before launch (I doubt it).

 

That's because Apple users are an entirely different demographic. Apple users, by and large, have internalized the idea that everything that Apple "gives" them does not only represent the very best solution possible, but in fact is a revelation to the world. Windows users, on the other hand, are known for being eternally critical and, most of all, insist on being able to customize their software to a very significant degree. Like I said before, the issue is not really Metro, and some of the other hare-brained choices Microsoft has made with respect to Win8's GUI. The main issue is that they have taken away choices.

 

How has they taken away choices? The start screen is just a bigger and more customizable version of the start menu and there are several ways to get the start menu back. Laptop magazine has a blog post on how to avoid Metro.

6 Ways to Totally Avoid Metro and Use Only Desktop Mode in Windows 8

So if you don't like Metro (I do), you can just stay with the desktop. I am sure there are other hacks to disable the hot corners, remap keys, etc...

 

The thing is that it should be Microsoft offering to have the start menu back if you want to, not having to go through third party apps and MS was also pretty explicit that they will do everything in their power to prevent those from working in the final version of windows 8.

 

so, is microsoft still utilizing stack ranking?

>window s8 will need a serious tutorial for the average joe.
i'm not sure what passes for acceptable ettiquite around here but i feel tempted to give a four letter word reply starting with the letter F that rhymes with pail.

 

No, it's not.

Interesting. So you consider third party hacks "choices" that Microsoft is giving us? Strange world you are living in...

Oh, and advanced desktop customization is gone entirely.

Exactly.

 

While I disagree with a vast number of OSX design choices and Apple philosophy, I think that's an unfair and blatantly untrue stereotype. The huge majority of Windows users will use the OS "out of the box" with little to no customization or tweaks, just as most people do in OSX. In OSX, there is no shortage of tech-proficient "tweakers" that also insist on a great deal of workflow customization.

Using that logic to pan MS's focused drive to push its Metro design philosophy is just silly. We'll see what happens when W8 RTM is out, and when its general release rolls around. Tweakers and hackers insistent on modifying the W8 interface will undoubtedly find good ways, although the same ways that have been used in years past may no longer be possible.

 

Well, we may just have to agree to disagree. First of all, don't forget that I am not talking about the kinds of "secret" little tweaks and hacks that some people use, I am talking about the customization that the OS offers out of the box. Fact is, Windows (used to) allow much more fine-grained control than OS X.

Second, I maintain that, as a rule, Apple users are far more loyal to their brand than are Microsoft users, period. It is a mystery to me how anybody could dispute this. Just go to any user forum of the two camps, and compare the kinds of criticism you'll find.

Third, those users (I don't disagree with the fact that those do constitute a majority, by the way, in both camps) that just use the OS as is probably have no opinion on Win8, either, one way or another, so they don't really count when we are trying to assess the reception of the new OS.

No doubt they will, but, as I said before, that is beside the point.

 

Say I really hated the start menu, could I make it disappear? could I use OSX style docks in Windows 7? Or any other start menu styles for that matter? No. I had to use third part applications. Simply put, Windows has never been customizable out of the box (in Linux I can use a number of windows manager), but it allows third party applications (some from M$) to tweak the system. That has not changed in Windows 8.

 

Why should it? Say I really hated the start menu in Windows 7? Should M$ give me an option to disable it and bring back Win 3.1 interface? Better yet, give me an option to boot into DOS directly.

In fact, the start menu has been evolving. People are not suppose to dig into the layers of app folders anymore. Instead, taskbar pins and unified search were suppose to be the new way of doing things. I do wish M$ had incorporated the recently used app/doc feature into the Metro interface though.

 

Exactly. In fact, comparing Windows 7 and Windows 8, there's the exact same number of different ways to launch programs. No loss of choice. And both offer MORE choice than Windows XP, which didn't allow for programs to be pinned to the taskbar or for you to hit the start key and just start typing the name of the program you want.

 

I know it doesn't matter with the topic, but here shows definitely how snappy is the new windows 8 (RT version).

Just wanted to share.

Windows RT on Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Tablet - YouTube

So far, love it.

 

Nonsense. I gave you a specific example. You might want to try and understand that first, before formulating a response.

 

To be clear, the Metro UI completely replaces the taskbar? No way to get a taskbar under in your screen when you are navigating programs?

 

It doesn't replace the full taskbar, only the start menu and the start screen isn't bad. It's just disappointing to see the option to have it should you want to gone, just like aero. It's two things that could be included and left disabled by default. Shame the option to have it isn't there, but it's not a deal breaker for me, i'll adapt.

Here's what the taskbar looks like on the desktop in windows 8, notice the lack of the start menu orb.



Pretty similar than what you see in windows 7.

 

It does NOT replace the taskbar at all. Except for the button that launches the start menu, the taskbar is identical. You can still use the taskbar to launch pinned programs and to manage open windows on the desktop.

Beautiful, lag-free interface. Can't wait for RT tablets to arrive. October can't get here soon enough.

 

I am REALLY curious to see how the final built will look like, and what kind of version win 8 will have, beside the RT one.

 

I have looked into Windows 8 some more. I actually see a lot of improvements, but I'm just a regular consumer, and I will gladly take whatever is shoved in front of my nose for $15. I almost bought an Apple .

Nah, I'm kidding. Except for the fact that I do like Windows 8. Multiple monitor support seems to be improved. Don't know how that 6px border will work in practice, but we will see. I was hoping I could use two monitors, my Dell ST2220T 21.5" touchscreen, and my 17.3" laptop screen. I would have the tiles displayed on my touchscreen, and the normal desktop on my laptop. The only thing that sucks is that you can't display Metro apps on both screens. I don't want to spread 1 app over both screens (that will look ugly anyway with a 21.5 and 17.3 inch screen), but I do want to have two Metro apps open, each on one screen. Seems weird to me that this isn't possible.

 

Ah yes, that reminds me: Microsoft has announced that Aero will be gone on the desktop, too, with no choice. We really need a desktop that matches the blandness of Metro, don't we?