Yeah, Windows 8's on fire...

When a company has to deal with building their own hardware to their OS, they must get everything "working smoothly together" which Apple has been able to do for all these years. OS X still receives security updates for at least three or four years, that has given Apple plenty of room to adjust what requirements the next OS will demand. In my experience Apple hardware+software is solid as using a Solaris box.

Microsoft on the other hand is frequently at the mercy of OEM and 3rd party companies to write drivers for newer OSes. During the transition of Win9x to XP, many >1yr old products were left in the dust for XP support. During the push to x64 with Vista there was another round of companies who refused to support signed drivers so most people were stuck downgrading to 32-bit version of Windows... my workstation running Vista is 32-bit due to this silly chaos. Windows 7 resolved some issues of x64 support on the driver side but again many companies either dragged their feet or only released 32-bit drivers. If Microsoft was smart they'd ditch 32-bit support like Apple had done.

As far as Windows 8 lagging behind Vista, the metro UI is a joke of a "Start" replacement and bringing a hybrid Desktop+"WinPhone" single-tasking/single screen type applications has been a disaster not only for consumers but for people who use a desktop/notebook for work purposes. An OS who jams two UIs and "platforms" together is bound to have this type of reaction of mixed adoption rate. While I mainly dual boot WinXP+8 on a Thinkpad T61, the only benefit is raw speed/low bloat vs Win7 but I use a start button solution to maintain a "desktop". Haven't found anything on the Metro UI side worth using, most are weak/lame widget-style in the form of an application, if I wanted to clutter my start screen with this rubbish I'd look at my Android phone instead.

For those wondering what platform I use for work, generally I use OS X for music production & design... Windows for testing & demo recording sessions. As crazy as it may sound I do prefer Office 2011 for Mac, less of an eye sore vs Office 2007/2010. If Apple attempted gluing iOS on top of OS X, all hell would break loose.

 

LaunchPad. It's been there for two years and hell remains contained. Just sayin'

 

You can disable LaunchPad from launching via trackpad gestures, I still use the old OS X-pin the Applications folder to the Dock or a "shortcuts" folder.

...on Windows 8 you can't disable certain gestures for those on smaller trackpads, I had to disable edge side-scroll to avoid accidental app-switching or worse bringing up the annoying "charms" menu.

 

Gestures are definitely customizable. I've disabled both on my X120e running W8.

 

Which reminds me: Whoever came up with that idiotic designation of a "charms bar" should be taken out and shot. In the next version of Windows, I'm sure we'll have a "wonder screen", too, and maybe they'll even give us the "magic menu". Sheesh, I wonder what it is with Microsoft these days, and their inability to come up with even borderline sane names for their widgets and doodads, starting with that "Metro" fiasco. Of course, the issue with that "charms bar" goes a lot deeper than its inane name. It's utter and complete uselessness, on the desktop in particular, is more significant.

 

Is it any more arbitrary than "Aero" or "Aero Peek" or "Aero snap" or "jump lists"? They're all just random words.

 

That proves nothing. Many businesses are still using Windows XP on all of their machines, or, like the large company my father works for, have just migrated to Windows 7. It's about controlling all of their own security setups, ensuring that their legacy software still functions, and the general conservative resistance to change. Corporate IT departments don't like switching OSes; most skipped Vista entirely, and many will likewise skip Windows 8 - not because of problems with the OS, but because leapfrogging Windows versions cuts their upgrade workload in half.

 

Well, I'd agree with you on "Aero" itself, but the "peek", "snap", and "jump lists" do convey helpful connotations. But, yes, this is not the first time Microsoft's naming has been a bit, shall we say, off. Microsoft "Bob", anyone? Why the heck did they have to call it "Bob"? And, yes, in that case too, the problems went much deeper than the name, noting in passing that it is possible to see some vague analogies between Bob's interface, and Win8's tiles.

Of course not. It wasn't meant to prove anything. You guys should try to settle down a bit. Looks like these days I can't write anything without you people suspecting some evil swipe at Win8 behind it. If I wrote that "I love Windows 8", you'd probably be howling about how I am trying to discredit Windows 8 by telling people that this mean old fart Pirx likes it. (Hey, I'm not that old!...)

 

I just don't understand saying that someone should be shot--even saying so in a moment of heated hyperbole--over the NAME of a software feature.

Candidly, Pirx, we don't have to look very hard for "swipes" at Windows 8 in your posts. EVERYTHING about it seems to provoke an incredible rage in you, at least based upon what you post in these threads. Right down to trivial issues such as the word "charms."

EDIT: Went back and looked at post #159 and I didn't see anything in that particular post...but I didn't see any problem with FatDragon's response either. He didn't accuse you of taking a swipe at Win 8 in that post.

 

Ah, but I didn't say "shot", I said "taken out and shot". The latter is well known as a common figure of speech in colloquial English. Yep, and that lesson in contemporary American English is free, brought to you by yours truly.

Please, lighten up Mit: He suspected that I presented that little fact as proof of how terrible Windows 8 is, and I did not mean to imply anything of that sort with that particular fact. But of course, Windows 8 is horrible...

 

This thread itself is a swipe at Windows 8, and the post I was quoting was supporting evidence, or at least that's how I saw it.

I'm totally fine with you holding and expressing opinions. But you need to accept that doing so is going to start a debate. I've got nothing against you personally (after all, I don't know you), and I don't hold anything against you for standing on the side that considers Windows 8 a bad move. I'm going to debate you because my personal opinion differs from yours, and because debating is fun, but my participation here is more for the entertainment value than the possibility that I'll sway anybody into agreeing with me.

 

You're asking for Microsoft to drop a feature (32-bit compatibility) that businesses (their core customers) need to have. they won't do that for a long time, maybe by the time we have 128-bit or 256-bit OSes?

Apples OSX updates (OS or security) release on an arbitrary schedule. Some updates can take a few weeks, some can take a year or two, or whenever (or never). Microsoft at least has a regular update schedule (Patch Tuesday, for example).

 

Looks like we're seeing things eye to eye here...

And, no, in contrast to what Mitlov suspects, I do not hold any strong feelings towards something as inconsequential as a new Windows version at all, let alone "rage".

 

See previous post about how you go out of the way to be rude in nearly every post. It's really not helpful or courteous or mature.

 

Yeah, I think this discussion has come about as far as it'll go without devolving into hyperbole and personal attacks.