Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Windows 8 & Metro with Mouse and Keyboard - Super User Blog

blog.superuser.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 57 posts

Re: Windows 8 & Metro with Mouse and Keyboard - Super User Blog

#31

Post by listic »

apetrovic wrote: post #27

My two cents after using Win8 for a week on a laptop: - Hot corners: fail. MS needs to extend hot zones. Finding the exact point with the touchpad is sometimes tricky. I can imagine the horror on multimonitor configuration. - I actually like the start screen. It's clean, and it responds to typing even faster than Win7 start button. Two minor problems: 1) you need to clean up icons after every installation and 2) it d…

Laptops with touch screens FTW! I wonder what the whole computer industry is waiting for? Are they again waiting for Apple to come and do and make what everyone else should have done long time ago instead?

Re: Windows 8 & Metro with Mouse and Keyboard - Super User Blog

#32

Post by sriramk »

tikhonj wrote: post #30
sriramk wrote: post #16

My issue with the active corners is that they are impossible to use with multiple monitors. Fitt's Law actively works against it; instead of being able to slam your mouse, you have to gingerly move it to the right spot.

On KDE, the corners just move to the most extreme screen. So any action set to a left corner will work from that corner of the left screen, while any actions set to a right corner will work from that corner on the right screen. This still isn't perfect, but works fairly well in practice. I'm not sure it's directly applicable to Windows 8 because I haven't tried it yet, but it's something to think about.

Don't know about KDE but I have the same problem with Unity. I wound up physically moving my monitors around because Unity really, really likes to be on the extreme left.

Re: Windows 8 & Metro with Mouse and Keyboard - Super User Blog

#33

Post by missing_cipher »

recoiledsnake wrote: post #10
missing_cipher wrote: post #3

The only thing that is annoying me with Windows 8 so far are the contextual menus where you need to move your mouse to the bottom right-hand side. The delay is too long and it makes the experience less fluid IMO. I'm liking the Start Metro screen and getting used to the dynamic tiles.

A shortcut you can use is Windows key + C. More here: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2012/02/getting-starte... http://www.kotaku.com.au/2012/03/windows-8-tricks-tips-and-s... Looking at the comments, it's like people can't even spend 5 or 10 mins getting to know a new UI in a redesigned OS. And then some complain about the dumbification of everything. Maybe they're wrong and everything must be dumbed down to t…

Thanks for the links. :)

Re: Windows 8 & Metro with Mouse and Keyboard - Super User Blog

#34

Post by moheeb »

listic wrote: post #31
apetrovic wrote: post #27

My two cents after using Win8 for a week on a laptop: - Hot corners: fail. MS needs to extend hot zones. Finding the exact point with the touchpad is sometimes tricky. I can imagine the horror on multimonitor configuration. - I actually like the start screen. It's clean, and it responds to typing even faster than Win7 start button. Two minor problems: 1) you need to clean up icons after every installation and 2) it d…

Laptops with touch screens FTW! I wonder what the whole computer industry is waiting for? Are they again waiting for Apple to come and do and make what everyone else should have done long time ago instead?

They have laptops with touchscreens. You can stop waiting for Apple to do what's already been done.

The Dell Inspiron Duo is one such machine. It came out in 2010.

Re: Windows 8 & Metro with Mouse and Keyboard - Super User Blog

#35

Post by nextparadigms »

bp_ wrote: post #15
thought_alarm wrote: post #8

Metro is quite impressive as a tablet UI. Frankly, I think it's the only legitimate alternative to iPad. But on a mouse-driven desktop it's at best uncompelling, and at worst baffling and frustrating. There's a risk Microsoft could pull another Vista, where an overwhelmingly negative public perception of Metro on the desktop overshadows some otherwise good features. The other risk is that if they insist on coupling A…

Here's the thing though: it surprisingly also works with mouse and keyboard! You do lose some display density, mind you, but the upshot in size allocated more than makes up for it.

Works and works well are 2 different things. Usually you need a different UI that is optimized for the different form factor/device type, otherwise you might end up with an UI that works very well only on a certain type of device, and one that is mediocre at best on another type of device, because they are used differently, and that UI is forcing you to use it in a different way than you should.

Also it's not just the Metro UI itself and how it works with the mouse that you have to deal with. You also have to deal with switching between what most people will see as 2 separate OS's. I predict a lot of people will be frustrated with this.

Re: Windows 8 & Metro with Mouse and Keyboard - Super User Blog

#36

Post by forcer »

gph wrote: post #9
drivebyacct2 wrote: post #6

There is a certain amount of irony that Windows 8 works quite well is most (all?) virtualization software except Microsoft's VirtualPC. Also, is anyone else feeling that they love Windows 8 on a tablet but are constantly frustrated trying to use it on a desktop? One of my first experiences that kind of sums of my experience was clicking on a 2-second mp3 (I wanted that gorgeous notification tone), only to find myself…

It doesn't work on the free VMWare software, though it does work on VMWare Workstation 8 (not free). Not that that disqualifies your statement in anyway, it is rather funny that it doesn't work on their own VM software. It even works on Oracle's open source VirtualBox.

Not true. It works on VMWare Player which is free

Re: Windows 8 & Metro with Mouse and Keyboard - Super User Blog

#37

Post by hammersend »

recoiledsnake wrote: post #25
buggabill wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many people who use Windows on a regular basis know anything but using their mouse to interact with the OS? How many normal users do you know that know the current Windows shortcut keys? Expecting people to learn new ones is a bit silly in my opinion.

How many normal users have multiple monitors? There might be a lot, but we're going up a notch above normal users and towards power users here.

Where I work many of the Photoshop users have multiple monitors and aren't power users by any stretch. It is very unlikely they would be familiar with any shortcuts in windows beyond ctrl-c/v/x and the "Windows" key.

Re: Windows 8 & Metro with Mouse and Keyboard - Super User Blog

#38

Post by hammersend »

listic wrote: post #31
apetrovic wrote: post #27

My two cents after using Win8 for a week on a laptop: - Hot corners: fail. MS needs to extend hot zones. Finding the exact point with the touchpad is sometimes tricky. I can imagine the horror on multimonitor configuration. - I actually like the start screen. It's clean, and it responds to typing even faster than Win7 start button. Two minor problems: 1) you need to clean up icons after every installation and 2) it d…

Laptops with touch screens FTW! I wonder what the whole computer industry is waiting for? Are they again waiting for Apple to come and do and make what everyone else should have done long time ago instead?

They might be waiting for the prices for quality touch-screen components to come down. Tacking a capacitive touch-screen to every laptop will probably add at least 100 dollars to the cost of the product. I saw the Dell laptop in CompUSA recently and it was 500 plus dollars with essentially netbook class hardware sans the touch screen.

Re: Windows 8 & Metro with Mouse and Keyboard - Super User Blog

#39

Post by bicknergseng »

nextparadigms wrote: post #35
bp_ wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's the thing though: it surprisingly also works with mouse and keyboard! You do lose some display density, mind you, but the upshot in size allocated more than makes up for it.

Works and works well are 2 different things. Usually you need a different UI that is optimized for the different form factor/device type, otherwise you might end up with an UI that works very well only on a certain type of device, and one that is mediocre at best on another type of device, because they are used differently, and that UI is forcing you to use it in a different way than you should. Also it's not just th…

I don't know that your first point is necessarily the case, though. I would argue that Metro works well on both small screen touch interfaces and larger screen point and click interfaces. The Metro buttons or boxes or whatever are actually very click friendly, and I think keyboard/touchpad/camera/mouse gestures will make it extremely usable. I might go as far to say that the Metro interface seems to transcend interaction type.

I do understand the 2 OS's concern. I do imagine that after a few years and maybe another iteration or two, people will move on from the need for the traditional windows desktop experience and appreciate the same look and feel across phone, tablet, laptop, and desktop. People will be initially frustrated, but even Facebook can't roll out a minor redesign without millions of people freaking out like FB stabbed them in the back.

Re: Windows 8 & Metro with Mouse and Keyboard - Super User Blog

#40

Post by notatoad »

joe_the_user wrote: post #14
recoiledsnake wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A shortcut you can use is Windows key + C. More here: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2012/02/getting-starte... http://www.kotaku.com.au/2012/03/windows-8-tricks-tips-and-s... Looking at the comments, it's like people can't even spend 5 or 10 mins getting to know a new UI in a redesigned OS. And then some complain about the dumbification of everything. Maybe they're wrong and everything must be dumbed down to t…

But, But, ... Is it not at least a tad reasonable for people to be a bit upset about MS strong-arming a fix into the not-broken UI they've been using for a while now? Why should Bob at home with his five year old Dell care that this MS' salvo in the Tablet Wars? Why?

Bob and his 5 year old dell are still running XP and that won't change. but chances are, Bob's next computer purchase will be an iPad, not another dell desktop. He should care about microsoft's salvo into the tablet wars because it means a viable alternative to purchasing an iPad.

ordinary users don't upgrade their OS. they get their OS upgrades by purchasing a new computer.

Post reply on HN