What Windows 8 Haters Don’t Understand About Windows 8 • Hacker News Board

Re: What Windows 8 Haters Don’t Understand About Windows 8

#21

Post by chris_wot » Wed, Jun 20, 2012, 9:52 AM UTC

natmaster0 wrote: post #8

Yeah, pretty weak arguments there. Somehow what some people claim or have said is supposed to apply to me? I don't know about others complaining about ribbon on office, but I loved it when it launched, and I loved every Facebook iteration except the last one. I'm an early adopter, and not only does stuff I adopt early have an incredibly high success rate, but there aren't many things that are successful that I don't…

Who is voting these comments down? This is actually a pretty reasonably thought out argument. Even if you don't agree with it, for goodness sake make a comment - don't downvote it.

Wrt the UI - I disagree that the ribbon is a great UI paradigm. I can't imagine using the ribbon on a touch screen, looks far too fiddly!

Re: What Windows 8 Haters Don’t Understand About Windows 8

#22

Post by joshAg » Wed, Jun 20, 2012, 9:52 AM UTC

corin_ wrote: post #17

> I hate the ribbon in Windows 8 - that’s what most people said about the ribbon when it was first introduced in Microsoft Office 2007. And yet, it has become a great interface paradigm which makes features more visible and easier to use. Not 100% related to Windows 8, but am I in the minority of disliking the ribbon in Office? When it first arrived I was excited by it and thought it was awesome, but after years of u…

i think you're in a silent majority.

Re: What Windows 8 Haters Don’t Understand About Windows 8

#23

Post by InclinedPlane » Wed, Jun 20, 2012, 9:52 AM UTC

willvarfar wrote: post #3

That the haters hate Windows 8 cannot be brushed away by saying they are not the intended customer! Microsoft needs everyone to like Windows 8.

And there you have it. MS needs everyone to like Windows 8. Period. They need grand mothers who might otherwise use an ipad to like windows 8. They need high school kids to like windows 8. They need pc power users to like windows 8. They've come fairly close to betting the company that they can create a singular experience that can be all things to all people.

Re: What Windows 8 Haters Don’t Understand About Windows 8

#24

Post by chrislomax » Wed, Jun 20, 2012, 9:52 AM UTC

lucian1900 wrote: post #14

Regardless of the other arguments, the ribbon does suck immensely. Ever watched a "normal" person try to use it, even after enough time to have supposedly become proficient? The damned thing is useless.

I came here to make that exact point. We are 5 years on and I still think the ribbon bar is the worst design decision made in a UI. It's useless, it makes things harder to find.

I introduced my grant parents to Office 2007 from the offset, not an earlier version and they found the ribbon bar a pain in the ass. Even late adopters have a hard time with it.

Re: What Windows 8 Haters Don’t Understand About Windows 8

#25

Post by arethuza » Wed, Jun 20, 2012, 9:54 AM UTC

tjoff wrote: post #9

There is waaay too much focus on metro. Which is kind of natural since it is new and different, but because of the focus on metro people get confused and honestly think that there is nothing but metro in windows 8. Metro is targeted towards Media Centers, tablets and casual consumption. Not workstations. If you are not doing your work on an iPad today you probably won't do work in metro tomorrow. Simple as that. The…

"There is waaay too much focus on metro."

Arguably Microsoft haven't exactly been helping here. I recently attended a Microsoft conference on a topic unrelated to Windows 8 and it was very noticeable that the official PowerPoint template for the show used a "Metro" theme. Which I have, to admit, makes a pleasant change from the usual PowerPoint bullet points...

However, one of the most amusing things I saw at the show was when I sat behind someone who was using a laptop with a touch screen and Windows 8/Metro. Guess what happens when you have a laptop with a touch screen balanced on your knees and you go to touch the screen.... As you might expect, your latop falls over and lands on the floor.

Re: What Windows 8 Haters Don’t Understand About Windows 8

#26

Post by tjoff » Wed, Jun 20, 2012, 9:57 AM UTC

w0utert wrote: post #19

tjoff wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They were very user friendly. They might not have been beginner-friendly but that is a short-sighted goal to aim for.

I have to disagree. The traditional Windows interface is full of undiscoverable hidden stuff, inconsistent and illogical ways that make doing simple things hard, the start menu was never a good UI paradigm to begin with, the taskbar has always been a big mess that basically became unusable if you had more than 5 windows open, the way you interact with the file system is completely arbitrary, task management is basica…

All your points can as easily be stated for Gnome 2.x, XFCE or OS X as well. Only that windows UI is in my opinion vastly superior just because it is consistent and well thought out compared to the rest.

Don't you think there is a reason why almost anyone who has every used a Mac says OS X is more user-friendly...

Yes there is a reason. OS X might be more beginner-friendly but as soon as you actually start to use it you realize it isn't user-friendly. As on most/all simple systems (including OS X) doing stuff that wasn't intended is extremely cumbersome.

Doing things on Windows is comparatively both easy and logical, which enables you to do what you want (and not what the designer thought you wanted) way faster than OS X allows you to.

Just see how well OS X handles multiple windows, it's a joke compared to Windows.

Re: What Windows 8 Haters Don’t Understand About Windows 8

#27

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jun 20, 2012, 9:57 AM UTC

w0utert wrote: post #19

tjoff wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They were very user friendly. They might not have been beginner-friendly but that is a short-sighted goal to aim for.

I have to disagree. The traditional Windows interface is full of undiscoverable hidden stuff, inconsistent and illogical ways that make doing simple things hard, the start menu was never a good UI paradigm to begin with, the taskbar has always been a big mess that basically became unusable if you had more than 5 windows open, the way you interact with the file system is completely arbitrary, task management is basica…

[deleted]

Re: What Windows 8 Haters Don’t Understand About Windows 8

#28

Post by tjoff » Wed, Jun 20, 2012, 10:03 AM UTC

corin_ wrote: post #17

> I hate the ribbon in Windows 8 - that’s what most people said about the ribbon when it was first introduced in Microsoft Office 2007. And yet, it has become a great interface paradigm which makes features more visible and easier to use. Not 100% related to Windows 8, but am I in the minority of disliking the ribbon in Office? When it first arrived I was excited by it and thought it was awesome, but after years of u…

Same here. The ribbon requires more steps to get to the functions you need. It might be good for discoverability, and it might not hinder experts (since they'd use shortcuts) but I feel that it is a big let down for power-users that know what they want to do but don't use it enough to be able to do everything with the keyboard. That and that it is ugly and takes a lot of space.

Re: What Windows 8 Haters Don’t Understand About Windows 8

#29

Post by s_henry_paulson » Wed, Jun 20, 2012, 10:08 AM UTC

corin_ wrote: post #17

> I hate the ribbon in Windows 8 - that’s what most people said about the ribbon when it was first introduced in Microsoft Office 2007. And yet, it has become a great interface paradigm which makes features more visible and easier to use. Not 100% related to Windows 8, but am I in the minority of disliking the ribbon in Office? When it first arrived I was excited by it and thought it was awesome, but after years of u…

With menus, it was still possible to page through the menus until you found what you were looking for.

With the ribbon, I still find myself going through every option to try to find something, only to end up googling where on earth they hid the function I was looking for.

Re: What Windows 8 Haters Don’t Understand About Windows 8

#30

Post by bungle » Wed, Jun 20, 2012, 10:09 AM UTC

corin_ wrote: post #17

> I hate the ribbon in Windows 8 - that’s what most people said about the ribbon when it was first introduced in Microsoft Office 2007. And yet, it has become a great interface paradigm which makes features more visible and easier to use. Not 100% related to Windows 8, but am I in the minority of disliking the ribbon in Office? When it first arrived I was excited by it and thought it was awesome, but after years of u…

Ribbon sucks. It sucked then. It sucks now even more. It doesn't work on desktop, and it certainly does not work with touch. Almost nobody has adopted ribbon. Even MS does not use it outside Office. You are not alone.