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Windows 8: Microsoft will declare victory, but will anyone believe it?

channelregister.co.uk

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Re: Windows 8: Microsoft will declare victory, but will anyone believe it?

#11

Post by lotso »

walru wrote: post #4

I went to go use a Windows 8 PC at Best Buy the other day and was shocked. In screenshots everything looks clean, crisp, and modern - then comes the task of using it. I don't understand who at MSFT thought it was necessary to preface every action by a splash screen and inordinately long loading times. Also, am I missing something? Does everything you do have to be full screen? Is having multiple windows open and mult…

Out of all the things to complain about in Windows 8, the splash screen seems to be pretty far back in the list of things. Also, on what apps are you experiencing long load times? I just tried opening Skydrive, Music, and Video and they all loaded very quickly. The only one that took awhile was Netflix, which I assume took a little longer because it had to log in to my account, and even then it was less than 4 seconds.

Re: Windows 8: Microsoft will declare victory, but will anyone believe it?

#12

Post by notatoad »

walru wrote: post #4

I went to go use a Windows 8 PC at Best Buy the other day and was shocked. In screenshots everything looks clean, crisp, and modern - then comes the task of using it. I don't understand who at MSFT thought it was necessary to preface every action by a splash screen and inordinately long loading times. Also, am I missing something? Does everything you do have to be full screen? Is having multiple windows open and mult…

You should watch some average users use the computer some time. Multi-tasking is very much a power-user feature, most people maximize everything - even things that have no business being maximized. Users will maximize a browser window, and then complain about all the white-space to either side of a column of text. And then they'll maximize their skype contacts list or something similarly narrow, and complain about how they can't see both skype and a webpage. By forcing fullscreen, microsoft is forcing app makers to design for the most common use case.

Re: Windows 8: Microsoft will declare victory, but will anyone believe it?

#13

Post by Maascamp »

walru wrote: post #4

I went to go use a Windows 8 PC at Best Buy the other day and was shocked. In screenshots everything looks clean, crisp, and modern - then comes the task of using it. I don't understand who at MSFT thought it was necessary to preface every action by a splash screen and inordinately long loading times. Also, am I missing something? Does everything you do have to be full screen? Is having multiple windows open and mult…

On the other hand, I also design software for a living and despite having used it a large number of times I still find OSX to be (for me) a usability nightmare. I just don't know how to do anything and find the interface completely counterintuitive.

Windows 8 seems just like Windows 7 with an extra layer and I found Windows 7 to be extremely usable. It's all pretty subjective.

Re: Windows 8: Microsoft will declare victory, but will anyone believe it?

#14

Post by sixothree »

Maascamp wrote: post #13
walru wrote: post #4

I went to go use a Windows 8 PC at Best Buy the other day and was shocked. In screenshots everything looks clean, crisp, and modern - then comes the task of using it. I don't understand who at MSFT thought it was necessary to preface every action by a splash screen and inordinately long loading times. Also, am I missing something? Does everything you do have to be full screen? Is having multiple windows open and mult…

On the other hand, I also design software for a living and despite having used it a large number of times I still find OSX to be (for me) a usability nightmare. I just don't know how to do anything and find the interface completely counterintuitive. Windows 8 seems just like Windows 7 with an extra layer and I found Windows 7 to be extremely usable. It's all pretty subjective.

That's really the problem. Windows 7 / 2008 R2 are by far Microsoft's best operating systems yet. Going to be very tough to replace, which is what they seem to be trying to do.

Re: Windows 8: Microsoft will declare victory, but will anyone believe it?

#15

Post by sixothree »

lotso wrote: post #11
walru wrote: post #4

I went to go use a Windows 8 PC at Best Buy the other day and was shocked. In screenshots everything looks clean, crisp, and modern - then comes the task of using it. I don't understand who at MSFT thought it was necessary to preface every action by a splash screen and inordinately long loading times. Also, am I missing something? Does everything you do have to be full screen? Is having multiple windows open and mult…

Out of all the things to complain about in Windows 8, the splash screen seems to be pretty far back in the list of things. Also, on what apps are you experiencing long load times? I just tried opening Skydrive, Music, and Video and they all loaded very quickly. The only one that took awhile was Netflix, which I assume took a little longer because it had to log in to my account, and even then it was less than 4 second…

It's also a problem apple has solved by using a screenshot of the application's default/previous state as the splash screen.

Re: Windows 8: Microsoft will declare victory, but will anyone believe it?

#16

Post by gamble »

The problem with Windows 8 is that Microsoft built a touch-oriented operating system, but none of the OEMs are shipping machines that are notably more touch-oriented than their Windows 7 lineup. And the Metro aspects of Win8 offer no benefits to a mouse user, while being significantly less discoverable without touch. You just have to watch a few "first time using Windows 8" videos on Youtube to see how unintuitive it is with a mouse.

Re: Windows 8: Microsoft will declare victory, but will anyone believe it?

#17

Post by jjcm »

walru wrote: post #4

I went to go use a Windows 8 PC at Best Buy the other day and was shocked. In screenshots everything looks clean, crisp, and modern - then comes the task of using it. I don't understand who at MSFT thought it was necessary to preface every action by a splash screen and inordinately long loading times. Also, am I missing something? Does everything you do have to be full screen? Is having multiple windows open and mult…

I've been using it as my primary OS on both my home and work desktop (as well as on several tablets - I work for Microsoft) for about the last year. The biggest issue I had with it at first was my perspective on what the native environment is. If you treat the metro home screen as the native environment, and the desktop as a secondary environment, your desktop experience wont be pleasant. While it's fine and dandy to use it the majority of the time if you're on a tablet, on a desktop those interactions don't make as much sense. When I started to use the metro home screen as purely a launcher on my desktop, things became great. I came from a linux background so I really missed the integration that alt+f2 had when I moved to windows (or spotlight if you're an OSX guy). Metro as an alt+f2/spotlight alternative is absolutely fantastic. Winkey+type anything and you're where you want to be. It really grows on you, and I'm honestly more productive on win8 now than I am on win7. As for the Metro apps, on a desktop I've found that they serve a nice purpose if you have multiple screens. I really enjoy having my mail + calendar metro apps up on one screen while I do work on my others. Just my perspective on things, which again may be heavily biased as I work on Windows.

Re: Windows 8: Microsoft will declare victory, but will anyone believe it?

#18

Post by sp332 »

walru wrote: post #4

I went to go use a Windows 8 PC at Best Buy the other day and was shocked. In screenshots everything looks clean, crisp, and modern - then comes the task of using it. I don't understand who at MSFT thought it was necessary to preface every action by a splash screen and inordinately long loading times. Also, am I missing something? Does everything you do have to be full screen? Is having multiple windows open and mult…

They learned with Windows Phone 7 apps, that smooth (long) animations and colorful splash screens can make under-powered hardware seem a lot more responsive. Instead of doing nothing for a few seconds and then popping up your app, it immediately plays an animation, shows a splash screen, then shows your app. It's better than nothing but it would be nice if they just threw better hardware at the problem.

Re: Windows 8: Microsoft will declare victory, but will anyone believe it?

#19

Post by jjcm »

gvnonor wrote: post #6
walru wrote: post #4

I went to go use a Windows 8 PC at Best Buy the other day and was shocked. In screenshots everything looks clean, crisp, and modern - then comes the task of using it. I don't understand who at MSFT thought it was necessary to preface every action by a splash screen and inordinately long loading times. Also, am I missing something? Does everything you do have to be full screen? Is having multiple windows open and mult…

Windows 8 only makes sense on tablet/laptop hybrids. I think you'll feel differently about the usability of the system once you get to try it out on newer devices that are coming out. Here's an interesting article about one such device http://www.theverge.com/2012/10/9/3475334/acer-iconia-w510-p...

Disagree. Up front warning - I work for MS. I've been using it on my desktop as my primary OS for a while now and I heavily prefer it over win7. The keyboard launching functionality is what sells it for me, and honestly I become pretty frustrated when using win7 now because of it. It's still the same OS, just with a different way of launching programs. Coming from a CLI/vim background, I really appreciate how keyboard oriented it is.

Re: Windows 8: Microsoft will declare victory, but will anyone believe it?

#20

Post by lotso »

sixothree wrote: post #15
lotso wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of all the things to complain about in Windows 8, the splash screen seems to be pretty far back in the list of things. Also, on what apps are you experiencing long load times? I just tried opening Skydrive, Music, and Video and they all loaded very quickly. The only one that took awhile was Netflix, which I assume took a little longer because it had to log in to my account, and even then it was less than 4 second…

It's also a problem apple has solved by using a screenshot of the application's default/previous state as the splash screen.

The problem hasn't been solved. Apple's use of the screenshot is a design trade-off.

Apple's design

Pro: You see the previous state of the app, and have the perception that the app has loaded quickly.

Con: Many times the UI is blocked while the app is loading data, or if the UI isn't blocked you are still waiting on data to be able to actually do anything.

Microsoft's design

Pro: Consistent splash screen experience on all apps. User understands that the app is loading during this time. If app needs to download a lot of data, the splash screen presents an animation to indicate it is working.

Con: Have to view a splashscreen on app load. May not be perceived as having loaded as quickly as Apple's implementation.

I don't think you can necessarily state that one is better than the other.

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