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Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

blogs.windows.com

21–30 of 114 posts

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#21
post #4

[deleted]

Of course they're not going to acknowledge poor speculative reporting by some blogs/magazines. Plenty have written the counter-piece. Windows 8 has sold over 100M copies despite the decline in PC sales. They don't run the industry, they just sell operating systems and office software. There's little they could do to change the fact that if you already have a PC that you bought in the past 5 years or so, it's just as…

plus, i don't think Gartner, IDC etc have included the financial crisis that a lot of countries/people/companies face. In my opinion, a lot of big buyers (governments, enterprises) postponed buying new PCs for a year or two.

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#24
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps to distinguish it from the Microsoft Store, which sells physical goods?

If that's the reason (though I have my doubts), in that case it may have been a very poorly chosen name.

Microsoft has a long history of very poorly chosen names. There are at least 3 other Microsoft Stores -- their chain of retail stores (ala Apple Store), the online version of those stores, their multiple "Microsoft Stores" on the corporate campus that sell Microsoft hardware/software/books/swag to both visitors and employees predating the retail locations, and their employee-only online store.

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#26
post #2

What are the new features?

Nothing's set in stone until the public preview next month, but it's likely to be:

* A start button (not menu) on the desktop mode taskbar, having the same functionality as pressing the Windows key

* The option to boot into desktop mode instead of the start screen

* More tile sizes (1/4 small thumbnails, and 2x large) for the start screen

* 50/50 split view for Win8 Apps in addition to the ~25/75 option

* Internet Explorer 11

* A rollup of windows update patches to date

They'll probably also announce the 7.5-inch Surface tablets at the same time. They're getting 8.1 to OEMs so the next generation of Win8 tablets can ship with it.

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#28
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> how awesome Windows 8 is and how well it's doing Ironically, if that were the case, it wouldn't need an update.

It's not at all unusual for awesome, successful software to be updated.

Not contradicting your point, but such updates would likely tend not to be in great demand.

Recently encountered an interesting article on topic—Sorry, PC Industry: You’ve Apparently Managed to Perfect the PC (http://techland.time.com/2013/04/11/sorry-pc-industry-youve-...)

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#29
post #9

I found this announcement frustrating to read because it contains little useful content. Almost all of it is about how supposedly awesome Windows 8 is and how well it's doing. The relevant part could have been summed up as: there's a free upgrade coming out sometime later this year called Windows 8.1.

I fully agree and I couldn't help but add this as the summary of the post (http://i.imgur.com/Wcw43l4.png) using tldr.io
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