The Stupidity of Windows 8 in a Nutshell
singularityhacker.com
The Stupidity of Windows 8 in a Nutshell
1–10 of 40 posts
Re: The Stupidity of Windows 8 in a Nutshell
#2The surface shows that microsoft, rightly or wrongly, have a different idea about where the whole mobile / desktop vision may converge. it's not a desktop, laptop nor a tablet and, for all the shit it gets, quite refreshing and innovative. metro UI also works very well on it, as it does with touchscreen laptops
Re: The Stupidity of Windows 8 in a Nutshell
#3... ignoring the fact that you can have multiple metro apps on screen just like with any other tiling window manager.
i think there's a good argument that manually micro-managing the sizes and positions of overlapping windows (some of which can additionally be application or system modal) is a waste of time and gives few benefits.
whilst the metro apps are all pretty cut down at the moment - and there's a lot of work to do before it can viably replace the old desktop - i have no real issue with this as the direction of progress.
Re: The Stupidity of Windows 8 in a Nutshell
#4I always thought Microsoft were crowbarring their mobile UI in to the desktop system not because it was a good idea, but to gain familiarity. If all Windows users are familiar with the Tile UI, they might then be more comfortable getting a Windows phone or tablet - areas MS need all the help they can get.
On the other hand though touchscreen laptops and desktops are gradually becoming more common, so the fat-finger UI of the start screen tiles can work for that as well.
Re: The Stupidity of Windows 8 in a Nutshell
#5--- Tim Cook could not have said it better when he summarized Microsoft’s confusion. “..they’re trying to make PCs into tablets and tablets into PCs.”
What was the first criticism of smartphones that I heard? They're trying to take PDAs into Cell Phones, and trying to turn Phones into PDAs.
Its like these bloggers can't even imagine a new model of computing. Converged computing is the future. A single device that does more than previous devices is easier to carry, centralizes management and simplifies your life. I frankly prefer the Surface Pro over any of the tablets that exist today.
When you have a keyboard / mouse, then TYPE on the start screen. You know, the auto-search feature? The Start Screen is one of the best keyboard-interfaces I've ever used.
Re: The Stupidity of Windows 8 in a Nutshell
#6When I saw Windows 7 I thought I knew where Microsoft was heading. I saw the new task bar with it's "finger friendly" buttons and thought to myself "MS is slowly integrating touch into their interface....makes sense.".
However between awesome Windows 7 and the mess that is Windows 8 something must have happened. Someone inside MS must have preaching that you can't simply make Windows touch friendly. They must have argued for a dedicated touch interface, one that would be made more powerful with each release so as to eventually phase out the "old" windows interface for good.
This approach I feel is wrong, and the disjointed effort in Windows 8 is demonstrating how confused it's making both "regular users" and tech pros alike.
I wish MS stayed focused on their traditional OS model and made Windows 7 even better with Win8. The "touch OS" from Microsoft could then have been born, and evolved on it's own without having to carry the burden of 3 decades of general computing.
Re: The Stupidity of Windows 8 in a Nutshell
#7We need large icons in the context of mobile computing because we’re using our fingers and our fingers are fat. You don’t need giant tiles when you’re using the tiny curser of the mouse.
Or perhaps Microsoft is actually forward thinking here and is considering that touch is becoming a more popular interface even on laptop. If you are designing a new UI now to cover the next 5 years, it seems like a good idea to take this into account.
Why would I be forced into a full screen view on a 20-inch monitor? The only reason applications are full screen on mobile devices is that it is assumed that screen real estate is small. Microsoft is indeed very confused.
I also believe you can have two Metro apps beside each other. But aside from that, I took a quick look at my setup and all my applications are full screen except for the Command Prompt instance I have open.
Re: The Stupidity of Windows 8 in a Nutshell
#8--- Tim Cook could not have said it better when he summarized Microsoft’s confusion. “..they’re trying to make PCs into tablets and tablets into PCs.” What was the first criticism of smartphones that I heard? They're trying to take PDAs into Cell Phones, and trying to turn Phones into PDAs. Its like these bloggers can't even imagine a new model of computing. Converged computing is the future. A single device that doe…
> When you have a keyboard / mouse, then TYPE on the start screen. You know, the auto-search feature? The Start Screen is one of the best keyboard-interfaces I've ever used.
For me, the problem is that, on the desktop or laptop, the Start Screen uses 100% of my screen real estate for a task (typing a search query, hitting enter) that would be better performed with, at most, 10% of my screen real estate. Having a full-screen dialogue pop up for a trivial task is horrible for maintaining flow.
Re: The Stupidity of Windows 8 in a Nutshell
#9Stupidity? Stupidity is people making criticisms without actually using the product they're criticizing.
>Treat the Metro UI and desktop as different modes and encourage developers to build applications that work on both. When you’re interacting with windows from a tablet switch into metro mode. When you’re using windows from a desktop with a mouse switch into desktop mode.
This happens today. It's called... Windows 8. My desktop boots to the desktop and I only use desktop applications with it. My tablet boots to Metro and I use a lot of Metro apps with it. This is a thing that exists today. The regular size tiles are about the same size as a desktop shortcut is (ie, not too big for a mouse). The larger size tiles are more useful than a static icon, since they show you data without needing to launch the app.
Here's the big rub with Windows 8: people are complaining that it's worse, when in reality it's just different. Especially in Windows 8.1, where some of the things that were worse are now corrected. It's been two years of this "Windows 8 is a failure" bullshit. People are still using it. PCs are still being sold. Work is still getting done. The world is still spinning. When are we going to find something else to complain about?
Re: The Stupidity of Windows 8 in a Nutshell
#10I love Windows 8.
At first the separate "Desktop" and "Metro" environments are confusing, but once you realize you can go into desktop mode and stay there while utilizing all the new utility offered by the interface (Windows + Q anyone? It's a more robust version of Spotlight) the whole thing clicks and becomes a real joy to use.
I believe 90% of the backlash is from people who have never used Windows 8, or gave it literally 30 seconds of use in Best Buy then came home to post online about it.
Give it a real shot, its fun!