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Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

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Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#161

Post by Zirro »

Joeri wrote: post #109
untog wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Zune failed because people didn't like it. I think people actually did like it, and I think that people do like Windows Phone when they try it. Zune failed because of a lack of visibility in a crowded marketplace (well, crowded in the sense that Apple is taking up 90% of the room). Windows Phone actually has the same challenge, and MS haven't really stepped up their game with regards to promoting it. Yet?

Nokia is making a huge push over here in belgium. I'm pretty sure windows phone will be outselling the iphone globally within 2 years. Nokia is still a big player outside the US, and now they actually will have a product worth buying. It's no coincidence microsoft is going after budget phones with wp7.5.

"I'm pretty sure windows phone will be outselling the iphone globally within 2 years."

I'm saving this quote. Not to poke fun of you if it doesn't come true, but because putting together a list of "wild" predictions for the future would be pretty interesting.

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#162

Post by replax »

Karunamon wrote: post #152
untog wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I guess it all feeds into the "buy every other Windows version" joke. By Windows 9 they'll have this integration sorted, maybe.

I kind of noticed this as an unwritten rule, instead of a joke. Every other release of windows seems to have its fair share of weirdness which is corrected with the release immediately superseding it. My path, which I'm sure matches a great deal of others is: 3.1 = buy 95 = skip 98 = buy ME = skip XP = buy Vista = skip 7 = buy Extrapoloating, 8 will be a "skip". I hope this will be the exception.. I kind of like what…

It's a nitpick, but you left out WIN2k, which would break your pattern...

It was actually a very solid OS from my experience.

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#163

Post by dpark »

nolok wrote: post #119
Zirro wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Why did people like Engadget go from hating Vista to loving Vista SP1 aka Win7?" If I'm not mistaken, the main reason for the Vista-hate was the too frequent UAC-prompt, buggy drivers and extreme slowness. This was generally resolved by Windows 7, and that's why I think they started praising it. I don't think I heard many complaints about the "new" UI. Rather, if anything, people was saying it looked like XP with a…

There was a lot of small and discrete but very effective ui changes in windows seven. The kind that transformed "why is it asking me to add tags and rating to my dll" into "what i need is right there under my mouse already". And as you said the completely broken uac in vista didn't help, they had managed to make limited accounts worse to use than in xp somehow.

How were limited accounts worse? Previously, a limited user couldn't perform action X at all. After UAC, they could perform it if they had an administrative account (or could get an administrator to approve).

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#164

Post by Zirro »

nextparadigms wrote: post #19
melling wrote: post #12

How is IE10? It sounds like it's going to be competitive with Chrome in both HTML5 compatibility and performance. http://html5test.com Is Microsoft still doing the silent update for IE?

Will Chrome or Firefox even work in the "tile interface"? My guess is it won't.

Mozilla has started a project to develop a demo-browser for Metro. It's not (even) going to be an alpha of Firefox, but it will let them familiarize with the Metro-way of creating applications.

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#165

Post by Zirro »

melling wrote: post #12

How is IE10? It sounds like it's going to be competitive with Chrome in both HTML5 compatibility and performance. http://html5test.com Is Microsoft still doing the silent update for IE?

You can see results here: http://html5test.com/results.html

Looks like IE10 is making the gap smaller, but there are still many points separating them from the competition. Those results are probably not updated to reflect any potential updates in the Consumer Preview yet, though.

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#166

Post by vtail »

Lewisham wrote: post #102
tjoff wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry, I don't get what everyone is on about. The first thing a power user will do is to go to the old-desktop and stay there, basically not interacting with metro at all. There is no point, it's about as useful as the winkey+tab is on Vista/W7. "Cool" but useless for real work. And there seems to have been numerous improvements to the windows experience (outside metro), the ability to pause file-copying etc. pro…

The first thing a power user will do is to go to the old-desktop and stay there, basically not interacting with metro at all. There is no point, it's about as useful as the winkey+tab is on Vista/W7. I don't know if you're trying to troll or you're just incredibly short-sighted, but I'll bite. Windows 8 is clearly designed as a hybrid OS, in the same vein that Ubuntu on Android is, even if Microsoft's marketing team…

Unfortunately, that's not going to happen unless we will see some x86 tablets. WOA will have Metro-style apps only.

And I doubt we'll ever see x86 tablets

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#167

Post by tomflack »

barista wrote: post #158
asnyder wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I may have 8 main applications pinned to the taskbar, everything else I do is through the start menu. Frankly, all I really need is the taskbar + start menu.

The experience does not change. Either you type windows buttong and start typing the name of the app (just like in wondows 7) Now if only you could pin a desktop app like word to the start screen, then I don't see the difference in experience.

I think my only objection to that is how the new start screen comes up in a jarring Desktop > Metro transition.

But then again I disliked the Windows7 Superbar until i'd been using it a while, so I'll reserve my judgement until I've used the Consumer Preview for a month or so.

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#168

Post by jiggy2011 »

khalidmbajwa wrote: post #115
tjoff wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry, I don't get what everyone is on about. The first thing a power user will do is to go to the old-desktop and stay there, basically not interacting with metro at all. There is no point, it's about as useful as the winkey+tab is on Vista/W7. "Cool" but useless for real work. And there seems to have been numerous improvements to the windows experience (outside metro), the ability to pause file-copying etc. pro…

And here is the thing, Majority of users ARE average-joes. That's why iPad has been an incredible success. It's a power user's nightmare,and yet look at how it has fared. The average-joes are the ones who will dig Metro, and that's a vast, overwhelming majority.For power users, there is regular desktop. However, Gradually, as an eceosystem of apps starts thriving, the power users will start to discover that are okay…

Have they? I remember an article on HN a few months ago of some guy doing all his programming on an ipad. Beyond that most of what I see ipads used for is browsing and watching movies.

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#169

Post by unseen »

ChrisNorstrom wrote: post #141
huggyface wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but Windows is finally going somewhere amazing after many years of going no where Windows 7 is an excellent operating system. It is secure. It is very robust. It is easy to use. It is feature rich. It connects to everything and uses everything. In what way is that going nowhere? Same on the server side with Windows Server 2008 R2. I think the competition provided by Apple is proving terrible for Microsoft. They are a…

A very good counter argument. Windows 7 is awesome, but it wasn't going anywhere NEW. And that's something consumers want. A constantly moving product. Constantly evolving. Not just build it once and sit on it for a decade. But something that has life. "They are abandoning their core strengths while poorly trying to duplicate what led to Apple's recent success" But so is Ubuntu. They're just starting to realize that…

Eh, I think you have no clue what the actual customer wants. The problems of the average computer user are probably more of the "I don't want to get robbed from this scareware" kind.

Really, get out of your tech bubble.

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#170

Post by jiggy2011 »

Symmetry wrote: post #78
roadnottaken wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps for consumers, but enterprise/office-workers will never switch to tablets. Keyboard/mouse is just too damned efficient for data entry and manipulation. And, I always thought that office-work/enterprise was MSFT's bread-and-butter.

I think the idea is that you carry your tablet with you, then plug it into a dock with a keyboard/mouse when you are at a desk.

Why would you need to? Most of your data is probably stored in "the cloud" anyway so switching between using 2 devices should be simple.

All you do is save on the cost of having an extra CPU in the desktop system and this is partly offset by power considerations (since you can have a faster chip in the desktop).

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