Windows 8 -- even more dumbed-down UI?

[Melbosa]

I respect hands on experience, I do.  So your Opinion matters more to me than any of the articles posted here; and your perspective will also be unique compared to everyone else I know.

Myself, I don't seem to have the issues with the "Four Cs" he talks about.

I find the control of the interface, while different for sure, not cumbersome or in complete.

The Conveyance seems more a keen to Tablet users and Apple people than PC users, which is why it can be lost.

Continuity does fail a bit between modern ui an classic desktop, as the two are very exclusive, but rightfully so - one is very Tablet and TV oriented, the other very much the PC interface we all use in our jobs.  Whether this may be a bad thing or good thing, I cannot decide yet, even after months.

Context for me has been very well done.  But the fine control required for some of the context sensitive items might be harsh if motor controls or vision are impaired, so I can see the implications here for that.

Overall though, for myself, I can see the direction and motivation behind the OS.  Windows 9 will be better for everyone I hope, but for now Windows 8 works for me.

[Darren Dirt]

Near the end he picks up a very good point which has been the main theme with all this echo chamber hatred: Windows 8 is designed with content consumption in mind NOT content creation.

so... "Media Center Edition" is now the ONLY version? #nicebusinessmodel

I respect hands on experience

videos capture the frustration far better than articles:
(and it ain't just a weird / badlydesigned weather app at fault here)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLTE_bvlWUE

/quote]
the "frustration" video linked above suggests it's worse than DOS -- because at least with DOS the "4 Cs" were covered coherently.

It works great on a phone, but you know what, so did the rotary dial.

Yeah, it's like Win8 is a great metaphor... but for a different tool than any mouse-based computing device, anything where you want to do more than consume or Instagram or cut out a chunk of a Youtube video; it's kinda like forcing people to use screws with their hammer ... ummm, are you sure there's not maybe a better fit for that tool?

[Lazybones]

I have been running it at home for some time now at home.


Like:
Includes hyper-v
Dual monitor task bar
Stable
Fast

Dislike:
Start screen search is inferior to windows 7 search because controlpannel sections now require an extra click.

Activating the start screen over RDP requires a mouse over because of key mapping the start menu button was more convienent

Have not found any need or use for windows 8 native apps, mostly use a desktop mode browser or app at all times.

[Thorin]

The complaints about the swipe technology on a touch pad and complains about it interfering with your mouse movement.  Took me a few seconds to really determine the difference between the mouse and the swipe actions.  I think he might have skipped the tutorial on this - why a tutorial?  Because you are adding functionality to a device that didn't have it before - hence you have to learn something new.  And this tech is there not just for Windows 8 but for all OSs implementing swiping.

Yeah, he probably did skip the tutorial - the basic rule of UI design is users don't read anything over eight words long, and also they don't read anything.  In time everyone will learn how to use the UI through trial and error or, in corporate environments, through training.  The point Tom's video was trying to make was that one could not intuit without training how the current OS works, even if one was proficient with previous versions, and that this was being forced on everyone rather than being a choice the user can make when buying their computer.

Longtime non-techie Windows users would probably have just as much trouble switching to some of the Linux distros, and would try to muddle through it without getting training.  They wouldn't be nearly as upset, though, because they'd realize they're going to a completely different OS rather than thinking it's just a slightly newer version of the OS they already know.

Anyway, you're probably enjoying the Windows 8 experience because you took the time to go through the tutorials and/or get other training on how to use it properly.  That might be why you can't understand why people who didn't bother getting training or watching tutorials are having such a hard time with the OS.

Oh, and the weather app thing was probably caused by him swiping on his touchpad a certain way.

[Tom]

The complaints about the swipe technology on a touch pad and complains about it interfering with your mouse movement.  Took me a few seconds to really determine the difference between the mouse and the swipe actions.  I think he might have skipped the tutorial on this - why a tutorial?  Because you are adding functionality to a device that didn't have it before - hence you have to learn something new.  And this tech is there not just for Windows 8 but for all OSs implementing swiping.

Yeah, he probably did skip the tutorial - the basic rule of UI design is users don't read anything over eight words long, and also they don't read anything.  In time everyone will learn how to use the UI through trial and error or, in corporate environments, through training.  The point Tom's video was trying to make was that one could not intuit without training how the current OS works, even if one was proficient with previous versions, and that this was being forced on everyone rather than being a choice the user can make when buying their computer.

Longtime non-techie Windows users would probably have just as much trouble switching to some of the Linux distros, and would try to muddle through it without getting training.  They wouldn't be nearly as upset, though, because they'd realize they're going to a completely different OS rather than thinking it's just a slightly newer version of the OS they already know.

Anyway, you're probably enjoying the Windows 8 experience because you took the time to go through the tutorials and/or get other training on how to use it properly.  That might be why you can't understand why people who didn't bother getting training or watching tutorials are having such a hard time with the OS.

Oh, and the weather app thing was probably caused by him swiping on his touchpad a certain way.

He eventually figured it out, it was caused by using the touchpad normally. If you try and move the mouse with it, but you're close to the left side, it turns into a swipe gesture, rather than a mouse movement.

Much like that guy, I think its a complete mistake to enable the use of a touchpad as a gesture/touch interface. That isn't what it does. It was not made for that, and it shows.

[Lazybones]

I haven't used a MS Surface tablet yet, but I have tried the Dell Hybrid tablet running Windows RT 8, the experience was AWFUL compared to Android and iOS tablets.

1. Dell rotation sensor was REALLY REALLY bad.
2. Dell WiFi chip or antena design causes very poor performance.
3. Still ended up in desktop mode all the time just navigating around the device, and in desktop mode the UI controls are not touch friendly.

I even liked the RIM playbook better and my biggest beef with it was mandatory hidden gestures you needed to know (both Apple and Google give you dedicated buttons or UI elements to get home for example)

[Tom]

Huh, there isn't supposed to be a desktop on Windows-RT. Even a little bit. Windows-RT is the ARM/Embedded platform, and is supposed to not have any of the classic windows features.

Maybe it's running Windows 8 instead? A lot of the convertibles and beefier Windows tablets coming out are Windows 8 devices, mainly because MS locked out a lot of OEMs from Windows-RT, and the whole Surface debacle made even more OEMs decide to wait and see about even doing a Windows RT line, so mostly devices have been Windows 8.

[Lazybones]

Sorry, you are right it was windows 8.

[Darren Dirt]

Well it's been 5 months, any thoughts on this article...
http://www.howtogeek.com/143564/5-months-of-windows-8-and-surface-rt-still-overwhelmingly-meh/

...or at least on the fact that the apparent marketshare of Windows VISTA is > Windows 8?

I'm not trying to Windows-bash here.

Although props to Microsoft for not being complete deniers-of-reality: http://www.howtogeek.com/133168/how-to-downgrade-windows-8-pro-to-windows-7/

[Mr. Analog]

I guess we'll see how much Microsoft has learned when 8.1 comes out this fall.  Currently the number one app download for new users is a working Start menu still

[Tom]

I like how they are trying to re-image their release schedule. windows blue? windows 8.1? Don't you mean Windows 8 SP1?

People were all like "OMG Windows 8.1 will be free! OMG!" well, so were all previous Service Packs.

[Mr. Analog]

Yep, exactly