Posted on 07/18/2012 10:31:49 AM PDT by ShadowAce
Although every product deserves healthy criticism, many opinions of Windows 8 seem to be based on misconceptions, especially when it comes to the viability of Metro as a Start menu replacement.
For the record, I don't care if you skip the update -- hell, I might pass on it too -- nor do I care if it's the most failtastic operating system in Windows' 26-year history. While certain anonymous posters might try to convince you otherwise, I have nothing to gain or lose from the launch of Windows 8.
However, I believe your opinion should be formed by facts, not irrational rhetoric parroted online by so-called power users and companies that want to sell you third-party programs. I can say without a doubt that many people who oppose the Start menu's removal haven't even used Windows 8, yet they don't hesitate to inform you about Metro's inadequacies by listing all the features it's supposedly missing. The truth is, functionally speaking, Metro is basically identical to the Start menu.
The Start menu serves as a means of quick navigation. With one mouse click or keystroke you can access a list of your most-used and pinned applications, common Windows destinations, as well as the ability to instantly search for other programs and files. All of the above remains true for Metro. By clicking the same spot or tapping the same key, you'll find a list of your most-used and pinned applications, common Windows destinations and the ability to perform a system-wide search.
The difference being Metro's fullscreen, tiled presentation, which is admittedly a little jarring until you get used to it. Aesthetics aside (I think it's ugly too), detractors insist Metro hinders multitasking because it blocks vision of the desktop -- a sound argument until it's confronted with reality. Again, we're speaking about Metro strictly as a Start menu successor and I don't know about you, but when I use the Start menu, it's a three-second affair: I open the menu and I click a program.
Metro is no different. Assuming it's used to launch programs, I don't see what you could possibly be doing in Metro for so long that it feels like an interruption. Likewise, I don't understand what you could be doing in the desktop mode that's so important it can't be covered for a few seconds. If your workload is that urgent, maybe it deserves a dedicated display so it's always visible. What's more, the very act of opening a new application suggests you're inviting a distraction or shifting tasks anyway.
In fact, one could argue that Metro improves multitasking and reduces interruptions. Live tiles show dynamically updated data, with early examples including weather, finance, and calendar apps. It also seems reasonable to expect popular utilities such as those that monitor hardware utilization and network traffic to be available. Metro can update you on a chunk of info at a glance while housing truly distracting things you might not want to see constantly refreshing in a desktop gadget or system tray icon.
Even if you don't use live tiles, the fact that Metro is fullscreen should also help, not hinder multitasking because it ought to be quicker and easier to find whatever you're looking for. The Start menu shows 10 applications by default with support for up to 30 and if your desired program isn't offered immediately, you have to dig deeper into the All Programs list. This is less likely to occur in Metro as it can hold over 100 tiles (I didn't bother counting further) with about 84 visible at once on my 1080p monitor.
It's also worth noting that you can run Windows 8 without ever opening Metro -- I haven't used it once outside testing. I also rarely used the Start menu. Both are inferior to third-party apps like Launchy. It's interesting to me that "power users" should be the most capable of adapting to life without the Start menu, yet they're taking the news harder than everyone else. Windows has never been, and likely never will be perfect out of the box. Windows 8 is no different: you'll have to tweak things to your liking.
While I'm tired of the senseless bashing, Microsoft isn't without fault. Being the biggest change in Windows 8 and part of its forward-looking strategy, the company has placed most of its marketing effort behind Metro and its mobile-oriented features, to the point where many people seem to think Metro is Windows 8. That simply isn't true. If you avoid Metro -- which, again, is very easy -- Windows 8 is essentially a refined version of Windows 7, in the same way 7 was a refined version of Vista.
For better or worse, Windows is on a majority of the world's PCs and that will include an increasing number of tablets in the coming years. Microsoft and its partners are pitching productivity-oriented slates, so it's logical to strive for a unified platform that lets mobile users tap into the full power of Windows. Metro is clearly a work in progress, but it's a substantial improvement over Windows 7's touch controls while being a sufficient application launcher for all but the squirreliest of desktop users.
uh. Ya. Whatever, Matt.
But there is a start menu in windows 8, at least there was in the preview version I ran, if you go into the desktop it is pretty much like previous Windows desktops...
What a moron. It’s not that I miss the start menu or that I don’t like Metro, it’s that Microsoft has the gaul to make such wholesale changes to how we interact without our consent or ability to revert to the tried, true and familiar methods that have been around since the 90’s.
Except for what I have to use it for at work, I’m done with Windoze and all things Microsoft.
If it takes that much ink to defend it... it sucks.
The developer preview had a registry hack for it but it was gone in the consumer preview.
My, but aren’t you pleasant.
“If it takes that much ink to defend it... it sucks.”
If a little group of complainers didnt feel the need to cry about this change 24/7 over the past 4 months, no one would have ever needed to write anything.
Someone needed to spell it out, short of breaking out the crayons, to the people that think that they are somehow entitled to dictate how this OS will progress. As if Microsoft should keep it exactly the same for over 20 years just to placate a little minority that cant deal with learning something different, but constantly talk about how computer savvy they supposedly are.
Illustrating absurdity by being absurd.
I’d love to be able to go back to the old Office interface.
No can do, though.
Small minority? Over the last 26 years, Microsoft has made itself nearly indispensable to the business environment. How many businesses want to take the time and expense to retrain their employees on a new operating system? I’ll bet it will be a small minority and Windows 8 will be Microsoft’s Windows ME of 2012.
Metro seems - well - metrosexual to me. So glad to know that there really is a “Start” button in W8 even if they call it something else.
When it’s all said and done with it’s still going to be Windoze, albeit with a different shade of lipstick on.
I should clarify my original comment: If it takes this much ink to convince you it doesn’t suck as much as you think it does... it sucks.
It kind of reminds of the old Packard Bell Navigator software...Version 1.
Too bad they stopped development.
“How many businesses want to take the time and expense to retrain their employees on a new operating system? “
How many took the time to do it for 95? 98? 2000? XP? Vista? 7?
Seeing that all major businesses that use Windows are not still on anything before XP, I will venture to say that they all will.
No, all businesses will not go out and buy Windows 8 on the first day. Most companies have never done something like that. It’s not like running a Mac where you are likely just running some drawing programs and some basic office suite stuff, but the basic reality is that they will over the next couple of years as they have been migrating from XP/Vista to 7.
” It’s not like running a Mac where you are likely just running some drawing programs and some basic office suite stuff... “-Van
Hahahahahaha... What bigoted ignorance! You must be pretty blissful, FRiend! Here’s a sample list from an Open source site of free software for all sorts of uses on Macs.
Of course, with a Mac, you can also run Windoze at the same time... but why bother?
http://sourceforge.net/directory/science-engineering/os:mac/freshness:recently-updated/
Showing page 1 of 169.
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Caesar once said that all of Gaul was divided into three parts: poor personal hygiene, cheese and women with hairy armpits. This is exactly what Microsoft was like when I worked there years ago.
You: How many took the time to do it for 95? 98? 2000? XP? Vista? 7?
The following chart is one year out of date... but it still makes my point. Businesses don't like to have to retrain their employees and would rather stick with what works. Windows XP still remains the most widely used operating system and except for Microsoft kicking people off of it by ending support, it would still have a 20% market share by 2014 (according to one article I read).
Windows 8 will fail because it is not a seamless follow on to XP or 7. Businesses will go for 7 because it will require less time and money to upgrade.
My point stands.
Celestia? Stellarium? What serious business is running a planetarium program?
Most of those other programs are not remotely standard in corporate environmental. PC or Mac.
The list is a bit foolish - I could write a program that helped users count sheep as they were going to sleep and it could conceivably make it into that list. The program(s) for your business is only in part related to what is “standard” however.
In terms of time spent I bet way less time is spent on “standard” apps than is spent on highly specialized apps. Also many “apps” these days are basically just browser-based so they’re apps in one sense but not in the classic sense of a standalone executable. In short not everyone is typing away in MS Word, or crunching numbers in Excel although of course some of that does go on.
That is one sweet looking desktop. Would make a great screensaver or wallpaper.
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