Posted on 07/28/2014 4:25:25 PM PDT by markomalley
Microsoft attempted something different and daring with Windows 8. It introduced a whole new interface and means of interaction with your PC that was identical to a smartphone or tablet. It threw out the “Start” menu and mouse-driven interface people had used for decades in favor of a touch-driven interface with tiles, some of which received active information updates.
And people hated it.
“They tried to get their entire audience to jump from a UI [user interface] they were comfortable with to a brand new one with a serious learning curve,” California-based Creative Strategies tech analyst and president Tim Bajarin said. “Had they done a more transitionary product, especially keeping the Start button, I don’t think the impact and perception would have been as bad.”
By removing the Start button, which had been a Windows fixture since Windows 95, Microsoft wasn’t just introducing a new way of using the operating system — it was trying to force people away from the only one they had known for two decades.
The result was that Windows 8 was slaughtered in the court of public opinion, often compared to the much-maligned Windows Vista released in 2006. It was an incorrect comparison; Vista was a technological hairball, a truly awful piece of software that often failed when people tried to install it on their PCs.
Windows 8 was technically sound. No one complained of crashing, slow performance or old apps not working on it. People noted it was actually a tad faster than Windows 7, they just hated how it looked. The result was slow sales for Windows 8, but Windows 7, the OS it was supposed to replace, kept selling like hotcakes.
“Its distinguishing feature was support for touchscreens but also legacy applications,” Endpoint Technologies President Roger Kay said. Endpoint is a Boston-based market research firm. “It ended up being a Frankenstein. So the good parts, like being a little faster and more reliable and more secure were almost totally invisible to the end user. So you could tell people it was faster and more reliable and they said ‘I don’t know how to use it.’”
Kay said the beating Windows 8 took in the tech press hurt, but users also hated it. Microsoft released a public beta for anyone to download and use on February 29, 2012, and released the product in October, 2012. During that time, in all the public Windows forums, “consumers were gnashing their teeth and stomping their feet about it. It was vilified in public forums,” Kay said.
The old guard who came up with Windows 8 and refused to listen to beta testers are gone and Microsoft has more or less given up trying to rescue its slandered OS. There will be another significant update to Windows 8.1 (called Update 2) later this year. After that, the new management are focusing their efforts on Windows 9.
Windows 9, which Microsoft internally calls “Threshold,” should ship around the second quarter of 2015. It will put the Windows 8 interface on the back burner but not throw it out, since applications written for Windows 8 would be broken. The familiar desktop with the Start button will be back.
Bajarin expects Windows 9 will return all of the familiar elements of Windows 7 and prior operating systems, with the new UI relegated to the back burner while new features are added to bring people forward.
“I don’t think it will be radical at all,” Bajarin said. ”I think they will make it easier to work with user interfaces of the past and provide better transition for those with older operating systems to come into this era.”
That could include tighter cloud services integration. One feature widely rumored but not confirmed by Microsoft is that it will offer seamless, tight cloud integration into the OS. Your OneDrive storage will be as easy to access as the “C: drive,” so all of your documents, personal files, photos, etc. will go right to the cloud without having to think about it.
Apps might also be potentially stored in the cloud as well. Say you log on to another Windows 9 PC using your login and password –not only will your data files be accessible from your cloud storage, but also the apps you use.
Kay expects more cloud-oriented features as well.
“It would be good to move to a cloud-oriented OS to do updates more frequently and keep the OS alive,” Kay said. “That way you would check in to the cloud at login but run locally, so you could work anywhere.”
He also doesn’t expect Windows 9 to be a major departure from the operating systems of old.
“You’d expect them to do more in order to justify all of the effort of creating a new OS other than fixing the old one. There will be a lot of it will be bells and whistles, but a lot of that stuff tends to fall into Who-Cares? territory,” Kay said.
Another rumored addition to Windows 9 is Cortana — the digital voice assistant currently being rolled out to Windows Phone users. Cortana is like the iPhone’s Siri: ask it a question and it fetches the proper contextual answer. Microsoft has made comments in recent weeks about bringing Cortana to Windows PCs, and Windows 9 would be the most logical candidate to get its own answer to J.A.R.V.I.S.
At this point, it’s all speculation, but one thing is for certain: Microsoft needs to get Windows 9 right. Kay noted that Microsoft has had only one good operating system in its last three releases over the last eight years. Windows 7 (2009) was good, while Vista (2006) and Windows 8 (2012) were bad.
“Those are not good odds for software. Maybe for blackjack, but not operating systems. I would love for [Windows 9] to work great and do the right thing, but they are one for three in recent releases. So I’m a bit cynical,” Kay said.
Good info. I don’t get the mindset that something new is out so it is time to throw away all the old stuff. I have an old multimedia machine with XP on it. I got a Windows restore virus in it and think it messed up the video. I still have use for it to run an entertainment center.
This is THE nuclear strength problem:
“It’s already being reported that Windows 9 will require a login account on THE STORE in order to activate its license.”
I recently bought a new (no touch screen) laptop with win-8 pre-installed. Took about 20 hours to set up correctly to use the mouse and mimic win-7 as closely as possible.
In the middle of that, I don’t know exactly when I pressed the wrong button, but when I re-booted I WAS LOCKED OUT OF MY MACHINE! It replaced my local user with an old Microsoft Account ID that I hadn’t used for years. After recovering from my virtual heart attack, I did eventually remember the old password and reinstalled me as a local user.
I then cancelled the MS Account and discovered that you cannot use the STORE (or any cloud features), even to download free apps, without your MS Account.
If Win 9 requires a cloud based (hackable) MS Account to use your PC, my suggest is run away as fast as possible. This is nuclear strength thuggery.
They have better support than microsoft. They are hardware and the software is supported as long as the vehicle is functional.
Chevy does update their software and I don't have to look for SP1, SP2,SP3...
Nice Non Sequitur.
“They tried to get their entire audience to jump from a UI [user interface] they were comfortable with to a brand new one with a serious learning curve,” California-based Creative Strategies tech analyst and president Tim Bajarin said. “Had they done a more transitionary product, especially keeping the Start button, I don’t think the impact and perception would have been as bad.”
Completely wrong... Windows 8 was a stillbirth, trying to force folks into a touch paradigm for the desktop was, is and always will be stupid. Touch is a compromised interface, used for interfacing with devices who offer no alternative... Tablet/SmartPhone.. but its a far less than ideal way to interact with technology when you have options. Trying to force touch on the desktop was idiotic and no transitory interface would have saved this thing.
Windows 8 is an unmitigated disaster. Why should I have to scroll through screens of information to find a program I want, when a few mouse clicks or keystrokes got me there before? Why should anyone have to scan through multiple screens of information, to find something that once could be seen at a single glance?
Metro is a reasonable touch interface, but forcing it onto the desktop was beyond idiotic. MS had to live in a world of self delusion if they ever thought it would be anything but a failure.
Mac has been the biggest winner from MS’s complete flop. Their PC’s were already starting to grow significantly, but windows 8 pushed many folks over to a Mac that would have likely stayed PC if not for Windows 8. I know I personally have held off buying a new PC fully because of Windows 8, and I refuse to pay a premium just to get a windows 7 PC...
My next machine will almost certainly be a macbook pro or an imac 27. There is absolutely no argument for a Windows machine anymore. The one solid spot they had was price, but what good is a $300 machine if it is completely useless thanks to the OS? If I have to pay 700 or 800 just to get a windows 7 PC, I might as well just spend a few hundred dollars more and buy a Mac and be done with windows entirely.
I never cared for windows but it was a defacto need for the last 20 years, that is no longer the case...so within 12 months I will likely no longer own an MS OS based PC.
“They have better support than microsoft. They are hardware and the software is supported as long as the vehicle is functional.”
Sorry but that’s not true, GO try and find parts for a 1967 GMC pickup from your dealer... you’ll find they don’t have them. All products, every last one of them are end of life’d by their manufacturer.
“My dad stayed away with any equipment with the Craftsman name or appliances with Sears name due to this.”
Well nothing against your dad, I’m sure he was a fine man, but I do question his knowledge in this area.
Kenmore and Craftsman have never been manufactured by Sears, it is a brand that sears created, but it does not manufacture any of it. They are made by companies like whirlpool, Maytag, GE etc under license. You can always get a part for a kenmore or craftsman product from the original manufacturer even if sears will no longer directly sell you one (assuming of course the original manufacturer still has parts for your model) all you need to know is the original manufacturers version of that model and cross reference the part.
Here’s a useful link showing what I am saying:
http://www.appliance411.com/purchase/sears.shtml
and another for Craftsman:
http://vintagemachinery.org/craftsman/manufacturers.aspx
“They are hardware and the software is supported as long as the vehicle is functional.”
Well, strictly speaking, vehicles don’t really have much in the way of software to support, so that is a silly comparison. The main thing you purchased from them is the hardware, so do they support that for twice the average life of the vehicle?
All products, every last one of them are end of life’d by their manufacturer.
Not really. Many parts are available form dealers. I have fixed too many cars to believe you. There are after market parts makers like there are aftermarket software companies like adobe and such.
“There is a wide open opportunity for some enterprising computer programming group”
Nah, the people sticking with XP are too small of a market, and they are shrinking every day. Doesn’t make much economic sense to cater to them.
Now later on eventually yes you could finally go and get parts anywhere and that occurred. My guess is info finally got shared but back then no one had it but Sears. It was that and stores could not cross reference. Believe me we tried.
One store in our city had every appliance part made except Sears products. It always ended up in a trip to the nearest Sears warehouse/parts center and eternal backorder.
I got an early beta copy of Win-8 to try out. It installed OK but there was that desktop of tiles instead of a Start button. I still recall Win-311 and the way it had icons scattered on the desktop to launch individual programs so it wasn’t that hard to figure out that you click on a tile to launch an app.
As much as the tiles distracted from a smooth computing experience the applications themselves were really confusing. The first thing was the lack of menus - we’ve grown accustomed to the file menus for choosing tasks within each app. Most of the new apps don’t even have the X up on the corner to close them. You can hit the Windows key on your keyboard but does that really close the app or does it merely collapse it to the desktop?
Then I noticed that most of the apps didn’t work. Fiddling with them caused me to realize that they wouldn’t work until you provided them with a valid Microsoft email account (like Hotmail or Live). Since I was only evaluating I didn’t want to commit my personal stuff to it (knowing that MW was moving to more cloud-based computing). I created a dummy account and gained some functionality.
It was then that I went on the web to find out what recourse I had to the lack of a start button. I can toggle the Classic Shell button on or off and still navigate now that I am familiar with the layout of Win-8 but I still prefer it and I’m definitely more comfortable with it.
Aftermarket is not the dealership. Yes you can get aftermarket parts for a vehicle after the company stops making them but they won’t be available from your dealership.
You said explicitly the dealer/manufacturer would still provide parts and that is just not true.
You could always get the part you just needed the proper cross reference. I have no doubt that sears didn’t make it easy to find them but given I’ve had kenmore in my home my entire life as well as craftsman I can tell you that the folks who repaired thing as a profession have always known how to cross reference the original manufacturer.
I can get oil filters, some engine parts, light bulbs, oil and many other parts form dealers. Some sheet metal parts are available at a dealer for quite some time. Suspension parts are also available for longer periods that software support. I did not say that all parts are available form dealers/manufactures.
You said explicitly the dealer/manufacturer would still provide parts and that is just not true.
I did not see that on previous posts. Some parts are available for quite some time.
baulmer was too arrogant for his own good.
All the suits in ALL the tech companies are drooling over using cloud computing (aka rented server space) as a public utility type subscription service. No pay, no data.
LOL!
No, you said it would be available from the dealers... Here’s your quote:
“Not really. Many parts are available form dealers”
There is no argument you can get used parts and parts in the aftermarket, but you cannot get parts from the dealer for any car made by that manufacturer. ALL manufacturers end of life their support of anything they’ve made.
Just like anyone can call up a computer specialist and pay them money to provide tech support for a piece of software long after the vendor has EOL if they can find one and are willing to.
Reality is, NO MANUFACTURER, none supports their products forever.
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