Posted on 06/03/2012 7:30:21 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
BERKELEY, Calif. (MarketWatch) I am writing this review on a computer that runs Windows Vista. Its not that bad.
Generally speaking, I like Microsoft Corp. MSFT -2.54% and what it has done. Over the years, Ive even supported the idea that Microsofts Bob interface was mismarketed and actually was unique and interesting.
That said, Windows 8 looks to me to be an unmitigated disaster that could decidedly hurt the company and its future.
This opinion is based on using the new release candidate beta that is pretty much what will finally ship after some bug fixes.
Its not that the product out-and-out stinks. It is refreshingly slick-looking and modern, albeit without any charm whatsoever.
The real problem is that it is both unusable and annoying. It makes your teeth itch as you keep asking, Why are they doing this!?
First of all, the system-software product is mostly divorced from all the thought and trends developed by Windows over the years, as if to say that they were wrong the whole time, so lets try something altogether new.
No business will tolerate this software, let me assure you. As a productivity tool, it is unusable.
Most applications cannot even be scaled down and so take up the whole screen. To even get out of these apps, you have to ram the cursor down into the lower left corner and click. That puts you back onto the vapid Metro start screen, where you can begin another miserable adventure.
Do you work on a huge 27-inch or bigger monitor? You know, so you have room to organize your programs and files? Well, imagine everything running full screen on that. Its a joke.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
What, ya’ll aren’t used to having to do that to set up your droid phone?
By the time I had my latest phone operational, I was ready to apply the ballpeen hammer to it and removed google as the primary search engine as t had been since first getting websearch capability years ago.
Hate droid, hate google for them forcing gmail on a phone user.
Similar feeling about what MS is now doing.
Agree about the article. Disagree about Dvorak. Not good since the 90s.
The laptop I’m using now is a month old, and my first Windows 7 machine. My XP laptop had holes in the keys, and the USB outlets died last week.
I could easily have stayed with XP if it was available. W7 is bearable, but it offers me nothing I needed. 8 sounds like it is going to try to force me to do things I don’t want, so I can do things I do want less efficiently.
That reminds me...time to buy a keyboard protector...
An OS for the insipid, the illiterate, and the lazy. Not for doing business on. It’s as though someone on the MS team is intentionally pushing consumers towards Mac and Linux.
People who own PC’s are like those who own British cars. They need at least two of them to be certain that one will be available when you need it.
John C. Dvorak,an esteemed critic who has yet to master Windows 7 or so out of touch that he can’t afford a copy.
If Dvorak hates it we can expect a resounding success.
Microsoft is trying to get ahead of the game in going for for the tablet users, at the risk of losing a chunk of the more lucrative desktop, laptop market. Microsoft needs to wake up and see that they are at a crossroads that is going to hurt them, unless they go both ways. ...My PC is XP, and my laptop is Windows 7. It’s took a month or two to get used to Win 7, and when I use my PC, I’m reminded of how user friendly XP is. Every change to something new comes with some reluctance. I remember the old days sitting up all night to record programs onto cassette tapes, and then the Dos programs and the early Macs, Win 3.0 and 3.1. I skipped 95 and went to 98 late in the game, stayed with that until XP was tried and proven, and now I’ve gone to Win 7 with a few gripes, but I like the speed, and it is stable. Window 8 is a step I don’t want to take. I’m getting too old to keep up with the age of pop communications and gadgets, and they have nothing to do with what I want to do with a computer. My wife loves all the touch screen, gadget stuff, and she can have it. I’m glad Microsoft is making an OS that looks like her cellphone screen and ipad, or whatever it is called, but I’m not into it. Microsoft still has 20 years of outrageous profits to be made by keeping people like me happy. Go both ways.
Didn't realize that was still around in a Windows version. I used to use it with OS/2.
Oh bullshit. Windows 7 is rock-solid.
I tried the Linux distros and they seemed ok, but I could never get them online with the wireless USB adapter for my WIFI connection to the modem. Can you get Mint to work on a wireless laptop with a Verizon DSL/modem? I gave up after not being able to get online unless i was wired directly.
Windows 3.1 good
Windows 95 turd
Windows 98 good
Windows Millenium Edition turd
Windows XP good
Windows Vista turd
Windows 7 good
Windows 8 projected
turd
Windows 8 is a good setup for a tablet or bigger cell phone.
But they sabotage the experience on the PC to make a unified OS that works on all of them.
If they made it simple to optionally make it look and behave like windows 7 it’d be ok, but so far they intentionally remove the ability
That depends on what you do with it, and what software you want to install.
It helps to stay current with the latest software and drivers.
I don’t have wireless on either of my two Linux machines so I can’t experiment with it.
However, Linux Mint has drivers for most all wireless boards available. Even if you can’t seem to find a Linux driver that works with your particular hardware, there is a work around that allows you to use a Windows driver:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/43752/how-to-install-a-wireless-card-in-linux-using-windows-drivers/
Linux Mint (which rides on a Ubuntu base) has come a long ways over just the last three years. I would be very surprised that there wouldn’t be a driver for your particular board.
I use Vista, it’s far more stable than XP. All the people who stated that Vista was a terrible operating system, didn’t have a clue what they were talking about.
Not to mention 7. I have a 7 disk that I’ve not even used yet!
What I expect to happen is this. All the haters will complain about how awful it is, SP2 will fix it all, and the folks who pick it up late will be very happy with Microsoft.
There’s no real reason for PC people to switch from 7 - 7 is such a good OS. So if PC people get to skip and 8 focusses on smaller machines, fine by me.
“Not long ago I gave up on a Windows Vista laptop and took a hammer to the hard drive and threw out the entire mess. It was the most unfriendly user operating system I have ever experienced with Microsoft, and I go back to the earliest version Windows 3.1.”
User unfriendly? I’ve never had a BSOD under my Vista laptop, in close to 5 years. More than I can say for my car.
RE: Theyll have to pry my XP from my cold, dead hands.
Then you’ll be technically DEAD by 2014.
Microsoft announced end of support for XP and all XP related products (e.g. Office ) on April 8,2014
See here:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/endofsupport.aspx
LOL. I don’t rely on their support now, and the products I use will serve my purposes indefinitely with no further upgrades. The real question is, what can they really do to force renegade XP users off the island. Not much, I think. And even if they could, I’ll just switch to Mac for most purposes. Problem solved. :)
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