No, it was not the Start Button that people wanted back, it was the Start Menu. Hello? And the menu didn’t come back in 8.1 - only the button, and all it does is flip to desktop mode. Who bloody cares? It was the menu that was nice.
If radically changing the desktop user interface, from one that worked extremely well on the desktops, to one that only made sense on a handheld mobile, sounds like a good business plan, you’d better think again. Microsoft had the desktop world in the palm of its hand. What fools, to think they could destroy that and not have people walk away?
Of course we like Win 7! It works and it’s familiar and Win 8 is not an improvement in any characteristic that is meaningful to a desktop user.
And BTW Adorno, the reason you’re confused about the uptake of Win 8.1 is that you’re parroting the MS sales party line about how “licenses sold” is equal to “people using it”. Horse pucky. And you know it. Shame on you for pushing that line of crap.
When people are using an OS it shows in the real results from the web services who know how to measure it. It ain’t just how many licenses MS managed to foist on resellers, many if not most of which are sitting on shelves.
The Menu was an option which was rarely used by the majority of people; but it’s still available in the new UI, which is just a more graphical representation of the old START menu.
The desktop didn’t go away, and it’s still there, looking and working like before. Whatever applications worked on the old desktop mode, still work the same.
Microsoft still “owns” the desktop/laptop world with Windows 8. There is nothing out there to replace it. The fact that there have been fewer PCs being sold for the last 3 years cannot be blamed on Windows 8, since it’s been around for just about a year, and the slowdown in sales has been ongoing for more than 3 years.
Windows 7 was great. But, Windows 7 is still available in Windows 8, but to get there, it just requires a simple click or touch of a button to get there; alternately, just open up an application that worked on the old desktop mode, and voila!!!, instant desktop mode. That ain’t that difficult to do, and people are just looking for excuses to bash Windows and/or Microsoft.
Your attack on me for “defending” Windows and/or Microsoft, is completely unwarranted. All that I did was to try to correct the record as reported by the articles attacking Windows 8. The sales records are not mine, and I quote, just like everybody else, what others put out, including Microsoft and other companies that do the sales studies. Fact is that by now, Windows 8 is being used in a lot more than 100 million PCs or tablet-PCs, and more are being sold as we speak, and with the ceasing of support for XP, Windows 8 will be in more than 200 million PCs/tablets by next year.
That idea that “licenses sold” is not the same as Windows instances installed, is completely wrong. Licenses sold into the distribution channels all eventually become sold and installed and used. Even if they are held on shelves by the OEMs for eventual installation and sales, they are on the way towards usage. “Licenses sold” works the same for all PCs and tablets and smartphones. The only way to get at the true usage numbers, is to go out and do a survey of every home and consumer and business.
BTW, most internet traffic still shows IE and Windows to be the biggest sources of that traffic. Smartphones and tablets are still way behind, by a lot, and Linux and Mac OS hardly even register.
So, you couldn’t be more wrong on all your points and comments. Facts are way different from what you believe or perceive or have been led to believe.