Posted on 09/29/2014 2:16:36 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
After spending the past two years in damage control mode over Windows 8, Microsoft will officially begin a new era for its OS on Tuesday, when it’s expected to unveil a preview of Windows’ next major version during an event focused on enterprise customers.
After the success of Windows 7, Microsoft misread the market with Windows 8 and botched the product’s user interface, leaving a trail of many unhappy customers, especially in the consumer market.
Among businesses, Microsoft encountered much resistance to upgrade, as many CIOs clung to the very stable Windows 7, and took a pass on Windows 8 and its subsequent revisions, afraid that the UI, optimized for touch-screen tablets, would confuse their users, lead them to revolt and affect productivity.
So it’s not a surprise that the first look of the next generation of the OS—referred to unofficially as Windows Threshold and Windows 9—will be directed specifically at businesses.
Business first
“With Windows 8, Microsoft was aiming at having a product with a good touch-first experience for consumers, and Microsoft didn’t think about what would happen with enterprises,” Al Gillen, an IDC analyst, said.
At the end of 2013, there were almost 715 million copies of Windows installed in businesses worldwide, and more than half—361.2 million—were Windows 7, according to IDC. About 224 million were Windows XP, and almost 40 million were Windows Vista. Little over 16 million were Windows 8.
(Excerpt) Read more at pcworld.com ...
I’m with you.
My XP box was toooooooo slow and I needed a new computer during the Windows 8 only time period (Windows 7 can now be purchased in new computers).
I bought a Mac and Installed Windows 7 via Parallels 8.
I do a lot with Microsoft programs, it’s just accomplished in a virtual machine within my Mac.
I just mention this incase you have some need to use Windows based software on occasion - it can be accomplished with your Mac.
After what?!
The last success MS had in my opinion was XP.
Windows 7 is a disaster.
I got my wife a Windows 8 machine for her birthday this year and she hates it.
They never have.
They hire contractors to do it for them when the need arises.
I had to jerry-rig several XP software programs to get them to work with Win7. I have not found any comparable Win7 programs, so I have to stick with the old XP ones.
I already know that IE 10 and above kills by IE-based tabbed browser and productivity add-ons.
I also lost a laser printer when I went from XP to Win7, because there was not driver for the 64-bit Win7.
Unless there is something spectacular in Win9, I foresee no reason to upgrade.
As I work with computers professionally, I have nearly all versions of Windows, many via MSDN. I have Win8 in all its incarnations as well.
I have upgraded one of my older laptops from Vista (@$%) to Win8. It works, technically. However some software is not supported, and it requires a lot of 3rd party software to become usable. It's too bad that nobody told Microsoft that people are NOT going to change the way they use computers just because MS tells them to. [/s]
Win8 also looks ugly without Aero. That was one of better GUI enhancements in Vista/Win7. It comes cheaply on a PC because of the GPU. However phones/tablets may not have a GPU, so it had to go. Big mistake. Color schemes in Win8 are designed by a madman; none of them make any sense. Menus in ALL CAPS are impossible to use. MS Office 2014 is dangerous to your eyesight due to low contrast. Someone at MS really lost it.
I will continue to use Win7 for production until I am convinced that Win9 is an improvement. Obviously, this won't happen until next year.
Let’s see - Windows 9 to replace the crappy 8 which replaced the worse 7 which replaced Vista which replaced XP (at least XP actually worked pretty well), which replaced the really, really bad Windows ME, etc, etc, etc.
They should have just gone back to 3.1 and make it workable for the 21st century.
Does that apply to phones, also, or is that just for PCs?
I thought about going Apple but after I bought an Ipod I changed my mind. I don’t like their software. I hate having to run everything through Itunes. At least with a Samsung MP3 player it was just drag and drop from my C drive. Now I have to download a podcast (the Itunes podcast apps really suck and need wifi to run and I’m not always around a wifi connection), load it to Itunes and then load it to the Ipod.
I don’t want to learn a whole new operating system like that on a laptop.
I believe the idea with Win8 was to “merge” the PC/tablet GUIs so MS could maintain their grip on PCs, while catching up on tablets, phones, etc.
...
My understanding is that Microsoft wanted to create a market for app developers with no concern whatsoever for the users. However, the underlying OS is good and I think better than 7.
Microsoft operates a lot like the federal government.
Interesting. I’m running W7 and Linux myself at the moment, on five-year old dual-core systems. My son (who does quite a bit of scientific programming) has a newer setup. He claims that Win 8.1 is stable, fast, and uses less memory than Windows 7, although he agrees the interface confusion is an unnecessary PIA.
Notice the pattern — The ODD numbered versions usually kicked ass.
That’s right, unscrew that pooch, Microsoft.
And to anybody who thinks that a radically new user interface is the best thing in the world, I want to tear the steering wheel and pedals out of your car and install a Nintendo Power Glove and see how long it takes you to wind up in a ditch. On fire.
this is the baulmer (sp) legacy.
I do like the tablet.
I think the subscription model is doomed to failure. (for all software companies)
Too bad Microsoft, I bailed out after Windows Vista arrived DOA, and I don’t expect to return. All of my Linux upgrades have been free.
So what was your opinion of "BOB"?
Pale Moon runs circles around IE 11 in terms of reliability, ease of use, and especially by allowing stable browsing opening new windows rather than the wretched TABs. IE 11 has frequent {at least once a night} crashes with TABs also just not quite as much as when you are browsing with windows instead.
Another biggie in the W/8 annoyance dept. With W/8/8.1 IE 11 browser and other MS products like word pad I kept having a type over issue when I would want to correct something. Nothing is more frustrating than to be typing something and realize each keystroke is erasing your work by the program typing over it. Oddly enough the issue got resolved in XP but came back in W/8 with IE 11. These type of issues MS ignores also. For that reason Pale Moon is my browser and LibreOffice my writer. Yes Pale Moon and LibreOffice did it right and IMO MS gets a huge fail.
MS bring back a Mail Client that handles multiple e-mail accounts and include it in the package. Your APPS idea for home/business computers is a rip off. The reason a person buys a computer is to have these functions in the machines OS to start with. MS is starting to act like Mr. Haney in Green Acres.
Make Opting out of Cloud features easier to find and do. Some users do have limited monthly allowed usage and having the machine Chat with Corp is not desired. Again most persons buy a computer to back up and store on their own.
Couldn’t agree more, using Pale moon on my own machines, deployed Firefox ESR on all our machines at work, ie just doesn’t work very well.
hell let’s just call 8.1 windows 9 and forget all about it now.
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