Even Windows 8 Users Prefer Windows 7 436
judgecorp writes "Windows 8 is not proving an instant hit amongst the early adopters who have got their hands on it. More than half of them prefer Windows 7, according to a survey by a Windows 8 forum. Skeptics cited fears of price and compatibility issues. Meanwhile, Intel is busily applying damage limitation to criticism by CEO Paul Otellini. Apparently he did say Windows 8 wasn't ready — but added that it was still a good idea to get it out before the holiday season."
I agree (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm one of the people that will use Windows 7 for the future in my office and in my house....
Will give a try in the pad field but with both fingers crossed...
Win+X (Score:5, Interesting)
This Poll is Dumb (Score:5, Interesting)
So new users before the old, safe choice they're familiar with instead of something radically new and different. How does this surprise anyone?
Look, I had the same inclination when I switched from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95. I was one of those early adopters who bought it launch day and ran home and installed it. I, and many others, had the same feelings when the Ribbon debuted for MS Office. And yes, I thought the same thing trying out Windows 8. There is always that moment of "panic" when you realize you don't know where things are anymore like you did with the previous version.
But, each time, if you stick with it for a bit, you get familiar with new interface. You pick it up just as you did with the old one--and you even start to realize the advantages of the new layout versus the old. Sorry, Slashdot, but this is FUD and you're guilty of spreading it.
Re:This Poll is Dumb (Score:5, Interesting)
I just see no point in upgrading to Windows 8. Windows 7 has been the best OS I've used in the last 20 years - and I've tried almost everything.
I agree with you on the Office ribbon thing - we went through the same thing here - but the thing is there was enough plus sides to upgrading to offset it. What exactly is the plus side of Windows 8?
Re:Makes sense? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Makes sense? (Score:0, Interesting)
Not true, though it is imposable to prove a piece of code has no bugs there it is possible to verify that a subset of bugs do not exist within the code.
And you can verify that the code will do what it is supposed to do. Though Microsoft's waterfall development cycle isn't exactly the best system for producing reliable code. Though it is one of the better cycle to guarantee that the code gets out the door on time.
I think what has CEO Paul Otellini worried is the first quarter sales more than the actual product being ready. This is a short term foresight, as releasing a buggy product when there is a better product already out has traditionally stifled overall sales, even though it will boost quarterly sales. I thought his goal was to resurrect the Microsoft empire not worsen it. If i were Bill Gates I'd sell my shares and get out while Microsoft stock is still worth something, otherwise the Microsoft foundation will fall with the Microsoft company.
-In general it's best to not have your users to want something other than what you are producing. When will Microsoft get this?-
Re:Well this time there's merit to it (Score:2, Interesting)
If you don't like the new UI it's still faster typing the first 3 letters of the app you want than it is digging through a start menu. Or you can just switch to the desktop and use icons there.
There really isn't a single thing better about the old start menu over the new setup besides you and everyone else doesn't want to take five minutes to figure out how to use it properly.
I have moved all the BS I don't like to the right and have my most used programs on the left of the UI.
The only thing that bugs me is I'm used to hitting the winkey to have the hidden task bar appear so I can check the time but now it brings up the new UI.
Task Manager is vastly improved. Just for that reason only I don't want to go back to W7. Explorer too. The copy window actually shows you whats going on. No more 3rd party apps needed anymore. It's all the little things that you will never see if you stop using it after looking at the new UI for 2 minutes.
Low resolution (Score:5, Interesting)
Just yesterday I installed the final version of Windows 8 from DreamSpark to a netbook just for fun. The result? It actually ran smooth, but none of the Metro apps could be run due to the 1024x600 resolution. Not a big loss, but I was slightly surprised that they actually completely skipped us netbook-connoisseurs.
As a sidenote, it was funny how in W8 many of the texts have been changed to a casual, "user-friendly" style. "While we set up your stuff, please enjoy a pizza. Meanwhile we'll send some info to Microsoft, but you can change this later."
So let's get this straight... (Score:5, Interesting)
Users experience the most radical UI change since DOS added Windows. And shockingly, 53% percent prefer the older more familiar Windows 7.
You know what this really means folk? Microsoft actually succeeded. If you can get 47% (or just shy of half) of users to prefer a new completely radical UI experience. You've done something really really right. As I'd expect 80% to prefer that which they're familiar with and have used since 1995.
Let's use our brains, and look at this data for what it really is. A measure of a decent amount of success. 50/50 on a new experience is good. Heck, probably didn't have that much higher support when XP or Vista came out. And those were incremental changes.
Re:Touch Screen (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Makes sense? (Score:5, Interesting)
Insightful, really? Microsoft deliberately try to fail with every other iteration of Windows. Right.
You can take each fuck-up individually. ME was an attempt to get away from what they knew was bad, but failed due to incompetence. Vista was a necessary evil to move developers away from XP and doing bad things like shitting all over the filesystem and installing millions of random shell extensions. UAC was deliberately designed to piss users off so that developers would try their best to avoid activating it, and it worked as intended.
Besides which the "every other" idea falls down because 2000 was excellent and XP wasn't really that brilliant, especially before SP2.
As for Windows 8 it looks like the Metro stuff was ill thought out. It is still too early to tell if it will be a flop though.
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)