30 Days Is Too Long: Animated Rant About Windows 8 1110
First time accepted submitter Funksaw writes "Back in 2007, I wrote three articles on Ubuntu 6, Mac OS X 10.4, and Windows Vista, which were all featured on Slashdot.
Now, with the release of Windows 8, I took a different tactic and produced an animated video.
Those expecting me to bust out the performance tests and in-depth use of the OS are going to be disappointed. While that was my intention coming into the project, I couldn't even use Windows 8 long enough to get to the in-depth technical tests. In my opinion, Windows 8 is so horribly broken that it should be recalled."
Odd, it works perfectly fine for me. (Score:1, Insightful)
Sounds like a user problem to me. Windows 8 is working just fine for me.
Saw what he wanted to see. (Score:3, Insightful)
" Windows 8 is so horribly broken that it should be recalled."
Now, forgive me, but you can totally enter into windows 8 from a standard windows interface (as I understand it). That and, data shows, people are becoming familiar with it. Put that onto anecdotal evidence that younger individuals pick up the interface just fine and I'm inclined to think you knew what you thought before ever using windows 8.
Re:Not again... (Score:5, Insightful)
Hey just because its easier to brainwash a child does not mean we should be attempting to brainwash ourselves.
Also 3 is way to young to be allowed electronics or access to IT/telecommunications. Not until 5 yrs old and only with supervision and seriously protective software installed (I want my kids to be expert A+ hackers, not 2cnd rate script kiddies)
Re:Not again... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Not again... (Score:3, Insightful)
Not conviced. From both design and functionality standpoints it's utterly horrible, and a kid isn't going to fix that.
Who? (Score:1, Insightful)
I'm supposed to care about this guy why?
First World Problems (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:First World Problems (Score:4, Insightful)
The ribbon is a horrible UI design. At least with menu (bars) you can SEE ALL your choices. WIth the ribbon if your window width is too small you don't. It also completely sucks that you can't customize it like you could with a REAL tool bar.
With that said I actually like the Ribbon on OS X Office because I have BOTH -- menu bars AND ribbon. Forcing users to only work ONE way tells me the UI designer was an retard who doesn't understand HOW people use computers.
Re:Not again... (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem is not that it's difficult to learn (though it is a bit of a shock at first); the problem is that some people just don't like it. You might be perfectly content with a touch-first tablet interface on your desktop, but Windows 8 will never touch any of my personal machines. That being said, I am still interested to try it out on a tablet device where many of the design decisions might actually make sense.
Re:Not again... (Score:2, Insightful)
Because three- and five-year olds don't actually have to get any work done?
Re:Saw what he wanted to see. (Score:5, Insightful)
There's literally a fucking tutorial that shows you how to access most of what you mentioned
How are new users of Windows 8 expected to discover that this tutorial exists before they end up accidentally opening weather and not knowing how to make it go away?
Re:Not again... (Score:5, Insightful)
Why would I want to use an interface designed for a 3 year old? Hmm? Come on.
Yes I use the command line and the function keys and I can fly around the thing when I have to. Doesnt change the fact it's just about the worst interface imaginable, and confuzzles the regular users to no end, resulting in them constantly calling me to figure out how to do the simplest of things. I am not saying previous windows interfaces were all that great, but in general people had gotten to the point of being accustomed to them at least. Breaking things for the sake of breaking things does not a good product make.
Whta an idiot (Score:2, Insightful)
in short:
"It's not what I am use to so I won't bother with a in depth analyses that may not support my bias."
Re:Not again... (Score:5, Insightful)
No...what recoiledsnake means is this:
If you use a computer like a 3 year old, then Windows 8 is perfect. That includes splashy, bright coloured interfaces, and chunky buttons big enough that someone lacking good fine motor control can still click on them.
For anybody who actually uses a computer like an adult, though, it sucks rocks.
Re:Saw what he wanted to see. (Score:5, Insightful)
If an average computer user needs a tutorial to figure out how to navigate the 'desktop', it means your UI is not very discoverable.
An undiscoverable UI is a horrible UI.
But it's a lot easier than punch cards (Score:5, Insightful)
Some of us started on paper tape and punch cards. Windows 8, Unity, whatever. It's not going to stay the same forever. Cry me a river!
Soooooo... (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm holding it wrong?
Re:Not again... (Score:1, Insightful)
So removing windowing, and requiring all programs to be full screen, so only able to run one program at a time, is an improvement to you?
Yeah, that would be terrible... too bad Windows 8 does exactly none of that.
Re:Not again... (Score:5, Insightful)
If you can avoid metro, it's pretty usable.
But metro intrudes at annoying times for various routine tasks. Frustrating indeed. Showing how a child can perform cherry-picked tasks doesn't change this.
We're not 3 & 5 yr. old children/blank slates. (Score:2, Insightful)
QUESTION: Why'd Microsoft attempt to shove something down folks' throats they didn't, & clearly DON'T, want (and the figures show that much backing me)?
* Answer me a another question: Why should I, or anyone else, have to learn anything new they didn't WANT IN THE 1st PLACE??
(We're all used to the Win9x style interface, there was nothing wrong with it @ all - so what was YOUR point???)
Understand this as well, per my subject-line above:
You're using "blank slates" in 3 & 5 yr. old children!
So - have you considered the rest of us are NOT "blank slates", & that we're already conditioned & used to something we've all used for, what?? 17 yrs. or more now???
Please... your links are comparing us to children who haven't gotten used to a damned thing yet.
E.G.-> Why don't you learn how to drive a crane to work instead of your car... oh, wait - what's that?? You aren't used to it??? What's the MATTER with you, boy!!!
APK
P.S.=> A cardinal rule of sales: You can't sell something people don't want... & they do NOT want to have to LEARN what they do not want to - get it? Good... now, try make Microsoft understand that, & thanks.
Above ALL else here - This, from me? It isn't "negativity"... it's just telling it how it is, & I'm probably 1 of a VERY SMALL MINORITY AROUND HERE (windows fans, vs. *nix folks)
... apk
Re:Not again... (Score:4, Insightful)
It's the primary interface because they will collect a 30% fee of the retail sales price of every program written for it. So obviously they want to coerce people into using it.
Re:For a guy who "learned Linux"... (Score:5, Insightful)
You can pretty much use Windows 8 just like Windows 7, just the "start menu" is now fullscreen.
Which is exactly the problem. You lose conveyance: there's no obvious way to discover how to open the Start menu with the mouse. And you lose context: opening the Start menu completely covers up the application you're using,
Re:Saw what he wanted to see. (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, people are amazingly adaptable.
That doesn't mean what they adapt to is any good. You can create the most horrible UI of all times, intentionally, and if you force them then people will learn to use it. Having to use it because of work or because you know nothing else is a kind of force.
I haven't used W8 yet, so I don't have an opinion. But I have used most other versions of windows, and the UI is pretty stupid, inconsistent and basically cobbled together. Always has been. Don't see why W8 would be any different all of a sudden.
Re:Not again... (Score:5, Insightful)
too bad Windows 8 does exactly none of that.
Until you accidentally swipe the wrong way, and your desktop disappears and is replaced by a full-screen weather application.
It's not Vista (Score:5, Insightful)
Coming from someone who has had a deep and long dislike of Microsoft, Windows 8 is not that bad. Metro is half baked and feels like it was tossed in at the last moment. Other than that, I have had less issues with Windows 8 than its predecessors.
Now then, what were they thinking with Metro? I have no idea. It feels half assed, and adds no value. The screen looks like someone's idea for webcasting push technology from the late 1990's.
Re:Not again... (Score:4, Insightful)
Microsoft needs to destroy Android or they will lose their monopoly pricing power, and the only way to do that is with pushing Windows Phone and it's Metro application stack. If the users see desktop first there's no reason for Metro apps to be developed, and with no applications, no reason to by WinPho.
Re:Unusable? (Score:5, Insightful)
"Tens of millions of licenses have been forced down the throats of new pc and laptop buyers...."
FTFY
Great Comments about Windows 8 (Score:5, Insightful)
Basically, he discusses the four c's: control, conveyance, continuity, and context, and gives examples about why all of these are horribly back-leveled from earlier Windows versions. Most damningly, he points to reduced control by the user...which is a trend that seems to have permeated through Windows since Windows 95. He summarizes by referring to someone else who observed that Windows 8 was really designed for content consumption by the user rather than content creation as personal computer devices were originally intended for. Content consumption is probably the main purpose of a tablet but we will still need content creation equipment and Windows 8 appears poorly suited for that, while not offering any alternative due to ending sales of Windows 7. His most damning comment is that Windows 8 is "user hostile." The best thing about his comments is that they will (hopefully) start the discussion about what capabilities need to be retained in future personal computers and future Windows versions.
Love the Settings part. (Score:5, Insightful)
How is a person supposed to know what to type to find a thing that isn't listed? This has frustrated me at times in Ubuntu also. Why the menu hate?
Re:Not again... (Score:5, Insightful)
That is sort of the point. You aren't using it like Windows 8 you are using it like Windows 7 with a 3rd party application to make it MORE like Windows 7.
The complaint is Windows 8 out of the box is junk.
Re:This guy is an idiot (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Not again... (Score:4, Insightful)
There are two fundamental problem with the "just install XYZ add-on and it becomes tolerable" perspective.
1) Every time you have to use the computer of someone not savvy enough to want/install such a thing, you're stuck with the horrible stock configuration.
2) Every time you have to use a locked-down/policy-controlled computer, you're stuck with the horrible stock configuration.
#1 kinda reminds me of having to use the Gentoo or Ubuntu machine of someone who has different command-line needs from install-to-that-point.
#2 is a tad less of a short-term concern, since many of those are just moving from XP to 7, but a serious long-term concern if things aren't fixed in 9.
Re:Odd, it works perfectly fine for me. (Score:3, Insightful)
It is a user problem, Windows 8 also works fine for me. And it seems to work fine for a buddy of mine who I just built a computer for. I gave him the choice of Win7 or Win8. And he took Win 8 and was off doing what he was doing before with minimal difficulty.
Does that mean it's perfect? Hardly, but people stuck in their ways with the UI or have a bug up their ass over it are going to continue to throw a hissy fit no matter what.
Re:First World Problems (Score:5, Insightful)
.
You might have 8 or 10 application menus. Each of these menus might take up 25% of the screen when you display it. Crunching the math you have several whole screens of menu info....jammed into a "ruler" that takes up a fifth or less of the screen. It's a simple math problem.
I've embraced PKZIP since the PKARC and even ARC days, but interface compression is not my thing.
Re:Not again... (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, I know several people who actually like Windows 8 better.
Cool story bro.
Watch a couple of videos if you're lazy and learn some shortcuts and it's a better Windows 7 at the worst.
While Windows 7 was a bit annoying when you were trying to find somehting in the new control panel, if you knew Windows XP you could pretty much use it right away, and teach yourself the few things that had changed.
WIndows 8 simply has too steep a learning curve. You need to watch instructional videos to figure it out. I'm sure it's a fine phone OS, and maybe if you're used to a different phone OS it's not that strange, but nothing changed for the better for keyboard/mouse users trying to get work done. Why would I want this on a laptop or desktop?
Re:First World Problems (Score:5, Insightful)
Ribbon are incredibly intuitive.
Actually that is part of the problem. The Ribbon isn't intuitive. Well more the organization, but I go to the insert menu to insert something. But no that command is on another tab. I go to the data tab to work with some data, again the item is on another tab.
Just because non computer people use them immediately (what else are they supposed to do?) doesn't mean they are better. A ribbon is basically a sticky menu.
Re:Not again... (Score:5, Insightful)
So you're saying the changes from Windows 7 to Windows 8 are fine if you use 3rd party software to ... suppress them all and make it just like Windows 7 was? Hardly an endorsement.
Doorway amnesia, brought to you by Window 8 (Score:5, Insightful)
Windows 8 is now about giving each application your full attention
Which leads to doorway amnesia, as I pointed out in another comment [slashdot.org]. I don't want to give attention to an application; I want to give attention to a task that involves the use of several applications.
The Start screen is an overview of everything you have available and live tiles allow them to each give you different types of information allowing you to decide if they are worth your time or not.
So why can't I have this Start screen take up only half the screen, so that the other applications involved in this task remain at least partly visible to retain context in my brain?
The best way to describe what's been done is that windows is now more about flipping through a book
A task may require (and often does require) more than one book.
and less about putting all the pages spread out on your desk.
In other words, as the video points out, it's Microsoft Window, singular, not Microsoft Windows, plural.
Re:Saw what he wanted to see. (Score:5, Insightful)
"But I have used most other versions of windows, and the UI is pretty stupid, inconsistent and basically cobbled together. Always has been. Don't see why W8 would be any different all of a sudden."
Prepare to be surprised and blown away, and not in a good way.
It kind of reminds me of people on here when Slashdot first launched.
"I've just installed Red Hat 3 on my machine, and it can't find my CD drive despite the fact I installed it from a CD /dev/cdrom /mount/cdrom . You must be a complete idiot if you can't figure that out."
"That's really easy. You just fire up xterm, type su, enter your root password, then type mount -t iso9660
A bit later
"Great, that works. However I can't get the CD out of the drive now
"You need to unmount it first you idiot"
Linux has moved on since those days. It has improved, and is much more user friendly now. Windows 8 is a major step backwards.
Brilliant rant and completely true (Score:3, Insightful)
All you need to know is - who the hell decided to call this crap on the side the "Charms Bar"?
Seriously? That alone disqualifies Windows 8 from being a usable operating system.
His list of four design elements that Windows 8 CLEARLY breaks is perfectly correct. A tablet and a desktop PC are TWO TOTALLY DIFFERENT ANIMALS. Mixing the UI metaphor is just stupid.
I don't think the notion of a "recall" is likely to be a useful suggestion. However, I think a "Service Pack" that makes some of the UI screwups "optional" is likely to be in Windows 8 immediate future, despite Microsoft's insistence that there won't be any more "Service Packs".
OTOH, there are enough third party utilities out there that attempt to correct some of the more egregious UI errors that maybe Microsoft will try to "tough it out". After all, as the guy says, anyone buying a new machine is pretty much going to be force-fed Windows 8, and we all know Microsoft couldn't care less about its customers.
I do agree that Linux is undergoing the same sort of stupidity. The Ubuntu Unity interface was roundly denounced by many Linux users. I didn't like a lot of the KDE 4.x changes when I shifted from KDE 3.x to 4.x and either never used the "features" that were added and in a couple cases disabled them.
I don't have an a priori problem with trying to improve PC user interfaces. I DO have a problem with making changes that no one has asked for, simply on someone's notion that "hey, this could be COOL!" "Cool" invariably leads to CRAP.
No Hyperbole Please (Score:4, Insightful)
I thought in a general sense, as a community, we'd moved past cheering for nerd-rage melodrama.
Windows 8 makes a few gaffes, but they're largely the same problems that Windows 7, Office 2007, and others started introducing. It can be annoying, but it's the same stuff taken to a reasonable next step, as well as UI unification between desktop, laptop, and tablet.
None of that is necessarily a fun thing, but OSX has been pushing many similar UI changes for longer. A lot of people were unhappy with Lion's increasing similarity and unification with iOS, just in case anybody actually forgot that in less than a year.
The bottom line is, 8 works in the same ways as 7, just with some added complexity. The easiest way to almost entirely remove that complexity? A start menu replacer. People recommend Start8, ViStart, and others. My personal recommendation is "Classic Shell". It works exactly the same as it used to on Vista+, except it adds the "Apps" to the start menu as well.
But even so, why wouldn't somebody be able to figure this out? The video author was squealing about how the start menu "hurt him deeply". Trackpads aren't really supposed to do "touch gestures" by default. It's vendor opt-in. Logitech opted in, and chances are, this guy didn't install whatever WIndows 8 drivers or control panel may or may not be available. Either way, it's a vendor issue. Just like 'no install/repair/recovery/etc' disk is a vendor issue. If you don't want vendor issues, you don't buy things from those vendors.
All of the UIs Windows (95-W8), OSX, KDE, iOS, Android, etc are different. What everything has in common is that there are roughly 6 different things you have to know about each, then consistency covers all of the multi-step operations, or using various applications. Occasionally you get something that breaks out of that a bit (Office 2007+). There are so many "advanced" things, like command line digging, reinstalling from scratch, that the overwhelming majority of people will simply ask a friend for help with or pay a PC repair company. That's pretty much regardless of operating system.
But I digress. The rant is pretty simply over the top drama. It should sell itself as entertainment (if it at least had any humor), not as something relevant to 'tech news'. It's not politically correct to mention, but this guy sounds and acts like the stereotypical nerd, going into a panicky, narcissistic rage about primarily one change that, overall, isn't that significant to day to day use, AND for which there exist free, open source, and easy to use workarounds, while still obtaining benefits of a newer OS.
He himself admits he only tried it for 30 minutes, in a coffee shop, and didn't bother one iota further.
Personally, I've been using it for 4 months (and preview versions before that) with NO issues that would meaningfully impact your average, or above-average user. All of my personal complaints are exceedingly specific and technical, and have mostly been taken care of by various updates.
And, in the interest of disclosure, I'm not the kind of person who likes Windows, or most other OSes, in a general sense.
I prod and patch kernels, have no problems custom-rolling EFI stub-only boot on Linux, etc. What I really miss, is being able to run highly customized FreeBSD and still use ~90% of my Windows games at full speed. That's mostly a hardware/driver/wine(!) issue, though.
So when I say I'm using Windows 8 in the exact same manner as I use Windows 7, I'm not exaggerating. I actually like the availability of some of the W8 new features. I middle click on the start button (or use Shift+Windows) if I want to see live tiles like the weather...just like on OSX, you use F12 to get the Dashboard to pop up a full screen of 'one glance' kinda information. Even before using Classic Start, the only quirk I took issue with, on the 'start screen', is that when typing for programs, it wouldn't search for stuff like control panels "by default". You'd have to move the mouse over to select "settings". Mos
Re:First World Problems (Score:2, Insightful)
Umm, what your saying here is that users should go from a bad product (ribbon) to one that doesn't meet their needs because of non-user interface issues. How about Microsoft should stop making shitty interfaces... I guess that's not an option.
Re:Not again... (Score:2, Insightful)
Let me understand this.
You like Win8. You're part of a select audience for which Win8 was designed for. You haven't enabled the start menu, because you love the metrosexual aspect so much. You love that shit, and you didn't even have a learning curve to deal with. You don't need or want any of the more advanced features of Windows that are semi-hidden on the metrosexual workspace.
Of course that invalidates the complaints that all the rest of us have about Win8 and the other metro "desktops" being pushed by Gnome, Unity, etc. We're all just idiots.
Re:Saw what he wanted to see. (Score:3, Insightful)
How To close Metro Apps:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/how-close-app [microsoft.com]
The above would have solved his "Farting Goblin" problem right there, although also having a way to disable gestures on the trackpad would work too.
Frankly, allowing the screen gestures to be preformed on a trackpad is just plain stupid. Not having a way to turn them off without editing the registry is even worse. That being said, if he was just using a keyboard and mouse he would have probably had an easier time.
Re:Not again... (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes it does. It's the 'metro' interface which has exactly ONE app on screen at any one time (apparently random times too!).
Within the 'metro' UI that is partially true (there is some support for side-by-side apps), but that is not the only UI on Windows 8, as such his assertions are demonstrably false, they didn't remove windowing, they didn't require all programs to be full screen and they didn't remove the ability to run multiple programs at once, that is all still there.
When people say, it's a good app, I use the Desktop...they're saying that Win8 isn't good and Win7, which is what the Desktop basically is, is what they prefer to use.
So you are under the impression that the only thing different between Windows 8 and Windows 7 is the 'metro' UI, in that case your post makes more sense, still wrong though.
Re:Not again... (Score:0, Insightful)
No amount of ranting is enough in this matter. Windows 8 is trash.
i love how fanboys can declare one OS trash because they've become religious about using 1 or 2 platforms. The new windows version is actually quite compelling, for the first time I can make use of the windows key combo to do useful things that windows would never previously allow. that said, you "feel" that the crud that left behind in win7 (compatibility layers etc.) is now gone. the metro interface is something to get used to, but i can execute a program much faster with winkey+q much like i can with spotlight on a mac. switching between interfaces is a no brainer, i can't believe folks actually have issues here.
for christ sake, do you know what trash is? trash is something that doesn't work...windows works for folks that dont have the money to buy a 1200 macbook or the wherewithal to figure out how ubuntu works....and if you think im a fanboy of any kind your seriously wrong, ive run and compiled with the best of linux distros for the latter of 15+ years...and i have to say, the desktop is sound, task manager is greatly improved.
Re:Not again... (Score:5, Insightful)
May I ask, what improvements?
Aside from the new Start Screen / Start Menu, which is controversial at best, the second most important feature I had heard is that 'it boots up faster.'
Ok, so it boots up faster...I am on a SSD, and before that a 7200 RPM hard drive. My boot times are, what, less than a minute? And part of that has to do with my machine having any number of startup programs / drivers for things hanging off of it?
I mean, don't get me wrong, faster boot times are always appreciated, but for that to be the second most taughted feature....I'm having trouble justifying the $40 upgrade from Windows 7, let alone buying OEM or full versions of 8.
And the third feature is, what, the Windows Store? How is that a feature? Why do I need a marketplace on my desktop? It's an Operating System...what new, compelling features are you offering that makes this operating system a must have? Better driver support for exotic devices? Easier mass deployment / imaging routines? A more powerful framework for designing applications / programs that is not arbitrarily limited to the latest version?
Has MS Paint been upgraded to something Photoshop like? Has the Image Viewer been redesigned to have more features / work with more formats? Has the CD / DVD / BluRay software been upgraded to something more useful? How about the creation and extraction of archives? Backup and restore? Has the Media Player been rewritten to be less annoying, something approaching WinAmp in terms of usefulness? How about its support for codecs? Both old ones and new ones. Subtitles. Have they implemented 'Admin Command Line' here as a standard option? How about video transcoding? A PDF viewer that doesn't make people spit tacks?
Re:Not again... (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't understand it.
Windows 8 is just Windows 7 PLUS metro.
Surely you could just not use the metro parts and it would be just the same experience as windows 7 (mostly). In fact, I do just that.
I got used to the new start screen - it's not _that_ bad, no worse than hunting through menus to find what you're looking for, and actually better in that you can just start typing the name of a program and it comes up in the search. Or you can type the name of a control panel applet or setting, and that works too.
There are definite improvements over windows 7, even if they are minor. So in general, if all you want is an incremental improvement over windows 7, you can use it just like that.
No one is forcing you to use metro for all your apps.
So yeah, windows 8 is less than ideal in that some settings screens take you to a metro interface (but you could live without them), and metro itself is horrible, but if you use it just like windows 7 and all versions before that, it still works fine.
Not a rant - an analysis (Score:5, Insightful)
He explained exactly what was wrong, and why.
He used the basic principals of GUI design and explained why Windows 8 is a total failure.
Great job. No wonder the MS shills are going crazy.
Re:Amnesia as you go through a doorway (Score:5, Insightful)
How are users who have been opening the Start menu with the mouse for a decade and a half expected to discover the Windows key?
They're not. They're expected to move their mouse to the corner where they remember having it, and clicking there, which brings up the Start screen. Furthermore, when they first log into the OS, it plays a short video that urges them to do just that.
Erm, you mean they're supposed to INTUITIVELY know to move their mouse to some point on the screen WHERE THERE IS NOTHING and CLICK THE NOTHING?
Sounds like a perfect description of COMPLETE UI FAILURE to me.
Re:Not again... (Score:2, Insightful)
He is right though. The negativity against Win8 has gone way overboard, even for /.
I've at least used it for a good period of time now (a year.). The start screen is ok at work, on my dual 30" monitor set-up because the desktop is always visible, but it's jarring on my home system. I'm also not a fan of the non-flat search. This is all solved by using classicshell or start8 or some such thing - which I have done at home, at least for a month or so, and then I just slowly got used to the "new" way of doing things. It's tolerable. I spend >99% of my time on the desktop, so really I can't be too loud about where I spend
Re:Saw what he wanted to see. (Score:5, Insightful)
The fact that the "magic button" to close full screen apps is an archaic key combo from windows 3.1 is a key indicator of how bad this interface is. I mean alt -f4 is a great shortcut key, but for that to be the great "answer " for closing full screen apps. Yes, I count that as a fail.
Re:Not again... (Score:4, Insightful)
Two things come to mind:
He is correct that its usability suffers from Metro and the abrupt changes to the UI when it is being pushed so hard. One of many points made in the video was that people who have never used it will find it very confusing because in more ways than one the UI gets in the way. Microsoft trying to have its cake and eat it too is what is causing all this grief. Instead of doing like Apple did with the change from OS9 to OS10 and dropping legacy and backwards compatibility to go with the new paradigm they want to maintain backwards compatibility. This is because Microsoft fears backlash from both its main customers, big businesses and governments, and the developers for those businesses and governments. Worse, they really made it for the tablet market all the while still trying to hold onto the laptop / desktop market with it. The point made in the video of the differences between a mouse / touchpad and touchscreen are valid.
To do it right, Metro should NOT be the default interface if you are installing it to a machine without a touchscreen just as the "classic" should not be the default if you are installing it to a tablet. They are different beasts. A tablet is more for viewing content than it is a great workhorse for making that content no matter what Microsoft or Apple may think. An even better solution is to do two different products. One for the tablets and one for the desktop / laptop and let the consumers choose which they really want for what products. Again, that too was pointed out in this video.
The second observation of your post deals with your contempt for humans. It is those very humans that Microsoft is trying to impress. There is a very, very large segment of the population that are not pleased with the Metro interface that Microsoft really wants to go with. The so called "fix" of downloading a second application to eliminate it as the advice that is often given is proof enough of that dislike. Calling that many people names isn't the way to win over support.
Re:Saw what he wanted to see. (Score:3, Insightful)
Notice how every Windows 8 "fan" (shill?) says they got used to it, mentions that 3 and 5 years olds can use it, that sort of stuff.
The whole point is the UI is not supposed to be something TO GET USED TO! If I go from a Windows 95 system to a Windows 98 system, it is seamless--the start menu is the same. If I go from Windows 98 to Windows Me or Windows 2000, similar. If I go to Windows XP, they just changed it so the start menu is no longer cascading across most of the screen. If I go to Windows Vista "Start" is replaced with the Windows logo but is still there. If I go to Windows 7, the user experience is similar to that of Vista, but certain things open faster.
Now, if I go to Windows 8, I have a disorganized mess of tiles--not even alphabetized within their categories, and I have to scroll through them in a slower horizontal manner rather than a faster vertical manner. Can I get used to doing it that way? Yes. Should I have to get used to it? No, that means the user interface is kludgy and broken.
At the very least, I should have--by default--alphabetized tiles. Let me rearrange them as I see fit if I want to, but they should be alphabetized by default and not requiring any additional clicks to make them alphabetized.
Then Windows 8 barely allows multitasking. What if I want to have four windows open at once, and want to quickly toggle between them either by clicking the window title bar OR using the taskbar? Again, it's clear Windows 8 only allows one primary task at a time and only allows a peek at one secondary task.
They broke the UI, they broke the very reason Windows existed for multitasking. The operating system is supposed to be a tool for launching applications and getting things done, and not someting to get used to. See also the latest UIs in Linux that try to be revolutionary in some way, just be static and consistent with small incremental changes that the user can turn off and restore the OS to the way they want it to be used.
Re:Not again... (Score:5, Insightful)
For me, the bigger the screen, the more useless it is because the touchpad interface requires larger and larger gestures to get at what's needed.. Remember the windows 2k/xp start menu with its crazy long cascaded menus? No one wants to sort through those. Metro 'start' is like that, only worse because the tiles are huge.
Most of the complaints in the video link are right on.. It's jarring and mystifying at the same time. Basic functionality should never, ever be hidden. That includes configuration utilities. The whole concept of having two separate interfaces with separate rules is also beyond stupid. The frustration isn't just in figuring it out, it's having to figure out ways to complete the work I need to that actually take longer than it did on previous operating systems.
What's this trend in attacking 'negativity' as though doing so is a legit argument against what was said? Is this some kind of peer pressure to conform to the head-in-ground masses of ostriches who can't handle reality because they're too weak willed to not take everything personally?
Re:Not again... (Score:5, Insightful)
You can shrink the size of the tiles, but I think it would be a disadvantage. I can use a higher mouse sensitivity because I don't have to be anywhere near as precise when I actually click on those tiles. I can completely mitigate the gesture size, and use a mouse sensitivity I like. I see there is also an option to fill my large monitor (settings->show more tiles), which actually gives me an array of 8x12 tiles if I use the smaller setting for each tile - 92 icons I can access without navigating submenus or scrolling on a 2560x1600 monitor. That's actually not bad. I like flat structures, they are fast.
That said, I rarely have to use the start screen. I stay in desktop mode. I've pinned my commonly used applications, about 15 or so, to the taskbar. I never need to open the start screen to access them. It's how I used 7. The start screen comes in to play when I search, and I now access it using win+F intead of just hitting the windows key.
I've seen the actual "start" tiled interface a few times this month because I had something specific to do on it. I'm not even trying to avoid, it's just the way I use windows tends to avoid it. I would still prefer to have the old style search back - flat, and tucked down in the lower left, as it should be. In short, the new start screen is not the end of the world. As for gesture size, I don't care, because it's fairly silly to call an OS bad because of that, especially when a highly efficient type-to-launch system is in place. Win7's start menu needs more precise aim, but I never ran into that limitation because I never used my mouse to find and launch programs.
What I do agree with is that functionality is hidden. The problem with the video is that it claims that the functionality is not there at all first, then says, "actually it's hidden". Hidden is bad, but manageable. All the same shortcut keys work, so for keyboard users like me there's really no difference. The guy didn't even notice that the old windows 7 backup feature is still there, which would have allowed him to restore to an SSD. The video is pretty much completely un-researched, and while it makes one good point - don't hide features - it's a failure in every other sense. The person who made it should be embarrassed. He's also contradicting himself: In the past he claimed Vista was unusable, now he's claiming otherwise.
Re:Not again... (Score:5, Insightful)
I got used to the new start screen - it's not _that_ bad, no worse than hunting through menus to find what you're looking for, and actually better in that you can just start typing the name of a program and it comes up in the search. Or you can type the name of a control panel applet or setting, and that works too.
What if you don't remember the name of that control panel applet? What if you don't know the application's name, but would otherwise find it if you could browse through menus?
"Just typing the name" of some computer program or appet can be horribly inconvenient.
Re:Not again... (Score:4, Insightful)
"The guy didn't even notice that"?
A bad user interface doesn't necessarily mean that the option isn't there. If the option exists, but is difficult to discover or presented in such an unintuitive way that people will miss it, that's the fault of the user interface, not the fault of the user for not noticing it.