Windows 8 Even Less Popular Than Vista 791
New submitter NettiWelho writes with even more bad news for Microsoft. From the article: "Windows 8 uptake has slipped behind Vista's at the same point after its release. Windows 8 online usage share is around 1.6% of all Windows PCs, which is less than the 2.2% share that Windows Vista commanded at the same two-month mark after release. Net Applications monitors operating system usage by recording OS version for around 40,000 sites it monitors for clients. The slowdown for Windows 8 adoption is a bad sign for Microsoft, who experienced great success with the release of Windows 7. Data was measured up to the 22nd of December, so there is still time by the end of the month for Windows 8 to claim a higher percentage of the user base."
Re:A couple things that kept me from upgrading... (Score:3, Insightful)
I have been using Win8 exclusively at work for almost 4 months now.
1. I thought this was a problem for a while but you stop noticing it after a while. Actually, I thought that I would not ever use any Metro apps but I now find that I keep the Metro messaging app docked to the side of one of my 4 screens. Very handy since it can't be overlaid by other apps no matter what happens and never occludes my desktop apps either. Win!
2. Start is still there, just think of the Metro UI as a giant animated start menu. Furthermore, the searching from the start screen is better than what we had in Win7. They also added a very useful admin menu thing Win-X which gives you quick access to stuff like command promts and admin prompts.
3. Multimonitor support in Win8 pisses all over Win7 from a great height. The task bar thing is awesome since you can pin certain apps to specific task bars and keep things organised by chosing to either show the apps only in the specific screen bar or on the screen and "main" screen task bar.
Even more so, performance of multimonitor smokes Win7. Try expanding a video in the player of your choice across 4 or more of your screens. In Win7 the video would get very choppy and often display artifacts. In Win8, no matter what the geometry and layout of the screens, the playback will be smooth and clear.
I am not saying that Win7 isn't a great OS but as a developer, things like the built in Hyper-V, excellent multi-screen support and so on just tip me to WIn8.
Richard.
I actually like Windows 8 (Score:0, Insightful)
Metro makes me use the keyboard more to search for apps and pin common ones - actually more efficient than the start menu.
It boots in seconds.
Multiple monitor support is better and configurable.
It really isn't much different to Windows 7.
cornered animal (Score:5, Insightful)
They worked their assed off, but made some really bad decisions. Now, sales are looking like a disaster - in their core revenue generator. Microsoft is beginning to feel like a cornered animal. It does still have claws, and hopefully the board will understand just how badly steveb has executed, once it sees the bottom starting to fall out. 2013 will be an entertaining year seeing how Microsoft scrambles. I'd start with a tutorial that wasn't a 2 hour hack job.
Re:I actually like Windows 8 (Score:2, Insightful)
Metro makes me use the keyboard more to search for apps and pin common ones - actually more efficient than the start menu.
It boots in seconds.
Multiple monitor support is better and configurable.
It really isn't much different to Windows 7.
Dude seriously.. if all that is done with an os is web browsing, email, and the occasional third party app here and there.. ANY os will do. When it comes to getting some real work done you really need the operating system to stay the fk out of the way and be as intuative as possible. As a cloud operations engineer with one of the worlds largest companies, i could never use that os for work... it is a mere toy for the consumer base. Nothing more. Linux Mint will cure the illness... welcome all defectors!!
Re:it's not like we didn't see this coming (Score:4, Insightful)
WTF? Windows 95 was an unstable pile of shit, bits of Windows for Workgroups glued on to a terrible Win32 implementation. It was a rickety disaster released at least a year too soon out of fear that OS/2 Warp might gain enough adoption to fuck up the precious OEM model necessary to Redmond's survival.
Even Windows 98 was semi dubious until SE2, and modules like Winsock were rewritten so they didn't barf with obscene regularity.
Steve Balmer (Score:5, Insightful)
The CEO needs to be let go. It should have happened a long time ago, but I can't see them letting him off the hook yet again. He has literally done nothing positive for the company since he took over.
Re:Windows 8 blows (Score:5, Insightful)
Beyond DirectX 11.1 support, security. Fast start up and shutdowns.
So nothing really important then? If you can't stand to look at something you simply don't want it in your face.
Re:A couple things that kept me from upgrading... (Score:2, Insightful)
none. and no one should be forced to sign up for a fucking account just to use their computer.
and remember, the vast majority of pc users are not as knowledgeable about this stuff as the average /. reader. they don't and won't know any different, and will just accept the wild tangent bullshit as the way to get their games back.
Re:It's not dead. (Score:5, Insightful)
I imagine Microsoft may just release a patch that fixes everything into a "classic" view to gain more sales.
What amazes me is that(at least at time of writing) they don't even offer a group policy setting that lets their whiny corporate customers set all their definitely-not-touchscreen boring typingboxes to go directly to desktop by default.
It isn't terribly tricky to script an invocation of "explorer.exe shell:::{3080F90D-D7AD-11D9-BD98-0000947B0257}" on login; but the fact that they don't just offer a GPO setting to switch strongly suggests that somebody at Microsoft is hitting the kool-aide far harder than is advisable.
I just don't understand it. With Vista, the mystery was how they'd managed to get so little done in 6-odd years of development, the core product just kind of sucked. With Win8, they essentially have the (generally well-liked) base of Win7, with a bunch of modest improvements in various areas, and then Metro. All they'd have to do is make it optional(or get really crazy and have it default on or off depending on whether the device has a touchscreen or not...) and everybody would stop whining more or less immediately. It's just sort of baffling.
Re:Microsoft - the company with two left feet (Score:5, Insightful)
Define "top rate" please. Somehow, I think you've discounted all those unethical business practices.
Re:Windows 8 blows (Score:4, Insightful)
DX11.1 adds essentially nothing of value over DX11. DX9>DX11 added a huge amount of stuff that mattered.
Win7 is quite secure. Again, change from XP to Seven was huge, change from Seven to Eight is miniscule.
Lastly, do people even shut down their machines anymore for anything other then updates? Everyone I know hibernates their machines.
Re:A couple things that kept me from upgrading... (Score:5, Insightful)
Installing a start button replacement is not the answer. This will only help windows 8 to have more market share. Understand their stated intention is to do away with the desktop and non-metro apps completely. If you are using windows 8, even if you have modified it to be identical to windows 7, it still registers as a sale to them and thus supports there ultimate goal of turning windows into a cobbled cellphone OS on your desktop where you have to sign into an account and download software exclusively from an App store.
Please stop telling people to use these damned tools. Tell them the ultimate answer to the problems with windows 8 is to downgrade.
Do not let them put you in the pot and bring it to a boil slowly.
Re:It's not dead. (Score:5, Insightful)
At they highest levels of Microsoft, they are convinced that providing the same "user experience" to mobile users as desktop users will be Microsoft's salvation. Somehow they think that this will force adoption of mobile devices running Windows (they think that users will demand Microsoft mobile devices because they look the same as PCs). That's why they don't want to allow people to make PCs easy to configure such that they are different to mobile devices.
Re:A couple things that kept me from upgrading... (Score:4, Insightful)
I didn't need a google account for Android. I have one but I didn't have to use details about it.
I also absolutely without any doubt do not have an Apple ID and still use MacOS Lion. It is never needed except for their useless store.
Windows 8 also, only wants the id for their useless store which is easy to skip, and for some unnecessary cloud services (ie, syncing settings across computers).
Re:It's not dead. (Score:5, Insightful)
"We hate features and like to pretend that Gnome classic doesn't exist" - The Gnome 3 Roadmap (Status: Implementation in progress).
FTFY
Re:It's not dead. (Score:5, Insightful)
Correct. The only way they think they can possibly win the smartphone/tablet markets now, is to leverage their Windows PC monopoly. The only way they can do that is to make the Windows PC look like the Windows smartphone/tablet, force people to get used to it, and then hope that will translate to a preference for Windows on the portable devices.
It's actually not a completely misguided strategy.
Well, it is misguided in that Microsoft should actually try to win markets by making better products. But they have never been good at that. Their entire success is based on leveraging their Windows PC monopoly, so this strategy is "do what works".
With any luck, all this will do is start the ball slowly rolling (if it isn't already) on the eventual decline of the PC stranglehold. People have predicted this many times before, but things are a bit different. Smartphones and tablets with iOS and Android are now a huge market and huge user base. OSX on the desktop is actually reaching a noticeable size. And Microsoft is doing their best to alienate ISVs who are increasingly looking to these other platforms (and even Linux-on-PC) to escape.
Re:It's not dead. (Score:5, Insightful)
Gates said, that he "wanted to own the desktop." And he ended up doing it.
With Metro, Ballmer is saying that he wants to "own the user interface of everything." Traditional PCs, and also tablets, and phones. Since they already "own the desktop", they are starting their offensive there. And what other choice will an average user have, who buys a new PC? It will come with Windows 8, and Metro. If Microsoft can win the user interface war there, they hope tablets and phones will follow. A nice strategy for them, it sucks for us, getting stuck with a Metro that nobody really wants.
I personally believe that they are too late. Folks are hooked and happy with their Android and Apple gadgets, and won't switch over to Microsoft gadgets, just to have a common interface.
In fact, the whole thing could backfire for Microsoft. If the new user experience with Metro on PCs is negative, folks will definitely NOT want it on their gadgets.
Re:It's not dead. (Score:0, Insightful)
Just like my arms after using a touch screen for a while.
Re:/. editors that dunno html ... (Score:4, Insightful)
I guess the article editor doesn't support reading what he's just posted to see if he got it right!
Where do they get these guys from? Couldn't we have a random selection of /. readers on a rotating basis instead, I'm sure we couldn't do a worse job if we tried (as the peer condemnation would act as some deterrent, even if the /. "editors" don't give a fig)
Re:Incredible (Score:1, Insightful)
Except there not, surface is being meet with yawns world wide.
There fucked
Re:Microsoft - the company with two left feet (Score:5, Insightful)
Microsoft's decline started on Bill Gates' watch. Maybe Ballmer will preside over the "fall" phase. Maybe Ballmer's next trick will be learning to play the fiddle while playing with matches.
Re:Incredible (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:A couple things that kept me from upgrading... (Score:4, Insightful)
I quite like Metro. Less clutter. And I never have understood why the Start menu seems to be the epitome of UI design. Menus are okay, but going through a nest of subwindows isn't fun, and most of the time it just takes up space.
The three most important things in UI design are consistency, consistency and consistency. The start menu gives you a consistent way to navigate to programs and features. You can tell someone on the other end of a phone line how to start a particular app. You learn exactly where the apps are.
With Metro, this is gone - you have to visually search for apps icons that jump around based on usage or what else you use. It's completely inconsistent.
As for "just takes up space", the start menu never takes up more than a fraction of the screen. The Metro chooser always takes up an entire screen.
And it's this "full screen" philosophy of Metro that alienates power users the most. We do not want applications or OS functions to take up entire screens. We multi-task, and copy/paste between programs, or enter input in one app based on what we see in others. I would rather have the unused space display something important to me than just white filler.
Not wasting space on oversized borders and buttons is especially important on laptops, where vertical space is at a premium. Any metro-ized app will have less space available, often to the point that you can't even use it.
Metro is designed for the new single-tasking generation who can't handle more than one displayed app at a time. It's crippling those of us who want to use the screen real estate efficiently.
And it's hell for system support who relies on consistency.
Re:It's not dead. (Score:5, Insightful)
Insulting how? I've worked in dead-end admin jobs before. Low wages, mostly staffed by 18 year olds and part time mothers. There were a lot of people there without a lot of IT skills, and they would most certainly not consider themselves to be "professional customer change of address people", etc. Profession implies a level of specialist knowledge and commitment that they would definitely not claim was required.
These are people who will require training if you change the tools you've given them to do their job. Being told "bugger off and learn how to use it in your own time somehow" is not going to cut it; and any IT department that thinks it will is full of idiots.
Re:It's just a big scam to make Windows 9 look goo (Score:4, Insightful)
Don't worry they will be around. They have so much cash on hand, they can probably survive for years without much income. And face it, while Win8 may not sell well, that must mean Win7 is still selling, as the computer market as a whole has not collapsed. And pretty much every single computer sold comes with a copy of Windows.
Re:It's not dead. (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, it is misguided in that Microsoft should actually try to win markets by making better products. But they have never been good at that. Their entire success is based on leveraging their Windows PC monopoly, so this strategy is "do what works".
Actually they kind of did for a while or at least they tried, until Dr. Dos came out and beat the crap out of MS-DOS. Microsoft execs gave the go ahead to include the "disable-if-Dr-Dos" codes and the troops got the message loud and clear: we don't need to make quality products, all we need to do is make Ok products and use the Microsoft monopoly position to take care of the rest.
But guess what happens when they don't own a market, such as Search or Mobile? People at Microsoft no longer even remember how one goes about making a quality product. Hence the many mediocre versions of Windows, Zune, Bing, and Mobile OSes.
Re:It's not dead. (Score:5, Insightful)
I think people are missing the point of the 'Metro' interface. It's not about the interface ... that's just the excuse. They want to lock down the software market and get a cut of all the sales, plus more control over what's installed. Metro will stay. The older interface will become less and less useful ... more and more crippled. They want what Apple has with iOS. Even Apple wants what they have with iOS and is doing the same thing with OS X.
Re:It's not dead. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:It's not dead (Score:5, Insightful)
If there had been some EASY and OBVIOUS way to get rid of the METRO interface and go back to a Classic Shell she might have been happy with it, but after an hour of trying to do anything useful she wanted it boxed up and she has already returned it for a refund.
The Classic Shell I use is a third party addon:
http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net]
It's a useful project that has been adding back features removed by MS from Vista onwards. Their start menu actually pre-dates Win 8 - it's more configurable than the standard Win 7 menu.
Of course, it's crazy that downloading something like this is even necessary!
why can't metro apps run in a window on windows? (Score:4, Insightful)
why can't metro apps run in a window on windows? and why can't have the desktop or metro UI in the window as well?
Windows 3.1 did not have a start menu but at least apps where not all full screen.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)